Blue shoes and braces

I discovered a fabulous but worryingly addictive website this week. Shoeaholics does exactly what it says on the tin and was the perfect place to satisfy my craving for absurdly high and hopelessly impractical shoes. There are loads of shoes and boots from previous seasons from Kurt Geiger, Carvela, Nine West and more. I was on my everlasting hunt for the perfect ankle boot but ended up buying these little lovelies reduced from £210 to not very much at all, honestly . Bargain.

Of course they are blue and I never wear blue (you may well ask why I bought them...but I refer you back to the fact that they are lovely and a BARGAIN, stupid), so I've been struggling as to what on earth to wear them with, without resorting to all black or even more shopping (heaven forbid!).

In the end I chose this navy jersey shirt as one of a very few blue items in my wardrobe. Usually I'd wear it with jeans (of course) but today I was brave and paired it with these flannel trousers from ASOS... the dilemma was braces up or down, what do you think?

Shirt: Old
Trousers: ASOS (this season)
Shoes: Kurt Geiger, from Shoeaholics

As November draws to a close it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas in Sickofmystylerut towers. I have just put together this advent calendar tree for the girls. I can't wait for them to start opening them...and I'm secretly hoping there may be a pair of those Kurt Geiger heels in red nestling in my advent calendar!

Advent Calendar bags: Ikea, this year
Tree: Next (old)
Presents: Mostly Primark!

Biker and boots

I love the idea of toughening up a pretty dress with a biker jacket. Love it.

I've just never, actually, you know, tried it. I think I was always worried about looking a muttony fool, fortunately after twenty five days of my style challenge I'm getting fairly numb to that! So today I snuck into big DD's bedroom and appropriated her black leather biker jacket (this season's River Island but I promised to look after it and return it straight to her wardrobe and not leave it in a crumpled heap, honestly!)

All the pictures I liked showed leggy celebs in summer dresses and bare legs-but that could be potentially life-threatening in frosty Leeds. So although I wore a summer dress (Jigsaw this year) it was a heavy jersey one, layered with plenty of heat-tech tops and teamed with thick opaques, boots and a scarf. It seems that all the don't-go-out-like-that-you'll-catch-your-death-of-colds I heard from my Mum did have an effect after all.

Dress: Jigsaw
Scarf: Zara (old)
Jacket: River Island (this season)
Boots: Moda in Pelle (this season)
Thermals: Uniqlo

Looking fab...The Style Crusader

Daisy Lowe

Loving the Mulberry jacket

Chunky knit, or just plain chunky?

Just before I embarked on this fashion challenge, I put a plaintive post on Mumsnet asking the Style & Beauty gurus to name their essential items for the new season... Chunky knits they all replied.

Sigh.

You see, when you're short of stature and possessed of anything more than the weeniest curves the chunky knit is a tricky beast to master. Too short and you look boxy, too tight... et voila: overstuffed saucisson. Worst of all, in anything long and voluminous, with my little limbs sticking out, there's a serious danger of resembling one of the M and M men. Not a good look.

So I have tried on jumper after jumper, cheap, expensive and plenty in-between, until I found this burgundy number on the H&M website (half-price, just £15 at the moment.)

 I fully expected it to be horrid but it feels soft, hangs well and it doesn't make my hair stand on end with static, result! I'm so chuffed that I put an order in straight away for the cream one (think how much money I'm saving!)
 If you're equally tempted, it's a good idea to size up as the H&M sizing can be truly tiny.

Jumper: H&M
Waxed jeans: River Island (this season)
Boots (Select)
Bag: Louis Vuitton (pressie from kind MIL)

Spot the difference!!!

Red or dead?

It's official, Butlin's chic is back! 

No really, lots of the magazines have been extolling the virtues of a red coat this season and Taylor Swift, Peaches Geldof and Kate Middleton have been flashing their pops of colour this autumn ( a bizarre and random selection of slebs I know...but there you are.)

Of course, the reason this caught my eye is the scarlet Whistles crombie-style coat that's been hanging in my wardrobe for over 10 years. Oh yes, another day, another feeble excuse to drag an old and neglected item out. However, I've been rather wary about wearing too much red since a very good school friend was told she looked 'like a period' when dressed head-to-toe in a fetching ruby ensemble (13 year old boys can be horribly cruel). So my coat was diluted with a black jumper dress (new from H&M and very cosy and wearable), boots and some extremely thick opaques to disguise the fact that my little legs were out on show.

Now I just need a few white furry accessories and I'm ready to channel my inner Mother Claus this festive season!

Coat: Whistles (old, see below for alternatives this season)
Boots: Moda in Pelle (this season)
Snood: ASOS (this season)
Jumper dress: H&M (this season, part of the basics range, can't find it on website)

Snood from ASOS

Jill Sander show A/W 2012





And some lovely red coats from Coast this year, I am particularly in lust with the dark red funnel neck coat. Maybe you can never have too many red coats?

Double denim

Kylie's been out and about, looking perky and pretty in double denim...but is it something that normal forty-somethings can wear? I mean, I have done double-denim in the past, hell, in the eighties I probably managed triple denim, like Kylie. Unlike Kylie though, I am a very unperky Mum from Yorkshire, so I rather suspect those days are well and truly behind me.

Anyway, in the spirit of experimentation (and to be honest, safe in the knowledge that I was going nowhere apart from the school run today, so potential humiliation was kept to a minimum) I dipped into one of the trickiest of fashion challenges.

To avoid being too costume-y, I made sure my denims were not the same shade and broke it up with tan accessories (getting good use of another pair of old midi heels) and a flash of (very chilly) ankle. When I left the house I chucked on a trench to hide it all  lessen the impact but was still treated to a suppressed snigger from the dds...but I'm getting used to those!

I quite like the general feel of the outfit but will definitely wear it with a navy fitted blouse, black polo or a classic white shirt next time and leave doubling up to international superstars!

Shirt-New Look (old but very similar here)
Jeans- Zara
Bag-Pressie from M&D :)
Shoes:Old tan middies
Belt: Old

Trench:Whistle (old)

How to do it?

Going gothic

After my colour explosion, I rebelled with full black on black last night (ahhhh, the relief). I was dropping DD at the cinema to see Twilight then off for a bite to eat with DH and maybe the vampire vibe overtook me. If Michael Sheen needs someone to bolster his pack of Volturi...I'm definitely his girl!
Apart from my Gok black skinnies (are these becoming my new uniform, I wonder?) everything was very old and much loved but similar items are everywhere in the shops this season (Shop the Gothic style at ASOS).

Maybe, like vampires the Victorian goth look never really dies!

Cami: Zara
Shirt: Ronit Zilka (old)
Jeans: Gok at Sainsburys
Boots:YSL

Black velvet coat: Vivienne Westwood (old, sale purchase)

Playing with colour

A quick flick through my blog and it's obvious that I'm not great with colour. If in doubt I head for black, if I wear a little colour I mix it with black. Colour just makes me nervous.

I had my colours 'done' years ago and for those of you that understand these things, I'm a Winter. I was given a folder bulging with jewel-bright swatches and rich tones, emerald and forest green, peacock and blood red, turquoise and cerise-but all I could focus on was the fact that black, white, and grey were acceptable too, am I a hopeless case?

Well, this challenge is all about trying new things, so, today I decided I wasn't going to wear any black. None. Nada. Not at all.

I have an ancient burgundy suede midi-skirt and I felt sure it should be perfect for this season but whenever I put it on (usually, quelle surprise, styled with black boots and top) it looked tired, dare I say it Mumsy and felt very dated. Well I know it really is, technically, very dated but I wondered if colour could give it a lift. I found this stripy jumper reduced to the ridiculous price of £3.99 in H&M and added my tartan H&M picnic blanket  scarf. My boots (also absurdly cheap and last featured here), tights and belt were chocolate and even my undies were purple (although I'll spare you the pics of those.)

I was feeling like a glorious splash of clashing colours on a grey gloomy day and was even toying with hunting down my book of swatches, when darling DD said
" I wonder what people will think of your costume...errr...I mean, outfit?!"

So now I'm feeling slightly paranoid that I look like I'm in fancy dress again!

Skirt: Oasis (very old)
Jumper: H&M (this season but I can't find it online)
Scarf: H&M (also new but can't find it online)
Tights: Primark
Boots:  Select
Belt: Zara

Midi Mum

Now, as you may know from my earlier ramblings I am paranoid about my stumpy legs and utterly committed to the highest heels to disguise them. Why then am I soooo very excited about the resurgence of the midi-heel? The simple truth is I have loads of them, cluttering up my cupboards, relics of a time when I spent money on my feet and not kid's extra-curricular activities. Of course, they weren't called midi then. Oh no! They were considered incredibly high. If fashion continues to evolve at this rate we may actually be wearing stilts in ten years time...I can't wait!

Anyway, bloggers from All worn out and Susie So-so are rocking their new heels, so feeling inspired, I pulled these pointy little Gucci mules from their crumbling box (an anniversary pressie from DH years ago.) Truth be told it was a little chilly to be baring my ankles...but beauty is pain and their rather fetching shade of blue matched my navy military jacket beautifully!

Pinstripe jacket: Topshop (old)
Black long-sleeved T-shirt: Whistles
Jeans: Zara
Shoes: Gucci (ancient)

In other news, our lovely dog turned up for her second date looking glossier than Jennifer Aniston on Oscar night and...we think she was...ahem...successfully covered. She is now lounging on her cushion like a contented woman of the world,  just 60 days to wait to see if some little puppies arrive.

Back to black

Prize giving at school this evening, a very conservative affair, definitely not a time for fashion experimentation. It was a wild, wet and windy night in Leeds so I pulled on an old favourite wool coat dress and tried to jazz it up a little with Minnie Mouse patent heels and my new favourite statement necklace.

I'm aware that it looks more than a little dull...which made it absolutely perfect for the occasion- and luckily the gentle clanking of the pearls stopped me from dozing off completely!

Dress: DVF (old)
Shoes: Russell and Bromley (also ancient but similar here)
Necklace: EBay

Skinny Flair?

I spotted photos of Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss out and about in 'skinny flares.' They were proclaimed the new shape, meaning that skinnies are allegedly heading towards fashion history . Now I really am confused, isn't a skinny flare just a posh new name for a bootcut? Have I actually been a fashion forward style guru all along?  Looking at the pics though, I think the jeans have a bigger flare...or is it just because VB has such amazingly skinny thighs they look massive in comparison?

Anyway, I so happen to have a pair of sort-of-skinny-flare black jeans in my wardrobe. I bought the wrong cut by mistake as an E-bay 'bargain' and have never worn them, because, of course they were too flared and rather tiny. So, I dragged them out and squeezed myself into them to try and emulate the VB look and see if it works on decidedly thunderier thighs. I mixed it with a Zara geometric print shirt, thereby ticking off another seasonal trend.

So what do you think? Bootcuts or boot out?

Jeans : JBrand
Green shirt: Zara
Wedge ankle boots: Aldo (old but similar here)
Necklace: Urban Outfitters (last season)
Belt: New Look 

VB showing off because she's soooo slim, she can fit both hands in her jean pockets!

Flat feet

Today is the big day for our labrador and it was my job to escort her on her damn good seeing to  date. Now, even I know that it would not be appropriate to swoop in, swathed in animal prints and tottering on stilettos like Cruella deVille. So, I needed a more huntin', shootin', fishin' look. My wardrobe is distinctly lacking in green tweed and flat shoes, so I plundered little DD's, even borrowing her gorgeous birthday riding boots from Aldo (with thanks to my mum who bought them).

Now usually my shrunken achilles go into spasm at the mere thought of a flattie but these felt fabulously comfortable and I thought they looked good too (legs shorter and chunkier, of course, but not disastrous). When she grows out of them, they will definitely have a new home in my closet.

Anyway, we stood in the pouring rain for an hour while they sniffed, flirted then sniffed some more. Suffice to say, no business was got down to, so we're back again for another go on Friday.

Maybe a trip to Agent Provocateur is in order before then?

Green shirt: Zara (old)

Scarf: Zara

Boots: Aldo

Jeans: Gok at Sainsburys (I know, again, will give them a week off now!)

Quilted Jacket: Republic (old)

Knitted beret: H+M (old, similar here)

To the maxi...

There are some things in my (and probably everyone else's) wardrobe that cost too much to throw away, even though they've hung, neglected and unloved for years. My silver maxi skirt (and matching cardigan) hasn't left the rail for well over a decade. But it cost an eye-watering amount at the time, it was a thing of beauty so I couldn't bring myself to chuck it out. I bought it in a panic for a wedding in the fog shortly after childbirth and somehow silver velvet never seemed appropriate for the school run!

If I'm going to get through these fifty days without going naked, or bankrupting myself, some of these forgotten garments are going to have to be worn. So tonight for a girly charity shopping evening (all, terribly North Yorkshire dahling) I will mostly be wearing silver and I'm just steeling myself for a general chorus of...oooh why are you all dressed up then?

I tried to dress it down a la doesmybumlook40 with a scarf and a leather jacket but with my stumpy pins flats were out of the question, I had to balance on massive Aldo wedges just to stop my hem trailing in the Yorkshire mud...aaaahhh it's a glamorous life!

Leather military jacket: Day, Birger et Mikkelsen (old)
Scarf: Ark (old aka 'The Mumsnet scarf)
Skirt: Edina Ronay (ancient)
Huge wedges: Aldo
Jumper: Uniqlo

A little leopard

So, animal print is apparently another of the season's BIG things. I'm not going to lie, I do have a weakness for a bit of leopard- but is it possible to wear it over forty without looking like Bet Lynch, or worse a presenter off Loose Women?

I was shopping with DD and pulled out these leopard lovelies from Whistles  and Warehouse which have beautifully soft and subtle tones.

I was about to try one, when my ruthlessly honest 15 year old daughter said that they were definitely not for me and (shudder) that they reminded her of the sort of things desperate mums at school wore to try and look younger than they really were. 

Ouch. 

So, I'm restricting my animal print to scarves and this cream shirt from Urban Outfitters. Nothing else.
..although a bag would be fab. Just let me quickly start googling again!

Shirt: Urban outfitters
Black boucle coatigan: Monsoon (old but available on Ebay)
Pearl bracelets: Claire's Accessories
Black jeans: Gok at Sainsburys
Boots: Moda in Pelle

Skirting the issue

Over a week's gone by without a dress or skirt appearing on the scene. They've been tried on lots...but never actually made it downstairs. Is it just me or is it very difficult to put a casual outfit together with a skirt? I think the main problem is my aversion to flat shoes ( because of my short legs...ergo, the main problem is my short legs, which is something I have always known!) Skirts with chunky jumpers and biker boots can look gorgeous but they make me look like a prop forward in drag. So my search for the right ankle boots, to transform my legs into Elle McPherson's continues. I've been surreptitiously eyeing up my daughter's feet, she has a version of these from Topshop:

They seem to go with everything and are deceptively high but chunky enough to look more relaxed. But is it beyond the pale to buy the same stuff as your daughter? And do they just look good because she's 15 and has waaaaaaaaay better legs (and, frankly, better everything else) than me?

I'm also tempted by these two lovelies, also from Topshop...I think I'll just hum and haaa a little longer, probably until they're all sold out in Lilliputian sizes.   

Anyway, back to skirts, I am determined to wear at least one outfit with skirt or dress a week, so that meant today. 

After much aimless rummaging, I fell back on an old  vintage Westwood skirt I bought cheaply on Ebay and as I was running late by then it was put with that old fallback the safe black jumper and an old snood from River Island. I am loving a snood, I used to have one when Kajagoogoo wore them in the eighties and now that Limahl is back on our tellies they're back in. That can't be a coincidence, surely?!

Skirt and coat: Vivienne Westwood from EBay
Snood:River Island
Jumper: Tesco cashmere (old and holey)
Boots: LKBennett

Trench foot

I'm starting to wonder whether this style challenge is bad for my feet. After another fruitless search for the perfect, affordable and non-mumsy ankle boots I found a pair of plastic platforms from Select that were ridiculously cheap and although they are hookerishly high, rashly, late at night after a glass or two of wine, I bought them. Which may sound vaguely familiar.

I mean, I love quality shoes- but I want need quantity too; brown and black, boots and pumps, suede and patent, chunky and pointy, high and even higher. I have an inner Imelda Marcos fighting to get out, sadly without the budget to set her free. I have tiny feet and used to be fabulously lucky in the sales but now everyone's feet are getting bigger and bigger, so the pesky shopkeepers don't bother with little twinkletoes like mine and I never get bargains. Sob.

Anyway, the boots have arrived and they genuinely look better than the £10 they cost and don't actually make my toes go into spasm are very comfy. But still, they are rather plasticky and if you look closely there are blobs of glue showing, so today,  I kept the rest classic with a camel trench, breton and ink-wash jeans, to try and compensate. I think it works... from a distance at least.

Now, sober and sensible, I'm wondering whether I should have just saved the cash and bought better quality in the Christmas sales.

My hubby always says, never buy cheap shoes....don't you just hate it when your DH is right?!

Trench: Whistles (old but similar at Banana Republic)
Breton: Zara, also old but this is an alternative that I covet
Jeans: Gok at Sainsburys
Bag: Louis Vuitton (Gift from kind MIL)

Boots: Select

Wide-legged or just wide?

I found a pair of Coast palazzo pants languishing, barely worn, in the far reaches of my wardrobe, looking all elegant and willowy as palazzos do. I thought it would be a perfect new look for me and pictured myself wafting gracefully in them, maybe with a glass of champagne (and a beret in my more ridiculous musings).

Here's the thing. It is impossible to look willowy and graceful when you're 5 ft 2, you can look petite or neat or perky or if you're gifted with the right sort of curves, you can have a little va-va-voom. But willowy? Never, goddammit, I think that requires longer limbs.

So I felt fabulous in my ensemble, right until the moment I looked in the mirror. Down to earth with a bump. I nearly got changed but I was late meeting a friend so I just had to go, trousers flapping frantically around my ankles. But bizarrely, she really complimented me (although she is lovely and always very kind) and the photo is a little better than I feared. So I've left them on... I did ditch the beret though!

Trousers: Coast, similar here
Cami: Zara old but still available here
Star blouse: Zara old but similar here
Obi belt: Miss Selfridge, last year
Bag: Lulu Guinness (quite old but here are alternatives)

Westwood ho!

I've come to realise that my wardrobe is weird. There are loads of grotty old tops and bootcut jeans that are frayed at the hem because my legs are too short.  Then, scattered like jewels are a few absurdly expensive items that I splurged on, when I really should have been investing in useful clothes that I can wear every day.

You see, I have a weakness for Vivienne Westwood, which really doesn't fit with my dull and predictable everyday style, or indeed my dull and predictable everyday life.

My Mum bought me a black velvet corset for my 21st birthday (I still wear it occasionally if I'm feeling particularly brazen) and I fell in love. Since then I've collected another half a dozen items that I discovered in sales, e-bay and the like. If I had limitless funds (slight pause here for wistful dreaming) I would be Helena Bonham Carter (but with higher shoes) in Viv every day. But I'm not, so I keep hunting!

Which brings me guiltily to today's purchase, this little beauty from The Outnet. Yes, I know this doesn't technically count as a small, cheap item to supplement my existing wardrobe. Fortunately, I've already prepared my excuses: It was a totally bargainous price, it is tartan (which, no doubt you'll remember is one of this season's BIG THINGS), it will go with everything (I may be stretching the truth just a teensy bit there), it is classic Westwood and I'll be able to wear it when I'm eighty... yadayadayada...so, do you think DH is going to fall for all that guff?

Anyway, I greedily unwrapped the package and put it straight on and... it is fab. You may hate it but I really love it. With a passion. In the spirit of experimentation I wore it with my black Gok jeans and lace-up ankle boots but my legs look absurdly short  and stumpy in the photo so I'm not sure that was a good idea.

Still, it's a good excuse to wear the jacket again with new jean and boot combinations, ahhh, happy days.

Jacket: Anglomania
Jeans: Gok at Sainsburys
Cami: Zara
Necklace: Ebay
Boots: LK Bennett (last year)

Red wine and chocolate

Mmmm red wine and chocolate, two of my favourite things so by putting them together I can't go wrong...can I?

In a rush of blood to the head I bought some chocolate coated jeggings (that's chocolate coloured, not actually chocolate coated which would be delicious but rather messy) with zips from River Island. I'd lost some weight and was overcome with being able to fit into something so skinny, shiny and small. Of course as soon as I got them home and ripped the labels off I was filled with panic. They were too young for me, they were mutton extraordinaire and I had nothing to wear with them. I would be a laughing stock if seen in them out of my bedroom.

Little DD gave me a stern look (she's a professional at those) and told me in no uncertain terms to pull myself together. The whole aim of this challenge was to try new things. What was the point if I wimped out at something so harmless as a pair of jeggings?

Duly chastened, I tried them on with everything on my shelves...they were variously ajudged too trashy, too boxy, too frumpy, too black and tooooo boring...and I eventually ended up with this wine lace shirt from Ark last year. Vague nod of approval from the DDs and a firm instruction to do up all the buttons. 

Jeggings:River Island (this season)
Shirt:Ark (last year)
Cami: Zara (old but always in available in various colours)
Boots: YSL (old, from the sale)

I even managed to wear them out of the house and out to dinner.

I wish my bum looked 40

Another day, another blog to nick ideas off gain inspiration from. I saw Kat from doesmybumlook40 all wrapped up in a gorgeous tartan scarf, which I felt sure cost several limbs. But, oh no, it's a little cheapie marvel from H&M. So I duly trotted into Leeds and like a true disciple handed over my pennies (fortunately, not very many of them were required).

I'm not going to lie, I would have walked straight past it and not even paused if it had a Louis Vuitton, now reduced to £9.99 label on it. It just looked a bit like the picnic blanket I got free at M&S a couple of years ago (with any five deli items.) On, however, I just love the colours and it is so snuggly, it has even overcome the cold, wet Yorkshire Monday weather (well, nearly).

With a very old trench, which I'm rediscovering because it is a) oxblood and b) leather so ticking off two of this season's big things, I was ready to meet a potential lurrrrver for our black lab. Do I look like I'd make a good grandma for puppies?

Scarf: H&M
Jumper:Uniqlo
Boots:Moda in Pelle
Jeans:Gok at Sainsburys
Coat: Made by a company called 'it'  many, many years ago

After a quick scarf re-tie. I will get the hang of this one day.

The dog seemed to love me-but that could be the eau-de-female-labrador-in-heat I was sporting and not my lovely new scarf.

Collars and cuffs

Apparently the statement necklace is your new best friend in fashion/ the perfect way to update your outfit/the secret of ageless dressing and even better: a stylish way to jazz up an old top...hmmm, do you think I've been spending way too much time on fashion websites? As someone with a teetering pile of old tops on her shelves in desperate need of jazzing, I went in search of big jewellery. So today I've taken inspiration from Dame Judy (or more to the point my Mum who has always been a bit of a fan of a statement necklace.) 

We were out for dinner with friends tonight and I broke out my new skinnies from Primark (£13 and they fit me better than any jeans I have, I may have to get them in all colours). Embarrassingly my friend was wearing the SAME jeans (hers were from Next but seriously they are identical) so we looked like a couple of clones. I haven't done that since I was 14 and my friend Philippa and I went to town in matching knickerbockers, burgundy jumpers and pixie boots, deliberately, I wish I had a photo of that fabulous fashion moment. 

Anyway, my outfit went like this: boring classic black jumper, gorgeous new statement collar, silver cuff...and for the first time ankle boots with skinnies. Yes, ankle boots...that's definitely progress.

The first week of my style challenge is over. Just...gulp...43 outfits to go.

Collar £13.50 from Ebay

Jumper: Uniqlo
Brocade print jeans: Primark
Necklace: Ebay
Silver cuff: Had it for years, can't remember where it's from
Boots: YSL (wonderful Christmas pressie from my parents, found in the sale at  Daniel )