New Clothes! Looky!, Or Another Episode in the Continuing Saga of My Makeover

Welcome to another edition of "The Makeover Continues," starring your host, me, and the makeover-ee: ME.

First, I'll show you what look I was going after, and then I'll show you what I ended up with. But before that, an explanation is in order. You see, I have Ann Taylor/Eddie Bauer tastes on a Walmart budget, which means that I may see an outfit I like on the Ann Taylor or Eddie Bauer websites, but I can't just click on the "buy this outfit" button. Hubby and the bank account both would faint.

What I've done is this: Used the websites as inspiration and then tried to recreate the look.

Which reminds me of what I did when I bought my curtains. I couldn't decide which of the four colors I liked best. The store had them all lined up on a curtain rod, and it looked beautiful, and I jokingly said to LovelyDaughter, "I want ALL of them," and she said, "Why not?" So I asked the sales gal, could I buy just one panel of each color and she called over another sales gal, and and said to her, "She'd like to create this look." That made me feel really good, as if I actually knew what I was doing.

Long story short, I did buy all four colors.

































The pictures don't show it very accurately. The green is a little darker, the walls are actually yellow. I really like the effect in person.

But continuing with my explanation: Recreating outfits with clothes is not as simple as buying the curtains was. It's dependent on what I can find, what I can afford, and what looks good on me. It's been a fun challenge so far, and I'm looking forward to the management and upkeep of my closet in the future. Which sounds very impressive, but it really means I'm going to enjoy more shopping! (Especially if I can keep finding mind-blowing sale prices like I did this time out.)

Here's the look I was going after (from Ann Taylor):



















Here what's I came up with:

















Old Navy black shirt, new, $3
Sag Harbor gray cardigan, new, $8
Black slacks, in my closet already (and it looks like they need ironing. oops.)
Sofft black dress sandals, nearly new, $35

Outfit #2 (from Eddie Bauer):






















My version:

















Faded Glory gray lightweight sweater, new, $7
SO black jeans, hand-me-downs I haven't worn till now, so they seem new
Walmart white scarf, new, $5

Parenthetical: I thought I had found the perfect blue sweater for this outfit, and it turned out blue looks horrible on me, and looks wonderful on LovelyDaughter, so guess where that sweater ended up?

Outfit #3 (from Ann Taylor):






















My version:

















Quizz Again white shirt, new, $4
Hint jeans, thrifted, $7
Earth Spirit sandals, new, $25

I want the head scarf to go with this, but so far I haven't found any for sale. Where do I look?

I also desperately want some gold shoes, either flats or thong sandals, but I haven't found what I want yet.

Oh, I guess I do have a tote bag that is natural woven stuff with yellow leather that I bought last year on ebay. I didn't think to include it here.

Outfit #4 (from Ann Taylor):






















My version:

















Denim jacket, thrifted, $6
Pink button up blouse, in my closet
Denim skirt, in my closet

Not quite the same is it? I had a terrible time finding a navy blue cardigan and skirt, even on the Ann Taylor website, since my size was sold out. And then I found out navy looks rather sick on me. I tried to recreate it in black, but though I found the black skirt, I don't have the black cardigan and cute shirt yet.

I originally bought the denim jacket for this outfit:

















But I couldn't find a print skirt like in the picture. Instead, I ended up with this:


















Animal print skirt, thrifted, $6
Black corduroy blazer, thrifted, $6
Shade brown tank, new, $11
Metallic sandals, new last summer, $20
Cute necklace, new last summer, $10? (can't remember)

I am totally excited about this outfit. It looks amazingly good on me, and it ties together brown and black, which I love.

I have more I want to show you, like my cute gray khakis and my black spring coat, but that's all I'm going to inflict on share with you today. Part 2 coming up in the near future!



My 7 Quick Takes Friday post is also up. Just scroll down a bit and keep reading.