Skirtgate: A cry for help

A couple of weeks ago I bought this skirt in Oasis and I love it - pleated! Pastel! SO pretty! - but I suspect that I'm not really doing it justice when I wear it. Observe...

Yeah, I don't think Olivia Palermo is quaking in her Manolos with fear that I'm about to overtake her in the style stakes either. The worst thing is that I only really started to feel that this ensemble didn't hang well together when I went out.

That's right: I left the house and went out among other people looking like this today.

Donning my navy winter coat - beneath which a good 3" of skirt could be seen - surprisingly didn't improve things.

The skirt needs to be taken up so that it's not hitting me bang on the knee, where it makes me look (a) very strangely proportioned and (b) like my old Speech & Drama teacher. Other than that, I'm not sure what to wear with it. I thought the black tights and the trainers would be a bit cooler than ballet/dolly flats and keep it from looking too prissy, but actually they just made me look slightly bonkers - and not in a good way - or like I'd gotten lost on my way to work in an office where I keep a stash of proper shoes under my desk. And while I like the colour of the lemon top with the skirt, I feel that there's something a bit too cotton-y and basic about it.

I'm way out of my jeans-loving depth on this one. Even Polyvore-ing my little heart out and creating virtual styleboards to try and see what I might put with it's not really helping. 

This is as far as I've gotten, which is not very far at all since I dress from the feet up but you can sort of see the directions I'm thinking of taking. I'm not sure whether to toughen it up with black and studs and chunkiness or play up its girliness and team it with silver (or, er, use it as an excuse to get shoes with skulls on them.)

I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have to help me style my skirt!