April 2023: Top Faves And Whatevers

Closing out the month with an update on my style remix challenge for April and I’m sharing a few of my top fave “whatevers” that I’ve come across in the past few weeks.

On the outcome of my style remix challenge for April, let me bring you up to speed as to what that is. The five pieces that I’d chosen for this month’s Style Remix collection can be seen worn altogether in the Style Remix: Keep Calm And April On post. The idea for this format originates from my recollection of a monthly feature that used to be published in one of my favorite long-since-gone fashion magazines.

In that feature format, there would be a selection of garments/accessories, usually 5 or so, that had been deemed key pieces to buy/wear that month. These pieces didn’t necessarily all work with each other nor were they specifically foundational key pieces for a capsule. They tended towards having trending and/or unique details. The articles would also a few other styling ideas for each of the pieces and essentially offer up nearly a month’s worth of looks.

My style remixing plan is somewhat similar. At the beginning of each month, I’m sharing the 5 pieces I’ve selected to be in that month’s style remix collection. The basic formula for a collection is a top, a bottom (e.g. pants, skirt, shorts), footwear, and an outer layer (e.g. jacket, sweater, blazer) which make up the core 4 pieces that could reasonably be combined into a cohesive outfit. A wildcard item will be the 5th piece. It could either be worn with the other 4 pieces (e.g. a coat, vest, or accessory), in substitution (e.g. a dress or a skirt), or it might be a duplicate (e.g. second pair of pants or top).

As this was a style remixing challenge, I typically plan to wear each of the pieces at least 4 more times during the month either on their own or in tandem with one or more other pieces from the collection. Each of the items would appear in the look for at least one other post during the month as well. After all, don’t we all find ourselves wearing a favorite over and over again?

The style remix collection for April consisted of these four core items; a denim jacket with a quilted design, a striped button-down shirt, a pair of white denim jeans, and western boots. The wildcard was a sleeveless cream-colored knitted vest.

The boots were the one item out of this style remix collection that I wore the most. I selected them for my footwear because I knew that they would be a good option for The Husband and my trip to visit our daughter in Washington early in the month and indeed they were. A couple of the other items were also selected as they would be good layering options for the cold and rainy early Spring weather Washington is known for.

The photo on the left below was taken on the first day of the trip at Shasta Lake. We stopped here last June on another trip and the whole area looks so different. What a difference the rain and snow that this region (and all of the west coast) got this past winter made. The photo in the center is of my OOTD a few days later and the one on the right is the look for an as not yet (but soon to be) published blog post.

The denim jacket (see Social Media: Marvel Or Mayhem?) and the white jeans (see Blazing Through Spring did not get as much wear this month as I had hoped. Both were worn one additional time besides being featured in an additional blog post but I didn’t get around to taking photos of those OOTDs.

The vest and the striped shirt were the layering pieces that I’d packed for our trip. However, I kind of overpacked so I had a lot of other layering options so the vest only got one wearing in Washington. The shirt has been worn a ton of times since I bought it a couple of months ago but again, I haven’t been so good at getting the photographic evidence. I wore it with the western boots while we were in Washington (see photo above), on the drive home from Washington a week later, and then in my New For Spring post.

For today’s look, I wanted to give my sleeveless knitted vest some Springtime love, so I decided to pair it with a couple of my favorite lightweight pieces. I first wore these wide-leg pants and the linen-blend top during our four-state trip last summer. The vest works well as an alternative to a jacket or full sweater.

At this point, I would normally be sharing my “whatever” top faves. I use the term “whatever” as an indication that my top faves could come from any number of sources and be related to any number of topics. There could be recipes, life hacks, and social media posts among these “whatevers” or anything else that simply caught my attention sometime during the month that I felt was worthy of passing along. I’ve set no limit as to how many I will share, it’ll just depend on what comes my way.

However, with our trip earlier this month and a few other unexpected recent events, I don’t have anything to share so I’ll just wrap things up. As for my Keep Calm And April On Style Remix Challenge, I’ll give myself a B-. The pieces in the collection worked out fairly well even though I fell short on restyling them as intended. Fortunately, I don’t find the requirement to wear each item a few more times during the month to be limiting but rather I find that it sparks my creativity. Where I need to improve is on taking photos of the looks. In my next post, I’ll be sharing my style remix collection for May.

Stay well and let’s keep in touch! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, pin … all options are available. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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Note: This is an unsponsored post; however, some or all of the links to clothing items are associated with an affiliate program where I earned a few cents for each click.

Photo credit: MMPerez and myself