I am still just FLOORED that so many amazing women decided to participate in the BLACK-OUT challenge!
Just to review the parameters, from Monday, June 7, 2010, to Monday, June 14, 2010, participants were forbidden to wear black clothes. No black pants, black skirts, black dresses, black shirts, black sweaters, nada. Official rules of play:
- Black shoes, accessories, and jewelry were fine.
- Workout/gym duds got a pass.
- Black could be IN patterns but could not be the BACKGROUND of a pattern.
Many chose to take it to the next level and omit black shoes, accessories, jewelry, and patterns. I’m did so myself for the duration of the week. I asked those who participated to send me images of or links to their favorite BLACK-OUT ensembles, and got an amazing response. If you missed out on submission, please post a link in the comments here so we can see your best BLACK-OUT wear, too!
Now prepare for a whole bunch of colorful eye-candy, kittens … here’s the 38-lady roundup:
Angela, angelavicente.com
Terra, Stylish White Female
Biba, Angels and Blossoms
Kristin, Bird on Your Shirt
Ann M., Großstadthimmel
Erica, Brickhouse of Style
Della, Della Grace’s Life
Angela, RiAnge Creations
Cathy, Austin Slave to Fashion
LSM, Somewhere in the Suburbs (LSM, where are you!)
Taylor, Taylor Wears Everything
Megan, Daily Waifu Snapshot
Kiki, What I Wear in a Little Town
Courtney, Loving the Reflection
Rosie Unknown, Through the Wilderness
Zeynep, Zeynep’s Corner
Laura, 90 Days Without Shopping
Iris, 260 Days No Repeats
Flitryss, Adventures and Mishaps
Breanne, Bella Vita
Katie, Interrobangs Anonymous
EvaNadine, Stumble Into Style
Sara, Orchids in Buttonholes
Frances Joy, Mad Dress Game
Andie, What Andie Wears
Dorky Medievalist, In Professorial Fashion
Emma Clark, My Daily Clothes Fix
Tat, Rate My Outfit
Stacy, Stacyverb
Rebecca, Minnchic
Cynthia, Magpie’s Hoard (Lady, the links you left me are broken … let me know if you had a different outfit in mind!)
Angeline, The New Professional
Now, don’t laugh, but I actually got kinda teary putting this post together. I mean, just look at all those gorgeous women, stylin’ it up! They live all over the world. They’re working from every spot along the budgetary spectrum and sporting a wide variety of tastes and styles. They’re all ethnicities, sizes, ages, and shapes. And they all look RADIANT! I challenge anyone who has looked at this round-up to tell me there is only one female figure that pleases the eye. Is your eye not pleased by every single participant? I can say with certainty that my eye has seldom been more pleased. Every woman who participated in this challenge looked remarkably beautiful and, if the facial expressions in these images tell us anything, they all felt beautiful, too.
Huge, HUGE thanks to everyone who participated – bloggers and non-bloggers alike. I hope this challenge was fun and eye-opening, and look forward to running it again next year!
{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
Everyone looks so beautiful! We are all so lucky to have you to inspire us to be the beautiful just the way we are.
Also, looking at these, I HAVE to stop hiding my fave behind my hair in all my outfit photos
What a phenomenal bunch of ladies!
wow! how wonderful!!!
Actually I like your pick, Sal. I haven't figured out how to link to Tumblr properly yet, it's extremely ephemera-oriented.
gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!
Wow, I love it, everyone is beautiful and their outfits very inspirational! Maybe next year I'll join in…
This is indeed a gorgeous group of ladies and outfits! Thanks, Sal, for bringing it all together.
Thanks so much for spearheading the blackout and posting all these wonderful photos!
Wow! Everyone looks so radiant! Very beautiful. This is not something I see in my neck of the woods of rock concert tees and jeans. So refreshing!
Angela
yeah, everyopne looks great! hurrah for colour! I didn't magae to take a picture every day that week, but i was there in spirit!
What a great post. Now I have many more clothing blogs to read!
Today I put on a black dress and actually thought "I shouldn't wear this since it's Summer Black-Out"!
Great job Sal! The ladies look lovely. My vote goes to vintage pattern onesie!
What a great bunch! Lovely outfits.
I guess I should have sent you a link. Here's my favourite outfit of the week: http://sheilaephemera.blogspot.com/2010/06/double-challenge-summer-black-out-and_11.html
Please keep in mind that I was also doing a 5-clothing-item challenge the same week!
Wow. That is some testament to the power of an international black-out! Inspiring.
Huge round of applause for all these ladies, they all look beautiful and happy.
Thank you so much for hosting Sal! Do you have anymore challenges up your sleeve for us bloggers?
Very cool. This was a great project. Thanks for including my outfit! I have to star this post in my Google Reader so that I can come back to it when I actually have enough time… I need to click on all of these links!
Love this post, Sal! And I am so inspired and impressed by everyone's colorful attire. I agree- everyone looks absolutely gorgeous!!!
Wow, it's great to see all the different outfits and styles!
Should I have given you specific links for my outfit posts? I couldn't choose a favorite…
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Thank YOU for posting the Challenge, and for always being such an inspiration yourself – outfits and otherwise.
It was so much fun to participate in this!
Loved, loved, super loved this post!
and beat myself up for not participating …..
Love all the colour!!! But I am still wearing black.;-)
LOVE this. What gorgeous readers you have.
I love this! So many fantastic, beautiful women! All the color, the patterns, so wonderful to see it all.
Thanks for the awesome challenge
So many beautiful, creative women! What an inspiration to find more color in every aspect of our lives. Thank you, Sal, for a really wonderful project and, especially, for sharing so many stunning looks!
Candice
These ladies are very inspirational, Thanks for putting this together Sally!
yay I love this roundup!! Found quite a few new bloggers to follow too…
I'm catching up on all your posts, I love this! Thanks for sharing and inspiring!
Everyone looks gorgeous! I love how creative these ladies became, mixing patterns and colours and not using a bit of black clothing. I felt cheered up just reading this post.
What a great collection of ladies – all shapes and sizes too!
I feel so proud to be in such wonderful company. Off to visit lots of new blogs. Thanks so much Sal for setting this in motion and being such an inspiration.
Thank you for inspiring us Sal – it was a great week, really, erm, somehow liberating! Not being "allowed" to wear black certainly made me really think about what I was going to wear – even if I did end up wearing pink all week!
Like you say, everyone in your round up looks fantastic, and radiant, each and every one of them – perhaps black should be completely banned! (oh, no, what am I saying, I wouldn't have anything to wear! Well, apart from the outfits I scrabbled together!)
Thanks again…. What's our next challenge?
Great inspiration Sal! Your challenge was so much fun! I'm looking forward to more in the future!
And yes, I agree, everyone looked gorgeous! Wearing color is a great thing!
Oh my goodness, I love this place…..
I wore all color today, except for the cream background on my skirt. Shoes, jewelry, everything! Very different for me, felt very weird. Not something I'd do every day.
But this blog is inspiring me to go thrift and get some more colors going. I pretty much live in black, red, and purple! Love love love them, but time for a little variety, you know?
Congrats on a successful campaign…everyone looks FAB!
how cool!!! I am new reader or I woud've submitted one. It would've have been a true challenge for me since 85% of my wardrobe is black lol. It would be fun to do one where the outfit must be black and the accessories colorful, it would be interesting to see all the different takes on accessories.
Wow everyone looks great. I totally forgot to leave my link though technically I'm still blacked out. Its just too hot for black here these days. Here is my favorite outfit though. I made this skirt and love it. You can't really see in the picture but its a touch corsity on both sides.
http://stephsrandomlife.blogspot.com/2010/06/award-last-more.html
Although I was totally stuck on what to wear on day 5… today was the first day I wore black since I started the challenge!
Ladies, you all look fab!
Sally, thanks for the challenge and for this round-up! I really enjoyed exploring some new blogs on my lunch hour.
-Liz
This is an amazing post! AMAZING! I love every image… every woman is gorgeous and put together some really wonderful outfits!!
La-
Beautiful! Thanks again for doing the Summer Black-Out. It was a great challenge for me.
Also, I have to admit that your post made me tear up a bit, too.
this was such a great challenge! I'll be featuring the round up and all these lovely ladies on my blog as well!
Awww, I can't believe I missed this! I rarely ever wear black, so coming up with an outfit should have been easy and fun. Everyone looks so lovely!
I love this! I am wearing white dresses, grey linen pants, and today a tan boyfriend jacket with F21 short-shorts and a floppy hat! I am 46 this month, and my goal is to be the first over 40 blogger featured on a certain site! I'd love to be included in the "black-out!"
Retro Reva
revasrags2roses.blogspot.com
thanks!!! I suppose you come over and copy the image? I'm not sure, but the outfits are all gonna be going this week!
Everyone looks stylish and beautiful.
First, I discovered your blog a couple of days ago and have been working my way through the archives and enjoying everything. Thank you so much.
Second, as another wheelchair user, I was thrilled beyond measure to see Stacy's picture and learn about her blog. Thank you again.
Wow, what a great collection of outfits! Everyone looks so fab! And I'm also sitting here admiring your stamina in loading all those pictures into Blogger…
Thank you for the inspiration to think outside of the black. These women look ravishing!
Now I have a zillion more blogs to read!
Wow! What a great collection of looks! Thanks so much for leading the challenge and posting the pics!
What I love about this post is all the different shapes and styles of women wearing the clothes. All beautiful.
I did this this week because I didn't discover your blog until this week. I noticed you didn't wear black shoes so I didn't realize they were allowed in the rules. That would have made it so much easier.
I love your site.
Thank you so much for posting this roundup! This allows me to be able to discover a bunch of stylish ladies with similar body style as mine and get inspiration for my own ongoing style makeover
Woo-hoo!
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