This post contains items I received for review, but all opinions are my own.

Back when I wrote my Beauty Blogger goals for 2017, there was one thing I wanted to add to the list, fashion & style posts, but I didn't really feel confident in how to do it. I'm not a particularly stylish person, and I'm not GREAT with posing or photos, but I wanted to get myself out of my comfort zone. But OBVIOUSLY I chickened out and didn't do it all year. That is, until a really fun opportunity came my way with ChickAdvisor and Simons. My mission? With a $100 gift card, I had a list of best-selling items from their TWIK line to choose from, and I had to make an outfit from each and review the clothes.

Needless to say I ended up buying WAY more than the two things required, and had a surprising amount of fun employing my boyfriend as my photographer as we attempted to get SOME shots from our very first fashion shoot together! Things I learned by the end? I NEED TO POSE WITH PROPS as I never know what to do with my hands, and I need to SMILE MORE and smirk less. Now go through my carousels and you'll see what I mean.

Look #1 - Dusky Pink Crushed Velvet Dress

The crushed velvet dress is a very versatile and super comfortable dress that can be worn alone, or accessorized to be a bit more business-like and professional. I paired it here with a burgundy short-sleeved blazer from Torrid so I could make a work outfit that was a little more fun, but it also looks great on its own! On my feet I have a pair of champagne-gold flats from Call it Spring that I love to pull out when I need a pop of sparkle but still want to stay flat-footed, and my necklace is from the now-defunct Opera Shop at the Four Seasons Centre. (RIP.)

So this dress was interesting because I don't usually go for straight dresses with no tailoring/seams/pockets like this, I usually stick to things that add dimension to my body instead of just letting my body be the canvas. And...I liked it a lot? I was debating with the size smaller than this, but the Simons website has a SURPRISINGLY ACCURATE Fit Finder which recommended sizes for me in all of the things I ordered, and was only off on ONE of the 7 things I purchased (and it was a satin dress so that is understandable.)

Look #2: Red Utility Check Shirtdress

I love the cozy, casual nature of this dress! It's a super vibrant colour and after experimenting with a few pieces, I found it looked the best with neutral or muted colours like black or grey. Anything else would look too busy and detract from the dress. For this look I paired it simply with my steel grey Blundstones to add a bit of that outdoorsy feel to it, my grey Danier moto jacket (RIP Danier!), and a Buffalo Bone Arrow Necklace from BlackIris Design, a local Toronto jeweler who I love!

This dress seemed a slam dunk for me at first, but proved trickier to wear and style than I thought. I always run a bit large on button-up shirts, if they fit at all, and a button-up dress? I was just asking for trouble with this order. But I used to have a wool-blend flannel dress like this a few years ago and haven't found anything this close since! The dress did fit in the bust but had a 'gape' between the button-holes so I had to use a discretely hidden safety-pin and will probably add velcro or something to it or a more permanent solution. It was also a bit longer than expected and the pockets were closer to my upper thighs than my hips, but overall it's a fun item that I will definitely be wearing this season.

As a final thought, I ended up buying quite a few things from Simons and had to return one item by mail, and their return process was SO EASY. Basically I went back into my order online, clicked the things I needed to return, printed the generated return-label codes, slapped em on a bubble envelope (I was returning something small) and dropped it off at the post-office. In about four days upon receipt of the package, the refund was mine! I'm definitely going to be buying more from Simons online now that I know how easy the returns are, and maybe you'll see another post like this in the future. :)

Which look was your favourite? Let me know in the comments!