Japanese Inspired

I really wanted to come up with a Japanese inspired outfit for Sacramento and Rosy's Share-in-Style, and it took me quite a while before I created something that actually satisfied me. I'll confess I'm not a fan of creating "on demand" - I love the natural creative flow when I get inspired from sources I'm sometimes unaware of myself. But I adore Sacramento and what they created with Rosy together, the family of Share-in-Style - it's a beautiful concept, there are a lot of wonderfully talented stylistas participating, such a fun and diverse group of women (so far no men I think), so I tried and tried, and then I tried again, and nothing really exciting, or I just couldn't get excited. It was getting so frustrating that at some point I was ready to give up on the idea and skip the party. Which is, of course, no crime. And yet I did not want to skip it this time, it was important to participate. For the sake of friendship.

After all, I'm glad that I pushed myself a little because otherwise this outfit would probably not come to me, and I think it's pretty good. I wanted to wear this gorgeous silk blouse, which is one of my most favorite thrift finds (Goodwill, $6 last year), with a solid color dress. Will you believe that I don't own a single solid color dress (except for a couple of long relaxed fit jersey dresses which I mostly wear at home), not even a little black dress which is supposedly a staple of every woman's wardrobe? I used to have LBDs years ago, but these days, I go for color and usually for pattern too. Though lately, I am very much looking forward to finding a perfect green dress, and what the heck, maybe even a perfect LBD too. Anyway, I got a little daring and a little creative and paired my lace skirt with a matching camisole (which also has lace) in a pretty Venetian Red, and there I had it - an improvised instant solid color dress. I used my silk Japanese inspired art blouse as a light jacket (to tell the truth, it's too snug to wear it as a blouse) - and with an addition of my newly found pair of shoes I'm loving this feminine flirty yet classy look.

The shoes are by Josef Seibel, a great European company. The shoes are not only beautiful, but so comfortable, which is my #1 priority in shoes. I own a pair of boots by this brand and am rather fond of it. I found this new pair on ridiculous clearance sale at Nordstrom Rack just yesterday. Can you believe I only paid $31 for shoes which are originally $130 or so? I love my new cinnabar ring too, but I will tell you about it a little later. As I admitted recently, I love pretty much everything statement, and this ring is a gorgeous statement which I will treasure for years to come.

And very different look for the same outfit with my new field jacket. I have quite a few field jackets or military inspired jackets, but this one by Old Navy is probably my favorite to date. It is made of thick, but soft to touch canvas (100% cotton) and has a very striking collar and great structure. I adore the color - unfortunately, you cannot really see it in its full glory here (my Dad took the photos, and we had to work with pretty dull light, so photos are not as good as usual). They call this color on their web site Basswood Brown, it is basically warm sand color, and I really like it.

You can take a better look at my blouse in the post Asian which I wrote exactly one year ago.

I showed the lace skirt in the post Theater Twists last December.

I'm linking with dearest Sacramento's Share-in-Style: Japanese Inspiration.

Silk blouse - thrifted (via Goodwill, brand is Chico's Design)

Skirt and cami - Lane Bryant

Shoes - Josef Seibel (via Nordstrom Rack), similar here

Field jacket - Old Navy (currently on 30% sale on their site)

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