Once Upon a Bust: Best Friends Styling Together, Part Two

 

Once upon a time, I babysat a dress form, and it was much more daring than I. Sometimes, its looks were styled with the help of my best friend, Aly.

One summer I snagged a couple of these frilly empire waist blouses for super cheap at Forever 21, but they were hard to style outside of jeans and shorts. (If you recall, I had the same problem with this empire waist shirt, too.)

Here's the full look, which is a little sloppy in execution. I love the individual pieces--especially the scarf and the shrug (which is a great layer over almost anything)--but the only element that's really working for me is the mix of colors.

Blouse: Forever 21 (old)

Shrug: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted, Unique Thrift Store

Necklace: Forever 21 (old)

Once Upon a Bust: Awkward Layering

Once upon a time, I babysat a dress form, and it was much more daring than I.

The black top is an empire waist from Forever 21 that I purchased the summer before my senior year of high school. (That was eight years ago.) This shirt gets a lot of wear because it has cute lace detailing under the bust and the neckline is flattering.

The one thing that's always bothered me: because of the neckline, this seems to me like a prime layering shirt. Collars belong underneath it! But the empire waist makes dressing tricky. With jeans, it's passable. With skirts, it looks dowdy. Shorts... I really haven't had the heart to try. The undershirt has to be fitted, and ideally, I like it to peek past the hem of the black shirt. It's hard to put together an outfit that meets all of these criteria.

I don't think I'd ever wear this one myself, but the colors on the skirt provided a lot of opportunities for mixing and matching with other tops

Black blouse: Forever 21 (old)

Blue blouse: thrifted, Unique Thrift Store

Skirt: thrifted, Unique Thrift Store

Necklace: belongs to a friend

Fine Form: Antique Store Displays

Some of the best potential bust displays are found at antique stores... but they're seldom for sale.

I spotted this gal at Treasure Aisles Antique Store here in St. Louis, and made the mistake of falling gleefully in love it before noticing the 'display only' sign fixed on her back. I find this situation comes up a lot when I'm browsing for display pieces, and I suppose I can't blame the sellers. If I snagged a decoration this charming, I wouldn't want to give it up, either.