W.I.W - #HotListSTL w/ my Daniel & Lade Tassel Loafers

I'll be honest, when the shoes first arrived, I thought maybe I had gotten carried away in the selection of color in the design process.  I looked at the color of the piping and tassels and thought to myself that it was brighter than I probably would normally have gone for, but then I remembered why I chose it.  The ability to select every detail of your shoes means you can go as bold as YOU think you can pull off and quite frankly, these are party shoes so why the heck not?

For their maiden voyage, I put together this outfit for the Hot List STL party - sort of the official kick off to summer in St. Louis bringing together the top restaurants, boutiques, cultural institutions and more.  Everything from ice cream carts serving champagne flavored ice cream to one of a kind pieces of jewelry.

As soon as I looked at the shoes, I knew I wanted to wear white pants and from there, building the rest of the outfit went fairly quickly.  On a final note, this outfit reminded me that it really doesn't have to cost a lot of money to dress well as the whole thing minus the shoes came in well under $100.  No jacking around.  Everything.  Stuff like this allows me to invest in the items that I really want.

Grey Cotton-Linen Jacket x Stafford - $45, Fuschia-Rose Gingham Shirt x Stafford - $15, White Cotton-Linen Pants x Claiborne - $25, Silk Pocket Square - $5, Bespoke Suede Tassel Loafers x Daniel & Lade.

Linen is a fantastic fabric for those days where its so hot that the difference between day and night is hardly noticeable.  However, while I definitely believe in wearing my clothes, the obsessive compulsive in me kind of has a little issue with wrinkles.  So I compromise by looking for cotton-linen blends that allow me the breathability of linen but a bit more wrinkle resistance.