Welcome to the inaugural post of my new “Inside the Closet of . . . ” series!  And welcome to Gina’s* closet!  I have 37 pictures to share with you over the week.  Some have nothing to do with large breasts–they’re purely for the fashion nerd within us.  Others will be surprises because they go against “the rules”.  And others will be a request for your opinions (i.e., why does something work or not work?).

Here’s the background. Gina is 5’8″, around a size 12, and in her early 40’s.  Her dress code at work is business.  What else would you like to know?  See what I learned from Gina’s closet after the jump.

We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year, so we started out just catching up–until I noticed these adorable Shoebox leopard-print peep toe wedges beside her bed.  Gina wears them all the time, preferably with pearls, for the quintessential Jackie O look.  These exact shoes are no longer available, but I saw other great options at the mall last month, as well as several online, like these tortoise-printed patent leather heels from J. Crew.

Gina is a pearls girl. She has strands of freshwater pearls from China and faux pearls from Carolee. Look at this great glove mold from Fishs Eddy that she uses to hold them.

Her favorite way to wear them comes from her boss’s boss, a woman in her 60’s who is super fashionable. Gina showed me how she twists and bunches them all together. If you want this look, be sure to buy strands long enough to loop around three times. This is the look I was going for when I bought two strands in Vietnam (one black and one white), but I don’t get the same volume because they only loop around twice.

Finally, she loves to wear them with her grey cashmere cardigan (that she found for less than $100 at J.Crew a couple of years ago), a black tank top, and black pants. She gets compliments every time.  (Pretend those are black pants in the picture below!)   This look gives personality to her outfit and draws the attention up from her bust.  Although her bust has already been minimized by the black tank and cardigan, I think the pearls keep the cardigan from looking matronly.

Here’s one important lesson that I learned from my time with Gina:  don’t forget the little details. She has three pairs of glasses, including the animal print pair below.  What a great way to highlight her face and eyes.  Her shoes above and this pair of glasses are clever ways to introduce animal prints into her wardrobe without going overboard in a conservative work environment.

Finally, let’s look at the foundations before we go any further into the week.  Gina recently lost 15 pounds and went for a re-fitting at Intimacy, which she now swears by.  Another bra fitting acquaintance told me recently that Intimacy is consistently accurate, and my own experience with them in 2008 was very good (see my review here).  The two bras you see on top of her lingerie drawer are the Prima Donna Madison (style #016-2121) and the Prima Donna Satin (#016-1330).  Gina loves them.  She wears the Satin most because it’s seamless, but the Madison also works as an everyday bra, and she can wear it under patterned tees.  Based on how it looked even under a white tee (you’ll see this tomorrow), I may have to give it a try.

Look for Gina’s absolute favorites from her wardrobe tomorrow!

*Not her real name.  I’ve decided to use cup size as the first letter of each participant’s alias.