Potential fashion faux pas...averted?

In the past I've made a few questionable clothing purchases, some of which (I think) have paid off, such as the Evan-Picone faux leather skirt I bought last fall. I paired it with a long green sweater, black tights & tall boots and wore it to a comedy club when I was in Kansas City for New Years. I had a lot of fun wearing it...it was a nice combination of festive and fun...not to mention something I wouldn't normally wear, which only adds to the "fun factor"!

I recently made another such dubious purchase that I have yet to wear out in public, so I haven't decided if it will ultimately fall into the epic or the fail category. I am also slightly embarrassed to admit that I bought them...although in my defense, they were over 80% off (org. $88, on sale for $15).

Ok...here is goes. (clears throat) My name is Katie...and I bought a pair of faux leather pants.  


Allow me to introduce you to the Speedwagon Berlin Burgundy Skinny Jeans by Rock and Republic from Kohls. They're treated to be leather-like and are pretty darn convincing. I ran across them on the clearance rack (note: the black version is on sale for only half price, so still $44!) and decided to try them on for laughs...but then really liked them!





After buying them I started wondering, what the heck am I going to wear with them? Or to what event? I'm hoping to find another concert to attend this fall, since I already have an idea of what I want to wear to the Michael Bublé concert on September 13th - either the black Lillian dress from eShakti that I reviewed back in May or a black and white polka dot dress from White House|Black Market. I figure for a Bublé concert it would be better to lean 50s than rocker. 

Thanks to Google (as usual), I found some good ideas on how to outfit my unusual pair of burgundy denim...with some variations being necessary, due to my personal wardrobe constraints.

I own a pair of brown suede Kelly and Katie boots very similar to the Edith boot (mine are no longer available) and another low heel, plainer brown suede boots that would go well with them.

So boots...check.

I'm not a big fan of beige...doesn't look great with my skin tone...but I do have a dark brown long-ish sweater. And a cream, flow-y one. Ok, I think I've got that covered too.

Accessories, you ask? Pfft...I'm a big jewelry fan, so I'm sure I've got that covered. A Fossil key on a brown leather strap or any number of my long silver necklaces will do wonderfully.

One potential outfit figured out. Check.
 
Another classic option also came to mind...the brown suede boots, long white shirt (collared or not) and a jeans jacket. Maybe a multi-layer silver necklace and hoop earrings. Simple. Clean cut. All items I own. Perfect. :)

I also saw some examples of leather (or faux leather) pants paired with booties. That peaked my interest, because I have a pair of Guess black leather booties I bought a couple years ago (on super clearance...I got them for about $13!!) and have never had a chance to wear them. Perhaps they will go nicely with my new pants!

In my search for good leather legging ideas, I ran across a couple fun blog posts on the subject. What I'm wearing: Leather Leggings had some good tips (which, should I follow them, rule out wearing my black booties...boo) and a Yahoo!Voices page called How to Wear Leather Pants and Latex Leggings offered some helpful suggestions as well. Mamamia.com posted some examples of celebrities in leather pants in their article "Would you wear leather pants?" and while some of them pulled them off quite nicely (including Gwyneth Paltrow & Jennifer Aniston,  no surprise there), some of them are certifiable tragedies (second Rihanna picture).

Still a risky fashion choice...but hopefully I'll have an occasion to try them out and see how it goes! For better or for worse, if/when I wear them, I promise to post pictures to memorialize the event! :)


~ Katie