Monochrome Stripes

My mother loves stripes. She must have a dozen or so striped blouses and t-shirts in varied colour combinations stacked up in her wardrobe. I’ve never been a stripy person. I was made to believe horizontal stripes make you horizontally wider, and vertical ones look all too familiar to convict attire.

However, the last couple of weeks have made me change my opinion on this very classy nautical print. It all started a few weeks ago when I was lucky enough to be invited to Dubai’s ultra-glam Ahlan Hot 100 event. This is an annual event hosted by the very popular Ahlan series of magazines in the UAE where they showcase 100 of UAE’s most influential people from trendsetters and business tycoons to unsung heroes and upcoming starlets. Dubai’s most beautiful would be there at the very posh Kempenski The Palm. The invite also stated a dress-code; red, black and white. I presumed it could be any combination of these, and started a web crawl for ideas on what to wear.

No surprises, I came across loads of monochrome prints which looked very polished and sophisticated. But I seemed to be drawn more and more towards stripes.

Monochrome stripes have a fresh, modern appeal to them. What I also like about adorning this zebra-like style is that it can be taken from the boardroom to the party hall, and even to the beach with the right accessories. So began my hunt for the versatile monochrome maxi dress for summer.

I ended up buying this lovely maxi dress from www.ebay.com . It didn’t get here on time for Hot 100 (I ended up in a LBD, red heels and a white clutch combo instead), but I think it will look refreshing for the ‘oh so very hot’ days to come.

I love the vertical stripes; they give an illusion of height. I also love the ruffled top portion, so in trend. And even trendier is the asymmetrical hemline. The jersey material makes it very breathable and wearable in the hot humidity of UAE summers. I think this dress will be a great way to draw attention to my gorgeous new red Mary-Jane shoes from Nine West (yes, I’m currently a sucker for Mary-Janes, more on that in my next post!).

 

Love,

Big Sis.