Throwback

I can’t tell you how much I love this look, but it is a color combination that 10 years ago I swore I would never wear again. After Ally was born 15 years ago, I struggled for two years to lose the pregnancy weight. It was difficult because I was still in college and surround by my twenty-something peers and I felt old and frumpy. Rusty and I were desperately poor and buying new clothes was a very rare occurrence. There were times I took hand-me-downs from my mom (she is not a fashion maven) because I simply didn’t have anything in my closet that fit my new mom body.

Two years after Ally was born, at twenty-two years old, I finally got my pre-pregnancy body back after a lot of hard work. Simultaneously, Rusty and I graduated from college, got real jobs and started making a little bit of money! I was finally feeling good and ready to start expressing myself through my fashion choices again. Black and hot pink became my color combination of choice and I wore it on constant repeat. So much so, that I began to hate the combination and swore that I would never wear it again! So imagine my surprise when blush became the IT color recently and I found that I LOVED it paired with black. It felt fresh and new again and I was willing to give it another whirl.

I particularly love the combination for this look, because the skirt is so shiny and feminine and the toughness of the black leather balances the hard and soft elements. If I have learned anything since becoming a mom almost 16 years ago, it is to never speak in absolutes. You never know when life will throw you a curve ball that will make you rethink everything you have ever known. So this is my older, wiser throwback look. And I’m grateful for the excruciating curveballs that life has thrown at me for making me the older, wiser version of me wearing this look.

All the ❤︎,

Nicole