OOTD-Mad for Plaid

Yay for the weekend finally getting here!!! I'm going to get all fancied up this evening for our company's Christmas party and I'm looking forward to it (fingers crossed I win the raffle this year).

Although it took a little bit of time figuring out what dress to wear for tonight, this outfit took about a year in the making. I don't know why it was so long before I decided to wear this skirt, but I had several questions to ponder. How do you take a plaid skirt and not look like a Ralph Lauren ad or like you are ready to hop a saddle and ride off on a horse? I think making it shorter a la Britney Spears in the Baby One More Time video would help, but getting looks and possibly being sent to the principal's office (aka the boss as a grown up) is not really my style. I nixed the idea of a sweater because that brought back flashbacks of wearing a uniform and those weren't pretty days of the past. Instead I rolled up the waist (did you ladies do that to your skirts back in the day too?), added a little animal print, and loaded up my wrists with some arm candy. I think I need to hunt for sexier shoes and definitely a blouse, but what would you do to make plaid a bit hipper?

And so completes my tap dance routine!

Outfit Details:
White tee- J Crew
Tan blazer- Forever 21
Plaid skirt- J Crew
Leopard belt- J Crew outlet
Brown suede wedges- Target (thrifted)
Jewelry- bracelets (Hollywood Intuition for Target, mall vendor, JewelMint), rings (House of Harlow), rose gold watch (Shock Boutique, available here)