Jessie Loves: 5 Spring Styling Tricks

Interesting ways I'm wearing my favorite spring things. Plus 5 things I'm loving this week.

This winter felt longer than most I can remember. I couldn’t be happier to start dressing for spring! Here’s my list of the five little tricks in my rotation for making my outfits a bit more interesting.

1. Something To Cinch In

I’m loving the mix of something more flowy combined with something more cinched in. I wore this pretty lace dress to the opening of

Stephanie Summerson Hall

’s new Estelle Colored Glass store in Charleston a few weeks ago and was so happy with the way it looked.

Me with some of my favorite Charleston girls: Venita Aspen, Jasmine Woodard Rose and Jaimie Dewberry

But I think it would have been even better with a little vest over the top, like this:

Layering things in this way is a little styling trick I like to make something more interesting. (I will also wear this vest more casually with jeans). Here it is over an even more flowy dress:

2. Jacket As Outfit

I think a wow spring jacket is one of the best items you can buy right now to update your wardrobe. The reason is threefold:

1. You wear a jacket probably more than any other item (besides shoes) on a per-day basis so you get a ton of use out of it and it’s a great investment.

2. A wow jacket will make any outfit sing.

3. It’s always frigging freezing in the spring so this transitional item will keep you warm and feeling chic. When the weather is iffy, I like to make my entire outfit about my jacket.

My favorite leopard coat from Wiggy Kit is sold out but I hope they make it again. (I was joking that I was in my Little Edie era this weekend as I ran around basically in my pajamas with the leopard coat on top!)

(Wearing my husband’s slides)

This green sweater is not a jacket per se, but the green gives a great pop. I wore it with our eyelet dress and cowboy boots:

(Me in Nashville…we are opening a store there…shh!)

This Nikki Chasin jacket is lovely and I dream of owning it:

And I’m loving the latest quilted jacket we came out with. The broderie collar makes it so wow:

3. Ballet / Sneaker Hybrids

This is a big trend at the moment and I love how we have interpreted it in a subtle, wearable way. If you’ve seen my Instagram you know I have been living in our new Mary Jane sneaker. It’s so functional. A cool silhouette that is extra padded and comfy for all the running around and traveling I do. The leopard is sold out but available to preorder now. We also have it in natural, black and red.

4. A New Way To Wear Glasses

Ok this isn’t a trend, but it’s just a way I’ve been carrying my readers lately that is functional.

I think this is going to be my signature look -— keeping my reading glasses hanging from a chain or necklace around my neck. I don’t tend to wear shirts with pockets so this will be my way of doing it. I’ve avoided getting reading glasses like the plague but sadly I can’t avoid it anymore.

Unfortunately, I don’t look great in glasses. Oh how I wish I was Jenna Lyons! I’ve tried everything — I even bought a pair of Gucci sunglasses and had the lenses switched out and they didn’t look great.

I just bought these from Caddis. I like the tort and the chunky shape. The necklace is a beaded LR one but I also dream of getting this chain in gold (maybe I will save up). I think it’s the prettiest chain around. I got it for my son for Xmas in silver, which is so much more affordable than the gold.

Also these sunglasses are cool…I definitely prefer the way I look in sunglasses to eyeglasses:

5. Dress Over Pants

No matter the season or year I am such a sucker for something eyelet. My husband has called me out for the seemingly endless racks of eyelet dresses in our basement. I love eyelet. I can’t help it. This is a super special one we just launched that is going to be worn to bits by me this spring and summer. It’s so simple and pretty.

How cool is my coworker Lesley wearing this dress layered over jeans?! This is a styling trick I love so much.

Here’s my take on dress-over-pants, two ways:

Our Sandra and Thelma dresses, both with our new studded ballet flat.

Do you have any favorite spring styling tricks? Please let me know!

5 things I loved this week:

1. I’m so excited about this tile sample that arrived in the mail from Tiles of Ezra. I’m going to order these and put them along my bathroom vanity counter as a backsplash. (They also have a brown colorway I am obsessed with).

2. These yarn dyed linen gingham sheets I just put in my son’s room out at the beach. They are so luxurious feeling and pretty to look at.

3. Bri and I have been watching this Swedish crime show called The Åre Murders that is beautiful and eerie. Highly recommend!

4. This sweet vest that is trimmed with ribbon. I will wear it on my trip to Paris next week (pls send any do-not-miss reccos for Paris!).

5. Mimosa season! This is one of my favorite flowers — I love how wild and voluminous mimosa looks in a vase. Hoping to try to plant some of these for my own garden one day.

And one thing I hate:

This might be a little controversial, but I hate sneaker / ballet shoes that look like this. Maybe because they remind me of a terrible era of my life when I had a cheap boyfriend and a shitty apartment on the Upper East Side. (For the record, I never wore shoes like this.)

I’d love to hear if you had a similar experience in the late 90s — ha!