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"  You are probably reading this by the glow of a fireplace, from a cozy couch, or even from the comfort of an airplane seat. Okay, maybe not that airplane seat. But we all have that comfy place. Sure, we get up off our buns every once in a while to try something new or go somewhere different, but there is nothing quite as comfortable as the familiar.  Yet sometimes things could use a shake-up -- and fashion is one of them. It crosses your mind that maybe the same jeans/coat/boot or LBD thing you have perfected is getting a little ... tired. You think, &amp;quot;I want to break out of my routine! I want to mix it up! I want to try something new!&amp;quot;  That was what crossed my mind when I saw the fashions for fall in this very magazine. As I flipped through the pages, I drifted off to a faraway place. A neverland of ... never. &amp;quot;I could never wear that!&amp;quot; I wear jeans and a jacket or something perfectly Prada and commonly black. But after some deep, profound soul-searching (the amount of time it took me to finish the magazine), I faced my demons. It was time to take chances. I called my editor at Bazaar and told her I needed expert help to break out of my style box. Cut to a late-summer day when I walk into the new Bazaar offices in New York wearing a subtle study of beiges, tightly grasping my metaphorical fashion passport. I am ushered into the fashion closet -- the magazine equivalent of the international terminal at JFK -- and meet my tour guides of style. There are clothes, shoes, bags, hats, jewelry, and accessories from all over the world. Everything seems so new and different. Change is in the air. It&amp;#039;s like hearing that frogs&amp;#039; legs are delicious. They taste just like chicken. Really! But you know you&amp;#039;re just going to have to taste them yourself The first stop on my style adventure is the Land of Layering, courtesy of Marc Jacobs. I remember the last time Marc Jacobs was this revolutionary: grunge. I loved grunge back in the day. Who didn&amp;#039;t? It was cozy and soft. His new look involves tweedy pants underneath a silk print skirt, a cashmere sweater on top of that, and a striped gray blazer over it all. Below the knees are slouchy cashmere socks and some form of geisha shoes. All the better to bind your feet with, my dear. These clothes -- a lot of them -- aren&amp;#039;t exactly in my comfort zone. The look is extreme. Extremely different from my usual fashion menu.  But there are things I like a lot about layering Marc Jacobs style. The clothes are comfortable, and nothing is itchy or tight. It feels liberating not to be so conventional. I can see myself buying one or two pieces and wearing them on their own or mixing them together. I know that while one would never wear this look exactly as it was shown on the runway, the complete look makes me feel as if I&amp;#039;m trying too hard. That said, though, what might feel strange now becomes familiar before you know it. Layering could actually work -- unless it was my kid&amp;#039;s sweats over my jeans, under a sarong, topped with a Juicy sweatshirt, a scarf, and my husband&amp;#039;s coat. Hey, wait, that sounds like something I&amp;#039;ve seen on the Olsens.  Next on the itinerary, the Province of Volume. I&amp;#039;m intrigued by the silhouette of a frothy, frilly ivory A-line frock by Chloe. If I&amp;#039;d been shopping to buy a new dress, I would have pondered it, thought it was pretty, and passed it by in favor of something black. This dress, at first glance, seems so young. And, well ... full. I reckon it will make me look even more voluminous than I am. And who needs more volume? But imagine my surprise when I put the dress on, slip on a pair of black tights and black Lanvin pumps, pull my hair back, and feel as if I could float off into the clouds in all my meringueness. I also love that you could eat 10 cheeseburgers wearing this dress and still look as thin as you did before. I love volume. Volume is my new best friend.  The last stop on the trip is the Motherland of Menswear, ruled by Raf Simons, the new designer at Jil Sander. They say suits are back. Although they are not entirely out of my fashion box, it seems as if it has been a long time since I actually bought or wore a suit. Suits are versatile, simple, and easy to travel with, but why are they always the first things to go when I clean out my closet? And ... how many white shirts do you own? I used to have a lot, but I just gave a bunch away. Why? Because I never wear them. I don&amp;#039;t think they look good on me. Raf Simons&amp;#039;s pieces are impeccably tailored, but I feel like I&amp;#039;ve been there, done that.  Until I put on the shoes. Once the black brogues with a wedge heel are on, the whole look seems to come together in a new way. It goes from being just a suit to being something strong and risky. My legs look long, lean, and lanky. There is no way, though, that I am going to be able to wear those shoes for more than 10 minutes. (In fact, in the Bazaar closet, I wear them for nine minutes and 38 seconds.) As much as I want to, I just feel that they&amp;#039;re a little too far away from my style home. It&amp;#039;s possible I would need to be implanted with a GPS in order to find me if I went out in those shoes. By the way, maybe someone out there can tell me if you would actually wear the Jil Sander or Marc Jacobs shoes. I&amp;#039;d like to know what you do for a living. Do you ever have to walk?  When I land back in reality, back to my cropped jeans with sandals, back to my United States of Uniform, it&amp;#039;s surprising to find that even though I have ventured far outside my comfort zone, there are pieces that are wearable, although they initially looked way too exotic for my tastes. Layering doesn&amp;#039;t seem so foreign to me now that I have had some time to digest the idea. I am already looking at experimenting with a chunkier shoe or boot. My new best friend, Volume, and I are going out to dinner. A lot. And there is something calming about the simplicity of a suit. Whether I&amp;#039;ll buy one, though, is another matter.  It wasn&amp;#039;t so tough to stray outside my boundaries. In fact, I learned something from my journey: With every risk you take, you get a little more confident. I think there will be more travel in my fashion future. I&amp;#039;ll bring Volume with me. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/a162/breaking-out-your-look-1106/>