Real-Life Style Challenge: Dress Remixing
Sometimes looking at your closet can feel like a math problem that doesn’t add up. You have so many pieces of clothing, but so few outfits to make with them. You can run to the mall for new clothing, but often that doesn’t solve the problem, just breaks the bank. While wardrobe remixing can help, sometimes it’s hard to know where to start.
So, in the spirit of “wardrobe remixing”, I’m here to present to you Real-Life Style Challenges. While we’ve covered fashion challenges here before, this new column aims to bring those ideas to life. Every two weeks, I’ll be taking a certain theme and creating outfits, using items in my own closet, that follow that challenge. I’ll be sharing the results with you here so you too can get inspiration in expanding your wardrobe.
Ready to get started? Read on for the first Real-Life Style Challenge!
The Challenge:
We all love our dresses, but there’s no denying that they can sometimes feel a little one-note. Maybe one day you’ll wear tights under one, maybe not. A cardigan or blazer over one, perhaps. But it doesn’t seem like there are many more ways to style a dress. That’s where this week’s challenge comes from: Turns out, there are actually TONS of ways to wear your dresses!
So this week’s challenge was a simple one: Wear a dress in an interesting and different way each day of the week. This is similar to the challenge from The Uniform Project, although this version is easier because you have the option of wearing different dresses, instead of the same one for five days.
The Results:
- Monday: I wore a short grey T-shirt dress under a high-waisted utility skirt and added tights, a brown belt, and brown oxfords.
- Tuesday: I layered a short, cap-sleeved black dress over a long-sleeved teal blouse, and added leggings and lace-up boots to make the look cold weather-appropriate.
- Wednesday: I broke out one of my summer dresses – this yellow floral one – and made it warmer by layering on a tied-up denim shirt. Tights and boots complete the look.
- Thursday: I decided to switch things up with a black maxi dress; by layering it under a basic crew neck sweater, I gave it the appearance of a maxi skirt.
- Friday: A polka dot dress got a new lease on life with a few simple additions, namely a basic purple sweater and belt.
What I Learned:
The key to this challenge is to layer, layer and layer some more. This is also an especially good challenge to try in the winter months – I noticed it helped me make my dresses more wearable for frigid days. The best thing about this challenge is once you figure out a way to re-purpose one dress, the possibilities are endless. Almost any of the combinations above can be mixed and matched!
A few more tips I picked up from this challenge:
- Have a skirt and dress that are roughly the same length? Try wearing the skirt over the dress for a fun new combination, just like in the first outfit of the set.
- A sweater is the perfect thing to wear over dresses that might not be great for colder months, like your sleeveless maxi or spaghetti strap minidress. Belt an oversized sweater to show off your shape.
- Try knotting up a button-down shirt over a dress, like I did in the Wednesday outfit. This will not only make it look like you’re wearing a skirt and top, but it will also give your waist great definition.
- Wearing a button-down under a dress can get tricky, you can toe the line between looking stylish and looking like a child in a school uniform. Try toughing it up a bit with boots and bold accessories.
- Most importantly, just go for it! Be creative and see what works for you.
What do you think?
Do you have any other ways of remixing your dresses? How do you do it? Planning on trying the challenge for yourself? Do you have an idea for a future challenge you’d like to see me try? Let me know in the comments!
Posted on on February 8, 2012 / Filed Under: Fashion Tips / Tags: Dresses, remixing, Style Challenge
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Shelby
Very nice! I think I would have liked to see you use the same dress in each one but they turned out so nicely :)
Leira Zetroc
“Dress Remixing” Great idea.
Anon.
Great idea for a new post! I’m excited to read more like this!
Marissa
Love this idea. Keep up the “real life” challenges!!
Rachel
Ironically, on Monday I had decided that this week is my “dress week” where I where a different dress each day while trying my best to make it look interesting enough to have people ask, “Is that a new dress?” So, this is absolute perfect timing ! =)
thisizkimie
The last outfit is CUTE!
Jenny
Cuuute. Great remixes!
Dani
Love the 2nd and last outfits! I would love to see more posts like this!
AJ
Please do more posts on this, especially as I start to get bored of all my winter clothes!!
C
I love this idea and how you styled your dresses! I was just planning on wearing a tied button up over a dress on Friday :) Great post!!!
Apocryphal
Fun!
Jenny in Jacquard
I love this!! There are so many ways to amp up a dress in unexpected ways and you totally hit the mark! Lately, my favorite way is tying a button up shirt over a dress, but I think I’ll try layering a sweater over my dresses now. Great inspiration! :)
Kenzie
a couple others that I do:
- Wear a thin shirt over a dress. fold the bottom of a shirt up to my natural waist (or wherever you like to belt) and belt it there with a wide belt. It creates the illusion of a shirt tucked into a skirt. fashion tape/safety pins help keep it in place. This also works with a cardi if you crisscross the unbuttoned bottom instead of folding. FASHION OPTICAL ILLUSIONS HELLYEAH
- Wear a button down shirt-dress unbuttoned open over another dress, sorta like a duster. belt for shape.
- Summer-weight scarves as wide belts. Especially for solid colored dresses with printed scarves. Or pattern mixing when I’m feeling dangerous.
- This only really works for particular dresses, but if you have anything sheer, try layering a bright solid color underneath it to bring out new colors in the pattern. I do this with a dress that’s meant to be in two parts because the outside layer is totally see through but I cut out the slip.
And as always, a wide variety of different socks and tights in any color of the rainbow will always keep things interesting.
Kenzie
also, Stacey at Gray Skies is really good with this sort of thing:
http://gray-skies.blogspot.com/
Chelsea
Trying something like number three today! Thanks for sharing!
Paula*
I actually think it’s nice that you used different dresses, that way all of the dresses in your closet get some usage. The Tuesday outfit is definitely my favorite :)
Ashley
This is so creative . I really like it .
Chelsea - University of Oklahoma
Great post! Can’t wait to see more.
m
i was just recently thinking the same thing about my closet – so many clothes, so few outfits – so this is perfect timing!
only thing for me, however, is that i don’t own very many dresses or skirts & i don’t really like wearing them. still, great post & i’ll definitely consider these the next time i have to wear a dress or skirt.
looking forward to this new series!
Tarynn
Go figure, I did this today and I got a lot of compliments. Lots of great ideas in the post.
Tohnia
The best ideas for dress remixing i’ve seen is from Kasmira of the blog What I Wore 2Day (www.whatiwore2day.blogspot.com). She’s got a ton of ideas/outfits utilizing dress remixing, and she is the QUEEN of pattern mixing! Check out her blog for inspiration!
Natalie
Oooh this has given me lots of ideas! Thankyou!
payal
absolutely LOVE your last outfit!
Stephanie C
I’ve bee wanting to try this since I first saw this post…next week is the week! I tried to channel different parts of my personality for each day. Fingers crossed it goes well!