Today while helping my first customer at the fitting room at the retail job I work at on the weekends I became intrigued by something she said. We were discussing, what I thought was a beautifully subtle brown dress by Rachel Zoe, with short sleeves and a lovely side detail, when she said, “This an ugly dress, but I’m going to take it anyway because I can dress it up with a scarf I have at home. “Why do you think it’s ugly?” I asked her. “It’s so plain,” she said, “But it does have potential and can be dressed up with a shawl or a scarf. This conversation stayed with me when I saw these two tops by ZARA for six dollars each on the clearance racks.

I needed to find a nice top for a video interview I’m supposed to do,and since I couldn’t make up my mind which one to buy, I bought both. Reminiscent of the plain, navy and green dresses by Zara I bought a while ago I thought about all of the plain things in my wardrobe that became the foundation for stunning outfits once accessorized. The five dollar little black dress and navy blue pants suit I coordinated throughout my years as a fashion merchandising student at Cal State LA and the black-and-white cardies . I still reach for now and then.

So I guess in the long run, we never can tell when plain can lead to plentiful and surprising. Like the proverbial butterfly, we need to let it make it’s wings unfurl to fly and have a chance to be beautiful in its own way.