Basic comfort

I'm still getting my head around things at work  and getting used to a more relaxed style of dressing.It's certainly a lot easier to fit in to an environment full of jeans and t-shirt wearing guys than an environment of aspiring fashionistas and I'm happy that I can dress up or down depending on my mood and know that no one would really notice the difference on most days.

Today I tried out this asymmetric cotton skirt from &Other Stories  and decided to keep it simple with a t-shirt and an oversized cardigan. I have to admit I have silly fashion quirk (one of many!) by which I set myself a silly rule that bottoms always have to be in a dark shade, I have no logical explanation to how this quirk came about but when I saw this skirt in store I spent about 30 minutes trying to rationalise why I can't wear this skirt, the problem was I actually really loved it but couldn't get over my strange quirk of only wearing dark bottoms so I left it in store and when I got back home I couldn't stop thinking about how much I liked it so a few days later I decided to go back and try it on again and eventually decided to get it and try it at home, in a safe environment where I can make better judgement. Luckily it was still looking great when I tried it at home and I decided to keep it. I thought it's a great basic item that can also probably work well dressed up as well and hopefully help me get over this strange fashion related quirk.

Not a sequin in sight

The countdown has begun, the Christmas lights are on and the shops are starting to fill with all sorts of sparkly and sequiny 'holiday' outfits that make me want to scream. Luckily this year I'm skipping most of the holiday festivities, but I'm still faced with on pre-Christmas wedding and a work-do, so braced myself , took a deep breath and picked up a few slightly different and potential holiday outfit gems from Cos and &Other stories that still look incredible without even one sequin in sight. Here's for a simple and chic holiday outfit! 

The simple detail

I'm a sucker for simple LBDs and while I love a simple black shift dress , I always look for a simple and small detail that will distinguish it from other little black dresses which is why I was absolutely thrilled to get this dress from &Other Stories this morning. 

This dress caught my eye when I went to check out the shop two weeks ago and I mentioned last week that I was a little confused about the sizing and couldn't find the right size but decided to take a chance and order it online in a different size and hope it would fit better. Luckily,I managed to nail it this time with the size and I'm really happy about this purchase. It's definitely not a show-off dress which is what I actually love about it, from afar it might appear a simple black shift dress , but on a closer inspection you can see the little draped detail that makes this dress a little more special and I have to admit this was the thing that caught my eye when I first saw it. I do love a little extra detail on a simple dress which makes it look a little different and I also love the fact that the fit is quite relaxed but still looks somewhat sophisticated. 

Monday is not a friend

I'm not going to start the discussion about Monday mornings, this photo is probably a good enough evidence of how a Monday morning feels, messy hair, trying to get dressed in partial darkness whilst trying to snap an outfit photo, even having another arm wouldn't help me to get myself organised on Monday morning. So today's outfit was mostly of the kind that can only be described as 'pick up whatever you spot and get on with it' , a random blue sweatshirt and a black skirt , the sort of lazy outfit that just screams 'oh no it's Monday' but I do love this random sweatshirt to which I added this necklace I got from &Other Stories which I love. I'm actually wearing it the wrong way around but I actually prefer it that way because I love the clasp detail on the back. Nothing brilliant there but it's Monday after all so there's still a long week ahead to make up for a slow and not very exciting start to the week.

Matchy-matchy

Last week I wrote about H&M's new brand &Other Stories and as I had the opportunity to visit the new store in London last week I decided to write about my visit to the store and what I got. 

I visited the store last Friday when I was in London, I didn't actually get a proper look at the store as it was opening day which meant it was extremely busy and hectic. 

The store itself is huge and beautifully laid out and I think the best thing about it is that it acts as a 'one stop shop' where you can stock up on pretty much everything from lingerie to beauty products and obviously clothing, shoes and accessories. 

As I mentioned I found it hard to actually get a proper look as it was quite busy on the day but I did manage to pick up a couple of items I saw on the site and wanted to get a feel for before buying them. 

I picked up a passport holder and a small wallet (each £19) both are part of a collaboration with designer Clare Vivier, both well made with soft colourful leather and plenty of space to pack all of my junk. 

The two other items are a bit matchy-matchy as well , a chunky chain link necklace and a bracelet which caught my eyse as I was browsing the site before visiting the shop. I absolutely love two of them, but then I'm a sucker for chunky metallic items so it's not a surprise I was drawn to those two. 

As for the clothing, I feel like I wasn't really able to have a proper look around because it was very busy but since I had a look at the website I knew what I wanted to try out and managed to sneak to the changing rooms to try a couple of those items before the queues became impossible. However I had a hard time figuring out the right sizes. I decided to pick a few different sizes to see what works best. The first was a skirt which I saw on the site and really liked, I picked the skirt in UK 12, 14 (EU 40, 42) as I really couldn't determine what the right size would be. I also picked a dress which I could only find in sizes 34 and 38 (the 38 looked huge but I decided that it would be best to try it as 34 seemed too small) and two t-shirts in 38 and 40.

The skirt in size 40 was quite tight and looked really small and 42 was actually too big which was quite surprising as it seemed like a giant difference so I decided to skip the skirt and move on to the dress, I first tried the UK 10 (EU38) , I thought it was way too big and made me look like I'm wearing a tent so I tried the UK4 (EU34)  thinking it would be too small but the fit was just right, however the length was way too short in my opinion and as I couldn't find the dress in 36 I decided to try my luck and order it online.

The T-shirts again were a little confusing , I tried both in size 40, one was too big and the other too tight but at this stage I was a bit too tired and decided to leave those to my next visit. 

Overall , I was quite impressed, the variety of accessories and clothing is amazing and everything is really well presented and aimed at making you want to pick pretty much everything and drop it in your shopping basket. I also like the fact that there are items to fit pretty much every budget and as for the sizing , I suppose it might just be me as I always have issues with varying shop sizing charts so and found this to be quite confusing but now I'm waiting for my dress to arrive so once it's here I might be able to give some more insights on the sizing but overall I'm really happy with my picks so and actually really looking forward to my next visit in London so I can hopefully visit the shop when it's a little less busy. 

&other stories - a sneak peak

Images : stories.com

Earlier today, an email landed in my mail box inviting me to take a sneak-peak at H&M's new sister store &Other Stories so I couldn't resist and had to check out the website, I believe the official launch is tomorrow and I don't remember signing up to the mailing list but a sneak peak was more than welcome and got me quite excited.

I'm really impressed with the variety, I've seen some of the lookbooks online previously but never got around to going through everything properly so I was really excited to have a quick look and was actually surprised as I remember reading on more than one occasion that the store's price range will be 

higher than what we're used to with H&M and sister brand COS , however I have to admit that the price range is really varied which made me quite happy as there are a lot of great items that are quite affordable (some of the accessories start at less than £10 and clothing ranges from around 15£ for simple tops to over £100 for jackets and coats) and as usual I already have my eyes set on some interesting items but I'll have to hold myself as I'll be in London tomorrow just in time for the store opening so would probably have a verdict after I visit the store but so far everything looks tempting, even the gorgeously designed beauty products!