Introducing Fashion Challenge Friday!

Bonjour lovers! Happy Friday! It has been such a busy week so I am very excited to welcome the weekend. I hope you all have a scrumptious weekend planned. I will actually be heading down to the wonderful state of North Carolina and hitting up my alma mater! It has been a whole 2.5 months since I have seen my college friends and I am going nuts! Yes, I know it isn't all that long but when you go from seeing people everyday to every few months, the transition isn't always easy!

Ladies, the last time we talked I told you about some new features I wanted to try out on the blog. If you remember, I mentioned that Friday posts will now be featuring a personal fashion challenge that I am working on overcoming. I honestly don't have this all worked out, but usually I will be featuring a trend/style/idea that I have been wanting to try and didn't have the courage before now, or have been struggling to make work. My thoughts right now are that these posts will be less text heavy than my usual posts (what can I say I just love to write) and mainly focused on the clothes themselves. I truly welcome your feedback on this new feature (well I'd love your feedback on anything on the blog!) as this will be a new experiment for me. Feel free to tell me if you don't think I have really overcome the challenge and you'd like to see me try again. I am a fan of honesty :)

If you look at all the NY resolution lists that have been made in the last week, I would venture to say that a large majority of them have several commonalities: exercise, lose weight, eat healthier, get organized etc. Well, if you tackle the last one from the perspective of a fashionista, the object of affection is likely the closet! There have been all kinds of stats tossed around about how most of us only wear 20% of our wardrobes 80% of the time, and while I don't think my situation is quite at those numbers, I definitely have perfectly good items hanging in my closet that have hardly seen the light of day. And that is just not fair to the clothes! Though one of my resolutions for 2011 may be to majorly cleanse my closet of items that don't fit right and likely never will again (anyone else still holding hope that those jeans will one day miraculously fit again??), or items that I will never wear again, my first Fashion Challenge is to find ways to revive the hardly-worn-but-still-amazing items! Let's see how it goes...

Cardigan: American Eagle, Bandage skirt: H&M, Tank: White house Black Market,  Skinny belt: Kohl's, Tights: Forever 21, Heels: Simply Vera Vera Wang via Kohl's, Earrings: Forever 21, Necklace: Gifted, Watch: Michael Kors, Bracelet: Christmas gift from cousin via Juicy Couture, Ring: Grandmother's vintage

So I think I have had this cardi hanging in my closet for almost 2 years now, and can count on one hand the number of times I have worn it. 

But, I can't even tell you how many times I have pulled it out and tried to put an outfit together with it, pouted unsatisfied in front of the mirror and promptly discarded it back into the closet abyss.  

There is no real explanation for this: it is my favorite color, it has stripes (obsession!) and has a longer very comfortable boyfriend fit. Nothing about this cardigan screams fashion challenge! 

But it just never seemed to work. It gaped in all the wrong ways if it was buttoned up and if I left it unbbuttoned it ended up slipping uncomfortably off my shoulders.    

I even tried just buttoning the middle button and leaving the rest hanging, but something was still missing. Oh wait, what if i grabbed my skinny belt, buttoned just one button and then placed the belt strategically over that button? Voila! 

You are probably thinking, girl you are not all the creative- all you did was belt a cardigan like the rest of us have been doing for years! But what you have to know, is I had never embraced the power of the belt (skinny, wide or regular) before a few months ago. I thought they were merely an accessory only needed for pants that didn't stay up. 

So, while this is definitely a very tiny victory, it is still a check mark nonetheless in my personal fashion challenge quest. Hey, baby steps are always good, right? 

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win Elle for a Year before Sunday!

Bisous!