Last night was one of my closest friends 40th Birthday, and we helped her celebrate by joining her for a delicious meal at Chloe’s on the Parade! Yum!

I wanted to wear something special, however most of my existing (winter appropriate) cocktail dresses have been worn recently.

Normally I would dash off to North Adelaide, Town or the Parade to find another dress, I tend to do this for a few reasons, it is often cheaper to buy one dress, than pants/skirt and a top, and as a shorty, dresses tend to fit me well and don’t need alterations!

Consequently I have a large collection of dresses, and not very many dress pants, skirts or tops. These items would be a lot more useful in my wardrobe then cocktail dresses, as they can easily be mixed and matched, dressed up and down, for the evening, the office and the weekend!

So instead I had a bit of a think about what I already had in my wardrobe and with this mental list in my head, I went shopping.  Whilst looking around French Connection I spied my leopard print drop crotch harems that I purchased there a few weeks earlier, these would be a great start, and would definitely take out the guess work as I could try the tops on with the pants. I decided on a simple black tank, not only did this look great, but I had been on the look out for a good quality dark tank, it had been on my ‘want list’ for a while.

FCUK also had this fab statement necklace (25%off too) which dressed up the top and I knew I would get loads of wear out of.  The best thing was a tank and a necklace are pretty inexpensive items.

I knew I had these Nine West tan heels with buckle detail at home and plenty of clutches, so all I needed was a jacket.

Harem Pants like this suit a cropped jacket, not wanting to spend too much money I popped over to Zara. Sure enough they had this cropped jacket for $100! Another item I will get loads of wear out of, especially for work! Perfect!

Not only did I look and feel great last night, but now I have some more great staples in my wardrobe, that I will get loads of wear out of, all for the price of one cocktail dress!

Oh and if you are wondering why I am holding up ‘#ihaveembraced’?  It’s because I have backed ‘Embrace’ the positive body image movement documentary.  You can find out more over at Body Image Movement.