My favourite clothings from this summer

Summer has long been over, and I survived the hot searing rays, the sticky humidity, and smog in the city.  Now the Fall has officially moved in and made itself home.  A cool breeze is the daily norm, and everything feels calmer.  Now is when I wanted to look back and think about the fashion items I had that made the past summer not only bearable (summer is one of my least fave seasons), but also fun!  So here is my Top 5 list:

#4 My Little Distressed Denim Jacket

In Toronto, summer nights are still a bit nippy sometimes.  When going out to night time shows and parties, I always had my distressed denim in a basic fitted cut, not too cropped or long, but just right.  It went with everything.  I mean everything, dresses, shorts, rompers, pants, leggings.  And because denim is cotton, it was super breathable and comfy.  It also looked so classic and effortlessly stylish.  An all purpose cute denim jacket was my jacket staple.

Simple, cute, and easy to use. What more can you ask for in a jacket?
Simple, cute, and easy to use. What more can you ask for in a jacket?

#3 Basic Cotton Romper

I wore my cotton romper consecutively for days during the real hot times this summer.  It breathed, it was cute, it was functional, and only one thing to put on in the morning.  Fashion heaven!  I mentioned this romper before in an earlier entry.  This is the strapless $10 romper that I sewed straps onto to make it more wearable… I truly “heart” it.

Every day during the hottest days in August, I wore this thing. My kid was sick of seeing it. ha ha
Every day during the hottest days in August, I wore this thing. 

#2 Lacey Kimono

Feminine, and pretty, but casual.  An easy cover-up that didn’t add on too much cover.  This was my lace trimmed kimono.   Blush pink with ivory lace, it is neutral enough of a colour to go with everything, and light and airy enough to want to wear everyday.  If only relationships were this easy to coordinate….

The kimono trend is dying down, but this lacey piece was still a cool cover-up during the summer.
The kimono trend is dying down, but this lacey piece was still a cool cover-up during the summer.

#1 Awesome one-piece bathing suit, second hand.

I am not a huge fan of bikinis.  To be honest, I don’t think it is flattering on any body type or shape.  For me, it’s the lack of support/material of a bikini that makes it a flawed fashion item, and just basically an excuse to show skin. And unless your body is “perfect” (nobody has the perfect body though) any gal can basically feel like crap the minute she puts one on and looks in the mirror.  So when my boyfriend sprung a Labour Day beach trip on me with little notice, I scrambled to find a cute one piece suit, while the trends are pushing the “bikini” idea on girls.

For those of you that don’t live in Canada,  swimsuit season ends in August.  After that, you are left with swim wear duds (mismatched or tacky-looking).  I needed the suit soon so I couldn’t turn to online shopping.  I went to every store that sold swimwear, but couldn’t find a cute, affordable one piece. This was a nightmare that plagued me until the day before the trip when I found the cutest one-piece ever at a second hand store in my neighborhood. It was also only $15.00 and an American Apparel brand.  I liked it for its funky colours and simple design, typical of what makes American Apparel clothes great (if they only were more affordable).  What a find and what a miracle!

Such fun colours! Tangerine red, and navy blue, haltered and just super fitted and cute. I really lucked out on this bathing suit find...
Such fun colours! Tangerine red, and navy blue, haltered and just super fitted and cute. One peices don’t have to look matronly.  🙂

What clothing pieces were you most pleased by this summer?  Because this season is so short here, and summer fashion has all the fun pieces, the sun dresses, skirts and shorts…I really have to make the most of it, and I feel I did!

3 summer fashion hacks I just came up with, and am quite pleased with…

If you’re like me this summer, you don’t have an unlimited budget to spend on updating your wardrobe to follow all of the latest trends in depth.  Even with scoring cool stuff on sale, or by settling for the quality of cheaper stores like H&M or Forever 21, they don’t always suffice in delivering the goods you want fully.  There is always compromising and settling involved when trying to stay current while not breaking the bank!  It is hard, but these are a couple of tricks of modifying clothes that I’ve tried with some success.

My distressed denim hack:

The store I work for part-time, Smartset doesn’t have a jean that is distressed enough to follow this season’s line-up of sporting really wrecked-beyond-hope denim, so I can’t use my staff discount there to save.  My solution?  I had a pair of light greyish blue denim from Smartset last year that was just boring.  They had no distressing, and as a full-length light coloured pant,  they just kept getting gross and dirty at the ankle parts because it was a bit long.  This was not stylish or cool.  So I decided to cut them into crop pants and distress them myself.  I cut off the pant legs past the ankle, hand sewed some cuffs in them and then ripped the heck out of them with different denim distressing techniques I learned online.  I ended up really liking the casual undone look of them, and wrecking them gave me some therapy too!  I saw similar jeans to mine at Urban Outfitters later that week.  I was happy to say I may have saved about $70, doing it myself by recycling unwanted old jeans in my closet.

Feeling like I gave these jeans a face lift by cuffing them into crops and distressing them to fit in with current trends...
Feeling like I gave these jeans a face lift by cuffing them into crops and distressing them to fit in with current trends…

My Strapless Romper Hack:

Such a reasonably priced romper, made with cotton and even had cute pockets.  The only down side was the fact that one pull down and I would be exposed...
Such a reasonably priced romper, made with cotton and even had cute pockets. The only down side was the fact that one pull down and I would be exposed…

Summer isn’t fun without a romper. Why?  Because you can do it all in a romper.  It’s a onesie made for adults!  For those of you that don’t know, a romper is basically a dress at the top, but instead of it turning into a skirt at the bottom, it turns into shorts, all in one piece.  It’s great.  Casual, super cute, and really comfortable.  You get to keep cool this summer, by covering just what you need to cover, and unlike short skirts, you won’t show everything when you move.  Rompers however tend to be expensive.  Don’t know why cuz they seem easy to make and don’t require that much fabric.  I however did find one at Forever 21 that was only $10!  Sometimes you can’t even get a tank top for that.  The one flaw with the romper I found was that it was strapless.  All of a sudden, summer care-free behaviour is restricted in this romper by the fear of it being pulled down by accident.  But it being only $10, I bought it, took it home and sewed on halter straps to keep it from falling down, making it much more functional, for no cost at all!  I even like the look of it with straps more than without!

After sewing on two pieces of drawstrings from another top.  Not my strapless romper is functional as a halter romper. yay!
After sewing on two pieces of drawstrings from another top. Now my flawed strapless romper is a functional halter romper. yay!

Jersey Bodycon dress hack:

Jersey (t-shirt material) bodycon dresses are the best basics.  They fit your body well, can be dressed up or down, great for summer, and they hug your body and show off your feminine curves.  They also are an effortless way to make yourself look put yourself together in two minutes. Add heals and you’re ready for the club, wear with flat sandals and it’s a casual day at the cottage.  The awesome thing too is that because they are simple dresses made out of stretchy jersey material, they don’t cost a lot.  I recently snagged a nice floral bodycon dress from the Smartset were I work.  With my discounts and specials, I got it for only $15!  I was thrilled.  I could possibly match that price at some other discount stores, but the ones at Smartset were so much better quality, and the length was not too short.  The only problem was that the neckline I noticed was not flattering.  It barely scooped in the front.  I noticed it scooped a lot more in the back, so what did I do?  I carefully removed the stitches of the label on the back collar of the dress and then wore it backwards!  The scoop back became the front, and well, now I am liking it more.

This was originally the back of this fitted jersey dress.  Just by carefully removing the stitches on the label in the back, I can now wear this with the flattering scoop neck in the front.
This was originally the back of this fitted jersey dress. Just by carefully removing the stitches on the label in the back, I can now wear the flattering scoop neck in the front.

Remaking clothes that you have or got on sale is great.  It saves you a money in the long run and more importantly, you get what you want for the price that you want it.  🙂  Let me know a hack that you have done to your summer wardrobe to make it your own!