Earlier this year I was cruising the interwebs when I came across a picture of Willow Smith at the Dior show for Paris Fashion Week. She was wearing this cute ass number…

…a Dior waistcoat with sheer textured polka dot skirt and boy shorts underneath. I was IN-LOVE. I decided I needed this very outfit in my closet, STAT. But I quickly remembered that I’m poor, yet crafty, so I was going to have to be okay with making something like it instead. This wasn’t the only outfit that I’d coveted recently. If you recall, after spotting my sissy slaying a blazer dress, I decided I needed that shit too. Thankfully, when I purchased a men’s blazer to create the blazer dress, I bought a total of three jackets, you know just in case I fucked the first one up. Since I pretty much aced the blazer dress, I was left with two more jackets to futz around with. So I decided to attempt a fitted waistcoat with the grey blazer I’d purchased.

Like I did with the blazer dress, my first task was refitting the buttons. I removed the buttons and positioned them so that the blazer would be fitted to my body.

Next I removed the sleeves and the suit guts (all the padding and interface inside the front panels of the jacket.

I took in the jacket on both sides at the seams on the side panels. Then I used the sleeve material to create armhole facing. This makes the seam on the armholes…uh, seamless.

After the outside of the vest was looking fly AF, I walked away. Like I literally walked away from that bitch for several months. I realized that tying up the project was going to be way harder than when I finished the blazer dress. Why? Because with the blazer dress I didn’t have to alter the lining at all. But because of the cut of the waistcoat, I had to also take in the lining before reattaching it. When I finally started working on it again (with renewed spirit), I finished it in just a few hours. It took a lot of readjusting the lining edits. But once I got it as near to perfect as it was going to get, I and sewed the lining back on.

Full disclosure, it’s not nearly as pristine on the inside as it is on the outside. But it’s adequate enough for me to engage in moderate slayage, so I’ll take it.

Once I finished the waistcoat, I decided that I needed a sheer skirt too. I remembered that Hobby Lobby was having a 30% off sale for all their fabric so I picked up three yards of grey chiffon for $5 ($3.50)/yard. I also picked up a yard of pretty elastic and scoured Pinterest for a simple circle skirt pattern. I ended up modifying this one. It was really simple and took me under an hour to complete. I’m in love with the end result and plan to wear it with a bevy of other things besides the waistcoat.

Finally I finished the outfit off with a teddy from Fashion Nova. I have zero plans of wearing this waistcoat open…but if I do I’ll be super cute…kinda naked, but super cute nonetheless.

I really like how this ‘fit is business on the top and party on the bottom. I haven’t figured out where to rock this yet. I’m currently accepting any and all suggestions. Thanks friends!

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Willow Smith Inspired My latest DIY Project