she's addicted to clothes

Another madly busy Thursday, so forgive me if I post an outfit and dash.

Details:

Jumper: Thrifted, no tags. 

Necklaces: Found objects on chains by Religion, remixed.

Belt: Vanzetti, remixed.

Shorts: S.C.O.U.T., remixed.

Chain bracelet and leather cuffs: Fossil and Pilgrim. This sort of butch bangle is my current favourite accessory, and shows no sign of losing that title soon.

Tights: M&S, remixed.

Shoes: Remixed. A better view of the same shoes I wore earlier this week. Still super comfortable!

Casual Friday. I dress something like this on weekends (or days when I don’t have anything to do that requires smarter clothes) more often than I’d almost like to admit. Shorts, including, and indeed, almost especially, denim ones over black tights is a look that’s been going strong in my area for several years now, and shows no sign of ending. Me, I dressed like this back in college, and haven’t really seen any reason to quit doing so in my more advanced years, because, well, I suppose I’d wear a skirt this short with black tights, right?

Anyway, it gets me into shorts before the weather is ready to, so I’ll probably keep it up at least a few years longer.

Have a great weekend!

Details:

Necklace: Fat Face. 

Jumper: Zara, remixed. This has been the jumper of the winter for me. With any luck, it’ll be too warm for the weather soon. HAHAHAHA.

Tank: M&S, remixed. Glad I got this; olive green is not a passing fancy. Maybe I’ll branch out into a new murky neutral, in lieu of grey. Also HAHAHAHA. Seriously, I looked at my archives the other day, and I have worn so much grey/black/white this winter that even I’m shocked.

Belt: Roma, remixed. Made in England, hooray!

Shorts: Label says “S.C.O.U.T.” I have no idea what that means, and Google isn’t terribly helpful. I bought them at TK Maxx last year, and I sort of wish I could find a long version of these, since they’ve got front pockets like classic jeans, and not side slit pockets like most chinos. I don’t know if I’ve worn these on the blog before, but they’re certainly very remixed.

Tights: M&S, remixed.

Shoes: Deichmann, remixed. My feet are appreciating these a lot, while I treat the bloody corns on my little toes.

Just time for a quick outfit post, and then bed, I’m afraid. Thursdays are often a bit on the long and rushed side, and this one was no exception.

Details:

Necklace: Star by Julien MacDonald for Debenhams, remixed.

Cashmere cardigan: Beth Jordan. I have great bargain cashmere-finding mojo, for which I am grateful. 

Dress: Desigual, remixed. Winterized, oh yes.

Tights: M&S, remixed. I have so many pairs of pink tights, and yet none of them harmonised with the rest of my outfit, so black it was.

Boots: Debenhams, remixed.

Yesterday’s outfit, when photographed, created the effect of a black plinth with a head stuck on it. It looked pretty slick; the spouse thought it looked very chic, but the photo was a wash as for detail. So more black today, yes, but it’s black featuring a colourful pattern and an actual shape!

Also, I was seriously knackered last night. I received, as requested, a FitBit for Christmas, intended as a replacement for my crappy old step-counter, with the bonus that it would help me track my traditionally quite lousy sleep pattern. Except, uh, I didn’t realise I would be sent meaningless badges for meaningless accomplishments like certain step totals and feats of stair-climbing, and if there’s anything I find almost completely irresistible, it’s a meaningless badge for a meaningless accomplishment because OH HEY I WON. I won nothing, of course, except the meaningless badge for the meaningless accomplishment, but that’s apparently enough for me to try to win as many as possible. So I have been, perhaps, walking and climbing ridiculously excessive amounts because OH HEY BADGE.

I’m sure I’ll get bored of it, eventually, but in the meantime, I have to say physical exhaustion is fantastic for helping out with sleep problems. But I’m not bored yet, so I am going to post this and go walk around the block until I get the additional 700-ish steps I need to get a brand new badge.

Details:

Top: This is a 100% merino wool shirt meant as an underlayer for warmth, but it fits so nicely, and it’s thick enough to pass for a thin jumper, and besides I already had it on when it was time to get dressed. The label has an undecipherable logo on it, so no idea of the brand.

Necklace: Boots, remixed.

Skirt: Desigual, Christmas gift from the spouse. Give the man a big round of applause! Did you know Amazon has Desigual? (I get no kickback for that or anything, I’m just THRILLED to have easily-accessible Desigual back.)

Tights: M&S, remixed.

Brogues: Deichmann, remixed.

Starting the new year with shopping my closet, something I’m hoping to do a lot of this year. This dress, an old Retail Chicken win, is one I love but don’t wear very often. I wonder if this is because it’s such a distinctive-looking dress, and if I instinctively keep stuff like that out of heavy rotation, because I wear the hell out of my basics (although, admittedly, I remix them quite a lot) and never think twice about it. Still, I hadn’t worn it in a while, and today it felt like exactly the right thing.

I am so very glad tomorrow is totally the end of the holiday season, because it does feel as if it drags on a bit over here. I don’t begrudge people their time off, but I am glad when public transport goes back to its regular schedule, and the grocery store is open during its standard hours, and the shelves aren’t packed with holiday food I’m long sick of eating. Time to put the brandy cream and mince pies away for another year, I think!

Details:

Necklace: Monsoon, remixed. I think I bought this with this dress specifically in mind; it fits in the neckline very nicely.

Dress: Desigual, remixed.

Bag: Marks & Spencer. Picked up in the post-Xmas sale. This is basically my favourite sort of bag; capacious, easy to get into and out of, and with one good inner pocket, and plenty of room for the various things I pick up over the course of a day.

Tights: No idea, but remixed, and they suck. I’ll be looking to replace these. They’re a good and useful colour, but they feel kind of nasty.

Boots: Faith. These are shockingly comfortable, for the size of that heel. Bless this company and their slightly big size 9 boots. Also, bless Debenhams for always chucking a couple of pairs of those slightly big size 9 boots into their clearance sales, where I find them for ludicrously huge knock-downs. I seldom even bother asking if any given pair of shoes goes up to a 9, which may, or may not, fit, since it appears to be completely random which ones do. Instead, I wait until clearance time, and then look for them on the size 9 rack. (That’s a UK 9, for my North American readers, which is the equivalent of a US 11. I’m more properly a US 11.5, but good luck finding that size anywhere, and I usually size up, unless the straight 11/9 is really generously sized.) I don’t hate my Brobdingnagian feet, but I do hate and bitterly resent the paucity of cute shoes in my size.

2012 can, for the most part, kiss my ass. It was a hard year, folks, and I’m crossing my fingers for a better 2013. There were bright spots — I was pleased with the election results back home — and I made some truly awesome blog friends, but whoa, this one was rough.

A happy, peaceful, and prosperous 2013 to you all, and thanks so much for stopping by, and all the wonderful and supportive comments over the course of the past year, and most especially for your condolences and kind wishes after my mother-in-law’s passing. It’s been a busy December, obviously, and I didn’t have a whole lot of time for visiting around other blogs, and responding individually to comments here, but please know I appreciated them all, and I’m hoping to be more on the ball in the new year.

And this is what I wore to see 2012 out. Luridly-coloured tights always help!

Details:

Necklace: This is either Monsoon or Accessorize, which basically means the same thing, and it is remixed.

Pashmina: Thrifted, remixed. Another highlight of 2012 was how many cashmere and/or silk pashminas I scored in thrift shops.

Dress: Wallis, thrifted. Ah, Wallis. Wallis does such gorgeous prints (and some serious fug as well) but they are all too often let down by their crappy, crappy fibre mixes. This, fortunately, is pure viscose, which happens to be the man-made fibre I actively like. Wallis’ sizing is as wonky as hell, too; I’ve tried on extra smalls that were too big, and likewise, extra larges that were too tight. When they get it right, though, they’re awesome.

Bag: Oasis, remixed.

Tights: M&S, remixed. The most wonderful time of the year is M&S’s post-Xmas clearance, when I acquire many of my tights very, very cheaply. (M&S and Dorothy Perkins are my top picks for tights, generally speaking.) These are from a few years back, a colour called Kingfisher, and I’m very glad I snaffled up three pair for a quid each. I stockpile tights to an embarrassing degree, on the grounds that nothing seems as trend-driven as tights colours, and seriously, when a colour is gone from the shops, it is often gone for good. Or so I fear, anyway.

Shoes: Evans, remixed. Evans is one of the few places to reliably carry size UK10 shoes, and sometimes they even carry them in ACTUAL LEATHER. This is one of those times.

2013 minus 1 hour and 45 minutes GMT! See you all in the new year. :)

Another double day, with both this month’s Everybody, Everywear, and of course, the second day of Megan’s and Keely’s Fall Colors challenge. They blended perfectly for me today, as I planned on wearing these burgundy suede boots, weather permitting (it did) anyway, so hopping on the EBEW train as well was easy.

I adore these boots, although I seldom get to wear them, given their seasonal wear window is so small, and so often full of, at the least, drizzle. I’ve treated them, but my trust of weather-proofing sprays isn’t sufficient to make me risk them on a day I know for certain will be rainy. Overcast, but absolutely no rain today, so they were perfect.

Today’s outfit is another example of how when I decide I’m not wearing my comfort zone neutrals, I will often very gleefully go straight over the top with my colour combinations. I think it all works, because the dress itself ties all the colours together pretty nicely. This dress’s silhouette is not one I often wear, since I this sort of cut can make me look disproportionately busty and, of course, long-waisted, but the bodice fit is really good (the rest of the dress is slightly too big, but not unwearably so), I love the length, and the colours and print, so I winterized it with a ribbed tee underneath, and wore it happily.

Not an outfit for blending in, but definitely one for chasing off the encroaching winter blahs.

Details:

Necklace: Wallis.

Ribbed tee: H&M. I am stocking up on these, in colours I like, after the months-long off-season search for a replacement black ribbed tee. Attention tall folk: the sleeves are nice and long on these. Even if I get a bit of shrinkage, they’ll be long enough.

Dress: White Stuff, thrifted, remixed. It’s a nice, heavy jersey, but those capped sleeves and lowish neckline definitely called for layering.

Tights: Dorothy Perkins, remixed. I always say this, but honestly, DP makes the best tights. They really mean it when they say opaque, and they wear like iron.

Boots: Imperia, Duo, remixed.

This has been:

Fall Fashion Challenge: Colors of the Season

and

A very busy day, in which I mostly counted as visible, because I was out doing so much, although I felt great in the outfit, thus I am linking up to Patti’s Visible Monday (number 70!) as I try to every Monday.

So, yeah, the spouse’s crappy old Blackberry died this morning, which, had he not been headed off for the week, probably would’ve been the cue that it’s time for him to make up his mind already and upgrade to an Android. But headed off for the week he was, and dire necessity forced me to race out to buy him a cheapo Stupid Phone that would work with his present SIM/plan. I spared every expense on his behalf, and got a £15 phone that’ll get him through the week, and give us a back-up when he upgrades.

Yeah, I know, fascinating, but that was the first highly visible task of the day, and also explains why my hair is kind of fried in this photo. It was basically nice out when I left, but started with that miserable English drizzle once I was too far away from the house to go back and get my umbrella.

Trust me, though, this is not my usual moaning about the weather, because when I see what’s bearing down on the east coast of the US, yeesh, that’s BAD weather. Keep safe and dry, East Coasters, and I’ve got my fingers crossed for you all.

Wherever you are, have a great Monday!

Details:

Corduroy coat: Laura Ashley, thrifted, remixed. I think this was probably a little too lightweight for the temperature today, but it was crucial to the outfit vision, so I toughed it out.

Ribbed turtleneck: Deane & White. Another staple crossed off the list. This is lovely; it’s a cotton/wool/viscose blend, very soft, and keeps its shape nicely. I only ever see Deane & White jumpers at TK Maxx, and a lot of my best-loved fine-gauge knits are by them. I got curious about them, and a quick Google search suggests that the only place, outside of eBay, where anybody’s ever seen them is at the discounters. So it remains a mystery!

Skirt: Marks & Spencer, vintage, thrifted. This is seriously old; it’s a UK16, and fits me like a modern UK12. Measurements indicate it’s a 30” waist, 41” hips, which seems consistent with most modern UK 12s. Not, mind you, that it fits in the hips, ho ho ho.

Tights: So old I can’t recall, guessing Dorothy Perkins, remixed.

Boots: Malmo, Duo, remixed.

Marks & Spencer, hardly the most cutting-edge retailer to begin with, seem to be going through an exceptionally dull and uninspired phase at the moment. Still, they’re reliable for stuff like pajamas, hosiery, and undergarments, and it seems like every autumn, they have a good handful of very nice lined skirts with interesting patterns, which I patiently stalk until the autumn 50% off sale begins, which it did yesterday, and I snapped up this skirt.

Another thing I like about a lot of M&S’s skirts is that they’ll come in at least a couple of different lengths. This one offered 18- and 21-inch hems, and I opted for the 21-inch. The zig-zag stripes also came in a few different colours, and I vacillated between the blue and the red one, but settled on red, because they didn’t have any of the slightly longer ones in blue in my size. Oddly enough, these skirts I look forward to every year are found in what I think of the more matronly section of the women’s clothes. Oh, man, can M&S do matronly. Everything else is pretty dire, but they have these fab skirts. Maybe they’re a gateway back into younger, (what passes for) hipper (at M&S) clothes for those of us who aren’t quite ready to give up? Anyway, love them, and always happy to add a new one to my collection.

Details:

Turtleneck jumper: Gap, remixed.

Skirt: Marks & Spencer.

Tights: I think these are from H&M, although they might be Dorothy Perkins, remixed. High quality, either way. My tights are all super-organized now - neatly folded and stacked by colour range, pattern, and material, so I can see all my options at once — and it was awesome to be able to toss the skirt down by the red area and see which one matched best.

Suede wedge booties: Debenhams, remixed.

I’m definitely pushing my own boundaries on skirt-length with this one. I pulled it out of my wardrobe this morning, thought, why on earth don’t I wear this? I wore it once before now that I can recall, and I like it, but I haven’t worn it since. Then I put it on, and went, oh, right.

Thing is, after the first few minutes, I didn’t feel at all self-conscious in this. I think a good deal of my comfort in wearing short skirts At My Age, Really is found in the fact that I do not show a lot of flesh as a general rule. My cleavage is usually well-covered, and I mostly wear opaque tights, and ALWAYS wear opaque tights when wearing a skirt this short. My personal go-to rule on skirt length is to ask myself if I’d wear a pair of shorts in the same length, and if the answer is yes, then I’m OK with it. I wouldn’t wear something this short to a formal or otherwise solemn event, but on a day where I’ll mostly just be running errands and such? Definitely.

I have so many body issues and so much fallout from years and years of battling eating disorders. As I’ve said before, the one part of my body I love without reservation is my legs. Always. I’ve loved them at whatever weight or body shape I’ve been at any given time. I am consciously and deliberately rejecting age-based social programming on this one. Only I will determine what is too short and what is age-appropriate for me. After all, I’m not harming a single soul by displaying my legs.

Oh look, I got all manifesto-y there!

Details:

Tee: Dorothy Perkins, remixed. I still badly want a fitted black slash neck jumper, but no joy yet, so I’m making do with this tee.

Necklaces: Various vaguely semi-precious stones, Bijou Brigitte, Liverpool.

Belt: Gap, remixed.

Skirt: Top Shop, remixed. Can’t remember if this is a thrift find or off a clearance rack.

Tights: M&S. I am loving the hell out of having brand new black tights. My old ones were seriously beat.

Boots: Deichmann, remixed.