Ever since I found this cropped blazer, I knew I wanted to pair it with my navy midi skirt. It’s a no brainer. And lo — they work great together. I so love it when my instincts are proven right. I hesitated over the shoes, because any number of options could have worked — red, gold, blue, nude. In the end, I went with something less obvious: teal.

Oh, and to be clear: I promise you that I’m wearing a camisole underneath. In the light of my bedroom, it looked cream to me, but in the basement dungeon, it turned, well, flesh toned. But, no, I’m not nearly racy enough to go sans top to work.

Here are some close-ups:

So, for whatever reason, last week I decided to do a monochrome theme with every outfit, and this was another attempt – hence the jade/teal overload. On the plus side, plenty of people at work seem to think this is “my colour” so I’m happy to call this one a success. I only cheated a little, too, by letting a print sneak into the mix. A week without florals is a lot to commit to, you guys. Lesson learned.

As an unrelated side note: I’ve been thinking about getting a book club feature started here on the blog. It would work … exactly the way you’d imagine. Every month, a book would be selected (I can get the ball rolling, and then we can figure out where to go from there in subsequent months), then I would put up the corresponding post at the end of the month (last Friday, say?) with my thoughts on it, then open it up to discussion in the comments. So, if anyone is looking for some fun new reads, and a place to talk about them, drop me a line in the comments. (And ditto if you have other ideas for similar recurring and/or interactive posts.)

Sorry, Cassie, for stealing your line. It was too good to pass up. Here’s another one of my recent J. Crew pencil skirt buys. Actually, come to think of it, the whole outfit (minus the bag) is J. Crew. Predictable, c’est moi. I really wanted to wear head-to-toe mauve, but I realized that my burgundy cardigan is … burgundy and not even remotely mauve, so I went with black. Snooze-worthy but dependable black – oh how I love thee, let me count the ways.