Inspiration Piece - A Red Hat

Happy New Year! Welcome to a new year of weekly fashion posts. If this is your first visit, each week, I share an outfit idea that I am loving right now, along with some style inspiration to get you going. Real clothes for real women. In my mind, I'm taller and thinner, but we all have to get dressed, so let's make the best of it!

To kick off the new year, let's talk about what inspires your outfit each day. Sometimes, it's what you're doing that day - for instance, not leaving your house for the day can inspire you to put on your yoga pants or even stay in your pajamas - and that's ok. Your mood can inspire your outfit choice. If you are feeling down, you may reach for your coziest sweater and comfy jeans. But sometimes, it's one particular item that inspires you - and then you need to build an outfit around that piece.

I got one of those pieces for Christmas. A little red knit hat with a fur pom-pom on the top. For some reason, that little pom-pom spoke to me, and I fell in love with the hat immediately. Outfit ideas were swirling in my head. Once I opened the red cashmere sweater (also from my mom, who is an amazing gift-giver) my outfit fate was sealed.

Jeans - Ann Taylor Modern Skinny Ankle | Tank - Aventura Clothing | Sweater - Talbots (new) | Shoes - Target (old) | Bag - Kate Spade | Necklace - Tiffany | Hat - Talbots | Bracelets - Tiffany and Alex and Ani

The outfit already had interest in the leopard shoes and the plaid bag. So I really had to be careful and not add too much. But the hat was simple enough that it just kicked up the outfit enough to take it from nice to fun. Now in full disclosure, I left the house in black booties, not the leopard heels. We were on our way to Target, and the booties seemed a much better choice! But I did wear the hat all day and I loved it!

I'm planning to do several more inspiration piece posts, as I do think that sometimes, a bag, a pair of shoes or even a necklace or scarf can inspire us to build an entire outfit (or if we're lucky two or three) around it. The outfit works without the hat, but you can see that it just adds a layer of interest to a simple outfit.

What's your latest inspiration piece?

Since you liked this post about inspiring pieces in your wardrobe, I pulled a few more posts that you may want to take a look at, just in time for winter:

catch you soon -
This post is linked up at The Pleated Poppy and Jo-Lynne Shane - be sure to check it out for even more outfit ideas and inspiration.