March 25, 2022
Are you getting ready to wear dresses again? Now that the weather teases us with hints of spring, I begin to ponder what dresses are lurking in my stored warm-weather clothes, and how I will wear them…
I know some women prefer to wear dresses in colder weather, because they can wear tights! Fair enough, but don’t discount the comfort and versatility of a “below the knee” dress in a light fabric and a roomy cut!
Today, for no good reason, I wanted to accessorize dresses in a way that’s NOT the first thing one would expect; if you can find more than 1 way to wear a dress, you’ll have a good reason to wear it even MORE often. That’s always smart!
For example, this most excellent black dress would be an obvious base with which to wear black accessories – of course! – or black and white, or red…
So I’m looking at brown! The pleats at the neckline of this dress would be a fun place to park a brooch; maybe a wee critter peeking out from a fold of fabric?
gold hoop earrings – Talbots; ponté knit dress – Lands’ End; brooch – Talbots; bracelet – Talbots; bag – Talbots; sandals – Talbots
Sweatshirt dresses are often worn with sneakers and casual accessories, so I thought that rose gold would be a nice change of pace!
Earrings – Knotty; sweatshirt dress – L.L.Bean; scarf – Treasure & Bond; watch – Olivia Burton; tote – Sostter; rose gold ballet flats – FitFlop
Most of the time, I would wear a grey dress with black, or maybe silver… So let’s see what a warm beige – light camel? – can do!
Pearl earrings – Genevieve; ponté knit dress – Lands’ End; scarf – Walker & Bing; bracelet – J.Crew; tote bag – Mali + Lili; sandals – J.Crew
Okay, maybe the rose accessories here aren’t completely surprising – but I couldn’t resist showing you this dress!
Dress – Sugarhill Brighton; earrings – Nordstrom; bracelet – Missoma; bag – 0711; sandals – Jeffrey Campbell
Navy with bright green screams spring!
Earrings – Madewell; ponté knit dress – Lands’ End; scarf – Weronika Rosa; bag – Talbots; sandals – Talbots
A grey linen dress! SO hard to find… why not give it the gold accessories treatment?
the scarf is glorious…
Opal grey linen dress – NoLoGo-chic; gold hoop earrings – Talbots; Griffin & Basilisk scarf – Ilona Tambor; tote – Sostter; sandals – Cole-Haan
I’m not sure that brown with this coral linen dress is a big break-through, but this is another dress that was worth a look…
Dress – Maatie; earrings – Talbots; bracelet – Missoma; bag – Madewell; sandals – Anne Klein
Another comfy linen dress – with some more green. I’m ready for some bright colors!
Linen dress – Haris Cotton; jade earrings – Ross-Simons; bracelet – Éliou; bag – Melie Bianco; ballet flats – Vince Camuto
I think that my big breakout accessory this spring might be a pair of gold sandals, to wear with my brown linen pants and shirt; I already have gold jewelry…
What a change!
love,
Janice
p.s. More than 3 years ago, I suggested TEN different ways to wear a blue dress – do you get the feeling that I’m a firm believer in the versatility of dresses?
Like this article? Save it to Pinterest!
I laughed when I saw this post, I’ve just been reading some entries from 2012 on the same idea line and found the coincidence amusing. I wholeheartedly agree with the grey/camel combo, as after much dithering about I reached the conclusion that my neutrals are various (yes, various!) shades of grey and brown/beige with accents as pink/red/purple and some greens. I need more brown, I think.
I hope it’s OK to say this, I don’t mean to argue (with what?), but simply mean to touch on something that I think is important: you don’t *have* to only wear below-the-knee dresses after a certain age! You certainly *can* if it makes you feel more comfortable, but there is nothing inherently shameful about your knees :)
My favorite outfit is the sweater one, by the way! I’ve always found that the softness of the material goes very well with delicate, shiny things :)
I odn’t wear dresses at all. Skirts, either. But these were interesting combinations I could use with some of my pants/trousers.
Janice, will you be starting your 52-item weekly wardrobe soon? Always liked the way it helps organize a closet for the current season !! (And catch any gaps!)
The first challenge is finding a dress style that suits you from all angles. I’m a pear shape so fit and flare and shirt dresses fit me best because they fit my top half but skim from the hips disguising everything else.
Alice is right about dress length and if you have slim toned legs and beautiful knees, show them off. My hips and legs are my worst feature – short and plump, though I have narrow ankles. I’ve always worn longer length styles, down to just below mid-calf and maxi dresses hide everything. Jersey is a wonderful material for drape and disguise. 😅
I find plain dresses a challenge to accessorise. Colour blocking is an art. I’ve been successful in choosing burgundy or shades of purple with grey to go with a plain teal jersey dress. I have a purple dress for funerals so black would be the accessories.
My soft denim colour dress, worn in the summer, is fit and flare with floaty butterfly style sleeves and a sash. No matter how I accessorise it, plain accent colours look too bold or wrong. I’m thinking that floral patterns or soft abstract prints might be the way to go with bags, scarves and jewellery. Shop my wardrobe time!
So most of my dresses are printed or patterned. This is my comfort zone because I can choose colours from the prints for accessories. The effect is blended rather than contrasting. I’m more comfortable pattern blending than I am colour blocking. 😄
BethT, a dress that suits you from all angles…that can be a tough one, can’t it? It’s hard to find one for my plus-size bod that skims but doesn’t hang like a tent.
I can totally see the attraction of the solid dresses for versatility, but as a one-and-done (not layered) piece, I find print dresses that look good on me are much easier to find than solid ones. Maybe the print keeps the eye moving in a way that a solid piece doesn’t.
I think.you might be right, Sally. “A pattern keeps the eye moving”. It also breaks up a the outline.
Alice, well said. Seriously, who arbitrates that after a certain age women must become…dowdy? I’m not at all amused that clothes for women who wish to dress with a touch of style and taste are in short supply in the region where I live. I ventured to some shops last weekend to find that all the ‘underpinings’ at the place I have shopped have been changed over to suit the dubious tastes of teens with one rack devoted to…items that were so hideously ugly, one knew they were intended for women of a certain age. I don’t want to dress like a teen, but neither do I want to wear items that are so ghastly my late grandmother would have rejected them…and much as she was loved, it must be admitted that she enjoyed particular items that no woman should have ever worn…like fake patchwork fake denim printed polyester knit pull-on pants or electric orchid polyester bell-bottoms. Anyway, rant over. I think the idea of being unexpected with the choice of accessories is brilliant. Janice thank you for encouraging being unique…we all deserve to be the best versions of ourselves.
I love your grandma’s style ! She was definitely her own person!
I live in dresses and skirts in summer. Our summer temps are in the 90s and 100s. Dresses/skirts are a much cooler option, so your timing is deeply appreciated. ❤️😍❤️
These are all very inspiring…great suggestions…can’t wait for the weather where I live to be warm enough for dresses.
LOVE the gray ponte dress with the camel accessories!!!
May have to do a try-on with this dress.
I love these combinations…the navy + green and sienna + rose gold were my favorite. The more I look at rose gold, the more I want to add accessories in this color! (Sadly those flats are no longer available in rose gold.)
Love this Janice! I haven’t worn dresses much during COVID and now is a good time to get back in the swing of them. Nice affordable choices from Lands End – who knew?!
I’ve been looking for a new ponte knit dress … I think I’ve found it here!
As always, an inspiring post!
ooh!
I do love a dress!!
I don’t usually gravitate to dresses, but when I do, it’s during the summer. That shirt dress from Wolf & Badger is right up my alley.
I’m a rather solid autumn, majoring in rust, copper, maroon and brown. I’ve always struggled with how to add a “spring” touch to my wardrobe. Perhaps sometime, would you be willing to do a post on how to bring in lighter spring colors to such a dark autumn wardrobe?
Thanks so much for considering!
I would welcome that too, especially where I live where the threat of frost ends mid -May.
Love the peach linen dress outfit! So breezy and summery. Thanks for the inspiration.
Hi Janice and Everyone! I am -really- trying to embrace the navy + green combinations … but I think I prefer the chambray-type linen dress with the minty- green accessories.
I can vouch for Land’s End dresses – for this pear shape they curve in the right places without being skin -tight.
Beth T – I’m with you. I refuse to wear black for funerals. Even for my parents’, I wore a navy blue dress or pantsuit. If I think I will be in a more traditional setting, I will concede to a black skirt, or blazer, but that’s it.
If you don’t love them, you don’t love them! The world is tough enough without wearing color combinations that we don’t adore…
hugs,
Janice
I liked seeing lots of different accessories for these solid garments, and I am a fan of scarves. However, when I spent 4 days in Branson last week, seeing 6 music shows, I tried to take note of what other women (mostly 50-80) were wearing. In those 6 shows, I only saw one woman with a scarf. Granted, the usual dress there is casual, generally jeans and sweaters, but I like to elevate my jeans. (I wore scarves two days.) Before I spend money on more scarves, have they gone out of style? I generally wear mine under a jacket collar or around a no-collar sweater, so that I make 2 vertical lines. Those of you wearing scarves, how do you wear them, and do you feel over-dressed when you do (not in the office)?
Jan, in my experience, lots of women admire scarves on others but are afraid to wear them because “they don’t know how.” I wear scarves frequently and have heard this quite a bit. Scarves are a timeless classic accessory, in my opinion. I do not routinely feel overdressed in a scarf. One thing I will say is that a traditional silk scarf CAN come across as a bit much in a casual dress situation. Not saying that it will, but I think it can. I like to have a variety of scarves in different fabrications and styles, some of which are more casual and some of which are dressier. But if you love silk scarves, I think you should wear them whenever/wherever you want with zero worry that they are out of style!
Also…and I say this with love…Branson doesn’t necessarily attract the most smartly, modernly dressed women in the world. It’s both a pretty casual environment in which a lot of people go for simple and comfortable, and a lot of women 50-80 have chosen to prioritize a certain definition of “comfortable” that is very casual and unaccessorized. My mom (72) lives in a retirement community where there are a lot of women retired from professional jobs who have adopted an extremely casual look in which even jeans are rare.
Thanks, Sally. Yes, I left my silk scarf at home. One was a cotton blend, the other like an inexpensive “twilly” scarf.
Jan, I still see lots of people wearing scarves and lots in the stores. I find the southern Ontario spring means that the weather can go from hot to snowing in a heartbeat! A scarf is a way to wear the spring coats and jackets even in a chilly breeze. And I have ‘spring mittens”, lol.
In summer, as Janice has said so many times, it may be baking outdoors but the air conditioning can be Arctic and a scarf is the way to go.
My scarves tend to be cotton, linen or a more casual material, not silky or dressy looking, so that’s a consideration when pairing a scarf and a more casual outfit.
Thanks, Barb. I appreciate your point of view. Casual fabric scarves may be the way for me to go until fashion changes again. (I can’t find a blazer in the stores. Everything is sweaters or jean jackets.)
I have “spring gloves,” too, and I’m in Iowa.
Until recently I’ve only thought of neutrals as “before” colors. My eye skipped right past them because someone forgot to give the fabric a color. Today my gray Lands End dress arrived, and I’m so looking forward to all the combos I’ve learned about on this post. Thank you Janice!?