valentine's day is made of ruffles and bows and rothschild coats.

Photos by Neil!

Vintage Rothschild Velvet Bow Coat - Thrifted

Black Ruffle Trim Dress, Black Bow, Gold Heart Locket - Forever21

Heart Tights - H&M

Over the Knee Suede Boots - Urban Outfitters

Narrowing down a Valentine's Day dress theme was a challenge for me this month (some challenge, right?). I had my dress decision narrowed down to three different categories - a lace shift, a rich red, or a more flowery-pink approach. After all was said and done, I went with something absolutely and completely different.

I bought this dress at Forever21 last weekend and I am super pleased with my decision. The dress is a member of Forever's Twelve by Twelve line (which is, hands down, the best part of that store), where you'll find a mixture of classic shapes and trendy pieces (ok.. 90% trendy, 10% classic). This dress, with its ruffle collar and stiff shape, was a little more 1960's mod than I usually wear.. and what a better time to try out something extravagant and new than on a holiday? Especially a romantic holiday. Which is, after all, basically just an excuse to dress up and eat chocolate.

So, here it is! A few days early, I've taken some pictures of my Valentine dress around the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. Like I told you before.. I couldn't wait.

I found the Rothschild coat a few weeks back at Southern Thrift and while it admittedly bears a major resemblance to the coat my sister bought me for Christmas, I'm still not willing to put it in the shop. Both coats fit me well in different ways and so far, that's been enough reason to keep them both in my closet (not that I'm planning on selling the coat my sister got me!). Maybe once I receive the pretty Scottish coat that Meaghan sent me, I'll be able to retire this guy.

Thanks to all of you for your fashion school advice! Some of you guys even went out of your way to send me emails or Etsy messages with your two cents, and I appreciate it all. My decision for now is to take some basic sewing classes.. then I can decide what to do from there. Private classes might be the best way to get some more personal tutelage for any seamstress aspirations I might harbor (speaking of - I ordered the new Built By Wendy book for dresses today!).

Neil and I took some pictures today of some chambray elastic waist trousers I found at Goodwill last Saturday.. more soon!