LOFT Holiday Outfit Series & Sweet Velvet Petites Sale

I wanted to do a quick post about the holiday outfit series that fellow blogger Tara of Mix and Match Fashion posted this week (first post starts here). For the past 4 days, Tara featured some of her favorite bloggers in holiday ensembles containing LOFT items. Tara is a teacher (a rather stylish one, may I add) who loves LOFT. As many of you may already know, LOFT offers a 15% discount for teachers on every purchase, possibly combine-able with sales. You just need to apply online or in-store for a savings card.

I haven't shopped at LOFT for a while because I'm slightly sized out of their dresses, skirts, and pants. However, I did score 4 of their awesome long cardigans a while back which fit great. Working with what I have, this was the best I could do for "festive":

Dress: J.Crew paisley dress as seen here, sz 0P altered

Cardigan: LOFT V-neck long cardigan sz XXSP

Skirt: Sweet Velvet Petites Grace Pencil Skirt sz XS, pinned back

Pumps: Ann Taylor Perfect Pumps sz 5

I love the thought of layering a dress under a skirt to make it more versatile. However, the ensemble I have here just doesn't work. My dress is empire-waisted and the skirt is low-rise. Ideally you'd need a fitted dress that tucks in nicely, and a naturally high-waisted skirt. To be attempted again in the future...

This Sweet Velvet Grace Pencil Skirt in XS sits lower on my hips, which was surprising because an earlier S.V. item I tried on in XS was quite snug. I prefer my skirts to come up to my natural waist, but this could work for others who are a little bigger than me, or for those who prefer skirts to sit on their hips. I think low-rise may be the intended style for this skirt, as seen in the stock photo.

I have a full review planned for this Sweet Velvet petites skirt later, where I will touch more on fit and quality. I wanted to mention now that they are having 40% off their entire online store until December 31st, 2010, with code CHRISTMAS. Kelly and I both tried on the Audrey Dress a while back, which fits very tiny in sz XS.

*Disclosure: This skirt was gifted to me by Sweet Velvet Inc.