I always love it when we can wear the same clothing item and show you how it would look on different bodies that are a variety of ages.
That’s why I bought these matching tops and decided to showcase how to wear a tunic dress for each of us. We each used different modifications to make it work and wore it uniquely.
MSN readers should click here to see all of the photos and widgets.
Quote of the day: “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” Thomas Edison
This quote made me giggle because I feel like being the boss of your clothes includes having some great junk that you can use to help transform your pieces. In fact, I call this junk “Tools of the Trade” and have them listed in the tab here on my site. They are things that you may not need every day, but they can help out at certain times.
How to wear a tunic dress
1-Pair it with skinny jeans-Charlotte
2-Style it with straight-leg jeans-Lesley
3-Wear it over a dress-Jodie
4-Other options
Yet today with how to wear a tunic dress, most of our modifications are layering ideas although there is one sewing trick if you want more shaping to your tunic (see the idea in Lesley’s example).
I purchased these tunic dresses at my favorite local boutique, Just Be Youtiful, at the brick-and-mortar store. There is an online site also with a different selection of items (use code Jtouch15 for a discount).
But don’t forget my goal is to have you get creative with what you already have in your closet. Maybe you have a tunic like this? Then you can pull it out and play along.
Insider tip: The best way to make this piece more versatile? Stop calling it a tunic. It’s a beautiful print piece of material that can be worn in many ways. In fact, don’t forget you can tuck it into a skirt and call it a top.
Related post: Ideas to style a caftan
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How to Wear a Tunic Dress with Skinny Jeans
It seems natural to pair a tunic dress with skinny jeans because you have the flowy, voluminous aspect of the dress with a tighter fit of the jeans.
For a case like this, you could even substitute leggings or tights, both of which have that same tight silhouette around the leg.
Charlotte’s tunic dress is a turquoise color. If you look closely you can see how the waist is pulled in slightly, and there is a bow tie in the middle of the black and white design.
This tunic came with this tie that allows you to create a waist if you prefer.
And my mom paired the turquoise tunic dress with mustard skinny jeans. This color combination is so stunning. From far away you don’t notice that there is a gold color in the print of the tunic, but maybe you can see it up close.
Related post: Other options of colors to wear with mustard jeans
Not only is Charlotte wearing skinny jeans, but she also layered her tunic dress over a turtleneck. The turtleneck is a blue color that is the same colorway as the tunic but doesn’t match per se.
Accessories with a Print Tunic Dress
There are different shades of blue in this tunic dress so my mom used a couple of different blues in her overall look with other pieces besides the turtleneck.
A turquoise purse which is worn crossbody style blends in with the pattern. And blue shoes are a great pop of color for the feet.
The other fun detail is the earrings which have a Bollywood vibe that ties in with the print on the tunic.
Styling a Tunic Dress with Straight Leg Jeans
You can see how Lesley and Charlotte’s outfits are very similar yet with a couple of differences. Lesley’s tunic dress is a darker blue overall, she paired it with straight-leg jeans and she didn’t use the tie at the waist.
Even if the print didn’t have any yellow in it, the combination of blue and yellow together is always so striking. That’s a great reminder if you are looking for a pop of color with blue, try some yellow with it.
BTW, the print has gold in it, not yellow per se. This shows that you don’t have to match the colors exactly for color combinations to look great together.
The option of straight-leg jeans still works wonderfully with the tunic dress because the focus is still on the top half of the outfit.
Another interesting fact is that Lesley called this a kaftan when giving me her clothing information.
Insider tip: Don’t be swayed by the names and categories of our clothing. It doesn’t matter WHAT you call it, it’s all about how you WEAR it.
I love how Lesley didn’t use the tie at the waist for this example of how to wear a tunic dress. Just because your clothing has certain details, doesn’t mean you have to wear them that way. Remember, you are the boss of your clothes.
Insider tip: If you have a tunic that could use some shaping, you could easily either add a casing on the inside (the casing on this tunic was only in the front and back, not all the way around) or add some elastic in areas.
Gold and Yellow Together
Lesley also added yellow with her purse and a scarf she brought along in case the evening was chilly.
For her accessories, she opted for gold earrings and a bracelet that ties in with the print of the tunic.
The blue shoes bookend the blue of the tunic since they match the blue in the top.
For her layering, she opted for a white tank top, to fill in the cleavage area.
Wear It Over a Dress
I wanted to see what other ways there were how to wear a tunic dress. Of course, you can always wear it by itself, but this day was a little chilly and I felt I needed extra layers.
When I originally considered layering this over my white dress, I thought some of the dress would hang below it. I hadn’t realized how long the tunic dress really was. Either way, it would look great, yet in this example, you may not even realize the white piece is a dress (the proof is here).
For some tunic dresses, you may feel more comfortable with something underneath in case the wind comes up or you want extra modesty. For those times, another dress, skirt, or even shorts would be a wonderful option.
You can see the casing and bow tie at the waist better in these shots. Of course, if you didn’t want to use the DIY examples I explored in Lesley’s section, you could even try a thin belt on the outside if you’re looking for some shaping to a piece.
It’s one of the reasons, I like keeping the self-belts from other dresses with my belts because they are usually made of material and not as stiff. I also like the chain belts as an option.
More Print with Accessories
This purse happened to match the colors in the dress so perfectly. It’s from a company that specializes in tweed products and their items are just beautiful. They do ship to the US, and the purse is a great deal right now.
If you are looking at non-sale items, you can use the code Jodie15 for a discount.
I felt like the zebra heels were a sexy option for shoes and I even wore black and white earrings, as well as sparkly barrettes.
Insider tip: Just because you have short hair doesn’t mean you can’t wear hair accessories. Think of them as decoration instead of having to be functional. See other ways I’ve used hair accessories here.
More Ideas of How to Wear a Tunic Dress
I always love it when the three of us can wear the same clothing item and show how it looks on women of different ages and sizes. In fact, this tunic dress is a one-size-fits-most, and you can see how that looks on us.
We showed another example of styling the same tunic in the past. And I was even more creative in that example.
Related post: Unique way of styling tunics
So while we gave 3 different looks of how to wear a tunic dress, I would like to say there are even other options. This is no different than the ways we’ve showcased 4 different ways to wear a dress when traveling.
1-As in the post title above “Unique way of styling tunics”, you can tuck it into a skirt to make it a top.
2-Don’t forget you can also layer over it. If your tunic dress has sleeves that make wearing a jacket too hard, then don’t forget to try using a vest.
3-Experiment with a skirt (or dress) under the tunic dress that hangs out from underneath.
4-Layering over a flowy tunic like this isn’t impossible. Think about using your ponchos or making your scarf into a wrap.
When you have a gorgeous clothing item like this, it’s so beneficial to wear it in multiple ways!!
Thank you
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