A New Old Frock

Yes. It's me. Wearing clothes!



Feels like about a million years since I've done an outfit post...



I bought this frock when shopping with Char a few weeks ago. It looks like an absolute sack on the hanger and I was expecting nothing from it but I liked the print an awful lot and it's always worth trying these things on, isn't it? Imagine the look of surprise on my face when it a) fitted and b) looked nice. That never happens!



Not convinced it photographs quite as well as it looks in real life but it's excellent fun to wear. It sort of pretends to be a bit of a 40s day dress with the floral print and the pleats in the skirt but then it's all HELLO with the mad 70s collar and polyester.



Pretty, isn't it? 





Also any chance to bust out heeled brogues is most welcome. They're amazing and they're too pretty to languish in a shoe rack all summer. Plus, ribbon on footwear = epic.



Dress - vintage
Cardi - Monsoon sale
Seamed tights - Marks & Spencer
Heeled brogues - New Look
Pearls - BoBijou

Twinkle Toes

Oh dear.



I really did not realise this dress was so short. Inappropriate workwear effort by moi!



From eBay it came and to eBay it shall return. I don't think it'll be made any more decent by wearing it with leggings instead of tights and it's too long to look good layered up over jeans or a skirt. Ah well.

At least I have twinkly shoes to cheer me up! Check out the sparkle:



And the velvet:



And the cosy lining:


Dress - Topshop via ebay
Sparkly tights - Marks & Spencer
Sparkly shoes - Rocketdog


I did originally buy these as a Christmas present for someone and then decided they were far too pretty and promptly bought her something else instead! Hehe. I wasn't going to let them go once I'd got my sticky mitts on them. Sparkly shoes are the best.

The Wedding Outfit

*SOUNDS THE WEDDING KLAXON*

My brother got married on Friday. It was a truly marvellous day from start to finish and I'll be blogging properly about it all later on in the week but as I have a bajillion photos to sort through, you may have a quick outfit post in the meantime.

I knew what I'd be wearing ages ago - hark at me blogging about it in June but I'm so pleased that my plans turned out well. I LOVE this dress. Even more so after I made the bold move to chop 4 inches off it and alter the halterneck a wee bit. Isn't it pretty? And the shoes are gorgeous too. And the seamed tights. And the bows. And, well, everything really. Told you I loved it!

The venue was flipping beautiful but as is the way with old buildings, somewhat on the dark side. Also I was in a hurry and had to rope in the mothership to be my photographer, hence the photos are all a bit dark and not fantastic. Just ignore the slightly dodgy pic quality and tell me I look gorgeous, plskthx.

Oh my god, how fun is it to wear an enormous petticoat? No-one told me about that part! Ok, you need more space to sit down but it looks ace and dancing is way more fun than usual!

You know what else is fun? Sparkly accessories! Lovely Sophie at Crown and Glory made me a big old bow to go in my hair and a matching tiny one to go on my bag. How cute are they?!

Dress, petticoat, belt and jacket - Vivien of Holloway
Shoes - Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Lady Dragon
Bag - New Look
Hair & bag bows - Crown and Glory
Jewellery - inherited and charity shop!
Seamed tights - M&S


ps - I would totally dazzle you with a picture of my beautiful makeup here but Blogger is playing silly buggers with some sort of Halloween "fun" thing and whenever I attempt uploading the photo, it turns my eyes black. I am quite annoyed.

The Unknown Frock

I have quite a good memory when it comes to clothes shopping, probably cos I don't do it often enough for things to blur and get mixed up in my brain. I can usually recall pretty accurately which shopping trip I bought something on, which charity shop it came from or more importantly, how much it cost.  This frock is a rare exception.  By process of elimination I now think it was from a local charity shop (possibly the weird little Animal Rescue place that has closed down now) but I have no real memory of where I bought it or when. I didn't even remember it was in the wardrobe until I came across it the other day.

And it's a funny one. It looks like crap on a hanger - just a big shapeless piece of black corduroy. It has no brand or size labels.  It has a whacking great hem (possibly taken up from something much longer). It has one pocket, not two, and that's found not on a side seam, but in a curious position closer to the middle instead.  Odd. I assume it was handmade. 

None of that really matters though, it just adds to the air of mystery. I'm very grateful to that unknown person who made it and then gave it away. It's the perfect charity shop find - fits me just right (ok, with the aid of a big belt but I think that helps jazz it up a bit) and made from such super thick, warm material that I don't want to take it off. I imagine it cost about a pound as well, so that's good! Oh how I miss that charity shop. Everything was BOGOF and they had the odd gem tucked away in the clothing rails.










Cord frock - who knows?
Gold flecked tights - Marks & Spencer
Belt - Primark
Shirt & ring - Dorothy Perkins
Shoes - c/o Matalan
Necklace - Accessorize


You know I can't resist a good wobbly, falling-over photo.

ps - apologies for the blurry photos. This is what happens when you take outfit pics at 4.30pm on a winter weekday and aren't very good at standing still.

Shoes and Sparkle

Huzzah!  I have new shoes.  New red shoes to be precise.  

I asked for your advice a couple of weeks ago when I was pondering what type of Converse to choose for my first pair.  Well, the replies were clear on one thing - you all loved Converse and I was about the only person in the world who didn't own a pair.  Not any more though!  There was some sound advice about going for a pair of solid coloured high tops, so I took that and chose a lovely red pair.  Black would have been sensible, green would have been too obvious (I can't have green everything) and white or cream is just asking for trouble where I'm concerned - they would soon have been an attractive shade of dirt.  Red it was.  I do enjoy a bit of sassy colour on my feet.

The jumper was a holiday purchase when we popped into Harrogate for a spot of shopping.  I wasn't going to buy it.  Honestly, I wasn't.  It was lurking on a sale rail but there was no reduced price sticker on the label and besides, I never buy burgundy things.  I don't suit them; I'm too pale.

I am a notorious sucker for #wardrobezoo related things though and that made it worth taking up to the till to check if it really was on sale or not.  It turned out that it was and that, combined with the lure of glittery gold owls, proved too strong for me to resist.  I'm so easily pleased.

Little detail on the back of the jumper

Jumper - M&S Limited Collection sale
Skirt - Warehouse
Socks - Primark
Converse high top trainers

Oh, and did I mention that they're amazing and I love them?  I will probably end up with about eleventybillion pairs now.  Just you wait and see.

Shopping

I am poorly.  So as not to inflict my general deathlike pallor and bright red nose on you (sound like a clown, don't I?), I am holding off on outfit photos for a few days.  Instead, I shall share with you some of the aforementioned stuff that I've picked up recently.

Pretty new bedding from Ikea.  I do love a good bit of toile print fabric, so I was v. pleased to discover this.  It's not green but then we can't have everything, can we?

Knee high socks from Primark.  I muchly enjoy knee high socks but decent ones are not that easy to find.  Either they fall down, or they're secretly over-the-knee socks with misleading packaging, or they make my legs look super stumpy.  These are cute and vaguely sporty, and at £2 a pair, I'm definitely going back for the black ones.

 

Also from Primark, some fab little boots.  These are a nightmare to photograph - does anyone else find that with red stuff?  They're a gorgeous deep, dark berry colour in real life but it isn't quite showing up here, no matter how much I faff around in PicMonkey.  It's not a colour I wear much of, but in the world of footwear, anything goes.

A swanky bra and pants set from the Rosie for Autograph collection from M&S.  I don't normally do fancy underwear, or even matching underwear.  But it was payday and this was pretty (and green), so I bought it.  And it wasn't that expensive - more than I usually spend but not exactly Agent Provocateur prices or anything.

Also Bananagrams, which is indeed awesome.  If you haven't played it, you really need to.  It's like Scrabble on crack.  Or a crossword race.  Either way, it's brilliant and I love it and I will happily have a game with anyone that asks.

 

 

Definitely NOT being included in the list above are the Primark tights that I bought at the same time as the boots and socks.  The fleecy lined pair felt amazing and cosy at first but seeing as they spent most of the day descending down to knee level, I didn't exactly get much benefit from them.  The nice green non-fleecy lined pair were even worse, despite being a size L/XL.  I am 5'2.  I am not that fat.  There's no way in hell that a size L/XL should be that small/badly made that they need to be clutched at the waist all day to keep them from falling down. 

 

If you ever see me even vaguely tempted to buy tights from there ever again, slap my hand and point me in the other direction.  Preferably to M&S or Dotty P because their tights might be pricier but at least they fit and last well. 

 

And on that deeply grannyish note, I am off to buy a new box of tissues.

Black and Gold

Yup, I wore gold sequins to work this week.  No-one batted an eyelid.  Whether that means they're just used to me by now or that dress codes don't mean much in our place or probably both, I'm happy with it.  I couldn't cope with having to have a whole separate wardrobe full of clothes for work.  I begrudge spending money on sensible things as it is - having to fork out for boring workwear would be a step too far.  And what would it to do to my lovely colleague who likes to start her day off by having a look at what ridiculous thing I've got on if I sat at my desk in black polyester and plain heels all the time?  She'd find it as deeply dull as I did.

I don't like dull.  I like impractically decorated shoes and monster tshirts.

Jacket - c/o French Connection
Tshirt - Hero and Cape
Skirt - H&M sale
Boots & gold flecked tights - Marks & Spencer
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale

I'm so pleased with the tshirt.  As soon as I saw the monster peeking out from behind green tissue paper, I knew it would be good.  I had some slight issues with the previous tshirt I ordered from Hero and Cape - nothing to do with the quality, I just have too short a neck for a high round-neck collar! - and had to alter it a bit to suit my funny shape, but this one is great.  They've expanded the product range and the new fabric and cut options are perfect.  And the beauty of it being a small company is that the personal touch is there and they're happy to swap designs and tshirt styles if you ask them.  Not that I needed it with this one, but it's always useful to have the option available.

Chloe and I were tshirt twins way back when and when I spotted the new moustachioed monster design, she was the first person I had to go "Have you seen it?!" to.  She is a woman of excellent taste after all.  Naturally we ended up expanding our twinny collection and both bought it.  Doesn't she look lovely in it?  Ah, to be that slim...