Ah, springtime in Alberta. Where others get cherry blossoms and tulips, we get snowstorms. This was day 2. I had just finished shoveling our driveway and corner lot sidewalk, when it started snowing again. Sigh. I wasn’t going to let Mother Nature get me down though, so I quickly improvised a mood-lifting outfit. It’s nothing exceptional — just pieces I love, and which happen to be cozy enough for a snowy (though not freezing) day. As for the bag — yes, it should look familiar. It’s my now-ubiquitous Peyton tote in navy. I have been wanting a navy bag for ages, so when I saw this bag (while hunting for a solid colour Peyton on eBay), I knew it was meant to be. It’s only been a week or so, but I have been wearing it nearly every day, and it’s as versatile as I had hoped. Now … if I can only find that pair of navy pumps I’ve been hunting for the last 3 years, I’d be set.

Normally, I don’t do orange – especially when it’s a shade this close to my hair colour. I don’t think I am the only ginger who feels this way. Nonetheless, I made an exception for this Maeve dress. I remember seeing it at the Anthro store a year or two ago, and being charmed by its colour palette, orange and all. I was not charmed by the retail price, however, so I left it behind … only to rediscover it recently at Red Pony for a much more reasonable price. The silhouette is right up my alley — I love shapeless sack dresses, especially for casual wear — but I think what I love the most is the one-two punch of orange and blue in the (floral, natch) print. So, naturally, I played up the contrast by adding more blue; to wit: my newly thrifted DVF cashmere blend sweater. It’s a gorgeous you-can’t-miss-it cobalt blue, and it has pockets, people!

Since the dress and sweater were new, I decided to go all out and wear my new AGL flats as well. I’ve been wanting to try the brand for years now, after reading various bloggers rave about its quality and comfort, so I was stoked to find this mint condition pair of loafers at My Favourite Aunt’s (my other got-to consignment store in Edmonton). Loafers are a fairly recent discovery of mine, but after wearing my Kelsi Dagger pair to death last summer, I am a convert. This AGL pair lives up to the brand hype; it is insanely comfortable. The metallic leather looks to be fairly versatile as a “neutral” so I think it’s fair to say that these puppies will be getting lots of wear this coming season.

This is an old outfit formula, updated with new (to me) pieces. I improvised it on the spot, and immediately loved how the palette came together. Blues and greys (with black and white accents) create the most soothing effect for me; when I look at this outfit, it just makes me go “ahhhh” and I immediately relax. It would probably become incredibly monotonous to dress only in these colours all the time, but it’s a formula worth repeating for sure. In fact, I wore it twice on the same weekend. Luckily, with Stylebook, it’s easier to keep track of favourite outfits like this one; I’ve created a separate folder for them and everything. That way, if I’m ever stuck for a quick outfit idea, I can have a peek at the app instead of trying to wring something out of my (terrible) memory.

Quite apart from how it looks, the other thing I love about this outfit is that it’s 90% preloved. More and more of my outfits boast similar statistics nowadays, and I’d like to think that my sartorial efforts have not suffered for it. If anything, buying secondhand (thrifting or consignment) is a great way to navigate style (and size) shifts, big and small, which have occurred with some regularity in my recent(ish) past. With that in mind, I figured this might be a good time to do another AMA on thrifting, since it’s a topic in which (judging from my blog inbox) a lot of you are interested. So, if you have any burning questions, shoot me an e-mail, and I will do my best to answer them all in a future post.