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I may not hold a physical presence at New York Fashion Week, but my heart is definitely there! The Southern California weather here has also been rather coincidentally fitting seeing as the heat and humidity strongly reminds me of the typical NYC summer days. Also, my Instagram dash-feed has been flooded with images from NYFW so it’s honestly hard to feel left out. That being said, I’m not sure if it’s because of my style evolution or because I’ve been pulled into the frenzied Fashion Month mindset, but lately, I’ve been subconsciously pushing myself more and more to explore the boundaries of personal style. In other words, I’m trying to step out of my comfort zone by embracing different prints, textures, and styles while exercising my creativity in coming up with innovative ways to fully maximize what I already have in my closet. After all, fashion is art, and art involves being creative and trying new methods!

On this day, I decided to take on the task of converting this high low tribal dress into a skirt (similar experience: creating the illusion of a one-piece dress). You might recall seeing this dress before, so you might also recall its relatively high neckline. When using a dress to pass as a skirt, one must mind the necklines; because this tribal dress covered my clavicles, I needed a top that also sported a similar neckline shape and height, and this Express slub knit tee (last seen here) did the job well.

Now, I’ve been complaining a lot about how much I’m so over summer weather because I’m itching to wear boots (my favorite footwear) again, but one summer shoe style I’m definitely keeping when fall weather finally hits is the caged sandal (heeled, please)! I can’t exactly pinpoint why, but I completely fell in love with the caged heel look this year. Especially in black, the shoe magically transforms an outfit with a stamp of fierceness that just can’t be paralleled by any other footwear style. You’ve seen these Ivanka Trump sandals before on the blog (first debuted here), and they’re easily one of my favorite shoes in my collection that works with practically every outfit.

Other fierce caged sandals that should be on your radar:
Nine West Bridgider Sandals
French Connection Suede Sandals
BCBGeneration ‘Jannu’ Sandal (looks amazing in nude color too)
Steve Madden ‘Immence’ Suede Sandal
Topshop ‘Neve’ Sandal
Louise et Cie ‘Olivia 2’ Sandal
Nicholas Kirkwood Laser Cut Ankle Bootie (very pricey but oh so fierce!)

Top: Express
Dress: Forever 21 (love these prints here and here)
Heels: Ivanka Trump
Bag: 3.1 Phillip Lim for Target (similar)

Photos by Herman