Sequins and Things

Today's post for Fashion Friday's displays my picks for New Years Dresses. Good news too, they're all under $50! So you can look good and not have to break the bank while doing it (which let's be honest, most of the money you would have spent on a dress will go towards drinks for the night).

Whenever I think of New Years I always imagine a lot of glitz, sparkles, and sequins. My dress choices are no different. I added some extreme examples as well as some 'tamer' pieces that you can dress up with accessories and jewelry so you can take your own spin on your New Years outfit choice. I hope you enjoy my picks!

Sequins and Things by caseyrosexo featuring a purple tube dress

Let me know what you think and what your New Years outfit will consist of!

I hope you all have a fabulous end to 2014 and I wish you all the best in 2015, I hope it's your best year yet!

Until next time,

Casey Rose

A Night to Remember

I know you all are tired of hearing my apologies, but I am sincerely sorry. Blogging has been put off to the side for a little while simply because as school is coming to an end that means finals! I have been very busy studying for those as well as completing final projects and whatnot in all of my classes. But I promise to blog more during the summer when I have more free time!

I haven't done a Fashion Friday post in a while, but since school is coming to an end I figured I would finally post about my sororities formal that we had a couple of weeks ago!

The Dress

Let me tell you, finding this formal dress was a job in itself. I searched for the longest time to find a dress that was just right. I had been eyeing this one dress on Lulu's for a while but it was almost $200, which I simply could not justify spending for one event. So the search continued. It wasn't until my friend and I were shopping at one of my favorite malls in the area when we came across this prom store. Obviously being in college we had no need for a prom dress, but just for old times sake we decided to go in and look at the extravagant dresses. It wasn't until I wandered over to the sale rack and saw a couple gorgeous bridesmaid dresses. I just couldn't believe how simple and pretty they all were and most for under $100! So, being that the price was definitely right, I had to try them on. I liked them all but there was one that stole my heart. It was a long grey strapless number with a fake sash around the waist that tied in the back. It was beautiful and I couldn't have been happier with my choice, especially since it was only $75 (more than 1/2 of what my 'dream' dress would have cost). Also the color being a beautiful grey really complimented my pale skin tone.

The Accessories

This was probably the toughest part of my entire search after finding the perfect dress. What shoes and jewelry to wear. Given that my date was only slightly taller than me, I didn't feel completely comfortable wearing heels and towering over him. So I opted for my gold jacks. They were comfortable and you couldn't even see them under my dress anyways.

I wasn't sure at first on which jewelry I wanted to go with, given that the neckline of my dress definitely would have worked with a necklace. I decided to just go ahead and stick with earrings so that my dress could be the main attraction and nothing would distract from it. The earrings were difficult to decide on, but I ended up finding the perfect pair. They were a double teardrop mint color with gold hardware. Overall, I think it complimented the grey color very nicely and were perfect for a spring time formal!

(they are the earrings on the left from Francesca's)

The Night

Overall, I had a fabulous time with my date and my friends. It was the perfect ending to a great semester. Enjoy the following pictures from the evening!

 Until next time,

Casey Rose

Dance the Night Away

A few weeks ago we had my sorority's semi formal. It depends on where you go, but for my chapter girls normally wear short, fancy dresses. That really can be up to your interpretation. It can be a cute $20 dress you found from Forever21 or a couple hundred dollar dress from Nordstroms (my little wore her Jimmy Choo's that night if that tells you anything...). Either way girls love dressing up.

Since I ended up going with my ex-boyfriend I decided to buy a dress instead of borrowing one from one of my sisters closet. You've always got to look your best whenever you see an ex right? ;) So I decided to go out and search for something to wear.

My first stop was Francesca's. This is always where I go to first because of two reasons. One, I used to work there and the staff still knows me and my style and can pick out things that I would like without having to sift through all of the racks. Secondly, the shopping center where the store is located has a bunch of other boutiques in it that sell the exact same items. I'm not kidding. I remember one time I was on shift and we had this dress for sale that a customer came in and said she saw at another boutique in the center for double the price. So it is safe to say that Francesca's is one of the more wallet-friendly boutiques in the area.

I walked through the door and my old boss was working that day. I explained to her the event I was looking to find a dress for and she picked this number:

To say I instantly fell in love would be an understatement. It was just the right amount of sexy. It was a body-con dress, but it had a sheer overlay that hid the tight bottom of the dress. The overlay also had a slit that went all the way up to the waist of the dress to show the tight dress underneath. It also accentuated my favorite part of my body - my shoulders and arms. I was sold!

You can find the Benevento Maxi Dress at Francesca's for only $39.99

I decided to pair the dress with these heels. I got these for Christmas two years ago, my mom thought I was crazy to ask for them and that I would never wear them. I won't deny that they do not leave my closet that often, but they are beautiful and they do see daylight from time to time. For example, this night! It was the perfect pump. I love the thick heel because it makes the shoe easier to walk in and I always love to add something that 'pops' to my outfit. Since the dress was simple black and red, I figured I could spice it up with the heel.

  

The only place I found these Sarina Pumps from Steve Madden was on this site called Rakuten. The only size they have available is a 7. However, they appear from time to time on eBay; so if you are really in love, like I was, I would be patient and keep looking.

This picture is before the night when I got home and decided to try on the entire outfit together. You can't really tell from any of these pictures, but I decided to get some black teardrop earrings from Francesca's. I contemplated doing a necklace but decided I wanted to keep my neck clear and just accent the outfit with statement earrings.

I ended up strutting up and down the hall of my house showing everyone who was there exactly what I was going to be wearing that night. The overwhelming amount of approving declarations I received assured me that I had picked the right dress.

Here is my little and I at the venue!

And here we have my friends and I at the house before we left for the venue!

I ended up having a great night and got so many compliments on my dress! It really was worth going out and buying a new dress just for this occasion. And the great thing about this dress is that since it is State colors, I can wear it to just about anything formal I have to go to for my school.

So tell me, what is your perfect outfit for a 'night to remember'?

Until next time,

Casey Rose

What does the fox say?

Confession time. I have this slight obsession with the site Polyvore.com. It is a site where you can search by the type of item you are looking for, i.e. Peplum top, and find tons of different options from all over the internet with what you are searching for. It makes life so much easier rather than sifting through tons of sites and trying to find that exact item. Sometimes the greatest treasures can be found in the most obscure places.

Another great feature of this site is what I have posted below. You basically make a collage of different items throughout the site. I like to make mine look basically like this every time, almost like an outfit of the day that I don't actually own. This is so much fun to mix and match different outfits together, it really is attractive to poor college students like myself just wishing they had endless amounts of money to spend on clothes and fashion.

So I think for any kind of Fashion Fridays/other random days, I will post something from Polyvore if I don't have pictures of my outfit of the day.

Today's outfit was inspired by this fox dress. I'm not sure if you all have heard of that song called The Fox by Ylvis. It started out as this viral video on Youtube and has now hit number 71 on Spotify. Basically moral of this story is I am obsessed with that song. It's actually hilarious and if you have not seen the video I urge you to check it out right now...in fact I will add the video below just so you really have no excuse but to go watch it right away.

HILAR? RIGHT? Just me? Oh, okay, cool guys...

Anyways...back to this outfit. It was essentially inspired by this song. I saw this fox dress on the front page of the polyvore website, thought "What does the fox say?" and then proceeded to think "I need to create an outfit around this dress", and so became this post.

This outfit not only incorporates a fox, but it also is centered around my greatest love: 'hipster' style. I have posted about this before, how I wish I could dress like this but it is simply not going to happen for me. So instead I like to live my life through these collages thinking about what could have been......man that was depressing. Either way, I hope you enjoy my fox dress collage.

What does the fox say? by caseyrosexo featuring cable socks

Until next time,

Casey Rose

Thank God for the Red, White, and Blue

Happy (day after) Independence Day everyone! Yesterday marked the 237th birthday of the USA! 'Merica.

So in honor of America's birthday I thought I'd show you my outfits of the day! (Yes outfits, as in multiple) I had an outfit that I wore to work as well as an outfit I wore to a friend's party. Enjoy!

This is the outfit I wore to work today. The dress is a 'ballet' style dress from Francesca's from a long time ago. Scarf is also from Francesca's, I've also seen a similar scarf from Free People. Belt is from TJ Maxx and shoes are flats from Steve Madden.

My arm candy of the day was my white watch from Michael Kors. The two bracelets are from Francesca's as well as the scarf in the background.

This is my party outfit. The top is old from Francesca's. The skirt is also old from J Crew but they have similar styles, not the same color, on the Factory website. And the shoes are the Silver Navajo's from Jack Rogers.

This is a PicStitch where we saw the fireworks last night. It was in Chapel Hill on the UNC football field. Even though I am a die hard NC State fan and it may have been a little uncomfortable being on Tar Heel stomping ground, it was a nice place to see fireworks.

I hope your Independence day was full of fun and friends! Happy Birthday America!

Until next time,

Casey Rose

Spring (er, Summer) Cleaning

I know its a little late for Spring Cleaning, but hey better late than never, right?

When I moved all of my things home from college about a month ago, it just didn't seem right that I had all of these clothes. I was so certain that half of those clothes I hadn't worn for at least a couple of months.

So tonight I just decided to do it. To go through my closet and get rid of the things that either didn't fit anymore (freshman 15, whoops), or I just didn't wear as much as I should. In reality I thought I would have maybe like 10-20 items - mostly jeans because I had been holding onto jeans since my early years of high school when I was a twiggy little thing. Needless to say, I ended up having to get rid of way more items then I thought I would have.

That's a lot of clothes...

And the great part is that there are places locally that will buy gently used clothes and give you cash for them! Which I can really use after getting rid of about half of my wardrobe.

I know there are a couple of places around where I live and I'm sure there are some near you if you just google it. They are becoming pretty popular with the price of clothing on the rise and the need for staying in style keeping steady. Check it out! It certainly will help your closet and your wallet.

Until next time,

Casey Rose