dress - vintage/altered
shoes - aldo :-p
coat - target
This outfit is a testament to how determined I can be when I find something online that I really like but can't have. I saw this dress on Modcloth last year and coveted it for a while before finally buying it for my birthday in November. It was much, much too small for me (those darn hips again) so I had to send it back. But ever since then, I've been scouring the etsy vintage listings every week for a plain teal sheath dress to alter. I finally found it about 2 weeks ago! The dress was about 5" too long for me, so I hemmed it, and used the excess fabric to make a peter pan collar using this tutorial. Then I used some plain white fabric to make a giant bow, and ordered gold buttons from amazon. By the time they arrived I ended up deciding that I really liked the dress better without them, though. It's much easier to dress up or down, and match it to different sweaters without the gold.
Now, the shoes. When I saw these on Modcloth, I fell deeply in love. But I have these really stupid ethics about wearing real leather (sometimes I get on my own nerves) and wouldn't buy them. Enter a day-long internet search to find a man-made alternative. After trying every single store in my shopping bookmark list, I finally remembered to try shopsearch.com, where I stumbled upon a pair on Aldo that were 50% off. The color is a little different from the Jeffrey Campbell pair on Modcloth (which I prefer) but they're definitely sufficient. They have the exact same shape, wood stacked platform heel and cute penny loafer style.
I'm absolutely thrilled with the shoes now, but I do have to say that Aldo's customer service is the worst I've encountered (well, except for a tent company I dealt with a few years ago, but that's another story for another day) I'm not going to go into the whole thing, but suffice it to say, I'll never buy from them again after this experience. I guess on the bright side, at least I didn't have to purchase real leather :-p
