How to Wear It: Ruffled Blouse

I think it's safe to say that most of us have a blouse in the closet that is a bit shall we say, overly poetic. You know what I mean. Ruffly of placket, billowy of sleeve, romantic in inspiration but veering toward blowsy if not reeled in with some disciplined coordinating.

I've got one, of course, and it tends to languish unworn. It's just too much shirt to be putting on very often. But now, thanks to the brilliant minds at June's British Harper's Bazaar, there's an alternative.

Just look how stylist Mouchette Bell has tamed hers (click to enlarge). Put it on underneath a great jacket with skinny, ultrascrunchable sleeves. Presto, the look is less New Romantic than 18th-century dandy.

A more sober approach would be to wear a billowy-sleeved blouse with a skinny cardigan, pushing up the sleeves in the same way.
Avast ye pirate shirt, you've been tamed.