Silly me, I missed the date to submit to the March Good Buy/Good-Bye Book: Purple & Periwinkle round-up, but I had selected two rare purple items from my wardrobe that were good buys for me in the last few years. So I will share those today.
First some background: It's odd...I like purple, but it is overall not a color I wear very much, certainly compared to other colors. The deep purple/eggplant color has almost all the harshness of black (on me) but without the versatility, so I consider it an inferior choice to black or charcoal. Mid-dark purple is very similar to wine/burgundy or blue, both of which I prefer. Dark purple makes my hair look yellower when I wear it on top, which I don't necessarily love. So my nice purple blouse and terrifically well-matched dark plum pullover sweater + puffer vest combo didn't get nearly as much wear as they should have. I liked them but I wore them only reluctantly, and I have let them go. For tops and topper pieces, I prefer a mid to light version of purple like lavender or orchid.
I never have had much in the way of print bottoms with dark purple, which is the main reason I'd wear dark purple (instead of a lighter purple or another color) as a top. I do have print tops with a variety of purples, so a dark-ish purple skirt or pants does make sense. I'm also just a fan of the look of an accent color skirt/pants, in part because it's much less common than the accent color top/topper so it looks fresh, different, and more playful/fun while providing a greater sense of variety to my outfits.
I think there's probably also a teensy bit of rebelliousness to my wearing purple pants/skirts since standard style norms advise against women who are pear-shaped or plus size or (horrors!) both wearing saturated accent colors on the bottom as it will "bring attention" to the lower half of the body. Everyone gets to pick for herself what figure flattery tips she wants to heed vs. ignore, but that particular piece of advice always irritates me because it often sounds like they're saying that just having somebody look at the bottom half of my body is the worst thing in the world! Well hah, I'm not afraid of people recognizing that I have a body below the waist.
So here are the two purple pieces I have gotten the most wear from in the last few years. First up is a pair of thrifted ankle pants in a violet color that has just a bit of red in it, so they're Violet but lean toward the Red-Violet area of the color wheel. The only reason I haven't worn them more than I have is that I have been prioritizing items with a higher CPW. I can easily see myself making it to 30 wears with these pants.
Violet ankle pants - thrifted, Lane Bryant/Goodwill - 22W - $4.49 - 10/2018
Wears to date: 10
Current CPW: $0.45
The second piece is this purple (true purple, I'd say) skirt that has a bit of black heathering/marl to the weave. That hint of black has been the limiting factor with this skirt because I have been hesitant to pair it with neutrals other than black or grey. That's really conservative on the color-mixing side, but as I've said before, I find it hard to be laissez faire about mixing black and navy (not denim, but navy), and that's stood in my way with this skirt. However, I'm working on loosening up on that score, so we'll see if I get more adventurous in styling it as I work my way toward 30 wears.
Purple heathered skirt - Liz Claiborne/JCP - 1X - $17.99 - 9/2017
Wears to date: 15
Current CPW: $1.20
For some outfit inspiration, here are 15 ways I've worn the purple pants or purple skirt in my OOTD, covering a range of seasons/weather situations. Hopefully at least one of these looks will resonate with you in some way! (And there are some purple + neutral combos here where you could easily switch out the purple for the saturated accent color of your choice.)
Here we go...
Do you like purple? Do you wear it? What is your favorite shade?
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