A Tale of Three Belts

Talk about vintage!

I thought I would share three different ways to belt this dress. Last year, I wore it loose, but this year I decided to wear it with a belt. This belt was my Grandpa Luderman’s. I’m not sure how I ended up with it to be quite honest! All I know is it was his. I think he got it on a trip out West one year. Grandpa and Grandma loved to travel and even made it to Cuba before the embargo. I also don’t know if he bought it somewhere significant or not. See, you need to ask questions of your elders! My elders are all gone so I guess that makes me an elder!

I wore this quite loose and lower on my waist. If I used the last hole, the end of the belt wouldn’t have gone through the belt loop. Now, I’m wondering how my grandpa wore this belt. He must have been a small man! He never had much of a belly so I’m guessing the belt rode right above his hips? You’ll be able to see the leather tooling in the picture below.

We had several glorious days of weather last week. I’m expecting the trees behind us to soon shed their leaves. They aren’t particularly pretty trees and don’t turn spectacular colors. They do, however, provide shade and block noise from the highways that are close to us. I’m going to have to venture out of my comfort zone and find some places out and about to photograph. It’s just so easy to step off the back deck!

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Wear it a different way!

This is an old Talbots belt. It is again from the Michael Smalldone days. I believe the color of the green that year was caterpillar! Not something I would typically go for! I bought a few things in that color and among them was this belt. Again, the picture doesn’t really show you much in the way of details, but you can see more in the close up below. I haven’t worn this belt for a bit, but I thought it would work fairly well with the all green accessories look I was going for in this ensemble! Oh, the different way? I’m wearing it with the buckle in the back!

It’s funny how dark my tights look in all of these pictures. As I was laying out the different outfits, they didn’t read this darkly! I am one of those matchy-matchy people. I want my tights to somewhat match my boots or shoes. Fashion faux pas alert! I was that woman who wore off-white hose with dark shoes! Oh, yes I was! I loved the “Gotham” loafer by Etienne Aigner. I had them in every color I could find! Here’s a link to a pairhttps://www.ebay.com/itm/372963038546?hash=item56d6545552:g:X9QAAOSwFVFdHcGZ I’d like to think my fashion sense has evolved a bit!

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And, the final look!

This is something I did often when I was teaching. I wore a scarf as a belt. I have many scarves, and I found one that worked perfectly with the greens I was using. I did switch out the necklace to pick up the pink in the scarf. The scarf is the only new thing in any of the looks (besides the boots). In today’s outfit, I tied it behind my back and tucked the ends into the sides. Sometimes, I’ll wear scarves knotted in the front with the ends falling loosely. That’s the fun of scarves! Wear them the way you want and however you like! As my daughter always tells me, “You do you, Mom.” (I hate when she says that because I’m usually asking her for her opinion.)

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I honestly thought this was going to be my favorite look because I really like this scarf. For some reason, it just didn’t come together. I think it’s because the scarf is so unstructured and didn’t hold its shape well enough to keep the dress where it needed to be. Many, many years ago, I bought a dress for Nigel’s company Christmas party. It was a royal blue and rather plain. The owner of the dress shop suggested I buy a belt to go with it. It was a silver metal stretchy belt. As I put it on, she came over and adjusted it. She told me one needed to adjust the dress so that there aren’t any pleats on the sides of your hips. I always try to do that if the dress is a straight one like this one. Look! I’ve given you a fashion tip! Pay attention to how your dress or skirt is pleating on the sides and adjust if you can!

The Lewks!

Unfortunately, I can’t find this exact dress, but any denim dress would do. Here is one from Lauren Ralph Lauren. https://www.macys.com/shop/product/lauren-ralph-lauren-belted-denim-shirtdress?ID=12698825&CategoryID=5449&isDlp=true I think you could definitely achieve all of the looks I show with this one. The necklace is also old J Jill. J Jill does a wonderful job with jewelry as well as scarves! Here are a couple of options (and they’re on sale!) https://www.jjill.com/product/shades-of-nature-statement-necklace-225551s-1?color=195 More of a statement: https://www.jjill.com/product/summer-sands-acai-color-block-statement-225641s-1?color=737 The scarf is still available. It’s got such lovely colors in it; I think you could build all kinds of looks around it! https://www.jjill.com/product/shadow-stripe-scarf?color=09N And, you’ve seen the boots before, but here’s the link (they come in lots of colors) https://www.zappos.com/p/lartiste-by-spring-step-waterlily-navy-multi/product/9108744/color/4002 My belt is so old; I even combed eBay for it. But, check this one out from Amazon! You could have the first two looks in one! https://www.amazon.com/CTM-Leather-Western-Embossed-Removable/dp/B095V6NPRL/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=women%27s+green+leather+belt&qid=1632787650&sr=8-11

Wrap it up, Marsha!

I went looking in my closet for some kind of duster or cover up. I stumbled upon this shirt dress and thought, “Aha! A blog post for sure!” I wore this dress so many times last year…yes, I wore it last year around the house mainly! I had completely forgotten about it this year, though! I had worn the scarf with a different skirt a couple of weeks ago so I had already planted the seed for this post in my head! I hope you enjoyed this post. Do you have a dress, skirt, or pants you wear often and can change the style with just different accessories? Which of my looks did you like best? Please feel free to leave a comment. I promise I’ll respond! Let’s have a conversation! And, if you haven’t already subscribed to my blog, I’d love for you to do so!

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