I’ve been meaning to post this outfit for awhile; I won the beautiful Third Willow clutch last month in a contest sponsored by one of my fave fashion blogs, FashionGrail. (I am in love with their Celebrity Copycat feature, where every week they find a lookalike to a celeb’s outfit – the whole thing! So inspiring – and compelling me to shop!)

The clutch is made from turquoise denim with a cognac croco-embossed leather ruffle to it…I pair it with stuff so that it’s purposely mismatched, but for this outfit, I decided to build it around the clutch.

I’m going to a party for a friend of mine who just landed this big job she’s been after for awhile. Kudos to her, especially in this economy! Woohoo!

So the dress is a little too big for me on the top…I was going to make this silky vest to go over it from this scrap of tie-dyed raw silk I’ve had laying around for ages…5 years to be exact. When I made my wedding dress I dyed some of the silk a light robin’s egg blue to make a ruched bustier, and this particular scrap ended up a mottled turquoise… not the look I was going for. I kept it trying to figure out what to do with it, and then I thought to make a vest to go with the clutch, then realized I didn’t have enough to make a back in the style I wanted, so just stuffed it down the front of the dress to give me more up top and add visual interest. Very Pride & Prejudice of me, I suppose.

I’ve been dying for a crystal bullet necklace from Unearthen Jewelry for so long (gorge website btw), but at $360+ a necklace it was unattainable. And then I found AnotherFeather on Etsy and snapped up this fabulous speckled quartz bullet pendant for only $38. (The quartz has a bluish tint and little flecks in it…it’s out of this world.) Every penny well-spent!

Sorry for the hideous lighting – just trying something different – shooting inside since it’s about 1000 degrees outside here in Portland now. Trying out the wide angle lens. Methinks I should stay away from this since this was an extremely unflattering angle. Pucker filter, you are a godsend.

-Carly J. Cais

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