No Buy Support Wardrobe Challenge: Favourite Piece 2 Ways

Carrying on with the No Buy Support challenge, this time by going back to where the challenge should have started: to the favourite piece.

Click to enlarge.

Selecting a favourite piece was more of a challenge than coming up with multiple looks for it, but since it’s not long that I’d gone and ranked all of the main pieces I own, it made for a far easier selection time. Otome Nostalgia is a great piece with so many possibilities that I am yet to explore, plus it’s something that’s easy to wear casually and regardless of my energy levels.

Coord 1: Sepia Tones

| Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt | Axes Femme top | Innocent World Lauretta OTKs | Hush Puppies boots | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand earrings and necklace | Amadea Kingdom The Adventurer D4 brooch | Latte Galaxy brooch | Dalao Home wig |

It felt like a while since I wore wig for a whole day, that was actually a lot.

Repping indie brands' brooches.

The first idea was to go for something actually pretty muted and sort of leaning into the nostalgic retro-ish vibes. It mostly started with the top, as I am on a mini-mission to find ways to wear it more. From there I leaned in to the browns all over, resulting in a somewhat of an overall sepia tone vibe to the look.

Except that part of me could resist adding a couple of tiny touches of blue. It started with the D4 brooch, since the mauve pinks in there are a similar tone to the top, as well as work with the skirt. But it’s the blue of that dice in the design that really popped and then I looked for a couple of other blue bits to throw in the mix too. Those ended to be another brooch and a pair of earrings (though they’re semi-opaque, so somehow the light ate all the blue hues from the plastic, but trust me that they are blue)., as well as whatever is already in the print.

Since it was a work from home day, I kept everything pretty simple. Whilst I ended up wearing a wig, this was entirely for lazy reasons as I couldn’t be bothered to figure out a hair situation or commit the time to then do the styling. Why make your life harder when a wig can make it easier? Same with makeup, just three things to stop my face from looking too washed out.

This turned out to be a really cute coord that I like a lot. I don’t want to sound like I don’t or like it needs improvements - I simply would like to try a version of it in the future that includes a few more of those blues somewhere, to see what that would look like. So not a version 2.0, more like a first cousin to this one.

Coord 2: Feeling Cool

| Violet Fane Otome Nostalgia skirt | Angelic Pretty Whip Girl cutsew | Angelic Pretty Sugar Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes, jacket and hair clip | belt from Lady Sloth’s Look at My Dreamy Sky OP | Chocomint ring | Fluffy Tori pin | Dear Celine badge |

It's weird how much of a difference just a little bit of makeup makes. I genuinely disliked the look until I put some on my face.

Not that I'd ever punch anyone, let alone with this ring on. But it made me feel even more cool to do the detail shot like that.

What started as a slightly differently themed outfit back in the 1 Dress 4 Looks Take 49 post has ended up getting a more street style twist for the practical reason of going out to get groceries. For once the process was pretty gradual and traceable too. It started with the sneakers, just to see if they would match. Then once they were on I wondered whether to stick with the belt that came with the skirt or swap it out. After that I knew that this needed the denim jacket. Once all of that was on, I was actually unconvinced - up until I put my hair up in a ponytail and then did some light makeup. Only after all of those steps were completed, I felt like the outfit fell together. This is often what I mean when I say that the styling fails the look or that it can pull it together.

Firstly, pulling the blues out of the print was so much fun, I really like how that came out. This is a colour palette for this skirt that I would like to revisit in slightly different styles in the future, it has lots of potential for all sorts of cute looks that compliment the print. Secondly, I love how the neon orange of the sneakers actually ends up working with the orange tones of the print. It’s nice when a practical requirement like that (since I went grocery shopping in this and needed to be comfortable) still supports the look. Thirdly, adding those more 90s vibes to a print referencing more of the 80s nostalgia simply gave me a lot of joy! It’s fun, it’s playful, it’s saying that you can do your own thing with the clothes that you own.

Admittedly, pretty much all of the accessories ended up being taken off very quickly, the ring because I didn’t think it would’ve been sensible for a supermarket trip and the pins because I needed the jacket for doing some flatlays. But the rest of the outfit stayed on for all the rest of the day. Cutsews and fully shirred skirts are super comfy, there was no reason to change out of that.

Final words

Of course that there is plenty more that I could’ve done with this skirt - that much is undeniable. We all know it. But since I own a lot of clothes that need wearing, my priority was that rather than putting together more looks just for this one post. Otome Nostalgia isn’t leaving my wardrobe anytime soon, so there will be lots still to come with it over the years, different colour combinations and themes imposed on it. The two coords featured here are just where my mood took me in March.