Dressing up and down for Valentine's Day

Since Valentine's Day this year was one-half regular day at work, and one-half fun dinner date at fancy restaurant, I planned two outfits.

 

At work, I wore a classic romantic red velvet dress, paired with sequin rose-gold pumps, because no office is too stuffy to get festive on Valentine's Day (actually, I was the only one dressed for the holiday at all—apparently thematic dressing is not where it's at, but that doesn't stop me)! 

For the evening, in a complete reversal of the norms for what was to be a pretty fancy dinner—I changed out of my pretty dress and delicate jewelry, and into a decidedly casual outfit of oversized sweater, leggings (leggings! For a dinner date!) and some really tacky earrings. I was willing to sacrifice all my class and dignity just to be able to show off two of the cutest heart-themed clothing items I've ever seen.

The adorable fuzzy sweater, I found at the thrift store just a week or so after Valentine's Day last year. I patiently packed it away and saved it all year just so I could wear it for the first time on my next Valentine's Day.

But the shoes! I did it all for the shoes! A month before February 14th, I started planning my outfit (once New Year's is over, what's a holiday-loving fashionista to do?) and realized that it would be super-cool to find a heart-themed pair of shoes to go with my heart-themed sweater. Just a few days later, I, fairly miraculously, ran across just that on eBay—a cute pair of tan ankle-strap wedge sandals, with pink hearts cut out of the heels! It was exactly the kind of novelty shoe I'd been dreaming of! Though I'd been entertaining the notion of actually splurging on a good pair of Valentine's shoes, these ones even cost 19.98$, two cents under my usual price limit!

 

 

Now, the challenge of wearing sandals in February is already quite substantial, but adding to that, pairing them with a grey and white sweater when they are tan and hot pink is quite another challenge indeed. I really liked the idea of wearing the getup with pink tights and shorts, but sadly, all three pairs of my pink tights (yes, I have three) clashed just a little too much with the pink in the heels.

Eventually, I admitted to myself that grey leggings, though beneath my usual night-out standards, would go well with the top, and their neutrality would help the hearts in the shoes to truly shine out, since they're small enough that you might miss them. But leggings! For a dinner date! I wrestled with this for two days running. Should I concede to convention and wear something refined but unexciting? Or should I grab my hot-pink sandals and run with my vision (for the second straight year!) of an 80's Valentine?

Well, you can see which way I went with that dilemma. Though I might have looked a little strange strolling in on the arm of my suited-up boyfriend, at least I can say my artistic integrity remains intact. Being an Unfashionista means never having to compromise!

 

Not content with only heart shoes and a heart sweater for my V-Day outfit, I found a few other accessories to spice it up. My mom bought me these gloves 4 years ago or more, and finally I took the tags off of them today and wore them for the first time! I have loved them for four years, but never found an outfit that worked with neon pink fingerless gloves with a bird singing a heart until today. The color, so hard to match with anything else I've ever owned, went perfectly with the hot pink in the shoes!

 

Trying to do my hair in a dramatically high 80's-style side part. That lasted all of a minute.

The bag I've been carrying around all month was the perfect accent piece to finish off my look. Though its colors don't quite fit the scheme, I'll forgive it because of the giant heart that decorates its side.