Tuesday, February 09, 2010

That Darn Poncho

A week ago, during my 'Must Have Monday' of the week I mentioned that I have lately felt this un-explained desire to purchase a poncho. I blame much of this on the weather, as the idea of wearing a thick blanket all day is hard to resist. I had originally spotted this exact poncho at Forever 21 during the Christmas season. At the time it was on sale for $5 and just last week I saw it on their website on sale again, this time for $7.50. My mother had received this lovely item for Christmas. I thought I would bring it up last week during dinner to see if she loved it as much as I thought I would. I half expected her to announce that she never takes the item off, which would have prompted me to quickly run to my local store and buy one of my own. If my mother ,loves it, I will love it and frankly no online review is better than that from a real-life person. To my surprise she announced, " You can have it. I have no idea how to wear it." No way was I going to take this item from her forever, but borrowing it to figure out just what to do with seemed like a reasonable middle ground. The truth is I never bought the poncho originally because much like my mother, I was totally confused as to what to do with it. When opened the poncho naturally folds in half forming a long rectangle. This image alone can be a little scary. How do you wear a rectangle?? Four ways as far as I can tell.

1.
This was the first poncho wearing concept I came up with, and probably the most realistic for my mother. Instead of opening the poncho up into the square, I left it folded into the rectangle and draped the poncho, just like a shawl. I threw a belt over the fabric, because it just needed something to hold it in. The idea is simple, and boy was it warm. I loved this look, and I really loved how it covered almost my entire shirt. What a great excuse to wear a simple shirt underneath. With this great item over-top no-one would be the wiser.
2.
I decided to get a little fancy with this concept and added a broach to help hold it all together. I opened the poncho into the square and placed it on my shoulders using the designated ' head hole' spot. From there it was a simple toss of the fabric on my left hand side over my right shoulder, and a pin to keep it all in place. I choose a cameo broach I've had for quite awhile, but this look could easily be accomplished with a pin of any sort. I even searched my jewelry box hoping to find a big safety pin, perfect for pretending to be a kilt pin. No luck, but I did enjoy the little bit of glitz this pin added to the otherwise weighty material.

3.
This unexpected look was my personal favorite. I ago put the poncho on using the head hole as a guide and from there started playing with the excess fabric on each of my arms. I decided to 'tie' the two sides together forming one knot of fabric in the middle and two hanging ends. Instead of leaving the extra fabric hanging I through on my belt right over what was left. This helped to keep everything in and gave the chaotic look a bit more definition. This look was a bit unexpected, and frankly for as simple as it was to do, the final look was hard to understand. Poncho's tend to be left very drapey and I loved how confusingly pulled together this look became.


4.
What's a girl to do with tons of fabric but tie it around your waist? I couldn't get past the fact that this material resembled a great kilt. If it were green I would have declared my Irish pride and only wore it around my waist. I didn't think my ancestor's would be too upset to see my showing my Scottish support and so I folded the poncho back into a rectangle and draped it around my bottom half. In fact I didn't use anything to hold the two sides together but my belt, and a little pin. The material is heavy enough to hold itself relatively together with just these well placed accessories. More importantly this skirt was warm. So warm. You can't tell in these photos but it was frigid outside, and it was nice to have a warm tush for a few moments. I imagine this poncho would make a great skirt if paired with knee high boots and a simple top.



One poncho, 4 ways and 4 excuses to wear a giant blanket all day.

5 comments:

Meli said...

I seriosuly LOVE your creativity! I would never have figured out what to do with a darn poncho- I never thought they could look this stylish! :D

Makes me think of prettier prints and squares of fabric that aren't necessarily ponchos..........

Nana Erin said...

Um, I kind of LOVE it as a skirt, who would have thunk it?

Tabitha said...

LOVE how versatile this is...I can't believe how many ways you can wear it.

Anonymous said...

Great ways to spice up a poncho! I am in LOVE with the 3rd and 4th ways you wore it! I want to go make mine a skirt now too!

xoxo
Amy

http://thebargainhunterextraordinaire.blogspot.com

Kayla Rochelle said...

Thanks guys! I have to be honest, I just stared at this poncho for awhile before any ideas came to me. I was so stuck, but once I got into the swing of things, suddenly the poncho was wearable!