Going from Coffee to Cocktails with Carven Printed Cotton Poplin Dress
I’m starting on a new kind of Ways to Wear today – these are Ways to Wear from one type of occasion to another. I really enjoy doing these ones, I think they are so fun to think about. Even though you can often create an outfit that would be somewhat suitable for both occasions, it’s just nice to change a look up a bit. I always feel better changing my outfit in someway between events, even if the current outfit was completely fine and lovely.
Today we are going from coffee with friends to an evening cocktail party with this gorgeous patterned dress by Carven:
So the amount of changing you’ll want to do will depend on the time you have, the practically of carrying stuff around with you and also what you personally like. Here are just some of the ideas I had when doing this particular collage:
Dress: Dresses are a great place to start for a transition piece as they are pretty easy to dress up or down. You’ll want a dress that’s simple and stylish – not overly casual or glitzy.
Bag: A sleek, simple bag that can double as a clutch is great. Even if it’s a little larger than most clutches, you can tuck the straps away and no one would know any better!
Layering: Layering is a great way to change the looks of a garment. I knew I wanted to break up the pattern in one of these looks. I could have used a scarf or jumper but I instead used a top to turn the dress into a skirt. If you have a plain dress you could add pattern through with the layering pieces. If you want less pieces with you, you could wear the jacket with a scarf as a casual look instead.
Earrings and Necklace: Jewellery is my favourite part of any outift so I used a lot here. There’s really no reason to change both though (or have both to start with). I think changing or adding at least one piece will make you feel a bit extra special.
Shoes: I’m not really a big shoe person so I didn’t change shoes here. If you love shoes, of course you can change them, but in this circumstance I didn’t see them as making a big difference to the outfit. I think pumps are probably the most versatile style to go with, kitten heels could be good too.
Belt: Like the bag, I looked for a belt that was simple and stylised so that it wouldn’t particularly stand out in either occasion. I wanted a bit of a wider belt here to break up the pattern and help tuck away the bottom of the layered top.
What do you think? How would you go about transitioning from coffee to cocktails??
Just to note – I spent the morning looking through so many different dresses. I swear I thought I was only looking at dresses from the States and under $300 – but somehow this one crept in without me realising. It’s from the UK and closer to $500! So sorry about that – I’m double checking this next time for sure. I really want to feature relevant items for these – although I hope you don’t feel to copy these exactly – it’s more the ideas that I’m hoping to share with these.
I chose all other clothes and accessories from the vaults at Polyvore. I selected them solely as examples for styling the dress. Most of them should be available for purchase although I haven’t looked into any of them.
Linking up with:
Friday’s Fab Favourites, The Blog Strut, That’s My Style, All Things Pretty and the Fun Friday Blog Hop
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