Blake Lively and Patterned Pants

I saw the below picture of Blake Lively the other day, and my first thought was how well-styled she looked. Turns out she's wearing a look straight from the Emanuel Ungaro spring 2014 runway show, a discovery that led me down two Pinteresting paths: Fausto Puglisi's show for Emanuel Ungaro in one direction and patterned pants in the other. 

Image via WhoWhatWear

First, the runway. As Serena van der Woodsen/Mrs. Ryan Reynold's outfit would suggest, Emanuel Ungaro's spring 2014 collection featured enough polka dots to send Elle Woods into a tizzy and enough chiffon to please Andre from Project Runway season two (that's an obscure reference, please tell me someone got it). Puglisi paired a few of his sweet sixteen-y bottoms with plain white tees, which is good news for budgetistas who can buy identical ones from the men's section of the Gap. Blake Lively seems to have scored one of the only looks worth imitating though, which is why I spent a good chunk of my extra daylight savings time today scouring Pinterest for patterned pants.

The thing with patterned pants is that the more eccentric their print, the less times you can wear them without being deemed a crazy pant lady. I bought a pair from Mara Hoffman in June whose sheer frivolity is one of the main reasons I started working 9 to 5 a month earlier than planned. ("Well, I suppose I'm not doing anything but spending money on patterned pants," I almost told HR when they asked to push up my start date.) The other thing with patterned pants is that they're addictive. Here's a materialistic thought that will send my mother to her grave: you can never own enough pairs of patterned pants because no two patterns are the same. Something to think about while you take a gander at the patterned pants below and on my Pinterest (!)

(Whoever said Pinterest was useless was seriously disturbed.)

Image via Vogue

Image via Vogue.nl

Image via Stockholm Street Style