Vegas Attire

So I'm going to Las Vegas this weekend.

Hooray!

My cousin KH and I will be flying there tomorrow afternoon and will be there through Sunday evening. She is a senior in college (translation: legal) and newly single so we have some fun plans in mind, but I'm also hoping for quality time with my pillow, a visit to the spa, yoga by an infinity-pool (just seems very Vegas, right?) and some leisurely book-reading and brunching.

I am selective about the way I like to plan things and what I actually take time to plan. I like to plan outfits and menus most of all. I put things together in my head so that I don't destroy my room every morning picking out something to wear for work. I successfully make a mess anyway, mostly with the 11 pillows on my bed that end up on the floor, but that's neither here nor there.

I began my Vegas wardrobe planning earlier this week because I've been to Vegas before, but only for work. Based on my experience, work clothes and Vegas clothes may as well be opposing forces. Business professional does not overlap- in any universe- with lucite platform heels that have goldfish swimming inside of them.

I'm a pretty modest person. I'm 25 now, and a frayed denim mini-skirt circa 1998 Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't really scream "I take myself seriously" now does it? I also don't believe that modest has to translate to homely. Modest can be sexy, it's just a different kind of appeal.

When I looked at what I wanted to pack, it ended up being various forms of black, gray and white. Black blazer, black cardigan, white cardigan, gray tank, white tank, black boots, dark jeans etc. This completely works for me on a daily basis and after all, it's still January. I needed something fun, something different from my every-day staples to wear, and after taking stock of my closet a bit better, I noticed that I completely prefer color in accessories. I love a bright pink clutch, my ubiquitous blue wrap or my quilted yellow Tory Burch Reva flats. I had good choices but still wanted one new dress or piece to wear for the trip.

I started looking and most everything of color that I found was not my taste, for example the neon-orange strappy cork-wedge heels with metallic studs all over them which made me want to run in fear back to J.Crew to hide behind their ruffly cardigans and tailored City pants.

After that initial defeat of finding only offensively bright items, I remembered a dress I had spied right after Christmas. It was an unusual Phillip Lim 3.1 shift that was colorful in a striking way. I remembered wishing at the time that I had a New Year's Eve party to attend that would be worthy of such a number.

{Insert Vegas trip.}

I located said frock and ended up purchasing it, and the print reminds me of a Jackson Pollock painting. It is perfectly modest-sexy; the pièce de résistance to my Vegas wardrobe.

Pictures will come- since we all know that what happens in Vegas ends up on the Internet.

Alan Garner: Can I ask you another question?
Lisa: Sure.
Alan Garner: You probably get this a lot. This isn't the real Caesar's Palace, is it?
Lisa: What do you mean?
Alan Garner: Did, umm... did Caesar live here?
Lisa: No.
Alan Garner: I didn't think so.

-The Hangover, 2009

Image found here