Take Off Your Clothes | North America's Biggest Clothing Swap!

31 . 03 . 2011

Just Add Colour!

by Jennifer Lem

The weather was lovely and warm a couple of weeks ago, so I gleefully pulled out my spring clothes and started trying them on. After months of wearing heavy clothing in drab shades of blue and black, I was really looking forward to wearing some fun dresses and skirts in bright colours. Then it snowed all day on Wednesday and my dreams were crushed.

Darn Ontario weather!

All Is Not Lost: While the weather sorts itself out, I’ll be slowly weaning myself off of blues and blacks by adding some bright colours to my oufits. Take a look:

Art Gala: The Avant-Garde Chef (skirt as dress, $20; scarf, $3), The Hipster Artist (skirt as scarf, $5), The Artsy Socialite (earrings, by me; top, $10; trousers, $37)

Colour = Awesome: A pop of colour can really pull an outfit together, especially when the rest of your clothes are black or white. Check out that gorgeous cardinal skirt! Doesn’t it make you happy just looking at it? With a bit of felt and fabric glue, you could probably reproduce that design for yourself on a thrifted, light-coloured skirt.

Accessories: However, technicolour bird skirts aren’t for everyone. If you’re cringing at the thought of wearing bright clothing, there are all sorts of colourful accessories that you can wear – belts, scarves, jewelry, shoes … even nail polish. You’ll probably only want to add one, maybe two, brightly coloured elements to your outfit to avoid looking like you overdid it.

From Jen’s Closet to Yours: As much as I love wearing bright clothing, sometimes I buy things that just don’t work out for me. Thank goodness for swaps! For the upcoming Take Off Your Clothes event in Toronto, I will be swapping some lovely, colourful clothes (as well as some other less colourful pieces). I’ll be blogging about the clothes before the event, and I’d love to find out who ends up with them.

Stay tuned!

Jennifer Lem spent her childhood camping and hiking, mucking about the garden, and occasionally sewing ill-fitting clothing. She now works and volunteers in the non-profit world, runs a blog on environmental and health issues, and has overcome her ineptness with sewing machines. www.thehealthyfootprint.com