Traffic People "Mia" Jacket

 

Jacket: Traffic People 'Mia' jacket

Dress: Tara Starlet 'Peggy' dress

Stud small heel pumps: Monsoon

 

On Friday night my baby and I stepped out to the theatre together, to see The Sherman Theatre's production of 'Say It With Flowers', about Welsh diva Dorothy Squires.  Dorothy liked her fur and feathers, so I thought it the perfect opportunity to wear this great little 1930's inspired jacket from Traffic People with faux fur cuffs.  Sometimes it's nice to have something 'fun' to wear, isn't it?

The Hills Are Alive!

I am incredibly lucky to live in such a beautiful place as Wales.  A short drive and we're up in the mountains of The Valleys, an area of South Wales that was characterised for a long time by heavy industry.

    

From the hill top you could see all the way back down to Cardiff and the sea!  Amazing.  I had to wear very non-vintage trainers for the steep climb, but did manage to wear a pretty 1930s/1940s brooch on top that I recently bought at the car boot sale for £2.  A bargain.  I love the Spring colours.

 

We certainly savoured every drop of sunshine over the weekend, and I realised that Wales is very beautiful when it's not covered in grey depressing cloud.  It's probably a good job it's not sunnier, as then everybody would want to move here!

How Much Does Your Style Cost You?

If you can't honestly answer that question with any degree of certainty, I recommend you take a hard look at your finances and work out if you're a clothes-a-holic like me!

I am in full-on thrifty mode at the present time, scrimping and saving all my pennies as I have an uncertain employment future, dependent on various contracts and one big interview.

I have realised that I might have to ease off on the shoe and dress purchases.  I was browsing on the Money Saving Expert site (an excellent resource, please do have a look!) and in one of the forums people are pledging their clothing purchase limits for 2013.  Some are vowing to spend only £500, others as little as £100.  'Hmm, maybe two hundred quid, I could probably do that!', was my thought.  I then totted up what I've already spent on clothes this year and was shocked to see that I'm already at around £200, and we're only a third of the way in.  How has that happened?!

Here's what I've bought in 2013 (items paid for entirely with cash, not including gift cards leftover from Christmas):

• Cervin red tights from Kiss Me Deadly, £17 and I haven't even worn them yet.

 

• Mango fitted orange cardigan, £11 in the sale, wool mix, such a star buy.
• Grey beaded belt from Anthropologie, £14.95 in the sale

• Traffic People jacket, £39 in the sale

• Anthropologie peplum top, £24.99 in the sale

 

• Charity shop pale blue wool jumper, £5.99
• Fuschia tights, 50p 
• Red wool beret from Accessorize, £14
• 2 dresses from Sainsbury's, £21 in sale
• 2 cardigans from Primark, £6 each
• M&S tights, £10
• Boots from J Shoes, £45 in sale

In addition to all of the above, I also had gift cards to use up and bought a silk Hobbs dress, knickers from Boux Avenue, and a lingerie set from Kiss Me Deadly.  Plus, I won a pair of knickers in a contest!

I don't think my problems of not having the right outfit to wear to particular events are going to be solved by continually buying more things, I think the answer is being a bit more clever about how I wear things.  Here are some suggestions I came up with on how to make your wardrobe work harder for the money: 

1.  Work out the difference between what you want, and what you need
Everytime you think "Hmm, I need a plain black cardi/white blouse/colourful shoe" to make that outfit work, write it down!  If after a few months you've had the same problem several times, maybe you do need to buy an item to help you get the most out of your wardrobe.  Otherwise, it would be a waste.

2.  Get rid of what you don't wear
This is a tough one, but it's hard to see beyond the clutter sometimes.  I've got a 1930's green skirt suit that hung in my wardrobe for years, and years.  I eventually came to the hard decision to sell it.  It's in my friend's vintage shop right now, but if it doesn't sell there I will put it on Ebay.  Having a wardrobe full of items you do actually wear will make choosing an outfit so much quicker, and selling things will make you a bit of money back.

3.  Get a different perspective
If you've got an item and you are at a loss of ideas of what to wear it with, enlist some help - ask a friend, look at pictures online to see how others wear something similar.  I bet you've already got the perfect items to team it with in your wardrobe somewhere, you don't need to buy something new to go with it!

4.  Rotate your wardrobe
If, like me, having your entire wardrobe out at any one time is physically impossible, you'll need to rotate things so that you give items a fair chance of being worn.  My task in the next few weeks is to have my winter coats dry cleaned and put away, and unleash the Spring coats and jackets from their vac-pack prisons.  No doubt, at the same time I will unearth a dress/jumper or other forgotten item and wear it to death for a few weeks, giving me the lovely feel of having something new, but without me having spent anything.

5.  Be more critical
Do you wear things that you're not 100% happy with?  I had a red skater dress that I loved, but everytime I put it on I realised that the waistband was about 2 inches higher than where my waist was.  There was also a sun dress that made me look frumpy.  Taking a more critical look at whether something fit perfectly helped me whittle down my filled-to-bursting wardrobe, and has also helped me rein in my spending dramatically.  It has to be perfect.

I'd love to hear if you are all aware of how much you spend on clothes?  Or if your head's in the sand about it?

P x

Gatsby Dresses In the Shops

The Great Gatsby is released in UK cinemas this coming week (Thursday 16th May), and I know that some people are desperate for a flapper fashion fix!  Look no further, here's a round up of Gatsby inspired dresses available on the British high street.

They key things to look for are drop waists and embellishments (frills, fringeing or beading), in either sleeveless or short sleeve styles. The drop waist doesn't always suit any but the most willowy of figures, so I'm including some alternatives, which generally have a nipped in waist and a hem that flares out instead.  Most of the dresses featured below are evening styles, but there are a couple of fun day options by Jaeger, Yumi and Reiss too.

First of all are the classic drop waist styles.

 

'Emma' dress by Jaeger, £80

(Also available in navy stripe)

 

Yumi drop waist dress, £50

 

 

French Connection crochet dress, £130

 



Flapper dress by Jigsaw at John Lewis, £325

 

 



Yumi sequin detail dress, £65

 

 

'Julie' dress by 18andEast at Joythestore, £90

(also available in pink)

 

Miss Selfridge flapper dress, £129

 



And now the styles with a more defined waist, for if your figure is more curvaceous but you still crave the flapper look.

'Charlie' dress by Ghost at John Lewis, £145

 

Yumi sun dress, £60

 

 

'Diva' dress by Reiss, £149

 

 

Chesca dress at John Lewis, £250

 

 

The key to making all of these modern dresses look Gatsby-worthy is in the accessories.  Modern stylists will tell you to wear retro-style dresses with modern accessories, so that it doesn't look 'overdone' or like 'fancy dress'.  Ignore them.  To make these dresses work, go the whole hog with the accessories - feathers, metallics, sequins on headbands, clutch bags and t-bar shoes.  If it feels uncomfortable to be this daring, just remember "it's better to be looked over, than to be overlooked".

 

Enjoy being a flapper for the night!

My Birthday in Pictures

First of all, thank you for all of your kind birthday messages!  On the day, a trip to the seaside was in order!  Never mind that the skies were grey and it was drizzling with rain.  Wearing a new dress, the Lindy Bop 'Cassy', I stepped out with my baby.  We caught a train to Penarth, and went for tapas and cocktails, before marching down to the pier in the rain.

 

I loved wearing my peacock feather hairband, 50p from the car boot sale!

They're rennovating the pier and I'm really excited to see the finished results - the pier was redone in Art Deco style back in the 1930s and I'm hoping that the character will be preserved.  We sheltered from the rain in one of the little covered areas, and sipped whisky from my pale blue leather hip flask to keep warm.

 

Back in the city, more cocktails were drunk.  We started at Browns, and then visited the 'Chapel', a fabulous converted church.  The new lipstick I'm wearing is 'Portrait Pink' by Besame.  It's quite a nude colour.

We headed home then for an M&S dinner, and to watch the Robert Reford version of 'The Great Gatsby'.  A perfect birthday!

Birthday Breakfast

It's my birthday, how exciting!  My baby and I are going to have a day out, the sunshine has unfortunately been replaced with grey cloud and rain showers, so no birthday picnic as planned, perhaps we'll have to make do with a nice pub lunch instead.

I've had some rather lovely presents, look at them!

I'm a lucky, lucky girl!

Now, on to the subject of birthday breakfasts.  I believe in special breakfasts on special occasions - sitting down with your nearest and dearest, and enjoying a good feed, rather than grabbing some toast on the hoof or just opting for cereal, as I often do on a working day.  This morning I first of all had a cup of Earl Grey and a slice of chocolate cake (Mr Wiggles, a caterpillar cake!).  This was followed by a glass of cava, and Omelette Arnold Bennet.  If you haven't experienced this light-as-a-cloud omelette, invented at the Savoy Hotel in the 1920s, I recommend you give it a go on your next special occasion.  It's worth the effort.  I follow the recipe from Daisy Garnett's excellent book, 'Cooking Lessons', but have adapted it to use smoked salmon instead of haddock, and don't add parmesan.

100g smoked salmon
100ml cream
Knobs of butter
4 free range eggs
Seasoning

There are three stages to this recipe - first of all, combine the cream, knob of butter and salmon in a saucepan, and heat through gently.  Separate your eggs - the yolks are beaten with a splash of cream and black pepper.  The whites are whisked until forming soft peaks.  Add the yolks to the saucepan, then fold in the whites.  Heat another knob of butter in a heavy-based frying pan and pour in the combined mixture.  Over a medium heat, let it gently cook until it's fairly set, then finish it off under the grill.  Voila!

Baking, Lunching & Cowboys

My baby turned 40, so we had to celebrate hard!  First of all we had a lovely lunch in a converted water pumping station with his parents, to which I wore my Lindybop dress (another great gift!).  I always think purple is quite autumnal, so I wore it with a lilac cardigan and cream ballet pumps and kept the make-up light to make it feel a bit more in keeping with the spring sunshine.

Isn't he handsome?  And doesn't look 40 at all.  We ended up baking a Victoria sponge afterwards and having a proper afternoon tea with vintage cups and saucers.

The main celebration was a Cowboy themed party on Friday night - luckily the weather held so we had a campfire in a very magical garden lit with fairylights and lanterns.  I always like a Cowboy party, I get to wear my vintage thrift finds!  I went 'new' Nashville to start, with a denim mini skirt and a western shirt, and then changed into 'old' Nashville with my traditional Patsy Cline look dress with red fringeing.  Unfortunately I don't have many photos, as I was too busy drinking rum by this point.

My birthday is only 6 days apart, so I think we are just going to carry on with the celebrations, no point in stopping is there?