J. Crew red paisley shirt
Blazer, Aritzia (via Kijiji); shirt, J. Crew (via consignment); belt, J. Crew Factory; jeans, Rachel Roy; shoes, Ellen Tracy; bag, YSL (via eBay)

Can you believe that I almost got rid of this shirt last year? In my defence, it was a little bit snug at the time, and I’d really rather not deal with sausage casing arm syndrome if I can help it. But, now, it fits again! Hurrah! This is, indeed, a wonderful thing because the print is lovely, and the red-blue colour combo is my jam.

J. Crew red paisley shirt
close call

Other people feel the same, judging by how much love this outfit got on Instagram. Posting OOTD photos on social media is an interesting experience; it can be hard to predict which outfits will make the biggest impact – sometimes I guess right, and sometimes … not so much. And then, of course, it’s interesting to observe how the public reaction (or lack thereof) changes (or not) my own feelings about an outfit. Outside of social media, we don’t usually get such immediate feedback on what we wear, so it’s easy to go about our business without feeling compelled to second guess our sartorial choices. Ultimately, I guess it’s fair to say that I’m sufficiently comfortable with my choices to willingly put my photos on the Internet for public commentary … but it’s an interesting experience, nonetheless.

J. Crew red paisley shirt
Total outfit cost: $156 (not including bag) / Retail: approx. $380 / CPW $27.61

25 Comments on Second Chance Paisley

  3. Love the colors! This is a great outfit on you! I have a great paisley scarf that I picked up in Europe. Prints like this go with everything.

  7. copying this outfit immediately. i struggle to wear red because i have so much pink in my complexion, but this complements yours SO WELL.

    i’ve found that my instagram followers way prefer dumb things like selfies than super posed things that take me forever to arrange. i should probably just give the people what they want.

    • Hey now! Selfies are an art form 😉 I do like seeing what people are up to, in addition to the more posed OOTD photos. But that’s because I’m nosy, LOL!

  8. I love this outfit – so it’s nice to know the internet agrees with me! 😉 I think it’s the perfect mix of casual and dressy which is hard to do.

    Other than red, what do you like to mix with blue? I’m trying to match a blue shirt I have and find myself always defaulting to white, grey, or black. Any thoughts on other colours that would go?

    • It depends on the shade of blue. I think lots of colours could work – from orange to green to brown. I need more context, LOL!

      • It’s an almost cobalt shade of blue. It doesn’t look great with jeans because the blues don’t really go – although it might if I put it with a darker jean. All of my pants are black or grey, so it goes well with those and then I end up wearing it with a black/grey/white cardi or blazer. Are there any other colours of skirts or cardis/blazers I can pair it with?

        • You could try white. Yellow would be a cool accessory colour (belt, or shoes, for example). And you should try it with a print that features complementary colours. Cobalt blue can be tricky! But I feel like InStyle did a “what to wear it with” feature on cablt at some point – time to dig up old issues …

  9. I love that top! I love printed tops, but I’m not sure that I’d personally be able to pull off a paisley print. (It looks great on you.)

    • Thanks! Aww, I don’t know – I think there is lots of lovely paisley out there. My style doesn’t run bohemian enough for all of it 😉