Built On Black

As much as I love a challenge, I just couldn't rally for Sal's Summer Black-Out for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the weather was just not cooperating when the challenge started, so it simply did not feel like summer at all. And secondly, I've been really drawn to the black items in my wardrobe lately and didn't feel I could live without them just now (it probably has to do with the black mood I'm in when I have to go to work!). So what I decided to do, rather than try to keep black clothes out of my summer, was to try to bring some summer to the black clothes.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you've heard me bemoan the black pants fallback that far too many people rely on to look "dressy." Because the fact is that black pants alone do not make an outfit dressy, and in fact they often counteract any cuteness that's going on in the top of the outfit. The most common mistake people make is to throw on black pants and shoes with a colorful top, without any further effort at integrating the top and bottom halves; the result being that the top is left adrift on a solid black background, and neither half of the outfit makes sense with the other.

For this outfit, I softened the impact of the black jeans by pairing them with silver shoes; the shoes are a neutral color and make sense with the black, but they also help to break up the block of darkness. I repeated the silver color with the crinkle-texture tank top, and further reinforced it by adding the pale pink cardigan with silver paillettes and metallic silver stitching. Finally, I secured the front of the cardigan with a black and crystal brooch; this not only gave me the shape I wanted, but also brought a black focal point to the top. I finished off the outfit with a bracelet and earrings that also contained some black stones.

The lightness and drape of the cardigan and tank made the outfit feel very summery to me, and I just love the contrast of the inky black against the soft, pale colors. And although the outfit isn't Summer Black-Out Challenge material, it does bring a little summer to an outfit built on black.

Cardigan: Anthropologie
Tank: thifted
Jeans: Diesel
Shoes: Born