Don’t ask me what ‘phase’ this is, all I knew was that restaurants were open for outdoor dining and the weather was cooperating – finally a real excuse to dress up! Yahoo! With so many neglected dresses and other unworn coordinates in my closet, it was hard to choose what to wear but I quickly decided upon this delicious yellow silk dress…it’s feminine, it’s sexy, and it’s a ‘happy’ dress! 🙂

Discovered this dress last year at Pure Soul on Shelter Island (New York)…it was one of the coolest boutiques I have ever been in, though my time there was very limited…click here to learn more about the shop and my crazy experience…when I wore the dress for the first time I skipped the necklace and instead wore these statement yellow straw earrings and a wide brown leather belt…

This time I wore a long leopard scarf (it was Ginger’s) as a belt and opted for gold hoop earrings…good to mix in a metal with the natural beads…

When buying a dress like this you definitely need to use your imagination, and you need to be aware of what styles are most flattering to your body type…when I tried this on in the shop, it was literally a ‘sack’ – no shape to it, and no belt…the length also hit mid-calf or even longer…I knew that for it to work on me I would need to show my waist and somehow make it shorter, either with tailoring or by lifting the length with the belt…

No tailoring needed, belting it did the trick!

Open toe camel booties were a comfortable, casual, and flattering shoe option…other shoe options for next time: cowboy boots, snakeskin booties, or even gold pumps! As for a topper, I brought along my oversized Louis Vuitton wrap… never needed it, but always prepared…

So many summer clothes, so little time…gotta look at every outing as an opportunity to wear something you love…even if it’s in a parking lot, even if you’re surrounded by jersey barriers! 😉

Stay well. Dress well. Better days ahead.