LMents of Style

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Work Dress: French Connection

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OUTFIT REPEATER ON THE LOOSE. No joke. You’ve seen this dress before. I first shared it with y’all back in 2016 here, as the only dress you need to buy this year. I bought the color featured in this blog post (dark green) back in 2017 for Nick’s company Christmas party. Guess what?! It’s 2019 and I’m STILL WEARING IT.

French Connection United Kingdom Lolo Sheath Dress (also sold here!) | Sam Edelman Ariella Heels

I’ve mentioned this before, but back in high school I kept a notebook of all the outfits I wore, so I’d never wear the same version again. Nowadays, I am leaning more and more into more of a capsule collection style. Granted, I think I’ve changed since then. My 10 year high school reunion is this year, so I would hope I’m not the same as 17 year old me! (also dang it, I can’t attend… no joke. Did y’all attend yours?) One thing I know for sure is that my style has certainly changed since then. I would for more shock factor then and now I typically choose classic and clean looks. I definitely still try to style things differently each time, but it’s different. Just ask my mom… at one point I wore night gowns to school. WHY DID SHE LET ME OUT OF THE HOUSE?! (the spaghetti strap kind – I’d style by layering them a long sleeve white t-shirt or with a cropped denim jacket. Sometimes I’d wear leggings under them too.)

Back to this beautiful dress… It’s classic and appropriate for work, but pretty enough to want wear it to a party or a wedding. I’ve never featured it on my Art of Versatility series, but I’ve for sure styled it for different occasions! For a Christmas party, I wore my leopard faux fur coat, red lipstick and black heeled sandals. It also styles well with a statement shoe / pattern heels (like leopard!) too. Once I wore it to an outdoor fall wedding with my nude pumps and a tan/green/red tartan scarf draped like a shawl. It was a hit and I was warm #bonus

The only bad news? I’m pretty sure they are discontinuing this dress – I’ve found it from 2 retailers, but not all of the colors are in stock anymore. Side note – I’m wearing a 6. It’s more of a bodycon type fit, so keep that in mind!

The good news? This dress is French Connection and still they make tons of great dresses, even if it isn’t this one. Whenever I say “shop smarter”, buying dressing like these (when you’re in the market for one) is what I’m saying. The quality and fit is amazing, plus you know you can wear it for a while, because the silhouette is classic versus too trendy. Also, like I mentioned before, you can wear this to work or on the weekend to a party! I get a ton of requests for work wear, so I thought this would be helpful for y’all to hear when building your wardrobe.  I know this might be a more expensive piece than some of you are used to, but with how long you’ll be able to wear it and how many ways you can style it, the cost per wear is crazy low.

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Side note- I said when you’re in the market for one, because I want to practice conscious consumerism. If it’s not in your budget, don’t buy it. Or at least save up for it. I never want to make you feel like you HAVE to have something or push you to live outside of your means. More and more places are offering “After Pay” – where you can do smaller installments of payments instead of the lump sum. I think it is great for certain exceptions, but for the most part, I think it encourages mindless spending. It might seem backwards for a “fashion blogger” to be saying that, but hey! I want to help invoke change somehow. Anyway, thank you for reading and don’t forget to shop smarter!!!

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