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.

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. 

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 !

Zara faves

Among the black dresses and chunky knits, I spotted these two lovely pieces at Zara. Perhaps it's the grey weather that makes me want to escape all the black I'm usually covering myself in, these two items more than anything remind me more of spring than winter and I have a feeling they'll work extremely well together. Perhaps these might be the solution to the incredibly boring search for a Christmas-do outfit, something that I'll later also be able to wear every day? I'm certainly going to keep this sweatshirt and skirt on my mind next time I pop into Zara for a quick browse.

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.

Falling leaves

The weather is turning colder and the streets slowly start filling up with fallen leaves, summer time will soon be over and winter is going to start officially in just a few days so what can be more perfect than this slouchy jumper from Zara with a pattern of grey leaves? It's actually been one of my first 'winter' buys sometime in early august, I actually worn it through the last few weeks of August when the crazy heat wave that hit the UK finally stopped as I couldn't wait for it to finally get colder, I actually started wearing it pretty much immediately despite the fact it was still warm enough for just a t-shirt. I'm really happy with this buy, it served me well so far and I always loved a nice jumper with a bit of a print to break a boring black outfit, not to mention the fact the leaf pattern is just perfect print for this time of the year.

Sticking with black and white

The closer the weekend gets the lazier I get with my outfits but luckily today it was laziness that made me try this houndstooth print skirt which I bought ages ago before I could even think of winter.

It seemed like the perfect way to get a potentially boring outfit a little more exciting. I teamed it with a black chunky jumper and a matching pair of black and white flats and voila! Surprisingly I really love this lazy outfit, there's something quite elegant about it , which is sharp contrast of my usual lazy outfits that usually include an all black ensemble (the perfect recipe for a lazy and simple outfit!). I'm really excited about this skirt as I feel it's a great item for making an outfit slightly more sophisticated without trying too hard.

Leather will make it better?

I'm loving leather skirts at the moment, so much that I'm now the owner of 4 different leather/leather looking skirts. I've been having a roll with leather skirts at the moment and worn one at least once a week for the past few weeks. I just love the way they look with a simple jumper or t-shirt, there's nothing new here but for me being able to wear one without being worried that I'm overdoing it has been a great comfort. I had a bit of a funny experience in my former job last year when I wore one and one of my work colleagues commented that wearing a leather skirt might be a bit over the top for our office. It wasn't that it was a big faux-pas , but in an office where jeans were the official uniform, a leather skirt did seem a bit over the top on most days so I didn't get a chance to actually enjoy my skirts properly until recently and lately I've developed liking to pretty much wearing a leather skirt with anything from a printed sweatshirt to a simple jumper. I feel the leather texture helps to bring a simple outfit to life.  

Bring on the cold

It's hard to believe but I started this week wearing a light long sleeve t-shirt and now within the course of two days the weather has turned cold and windy and it's finally starting to feel like winter is on its way. 

I have to admit I'm quite excited to finally be able to pull out my jumpers and warm knits, it seems like it's been quite a long summer, at least for a winter loving person like me. I think I always loved shopping for winter more than shopping for summer but unfortunately or fortunately I have yet to spot any winter 'must haves' that I really want so I was quite excited to find this jumper and skirt at Monki a couple of weeks ago and been waiting impatiently to wear them. I do love a nice grey jumper and absolutely love this asymmetric, the cut out detail certainly helps make things a little more exciting. 

A different perspective

It's probably been about 6 months since I started this blog, when I started it I had very different ideas on what I want to focus on and how I want things to look, but has time went by I started looking at things differently , it was partially to do with the blog, partially to do with the awful winter and partially because I felt I was lacking inspiration.

This morning was the perfect time to try and do things differently, I was thinking for a while about changing the way I take photos, I made a couple attempts in the past switching from one style to the other. I'm not a good photographer , I do enjoy taking photos but can't say I'm any good. However I did want my outfit posts to look a little more lively and this morning as I was getting ready to go and meet a friend for coffee (in the snow, in the middle of March!) , I decided to take out the tripod that was left in my apartment when I moved in and try and capture a different view of my outfit to see if I can master slightly more organised outfit photos. I suppose it worked, I'm not too happy with the end result but I'm going to post it any way just as note to myself which I'll hopefully look at in a few months to see how things have changed.

I'm still not sure which direction this will take me but I enjoyed experimenting with something a little different and might try to play around more often with how I take my photos. I guess I needed a bit of a change, so please bear with me whilst I try to figure out what's the next step for me.

Are you going anywhere?

Probably due to my no so good memory, I managed to mix up some dates and realised that I've been invited to a friend's birthday dinner later tonight. 

Luckily I'm working from home today which makes it easier to dive into my wardrobe and pick something despite the fact that I would prefer to stay at home in this freezing cold.

Last week I bought this peplum top from H&M , I'm not a fan of peplum at all but I thought this top can come in handy in times like this when I need a quick going out fix that doesn't require too much thinking. I actually really like this top mostly because it has a kind of relaxed fit rather than a structured one which is quite common with peplum tops but the thing I like the most about it are the leather look sleeves which make this black top a little more interesting. I decided to stick with the usual printed skirt, using this pattern skirt from Zara and paired my comfy pointy pair of flats and my small black bag from Zara which is becoming quite a regular in my outfits. 

I can't say I'm madly excited about this outfit, nor am I overly excited about going out tonight but I'm satisfied because this outfit was definitely easy to pull together and I know that even though it will be freezing cold I'd still feel comfortable in this outfit when I go out.

I'll have the usual

I can't get away from talking about the weather in my posts, it feels like my posts cannot exist without a bit of a moan about the weather so here it goes. 

I was fooled to think that the nice and sunny weather of the last few days might mean that we're finally starting to see the winter slowly coming to an end, obviously I've been overly optimistic in my assumptions as I woke up this morning to be greeted by dark and grey skies and a temperature of zero degrees. 

It was obvious that it's time to start piling the layers back on which made me want to settle for something basic and warm. I decided to go for the faux leather skirt which I really love wearing on cold days, I suppose the synthetic material is doing a good job at keeping me warm . From there it was just a case of finding whatever would keep me warm and comfortable and with a wardrobe full of grey jumpers there wasn't much choice anyway but I was happy nonetheless knowing that I've packed myself well enough to keep warm and with the addition of my favourite pair of shoes and a small bag I set off for another day at work. 

Despite my moans, I'm quite thankful for cold and gloomy days like today, sometimes it feels a lot easier to be satisfied with a simple and basic outfit knowing the only thing you really want is to be warm and comfortable without too much hassle.

The perfect shade of blue

I finally found it ! The perfect blue jumper ! I've been looking for one for a few weeks and the perfect one finally turned up!

I already mentioned that lately I've been overcoming my strange hang-ups about wearing blue and I was hoping to find a simple piece that can work well for me, this jumper (actually more of a sweatshirt) is just the right shade of blue in my opinion , it's actually quite a relief to find myself wearing a top that is not black or grey. Although very simple, wearing it today has really made me feel slightly more energetic. I guess I needed a break from all the blacks and greys and this jumper came in just on time to save me from the boring black jumper routine I've been stuck in recently. I wore the jumper with this black and white skirt and loved the contrast between them, it was not just the colours but also the texture , I was a little worried about this over load of colours and textures but at the end of the day it was a good and fun experiment. I'm guessing this jumper will become a regular on my posts as I just can't stop thinking of what other items it would look great with.

Laying low

Today's outfit is the sort of outfit I just pulled first thing this morning without giving it too much thought , which to be honest is the perfect way for me to get dressed as I feel that spontaneous outfits sometimes work ten times better than an outfit I spent too much time thinking about. I think this jumper from Sandro hasn't really gotten the attention it deserved and I can't seem to find a good reason why, I mean it's simple, warm and comfy and doesn't require too much thinking, but I still can't figure out why I'm not using it more often, luckily today's cold weather was a perfect day to wear this and it really didn't require more than a simple black skirt and a good pair of tights. I actually think it's probably better than most other items I tried so hard to mix and match to get into an outfit. I'm just thinking whether the constant need to improvise because of the weather is dragging me into this boring circle of failed attempts at dressing up comfortably or whether I should stop blaming the weather and blame myself for not investing more money in warmer winter items? This is definitely something I'm admitting to failing at. I tried to avoid admitting this for so long only to realise I might be making the same mistakes again.

I'm hoping that in a year's time this winter's experience will be a good memory of what I should be focusing on when looking at my winter wardrobe so hopefully I'll spend the next winter with more practical items.

Monday surprises

There's nothing that makes me happier than getting a package from home , but I really wasn't prepared for what my mum put in the package I received this morning. When she told me a couple of weeks ago she's got a really special surprise in the post for me I was hoping for some sweets and snacks from back home but when I opened the package I got this morning I couldn't believe my eyes. The package included some of my favourites sweets but tucked neatly under layers of wrapping paper I found this Zara jacket and the Iro skirt I was planning to buy in the sales but decided it would be a little bit too much for my budget. I was so surprised with the contents of this package I almost felt like crying. Luckily I'm going to visit my family next month so I think I'll have to think of a nice way to pay back my mum for those insanely expensive treats she packed for me, she also let me on a little secret about where she found this skirt on a very heavy discount and promised we'll take a trip to check out the place when I'm on my holiday next month.

A day of khaki and grey

Continuing my experiment of pulling out items from my 'summer' wardrobe this morning, I found this lovely and basic grey wrap skirt. I was quite surprised I tucked it with my summer wardrobe and forgot about it as it's such a perfect item for the winter! When I found it I felt like I hit the jackpot, I know it's just a simple grey skirt but I remembered how much I loved wearing it last summer. I thought about how perfect it would look with just a simple black jumper and a couple of chunky necklaces or bracelets but then I was tempted to try it on with a khaki shirt for the sake of experimenting and I have to admit I loved the result, unfortunately the photos don't do those two items justice but it's a great basic outfit, and although there's nothing ground breaking about it I think it's a perfect for a casual day at work. I'm really happy I'm enjoying playing around with items I've forgotten about it makes me appreciate them again and keeps me from getting into this magic circle of 'I have nothing to wear, I need to go shopping'. It's such a relief sometimes to know that there's some lovely items just waiting to be worn again in new way to help with finding  some inspiration in the wardrobe and not in the shops! 

Forget the winter wardrobe

ASOS T-Shirt, H&M skirt, Zara Shirt, Kurt Geiger shoes

I find it hard to describe how I'm feeling towards the simple daily activity of 'getting dressed' over the last few weeks, I've moaned endlessly about how sick I'm of the weather and got caught up in what I can only describe as 'the magic circle of un-inspiration' when it comes to getting dressed. My morning routine has become slightly depressing when I'm reaching for my wardrobe and picking something to wear. I usually have something in mind when I go to bed at night but then I wake up in the morning, look at my clothing rail and pick up what I thought would be an amazing outfit , only to find myself moaning about it being too cold to wear XYZ or too short to wear to the office or too colourful for a winter day. This endless stream of excuses just doesn't stop and as result I simply back off and go back to my usual over-piling of jumpers, thermals and throw on a printed skirt to make myself feel a little bit better about everything.
Today I decided I must stop this circle by reaching to the 'summer' shelf in my wardrobe. I thought finding some old gems that have been left on the shelf waiting for warm weather might help with finding the spark.
The black and white print shirt immediately caught my eyes as I forgot how much I liked to wear it in the summer, so I said to myself that no matter how cold it might be this is definitely the sort of item I was hoping to find. From there it was a fairly easy journey to an outfit I was happy about, a faux leather skirt and a khaki shirt  over the t-shirt and there I standing in front of the mirror with an outfit I was extremely happy with for a change!
I'm now really looking forward to see what other 'summer' treasures I can find tucked away in my wardrobe.

Comfort zone

I've been trying to take an advantage of the early morning sunshine earlier today , it's still cold but the sun was out this morning when I woke up and I decided that I don't want to waste time at home when it's so sunny outside and I think it pretty much influenced what I wore. I really wanted something light and comfortable, no jumpers layered with thermals and scarves or anything too heavy. I also really wanted to wear my Isabel Marant Etoile t-shirt again and try to work it into the outfit despite the cold, I thought I'd brave it and wear it just like that as I had to wear a coat anyway, but decided to layer it with a shirt as I felt it might be too cold. I know here's nothing really exciting about this, I just like how the three items work together. I'm thinking this would be a great outfit for spring and can't wait for the weather to warm up a little, I guess there's still time for that but in the meantime I'm happy with the result as it is because it's comfortable and fun and doesn't make me feel too frumpy with too many layers of jumpers and whatnot. 

No extras

A printed skirt and a solid jumper , probably my favourite outfit to wear when I'm in a rush or can't really decide on what to wear. When I wear a skirt like that I prefer to keep it simple. This skirt is a recent purchase from Zara's new collection, I really didn't think I would like it as I thought the print was a little too much and my friend kept laughing at me and asking if I'm planning a magic carpet ride!  but after trying it on with just a black jumper I actually thought it's amazing, it's really not the sort of print I would usually go for but I definitely fell in love with it after trying it on. I'm thinking that a skirt like that doesn't really need any additions , no jewelry or accessories, just a solid top which makes this a perfect outfit for days I just don't feel like fussing around too much. 

Get the basics

I've been planning to stock up on some new basics for a while but I always end up holding off  my plans  to stock up on new basics because I see some other ridiculous item that catches my eye and decide it needs to be top priority. I admit , I'm not  very good when it comes to holding myself when I see something I like and it's usually the basics are the ones being neglected because of that, but recently I discovered Danish brand Envii and their online store and fell in love with their simple and basic items, probably a lot of it has to do with the nice selection of blue and grey items which I seem to have a slight obsession with lately but I absolutely love the stuff on the site and I'm seriously tempted to give this online store a try.