ink dot hits the spot (har har har)

Happy Hump Day! Here we are at the middle of another work week, and I'm celebrating with a pretty dress.

I tried on the Ink Dot sheath dress at Ann Taylor Loft and it was love at second sight. At first, I was unimpressed. Behold:

Ink Dot sheath dress, $79.50

Kind of BLAH. The print is nice and the fit is good, but I'm not a fan of letting my armpit pudge spew all over the place like this dress allows it to do. I obviously could hit the weights more to avoid such problems in the future, but I already run 3 miles a day. I'm not looking to add weights to the equation, other than what I'm already lugging around on my bones 24/7. YouknowwhatImean? (don't worry guys, I don't think I'm fat.) (just lazy.)

But then:

you guessed it - with a cardigan

With a cardigan on and I'm sold. All of a sudden the polka dot print and keyhole detail at the neckline pops out instead of being lost in a big mess of BLAH. Throw in a skinny belt and we're talking.

There's definitely a canvas-like texture going on with the fabric, which really adds to the dress in my opinion. It's super soft still and not stiff at all. The fit is TTS (I'm a 2 in regular and a 4 in petites), and I tried on both the regular and petite sizing and didn't find that it made a lick of difference. Also, the print is a dark navy blue, even though it tends to look black in the photos.

Here's how I wore it today (rare bathroom picture because the lighting - or lack thereof - in my room is not cutting it today):

ink dot sheath dress, ann taylor loft [x]
twisted trooper sweater cardigan, F21
bow belt, modcloth
joley flats in stone, j.crew (pictured in dressing room shots)
toothpaste, colgate (haha)

All I could think was "how cute and nautical would this look with some red?!" so I threw on the only red thing I owned, besides my red J.Crew coat. It made me realize that I need more red in my closet. Some red pumps would look fabbo with this.