When I originally decided to put together my own outfit challenge, I thought maybe one or two people would be up for joining in. I know a lot of us have had blogger’s block recently, and sometimes all you need is a little push in the right direction to be inspired again. It seems like the challenge was the push quite a few people needed – I’ve had dozens of people show interest. As I post this, I’ve had a handful of (brilliant) challenge entries in already, and I’m hoping that there are a few more to come. You officially have until around the 20th to get your post up, but I’ll probably put together the final post over the weekend so if you’re a day or so late don’t worry – I’ll still make sure you’re included. I’d love to see some more entries!

So how excited am I about the first Ways To Wear Challenge, the Little Black Dress?

…um, this excited!

After going on about how much you can accessorize a LBD in my original post, I actually ended up keeping mine quite simple. I have a tendency to overdo it with the accessories, so I deliberately tried not to do that this time. I went for a heavy jersey peplum dress with an above knee hem and inch-wide straps. I know a lot of people are tired of the peplum but I’ve always loved them – they draw attention to the waist but hide the tummy – what’s not to love?

The dress is one of my finds from my recent trip to the USA. I bought it in Neiman Marcus Last Call, it’s an Alice + Olivia design from the ‘To Work’ range, though I don’t think it’s at all work appropriate – it’s a bit too short and low-cut for that on me. I paid about $80 for it, which is a far cry from the original $250+ price tag. It’s definitely not worth the latter, but it is a lot better made than the cheaper ones I’ve tried. My only bugbear is that the peplum sits a tiny bit high on me. I usually add a belt to keep it from riding up but with the accessories I chose for this, I thought a belt would be overkill.

Speaking of accessories, I teamed the dress with my new Zara studded and leopard print sandals, possibly my favourite buy of the year, and a necklace I found in the Primark sale for £3. The clutch bag is by Coast but won’t be in stores for a while (it was in the press day gift bag). Here are some detail shots…

I hope everyone who’s taken part in the challenge so far has enjoyed getting to grips with the LBD. There are some prizes this month so if you haven’t yet taken on the look, do so in the next couple of days and send me the link and I’ll make sure you’re included! All the details can be found by clicking here.