I never thought I would give into this sweatshirt-chic trend. I’ve been known to give one of my closest friends a hard time for wearing her hooded sweatshirts wherever she goes and then lamenting that she gets mistaken for being underage even with two young children in tow (which is accompanied by dirty looks by judging eyes). Personally, the hooded sweatshirt definitely has its place, namely, at the gym, in the house, and dog-walking but not much else (I may also allow for very quick errands). I can’t see why you can’t just switch out a hoodie for an actual jacket. However, I came across this sweatshirt-style sweater on the Club Monaco website and was completely captivated by it. It didn’t have a hood (if it did, I would have given it an automatic “nay”) but the alligator motif gave it this dressed up feel that I could most certainly get used to. I also love that the hem is slightly longer in the back:

Club Monaco Belle Sweatshirt

I know many of you are thinking, OK, well how do I wear this? And how versatile can it possibly be? I know you are asking this, because I was asking myself the same questions. So I came up with a few ways to style this sweatshirt, both for the office and for the weekend that didn’t include a trip to the gym (I also did a similar post for Forbes Style File a few months back, if you are interested in checking it out, see here).

Keep in simple. Winterize this look by adding some tights and/or boots:

Layer:

 

 

Bejeweled:

With denim flares:

This Club Monaco Belle Sweatshirt goes for $98.50, and it’s lovely, but I would certainly wait for a sale (if you have a student card/email you can get 20% off). There are tons of other great alternatives right now, as well. As an added bonus, when this trend passes, you can always where it as a cover up to the gym (which is what I plan on doing).

And of course, this post would not be complete without a recap: