What do I wear if I only wear black but want to look more interesting?
Discover more from The Cereal Aisle by Leandra Medine Cohen
What do I wear if I only wear black but want to look more interesting?
Relentless commitment underscored by a desire to say more
I get why people choose to wear mostly black clothes — it’s an easy proposition that doesn’t demand the mental gymnastics required of color pairing. It’s harder to detect when the clothes get dirty. They tend to be more flattering or so that’s what they say.
You can repeat the same clothes over and over without thinking twice about whether you’ve been repeating the same clothes over and over for too many overs and if your preference is to blend in as opposed to stick out, a full black ensemble will likely be the most effective ally on this mission.
But maybe you don’t want that at all. Maybe you love clothes so much and you care about color pairing and standing out and inconvenience is your favorite form of convenience and you just love black clothes. You just do! But it’s hot as hell out there — too hot to layer — and you’re relying on this one great black dress to get you through the whole of the summer. So! what’s a INFTrix looking for ENTFiber 1 in The Cereal Aisle to do?
Start with jewelry
Accessorize the fuck out of yourself.
The dress I’m wearing is strapless, it’s also actually a maxi skirt but you can replace my choice item with any dress of your choosing. The great thing about a black dress rendered in this like, not formal, not not formal fabric (it’s basically fancy cotton) is that you can dress it up to wear somewhere fahhhncy or dress it way the hell down and go to the beach. I mean sandbox.
The other thing you can do is forgo a dress altogether and select any other minimal pairing of garments. A black button-down shirt or t-shirt tucked into black jeans? Why not! A crew neck dress with sleeves? Without? Something with spaghetti straps? Fair game! The spice-it-up recipe stays the same.
On your neck: A chain or strand of beads with a pendant-on-a-chain = layers for your neck.
The colors of the actual necklaces don’t really matter — I’m wearing a strand of fire opals (Julia Aeran), but if you’d prefer, a 12 or 15 inch chain of gold or silver, by all means, have at it. If you don’t think you have one of these, I invite you to remove a pendant one of your necklaces. Then layer on another! Keep the pendant on. This one should be like, 2-3 inches longer than the first chain. (This fish I’m wearing is from Gimaguas, but I also love this Hola Amor Estudios mushroom. If you prefer a fish and don’t have one, here is a cute red one for $79 and an opal one from Etsy for $37).
On wrists and fingers: Arm full of shit with rings on fingers - other arm = Deliberately asymmetric appendages
In other words: whatever you put on one wrist, do half of that on the other.
Or do none of it! My preference is to freeball on one side and have the other carry all the weight, then distribute the flare by putting more rings on the arm with the naked wrist.
Here is a whole dispatch on good jewelry brands (and how to layer your jewelry) in case you missed it last week and are like, “Oh, are there some good jewelry brands I should know about that maybe I don’t know about?” Click this! Or don’t. It’s your inbox. I’m just visiting.
Onward to shoes:
I chose a pair of satin slides that are pretty revealing to the extent that their vamp (the top part of the shoe) doesn’t climb up the top of my foot too high, which is a quality I look for in a sandal when I’m wearing anything that is below knee-length, pants notwithstanding (reason being: the shorter the vamp, the more exposed the foot, and the more exposed the foot, the more skin revealed, and the more skin revealed, the more honest and the honest truth is that more exposed foot = longer looking legs).
The shoes you wear don’t have to be satin, but when I was making this outfit, I thought: I could v. well make this dress black tie or wear it extremely casually (like, even as a skirt w a bikini top for example), but I’d rather do neither and instead figure out how to wear it for any dresscode between very casual and very formal (save for, probably WORK ATTIRE). The outfit doesn’t have a finite place, but actually, that makes it more wearable. You know or no?
More shoes
These — chunkier but still vampy AF, from Emme Parsons for $395 are great too. I mentioned this in the caption, but these from Cult Gaia are chics mcgee and while I know these aren’t sandals, and as a matter of fact they’re house slippers, I 10/10 would wear. $33 to $68 at Banana Republic.
I’d recommend a pair of flat leather sandals with just as much gusto, think a pair of flip flops like these could work and wouldn’t talk you out of open toe clogs from one end of the spectrum, Cinderella’s lost slippers, but for 2021 on the other.
The fisherman sandals heard round the world are perfect for this vibe too!!!! I think I’ll also try a pair of loafers (a la G.H. Bass).
But here, let me cleanse our palates.
In conclusion, I offer this:
If it’s hot as hell, and you want to make a plain black dress look more interesting, read Dostoevsky before you leave home.
Jk, wear necklaces, bracelets, rings, and some shoes with a very low vamp.
That’s it — that’s the whole thing. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Just hit reply and let me know! I love hearing from you.
Signing off yours truly,
Patrick
What do I wear if I only wear black but want to look more interesting?
Wonderful fashion tips! Thank you.
Digging the cult Gaia slipper/slide. Thanks Patrick 😂