Oh boy, is my current Instagram color scheme going to love this.

I’ve mentioned several times recently that I’ve been trying to create more color scheme-centric outfits in order to fit in with my attempt to make my Instagram feed more cohesive. This means that I’ve been putting more thought into making my outfits and backgrounds coordinate, which means they have both been more on the monochromatic side.

This then, is the perfect Instagram-friendly purple composition.

My mother would be so proud of me — purple is her favorite color. I think my purple hair color has been one of her favorites of the last two years of hair color changes. 

Purple theme aside, I’m a fan of this outfit just on its structure. It’s very feminine, in a 40’s librarian kind of a way. And if there’s anything I like in terms of fashion aesthetics, it’s quirky vintage-inspired and narrative-friendly vibe. 

Sometimes I fear my outfits lean a little too much on the narrative side, sometimes heading in the direction of costume, but it’s that line that I toe that makes fashion interesting to me. How do you create dramatic and eclectic styles without going gimmicky? How do you remain artistic while still following the trends?

In general, I’ve found that the best way to keep from going too far is to keep the accessories and styling contemporary and conservative, while going more quirky on the clothes themselves. In that way, I keep a pretty decent balance of the bold and the conservative. 

My purple hair, however, is anything but conservative, which sometimes makes it hard for me to look like anything but an adventurous hipster. I have nothing against being an adventurous hipster, but it’s not always the best look for say, a job interview, you know? In general, though, it seems people are starting to fear unconventional hair dye a little less now. You wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell that on Notre Dame’s campus, where I’m actually one of the only people to have an unnatural hair color, but the whole of the US seems to be heading that way.

On a side note, today (the day of posting, April 19 — not the outfit featured here, April 11) is the one year anniversary of L’ensemble du jour! I’m going to be doing a more involved special edition post for the April 19 OOTD blog commemorating the anniversary, but for now, let me just say thank you to anyone who’s bothered to stick around reading this blog for an entire year! And also to thank anyone who just started reading or has been reading any amount of time at all really — it means a lot, as a relatively small presence in the ocean of the Internet, that anyone would stop by and pay attention to me.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at Notre Dame! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Sweater: The LOFT

Turtleneck: Forever21

Skirt: Vintage