"I'm a tomboy and ditched my baggy sweaters and plain jeans for Instagram-inspired looks"

I've always preferred my plain jeans and sweaters because then I don't stand out and, most importantly, I feel comfortable. But as part of the challenge to try new things and ditch my comfort zone, I decided to recreate a few looks that I liked from familiar Instagram accounts. 

READ MORE: "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a mirror, wishing size 14 jeans were what they're supposed to be"

An outfit with striped pants 

At first, I started off with something familiar. I thought the striped black pants would be an easy look to pull off because track pants are my forte. The only challenge I had was trying to find a good jacket to wear them with - a jacket that wasn't a matching sweater.

Since blazers are one of my favourite clothing items, I gave this look a shot and once I felt comfortable, I switched the look up with wide-leg striped pants - which, I must say, I absolutely loved wearing. 

The wide striped pants are R399 and the blazer is R699, both at Foshini. 

READ MORE: I tried incorporating animal print into my wardrobe - and it was (almost) a disaster 

An outfit you can wear two ways 

I'm quite lazy when it comes to dressing up, so when I do buy clothes I try to pick things that I can wear in different ways so that I don't have to spend too much time trying to put together an outfit. I won't lie, it wasn't easy finding pieces that would make the off-shoulder dress look different in two outfits, but I eventually managed.

Once again, I turned to the beloved blazer like a safety blanket, and transformed the casual summer dress into a formal look. 

READ MORE:  "I am no longer ashamed to say that I shop in the children's section" - but shopping trauma is real 

An outfit that's not all black or all white 

This might not seem like much of a challenge but I actually struggle with putting together a black and white outfit because I usually always wear both colours exclusively - white for formal events, and black for every other day.

I wanted to try out a black top with white skirt but instead I found these adorable shorts. As much as I loved the look, I think I'll need to play around with black and white outfits more until I feel confident enough to rock this classic theme. 

Did I get it right or do you have any tips to help me out with my next challenge? Let us know. 

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