Subzero Shorts

Shorts - River Island

Shirt - H&M

Cardigan - Warehouse

Brogues - Sweden, Unknown

Necklace (shorter) - Miss Selfridge

Necklace (longer) - Gift

Is it too arrogant to tell you that I'm really enjoying my outfit today?  Because, well, I am.  I feel I've been a bit uninspired on the outfit front of late which is pretty unfortunate given that I'm in the early days of blogging.  I'm not promising to throw on something Vogue-worthy every day (or ever, in fact) but I can assure you that the unaccessorised jeans and jumper days are over.  Hallelujah.

I feel like I'm channeling a bit of a 70s school teacher look today.  You know, the one who's just settled down after their heady Woodstock youth.  I think it's the beads, the exposed cuffs, the printed corduroy.  Whatever it is though, I'm certainly not complaining.  I've also just realised that as I type this, I'm listening to Bread very loudly which fits the whole vibe very well indeed.

I bought these shorts in River Island last September so they're in their second winter now and I still love them.  You can't quite see here, but they're quite flared which I really like.  It counteracts the pretty short length somewhat making them more daytime appropriate.  (It also means that there's plenty of room underneath for the two pairs of tights I'm wearing but shh, let's keep that between you and me.)  I added my current go-to blouse and a warm cardigan because I thought I should at least pretend to acknowledge today's -14º thermometer reading.  I quite liked today's colour combination too because, to me, it feels suitably seasonal without being overly dark.

It's Friday which marks the beginning of the penultimate weekend of the semester.  This is quite sad because I'm the only one out of my friends in Sweden who's staying the entire academic year so I have a few goodbyes to come in the next week or so.  We're beginning the farewell celebrations this evening with a Christmas gathering for one of my classes which should be nice.  I plan to cook up some mince pies to inject a little British festivity into the occasion.

Have a lovely weekend,

Elise.

The Daily Bread #10 - Lovestruck Saturdays

Dress -  Lovestruck

Jumper -  H&M

Shoes - Topshop

Scarf - Vintage

Belt - River Island

And once again, I forgot to take pictures until the light was fading.  My resolution for next week is to be a bit more organised on this front.

I decided to utilise a few older pieces today.  I had this dress as for last New Year's Eve but it's just been sitting in my wardrobe since as I've gone off the style of it for nights out.  However, I do still love the colour and material so thought it could be used as a skirt for a Saturday daytime look.  If you haven't come across Lovestruck before I'd really recommend a look at their website.  I found this dress in the small selection sold in Wardrobe, Northampton, but they have a much larger range of beautiful pieces on the website. The jumper was an H&M bargain last winter and has been worn to death.  It's so useful for going over dresses because the cropped style avoids the strange shape I seem to become when I use longer jumpers.

Just a short post because I'm off for some more festive fun now.  Is November too early to be saying such things?  Ah well.

With some jingle bell rock,

Elise.

Autumn Uniforms

I've spent all day tidying, cleaning and generally fumigating my room from it's hovel-like state back into something more resembling a bedroom (-cum-loung-cum-study-cum-kitchen).  I succeeded fully on this front, if I do say so myself - when I uploaded a picture to Facebook, my friends thought I'd just gone and photographed somebody else's room - but it did mean that my day was spent looking like a swamp monster.  When I eventually finished the long tidying slog, I was very excited to shower and transform myself back into a human but then realised that all my towels were wet from the washing machine.  As I'm pretty sure that none of you want to see the jeans and sweatshirt wearing mess that I am today,  I'll spare you an outfit post.  

Instead, I thought I'd do a round up of my favourite "uniforms" from Autumn 2012, as its drawing to a close now and heading towards an all together chillier winter.  I really do subscribe to the whole concept of uniforms; I think it's so useful to have a few outfit templates to fall back on each season on days when you haven't got much time or you are feeling particularly uninspired.  I've been kind of badly dressed this week (which was terrible timing I know, given that this was the week I chose to start blogging outfits) but this is the sort of thing I've been wearing.

Outfit #1:

Blazer - River Island; Shirt - H&M; Trousers - Topshop; Shoes - Jeffrey Campbell

I love trousers.  I love everything about them: the practicality, the comfort, the often androgynous style, the political statement (yes, out comes my closet feminist once again).  I love them.  However, I have a bit of a problem with jeans quite often; I think they look great on other people but when it comes to myself I just feel a bit like I'm giving in, being lazy, falling into a rut.  For this reason, this season's influx of tailored trousers suits me down to a tee.  I love pairing patterned trousers with a plain blazer and, equally, I like pairing block coloured trousers with a novelty blazer, such as my blue and yellow Topshop boating blazer that I'm a little/a lot in love with.  Add my other  seasonal favourite of a slightly sheer button down shirt into the mix and you've got the perfect outfit, as far as I'm concerned.  This will work equally well with brogues, loafers or my absolute favourite, which I like to call "the wearable wedge".  When I was trawling the internet for inspiration for this post, intending to put in a picture of the tan JCs I own, I found this and I'm now lusting after a colour pop shoe for my blazer and trouser combinations.

Outfit #2:

Jacket - French Connection; Jumper - Mango; Skirt - Mango; Boots - Bertie

As much as I love smart dressing, sometimes it's raining and you're tired and you want to stay in bed, and on those days I always opt for something as close to a duvet as possible that I can wear.  In comes the chunky knit.  It just manages to make the least comforting of outfits into something so cosy and that's how I've styled it here, and a lot in real life this autumn.  I bought this exact skirt at the end of the summer and, being pretty poor at the time, really uhmmed and ahhed as to whether I could keep it.  Eventually I did and I'm so glad.  It's served me well on endless nights out but also adds a lovely touch of the 60s to a daytime outfit.  I think that ankle boots and a leather jacket are both autumn essentials and I just love the casual yet slightly edgy feel they give to the jumper and mini combo.

Outfit #3:

Blazer - River Island; Blouse - Topshop; Skirt - H&M; Boots - River Island

I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with high waisted, skatery style skirts.  I pull together an outfit that I love out of them but then it comes to adding outerwear and shoes and suddenly it just doesn't work for me anymore.  I've always tried cardigans but they just make me feel a bit like my Gran, and not in a good way, and no shoes or boots ever seem quite right.  Last winter, I solved the latter problem with my heeled Chelsea boots from River Island which worked perfectly and I think these brogue style boots could be even better.  I was still having a problem with cover ups though until I finally fully boarded the blazer bandwagon, at long last, and I've never looked back.  To me, they  add some maturity to such a feminine skirt and the fitted styles that I favour also enhance the silhouette created.  I lusted after this skirt from H&M for weeks, finally had the money to buy it and found I was between sizes.  Usually this wouldn't be too much of an issue but I find that H&M sizing is often erratic and this was the certainly the case here, with the 10 being far from even buttoning up but the 12 making me look like I'd been swallowed by a material monster.  It was a sad day.

As I've said and you can problem feel, autumn is sadly drawing to a close meaning that I need to conjure some new uniforms for the coming winter months.  I imagine that they'll be somewhat similar to these but swapping blazers and jackets for winters coats and adding tights/socks into the mix.  I had a little spree in the Mango sale yesterday for some essentials which I'm excited to show you over the next few weeks/months.  I promise to actually get dressed tomorrow, ha!

From a very tidy room (and mind),

Elise.

The Daily Bread #6 - Easy Like a Sunday Morning

Shirt - H&M

Jumper - Lindex

Skirt - J.W. Anderson for Topshop

Boots - Bianco

Yesterday, in an excitable frenzy after a few too many cocktails, Suzanne and I planned a perfect Sunday of lunch and shopping.  This morning, after I'd drank a litre of water and washed away my groggy head, this idea was just as appealing.  Feeling a little delicate, I wanted to be comfortable yet still wearing something nice enough to cheer me up.  Out came the zebra skirt.

I had ordered this skirt from the Topshop website within an hour of the J.W. Anderson collection being available online.  I was just terrified that I'd go back the next day to find it all gone.  I picked this skirt because I like it's very simple shape (it's actually a high waisted slim A line, but I like it worn with layers over it to create a very 60s mini) combined with the bold print.  I find this makes it very wearable yet also interesting.  For such a statement piece, I seem to get a surprising amount of wear out of it.

I said that you'd be seeing a lot of this jumper and here it is for the second time this week.  It is the perfect hangover jumper because it's very 'snuggly' (is it just me who requires comfort blanket style emotional support from their clothes the morning after the night before?) yet quite light so won't cause the dreaded hangover overheat.  Just like everybody else on the planet at the moment, or at least in the blogosphere, I'm loving collars in all shapes and forms.  Since buying this shirt from H&M I have absolutely no idea how I ever lived without it; it just goes with everything.

Our day was just the perfect Sunday we had hoped for.  After a lovely lunch at En Deli Haga, which is a vegan deli in Gothenburg, we went for a wander and a browse around the shops.  I discovered the Zara TRF range which was quite exciting.  From what I can gather, it's just the 'young' range aimed at teenagers.  They had some great things there though and it seemed to be slightly cheaper.  I bought a really exciting blouse which you'll definitely be seeing very soon and also some desperately needed black jeans.  

Then, the most important part of the day, I lost my Mac virginity and bought a lipstick.  Even the Mac shopping experience was delightful - so much more satisfying than the disdainful stares you get shopping in the Rimmel corner of the the department store.  I went for 'cyber' with some moral support from Suzanne.  I've wanted a vampy purple lipstick for weeks but it's just such a scary colour.  I'm so excited for it to have an outting next weekend and I'll let you know what I think.

Unfortunately, my weekend of fun is over now and I've got a Sunday evening of reading prep ahead of me.  My first week of blogging has come to an end and now I've got to grips with it a little more, I'm going to try and do a few more general posts this week and also remember to take pictures out and about.  I solemnly swear.

Over and out,

Elise.

The Daily Bread #3 - A Vintage Flurry

A word of warning - I've waffled on a bit here, oops.  This isn't a particularly exciting outfit just one built of many pieces which have stories.  I love clothes with a story, it's what makes fashion for me, but if you don't then you can stop reading here, ha.

Cardigan - Vintage (Engelhorn)

Shirt - H&M

Skirt - Vintage (Hennes)

Boots  - Bianco

Scarf - Vintage

Belt - Vintage

This morning, much to my displeasure, involved a 7am rise and shine in order to make my presentation seminar at 9am.  On arrival at university, we realised that we were an hour early and that our class didn't actually start until 10am.  Sigh.  Given that I'd been so exhausted whilst getting dressed this morning, it wasn't until I came home at lunch time and took these pictures that I realised quite how much vintage I was wearing.  Whilst I do love vintage clothing and enjoy nothing more than hours spent trawling through piles and rails looking for treasures, I didn't realise quite how much of my wardrobe was made up of second hand finds.  Interesting.

Both the velvet skirt and the cashmere cardigan were found in Trashy Flowers, a vintage haven in Northampton that has unfortunately shut down now.  I have my friend Lewis to thank for both of these.  He took me to Trashy for the first time back in 2009, when I bought the skirt for a meagre £3.00.  It actually went straight to the back of my wardrobe until recently as at the time I deemed it 'too long'?  Now I see that it is clearly a mini skirt - the mind of my 17 year old self constantly concerns me.  The cardigan was bought after Lewis appeared in an A Level Literature class screaming about £5 cashmere, meaning that I obviously had to skip class and go and buy something before it all ran out.  Again, this item didn't see the light of day much at the time as I was convinced it made me look 'boxy'.  I've come to admit now that I just was a little boxy at the time.  Since turning down some pies since then I have come to love it though and it's made a real comeback in my life this year.

Discussing these purchases has made me quite sad; Trashy Flowers was just so great.  There's no other word.  It's first incarnation was a giant warehouse in which you could easily get lost for weeks.  As it's popularity grew along with hundreds of Northamptonian youths jumping on the vintage bandwagon, it moved sights to a more traditional shop layout in the town centre.  It lost some of its charm in this move but it was still pretty spectacular and it was here that the infamous £1 leather jack sale occurred.  Oh my.  Sadly, last time I went home from university, I heard that the shop was long gone.  I really have no idea why as it was so well loved.  I think the company still deals in wholesale vintage, but that isn't really of much use to a student on the breadline. 

Anyway, back from this diversion down memory lane.  I picked this belt up a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham at the Harper & Lewis vintage sack sale which opened on New Street very recently.  The premise is simple: you pick a sack, you stuff it to the brim, you pay £10, you limp away loaded with purchases.  For my £10 I got - as far as I can remember - two skirts, two jumpers, a denim shirt, a denim jacket, a blouse, four bags, this belt, one pair of trousers, a real leather jacket and... wait for it... some lederhosen!  Unfortunately I had to leave a lot of these treasures in Northampton as I was returning to Gothenburg via plane and so had limited packing but I plan to do a better post on this wonderland when I go home for Christmas and can take picture of all my finds.  If you are anywhere in the Midlands area though, go and devote a day to scouraging, I beg you!

I found the scarf in a, frankly, overpriced second hand shop whilst on holiday with my family in Southwold this summer.  It was £6 which was a lot for a second hand scarf I think, but as I'd been looking for one similar for a long time and would have realistically ended up paying four times the amount in Topshop in the end, I just bit my tongue and handed over my money.  I have worn it a lot so it was worth it, it just annoys me when people call something 'vintage' and think that is an excuse to overcharge.

Now that you know my life history, all that is left is for me to say please ignore the monstrosity sitting atop my head and calling itself 'hair'.  I'll go into this whole fiasco in more detail at another point but basically I'm avoiding heat styling and haven't dyed my roots for over three months now and so my hair has been living either in a haphazard bun or french plaits, neither of which are particularly attractive.

If you made it this far, huge thanks,

Elise.