As a Style Guru, I’m constantly looking for new trends to try out in my own wardrobe, both as I search on campus for new Fashionistas to feature in posts and through social media and blogs that I follow online. Recently I saw photos of Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario at an event on Snapchat wearing an outfit that featured a sleek black cape over a dress. I immediately loved her outfit and the sophisticated vibe that the cape added to it, but never envisioned myself wearing anything similar. A few weeks later, I was shopping and saw a black cape in a similar style to the one she had been wearing, and decided to try it on, just for fun. Surprisingly, I really liked the style on myself, and ended up purchasing it. Since then, I’ve been saving the cape until I found the perfect outfit and occasion to wear it to.
Apparently, I decided that class was that “perfect occasion” mostly because I couldn’t wait to wear the piece and why not look your best during lecture, am I right? I paired my cape with a maroon sleeveless top that has a bit more of a flowy shape to offset the very structured, blazer-like feel of the cape. Besides that, I wanted to keep my color palette pretty limited, and kept the rest of the pieces in my look black. For pants, I chose my favorite pair of distressed black skinny jeans, adding a little bit of edge to the outfit and making it a bit more casual. To finish the look, I cuffed the jeans and wore a pair of pointy-toed black booties that have just the right amount of heel to dress up the outfit but still be comfortable to walk to class in.
After playing around with pairing my cape with other items to create this look, I found that there are several ways that I can mix and match it with other items in my wardrobe. It’s a great piece for dressier looks like the one I first saw Troian wearing, but it can easily be dressed down with jeans for a more everyday look as well. Since then I’ve also seen other fashion bloggers wearing different variations of the cape style and I’m very excited to try incorporating it into more of my own outfits. If you’ve never worn a cape before, I’d definitely recommend trying one on the next time you’re out shopping, you might find that you fall in love with the style like I did!
