What to wear.....

......to an outdoor rock festival

Do you ever run across a situation where you are just baffled by what to wear? Perhaps there has been a time an occasion calls for something and you struggle to answer that call with vintage?

For me trouble comes when I seek to marry practicality with vintage style. I am notoriously impractical; I am always trying to wear crazy shoes when lots of walking is necessary or too many/too few layers for the temperature. My voice of reason and practicality these days is often my boyfriend. I'll come out of the closet with a far from sensible outfit on and he'll offer me his opinion of it. Often I end up wearing something less practical than he suggested but more so than what I started with (his idea of practical is jeans and a tee, though he knows he'll not get me out in that).

This past weekend we attended a huge rock festival in Charlotte, NC- an event that once again left me puzzled as to what to wear.
Sure I've been to festivals before but mostly as a naive creepy kid whose biggest clothing dilemma was what shade of black to wear. To be honest, I don't particularly enjoy festivals- the thought of my pasty white skin left to broil in the sun for 13 hours doesn't thrill me and neither do most of the bands that play at such shows, but all day rock marathons in the scorching Carolina sun are something my beau enjoys and I'll put up with that for him.

Anyhow, I packed for our trip to Charlotte in haste and without time to plan a proper outfit so I threw in a few festival essentials- a hat, some practical shoes and light colored, lightweight clothing to beat the heat. Here's what I came up with:

If I was a good blogger I would have taken a picture of me wearing this outfit

That's right, my saddle shoes- sturdy and flat, my trusty striped hat- to shade my face and shoulders, and a lovely lace shirt (which I wore with shorts- ugh). Nothing too incredibly fabulous about this outfit but it worked.....it was practical and while it didn't scream rock, it looked nice! That's right- my feet didn't get stepped on, I didn't roll an ankle and I am sunburn free! And the best part? Out of 33,000 people that attended this festival- I think I was the only one with saddle shoes on and I was one of the few women with a hat on. Now I know what worked and what I need to change for next time- I'm so proud of my brief practicality!

Are you practical?

What would you wear to an all day music festival?  

What puts you in a fashion quandary?