Style Diary: I Paired My $27 Birthday Dress With A Marco Hall Cape
Source: Keyaira Boone / Keyaira Boone
I never thought I would say, “I found my birthday dress through a random Instagram ad,” but life comes at you fast. I was procrastinating when I should have been writing, and a sponsored post I had seen before popped up on my timeline. It was an ad for a Johnny Wujek for JCPenney Sleeveless Fit + Flare Dress. As a plus-size person with a large midsection, I love this silhouette. It always makes me feel comfortable.
The first time I saw it, I knew it would be flattering with just enough oomph to be a fit for my upcoming Christmas Eve birthday without echoing my last two birthday dresses. I had done sequins two years in a row. I was determined not to do it for a third year. The corseted dress was just short and voluminous enough to be a showstopper. It was a deep emerald green. Ribbons tied the shoulders together. You could opt to make small or large bows with these ribbons. I immediately began pairing the dress with the pink satin flats I got from Amazon a few years ago in my closet. I’m not an AKA, but I love pink and green. I went to buy the dress, and my vision was disrupted.
Because, as usual, a major retailer didn’t have my size listed.
Snatching A Birthday Dress Steal
Then, a few weeks later, the dress appeared in my feed again. But this time, a size 24 was not only listed, it was in stock! I bought it immediately so it would not go out of stock again. Originally, the dress was priced at $99; by the time my size was available, it dropped to $27!
This was remarkable for a dress that was constructed so well that I didn’t need a bra. The one complication was the zipper. The dress had a hidden zipper, but it kept snagging when I would try the dress on, so I had it replaced with a heavy-duty zipper. This was a simple, cost-effective solution. I plan on doing it again in the future.
Spotlighting The Culture
The next step was to find outerwear for a winter night out in New Jersey. My partner told me he was taking me to dinner the Saturday before my birthday but he didn’t tell me where we were going. The only information that I had was that we would not be going to New York City and dealing with traffic from tourists trying to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. I turned to Marco Hall for a cape that would compliment the hot pink flats.
Hall is a Black designer from Newark, New Jersey, with a commitment to sustainability. His studio on the historic Halsey Street always has the cutest outerwear! Many of his pieces are reversible and they are all comfortable. I wore his clothing to cover ESSENCE Fashion House for HB and to interview Spike Lee. I try to rock a Black designer for every major occasion in my life. His cape made me feel beautiful. It helped my birthday dress feel like a big reveal.
I opted for a reversible cape with a quatrefoil-inspired print. I wore the predominantly pink side to pick up the vibrancy of the shoes and bought a pink satin bag from T.J. Maxx to match.
Securing The Face Card
For beauty, I opted for a professional from StyleSeat. They are my go-to when I haven’t had the time to book with one of my favorite artists. I usually go all out with a “birthday makeup” style eye shadow but this time I wanted the green liner on my waterline to be the only bold color. It was the exact shade of my dress. Doing my brows is not an everyday occurrence for me, so I requested a very soft brow. Nothing annoys me more than getting a super sharp eyebrow and having that stand out against my other pictures. I like to keep things elevated instead of extra in that respect.
Everything else was kept pretty lowkey. My lashes were short and wispy. I used NYX butter gloss in Angel Food Cake for touch-ups throughout the night.
I used my go-to stylist for sew-ins for my hair. She refreshed my bob by washing and tightening my 10-inch Indique bundles and giving me a scalp treatment. The look was finished off with soft curls that bounced and behaved all through the night.
Suited Up For A Surprise
I was so glad that I was wearing the exact look I wanted because the romantic pre-birthday dinner I was getting dressed for turned out to be a surprise group birthday dinner!
My partner contacted my three best friends, and they filled my apartment with decorations, white roses, and white poinsettias. He even put the green dress in their group chat without me so that they could match the balloons. They all took me to dinner at Faubourg, an award-winning restaurant in Montclair.
They even asked the server to help me practice my French! It was the perfect night, in the perfect birthday dress.
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