One of the things that the Anthropologie home office wanted me to highlight in my time at the outfitting session was the accessories. While this might sound like fun to many women out there, I secretly panicked. If you look through a month's worth of outfits on my blog, you'll probably be able to see why: accessories just aren't a big part of my wardrobe. Being as petite as I am, I worry about being overwhelmed by too many or too-big pieces. Although I own countless pairs of earrings, countless necklaces, dozens of pairs of shoes, I wear only the same three or four in heavy rotation, mostly because they blend in quietly with the rest of my ensemble. So when I was asked to put the spotlight on summer's accessories, I was a little out of my comfort zone, once again.
    
   
When I first walked into our personal shopping part of the session with Lara, I was quite taken aback by what I saw: there was a rack of clothes for Stormie,a rack of clothes for myself, and three piles of accessories: an entire rack of purses, belts and scarves, a table set with several pairs of shoes, and another table that housed dozens of pieces of jewelry. During our 4 hour long session, I tried to soak in everything I was seeing and hearing about all the beautiful add-ons we were being outfitted with. Once we were done, we headed over next door to the accessories boutique (most of the accessories we tried on during our session were graciously loaned to us by them.) Stormie and I took our time looking around at the plethora of shiny, pretty things, and I made quick mental note of some very clear-cut trends I saw among the shelves.

Jewelry: Sure, there was still some of the standard whimsical pieces we've all come to expect from Anthro every season, but what really seems to be a big trend in jewelry this summer is statement pieces; big bold necklaces, cuffs, even earrings. And the material of choice right now seems to be stone. Large pieces of semi-precious stones like agate and jasper were practically everywhere we looked.

   
Shoes: With the rise in popularity of maxis and 70's style wide-leg jeans, the emphasis right now is on adding va-va-voom height with wedges and clogs peeking out from under those long hems. Another big trend in shoes this summer is natural materials- lots of wood, and a good amount of jute, which is in keeping with the earthy, bohemian feel of the 70's. Not surprisingly, brown is the most abundant color in the shoe section of Anthro right now.

Other goodies: In the movement towards dressed-down ease, scarves are a really big accessory trend we're seeing this summer. Seriously, just go take a look at how many dozens of them there are on the website- many of them, in various colorways. Since our personal shopping event, I can appreciate why. Right now, scarves aren't an afterthought, but rather, a deliberate piece that completes an outfit by making it seem more effortless and chic. They're a way to take a maxi hem, and make it seem less grand, by adding a dash of casual elegance. When it comes to eyewear, Anthro is jumping onto the cat-eye bandwagon that seems to be so popular everywhere this season. I'm not big on sunglasses, but I saw Stormie rock the Vintage Modified Cat's Eye Shades with a few of her looks, and thought she looked very glamorous in them! The fact that there are so few of these vintage shades to go around makes them even more alluring.

     
Facing my fear of accessories turned out to be a much less daunting and a much more pleasant task than I could ever have imagined, and I came away with a new appreciation for many of the fantastic pieces I saw during the session. Most importantly, I loved how the right accessories could not only complement a look, but could actually transform a look from plain to glamorous, or from stuffy to easy and undone, and could be used to draw attention towards or away from whatever I wish to highlight or hide. And for the first time ever, I actually have accessories in my Anthro wishlist : the Glinting Windowpanes Scarf, the By Hook Belt, and my favorite- the Windowpane Wedges.
       
Stay tuned for the third and final installment of this series: an interview with the very talented Anthropologie personal shopper behind the beautiful outfits you saw in Part 1, Lara Licciardi.