Hearts & Stripes

Photo: Fabulous Husband

 Heart-patterned sweater: Absolutely Creative Worldwide, thrifted

Striped French-cuff shirt: Old Navy, thrifted

Serpentine bird necklace: origin unknown, possibly Central Asian?

Full black cotton skirt: H&M

Grey tights: Calvin Klein, Century 21

Shoes: John Fluevog "Tillie"

Before I started playing more aggressively with color, I wouldn't had thought to pair pink and red, accent the combination with dark green, or wear grey tights with this outfit instead of standard-issue black. 

I love the buttondown-under-a-sweater look: it's slightly old-fashioned and, particularly when paired with a full skirt like this one, has a vintage academic vibe. It was impossible not to emphasize it with the shoes: played just wrong, they look orthopedic, but with this nostalgic look, they come off like a mid-century brogue. The necklace, which is a complimentary color but from a completely different style register, keeps the look from being too cliche. A strand of pearls would have pushed the look over the top from vintagey into costumey, I think.

By far my fondest part of this outfit, though, is the mix of patterns in the tops. The subtle, understated striped are a great foil for the bold hearts. I think the next unit in my Fashion Rules (I really should have made that Fashion "Rules") will be pattern and texture mixing.

Do you mix patterns? If so, how?