Fashion February: NUMARI Diagonal Block Sheath Dress

Hey guys :) I was lucky enough to be able to take part in the Fashion February challenge which has been organised and run by the brilliant Ali over at CuteLittleBeautyBlog, so thank you so much again for letting me tale part! If you haven't heard about it yet, the Fashion February challenge is where we are given a topic, whether that be a specific item of clothing, or an accessory, or even a specific fabric type / print, and the aim is to write a blog post describing how we would style it along with our own personal thoughts on the items. For the first post of the challenge, we were given the Diagonal Colour Block Sheath Dress as our topic which is made by this awesome brand called NUMARI who make dresses to fit your sizes and measurements which is fantastic if you struggle to fit perfectly into the standard garment sizes like I do!  The dress actually comes in 3 gorgeous colour combinations as you can see below, but I chose the middle dress, the Black with Camel / Beige-y accents, for my post.

                                                                                           

When putting together my 'look' using this dress as the centre point, I decided to really play on the contrast between the blocks of Black and Camel colour in it and include additional pieces and accessories which would help to not only draw attention to the dress itself, but also to accentuate the shape, design and colour scheme of the dress.

The look I have gone for is what I like to call 'Business Attire' or 'Smart / Formal' and the reason I chose this type of look is because I've recently been applying for jobs and attending a fair few interviews so I thought this would be a fun way to come up with a potential new interview outfit for myself as well as complete the Fashion February challenge and inspire others who may be looking for an outfit for a similar occasion or even just a new work outfit because I don't believe that professional has to mean boring when it comes to what you wear!

So this is what I cobbled together on Photoshop!

I took the colour scheme of the dress and kept the extra pieces as close to that as possible to ensure that the dress (as it is the centre-piece of the outfit) is reflected throughout the whole outfit and that the colours flow and don't clash. This has, I'll admit, been a lot of fun to put together and has somewhat become a  bit of a wishlist!

                                                                                           

1.  DRESS

Item one is obviously the dress so that kind of speaks for itself really!

2. JACKET

I chose a deep cream, almost beige coloured crop blazer type jacket which has just a small amount of gold on the pocket zippers and the matching studs on the shoulders because I felt that as the main body of the dress is black, a jacket to match the accents would provide a nice contrast whilst sticking to the colour scheme. It also allows the figure to be showcased as it is cropped at the back and sits just above the bum and with the sleeves pushed up, it's not too uptight and boring but the fact it is a blazer style keeps it formal and professional so I think it would work really well.

3. SHOES

For the shoes, I chose these really cute Black Peep-toe Platforms to match the main body of the dress and contrast the jacket. The heels keep the outfit professional and feminine at the same time but the cheeky peep-toe makes it a bit more fun than formal. These shoes are absolutely brilliant though, as I own a pair myself and they are probably the comfiest I've ever owned! 

4. WATCH

The gold watch with a black face, again, is keeping to the colour scheme and tying the outfit back to the dress with the black face, and the gold helps to tie in the gold accents of the jacket. I've put in a photo of a Michael Kors watch because I personally have wanted one for ages! But obviously there are cheaper alternatives and this is just so you can get an idea of how I think the colour scheme will work :)

5. BAG

I chose a black bag because the jacket is a deep cream / beige so I figured the contrast of the black on your arm would look brilliant against the jacket colour and also, and most importantly, it matches the black shoes! I also chose this bag because it also has the smallest amount of gold on it which ties the whole thing together yet again. Again, this photo is one of a high end bag (it's a Birkin...) and I chose to put this in because I like the style and shape of it and I think it looks really professional and smart...and also because I like to dream....lol But I know not everyone can afford £11,000 for a handbag (definitely not me anyway!) so if you're after a mega cheap alternative that looks almost identical, Debenhams do one for around £20.

6. NECKLACE

Lastly, for jewellery, I just chose a really simple, gold curb chain necklace to match the other bits of gold running throughout the outfit. I chose gold accessories etc because I personally love the combination of Gold and Cream / Beige.

                                                                                           

I'd love to know your thoughts on this look I've put together, whether you like / dislike it, what you would change, how you would style these dresses so be sure to leave me a comment below!