Start a Romantic Casual Outfit with a Color for the Thrifty Six

sallyinstpaul
a few seconds ago
6 min read

I have been welcomed into a wonderful group of fashion and lifestyle bloggers that focuses on styling preloved clothing and accessories in themed monthly posts (third Monday of the month). I hope that this showcase of secondhand items and outfits provides some shopping and style inspiration for anyone who is interested in creating great looks in a way that is sustainable for our planet and our pocketbooks.

Today's topic is Romance...perfect for mid-February as many of us celebrate Valentine's Day (including dragons and rabbits, as I shared in this recent post).

I took this month's thrifty style challenge as an opportunity to work through one way of creating an outfit step by step. First, the theme "Romance" immediately brought to mind for me the color pink. So I chose color as the starting point for my outfit with the idea of romance as an overarching influence. This led me to my first selection: a pair of light dusky pink ankle pants that are a secondhand purchase with a feminine vibe (thrifted, Talbots, 10/2018, $5.24, 15 wears, current CPW: $0.35).

Second, I settled on my go-to casual winter outfit formula of sweater + pants + quilted vest + scarf + shoes/boots. This made it easy to make my second selection: a thrifted magenta quilted vest that coordinates with the pink pants and doubles down on the focal color of the outfit (thrifted, CJ Banks, 8/2020, $11.84, 13 wears, current CPW: $0.91). I checked my outfit spreadsheet and determined I hadn't paired the pink pants and vest together in an outfit before...but I thought they went together perfectly.

Plus size outfit idea for women over 40 — OOTD 2/12/26

Next I needed a sweater to finalize my base outfit, but I didn't have a thrifted sweater in pink or a neutral that I liked with in the look. So I went to my digital closet and looked at a spreadsheet that organizes my items by color. (This is the point at which a normal person might look into their physical wardrobe. I tend to use my digital closet instead because it's faster and I can see everything in an organized way.) I was reminded of this grey sweater with pastel stripes (that I had noted as coordinating with "any pink" in my wardrobe) - I liked that it adds a neutral color to the outfit as well as a subtly colorful print (retail, CJ Banks, 7/2020, $9.14, 10 wears, current CPW: $0.91).

With the base outfit sorted, it was time for some footwear. I don't have many thrifted shoes (and none of them worked here for me), and I wasn't in the mood for boots of any kind, so once again I returned to my digital closet and looked at my pink accessories folder, which turned up these bright pink ballet flats (retail, Payless, 5/2015, $13.00, 55 wears, current CPW: $0.24). I loved that these flats created a bookend effect by repeating the color of the vest and that they are a "pretty" style that works well with the romance theme. (I was also absolutely thrilled that we are having a brief burst of spring-like warmth that made a pair of ballet flats atypically comfortable to wear in Minnesota in mid-February!)

The final piece in my outfit formula was a scarf, and though I did consider wearing a grey scarf, that felt pretty blah to me. Looking at my pink accessories folder again, I picked out this wonderful thrifted scarf in 3 shades of pink stripes that I call my "pink Cheshire striped" scarf because it reminds me so strongly of the Cheshire Cat from the 1951 Disney animated Alice in Wonderland film (thrifted, 5/2020, $5.99, 8 wears, current CPW: $0.75). This scarf is more interesting than a solid one but not a "look at me" print mix, and the variegated pinks pull all the pink tones of the outfit together beautifully.

Two women in vibrant outfits stand side by side. Left: runway model in orange, purple, and teal. Right: woman in similar colors, smiling indoors.

With the outfit formula complete, it was time to finish off my look with jewelry. My choice of daily bracelet stack was easy because I have a couple of paper bead bracelet sets that I made to coordinate with the striped sweater and one of them is in the magenta/silver colorway that matches the vest I'm wearing. I filled out the stack with silver glass pearls, dark grey hematite, magenta glass, and magenta wood bracelets (all DIY). {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}

I made life really easy on myself and popped on a pair of earrings that I made to go with the paper bead bracelet set, which I store in the same bag as the bracelets (shown in this post) so they are easy to find and wear. When I make earrings to go with paper bead bracelet sets, I don't usually use the same exact beads as you would for a matched set; I just use beads in the same/similar color palette. For this pair, I stacked magenta and light silver glass pearls with silver spacers in a simple stack design (see design #2 in this post). You can't argue with pearls (real or faux) as lending a touch of "romance" to a look! At the very end, I decided that a long necklace would add some extra interest and shine, so I picked out a silver linked necklace from my silver accessories folder (retail, Fire Mountain Gems, 7/2021, $8.54, 20 wears, current CPW: $0.40).

This may seem like a very structured and complicated way to put an outfit together, but I went from no idea what I was going to wear for the style challenge "Romance" theme to this complete outfit in a matter of a few minutes! For me, the key was going from theme to color to outfit formula; once I had my main color and my outfit formula, it was straightforward to fill in the specific pieces, keeping the theme in mind to guide some of the details.

Outfit plan starting with a color and a theme

Now let's review the romantic outfits that my thrifty friends have styled...

The Thrifty Six:

Emma of Style Splash

"My heart print blouse is my go-to Valentine's Day piece. This was another item I hunted down on eBay for months...and it was worth the wait! Romance is in the everyday things for me, rather than grand, expensive gestures. So to reflect that, I've styled the blouse with jeans and trainers."

Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

“This is Gothic Romance…

Melancholic Victoriana walks the modern runways of Paris, London and Milan.

Vampiric silhouettes fascinate the bright young things of 21^st century fashion.

The sinister aesthetic captures our collective imagination through style, culture and the arts…

Lace layered over satin, a cinched waist, a demure neckline…

…velvets, silks, taffeta and damask in harmonious symphonies of darkness!

‘Romance’ is the T6 theme for February, this is ‘Gothic Romance’, a timeless beauty that will never fade…”

Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

"My crew's theme was to add in romantic details but not be too girly (for some reason, many women frown on that...shocking, I know).

Anyway, my entire look (besides jewelry & purse) is thrifted.

It's hard to see, but I'm wearing a tiara and long gloves...I was influenced by the movie Downton Abbey!!!"

Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

“I'm not romantic at all, and Valentine's Day means nothing to me. And I'm not into the color red either. Haha, but I have a pre-loved red sweater and even red ankle boots, and a red flower brooch too. Well, look, romantic enough for me!”

Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

“Romance to me is red, black, and white, satin and tulle, drizzled with some pearly goodness. Because pearls are believed to be tears of joy shed by Aphrodite, the goddess of love. My black silky floral robe is a recently thrifted beauty and I was very pleased for the chance to dress her up. My red turtleneck and black beaded necklace are also preloved thrift store finds.”

And me...

“For this month's Romance theme, I went all in with a classic Valentine's Day color for a ‘pretty in pink’ version of one of my go-to winter outfit formulas! My thrifted pieces are the light pink pants, quilted vest, and pink Cheshire Cat striped scarf. I wouldn't typically wear ballet flats with this kind of outfit, but I liked the additional feminine touch they added.”

Next month's topic is Necklines...and I already have an idea of what neckline I might feature!

In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers for the details of their thrifted "Romance" outfits and more style inspiration:

Do you like to wear "romantic" colors or styles? What things speak sartorial romance to you? Do you think romantic has to mean dressy, or could you style it in a casual way? Do you have any winter outfit formulas that you wear on repeat?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.