CASUAL STYLE - THE RULE OF FOUR

Photography by Gabriel Lopez

Effortless. Easy. Simple. This is the name of the game for me. Long before I became a mom, it was still all about effortless style. I don't want my clothes to be too stuffy, or too complex. What I need is something that allows me to be pulled together in minutes but flows beautifully. Something interesting but not excessive. Something that looks like I tried without looking like I'm trying (you feel me?). Enter the Rule of Four.

What's the Rule of Four? I'm glad you asked! Simply put, it's this: I start with a great basic - like a LBD, or plain T-shirt & Jeans - then add four pieces for interest. Let's break it down with this look:

The Basic: a LBD that I'm living in this season. Perfect length, super soft and stretchy, and comes in several colors.

The Four: I styled it two ways here. The first three items for both look are the same. Oversized sunnies, a logo belt, and woven slides. Notice how all these items are in the same color family, but have interesting textures. It adds complexity without making it busy. Then, I played around with my fourth piece, using this under $40 packable hat in one look, and my pearl clips in the other.

One other key thing - my "four" are spread out from head to toe, literally. If it was all upper body (necklace, earrings, hair clip), it could start to look like overkill.

I've been leaning heavily on adding new accessories to my closet this season. Some favorites include my oversized sunnies (under $30!), my 10 pack of hairclips for $10 (and two day shipping if you're a Prime member), this $40 packable straw hat, and my new slides from Restricted Shoes. I own several pairs of shoes from them - in fact, three new pairs of slides in my closet were gifted by Restricted. They're always comfortable and reasonably priced.

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