Gray Day ( + A Giveaway!) - Belle Meets World

Yes! That is snow on the ground here in Chicago and a gray day at that, so I decided with this look that I would embrace my surroundings and match them with my clothes. ALSO – My giveaway is still going on with the Windy City Bloggers – enter below!

WHY I WORE IT:

You’ve probably seen most of these items before in previous posts and looks, but I hadn’t thought to put them together like this until I recently bought this crazy hat at Zara. It’s a weird mix between a fedora, a fez and a ball cap. I bought it for my boyfriend, but he didn’t love the way it looked on him – score! New accessory for me (I didn’t plan it that way, I swear). What makes it look better on a woman is the hair coming out from under it and adding length to the lines – without that, it looked rather abrupt and soldier-like on a man.

Knowing I definitely wanted to wear the hat, I turned to the gray jeans to provide the bookend to the gray on top. I could’ve chosen gray shoes instead to accomplish that too, but I don’t have any that are that shade of gray.

I actually chose the shoes next. These jeans are a little long – another freebie from my boyfriend’s giveaway pile – so I have to make a large cuff that can be a little bulky. These black, narrow booties are my go to for slimming the line and adding length to the bottom half of any look. Plus, they made a mini-bookend for the black leather band on the brim of the hat!

To make the black shoes make sense, I went to my black tops and this one caught my eye. The white bow meant I could have a little feminine touch with this masculine outfit, but it also gave me another color to play with that was still in this neutral palette.

The black blazer with sleeves rolled up became a very clear choice at that point. The white and gray of the cuffs matched the white bow and gray hat/jeans, while the black color added a slimming and polished effect to an otherwise casual look.

Sleeves rolled up is a trick I learned from my friend, Alice. She taught me to push the cuffs to the same level as your waistline so that the viewers eye would go to the narrowest part of your body. She told me that in high school, and it’s stuck with me ever since.

I chose the silver bag to go with the gray theme, but I think if I wear this again, I’ll choose a black bag with silver hardware. The silver leather doesn’t quite hit the mark for me when I look back on the photos.

Finally, I chose dark lipstick so that my face didn’t get lost under the hat!

AND DON’T FORGET MY HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY WITH THE WINDY CITY BLOGGERS!

Enter to win this gift basket below, and hop over to the other blogs for a chance to win two other amazing gift baskets – all with gifts from 30 Chicago bloggers! My gift is a $25 gift card to Crossroads Trading Co, my FAVORITE resale shop!