This is my fabulous mother who gave birth to me 46 years ago today.  And this is the outfit she put together last Friday–a combination  that I love but would never have come up with if her closet were mine.  That’s why I persuaded her to come to the mall with me last week to help accessorize the dresses I posted yesterday.

She helped me shop, but I wore her out at the mall, so it was up to me to put them together.  See how I fared after the jump.

I SO appreciate the compliments I received on the plum Madison dress that I posted yesterday. However, when I first put it on, it said “frumpy” .  I didn’t think it would be fair to post a review without giving it a chance, and I’m glad I did.

The gold in this scarf and the necklace make a nice contrast to the plum. And how do you like these sky high Mary Janes that I found? I'm not keeping them (I need to be able to walk), but nothing currently in my closet would do this dress justice.
After my earlier post about colored or patterned tights, I thought I'd experiment with them a little more. I think the scarf and black shoes keep the purple from overwhelming everything.

Perhaps this shrug and the plum tights make me look a little too grape-y here (hence the teal bracelet), but there's something about this outfit that I really like. Can you see the metallic threads in the shrug? Metallic may be a good accessorizing idea for me in the future.

Another fun experiment--the tights are actually more teal than blue in real life. I probably wouldn't wear this anywhere, but I'm trying to break away from the more traditional route that I always go. See below!

This is what I probably would have worn in a past life. Ho hum. Also, notice the pearls. I think I should have worn them long, don't you?

Safe black tights are a major no for this vavoom dress, but I'm proud of the leopard print scarf. However, see below for my discovery about the best way for me to wear scarves.

Lesson learned: long scarves and pearls are a good idea. I'm going to explore them more--you know there's the issue of necklaces waterfalling off the bust. And what hose or tights to wear with this dress?