Apologies for the hiatus – over the past few weeks I’ve had a major life change, a serious health scare, and a super fun vacation to distract me. I’ve already written about some of these events, but I’m not quite ready to go public with them so stay tuned. And in the meantime, weekly wardrobe planning is back with my friend Texas Children’s Director of Information Management, Julie McGuire. Julie’s style is very professional, but with just enough edge to keep thing feminine. You can watch our style session video by clicking on the thumbnail below and then read on to see how the outfits worked for her last week.
On Monday Julie was traveling with her daughter Becca who rocked Jamfest (a hip hop dance contest) over the weekend in Louisville, KY! In addition to her work at Texas Children’s Hospital, Julie is a busy wife (to my old college buddy John) and their three children, Rachel, Joseph, and Becca. Becca has been keeping her especially busy with dance competitions over the past few weeks, but I’m thoroughly enjoying all the great pictures on Julie’s Instagram page
Tuesday started off Julie’s work week with a celebration of her 20 years of services to Texas Children’s Hospital first as a registered nurse and then in their Information Technology group. As I mentioned in the video, it has been so fun watching Julie’s career progress – she has done wonderful work at Texas Children’s and as a parent with kids in their system, I am very grateful to dedicated individuals like her. That being said, I wanted Julie to look and feel extra sharp as she was being honored – doesn’t she look like she just belongs on that red carpet?! This Elie Tahari dress is made with blue suede on the front portion and then black on the short sleeves and back. Navy blue and black are actually “a thing” now so I was super excited when she agreed to pair the dress with this slightly edgy cut leather jacket. The pearl necklace and earrings kept the look sophisticated and we finished it off with these cute black lace up shoes from Easy Spirit. Julie reported getting lots of kudos on her outfit which was no surprise to me after seeing her picture!
Wednesday Julie participated on a panel at TMCx so this gray suit from Nine West was moved up in order. This is a nice classic charcoal gray suit which has a conservative look while not being the typical black that most of us resort to for power events and meetings. I wanted Julie to be a standout so not only did we go with gray instead of black, we also made use of some of the beautiful vibrant color hanging in her closet. I was so excited to see bright pops of fuchsia, yellow, and blue hanging on her blouse rack, but when Julie mentioned she usually sticks with the neutral whites and grays on the end, I knew we had to incorporate the brighter end of the rack. One thing I especially like about this blouse in addition to the gorgeous fuchsia color is that it is has a cowl neck line which is particularly flattering for girls blessed with a healthy chest. The same goes for low back dresses and healthy rear in ends by the way – one of my all time favorite formal dresses has a low draping cowl back. Julie’s daughter Becca really wanted her to wear this lovely Kendra Scott pendant that Julie’s sister gave her as a gift and I thought it looked perfect with this blouse. She also has matching earrings and then these burgundy peep toe pumps from Bandolino finished off the look.
I was so excited about finding an outfit to wear with these fabulous booties by Michael Flamingo. We started with the cream colored pants from Kasper and then reached for this wrap blouse to carry over the theme of the shoe pattern. Normally Julie wears this top with black, but I thought it worked really well with the cream and gave her a new pairing for her look book. Originally we had planned on a cream colored camisole to go under the wrap top, but since this outfit got moved to Valentine’s day, Julie swapped it out for a blush colored cami instead. Bright red also would have worked just fine. I wanted bling for the jewelry portion so Julie donned a beautiful Premier Designs cross filled with pretty stones and then we kept it simple with these diamond cut silver stud earrings. Julie reported loving this look – yay
Friday is not casual day at Texas Children’s, but since Julie didn’t have any formal events, we were able to take things down a little with a cardigan instead of a suit top. We started putting together this outfit with this lovely sweater filled with blues and browns – a combination that says stable, trustworthy, and approachable per stylist Natalie Weakly (see Using Style to Project the Right Image video). Julie reported having had this Liz Claiborne sweater for a long time which shows how well quality clothing holds up. We paired the top with a navy blue pencil skirt and this brown cardigan to pull the colors together, but I really loved how these cream colored pumps popped to pull in the lighter palette from the sweater. These pumps were a gift from Julie’s daughters and she was a little worried about how comfortable they would be for a full day at the office. Turns out she made it through end of day, but was very ready for her ballerina flats when she got home – good job, Mom! We finished off this look with a blue beaded necklace from Premier designs which made a subtle statement against the patterned sweater that this picture really doesn’t do justice. Given the busy pattern in the sweater, the subtlety of he necklace was perfect as a finishing touch.
Saturday night was a friends 50th birthday party and let me just say, “You’re welcome, John.” Girlfriend totally rocked these black jeans by Paige with another cowl top and these fabulous leopard booties! I loved the colors in this top which mixed patterns in a way that was fabulous without being too chaotic. One of the patterns actually is leopard so the booties worked great especially against the black pants. We also added a bling belt which just peaked out under the partially tucked top – just enough to add a little drama. With the belt and the vibrant pattern on the blouse, a necklace wasn’t necessary, but I gave Julie two bling options for earrings – husband John got the honor of making the choice and my old pal did me proud with these lovely geometric dangling earrings from Premier Designs. Julie and John reported having a blast celebrating their friend’s big day.
Given the bling belt and even the leopard boots in Julie’s Saturday date night outfit, it was a great precursor for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo kicking off this week. For more rodeo looks, be sure to check out next Sunday’s wardrobe planning video with stylist Natalie King on the Closet Reboot YouTube channel. No rodeo plans in your future? That’s alright because according to Natalie, the western look is going to be very on trend this Spring. And of course I’ll be posting how those outfits worked here on the Closet Reboot blog. In the meantime, have a fabulous week and be sure to let me know if you have any special wardrobe planning topics that you would like for me to cover in future posts.
XOXO,
Misty Ann
Closet Reboot 