June | 2015 | cardigans and necklaces

Style Cravings: Fanny Packs by allyson-gabrielle-dollar

Some of you probably looked up at the title and thought I was completely out of my mind…well I promise you I’m not so please bare with me. I’ve been looking back at a few runway pictures and styles and something that I saw reoccurring a few times were stylish fanny packs. This caught me by surprise because I never thought a fanny pack would ever get into style. When I think of fanny pack I see a male tourist wearing sunglasses, sunscreen on his nose, a striped polo, cargo shorts that go higher on his waist than supposed to which is held by a belt, high socks, sunburned skin despite the fact he has sunscreen on his nose, and of course a fanny pack that holds his camera and perhaps even tickets to a certain place. I always told myself I would never be that person who wore a fanny pack everywhere, at least that was till I saw a few of these cute little packs that can not only compliment an outfit, but it can even enhance it!

What I love about these Fanny Packs is that they don’t look like your typical fanny packs. These have cute little belts that hold the pack up instead of some ugly strap. Also the pack isn’t some odd shape that is kept in the front, these look like adorable wallets that are often put off to the side or dangling. I really wouldn’t mind wearing one of these fanny packs because they can conveniently hold things, can make an outfit look cuter, and you don’t have to worry about losing it or getting it stolen if it’s around your waist at all times. I really do hope these kind of fanny packs start coming into style and I start seeing them in stores because I will definitely jump up on this trend. The only thing I don’t like about the fanny pack is the name itself, it just sounds so weird. How about Style pack? Waist purse? I may need to work on a better name to call them.

Recently for Chorus I had to go to graduation and sing as part of a mandatory assignment. I wasn’t too happy that I had to stay till around nine at night on the last day of school but then it resulted on a shopping trip to get the outfit we had to wear. My chorus teacher asked that we wear either khaki pants and a white shirt or we go with a nice simple white dress. We were aloud to wear any shoes and accessories we wanted so that allowed me to have fun and play with making an outfit. I always hear about how hard the hunt for a perfect white dress can be but I was able to find my dress within one day after looking in two stores that didn’t have the dress for me. Almost my entire outfit came from Rue 21, the shoes came from Marshalls. I was kind of glad that singing at graduation resulted in me getting an absolutely beautiful dress which is also perfect for this amazing upcoming summer.

When you look at this outfit you may not see much bohemian because of the jewelry. The dress alone is sort of Bohemian because of the flower print lace and because of how it flows. It’s loose and free and if I paired it up with a dream catcher necklace or a head band that ran across my forehead you would be able to see the bohemian. Instead of going that route I went with a more glitzy side because I love my shiny things. I went with this necklace because it was long and brought in a lot of attention to the top of the dress and kind of added a surprising element since people wouldn’t really expect to take a dress such as this one in that sort of direction. The earrings match the necklace perfectly but what I love about them is how they look like they are floating and not connected to my ear! The bracelets had to have some white incorporated into them because then it would be too much gold. I did the same thing with adding white to the shoes because it added more attention to the outfit and jewelry rather than the feet and it didn’t over power the outfit with more gold. These shoes were very comfortable for having a small heel on them. I was able to walk around all day without feeling any foot pain! I was able to look glitzy with a dash of bohemian without walking around as if I was a new born horse trying to stand up for the first time.