Fashion Faux Pas?

I wore my latest eBay purchase to work today, unironed and in sheer desperation. When I put it on this morning there was a part of me that felt like I was wearing a party dress to work, but I decided that I could live with that so long as I had something to wear that I hadn't already worn this week.

I love the colour, I love the style, I am however a little annoyed at the sizing and it highlights my point regarding RTW clothing exactly. I took a risk on this eBay purchase as it was listed as a size 10 and I wasn't entirely confident my rib cage hadn't gotten bigger along with my waistline. This fits more like a size 12 on me and goes to show that Next just isn't playing fairly.

I know it's too big for me because Julie, one of the other women in the office, came in to work this morning in the exact same dress. Hers fits her perfectly and looks much nicer. We'd both paired it with black Mary Jane shoes (of differing styles thank goodness!) and a black top layer (Julie had a cardigan and I had a jacket). Julie had black tights and I was wearing my Nora Batty's but we still had to run around and hide from each other throughout the day (a little difficult when at a buffet lunch with 20 other people in a narrow corridor, particularly after Julie came and sat next to me!).

This isn't even a dress I can bbzzzzzz up the sides to make it a little smaller, it has a side closure using buttons ... which go all the way up to the armpit, making it a little difficult to close and open by yourself. I'm considering just refashioning it into a shirt or something as I love the colour so much but am a little afraid of ending up with nothing, or (as per usual) something 6 inches too big. At least as it stands now the dress is only about an inch or so too big!

Dress: Next via eBay
Shoes: I Heart Shoes 

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Outfit Round-Up { Tuesday }

I was feeling the French vibe so I bust out my La Redoute Shirt Dress. I'm not particularly comfortable wearing things this short (or this short and baggy) and I get the sense looking at these photos that I maybe look a little like a blur of fabric on sticks but hey ho! I was running out of ideas.

Dress: La Redoute
Socks: eBay
Shoes: Hush Puppy via Amazon

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Last of the Summer Wine

For those of you not in the UK or too young to remember, the title is a reference to my baggy socks. Last of the Summer Wine was an old comedy set in Yorkshire about a bunch of blokes in the Autumn of their years.

Compo, a scruffy no good hormone riddled skiver, was completely in lust with tea shop owner, Nora Batty. She of the hair curlers and wrinkled stockings.

I'm really getting behind wearing long socks to work, unfortunately today they turned out to be a bit Nora Batty which garnered some strange looks I have to admit. But so long as I remained toasty and warm I really didn't care. Besides, I was sat behind a desk for most of the day so no one really had to notice.

There's just something so lovely about a long knitted cardi and woollen socksies (although not actual wool as I'm slightly allergic), particularly in an office where the air conditioning comes from the labs downstairs and no amount of fiddling with the thermostat will change the temperature to something a little more ... erm, temperate. 

Once again this is an empire waisted dress, I'm really preferring the style and feel more confident about wearing these types of dresses.

It's a lovely dark blue with a grey diamond pattern, it goes nicely with my large grey cardigan (and green wellies on those days when I'm tramping around with the wolf and it's too nice for jeans) and is made from a wonderfully soft jersey that clings in nice places and swirls prettily in all the others.

Dress: La Redoute
Cardigan: La Redoute
Socks: No idea!
Shoes: Blue T-Bar Hush Puppies

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Seasons Turning

Despite my best intentions I never seem to talk about life in the village or how living in a village in the mountains of South Wales affects my life.

The seasons here are definitely changing, the trees above the old Pit are turning and the foxgloves glow purple amongst the duller greens and browns. Unfortunately you can't really see them in this photo but I promise, up near the ridge line they're there!

The heather on the other mountain has turned a beautiful burnished copper colour and we've been lucky this year with only one fire on the mountainside that's already grown back over.

With the turning of seasons into Autumn the winds start to pick up in readiness for the October storms that have probably been hitting our shores for centuries. My house stands overlooking a park and a dip in our valley that leads down into Caerphilly's bowl. As a result, come Autumn, I spend most nights drifting off to the sound of driving wind and rain, strangely I find it relaxing.

Despite fabulous weather this weekend (for this time of year anyway) the winds picked up today and I decided to let go of my vintage dreams and just embrace clothes ... erm, okay, that came out a little wrong! You may have noticed I get a little obsessive/ compulsive in some instances, and I will singlemindedly follow an idea until I've trampled it to death. In my quest to obtain a wardrobe that fits, in styles I like rather than full of modern fashions, I've lost touch with the idea that anything I like is okay to wear, vintage styled or not.

Given today's weather I decided to experiment, a rather delightful 20 minutes at around 7.15am this morning. The one part of my body that I can't deny is fabulous are my legs. I have great legs, I just don't like getting them out. Particularly from this time of year onwards because it's generally too cold. Hah! Fixed that problem!

Latest eBay purchase: asphalt grey over the knee ribbed socks. Normally I wouldn't try to wear these so visibly as socks, I might not look it but I feel that at my age I'd be pushing my comfort zone by dressing in a style for someone younger, and I'd wear them with a long skirt or dress so they appear to be tights. But I found a pair of blue and a pair of purple tights I'd bought earlier in the year on an impulse to embrace colour and decided to be a little daring. And I have to admit that I really really liked it.

It's been noted that an empire waistline suits me far better than a fitted dress. I had an old little black dress with an almost Grecian-style crossed bodice that could pass as a pinafore dress when paired with a blue and white striped collarless shirt. A red scarf to add a little vibrancy and I was ready to go ... once the Evil Wolf had had his morning belly rub.

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Restylin' For A New Job

Yes, I totally failed at sewing this weekend. I decided that perhaps it might be a little more prudent to make clothes requiring fit with my tutor Mother this coming weekend as she'd already said she was free and would come help me. As I have a limited stash of fabric suitable for these projects and currently no funds to buy any more, it seemed wiser to wait until I was sure I'd get something usable from the effort rather than a bunch of wadders and no more fabric. I didn't mention this before now because ... well, because I was a little ashamed at how rubbish I've been over the sewing ;)

Instead, I thought I'd tell you about my new job. Or rather the clothes I'm wearing for my new job. I started with the NHS on Monday and decided on Sunday evening that I would start as I meant to go on, i.e. I would dress and wear the make-up that I've always wanted to wear to work, regardless of what everyone else around me is wearing, from day one so everyone expected it to continue, rather than doing my usual of wearing whatever and no make-up and hoping for the best whilst being frustrated and feeling like I couldn't suddenly start dressing up because it went against the style I'd already 'declared' to everyone (and my goodness that's a rather long run on sentence, I do apologise!).

To that end I painted my nails red, pulled out the red lippy, stuck a compact in my handbag for touch ups and pulled out the heels.

You may remember my cursed Interview Outfit that got me no jobs. Having already scored the job, this is what I wore on Day One but with blue T-Bar heels and my 'natural coloured' (read: too tan for my skin colour) seamed stockings. Lipstick in place, hair down and natural, I trotted off to work and as I got out of my car in the car park I promptly ripped my stockings with my handbag. Fortunately, no one noticed a thing all day so I kept them on. I also had a 3/4 length sleeved blue cardi over the top and I have to say, partially done up it made me look like I had a waist, I was totally loving the effect!

Day Two: A grey corduroy skirt with attached plaid cotton petticoat, grey shirt and grey boots. Throw in a cream short sleeved cardi and a brown elasticated belt and I was good to go. Unfortunately, whilst I ran out the door thinking I looked okay I ultimately decided I looked like something out of the 80's and hated the skirt with the boots. Big Mistake. Ballet pumps would have worked better ... had I actually owned any. Note to self: see if eBay have any ballet pumps for sale.

Day Three: Grey high waisted trousers and a blue and white pin stripe shirt, all from La Redoute (as was Day Two). Red braces (suspenders to all you Yanks, but to us Brits that's what holds up our stockings) from eBay, blue T-Bar heels and a short sleeved blue cardi, again from eBay. This was much more me and kinda came off 70's (the trousers are quite flared and wide legged ... just in case that isn't completely obvious from the photo). I felt comfortable and relaxed, didn't care if anyone thought anything of my clothes because I was happy. Much better day than yesterday, but then I wasn't sat in a meeting with 50 people around a big table today which may have helped.

It's been hard wearing the red lippy. It's bright, it's unmissable and it gives a very definite statement about the type of woman I am/ want to be (i.e. one that cares about her appearance). I've spent a lot of years not really caring about my appearance in terms of work due to the nature of the job, the work ethic involved (not to mention the stress, the to-ing and fro-ing between offices, departments and buildings and don't even get me started on night shoots out on location in a disused railway shed) and my very strong desire to blend in.

This new style (or this attempt at a new style) is me very much not blending in and I'm still a little uncomfortable with that. I'm not sure why but I'm more uncomfortable about the lipstick than I am about the clothes (well, apart from yesterday's outfit). I don't feel comfortable reapplying in front of people and I don't feel comfortable checking in my compact after eating/ drinking but I also then spend the time worrying I've got lipstick all over my chin or half rubbed off. A big part of me wants to stop with the lipstick to make myself feel better and that could be okay. Except I like red lipstick and I think what I'm more uncomfortable about is the shade of lipstick I've been using. Ideally I'd like to use a shade like Marianne but my skin tone is completely different, my lips are a lot smaller and I don't look anything like as fresh faced half way into my day (or even half an hour into my day!) so I'm not too sure how to proceed. I'm not even sure that if I find the shade I'll still be comfortable because it's still very eye catching. The shade of red I feel more comfortable wearing is a darker berry red, but I think this is predominantly because my natural lip shade is quite dark and when the lipstick fades it's almost unnoticeable. I've been blotting the brighter shades mostly off but even then I still feel over exposed. Any advice please girlies?

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What To Wear To ... A Job Interview { Part 2 }

Well, after the disaster of previous job interviews, all involving the same outfit and a comment from Molly about her lucky Banana Republic blazer I have decided that my blue and white polka dot dress is seriously unlucky. Thankfully I have dress number 2 of 2, a red, white and black snazzy number from Tescos as back-up.

This is the dress that Mum doesn't like so much, it has too much fabric apparently (please excuse the hideous bathroom, another product of the previous owners).

Personally, I hate the batwing sleeves but love the V neck cos it makes my boobs look fab but I have to admit I tend not to wear it to interviews for that exact reason. My 'party' shoes are in the foreground, red suede and fake red snakeskin. They are real beauties and I'm always the envy of every girl whenever I wear them as they're no longer available. Obviously I wear them at every available opportunity.

This dress is obviously luckier than the blue and white polka dot dress because the NHS phoned a few moments ago to offer me the Project Co-ordinator's job they interviewed me for this afternoon. Yes, after SIX MONTHS (9 months out of the last year) unemployed, pending references, CRB check and the salary offer I will be gainfully employed very shortly. Yaaaaaaay!

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What To Wear To ... A Job Interview

Yesterday I had a last minute job interview pop up. I got the phone call Thursday afternoon asking if I'd go to Cwmbran for the interview the next morning. This is a job I really wanted despite only being a nine month maternity cover so I agreed because, well let's face it, it's not like I'm doing anything more important right now!

This, of course, then prompted the problem of what to wear. In my previous life in the television industry there was no dress code unless you were filming a live event and then you had to wear black. Didn't matter what you wore, so long as it was black. There was one, never to be forgotten, immortalised on the Doctor Who website, morning when I turned up at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff in my PJs. However, it was pre-dawn and mid winter and I was going straight home again so I figured I was allowed.

What this has meant, though, is that I own no suits. I own very little that can really be construed as smart casual enough for a job interview or anything smart casual that goes together, fits me, appeals to my current sense of fashion and is good enough for a job interview.

The email said suited and booted. I decided to ignore that, not having any other choice and not being the kind of person who'll wear a suit when made too (and being broke) I wasn't about to go out and buy a cheap one that wouldn't fit properly anyway (and would no doubt be made of a stretchy material).

So what did I choose? Why, this of course:

The dress is a tea dress style navy and white polka dot dress from La Redoute, a french catalogue that I love. It fits a lot better than the photo implies (I don't photograph well, particularly not when taking it myself on my phone).

I had put my hair up as per Super Kawaii Mama's tutorial, an easy to do style that I adore.

I wore my tan t-bar heels and took my tan saddle handbag and garnered stares wherever I went.

This is probably one of only two dresses suitable for interviews/ work that I own. The other is a bit too low cut and apparently doesn't flatter me as much as this one. Looking at this photo I'm not sure I believe my Mother anymore!

As fab as I think I looked, I don't think I got the job. They want someone to start on Monday and I've heard nothing so I'm guessing that's a big fat nope. On to bigger and better ... hopefully!

What about you, do you have an interview outfit? Or a 'best' outfit? What is it?

Dress: La Redoute
Shoes: Hush Puppy

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