Sources:
- Khaki shirt dress – Target
- Striped top – J.Crew
- Belt – thrifted
- Tights – Target
- Boots – Banana Republic
- Bag – thrifted
- Ring – gift
Endnotes:
This outfit was inspired by this recent one by the very lovely Kendi – like A, I have found plenty of inspiration on her wonderful site since the inception of her style blog. Her combination of colors and proportions is wonderful and I highly recommend checking out her site if you’re not already a regular reader.
I saw Kendi wearing a khaki dress over a striped shirt and thought, I have those items, I can totally steal pay tribute to this look by recreating my own version of it. And since it’s belt week here at academichic, I will articulate why I chose this belt over another (or none at all). As I’ve mentioned before, I have a short torso and thus I usually stick to thin or medium width belts. Wearing a wide belt over a top or cardigan when you’re short waisted only makes the distance between your chest and waistline seem that much shorter. But I do own a few awesome wide belts and I’ve found that the time to wear them is when I’m layering over a dress – the broader expense of fabric allows for the wide belt to be showcased without appearing scrunched into a much too small space. So I usually save my wider belt collection for dress days and my skinny belts for cardigans and or other such tops.
As for the ‘to belt or not to belt’ question – when it comes to dresses like this one that are just one expanse of fabric with no real focal point, I think the belt is necessary. (Sorry, I should have taken a ‘without’ picture to really demonstrate). Without the belt, this khaki number looks more like a lab coat than a dress. Case in point: Check out Audi’s demonstration of the belted dress vs. the not-belted dress in her guest post at Already Pretty and see what I mean.
Circular, originally uploaded by academichic.Also, a quick DIY tip – When I first started using belts as waist-cinching accessories and not just to hold up my pants, I realized that all my belts that were meant to fit around my hips did not tighten enough to be worn higher up around my waist. Rather than purchase a whole bunch of new belts, I got this awesome tool from T. that allowed me to custom-size several of my longer belts to fit smaller parts of my torso. I highly recommend this little tool if you’re looking to repurpose some of your existing belts as well! S.
18 March 2010, originally uploaded by academichic.
This is a really great post for four reasons:
1. You look adorable
2. You talked about how to wear an item (wide belt) specific to your body type
3. You acknowledged two other awesome bloggers
4. You linked to a tool that can extend what we already own in our wardrobes
WIN!
I’ve been meaning to nab one of those leather punch tools since I saw you post about it a billion years ago. SO smart!
I love this! I like your version much better than mine :) This was actually the look I was trying to go for when I was layering my dresses. I think that I need that striped top you are wearing! This looks fantastic and thanks for the shout out!
This is one of my favorite looks on you ever! And I love how, in addition to great advice on belting, you’ve quietly incorporated advice on using stripes, but toning them down with a neutral. (The dress also covers the stripes on the midsection, an area that prevents a lot of us from venturing into horizontal-stripe territory!)
hey dude
Great stuff! i got a lot of inspiration from this post
i went through this page four times
it is very interesting ….
am learning for social work
Thanks
Great outift. I like yours and Kendi’s original both very much. I am in general a fan of the striped underlayer. Now I am on the lookout for a second shirt dress. There are adorable ladies in the garment district who will hole punch for you if you live in the NYC area.
Yes for stripes and yes for trench-like shirt-dresses! This is great!
Love the site!
Thanks for keeping this resource so up to date for the readers. I’m liking how the accessories are adding to every look in the photos.
Keep it up!
Oh hey, I actually have something similar to that tool! I will see if it will work on some of my patent belts.
Love your khaki over jacket ensemble, by the way :)
[...] queens of shirt-dresses (including ones that wrap) and both have an excellent collection of styles, colors, and materials, not to mention the styling that they do themselves to make these dresses even more [...]
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