Anatomy Of A Look: The Formality Balance

So much of fashion is about getting the balance in a mix of pieces just right! It can be about colors, it can be about textures and it can be about formality. The last is one of my favorite themes to play with!  I've been loving wearing skirts all through the humid weather, but this morning I needed to make a stop before heading into work which made a skirt an impossible choice. My original thought was go simple and, since I was picking up product, practical: jeans and tee. I chose a more refined knit tee with a slim silhouette instead of a super-relaxed, broken-in version.  The pairing still had to be spiced up a bit, though, even for my casual office.  Heels were my first choice. They immediately raise the bar of an outfit. I wanted something summery - I'm trying to make the most of this last, glorious month! - so I was leaning toward denim ankle strap wedges with a cork heel.  A mirror check made me realize that even with the heels, the look was a little shy of coming off breezily pulled together. My next thought was “add a necklace!”.  I have tons of them, but a fair few are heavy on the sparkle (what can I say? #ShinyObjects #Magpie) and that felt kind of extra with the casual vibe of my shoes. I wasn't keen on doing the 'contrasting color' vibe either, as I'd done that just last week and I like to change things up. Bracelets seemed like not enough, a jacket like a layer too many. I finally settled on a scarf knotted loosely at chest-height, first discarding a floral one as more pattern than I wanted, and  then selecting a simple linen piece in a more pastel version of my tee color. I could have left things there, with the very color-blocked feel of having all blue denim below and purple on top, but I gravitate fiercely toward carrying color throughout an outfit, especially with un-complex two-tone stylings. I ended up swapping the denim cork heels for another touch of purple: patent leather pumps in a clean lilac hue. I love the dimension created by mixing shades of the same color family in this way! While not having quite the summer feeling of the denim ankle-straps, the pumps elevated the look a bit more, something I found appealing due to the casual nature of my scarf. (Had I gone with a more formal scarf (e.g. printed silk) I would likely have stayed with the denim shoes or leaned toward the lesser formality of light neutral espadrilles as a counterpoint. The layering of these subtly contrasting graduations of formality brings a lot more punch to what initially seems like a very basic look. The interplay between high and low – despite the differences being within a very few degrees of each other - conveys intention and prevents the ensemble from coming off haphazard, giving the look the je ne se quoi I always crave. It's so fascinating to me how slight alterations in the pieces selected affect the qualities of a look so greatly!