kate spade – The Fab Life

Summer Fab Series – Colors

July 28, 2014

Hi there! I know I’ve been a bit lax with posting – I’ve admittedly fallen in to the once or twice a day post a photo on Instagram instead of blogging slump. But I wanted to share some of my favorite summer work looks since somehow we seem to be halfway through summer! I’m admittedly already eyeing fall clothing but…it’s not fall yet so, it’s still time to share summer looks! I seem to be in a constant rotation of colors, pattern mixing and classic neutrals. So…I’m going to work on a few posts centered on these three items. First up – colors! I’ll be honest – I wrote this before I looked through my photos from the past few weeks and I was a little disappointed to see I haven’t been showcasing as much color this summer (or I should say color that doesn’t involve pattern mixing) – something I think I need to work on for the rest of summer!

But for now…here are a few of my favorite summer looks focusing on colors:

I’m not going to lie, this is probably one of my favorite summer outfits. I bought these Kate Spade Gabe flats on super sale (well super sale for KS) last month and I am soooo in love with them. I want to wear them all the time. They were a perfect match for my J.Crew Neon Tweed skirt. With all of that color I had to tone down the top but I added in some pops of yellow too with a belt and necklace. And well…why not a pink bag too?

Top & Skirt : J.Crew (last year), similar top here / Necklace : J.Crew Factory / Shoes : Kate Spade (sold out, similar color here )

Next up…mixing some colors I wouldn’t usually think to pair together. The cove floral print at J.Crew this season featured a lot of items, and I decided on the lightweight sleeveless drapey silk blouse in the pattern. Many people noted that this blouse is very lightweight and I agree – I haven’t had issues with it snagging though.

Blouse : J.Crew / Necklace: J.Crew / Skirt: J.Crew Factory / Flats : Banana Republic

There are so many colors to work with in this blouse and while wading through my closet I somehow settled on a cotton pencil skirt in mint. Huh. It worked. And with neon yellow no less. I’m telling you, some days I don’t know how it all comes together, it just does. The neon yellow was a given with the blouse…the mint, well, I just had to take a chance.

Last up…a blouse that I most definitely bought from a little peer pressure via Instagram…but, now that I have it, I think it’s going to be a great summer and fall piece and the color pairings are endless. It’s also some colors that are a bit out of my comfort zone so it’s been a good challenge to encourage me to wear it.

Blouse : J.Crew Gemstone Floral Silk Tee / Pants : Banana Republic Jackson crop (old)/ Shoes: J.Crew

I’m still thinking about some brighter combinations for this blouse…so stay tuned.

And last but not least a look with the Racer Back floral dress that I wore to a recent family party. I really loved this combination and it was a great weekend slightly dressy look. Less of a necklace and it could be dressed down more but it’s me…so of course there’s some bling involved!

Dress: J.Crew / Necklace : J.Crew (last year) / Cardigan : J.Crew Factory

So, what do you think of these color centered outfits? Any favorites? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

Summer Dress Fab

July 2, 2014

I’ve been on a bit of a dress kick lately. After months of wearing pants it admittedly takes me a little bit to get in to wearing skirts and dresses but I think it’s safe to say I’ve been reminded of the ease of wearing dresses in the summer time for work and for casual activities. For the most part, I don’t wear a ton of shorts (that might be changing…more on that in another post) so dresses are often my weekend go to item. This isn’t rocket science, they’re just easy, you can dress them up or down and depending on the style wear them to work and then out for drinks with a little accessory/shoe switch up (ooh, another post idea…)

Here’s a few of my recent summer dress purchases and how I’ve styled them:

J.Crew Stripe Back-Zip Dress

I’m sorry for the crooked picture…sometimes I take them this way so my arm isn’t in the way and then I can edit them to flip them so it’s straight…and I am not quite there yet, I’ll figure out how to flip them. I posted about this dress a few weeks ago. I didn’t buy it when it was full price but when it went on sale plus another 40% off I was all over that! I took a size smaller than my usual J.Crew dress size so I would say it definitely runs big. For a summer dress, it hits right above my knee but it is perfect. I probably wouldn’t wear it to work (maybe on a Friday) but this is a perfect weekend dress. I think a belt might help the waistline too.

I wore this dress out for a casual dinner tonight and I wore it with my new (well, new to me) J.Crew denim vest in Workwear wash from last summer which I recently found on eBay for $20. I’ve been seeing denim vests on a lot of ladies on Instagram and finally decided I would try and pull one off. Here’s a photo of how I styled the dress for going out for a casual dinner:

Flip Flops: Banana Republic / Denim Vest: J.Crew from last year (similar at J.Crew Factory)

Next up…

J.Crew Embroidered Floral Racer Dress

I was originally drawn to the top in this print but the top fit funny so, still liking the print I decided to give the dress a try. The full skirt looked promising for my hips and it also looked to be a decent length. I was a bit worried about the top due to reviews of it being a big snug. Well, it is, but I decided this was something I could live with. I do have a slight bit of pancake chest in this dress but considering I thought I would mostly wear it with a cardigan I decided I was ok with the chest issue and have made sure I wear a less padded (racerback) bra when wearing it.

I find that this dress needs a belt when I wear it as the waistline is a little poofy with all of the tucked fabric at the waist. Easy enough. I added a cardigan and a belt when I was playing around with styling:

And here’s the finished product of how I styled this dress recently for work:

Necklace: J.Crew Factory Jeweled Triangle Necklace / Cardigan : J.Crew Featherweight Cashmere Cardigan / Flats: Kate Spade Gabe Flats (sold out)

I really like both of these dresses because they are neutral enough that you can perk them up with some colors or keep them neutral with similar color tones. I already have a few more styling ideas for these dresses and look forward to getting more use out of them this summer.

So, what do you think of these dresses? Do you have either one of them? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

Doubled Up

July 15, 2013

The J.Crew Tilda rhinestone top was easily one of my favorite spring/summer 2013 items this year. I own it in both white and oxford blue and I love that I will be able to wear it year round, either layered under a crewneck sweater or cardigan or solo like today when it’s going to be 90+ degrees outside. My only complaint about this blouse is that you really do have to wear it buttoned all the way up to get the full effect on the collar, or else the collar flops funny. It definitely does not stand up like it does on the website photo…or at least mine don’t. I know this blouse is pretty fancy in it’s own right…but I still feel like when I wear it totally buttoned up that it’s just missing something. Like another necklace. Because, why not, right? So this morning…I went for it. I opted for my J.Crew inspired beaded rose necklace and decided the rhinestone flower centers would coordinate nicely with the blouse. A tiny part of me thought it was a bit much…but…not enough to not wear it.

I don’t often pose with my handbags since I usually carry the same one daily…but…I have a new beauty from the Kate Spade outlet that coordinated perfectly with today’s outfit. I’m in love. Here’s a closeup of the blouse/necklace combo.

So…what do you think? Too much or a good combination? I don’t think all necklaces would work with this, but I think I’m down with doubling up in the future if the combo is just right. Thanks for visiting!!

More Stripes for Saturday

June 2, 2013

While continuing to lament the demise of the Crewlet Striped linen-cotton sundress, I re-discovered this skirt in my closet on Saturday. I purchased it several months ago in an attempt to replace the derby dress hole in my closet. The navy and red stripes were similar to the dress and while not as easy as tossing on a dress, it seemed like a comfortable skirt. I tried it on (it fit!) and stuck it away in my closet. Now that it’s warm enough to wear the skirt, I forgot just how much I like it and how well it fits. It’s longer than the sundress and I can pair it with a tank, tee or blouse depending on how dressy I want to be. I decided to go the casual route for running Saturday errands and ignore the fact that the stripes on this skirt are navy and went for my Kate Spade graphic tee and Target thong sandals. Wearing this skirt made my decision final to return the dress and not fight with the fact that it doesn’t fit me. It was hot and sticky out so with my hair up in a top-knot and some over-sized cat-eye sunglasses I felt pulled together to run errands in the heat.

Skirt | J.Crew (old), T-Shirt | Kate Spade (old), Sandals | Target Jewelry | Tiffany’s

Speaking of stripes, my fashion goal this week is to not wear any stripes! I’m glad to have this skirt in my rotation though, it is very comfortable and I wish J.Crew had made it in a solid color or two as I’m going to have to get creative to make up multiple outfits with these stripes. So, what do you think? Is the skirt a good replacement for the failed derby dress? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for visiting!

Establishing a Pattern

May 24, 2013

The thing about cataloging your daily wardrobe is you start to see patterns in your wardrobe, such as color, prints, clothing combos or styling. This may seem like an obvious thing, since you make a conscious decision to choose what to wear daily; but there’s something about laying out the day by day and saying – oops, I wore stripes three days in a row this week. Like this week. Case in point:

While I don’t necessarily think a pattern is bad, I think one of my styling goals in striving to be more fab is that I’m going to try and mix it up over the course of a week. Yikes. Putting that in writing makes me nervous. Well I’m going to try. When it comes to patterns, stripes and polka dots seem to be my thing. I have a few florals and paisleys but that’s definitely an area I need to expand on. On Thursday, I wore stripes and polka dots (and leopard print). Why wear one pattern when you could wear three? (yeah, I really need to work on my photo stance, I’m channeling my five-year old fab self kicking the hip out a bit much).

I had to include my fabulous arm party from Thursday, which I was quite proud of. It was my first time wearing my new Kate Spade idiom bangle which I bought during the Surprise sale. I also can’t believe I waited so long to purchase the J.Crew Wildside bangle.

Speaking of patterns, I am loving the blouse/pants/flats combo lately. Maybe because all of my pencil skirts are at the tailor being lengthened. Ok, so that’s another pattern I need to try and break – different combinations of outfits over the course of a week.

Ok, well I should be packing for Boston instead of blogging, so time to wrap up this brief post. How about you…do you have any constant patterns in your wardrobe? Style, colors, prints? Would love to hear your thoughts and thanks for visiting!

Kate Spade Surprise Sale

May 14, 2013

This popped up in my Facebook feed last night so of course I couldn’t resist peeking. I adore Kate Spade but I usually am confined to sale or eBay when it comes to purchasing. But that’s ok because once you’re on the mailing list, you get lovely gems such as this one emailed to you. Ok, so I just bought a new spring/summer Kate Spade bag a few months ago…I really don’t need a new bag.

But… there soooo many pretties on sale this go around (way more than usual in my opinion). Link to sale here, good through the end of May 15. Stock seems to be going fast, a few of the things I had my eye on last night are already gone. I did end up buying this bracelet for $25.

Adorable, right? I wear a ton of black and white and I think this will be a great compliment to my daily arm party 🙂

Speaking of which…I love this bracelet too…

If you enter your e-mail you get free shipping. I’m still considering a bag but based on other expenses coming up in the following months I’m not sure it’s wise. But I’m thinking about it. Why do they have to have so many great things in one sale? Usually there’s one or two great finds…but this go around…I want one of everything.

Here are a few more of my favorites

The navy bag is already sold out which I’ll take as a sign that I don’t need it. If anything wins, it will be the striped bucket bag which I think would be great for an upcoming vacation, but I’m concerned that there’s no zipper, which might be a big negative. The magenta bow bag…adorable but I think if I’m going to spend money on a bag I’d rather have it be a larger bag. Decisions, decisions.

What about you? Will you be taking advantage of the sale? Comments please!

The Fab Life

Making every day fabulous

Category: kate spade