What I Wore To Work: Sparkle & Shine

I liked my outfits from last week quite a lot, though more in spite of the self-imposed mandate to incorporate sparkle and shine than because of it. I mad a bit of an effort on the sparkle front at the beginning of the week, wearing a tweedy skirt with metallic threads and a particularly sparkly pair of earrings. By the end of the week, beaten down by perpetual snowfall I decided that the shine of my rain boots was going got have to suffice.

Monday

 sweater: Halogen via Nortsrom | skirt: unknown via Marshalls | tights: also unknown | boots: Ecco | necklace: J.Crew

I quite liked this outfit... I don't wear this skirt a ton outside of the holiday season because I think of it as "festive," but it actually works quite well for a weekday when paired with neutrals. Note to self: wear skirt more.

Tuesday

 blouse: LOFT | necklace: Ten Thousand Villages

I didn't actually get a picture on Tuesday, but here's a pic from January featuring the top half of my Tuesday outfit. Shiny beads!

Wednesday

 dress: Target | turtleneck: Patagonia | tights: LOFT | boots: Franco Sarto via DSW | earrings: Sears

The earrings provide the sparkle to this outfit, and I also used a trick from my first week of this February challenge and incorporated some texture in the tights. I think including texture in an all-black outfit can keep it from being too severe, though I think I would have liked this outfit better with a patterned turtleneck to keep things a bit lighter. (Also, the Patagonia turtleneck I was wearing is actually a skiing baselayer, so I felt a little awkward wearing it in a real outfit.)

Thursday

 sweater: Ann Taylor Factory | pants: Ann Taylor via consignment | boots: Ralph Lauren

This is when I said screw it. I reverted to an all-black outfit and put on some "shiny" boots and called it a day.

Friday

 sweater: Target | t-shirt: J.Crew Factory | jeans: Land's End | belt: American Eagle | boots: Ralph Lauren | socks: Smartwool | watch: Timex | scarf: self-made!!!

 Probably one of my favorite casual outfits in a long time, partly because it includes one of my early sewing successes (more on that later!), partly because I like the navy-red-camel colors and the floral-stripes pattern mixing, and partly because it was a very comfortable outfit that still felt put-together enough for casual Friday.

What I learned...
In my sparkle and shine week, I didn't learn much. I was kind of sick of the arbitrary challenges I thought up at the beginning of the month and especially of this category, which didn't feel like it helped me too much in my quest to develop my own personal style. For the whole month, though, there were some good lessons. I enjoyed the first week (texture) and the third week (pattern) the most. I want to try to keep those to concepts in mind as I get dressed -- which is what happened on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of this week. Finding ways to work pattern and texture into my outfits keeps them interesting and fun without detracting from the shapes, colors, and styles at the core of my personal style.