Outfit: Fashion Faux-Pants

As they say on What Not to Wear...shut the front door!  I never, ever, EVER thought I'd be able to pull off a leggings-as-pants look.  I've always thought of leggings as something I would need to wear with a long tunic that covers the butt.  Enter Uniqlo's "Leggings Pants."  Aside from the fact that I really want to rip the "s" off of Leggings and just call them "Legging Pants," these are perfect in every way.  Unbelievably slimming, they have the fit of skinny jeans but the feel and comfort of leggings.  Today I was going to a choral workshop for a musical I have a part in, and I knew I'd have to move and stretch a lot, so these were perfect.  Uniqlo's sizes tend to run small since they're designed for skinny Japanese people, but I managed to work myself into a medium, so I'm sure there's a size for almost everyone out there!  And they're on sale right now at Uniqlo for $14.90 ($5 off the regular price)!  Even if you miss the sale, the regular price isn't bad for the quality.  Side note: the faux leather and corduroy run smaller because the fabric has very little give, so I sized up to large in those.  YMMV.

I went with earth tones for fall, and it actually threw me for a bit of a loop.  Lately I've been wearing almost exclusively bold colors and bright prints.  But earth tones were the staple of my older wardrobe, so I have plenty of them.  I dug out a brown embellished almost-tunic top to pair with these dark olive leggings.  It's not quite long enough to cover my butt, but it's OK because, again, these leggings are really more like pants!  It was a little chilly in the rehearsal hall, so I threw on a soft and warm hooded sweater, and that one does cover my butt.  So it's an option for when I'm both cold AND self-conscious.  The bag is my ridiculously adorable Phillip Lim for Target taupe mini, and the shoes are a guilty pleasure...sequined leopard-print TOMS.  They're brown, gold, and black, and they gave this casual outfit a little ZING!

Top: Chico's
Sweater: Tag says "Kenji handknit" - honestly can't remember where it came from!
Leggings: Uniqlo Leggings Pants
Bag: 3.1 Phillip Lim for Target
Shoes: TOMS (Nordstrom Exclusive "Panthera" style)