A Gaudy New Coat Thing

I'm not going to entitle this blog post "Two ways to wear a skater dress" because I'm sure you're all more than capable of dressing yourselves by now and can do it perfectly well without my help. Should you require it, well, I tend to wear my dresses by, y'know, putting them on my body. Not exactly a novel technique but it serves me well.

Having said that, a plain black skater dress is undeniably a most useful thing to own.  Et voila, worn here with my lovely green hedgehoggy jumper and favourite Mel flats for a day at work.



Then glammed up a tad. If by glamming up, we mean wearing something that could conceivably be classed as either a boxing robe or dressing gown. I shall christen it the Kimono Coat. Kimoat? Comono? Nahhh.



It's reversible! Bit more boxing robe-ish when worn with the black outside...



I'll stick to it the other way round I think. Pretty! Not dressing gowny at all, honest.

 So many different Flick Flack colourways but these are still my fave.


Painty hair - occupational hazard at the moment
Dress - H&M
Kimono thingy - Oxfam
Hedgehog jumper - ASOS
Flats - Mel
Shoes - Irregular Choice Flick Flack

Polka Dots and Petticoats

I'm all shopped out. There was not a scrap of shopping enthusiasm left within me when the time came to think about what I was wearing to the work Christmas do. Luckily I'm not the sort of person who finds it essential to have something new for every occasion! I've got about 4 dresses suitable for evenings so I was pretty sure it was going to be one of them that got hauled out of the wardrobe and matched up with a pair of party shoes.

Then I remembered the petticoat I bought for the wedding outfit. It turns out that with the addition of loads of frills an everyday dress can be magically transformed into something fit for a party.



I made this frock back in the summer and it takes a petticoat rather well, doesn't it? The other big benefit over the plainish green frock I was going to wear is that I could go mad with the red accessories rather than sticking to basic black. Any opportunity to whack on the MAC Russian Red lippy and strap on my ridiculously clompy Shellys heels is much welcome!




Dress - I made it
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Shoes - Shellys
Clutch - c/o Matalan
Earrings - New Look
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Bracelet - vintage

The thing I love most about petticoats is swirling round in them. Obviously. But the second best thing is when you step out of it and the entire carpet is a sea of frills. Such fun.

A Party Frock

I was having the party frock horrors a few weeks ago.  I was madly in love with a French Connection green sequinned beauty but nearly had a fit when I looked at the price label.  I might well be a fan of sequins in the daytime but there is no way I could justify spending that much on one dress that, let's face it, would not get worn that often.  I was moaning on about the prospect of having to go naked to the party because there were NO NICE FROCKS ANYWHERE but then ping went my phone and my lovely pal Shell sent me a link to a divine frock on Amazon of all places. Not my usual port of call when looking for clothes online. It was from Strawberry Hill Cottage, was under £25 (score!) and best of all, it was green.  That girl knows me well.  Spookily, she hadn't heard me moaning and just come across it at random.  Fate.  Must be.

So, one party frock duly secured, I scrubbed myself up after work on Monday and headed out to Leaf for the Christmas meal with the gang from work, followed by deliciously strong cocktails at various bars in the city centre. A good night was definitely had.

This is my patented hide-the-matronly-upper-arms pose

This is just me being a complete div.  Oh well, tis party season after all!

The photos don't do the frock justice at all.  It's a wee bit 50s in style and the skirt is much fuller and the shape more flattering than it looks here.  However this house is notoriously terrible for taking outfit photos in (lights are in bizarre places, no plain white walls anywhere) and I didn't want to lug the SLR on a night out, so these photos will have to do!  I'm sure you'll see it in some outfit photos in the future.  My wardrobe has to earn its keep and this will look cute with a cardi and flats during the daytime too.  It's not just a party frock, although it does look fetching when accessorised with a party hat!

Dress - ex C&A stock

Jacket - Warehouse via Oxfam

Bag - H&M

Ring - vintage

Shoes - Dorothy Perkins

I also dressed Ffion for the evening as she's just about to move house and was having a wardrobe crisis, having managed to pack all of her party frocks.  Damn her for looking better in this than I do!

Frock - Ghost

Fake fur coat - vintage

Cats, Cats, Cats

I seem to have been the subject of some appalling customer service this year.  I don't take it well.  Shop assistants have been told off, shops have been walked out of, moany tweets have been written, ranty emails have been fired off... I might be turning into a narky old woman but frankly I feel it's justified.

I won't dwell on the negative stuff.  Well maybe just for a moment ... Merseyrail is an appalling excuse for a company and I would hate them even if they didn't take three weeks to reply to emails.  And Sports Direct are still on my miffed list for telling me that I should buy pink trainers. 

Positive stuff ahoy!

I was perusing the Dorothy Perkins sale a few weeks ago when I saw something that made me go "FJHMN<HKJDBNM GREENCATS!!!"  Unfortunately, as is often the case with the Dotty P sales, I clicked on the item and it turned out to be out of stock in all sizes, causing my hopes to be utterly crushed. CRUSHED, I tell thee. But this wasn't a Dotty P item, it was from Ruby Rocks, so I hopped onto their website and emailed them to ask if they had any lurking in a store room somewhere.

Hopes were duly restored because I got a very nice email back from Jen at Ruby Rocks asking me what size I wanted and passing me onto someone else who might be able to help.  Then into my inbox pinged another very nice email from Gemma at Madam Rage telling me that they'd found one, in my size and it was on sale on their website. Triple hurrah!  So I bought it, it arrived very speedily and I am a happy Alex, spreading the word about good customer service.

It's just such a nice length and colour, oh and did I mention it's all #wardrobezoo-tastic?  Straight to the top of my favourite tops list!

Not just cats but green starry cats!

Blouse - Ruby Rocks, via Madam Rage

Skirt - H&M

Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam

Shoes - Office via ebay

Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale

Scarf - can't remember! I think a present from a blogging chum?

If Wishes Were Clothes, My Wardrobe Would Be A Lot Bigger

Do you ever have wishes about clothing?  You must do.  I am forever browsing the rails in shops and thinking "I wish this came in a different pattern/wasn't made of vile sweaty polyester/wasn't so flipping expensive/wasn't emblazoned with logos" (delete as appropriate, unless the shop is River Island in which case they probably all apply).  My main wish at the moment is that this top came in a different base colour.  I love it so hard but I've tried it on about six times and it still hasn't stopped making me look sallow as hell.  I wanted the dress version (like this but with a cat print top half) even more but it did not suit me at all. Sad Alex.


This is about the only pale top I really have in my wardrobe and I think it escapes the sallow trap by virtue of being so print heavy.  I do still have a wish about it - I wish the shape was a teensy bit different as I have a horror of it looking like a maternity smock - but basically the print is so flipping amazing that I will forgive it a lot.

I call it my vintage ladies top.  I like it very much.

Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam

Top - Uttam London @ Dorothy Perkins

Jeans - Dorothy Perkins

Boots - Marks & Spencer Limited Collection

Pink Rabbits

Sometimes, clothing just doesn't quite work out the way you plan.  In this instance, what I thought was a perfectly respectable length shirtdress on the hanger turned out to be quite indecently short when I got it home and tried it on.  I think H&M has caught New Look-itis.  I am all of 5 feet 2 inches tall - dresses should not be short on me.  I will perhaps forgive it if they're verging on the tunic side of things but this is a shirt dress.  There is no possible way it's meant to be crotch length and especially not on someone my height.  How do you taller people cope?!

Anyway, I didn't want to take it back.  It is a fab addition to #wardrobezoo, so it's staying.  All I needed to do was tuck it in and turn the belt into an impromptu headband.






Top - H&M sale
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Skirt & ring - Primark
Shoes - Dorothy Perkins

Bored of Rain

I thought it was meant to be April showers, May flowers, not April floods, May hailstorms...

I'm fed up with rain. Fed up of damp feet and frizzy hair and still having to wear winter woolly tights.  Mostly I am bored of ruining nice shoes on days when I think it's going to be lovely and sunny and it ends up chucking it down instead.  That's happening a lot recently.  Wellies are the only way forward.

Wellies were not an option for a long time, because they are made by evil so-and-so's who don't seem to realise that people have fat legs.  Even now that my legs are substantially slimmer, I must still have out of proportion chubby calves because I still can't force them into most wellies.  All hail Joules and their adjustable sides.

And their cute prints. Who wants to spend £80 on a pair of Hunters when you can spend £35 on a pair of galloping horse fab ones instead?

Jumper - H&M

Skirt - vintage Welsh tweed via Oxfam, altered by moi

Scarf - no idea.  I've got about 19 in various shades and I don't remember buying any of them

Wellies - Joules

Knee high socks - Primark

Green Spots

Ever put on an outfit that just makes you smile?

This one had me in a good mood all day yesterday.  I just had to look down at my legs and I was happy.  Great big polka dots = fun times.  Also these tights are clearly magic because check out the back of my thigh in the picture below.  Where has it gone?? 

Magic I tell thee.

But anyway, happiness inducing outfit all round.  The jacket and dress both have an extra little coating of satisfaction because they were sale and charity shop purchases respectively.  And we all know that saving money makes things better, yes? 

And this is why I rarely smile in photos. I was feeling happy, honest I was, yet still I look mardy.

They are honestly one of the comfiest pairs of shoes I own.  As long as you remember the zips go on the outside and don't put them on the wrong feet...

Dress - Billie & Blossom @ Dorothy Perkins, sale

Blazer - Warehouse, via Oxfam

Tights - wish I could remember! Possibly a stall in the Rag Market in Birmingham

Boots - Aldo sale

Clutch - Dorothy Perkins, present from Char

Bracelets - presents from Zoe and Chloe

And that, my lovelies, is that. At least for this week. I don't really have anything else to say about the outfit other than I love it, but I think you may have already gathered that.


Before I go though - to anyone that expressed an interest in the Good Reads thing I mentioned in this here post, I shall be in touch very soon. If you didn't see that post, go and have a read and please do leave me a comment if you're interested. The more the merrier!

Altering Vintage

Do we? Don't we? Should we? Shouldn't we?

On the whole, I think go for it. Not with anything precious or very old but alas, life being what it is, I am not likely to own anything like that.

I do often have to battle the nagging voice in the back of my head that says "Should you even be altering this? It is vintage." (the voice says vintage in a very Ab Fab sort of way) Let's not be precious though. Just because something happens to be more than 15 years old is no real reason to preserve it untouched. Fashions and hemlines change and a piece of clothing is far better off being altered so that it fits and is wearable rather than hanging on a rail unloved for all time.

If it was an expensive purchase or difficult to alter, I may consider sending it to someone who is slightly less cackhanded with a sewing machine than I am but with things that aren't quite so old, I don't feel quite so much pressure. I (eventually) have a crack at the alterations myself. Here's one I did last year.

I picked up two very nice Welsh tweed skirts from Oxfam months ago. Rather a snip at £6.99, thought I. But, oh, they were a hideously unflattering length. Look, see for yourself (and ignore the Mitch Benn tshirt. I only realised at the last minute that I should probably take a photo before starting the alterations):

Turns out it wasn't so very difficult to make them look good after all. Measure, pin, hack and hem. Bish, bash, bosh. They're both beautifully made, so it was just a case of trying to do it neatly enough to do them justice.

Additional bonus - a lot of offcuts! I think I shall attempt making a clutch bag. Watch this space. I may get round to it by...ooh...September?

And what do they look like now? Well you can only see one because I haven't photographed them both, but here is the darker of the two. I'm very pleased with the results.






Shirt - Zara, via charity shop
Skirt - vintage, via Oxfam
Cricket jumper - Oxfam. No idea if it's vintage or not, it's just cute
Brogues - Dune, via TK Maxx
Coat - Kookai, via car boot sale
Gloves - Accessorize