Swing coat on a rainy bank holiday

The bank holiday on the last weekend of August traditionally signals the beginning of the end of summer for us Brits so naturally bank holiday monday brings rain, yey.

I'm actually not a person that minds rain, I think as long as you're prepared for it then it can be really nice to go for a walk in the rain.

For this rainy bank holiday I decided to wear my new 50p car boot sale coat over the top of a late 50s early 1960s check dress. I also broke out the black tights, that definitely means it is no longer summer.

My shoes are Doc Martens, they are pretty cool with a buckle fastening and a bit of a heel. I bought them in the Office sale for around £40 in about April and its been too hot to wear them so far so I figured this was a good time to break them in. 

You may recognise the umbrella from some previous posts and it was the one that I had at my wedding and my graduation. I would quite like something similar in a darker colour for darker days.

I have been longing for a full skirted coat for a really long time but its not a style that's around a lot. I think the dream would be to one day own a Lilli Ann vintage coat but that is a dream for a day far in the future when I have all the monies.

For now my 50p car boot sale coat will do. It is from Next, although I have no idea when,  I think the fit is so great and it has pockets! Its just a little short. But it will be perfect until I can get hold of a Lilli Ann, or a coat inspired by her (like this one by Hell Bunny).

Since it was raining, I also decided to wear a hat. I got this had in a vintage hat job lot from ebay and I love how snugly it fits on my head.

Here is a picture with the coat open so that you can see the dress underneath.

Outfit details:

Dress: Vintage via Leyburn 1940s weekend

Coat: Next via car boot sale

Shoes: Doc Martens

Hat: Vintage job lot

Umbrella: A shop in Durham that's not shut :(

I have a couple of posts to make about some late summer bits and pieces, but after that I will be busting out the big coats (of which I bought a few vintage ones in the summer for scandalously low prices).

Did you do anything nice on the bank holiday?

Vintage Inspired Outfit: Wannabe Sweater Girl

I adore the sweater girl look. Its just so perky. I think a great casual vintage inspired look is the sweater and cropped trousers or pencil skirt, especially in spring as the weather is changing. Marilyn Monroe was one of the sweater queens of the 1950s.

So attempting to take a lead from the history style books I decided to wear a sweater and pencil skirt combo for a wander around town on a spring day.

A good friend of mine has this same pencil skirt (and has done for years) and I always though it was a great skirt; a sort of universal colour with a small print that preventing it being just a dull 'black pencil skirt'. You can imaging how pleased I was when I found it in a charity shop in Hove for £2! In my size! YEEEEES!

The sweater was from eBay and had the labels cut out so I have no idea when its from, but I love it. I think it is a perfect colour and I adore the little collar details, its so universal, I would definitely recommend this sort of pinky/peach sweater to anyone crafting a vintage style capsule wardrobe.

The only problem is, that since putting on a bit of weight my bust size has changed. I dare not admit either that I didn't get myself measured for ages and I was somehow convinced that my bust had not changed. Oh how wrong I was, by two cup sizes. So naturally my vintage inspired underwear is not really right anymore meaning that I was not able to achieve the perfect sweater girl look, but its not far off. I am now hunting for the perfect slightly larger vintage styled bra.

I've shown this satchel before on Fancy Dresscapades, but I think that the colour of the flowers goes with this outfit perfectly.

The hair in these pictures is me still getting to grips with the permed hair. But I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

I still haven't quite got the hang of pin placement, especially on the back of my head but I felt that I didn't do a half bad job this time around. Hopefully if I keep practising I will be able to share more snazzy hair dos, and maybe one day actually share a tutorial or two!

Jumper: Unknown/eBay

Skirt: Primark via charity shop

Tights: Primark

Shoes: Clarks

Satchel: Yoshi

Thrifty Outfit: A blue monsoon floral dress and a mustard cardigan

I went charity shopping for summer dresses the other week. My excuse is that since I've gained a bit of weight I needed to buy new summer clothes, but I think that may have been just that, an excuse. But when you're on a thrifty hunt, especially at this change of season, there are lots of bargains to be had.

One such find was a lovely 50s style prom dress from Monsoon that I wanted some time ago and had just about forgotten about. I think the print on it is absolutely gorgeous so floral, but without being overly light in colour like so many summer dresses can be. The fact that is was only £5 in a charity shop was the icing on the cake!

I wore the dress with a mustard yellow cardigan that helped to pick out the yellow details on the dress print (and the daffodils!). Although I have to say that I'm not so sure about the fit of this cardigan, upon reflection, I think a more fitted shape with this dress. 

As its not quite summer yet, I chose to wear blue tights so my legs didn't get cold and I wore shoes from Hotter. Yes, Hotter, I laughed so much when I found these blue t bars, I thought finally, I'm an old lady buying comfortable shoes. But then I thought again, and remembered that I've been buying Clarks for so many years that I've been an old lady on the shoe front for a very long time.

Unsurprisingly, the shoes are super comfy and they aren't so unfashionable. In fact I think they are pretty good for a vintage inspired look.

Just to maximise the florals I also took my Yoshi satchel. I'm so obsessed with satchels. I've had this one a few years now and its lasting super well.

I also wore my current favourite pair of glasses. I've been lusting over the Lipsy25s on Tesco's opticians website ever since Retro Chick posted her review some time ago. I managed to snipe this pair and a pink pair off eBay for £15! I did have to get them reglazed with my prescription but the website perfectglasses did that for me for £7.50 and they did a perfect job!

It meant it was a bit of a faff to get hold of them, but I saved a good £70 on the glasses so I can't really complain...

...also, they're AMAZING!

Really one of the antique shops on the street at Tunbridge Wells had some large mirrors outside so I couldn't help but take a silly quick snap.

This one was rather weird as it was a long line mirror sitting on the floor. I ended up with a weird shot of my husbands and my feet.

I want to leave you with this lovely view of the road near my flat. Look at that sky!

Dress: Monsoon via Hospice in the Weald

Cardigan: Topshop via eBay 

Glasses: Lipsy via eBay/perfectglasses 

Tights:  Accessorize sale

Shoes: Hotter

Have you managed to find and summer dresses in charity shops?

Outfit of the Day: Spring in my step with a Cath Kidston dress

Is that spring I sense in the air? I hope so, I'm starting to get a little bit sick of winter tights.

Anywho, with a bit of nice weather my husband and I decided to go for a stroll about town while the gettin' was good.

For said stroll I decided to wear a lovely Cath Kidston tea dress I got from eBay a couple of weeks ago. I've never seen this style of dress before in CK and it was a bit more up my street than the usual tunic style peter pan collar dresses that are really popular.

Of course I bought it second hand for less than half the RRP.

It was super nice to be able to go out without a coat on too! The shoes were from Clarks last year and have lasted surprisingly well for ballet pumps. I was quite impressed. They have a little more cushioning than usual so they don't make me feet ache as much as the cheap ones tend to.

Look at this picture, there are actual SUN RAYS caught on film!

Last but not least is a make up close up (check out part of my fringe with a mind of its own in the wind!). I have been using MAC make up for a while now so managed to save up 6 empty things and I finally tried taking them into the shop to exchange for my free lipstick.

I chose the shade Dangerous as its a bit more of an orange tone than my usual Ruby Woo and I thought it would be nice for spring. It isn't quite as matt as Ruby, but it is pretty matt and it is by far the best orangey red I've ever tried.

What do you think?

Dress: Cath Kidston, via eBay

Shoes: Clarks

Pearls: Thrifted

Sunglasses: North Laines Brighton

 Can you feel spring in the air?

Thrifty Outfits: Bottle Green Cardigan and a Floral Skirt

It has been a bit of a rough week for me, I don't want to go into too much detail, just that I lost a close member of my family and I have been spending the last few days dealing with that.

Today I managed to put an outfit together to go with my new haircut. It is not much different to how it was before, but I wanted to take off some of the length off to help me embrace my curls a little more. This outfit is all new, a long sleeve white blouse, a bottle green cardigan, a floral black skirt and a chunky belt.

The skirt was inherited from my mother's wardrobe, I think I may have been meant to give it back at some point but I keep 'forgetting'. The blouse was second hand from next and the cardigan was one of those rare glorious finds in Primark.

It is difficult to get a sense of the colour of this cardigan from the picture, as the light in my Grandmothers hallway is not the greatest, but it is a really lovely bottle green it also has a really delicate pattern to it that makes it look a little more retro than so many of the other 'boyfriend' cardigans you see around - even better, it is also a wool blend so it is lovely and soft. I'm not usually someone that advocates Primark, I usually favour eBay or a charity shop but I simply couldn't refuse this cardigan (they also had some matching tights, but I'll post on those another time).

To this outfit I added one of my favourite hats. I've not worn this one for some time as it is quite warm and the weather hasn't been bad enough yet - but today I felt it was time.
It is a cloche style black felt hat from Accessorize. Sorry for the iffy car picture I've not had a lot of time lately, I'll promise more glamorous shots soon!

Cardigan - Primark

Skirt - Mum via Monsoon

Blouse - eBay via Next

Cloche - Accessorize

Outfit Finds: Earmuffs and Gloves

I Love earmuffs!

As simple as that - I really like them. They keep your ears warm, they look cute and they can fit snugly around an up do. The only way they could get any better is if they had headphones in them too.

Any who, I was looking for a new pair to wear this winter and ended up in Accessorize. They have an excellent selection of colours and 'styles' (I use styles very loosely by the way, there is only so much variation you can have in a headband with ear warmers) if they are a little bit expensive at £16. But they do make a nice winter treat.

I decided on some black ones with knitted flowers on them. If I'm honest I was persuaded by the fact they looked a little like a retro game sprite, but hey, that's because I'm a nerd! I also bought some matching gloves with the same print.

Now, I don't have a good track record with accessorise gloves, they usually end up unravelling on me... But well see how I get on with these.

Olympic Colours for the Olympic Torch

Well hello there!

I’m back from a short break with a post about a torch and a scarf – the Olympic torch and the official Paralympics scarf of team GB to be precise.

The scarf itself is from Next and is part of their official Team GB line and I was lucky enough to be sent the scarf to check out by the Next team.

There are two styles of scarf available - the Olympic version and the Paralympics version. I was rather pleased to receive the Paralympics version as I preferred the colours, and being someone who has struggled occasionally with mobility, I appreciate the spirit of making sports available for all.

I started off simply styling the scarf with a simple neck tie, but I needed to change this after going for a walk outside and getting caught in a downpour. I thought the second style was a little Grany-ish but hey, I’m down with that.

For my second styling attempt I wore it as a head-scarf wrapped around hair rolls.

But more importantly than that I ventured out into the Durham rain to see the Olympic Torch pass through the city of Durham.

I wore the scarf as a cape, because I like capes, but also because it really showed the colours.

The Torch Relay itself was really fun, the sponsorship busses and police escorts really got the crowd excited so when the torch did pass through everyone was really excited. I even caught a few snaps of some people out on the town in fancy dress!

Its probably fair to suggest that there will be a few more red, white and blue outfit posts in the run up to the Olympics.

But until then…