Vanessa’s Personal Style: The Little Black Dress

You know I hate black, but with the right texture, details and added accessories, the little black dress can be revived. Pictured above is a little number I discovered at a clothing swap. It had everything I needed from a black dress with it’s eyelet fabric and embellished hem. The only thing missing was the fit. When I first picked this dress out of a pile, it was a size ten and it reached my knees, but I saw through it’s potato sac appearance. I took the tag-less dress (I think it was homemade) to Maria Louise at Sante’s Tailoring. Taking in the sides was easy, but the hem was a touch trickier. In order to keep all the frills through the hemming process, we needed to create a seam where there wasn’t one, hidden underneath the top frill.

Once we chopped the dress, I added my Sex And The City studded belt to make the dress less conservative, crackle silver heels, and art deco earrings with a hint of green for flavor. I finished the dress with a silver purse I recently bought at La Loupe Vintage. I love this look for birthday parties and evenings out downtown. Last weekend, my plans veered dramatically and I ended up wearing it to a dive bar where a boy in cut off shorts said I looked very classy. Well, thank you young man, thank you very much.

Photos by Robin Dayley