Away From Blue | Aussie Mum Style, Away From The Blue Jeans Rut

I'm thrilled I reached 30 wears with this cute tropical floral print shift dress. Tee dresses are such a staple for me in my wardrobe, and this one always gets compliments. It's such a lovely print!

30 Ways To Wear: Tropical Floral Print Tee Dress

This is a fun dress, and with all the different colours, from the green background to the colourful tropical floral print, it's really easy to find pieces to wear it with in my wardrobe. It has the added benefit of being a nice light tee dress, perfect for spring, autumn and summer in Brisbane, it's one of those pieces I find myself reaching for fairly often. I have layered it up a little for cooler weather too, but the warmer weather is definitely when this gets worn the most.

I like the grey contrast sleeves - it has a grey panel on the back too, which makes it really easy to wear as you just focus on pairing things with the fun bright print and the rest is a muted neutral.

Cost Per Wear

While I have reached 30 wears on this dress, it's not quite at a dollar per wear goal so many people aim for. I bought it online from The Iconic back in September 2014, and with a discount code and it being on sale I snapped it up for $39.98. They had the same print in a shirt and I deliberated between the dress and tee, rationalising the dress was the better buy as I could wear it as a top too, which I have done a few times. So versatile, and it's currently at $1.33 a wear, with a lot of life left in it and a permanent place in my wardrobe. It may have gotten very little wear in the breastfeeding years, but I've certainly made up for that now with how often I reach for it.

Here are the 30 different ways I've worn this dress so far:

Floral Dress with Matching Colourful Handbags

Such an easy way to wear a colourful handbag with a bright dress - just pick a bag that is a similar colour to one of the colours in the print! Even if (like the burgundy crossbody bag in the middle) it's not an exact shade match.

Floral Print Dress With Blue Bags

Blue is my favourite colour and I have a lot of blue handbags! When I'm not sure what colour to wear with something, any shade of blue is an easy go-to.

Green Floral Print Dress With Pink Accessories

Pink and green is not a colour combination I wear a lot, but it's fun to try now and then. From a very subtle look with the blush pink sandals, or something a little bolder with the pink crossbody bag, pink accessories look great with this green printed dress.

Green Shift Dress Worn With Yellow

This is another example of matching something colourful to the colour in the print of the dress - the mustard cardigan and scarf, and little yellow crossbody bag look so good with the yellow in the floral print.

Floral Shift Dress Layered To Wear As A Top

I am so glad I bought the dress rather than the tee, as this dress can be worn as a tee so easily! I really like tucking it into skirts as it's a bit bulky trying to tuck it into shorts. It makes this shift dress office suitable if you tuck it into a pencil skirt, especially if you throw a blazer on top.

Layering A Printed Shift Dress

It's not just skirts you can layer this dress with - in the cooler weather I like cardigans, blazers, and of course the ever classic leather jacket to add some warmth to the short sleeved shift dress.

Wearing a Floral Shift Dress With Sneakers

Dresses and sneakers are a fashion staple and something I wear a lot of with my knee injury. I feel I default to sneakers a lot - and luckily this dress looks great with every style I have tried!

Floral Dress and Ankle Boots

Spring means the dresses, bare legs and ankle boots outfit combination is often on repeat! While I don't have a large collection of ankle boots, the different colours of the ones I do have all work well as neutrals with this colourful dress.

What I Bought In March:

thrifted wood and marble bead thrifted necklace with white string
thrifted gold and pastel blue beaded necklace with grey string
thrifted multi strand multi colour disc bead necklace with tassels
thrifted wooden geometric bead necklace
thrifted yellow beaded statement pendant long necklace
thrifted wooden yellow tassel necklace
thrifted silver and turquoise multi strand necklace

thrifted no label black and white leopard print cardigan
thrifted Kmart blue and pink palm print cover up
thrifted no label tropical print tassel cover up

Quite a large haul for my first haul of the year! With the exception of the white denim skirt, which I've been thinking about getting for a while, everything was an impulse buy. That explains all the necklaces!

I had fun browsing the Target end of summer sale with my mum and sister at the start of March. I only picked up two things to try on, both of them skirts, and I decided to buy them both. I thrifted a black denim version of the white skirt from the opshop a of couple years ago and love it, so thought it was worth the splurge on the white one in the Target sale. The leopard print skirt looked really cute and when I tried it on I just had to have it! Perfect for autumn here in Brisbane, I'm also looking forward to when it will eventually cool down and I will get to layer it.

The opshop finds were lucky finds! I'd been browsing their $1 book sale for books for the kids, and while I had a little extra time I checked out the clothes and accessories for myself too. Found one of the kimonos on the scarf rail! I loved the colours and the tassels and I pulled it out to take a closer look when I realised it was a kimono. Whenever I see a kimono in an opshop I add it straight to the basket! The cardigan I couldn't pass up either, although I know it will be a while before it's cool enough to wear it.

The necklaces were a little bit of a crazy buy! To be honest I actually put quite a few back, and just ended up taking these 7 home. Still so many to buy at once.

How I've Worn It:

I have a personal goal of wearing everything I buy at least twice in the month I buy it. It didn't work to curb my purchases this time, but my inability to wear everything twice this month has made me realise that yes, maybe 7 necklaces is too many to buy in one go. At just $2 each though, I couldn't resist!

The cardigan I have not worn, as I expected, as it's just not been cool enough, it's been a hot autumn here in Brisbane. I know it will get more wear when the weather cools though, and I've been looking for a printed cardigan for a while.

The kimonos I was sure I'd get two wears from - I do love a good kimono! I have been in the office much more than expected though, and had a few special events this month I'd pre-planned outfits for I wanted to wear, so I didn't meet my wear twice goal with both kimonos, although I do have plans to hit 2 wears with them this weekend.

The white denim skirt, being worn 3 times this month, was definitely the most worn buy of March!

Yearly Fashion Spend for 2023 So Far:

Since I hadn't bought anything in January or February, the March spend is the only amount added to my yearly spend so far in 2023. The skirts from target were 50% off, and the necklaces were $2 each, so my total comes to $52 spent on fashion so far this year.

And in keeping with my fashion goals for 2023, the majority of my purchases this year have been pre-loved, thanks to that awesomely productive opshopping time!

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