I know I’ve done a couple of posts on this, but I’ve been very surprised by how many hits this blog has gotten from people searching for ways to dress down a pencil skirt. It seems like I’m not the only one who’s been wondering how to do this, so I thought it was time to do a real post on it.
A few pencil skirts have been sitting in my closet for embarassingly long periods of time without being worn, so I was on a quest to figure out how to wear a pencil skirt in a casual way. All articles I’d seen on pencil skirts talked about how to take it from office wear to evening wear…but what about everyday wear? I couldn’t find much on that.
I’ve had this post brewing for a couple of months, but it took so long to create it because, let’s face it: it is hard to create looks with a grey or black pencil skirt that don’t look like you’re going to the office and don’t look like you’re going out for a night on the town. I also wanted to do this in a way that highlighted basic principles that anyone could apply with their own wardrobe.
While these might not necessarily be good outfits to copy, you can use the basic principles as a starting point from which you can easily add your own twist and style. Here they are!
Above are the major things I noticed worked when trying to create casual outfits with a pencil skirt. I also noticed that each look used at least one, and usually more than one, of the principles listed above.
For example, Look #1 incorporates a graphic tee with a striped cardigan to give it a little more pizzaz. (Do you like my Coca Cola shirt in Thai?)
Look #2 uses denim and cowboy booties. I chose to pair it with a cognac messenger bag to keep the casual vibe going.
Look #3 uses a typical formula for office wear–a cardigan and flats. But I think adding the loud graphic tee and using bright pops of color like magenta and yellow make it more fun, and they help move it away from office wear.
Looks 4-6 show different ways to utilize pops of color and jackets in casual textures like corduroy or denim.
There you have it! It’s a simple formula with simple concepts, but it opens up a range of possibilities.
I hope this is helps you make more use of that dusty old pencil skirt sitting in your closet! 🙂
For more posts like this, see the One Piece Many Ways page.
