L-A: In case you’ve been wondering what happened to Ally, rest assured she’s still around. It’s not that I’ve Tonya Hardinged her for control of the blog, it’s more like, well, like she’s gone a little this:

Kidding! (or am I?)

More on Ally later. Let’s talk April Ludgate, our fictional fashionable hero of the month. Really, this is just an excuse to watch one of my favourite shows and call it research.

For starters, if you’re not familiar with Parks & Rec (and now Portlandia. Both shows are awesome, so you should become familiar with them), meet Aubrey Plaza, who plays April Ludgate:

April has perfected the Art of the Bitchface. It’s part of her charm. Well, charming to me. It’s a face I perfected while working as a temp in places such as the Company Whose Acronym Stood for Nothing (CWASN) or The Most Depressing Mall in the World. Unlike April, I was actually good at my temp gigs, in spite of working on my bitchface.

Let’s take a quick peek at crappy screenshots of April’s style from a recent episode and see if we can’t figure out how to do it ourselves. Without a costume department.

Adorable, n’est pas? Given my druthers, I’d totally dress like this all the time. I’m probably a little old to wear a skirt that short, but I’m sure I could find something age appropriate in length. Sadly, not office appropriate.  Not even if you add the cute boots.

So, where did I shop to put her outfit together? Well, it was mix of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, ModCloth and Free People. I have a feeling April does most of her shopping online.  Let’s start with the cardigan:

Anthropologie may as well advertise itself as home of the slightly oversized, yet totally perfect cardigan. I hit the jackpot on that one and had multiple cardigans to choose from.

The Urban Outfitters skirt wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it’s close. I think you could easily shop around and find something similar. Probably at the Gap. The line is straight and it’s as short as you can wear it without looking trampy or like you wish you were still 20.

To dress like April, pair it with tights that are a similar colour to your skirt. Then add an adorable shoe. Maybe these boots:

 

Accessorize with a really great slouchy, leather bag you can wear messenger-style. The bag I found kind of breaks the bank at $700+, but I was going for what looked the most like April’s. I did find others that were slouchy and cute for far less than that.

 

Finally, the t-shirt. I saved this for last because I actually had trouble finding the right t-shirt. I guess bicycles screenprinted on t-shirts are not the rage right now.  I did find the same t-shirt, but it’s all sold out at Urban Outfitters. Wonh wonh.

But the trick isn’t to match the t-shirt exactly, no matter how cute it is. To dress like April Ludgate, you just need any cute graphic tee that’s kind of long. So I picked out this one:

 

Honestly though, ModCloth is some kind of graphic tee heaven. You could shop their t-shirt section blindfolded and probably come out with something cute. And depending on the season, Urban Outfitters can be the same. Like this sweatshirt. It’s all kinds of adorable and 100% the kind of top you’d see April Ludgate wear.

 

It looks like something I owned when I was eight. And I would like to own it again. Here’s hoping that it’s still in stock in 104 days. And that I get a job immediately upon graduation. Because I totally want an April Ludgate inspired outfit for my weekend wear and new outfits require pay cheques.

And now, for something completely unrelated to the content of this post, but as a means of cheering up Ally, who appears to have developed some kind of daycare induced plague (on top of being a busy beaver at work), here’s some Taylor Swift. Yes, that’s how much I love Ally. I’m watching Taylor Swift videos. And writing epic run-on sentences.

(okay, I’ll admit it…Ally might be wearing me down and I’m developing a soft spot for Swifty. I’ll never like country, but I might become okay with the Swift).