Red Accents
RED Accents

— What I Wore…
Jacket: XXI (Thrift: Los Angeles) Skirt: Oxfam (London) Tights: Primark Hat: Vintage Gloves: Marks & Spencers (Durham, England) Shoes: Jessica Simpson (Thrift: Orlando) — Musical Inspiration: “Two Coins” –City and Colour —
For a photoshoot in London I was thrilled to be able to wear some of my own outfits; not often does this happen on a Fashion/Editoral shoot. Leave it to frugal ol’ me to choose almost every piece from a thrift store. Most of these items unless otherwise stated are from stores so small I don’t even remember the name! You can truly find interesting and well made pieces everywhere. When I tallied it up in my head I discovered that the entire look is around $75.
You’ll see this leather jacket repeated in the blog for sure. It’s an easily replicated “biker style” jacket that literally goes with EVERY item in my closet. In fact, the poor little bugger is on its last leg with some of the pleather starting to rip away! The tag says XXI but I found it in a thrift store in California for around 16 bucks. Whoever owned it before me was adventurous enough to cut the sleeves off. Kudos to them for originality! This should serve as a reminder though that pleather doesn’t exactly have lasting power. Real leather, whether you approve of buying it not, is much more durable. For this reason it is definitely worth the higher price tag. It will be a sad day indeed when I have to retire this jacket for good. (Cue the violins…)
Never one to be predictable, I wanted to play with “hard and soft” elements so I paired the jacket with a flowy black chiffon maxi skirt. Two slits in the front make it wearable in Spring but with this being a Fall shoot I incorporated our favorite reliable go-to accessory: black opaque tights! Pop these on and you’ll see that you get more wear out of your favorite skirts (even minis!) in colder weather. The houndstooth hat was also season appropriate and added a little texture.
Finally, I wanted to do a pop of color to match the classic red lip. For those keeping score at home this lipstick is MAC’s shade “Dare You”. The gloves and patent pumps are a “daring” combo as well, no? They keep the outfit from being too hum drum and spice it up just enough to keep things interesting.
Lesson of the day: RED is powerful. Even in small doses.
–V. xoxo
(Photo Credit: Sophie Abbott of SNA Photography. Visit her official website here: SNA Photography and follow her amazing career on Twitter: @SNA_Photography)


