Ensemble du Jour

The Outfit
This was the outfit I was envisioning when I first bought this dress. I finally have all the pieces - a wide brown belt, a delicate yet substantial necklace and accessories and strappy brown sandals.



The Focal Point
I love the dress - its light and comfortable and the pattern is fun. Plus, it's a dress! And I'm happy I'm finding dresses I like.

But it's all about the accessories and the texture. I've gathered the pieces and they work well together. The bronze-y beaded necklace...



a chunky wood ring...



the wide leather belt and these faux-croc strappy sandals from Franco Sarto...











I wore these sandals when I was walking around New York, for blocks, and they were comfortable. That's pretty surprising for sandals, I think. They were a DSW buy and well worth their discounted price! Now I think I need a similar style in black, since these are getting so much wear this summer.

If you have any favorite shoes, let me know!

Alice Temperly at Target

A new Go International collection at Target is always cause for excitement, and somehow this one crept up on me. I don't know how because I love the styles and the mainly black and white color scheme of the Alice Temperly line.

And you know this has to be big news because even Selfridges, the big UK high-end department store, was doing a special event around this launch on Tuesday the 18th.



A lot of the dresses and shirts have high collars, which I don't really like (I'm a v-neck gal myself) so I'll probably skip most of those. And the accessories are not thrilling me too much. I think they would go better paired with some of the Gothic Lolita options out there.

I do like this sweater. It's girly but the stripey sleeves have a Beetlejuice-quality about them. I like that its subtle, but there.



This petal dress is pretty and girly. I love the salmon pink color of the shirt and accents. I haven't seen the shirt yet, so I'm not sure how it will fit. But I bet I could find something similar if I needed too.




I really like this sweater coat the best. It sort of smoking jacket/cozy blankie and I think it will help to extend some of my lighter tops into the fall. Plus it will look kewl with my new short skirts and opaque tights.



I'm not sure about the sash/tie belt so I was thinking of getting this (also Beetlejuice-y) striped belt to wear with it. I think a nice patent dark red belt would be good too.



Overall, a very pretty collection. Not overwhelming amount of options that I am going to jump on but I like the details. I can't wait to see them in person to assess the quality.