How to Style a Denim Skirt: 30 Wears - Part 1

The light teal sweater + denim skirt outfit I shared in my last post brought that denim skirt up to 30 wears! So it's time for a review of how I've styled this skirt. As always, a thank you to Mica for inspiring me with her 30 Ways to Wear series.

OOTD 3/31/23

This Levi's brand denim skirt has been in my closet for a while...since July 2018. It's a very traditional style of "jean skirt" that hits just above the knee. I purchased it using Kohls Cash so my out of pocket was $0. I typically like to spread out my savings from using rewards across the items I've bought so that I don't have clothes with the strange $0 cost, but I didn't do that with this purchase.

Denim skirt - Levi's/Kohls - 22W - $0 (Kohls Cash) - 7/2018

Total wears: 30

Cost per wear: n/a

Additional wears to reach $1 CPW: n/a

Additional wears to reach $0.65 CPW: n/a

Denim skirts are one of those cyclical trends that keep popping up, and honestly the trend cycle is so fast that I don't even bother paying attention to whether they are deemed "in" or "out" by the media. A neat, simple denim skirt is a classic for me. But the denim skirt is having a fashion moment in 2023, so now's a good time to pull yours out of the closet and see what you can do with this highly versatile item.

I really like wearing this particular skirt in cold weather with tights/leggings and boots as a fall/winter/early spring alternative to jeans for work Fridays. In fact, I was wearing it on St. Patrick's Day 3/17/20, just before our office closed due to the pandemic. I didn't wear the skirt at all during the pandemic, but then this February, I brought it out of the closet again and wore it 6 times over the course of February and March (even though I am still on WFH). That's even longer than the hiatus of the orchid ballet flats I dragged out of my closet earlier this spring. As with the ballet flats, I knew this skirt would have its moment again and I wasn't at all concerned that I was violating the (completely arbitrary!) "if you haven't worn it in a year, get rid of it" advice.

I featured my most recent wear of this skirt above (and in detail in my last post), and I am sharing the other 5 OOTD from February and March of this year below. Let's get to it.

My first outfit is the skirt's February debut after its long pandemic hibernation, and I chose a blue ombré sweater and blue polka dot scarf with brown tights and boots. I wore the DIY bracelet set I made specifically for this sweater and supplemented it with a DIY brown/gold bead bracelet to pull out the subtle brown stripes in the bracelet with swirl bead. I also wore brown leather earrings to help bookend the brown boots.

OOTD 2/9/23

My second outfit features a winter modern twin set of a cowlneck top and quilted vest in peacock blue. I once again used the "draped scarf with end knots" technique on the scarf and added a bold silver necklace that really makes the silver zipper on the quilt pop. The scarf has black outlining around the flowers of the print, so I chose black tights + boots plus a peacock/mint DIY bracelet set that I supplemented with a DIY black bead bracelet.

OOTD 2/17/23

My third outfit is a bit like a crayon box exploded but sometimes in the depths of winter, I just need all the color to get me through and I get experimental. It's funny, the combination of this bright cobalt blue sweater and the rust vest is one that I had vetoed in my Rust Color Combos: Blue & Green post last fall, though I had said that "it's quite possible that a well-chosen third color (or print) could bring [it] into greater harmony." I'm not sure whether the rainbow striped scarf (tied using Method #1 in this post) and colorful bead bracelet stack were entirely successful in doing that, but this outfit was an antidote to the winter blahs.

OOTD 2/24/23

My fourth outfit returns to a more simple color palette and the same draping scarf with knots tie of Outfits 1 & 2. I layered an olive sweater vest over an aloe/sage pullover sweater and repeated the colors in my tights and ankle boots...proof of the "muted green for St Patrick's Day" outfit idea I shared last month. I like the contrast from the ivory scarf, which has soft stripes in colors like green, pink, yellow, and black. I picked up the green and pink from the scarf with the DIY bead bracelet stack (set 2 in this design a bracelet set post). I like how the varying shades of green blend together in this outfit.

OOTD 3/17/23

I liked the "one color plus the denim skirt" effect so well that I did it again in my fifth outfit, this time choosing burgundy as my dominant color. It's a nice variant on the full head-to-toe monochromatic look, which can be a bit much at times, and since denim is the ultimate neutral, it works with any neutral, semi-neutral (colored neutral), or accent color.

OOTD 3/24/23

Picking a single rabbit to coordinate with all of these outfits is tough because live bunnies don't come in denim, so instead I chose a Palomino rabbit in a warm beige color ("golden") that goes with my beige carpet...and with his own beige carpet! The Palomino rabbit considers the leap while a Dutch rabbit looks on. Fortunately, the Palomino's human prevented him from jumping out and injuring himself! While he has his ears spread out like the headpiece of the Flying Nun, I don't think it would have worked out well for him.

Palomino rabbit and Dutch rabbit at the 2016 Minnesota State Fair

I noticed that my outfits here all had matching tights and boots in brown, black, olive, or burgundy. Only my grey and navy tights/boots combos are missing...but I am confident they will appear in Part 2 of this post, in which I will be sharing many older OOTD featuring this denim skirt from across the seasons of the year...including bare legs season!

Do you own a denim skirt? What kind of denim skirt do you like...or dislike? Do you ever have items hibernate in your closet for a while then come back into rotation again later? Do you follow the "if I haven't worn it in a year, purge it" advice?

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