Naf Naf neoprene floral

dress: c/o Naf Naf - chelsea boots: Zara - turtle neck: Pimkie - satchel: & Other Stories

First things first (I'm the reallest) - I FINALLY found the right html code to align my text with my images, and I'm absolutely ecstatic. I messed around with my html a few years ago but I never got the result I wanted, and just now I was sick of it and wanted to fix shit. A few hours of googling, and here we are. This article helped me out immensely, so go check it out if you're still struggling with making your images fit your blog post area.

Now, the outfit. Naf Naf Paris kindly gifted me with a voucher, which prompted me to visit Ghent again for the first time in ages, because that's where the nearest Naf Naf store is located. It's so strange where life takes you. I used to go shopping in Ghent with my mom and dad when I was a kid, I was elated when my brothers took there to go to the movies  when I was a tween, and in high school, Ghent was the city where I developed my independence by hanging around with friends. But when I started working to save up for university in Antwerp, it replaced Ghent as my "Big City". Now when I return to Ghent almost ten years later, it's like a new city to me, but one that's speckled with memories of the past.

The tiny shopping mall on Gent Zuid is one of those places. I remember the cheap shoe store on the bottom floor being the number one destination for me and my best friend, trying on stiletto heels and dreaming of wearing them to work when we'd grown up (we grew up, but stiletto heels never became comfortable). And on the top floor, there's Naf Naf, a lovely little shop filled with cute, playful French fashion - the kind of girly-cool style you'd spot on Betty or Alix. The shoe store was replaced by a new one, but Naf Naf is still there. There's probably a lovely metaphor about life moving me from bottom floor/cheap shoes to top floor/feminine French chic in there, but suffice it to say that shopping at Naf Naf was a lovely little trip to memory lane for me.

Whew, that got really randomly retrospective fast, didn't it? Either way, I love how this outfit came together. I made the dress more everyday-wearable by layering it over a turtle neck and pairing it with my favourite Zara chelsea boots. Definitely something I could wear for an important meeting, for example: to look professional without erasing my personality. And it will always remind me a bit of Ghent.