PLAID: ON PLAID

Yes, plaid is a fall staple and No, today I not going to explain why it is because....it just is.
Another beautiful thing I love is bending the rules or expanding on them, so let me expand on using plaid in your wardrobe a little...OR A LOT.

Powerclashing. You've probably heard about it by now, and if not, it's literally just throwing a bunch of prints and patterns and colors together that are so overwhelming that they work.  My favorite form of powerclashing actually involves the use of the same pattern in an entire outfit, like using florals for example: mix up the scale of the print, the actual kind of flower, and/or the background color of the print.  The other day I tried this method out with plaid:

Thoughts?  I feel like this can work...however, I would do a plaid (unlike my button-down) that doesn't have white as the main background color, it's a little loud and overwhelms the skirt a tad.  Also, this look is too tame for me, TOO TAME.

Hey football heads, I completely support your decisions for a tied waist flannel this 2013

For layering practicality, an extra flannel shirt will save your hide and its addition balances out the two plaids and no one's fighting anymore. Yay, a happy group of garmets!  Things to remember: This outer flannel should be a little bigger and less fitted/structured that the one that's tucked into the skirt.  I suggest having both a women's and men's shirt in your arsenal!

best of luck! xx Alex

THE WRAP UP

I'll try anything once (or in some cases, once in a while after it's been long enough to forget why I've only done something once before) and boy does putting nail wraps on my nails fall into this category of things that happen on a very rare occasion.  After milling around the Urban Outfitters next door after work waiting on a ride, I perused the sale items, one of them being these gemstone all-over print nailwraps by NPW.  They were originally $6 to which I'd pass up without a second thought but for $1.99 my temptations and desires blocked out past memories of the wars spent with nailwraps prior and I ended up at the checkout, nailwraps in hand.

NPW NAILWRAPS from UO 

As with anything, I put off applying these things for a matter of weeks (probably as my terror finally set in).  Finally mustering up the energy and having a day off I took what felt like hours and put them on.  For me, I have small thin fingers and nails.  These wraps are ridiculously wide for my nails, the smallest size fitting my middle fingers the closest.  So for me, I had to cut up most of the pieces and shape them a bit...I'm sure you might have to do the same.  This lead to a lot of imperfections but honestly no one better be eyeballing my hands close enough to notice the flaws!  As suggested putting a base coat on prior is a good idea to smooth out the wraps and give them a little something-something to stick to...and rub with quite a bit of pressure once you get them placed right.   Make sure to file the ends of the wraps off really well too and apply a topcoat or two.  I've had mine on almost three days now and they look untouched, so all that trouble may be somewhat worth it. But yeah...you won't be seeing a post on nail wraps from me for at least another year.

DRESS DOWN THOSE DRESS PANTS

Ahh, having a pair of dress pants you love...a very rare and beautiful and almost non-existent thing.  You've heard of pancake butt right? That is what dress pants do to my butt. It's the pockets, it's generally the weird waistbands that hit on the widest part of the hips...it's the devil in disguise: THE DRESS PANT.

But after years and years of shunning the classic dress pant from my wardrobe and navigating the business casual with other tactics, I've always had this strange desire to face my fears again..I CAN'T LET DRESS PANTS BULLY ME FOREVER!

And then a magic moment, after too many hours of working in a resale clothing shop it just happened, I found something. Something I could even deem somewhat flattering on my stick of a body.  I don't know when these pants were on the racks at H&M but they definitely have some modern features I like like the skinnier leg, higher waist, and front zips at the ankle.  Sometimes people don't think dress pants really go out of style...but my god have I seen some horrifying wide-legged trousers and pinstripes in my young life already.

Playing dress-up is easy and also really boring. So today I decided to post a look that dresses down these dress pants! (Obviously I'm very into this idea of mixing dressy/casual pieces lately).

Anything sporty is a good idea if you're trying to make an outfit less up-tight and more effortless (the little half tuck of a button-down will also give some ease to your look).  To balance out the two sides of the coin with this look opt for a third element...i suggest punk-inspired because dress pants are very punk. I went for some cheetah print creepers.