I was planning to wear my green and purple Citron shawl, which would have fitted the theme perfectly, but the slightly muted colours looked odd combined with bright Cadbury-purple tights, so I went for Elektra instead. Turquoise isn’t far from green, after all, though I definitely think of this as a bluey turquoise rather than a green one.
Shawl – Elektra
Necklace – East
Dress – Gap
Tights – M&S
Boots – Duo
I knew I had a lot of purple dresses, but somehow I hadn’t quite registered that I own two green jackets. This one was about £5 from the second-hand stall at the Thursday flea market, and is obviously fairly old, but the velvet is lovely and soft and according to the label it’s Windsmoor, so good quality.
Jacket – second-hand stall
Brooch – Susan Sharpe on etsy
Necklace – East
Dress – Mary Portas
Boots – Gabor
One more day of my green and purple week to go! I have tomorrow’s outfit all planned out…
I realised this morning (coincidentally while listening to ‘All We Like Sheep’ from the Messiah) that apart from my underwear everything I was wearing today had wool in; wool jacket, wool-mix dress, merino tights, wool and cashmere coat, wool hat, scarf and mittens. Which was probably just as well, because it was so cold that when I tried to take some photos of the wintery scene on my way to work my phone claimed that its battery was completely flat, despite having shown 50% when I left the house and showing 51% after five minutes charging in the office…
Jacket – Jigsaw
Necklace – made by Helen
Dress – East
Vest and tights – M&S
Boots – Duo
Apparently this is shaping up to be a week of green and purple combinations. I wonder if I could manage all five days, and if anyone else would notice if I did? (Apart from you guys, obviously.)
Jacket – Debenhams
Necklace – made by Helen
Dress – charity shop
Tights (merino wool) – M&S
Boots – Gabor
I was looking back at the colour-wheel posts on the now-defunct Academichic when I was thinking about colours last week, and I think some of their use of colour has rubbed off on me this week as I’ve definitely been a bit more adventurous than normal.
Blouse – charity shop
Skirt and necklace – White Stuff
Shoes – Greenshoes
It was obviously the day for coral, as three of us in the office were wearing it and when I got home some yarn had arrived in exactly the same shade as the skirt.
Despite having been somewhat dubious about my Lyttelton shrug when I finished knitting it, I’ve worn it several times, and would have worn it more often if the weather hadn’t been so consistently vile that it’s felt like a somewhat risky choice to opt for something that doesn’t actually cover my forearms.
Shrug – Lyttelton (handknitted)
Necklace and dress – East
Camisole – M&S
Shoes – Greenshoes
In fact, the last few weeks have been warm and humid enough that short sleeves are absolutely fine, and despite starting off wearing sheer tights by the end of the day I was bare-legged. Honestly, I don’t see the point of sheer tights; they aren’t actually much cooler than opaques while being about fifteen times as annoying in terms of propensity to ladder and nasty nylony feeling, although if it’s actually at all chilly they don’t offer any warmth at all. Ridiculous!
Meanwhile, anyone who follows knitters on Twitter may have noticed the outrage about the fact that it appears that the high street chain Debenhams have copied the extremely popular o w l s jumper, designed by Kate Davies (who also designed Lyttelton). You can read Kate’s post about it here. Having just taken delivery of a kit to knit Kate’s Betty Mouat Cowl (nine gorgeous shades of Shetland wool!) I’m now considering making my own o w l s jumper in the near future, maybe modified as a cardigan because I suspect that would suit me better and be easier to wear. Because obviously there just weren’t enough things I wanted to knit before…
I wouldn’t normally wear red and green together, but when I bought this dress F said she thought it would go with the jacket (which I’d also just bought) and as the weather has turned wintry at last there was no way I was wearing it without something over the top and none of my cardigans looked right so I decided to give it a go. I think it worked. I ended up wearing my shawl all day as well; I often think wearing shawls bandana-style looks a bit casual, but I thought this looked fine and I was definitely glad of the warmth!
Shawl – Brandywine
Jacket – Jigsaw
Dress – LK Bennett
Tights – M&S
Boots – Duo
Continuing my effort to wear my skirts more and not just default to jersey dresses, I thought I’d wear the White Stuff skirt that was one of my favourites last winter. I love how versatile it is; the different colours in the print mean it goes with just about everything in my wardrobe, and it was really nice to be wearing it again. Especially as it’s the kind of garment which always seems to attract compliments!
Shawl – Travelling Woman
Jacket – Jigsaw
Top – Gap
Skirt – White Stuff
Tights – M&S
Boots – Duo
Today I decided to wear brown with a mossy green jacket and a green shawl in a leafy lace pattern. It’s probably only the fact that it was a miserable cold day in December (featuring both hail and sleet, making me very glad to have decided to wear my waterproof Timberlands rather than my unknown-quantity Duo boots) that prevented me from being attacked by a woodpecker or climbed by squirrels. Well, that and the fact that outdoors I was wearing the usual purple coat and red hat and looking decidedly less tree-like.
Shawl – Acanthus
Jacket – Jigsaw
Dress – M&S via eBay
Tights – M&S
Boots – Timberland
I haven’t got as far as getting my winter clothes out from under the bed and the back of the wardrobe, so most of my outfits at the moment are based round summer skirts with tights. Today I also managed to sneak in a handknitted scarf, which made me happy.
Scarf – Scroll Lace
Top, skirt and tights – M&S
Shoes – Skechers
I’m still not entirely sure I’ve worked out the dress code in my new office, but I don’t feel wildly out of place, and I’m trying to resist the urge to abandon the bright colours I love and which make me happy in favour of sober corporate black and grey (not that I own much in the way of black and grey clothing, and it’s not as though I can afford to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe). How do other people balance dress codes with personal preference? I only really started to feel I had a personal style while I was working in my old job, where things were much more informal, so I don’t really have any experience of having to balance that with the need to look smart.
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