Hi, Iā€™m Lauren


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Work Dress: French Connection

Work Dress: French Connection

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OUTFIT REPEATER ON THE LOOSE. No joke. Youā€™ve seen this dress before. I first shared it with yā€™all back in 2016 here, as the only dress you need to buy this year. I bought the color featured in this blog post (dark green) back in 2017 for Nickā€™s company Christmas party. Guess what?! Itā€™s 2019 and Iā€™m STILL WEARING IT.

Iā€™ve mentioned this before, but back in high school I kept a notebook of all the outfits I wore, so Iā€™d never wear the same version again. Nowadays, I am leaning more and more into more of a capsule collection style. Granted, I think Iā€™ve changed since then. My 10 year high school reunion is this year, so I would hope Iā€™m not the same as 17 year old me! (also dang it, I canā€™t attendā€¦ no joke. Did yā€™all attend yours?) One thing I know for sure is that my style has certainly changed since then. I would for more shock factor then and now I typically choose classic and clean looks. I definitely still try to style things differently each time, but itā€™s different. Just ask my momā€¦ at one point I wore night gowns to school. WHY DID SHE LET ME OUT OF THE HOUSE?! (the spaghetti strap kind ā€“ Iā€™d style by layering them a long sleeve white t-shirt or with a cropped denim jacket. Sometimes Iā€™d wear leggings under them too.)

Back to this beautiful dressā€¦ Itā€™s classic and appropriate for work, but pretty enough to want wear it to a party or a wedding. Iā€™ve never featured it on my Art of Versatility series, but Iā€™ve for sure styled it for different occasions! For a Christmas party, I wore my leopard faux fur coat, red lipstick and black heeled sandals. It also styles well with a statement shoe / pattern heels (like leopard!) too. Once I wore it to an outdoor fall wedding with my nude pumps and a tan/green/red tartan scarf draped like a shawl. It was a hit and I was warm #bonus

The only bad news? Iā€™m pretty sure they are discontinuing this dress ā€“ Iā€™ve found it from 2 retailers, but not all of the colors are in stock anymore. Side note ā€“ Iā€™m wearing a 6. Itā€™s more of a bodycon type fit, so keep that in mind!

The good news? This dress is French Connection and still they make tons of great dresses, even if it isnā€™t this one. Whenever I say ā€œshop smarterā€, buying dressing like these (when youā€™re in the market for one) is what Iā€™m saying. The quality and fit is amazing, plus you know you can wear it for a while, because the silhouette is classic versus too trendy. Also, like I mentioned before, you can wear this to work or on the weekend to a party! I get a ton of requests for work wear, so I thought this would be helpful for yā€™all to hear when building your wardrobe.  I know this might be a more expensive piece than some of you are used to, but with how long youā€™ll be able to wear it and how many ways you can style it, the cost per wear is crazy low.

Side note- I said when youā€™re in the market for one, because I want to practice conscious consumerism. If itā€™s not in your budget, donā€™t buy it. Or at least save up for it. I never want to make you feel like you HAVE to have something or push you to live outside of your means. More and more places are offering ā€œAfter Payā€ ā€“ where you can do smaller installments of payments instead of the lump sum. I think it is great for certain exceptions, but for the most part, I think it encourages mindless spending. It might seem backwards for a ā€œfashion bloggerā€ to be saying that, but hey! I want to help invoke change somehow. Anyway, thank you for reading and donā€™t forget to shop smarter!!!

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