Hope your Spring is off to a great start! The weather is finally starting to catch up with the Season — we’ve had a few nice days this past week and the weekend was gorgeous, which made me feel more hopeful that Winter coats and gloves are a thing of the past (at least for this year!)

As I’m continuing to rotate my wardrobe for Spring, I’m pulling out lots of transitional pieces that work well for those in-between temps when we’re not quite ready to go jacket-less, and adding a lot more color to my outfits as it feels appropriate for my mood. I actually realized the other day that many people in NYC don’t do that and continue to lean on black and dark colors even as the weather changes, and it makes me feel sad. Black just looks wrong in the sunshine 🙁

As I’ve written in my last two posts, I’m celebrating Spring/Summer with the most versatile transitional wardrobe item – the dress, featuring 4 of my favorite recent designs by Julia, the blogger/designer behind the Gal Meets Glam Collection.

A dress is an easy all-year-round wardrobe staple as it can be elevated with shoes and accessories or grounded and simplified with layers. I’s easy to make it feel polished as it’s a “one-and-done” look but it can also take on many personalities depending on what it’s paired with.

In my 3rd Volume of this dress celebration, I’m styling my absolute favorite dress for the Season from the GMG Collecton — this Poppy Plaid Shirtdress.

I absolutely adore the playful yet refined pattern of this dress, as well as the details: the puffy cap sleeves, the elongated v-neck opening, the button-front closure and flirty bow — and of course the pockets! The dress has the perfect length at just above the knee – which makes it equally easy to wear with flats/white sneakers and heels or wedges (and even light-colored booties). You can also unbutton some of the bottom buttons to make if feel more chic.

I paired the dress with my new AG Robyn Denim Jacket from Shopbop [the color is called Blue Cove”] and Tory Burch Annabelle Bow Slides I bought last season [similar styles linked below]. I kept the look simple with my Divine Alignment Chakra Necklace by Satya – that nicely repeated the colors of the dress, and finished it with my Louis Vuitton Wristlet in Damier Azur (that actually came together with my LV Neverfull — two for one) and tied the GMG scarf around it for a double-bow look. 

I hope this inspires you to replace some of the darker colors in your wardrobe with brighter shades for the Season! One of the principles I used to curate this outfit is called “linking” — which essentially means telling a story with your pieces – and here are 2 easy ways to achieve it:

1) Use the main piece in your outfit as the inspirational palette — in this look, it was the dress. I leaned on the colors of the print to coordinate my jacket and accessories.

3) Repeat 2-3 colors of the main piece in smaller quantities throughout the look to make it feel coordinated and purposeful. In this case, I took the blue from the print and wore the jacket in that color, the yellow for the shoes and the necklace perfectly coordinated with all of the colors in the print.

I would love to see some looks this outfit might inspire from your wardrobe – please do share them on instagram with #ModnitsaStyle so I can repost them on my stories!

Photography by Leslie Moncada