MyShingle Fashion: Gosh and Golly, It’s Elie Tahari!

I should be taken out back and shot for my horrible rhymes. And for my use of hyperbole. But at this point, I almost feel that only cheesy, ridiculous, nonsensical rhymes can convey how much I love Elie Tahari.

Last time, I talked about Pucci dresses. I featured printed dresses in general, but the inspiration behind the post was all Pucci. As it turns out, I wasn’t able to get that thought – about designer pieces – out of my head, because this morning I updated my Facebook status to this:

Nothing says “I refuse to grow up” quite like wearing a bright, striped, reversible rain coat over your Tahari suit. <3

Why was I wearing my gorgeous Tahari suit? Because I am currently participating in our school’s moot court competition at the federal courthouse. Why was I wearing a bright turquoise reversible raincoat? Because I refuse to grow up and be a proper adult. We’ve established this!

A few seconds later, I commented on my own status (yes, I’m “That Guy”) with the following:

My suit needs a sibling. http://ht.ly/2VcAB Elie Tahari needs to stop being so awesome. 😐

I linked to this beautiful dress, the one I have been coveting all morning despite the warnings of most theological texts regarding greed and desire. What can I say? I live life on the edge.

It’s gorgeous and I want it. My suit is lonely in that large, empty (but actually crammed) closet.

So, since this was what I was thinking about when I should have been thinking about custodial interrogation and the Innis standard under the umbrella of Miranda, I thought I’d keep it alive and turn it into a blog post: some of my favorite Tahari dresses!

They say a girl always remembers her first…suit. And my first suit was the Tahari I was wearing today, a beautiful solid black number with an adorable single button. I have another pinstripe Tahari that I don’t wear as often, and have my eye on a new one that I’ll probably add to my rotation soon.

I love this suit. I hate how I look in it – like a child that got into her mother’s closet and is just playing dress up – but I still love this suit. It’s all clean lines and great fabric with flattering structure, and I adore it.

I do not, however, have any Tahari dresses yet, so I figured I’d invite all of you to join me in my journey through the wonders of Tahari, a label I’ve loved for a while. It’s understated, professional, but ultra-feminine fashion for today’s working women, and there are so many amazing pieces to choose from!

So here are some of the ones I’m loving right now.

This is a wool blend dress, and yes, the lack of sleeves might be a problem. But this is fancier, anyway, better suited for venues where you don’t need to cover up the way you would at work. And even if you’re wearing it to work, there are plenty of ways to style it to get past the pesky no-sleeves issue, if no-sleeves are a concern at your office.

I love the color and I’m really liking the pleating and the drape. Since I’m quite petite, pleating and ruffles and interesting things like that around the upper bodice of the dress are things that I pay close attention to when I’m shopping.

Now this is going to be flattering for a lot of us gals. The top part of the bodice is colorful and, more importantly, we see light colors. This is a great way of attracting the eye upward and holding interest, while the rest of the dress is black, slimming the hips and streamlining the figure. This is going to be a great pick for those among us that want to balance out curvier hips and thighs.

How lovely. This reminds me of something out of Monet’s blue period, which is an association Tahari should be thankful for, because I love Monet and the comparison makes me far more inclined to buy this dress.

Ah, brand loyalty.

It’s terribly sad, though, that Monet destroyed many of the paintings he created while he had cataracts, because the bright, floral pinks and vibrant reds were gone, and he only saw in darker, muddier reds and yellows and browns. When he had his surgery, he complained that the light was first too yellow, and then too blue. How terrible for an artist, especially, to suffer from something like cataracts, that had such a profound impact on his art.

But I like this dress, even though thinking of Monet’s cataracts makes me sad.

Sheath dresses are absolutely classic, and they’re flattering for a lot of different body types, so seriously consider adding a couple to your wardrobe, ladies. This black one is just so simple, but elegant. It’s sharp and powerful but perfectly feminine with that gorgeous silhouette and clean lines.

Besides, a well made, professional black dress (that just fits) is an essential part of the professional woman’s wardrobe. And I think I just found mine. (Well…an upgrade from mine.)

Simple, effortlessly pretty, and in my favorite color (a deep crimson as opposed to just plain red). I absolutely love this one. And in terms of functionality and styling, I’d almost be tempted to get this one instead of the Lori sheath I showed you earlier.

This just struck me as really interesting. Look at that snake print! I also really liked the cut and construction of the skirt. High-waisted to emphasize a pinched in waist (or at least artificially create one with the color blocking), and darker color on bottom, to slim the hips and thighs.

Also….

…Do you want to see something completely daring?

It’s a leather dress! Honest to goodness leather! And it’s belted and pleated with a jewel neckline and is absolutely adorable! And if you want to get it cleaned, you have to take it to a professional leather cleaner! This many exclamation points in a row get really annoying!

I know half of you are thinking I’m an awful person right now, daring to link to an $800 leather dress and in doing so advocate the wearing of leather (which I do wear, just…not in such abundance), and I’m sorry to have offended you with the tanned and dyed hide of a poor, defenseless cow. But really, how interesting is this?

While I find leather pants and those floor-length or almost floor-length oversized leather trenches absolutely horrifying and disgusting (more for the aesthetic effect than any abundance of principles about social justice for nonhuman animals on my part), I have to say, I find this dress absolutely fascinating.

Would I buy it? Oh, surely you jest. Would I wear it if it ‘fell off a truck?’ No, no. But I can’t stop staring at it.

For those of you that were skimming along with the rest of us and thinking, I can’t blow $300 on a dress! I’d have to eat Ramen for two months and I hate Ramen because I’m not a teenage boy, don’t worry. I’ll be back soon with more cost-effective options for those of us that can’t drop coin like this.

I try to cover all sorts of different price ranges – and sometimes I’m just a total jerk and I post $2,000 alligator loafers to make your days just a little more surreal – but sometimes I do like focusing on my favorite ‘splurge’ labels, like Tahari.

For extremely cost-effective outfits -mostly for students and young professionals- you can always drop my blog, The Reasonably Prudent Law Student.