Folami Uimana’s denim, empire-waist dress is a great staple for summer. With its classic lines and fitted bodice, this Calvin Klein dress can just about go anywhere, from a picnic to drinks downtown.
In this case, Uimana paired the dress with bangles, shoes, and earrings, all in purple — her favorite color.
“I thought it would be breezy and comfortable,” she says of the dress she got at Macy’s a few months ago. “And it’s flowy, so the humidity won’t kill me.”
This is one of the cutest stories I’ve ever heard. And it’s about shoes, which makes it even better.
Jessica Neal saw these Jessica Simpson gladiator inspired sandals at Macy’s, but she didn’t buy them. Not at first. She made a tour around the mall, and then came back and got them.
But then she needed something to wear them with.
“I normally don’t go for khaki,” she says of her safari-inspired shirt dress. “I bought the dress because it went with the shoes, actually. I needed other outfits to wear the shoes with, other than just jeans.”
Nayha Patel’s look is a mix of ’60s counter-culture and a more current fave — especially with Lindsay Lohan — leggings. It’s easy and, I think we may have mentioned how important this is for Memphis in the summer, cool.
“I just got home from work and threw it on,” Patel told us. “I didn’t want to wear a dress or a skirt.”
Tara Strong had never paired her American Apparel dress with this belt before, but she says she was inspired after listening to Michael Jackson and dancing around her room.
Her outfit has a lot of great color, but we especially loved her heart-shaped sunglasses. So cute! And her neighbor got them for her at a dollar store, so it sounds like they were a budget-conscious buy, too.
22-year-old Taylor Nelson calls her personal style “relaxed and funky.”
And we can totally see it.
She paired Citizens of Humanity denim capris with an American Eagle wife beater and a cute little sparkly tank on top.
It’s sort of hard to see here, but the top has a smattering of gold sequins across it and matches her gold flip-flops.
Nicolette Overton bought her cute two-tiered purple skirt at Urban Outfitters last summer, but hasn’t been able to wear it that often.
“I go to school in Boston, and it’s a little chillier there,” she says.
Her top is also from Urban Outfitters, from one of their up-and-coming designers collections.
We ran into Leigh Gernert in Cooper-Young and loved her Tory Burch tunic with sequins. So cute!
She wore the tunic with shorts from Old Navy and explained to us how to wear them, admittedly one of the summer’s hot trends, for a night out on the town.
“You can wear shorter shorts if you wear a longer top,” she said.
We don’t know the exact ratio of the shorts to the top, but we think that’s a good rule of thumb.
Abby Christensen’s outfit is a perfectly paired mix of things from Delia’s and Charlotte Russe, topped off with a cardigan she got in Virginia.
“I like the color,” she says of her shorts and matching tee. “I wanted to be comfortable, but I wanted to be cute, also.”
(I know, I know, we’ll get off of South Main soon. Maybe. It’s just so style-y down there.)
Cute Katie Kizer is wearing an Anthropologie skirt, a blouse from J. Crew, and shoes from Old Navy, with a purse she got in L.A.
“I’m kind of preppy,” she says, “but I’m not matchy-matchy. I’m preppy, but not overdone.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Angela Copeland is a girl after my own heart. Why?
Not only do I love this color, but she had this to say about her outfit: “I like to wear dresses when I go out. They’re cooler and more comfortable.”
It was all I could do not to yell, “Me, too!” Which, actually, now that I think about it, I may have. (Of course, I also like to wear skirts when I go out, so.)