Winterize Your Maxi Dress

I don't know about you but with all the snow this winter, I am more than ready for spring to get here. So, why not at least think spring? One of my favorite spring and summer pieces is the maxi dress. It's something that can be casual and with the right accessories a little dressier.

For those of you fashionistas out there who maybe have this perception of the maxi dress that it only works for certain body types, I'm here to tell you that's not true. How do I know? Because I was one of those fashionistas. I always thought that I was too short and had too short of a torso to pull off a maxi dress. I gave myself the misperception that they would all be too long or that they would make me look pregnant. Then one day, I got the idea to try a maxi dress on. To my surprise it flattered me in all the right areas. So this goes to show that fashion like other things we experience can surprise us.

Now when the weather starts to get warmer, many maxi dresses can stand alone without have to find the right sweater or jacket to pair with it. Until then, I want to tell you that you can still wear this piece of clothing without feeling cold or out of season.

One of my favorite ways is utilizing the maxi dress as a skirt and pairing it with something like a chunky sweater. Maybe get a little flirtier of a look by making it a sweater that can slide off of one shoulder. This is one way to winterize an outfit while still dreaming of warm weather or a night at the beach.

Now if the chunky sweater isn't your thing and since the bottom of the dress has a little flow to it, try pairing the dress with a tighter sweater cardigan or a tighter t-shirt and then add something like a jean jacket over the tee. You're still dressing for warmth, but you don't have to wait until spring and summer to wear that dress. Or you can even omit the tee and just pair the jean jacket with the maxi dress.

Something that I did fairly recently (and on a warmer day than some of the frigid snowy days that we've had) included an asymmetrical maxi dress. The top of the dress is spaghetti straps so I actually did two things on two different occasions. The first was that I placed a black chunky sweater that went off one shoulder over the top of the dress. I still had color because this dress in particular had a very Fall-inspired pattern on the skirt of the dress. Then I paired it with a cute pair of booties. Now, the second option that I did included taking the dress and adding a jean jacket. I still went with the booties, but this time added a scarf.

So now that I've given you some ideas for how to winterize your maxi dresses, remember that the maxi dress can serve as a base point for experimenting with fashion. The easiest way for you to start the experiment is using a black maxi dress. With this you have a very neutral color that can pair with any jacket or sweater or even scarf of your choice. Remember that fashion is in the eye of the beholder. You never know what something looks like on you until you try it. Another reminder to help you experiment is that fashion “rules” are more guidelines. If you break one, it may actually work in your favor and you don't have to follow all the “rules” at the same time.

HAPPY EXPERIMENTING!