Ray of light

The theme of the past few weeks was a bit gloomy, the weather is horrible, getting to work is a nightmare and in general , fashion isn't on top of my list of priorities but slowly and surely new season collection are creeping into the shops and somewhere between all of the doom and gloom there are a few rays of light coming from the high-street and one of them is brought to us by COS, it's quite obvious I'm a huge fan as I mentioned my love for COS so many times before , but this season more than previously I'm excited by the new collection mainly because unlike many other high-street retails who seem to be riding high on the wave of pleats and mid-riff baring tops, COS actually produce an elegant and wearable collections that touch all of the trends without making you feel like a fashion victim. I mentioned before that I have yet to see any new season collection on the high-street that got me excited, luckily I can trust COS to produce a collection that I can actually get excited about because I can actually wear some of it without feeling like an idiot. So thank you COS for being a trusty fashion saviour in this mad trend-lead fashion world, this is my ray of light on this dark and gloomy February day and I can't wait to get my hands on some of these brilliant pieces. 

Incognito

Since this winter , more then ever I'm wearing the same outfits and items again and again, my only comfort right now when it comes to my outfits is actually having enough accessories to shadow the fact I'm wearing the same skirt and jumpers over and over again most days of the week. I kind of love the combination of the scarf and wide brim hat right now,  good for sheltering from the random gusts of wind and insane showers currently battering the UK, also serves as a great solution for hiding and covering my slightly hangover face after a couple of drinks too many last night with my workmates. I can already see this outfit is going to become a regular favourite for as long time (or until the weather warms up a little bit ...)

Sunday's stripes

I did a little bit of a wardrobe clear-out today and found this stripy jumper I forgot about. I have to admit my wardrobe is in state, it's clearly been built for a guy who has 3 t-shirts and one pair of jeans, it's so tiny that I usually can't fit more than a few jumpers and basics on the shelves which means that every once in while I need to refresh my memory and pull some things for a bit of a wardrobe refresh, I usually then take a few items from my clothing rail and put them back to the wardrobe, I try to do this at least once or twice a month so I can get a good view of what I have, especially at times when I get really bored wearing the same over and over again so I was really happy to find this stripy jumper although I have to admit it wasn't my best purchase this winter, I got caught up for a bit with the stripes trend but eventually forgot this jumper at the back of my wardrobe which was actually not  such a bad thing as now I can finally enjoy it now that I'm a bit sick of the sight of solid roll necks and oversized jumpers which I have far too many of.

No change

Black and white again, same outfit over and over again, it's been going for far too long, can't even get a decent shot nowadays because my camera is constantly playing up. I'm in a dire need for a change, fresh colours, new cuts but there's nothing that's captivating or exciting enough at the moment for me to want to spend my money on. 

I spent Saturday with my friend who's already piled a ton of spring/summer pieces but I just didn't feel excitement at the pieces I've seen so far and eventually ended up buying this jumper at &Other Stories, it kind of reminded me of an old jumper I once got when I was a teen on my first visit to London , obviously back then it seemed a lot more rebellious and exciting to wear a jumper full of holes, right now it just seemed more of a safe but slightly quirky addition to my wardrobe. I'm honestly feeling like I need a major wardrobe overhaul after wearing pretty much pretty much one outfit in different variations all winter :) 

Routine

Every year, once the holiday season is finally over, I feel like a giant weight was lifted of my shoulder, the holiday season is usually quite stressful for most but for me the worst part of it is the sudden impact on my routine. There's nothing I hate more than having my daily routine broken by the holiday madness, I love the stability of knowing what I will be doing Monday to Friday and where I will be and the holidays always seem to shutter this stability. Celebrating the return to work this week has also meant celebrating the return of safe and comfortable wintery outfits and after spending the week in sunny Tel Aviv where temperatures reached 26 degrees during the day, putting on a fuzzy cashmere jumper on a rainy and windy day felt like the best thing ever. Call me crazy but I always preferred dressing up for winter and after a long holiday at home being able to go back to my comfortable wintery wardrobe and get back into my routine were exactly the two things I needed after this slightly crazy holiday season.

Trusted favourites

Time seems to fly this week and I can't believe it's only two days before my Christmas break officially begins. On Sunday I'll be on the plane back home but so far I have done zero packing or Christmas shopping, I'm writing this while taking my lunch break at work, the clock just struck 6 and we're still looking at at least 3 more hours of work preparing a new project to go live. Although I love moaning, I'm actually enjoying my time at work but unfortunately the crazy hours this week have stopped everything else in my life and all my plans outside work have now been put aside and just as my plans, the daily morning fashion exercise now consists of me picking up just about anything I can find, although I'm quite happy with my outfit today, a skirt and a trusty old men's jumper is probably my favourite items. I know I can pull them out of my wardrobe when my eyes are still half shut in the morning and still manage to get a sort of OK outfit that I won't feel ridiculous in. To challenge myself I decided to wear my chunky pair of shoes which I still haven't really broken into but so far so good. Now all I  have to do is wish that the project we're working on tonight will finally be ready to go live and then I might finally be able to take a deep breath and hopefully finish all my holiday preparations in time.

The countdown

The last week before Christmas is probably my least favourite time of the year, mainly due to the fact that it's the busiest and most stressful week for me in my job, spending most of my time at work trying to make pre-holiday deadlines and conclude projects before the end of the year. It's one of weeks in which I spend most of my days and evenings at work in a mad race against time so on most days, I try to give myself a few extra minutes of sleep (or snooze) before the madness begins again so naturally getting dressed is not really a top priority which means I pretty much rely on whatever I can pull out of my wardrobe as fast as I can. Surprisingly those last minute 'in a rush' outfits are the ones I'm usually happiest with and my outfit for today is certainly one of those slightly messy but trusty outfits that I know I feel the happiest in, especially when I know I'm facing a very stressful week at work. 

Work from home

There's no better way to start the weekend then actually working from home on a Friday ! My job gives me a bit of flexibility and in the run-down to Christmas things are getting quieter so today was the perfect day to take things easy and skip the mad rush into the office and setup my temporary office in my local cafe. To celebrate my work from home moment, I decided to dress appropriately for my work session and pretty much wear 'whatever' because no one would actually care. I always enjoy finding a good excuse for a lazy outfit and this one is certainly the mother of all lazy outfits, just put a giant cardigan on whatever you wear and you're sorted! I have no idea why but I decided it would be absolutely essential to wear a necklace to 'break all the black' before I packed my laptop and shuffled down the street to start my 'working from home' day, I suppose it does give a bit of a 'glamourous' touch to this outfit that could perfectly double-up as a pyjama any other day. 

A little bit of skirt love

It's that black skirt all over again! I'm not going to apologise, it's simply my favourite item of clothing at the moment, the sort of trusty item that you know would pretty much work with any shirt, jumper or t-shirt you choose to wear it with. In many ways, this skirt has replaced the essential black dress for me and allowed me to play around with my outfits after a long period of relying on black dresses only because I was just too lazy to try harder. It seems that I get more wear out of this skirt than any other item in my wardrobe and I can't even imagine what might happen the day I can no longer wear it. If I didn't feel a bit strange about wearing it every day I probably would have but I guess even the best skirt needs a break every couple of days so while I feel like I need to apologise for constantly wearing this skirt, I also think it's a great example of an item that just becomes an easy wardrobe staple you just want to wear it everyday. 

Monday's dress-up

Another Monday and another borrowed dress for a client meeting! I once again raided my friend's wardrobe for something a little smarter and fished out this awesome flippy hem dress from Warehouse , it fit so much better than last week's borrowed dress that I'm actually thinking of getting one for myself when it's sale time. It's really hard to say no to a simple dress that is both comfortable and practical. I definitely felt slightly more comfortable wearing this dress than last week's dress which my friend has chosen, it was such a relief knowing I'm actually wearing something I liked!

Oh joy

I always feel a little adventurous when I get dressed during the weekends, I suppose it's always a good excuse to try out all sorts of outfits I had in my head and see if it goes well or turns into a total failure, this was one of these outfits that I just thought could work but just couldn't completely convince myself it did. When I try to test an outfit, I'm usually not really happy with it until I actually go out and wear it outside, if I walk around all day feeling uncomfortable and constantly having to fix it , then I know it doesn't really work. So this outfit was exactly it, to be honest I wasn't sure it would work the minute I put it on but was a bit too lazy to change things so told myself it's all going to be fine when I left the house and worst case scenario I had my coat to cover the mess If I start feeling really uncomfortable, perhaps I should have given it a second thought before I left the house because I wasn't feeling it worked right, but I guess there's always the photos and the posts here to remind me what's good and what's not and luckily I actually enjoy those 'not so great' outfit days after all. 

Pigeon toes and tulle

I seem to have fallen for one of those terribly trendy items and couldn't get my sight of this tulle skirt in my recent visit to Zara. I think somewhere deep inside it was another flashback to the past, this time to the brief period in my late teens when I dabbled in all things 'goth' , at the time I could only wish to find such a great skirt so obviously I had to compensate myself for the sad goth days when I could only dream about a skirt like that. I suppose I can keep looking for excuses about why I needed it and just be honest and admit, I just can't seem to force myself to be a grown-up and dress like one !

When Corp called

It was inevitable but today I had my first proper meeting with a corporate client. When my bosses set up the meeting,  the first thing I heard was 'it's time to take out the suits and ties', fashionwise it was not a good sign for me and I immediately picked up the phone to my 'corpy' friend and asked her to dress me up for the meeting. I trawled through my wardrobe and pulled out the best 'smart' dresses I had but my friend was one step ahead of me and picked up a couple of items from her 'smart' wardrobe to bring over. I felt it would be best to let her make the choices, whether I liked them or not and after trying out a number of looks we both were in agreement that this grey dress with a white shirt layered underneath will probably do the job just fine. To be honest I really wasn't a fan of this look, it really felt a bit out of my comfort zone so decided to leave the white shirt and just wear the dress with a nice pair of moderate heels. At the end of the day I felt the content of the meeting and its success was much more important than nailing that 'corporate' look I'm so scared of and luckily the meeting went well so now I can go back home and change into an outfit I feel more comfortable in. 

If it ain't broke ...

There's nothing that makes me happier than sticking to a familiar formula when it comes to getting dressed. Some days I get up and have an incredible need for experimenting but lately, as I mentioned before, on most days I will just stick with what's familiar and comfortable and there's nothing more comfortable and familiar than a white shirt layered with a nice jumper or sweatshirt. I don't know why but it was one of those things I seem to have forgotten about when I got into a style rut and decided wearing black dresses is the ultimate solution for a simple outfit especially since my wardrobe is full of jumpers and sweatshirts just begging to be layered on top a nice white shirt. I was certainly relieved when my Monday morning routine was made slightly easier when I put on this outfit.

All the same, all over again ...

You can tell I'm obsessed with an item of clothing when I find any excuse to wear it and at the moment it's this jacket, I wore it earlier this week for work with a white shirt and since today I was feeling a little lazy I decided that it'll be the perfect companion for this Isabel Marant for H&M tee. This jacket is one of those items that I know I'll keep wearing for a long time because it just goes with pretty much anything and can be the sort of item that you'll reach for when you just can't think of anything interesting and yes, being a lazy dresser means that an item like this gets all the points. 

My mum told me years ago that there are certain pieces you'll buy that will stick with you for a long time without you even realising as long as they're simple and can be dressed up and down without too much effort and looks like this jacket, although so thin and basic and bought at H&M is one of those that I'll wear in and out until it falls apart. 

When I don't want to choose...

I haven't been able to get a proper night's sleep in the last few days, I can't point the exact reason for my sleepless nights but the lack of sleep is certainly not making things easier for me in the morning. I had plenty of time to consider my outfit for today while trying to force myself into bed last night but after trying to pull myself out of bed and pressing the snooze button 5 times this morning, that well planned outfit just seemed too much of a hassle and so I quickly found myself reaching for the good old cosy and comfortable black dress and cardigan combo and while at it I decided that if I'm already going for the somewhat scruffy look a pair of chunky shoes and a beanie would be the perfect additions. Unsurprisingly, I managed to fit in quite well with the general 'no fuss' boyish dress-code at work.

Monday

Slowly but surely I'm starting to fall in love with a blazer and button-up shirt look. I always thought this look might be too serious for me but I guess with the right kind of blazer and the right kind of white shirt it's the kind of easy and classic look that you just can't go wrong with.  I was planning on wearing something completely different this morning but then in the last minute remembered I had a meeting scheduled and as I was already with one foot out of the door I had to make a quick outfit change that didn't require too much thinking and planning and so it was, a white shirt, a blazer and a leather skirt. The perfect lazy, last minute ,Monday morning outfit. 

Back in business

The weekend is here and after a few days of testing the grounds at work and sticking to fairly basic outfits I felt I really need to go for something a little bolder and louder. I don't wear prints as much as I used to nowadays and it's probably been ages since I dared to wear a bit of animal prints, but after a long week of boring and subtle outfits I really needed to go loud and bold and this leopard print sweatshirt was my bold statement for today and I think I'm actually going to wear this to work sometime last week. I think that a little bit of animal print won't do any harm and I certainly felt a little bored with my outfits at work by the end of the week, so here's for a little bit of animal print!

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.

That's how I look on Monday !

I'm not a morning person, I'm not a Monday person, I can't get my head to think 'fashion' on a Monday morning. 

I blew up my blow-dryer which meant my hair looked even worse than it usually is and to add to all I started a new permanent job this morning after a few months of contract work. To save myself time and stress I decided to wear a simple black dress, it's the perfect item when you're not really sure what would make an appropriate outfit in a new workplace. I was so nervous I just couldn't focus on playing around with outfits or think of something more exciting. The best thing about getting dressed for my new job that I noticed today was that I'm working in an all male office, in my previous job, I was working in an all-female office and constantly felt there was a constant competition between all the ladies of who's going to pull out the craziest and most eye-popping outfit everyday. Honestly, I come to work for work and most days prefer to focus my energies on getting ready for the day ahead so just want to wear something practical and comfortable and luckily with an office full of boys, I think there's less to worry about when it comes to fashion and more time to focus on actually doing great work!