Last week, Stiletto Siren asked me if I’d like to do a guest post on her site. Well if you know Stiletto and know her site, then you know I very willingly jumped on the chance to be a part of Lips, Hips, and Fatshion Tips. For that piece, I talk about transitioning the maxi dress to fall, or at least early fall, but we all know that we have a few weeks left in the summer, so I thought I’d share another summer-appropriate look here.

Sometimes I can get pigeon-holed into wearing the same style of clothing all the time because it’s “me”, but then there are days that I want to leave it all behind and try on someone else’s look. I always wore my maxi dresses either without any cover up or with a cardigan/jacket, so I decided to step out of my fashion comfort zone and rock a cropped top instead.

The cropped top here is a satin and lace panel top from Forever21+ that didn’t fit correctly. Because my hips are wider than my upper body, tops that have bands at the bottom can be a problem on my body, so I just changed it to a shorter top to make it work. To the naked eye, my maxi dress could not be seen through the material, but this photo tells me I might want to layer a black undertank next time I wear this out. Although the camera doesn’t catch it well, changing this top to a cropped top gave it a really pretty billowing effect over the maxi dress

The back of the top has a lace panel that I let the maxi color come through, but I also think it’d look good with a black cami underneath.

To accessorize the outfit I added on a dark chain necklace that brought a little shine to the outfit. I’m kind of in love with this chain necklace, so I’m sure by the end of winter, you’ll be thoroughly annoyed with how often I wear it.

Shop: Top, Dress–bought on CliquetoKnow.com so no longer available–Similar, Necklace

I’d absolutely love it if you’d go see my guest post on Stiletto’s site where I take the maxi from summer to fall!

How do you wear your maxi dresses in the summer time? Are cropped tops a yes or no for you?