As our minds wander to Autumn/Fall, and particularly for those of us in the UK, the impending rain, I start to think about how my tootsies are going to stay warm and dry. Autumn/Winter is a time that fills me with dread when it comes to shoe shopping because although my legs don't cause me problems at any other time of year, in Autumn I become acutely conscious of them. I have had to come to terms with the fact that my calves seem to be massively out of proportion to the rest of my body, and by that, I mean that they're huuuuuge! Every Autumn I'm drawn in by gorgeous boots and spend my life grabbing a pair and scuttling into the corner to try them on so that no-one can witness the inevitable moment when I can't get them up my legs. Thankfully the current fashion focus is on boots of the ankle variety and no-one could be happier about this than me! However, there is still an issue with ankle boots, and that's the discovery that flat ankle boots just emphasise my humongous calves, in a way that I do not want them to be emphasised. So it has become my mission in life to find ankle boots that make chunky calves look sexy. And with that, I introduce my favourite Clarks Yarra Desert boots:
I'm sure they're not everyone's cup of tea, but I love them. They're a lovely walnut coloured suede, they have a small wedge, they're amazingly comfortable and they're really versatile. They go with jeans but more importantly for me, they look great with skirts and dresses. The wedge helps to lengthen my leg without being so high that it makes them difficult to walk in. There have been numerous copies on the high street but these are the original and best! They are still available at Clarks and come in some beautiful colours, including a gorgeous petrol blue.
If you're part of the chunky calf brigade, like myself, then I recommend an ankle boot that is low cut and with some form of wedge or heel, dependent on your preference! I've already talked in my previous posts about why I think it's important to look after your feet and wear shoes that will give them the love that they deserve without compromising on style. I love Clarks for comfort and style, and they have some gorgeous ankle boots as part of their Autumn/Winter collection, here are some of my favourites:
It's not always possible for me to put an outfit post on because sometimes I work from home and I just don't really leave the house, hence I'll just be slobbing about at home in whatever clothes I find. But when I am going out then I'll try and post my outfits for you! I'm not big on accessories and readers of my sewing blog, Tricky Seams, will know that I am all about the dresses. Once upon a time people would remark if I wore a skirt or a dress and would say that I was 'dressed up'. Now, a dress or a skirt is part of my everyday ensemble and people rarely comment, in fact I get more comments if I wear jeans! I just find dresses easier to style and so much more comfortable than jeans! If I do get comments now they're generally positive comments about how women wear too many trousers now and that they love what I'm wearing. I also get comments on how I have an eye for items that are low cost but don't look like they're low cost, my mum often comments that I manage to find the only nice items in Primark. I think that this is maybe more to do with the fact that I know what suits me and therefore what looks good on me may not look the same on someone else.
So here's today's outfit. I'm all about good quality budget fashion but I will pay more for shoes and outerwear, hence my shoes are normally the trendier lines from Clarks or Hush Puppies. I had to have an operation on my toe last year because I had a bone tumour on the outside of my big toe under the nail. The tumour was extremely painful, I had to limp about in an orthopaedic sandal for around a month and my nail has never really recovered, and part of what caused it was wearing ill-fitting shoes. I have wide feet and find most high street brand shoes too narrow, or the soles are so thin it's like walking bare foot on the pavement! So now I'm all about comfort without sacrificing on style, as exemplified by my Hush Puppy 'Gloria' wedges in this outfit.
Please excuse the 'selfie' mirror picture, I don't have anywhere suitable to work the self timer!
My dress is a denim shirt dress with polka dots from Primark (Summer 2013 - still in store I believe) and the belt came with it. My bag is a coral cross body bag by Nica (Purchased in 2010). My wedges are Hush Puppies 'Gloria' wedges in tan - still available at Schuh (and are discounted in the silver and black colour) - these are so comfortable and so easy to walk in!
And the phone taking the picture is my HTC One X in White!
Yesterday I received a delivery that I was really excited about. I wasn't so bothered when it first arrived because it's something that I'm not going to be able to use for a while yet, and I was a bit 'meh' about it. But then, I opened it and was like, OMG this is the most amazing thing ever! And then spent a little while stroking it. It's not a cat. I wish it was a cat (and a cat is top of my wishlist for my upcoming birthday, so I can be a crazy cat lady), but it's not a cat. It was tights. More specifically, thermal tights.
"Who buys thermal tights in August?!" I hear you cry. Well, me. And apparently quite a few other people since they were out of stock for two weeks (as well as most of last winter it seems) which is why I've only just received them. It may still be the middle of summer to some people, but I think that my perception of when summer changes to Autumn/Winter was changed forever after the events of last year. See, my birthday is in September and I like to go on holiday in September so I combined the two. Unfortunately I went on holiday with what I now know was a ruptured appendix, managed to last the week without going into a Turkish hospital (mainly because I decided I'd rather be in horrendous unimagineable pain than pay the £100 excess to go and see the Doctor... that's money saving people!) but then ended up being admitted to hospital for a week on my return. Unfortunately, in hospital my tan went packing and probably attached it to someone else who could show it off properly, and when I came out a week later it was freezing! I was so cold, it was like I'd missed the end of summer completely while I was in hospital (which by the way, feels like you're in a parallel universe to the rest of the world) and I'd walked out to winter. I'm going on holiday again in September this year (and I will be making up for the lack of cake and ice cream eating and cocktail drinking I didn't get last year) and so in my mind when I come back it's going to be like winter. So I'm already thinking about my poor cold tootsies and how even socks (which I hate by the way, unless they're novelty Christmas ones) don't even warm them up, and I refuse to wear Uggs, I want to wear my cute ankle boots!
So I went googling. And I found these 200 Denier Pretty Polly Fleecy Thermal Tights at MyTights with gazillions of good reviews. I argued with myself over whether £10 was reasonable for a pair of tights. I wouldn't normally pay £10 but all my cheaper tights were either laddering or falling down or just not warm enough, so I decided that if I wanted quality I'd probably need to put my hands in my pockets. Plus, these were super duper leg snuggling tights with amazing leg warming powers, so surely they were worth the money? Then I spent a while questioning whether I'm a S/M or a M/L. Does anyone else have this problem? The packet reckons I'm a S/M at 5'5, yet I know from countless traumatic experiences with tights in the past that if I order a S/M I can only get them as far as my knee, or if I get them up completely there's a dangerously low crotch that leaves me waddling around like a penguin. So I went for M/L and I can tell now that this was a good choice!
These tights are not only incredibly thick, they also really do have super duper leg snuggling powers. I wasn't really convinced that they would be as snuggly as the description said, because generally I find tights disappointing and end up returning to my trusty leggings. But alas, I admit that I was wrong. They have a soft fleecy lining that make your legs feel all snuggly and your feet feel like you're wearing slippers. Now every boot can feel like an UGG while still being trendy! I loudly proclaimed to everyone that would listen that these tights wouldn't leave my legs all winter. And promptly added some extra pairs to my Birthday wishlist.
Now, for those of you that wouldn't consider buying thermal tights in August, I advise you to think again. These were sold out for most of last winter, and so if you don't stock up now it'll be me that's having the last laugh when my tootsies are all snuggly and yours aren't!
And just because this popped into my head as I was writing, and it always makes me laugh! <3
That's what they say anyway! Today I'm talking about some designer finds that you can copy with budget high street versions. When I say 'budget', I'm talking no more than £50. Does anyone else find that you pick up a magazine and they talk on the front page about 'high street' fashion and then you look inside and it's all high end high street like Ted Baker, Whistles, Reiss? I don't have that sort of money to spend on clothes and so when I'm talking budget, I'm meaning budget.
So, I was having a browse through Neiman Marcus for some inspiration and I saw a few designer items where I though, 'I really like that, but I'm sure I've seen something similar on the high street'. So I did some sniffing around the interwebs and I present to you my finds!
Wearing your heart on your sleeve:
I love this Burberry Prorsum dress. I love heart print to start with, and on my sewing blog, you'll find that I made myself my own heart print dress for Valentines Day and a heart print blouse. I also love shirt dresses. So what's not to love about a heart print shirt dress? However, I can't stretch to that price tag and I knew I'd seen the print elsewhere, so voila!
I love the style of this dress, and that it's the kind of dress that can be worn as a statement dress on a classy night out, or you could pull it off in the day time with a plain cardi and some thick tights. Now, I'm not saying that's how I would wear it, because if I could afford an Alexander McQueen dress it would probably come out on only special occasions, but I'm just saying you could wear it like that if you had the money to throw around. There are loads of jacquard dresses around, but I struggled to find one that was both a similar style and print, so I've included the best I could manage!
It hasn't gone unnoticed by me that M&S seem to have rolled their sleeves up when it comes to the style stakes. A little birdy with insider knowledge informs me that they've brought a new stylist in as a last ditch attempt to pull in the customers. And I think it could be working! On a recent shopping trip they had the most on trend collection that I saw. Here's an example of how close they're hitting it, with a dress very similar to one by Rebecca Minkoff. Ok you haven't got the leather accents, but the style and colour scheme is essentially the same, with a huge saving!
