black + white + red all over

My obsession with maxi dresses continues.  This one reminded me of an Oscar De La Renta gown I remembered seeing from their Spring 2013 collection, as well as a lot of pieces from the Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2013 collection.  I guess big, bold stripes are "in" this season, eh?  This dress feels fancy, but it's made out of jersey-knit, so it's still easy to wear and can be casual as well.  Like most maxi dresses, I need heels to keep it from dragging on the ground, but nothing crazy tall or anything.  By now I have some favorite go-to heels to pair with maxi dresses.  I never wear the heels I'm wearing in this post, mostly because they're not wearable in an all-day situation.  They're going-out-for-dinner-and-sitting-mostly type shoes, but I just love how fabulous they are that I bring them out for those rare occasions.  Dan and I ended up deciding to walk to one of our regular joints after these photos, so I switched out for my red Blowfish t-strap cork platforms, which I can walk miles in.

 

dress/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes (similar)/courtesy of lulu's :: photos by Dan
Know what  I love about clothes?  They can make you feel fabulous.  I mean, I feel pretty fabulous without a stitch of clothes on, but sometimes putting on an outfit that makes you feel like a bombshell can be so powerful.  In a way clothes can literally be armor.  I know that I personally will wear sunglasses on occasion to physically keep people at a distance.  Sometimes you just don't have it in you to deal with other humans and dressing in a certain way, like wearing sunglasses to keep people from making eye contact with you, can do that.  But it's not just in that self-protective way, that's just one example.  Dressing yourself in a way that makes you feel more powerful can actually make you act more powerful.  There's a reason they call it a "power suit."  Just like forcing yourself to smile can make you feel happy, dressing in a way that makes you feel confident can actually increase your confidence.  And that's pretty awesome.  Mark Twain once said, "Clothes make the man.  Naked people have little or no influence on society."  And I think that beyond the obvious fact that naked people probably don't influence society because they're not out and about, influencing while naked, clothing yourself in a certain way can be powerful.  Maybe the clothes themselves can influence others, but I believe it's more that the clothes make the wearer feel more confident, and it's the confident clothes-wearer who does the influencing.