What I Wore: The Grammys

When John and I made the decision to fly to L.A. for the Grammys, I immediately panicked about what in the world I was going to wear. And that was when I thought I only needed one outfit - HAHAHAHAHA. Turns out, I needed a minimum of two outfits: one for the nominees reception and one for the awards show. I knew I was in over my head and enlisted the help of my friend Anjeanetta, who has YEARS (15?) of retail and styling experience both here and in New York City. She knows me well (we've been friends since college and were roommates in NYC) and knows my style, comfort level and what works for my body.

We started by setting up a Grammy Pinterest board. I pinned some looks I liked and she told me where to start looking, e.g. ASOS, Nasty Gal, etc. Once we had a board full of potential outfits we met over coffee and decided what I should buy. We initially decided I would wear a black dress to the awards and a jumpsuit to the nominees reception. The reception was business casual and the awards were black tie.

Anj liked the idea of me in a floor-length black dress with some kind of interesting detail, and potentially paired with a black, leather motorcycle jacket. Shockingly, this dress existed, and I bought it. Thank you, ASOS. The jumpsuit however, proved harder to find. I didn't want to buy one online without knowing what it would look like on my body, so I went to Target and tried on a few. Meh. There was this gold blazer/black leggings look on Nasty Gal that I loved, so we scrapped the jumpsuit and went with the blazer/leggings look.

Unfortunately, the Nasty Gal blazer was sold out in my size, but I was sure I could find one, so I started hitting the thrift stores hard. My search paid off. I found a gold Calvin Klein blazer in my size and in like-new condition for $8. Then I went to Target and bought a white t-shirt and pleather leggings. This entire outfit cost $38, which is hilarious because the borrowed shoes and purse I wore cost more than my airfare to L.A. True story.

Once I had the two outfits, I went over to Anjeanetta's and she styled me. I don't own fancy lady shoes, so Anj generously, and very trustingly, gave me a pair of Louboutins and a pair of Celine heels, plus a Chanel bag and a vintage Balenciaga clutch. Y'all, I'm not even kidding, I carried all of this on the plane because I was terrified the airline would lose my luggage and I'd owe Anjeanetta $7,000 in accessories.

Side-note on the dress: Anj had me order it in a size 12 (I'm probably a size 8) and have it tailored down. This is not something I would have known to do. Now granted, the alteration cost more than the dress, but it was money well spent. That dress fit like a glove. I got compliments on it all night. No one could believe it was from ASOS. (I used Elegant Alterations in Green Hills.)

I LOVED all of my outfits. They were perfect. I never felt over or under dressed. The Celine heels did amazing things to my legs in those pleather leggings. They didn't even look like my legs. I felt real fancy and real cool. I loved my dress so much. I never even put on the jacket because I didn't want to hide the dress. And aside from having to free-boob it due to an undergarment malfunction, I was totally comfortable, which is hard to pull off not only in black tie, but in an outfit I literally wore from 9:30/10:00am until 2:30am.

Anjeanetta, thank you sooooo much!!!

John is going to kill me for this, but he looked so good!! He wore a suit by Billy Reid, styled by Shelly Colvin. Shelly, girl, THANK YOU!

P.S. I went to the Grammys! Part One.

P.P.S. Seriously, I went to the Grammys! Part Two.