PFC #3 - The Look For Less

 The third Petite Fashion Challenge, hosted by Sydney of PetiteLittleGirl, was definitely a difficult one!

The Challenge: 

Pick an outfit from your favorite celeb and show us how to recreate that look for less.

I don't have a favorite celeb, so just ended up browsing through tons and tons of celeb pics, but not really finding any outfit that I could replicate with what's already in my closet.  Then I stumbled upon this:

For those who don't recognize her, she's Olivia Palermo from MTV's The City and a NY socialite who has a general reputation for being well-dressed.  She always looks so long and lean, so I was surprised to learn that she's technically a petite at 5'4".  Her outfit is very casual, and basically boils down to a stripe tee, a white skirt, a neutral bag, and a pair of silver oxfords... check, check, check, and sorta check?

Here's my version!

 Top:  LOFT Painted Stripe Boat Neck Tee, size XXSP

Skirt: LOFT layered cotton skirt, size XXSP

Shoes: Ann Taylor Perfect Leather Pump in Porcini, size 5

Purse: Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mini in Pale Grey (post)

What do you think?  Did I pull it off?  I don't have anything remotely close to her silver oxfords, but I think my gray-ish taupe pumps helped give me the look of longer legs.  I wish I had the stripe tee in vintage blue so it would be a closer match, but the whole outfit turned out unexpectedly monochromatic, which I'm not totally disliking.  And was this a look for less?  The top and skirt probably came out to ~$40, which is definitely not bad... but the shoes and bag are a bit of a splurge so I'd like to think of them as "accessories" so they don't count :P

And did you notice anything different about my picture?  I'm actually outside!  I'm working at a different hospital for a month, so we're currently staying at the in-law's empty house (they're overseas) which is a closer drive.  A nice bonus is that they have a private backyard, perfect for outdoor pics!  

And maybe it's the nice outdoors that made me not want to crop out so much, but I think I finally feel comfortable with showing face on the blog!  I was thinking about "coming out" next week on my wedding anniversary and post some of my wedding pics.  But as luck would have it, LOFT contacted me yesterday for another pic for their Facebook feature, and my outfit (yet again) happened to be all LOFT, so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone!  Here's the pic I submitted... and meet yours truly!

Sorry for the sans make-up look... had to sprint outside after my post-work shower & blow-dry to catch the fleeting sunlight.  Oh, and for my Twitter friends, here's another view of the new haircut:

 

I'm not entirely loving it just yet because the layers are harder to manage than my old long straight hair, but I guess it's "growing" on me a bit  :P

Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mini... Red or Grey?

While packing up my stuff to move, I found an old purse that I had purchased a while ago with the intention of using it for work, but never did because it was too large and I didn't really like it anyway.  It was still wrapped in tissue paper, untouched, so thanks to Endless.com's generous return policy (365 days!), I'm getting my money back and decided to finally get the Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mini that I've been thinking about for a long time.

There are a lot of different colors available, and my top two choices were the Pale Grey or Red:

True to my style (and with hubby grumbling in the background), I ordered both!  Oh but now... which color to keep??

I like that neither of them has gold hardware.  The pale grey, which I thought would be more versatile, is actually rather dull in real life and has a slightly icky greenish tone which I'm not a fan of.  The red in real life is not quite as orange-y as in the picture and is more of a richer, but still bright, red.  I wish it was a little deeper shade of red, but I definitely still like it anyway.  All my current purses are either black or beige, so I wouldn't mind adding a little pop of color (red is apparently a neutral, no?)... but grey is more muted and more within my comfort zone.

I'm really torn on this one!  Here's some more pics:

Oh, and I found a little surprise inside the red bag when I opened it:

Wow, seriously?  Not sure if the someone had previously returned the purse and forgot it in there, or some guy had stuck it in there hoping a random girl would call lol...