Repurposing Party Dresses : Part 1

I'm not sure if any of you suffer from IPDS (Irrational Party Dress Syndrome) like I do, but I have found a way to justify our problem even further. You thought I was going to say I found a cure didn't you? Don't be ridiculous. Inherited straight from my mother's gene pool, IPDS is the condition where upon shopping for basics (aka boring things) or perhaps even in just innocent window shopping, you have the tendency to be lured in by a shiny object, only to find it in your shopping bag, with no specific event to wear it to. It all happens so fast. And before you know it, you have a huge section of your closet devoted to irrational (although fabulous) dresses that may only make a live appearance once or twice. Not good.

Well the other month as I was postponing my bedtime like usual, I started feeling creative. I began to mix and match every day pieces with hardly-worn cocktail/bridesmaid/party dresses to create fresh new outfits that would get those dresses out of my closet. In a frenzy of pulling out clothes and trying on new combinations (all at around 12:30am I might add), I quickly came up with at least 5 looks on the spot. I took note of them and then decided to finish this fun project at a more decent hour. 

I then got the wonderful Ally Michele to photograph some of my looks so I could share them with you. We had a blast together. For someone I just met, we sure did become fast friends. She had me at "let's drink champagne during this shoot" and "you're going to need more bling" when my outfit was lacking. We shot several different outfit combos so I thought I'd do a mini, weekly series on this.

This first combo started with a dress I got from Forever 21 for a Christmas party and only wore once. I decided to tie up a black button down (also from Forever) over it and add some different accessories. Now you've got a skirt and a top that's slightly more wearable than a pouffy, shiny bubble dress.

After:

I hope these inspire you to give those sparkly and fabulous dresses more than just one night out on the town and would love to see how any of you try this idea out for yourselves! Stayed tuned for several more installments of Repurposing Party Dresses...

Happy mixing and matching!

xoxo

Sara B

P.S. If you're interested in getting in touch with Ally - who professionally shoots weddings, engagements, solo photo shoots, and pretty much anything you want - send her an e-mail at allystepp [at] gmail [dot] com. She's the best ;)