Style Weekend - My Spring/Summer Wardrobe Additions

Well I missed Style Wednesday, but I have finally gotten organized and taken some pictures of my spring-into-summer purchases.

As you know, I took bags and bags of things to charity and to consignment and to my friend M.  I was very clear that not much would arrive back in and of that, it had to be things that were less trendy.

Oddly enough, I bought my summer dresses first - the white and seersucker dresses you have already seen:

And the cream oxfords:

My spring dress was a no-brainer when I saw it.  This is a silk Theory dress and I adore it.  Simple, and can be worn with blazer or a simple cardigan or on its own.

As I was buying this dress I picked up these Stuart Weitzman shoes:

These are built for comfort, but look very elegant with all of the dresses and things I already own.  I admit to having a thing for woven leather shoes...

In the same colour story, a little cotton pencil skirt by Nougat London:

I also got this Circle of Gentleman blazer on sale for 50% off.  It is cotton, with a gorgeous silk lining, and right now I am wearing it outdoors as a jacket with my jeans, but it looks excellent with my red and navy dresses from last year.   As you know, I do not typically like blazers, but this is such a wonderful company who excel at perfectly cut coats, and I can see the difference in quality between a J Crew blazer and this ;-).

I also got a simple dove grey tunic blouse from Nougat London with the cute little peekaboo back:

Another investment piece that I have long wanted is the Eileen Fisher silk wide legged trousers.  They are absolutely comfy on and can be dresses up or down.  I have already worn these twice, and can't wait till it isn't so filthy outside so I can take them out into the world.

The surprise was the Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti black silk skirt that I bought on ebay for $40, new with tags.  It needs a steaming and then is going with me on my road trip to St. Andrews next weekend!

love the gathers!

And finally, this jersey/silk tee from Brooks Brothers: 

Most of these items work together and all of them support what was left in my closet.

I am basically done now till Fall and am very pleased with my purchases.  I did exceed my clothing budget slightly and have had to add more money in from my day to day spending, but they are all worth it!

Except for the last two items, the things I bought were bought all at once in a local shoppe, Robert Simmonds, where I tried on scads of things and then tried to piece together a style story.  I have kept very true to the the aesthetic I had started out with and am convinced these will be in my closet for years to come.

How about you?  Have you done your spring/summer shopping yet?

 Have a fabulous weekend and stay safe out there!

xoxo wendy

Living with Less in the Closet: the Love and Values Test

I have been cleaning out my closet since my return from down south. 

I was tired of my heaviest woollens and they are cleaned and stored away.  A few lightweight ones are standing by, for say, the blizzard we are having this week.  I find Mother Nature a little hard to take this winter, but I suspect that if the thermometer hits +39 again this coming summer, I may miss the glories of snow and layering...

What's left in my closet are transition pieces that will get me through until mid to late May.  What I realized as I was going through this process was that there were some things in my closet I loved, some I liked and some I was "meh" about.

If I am going to get by with less, I realized that my goal must now be to love what I have.  Everything should be a pleasure to put on.  No exceptions. 

This adds an additional level of ruthlessness to the whole proceedings.  And a word of caution. 

For cleaning out can often result in permission to go shopping for things one does love. 

This has been my blind corner in the past.  The cupboard looks bare or the things in it that are only 'meh' taunt you, calling their siren song of "replace me - you know you want to..." 

This is when one should turn one's attention to some other part of life and go crazy there instead - for me that will be writing, reading and baking - am on a scone thing right now - since shopping with an empty closet can simply mean replacing one poor or ill-fitting choice with another. 

Case in point.  Prior to my holiday, I ordered the J Crew Botanical skirt.  Loved the colour and thought this might be a fun and inexpensive spring purchase.  Here it is on our Gigi:

It fit.  I liked the print okay.  But that was the key.  I "liked" the print.  I did not "love" it when I saw it, so back it went. 

When your pennies are limited and your desire is to pull all of the items out of your closet with a sense of satisfaction, "like" is simply not enough anymore.  Plus, as we all know, something equally wonderful is ALWAYS just around the corner.  As I work to build a small and satisfying wardrobe, like cannot be a part of it.  I may never have a Janet-sized wardrobe, but I am sure heading in that direction.  Right now there are only 25 things in my closet, plus a few tshirts. 

During our trip to Florida we each had a small sum of "mad money" to spend as we liked.  I held most of mine till we went to the mall.  I wandered from store to store, admiring much, but loving little.  It seems that when we shop with a budget and with the need to absolutely love something before it can come home with us, the bar is set much higher than the usual online kanoodling!

Not only that, I now carry a little homemade card in my wallet (goofy, I know, but it works) where I have written out my values and the kinds of emotions I want to experience through the choices I make from now on. 

This is kind of personal, but since I pretty much tell you all everything, why not share this, since it may help someone else (and really, is there any other reason to blog if not to try to connect with one another?)

the values on my card say:

• family
• achievement
• creativity/beauty
• service
• expansion/adventure
• authenticity
• spirituality/awakening

My emotions:

• gratitude
• joy
• love
• excitement
• peace
• curiosity

If I am spending more than my allocated budget, I am impacting my family, not being authentic, and certainly not finding peace.

On the other hand, if I have the money, and the item is beautiful (to me), feels like the me I want to project and makes me feel joyful, excited and a little in love, well, then I am good to go!

So most things didn't meet the card test.

Finally, in Bloomingdales, I found my love.  A lovely silk shell by Equipment, replete with flowers, to add some transitional hurrah to my wardrobe:

 

 A close-up of the print:

The silk is buttery soft and the shell looks wonderful paired with my white and red cardigans.  It is simple and fun all at the same time.

I did see another top I liked at Brooks Brothers, a jersey top with chiffon detailing and will probably order it in the next couple of months:

which I want to pair with a skirt like this from Nougat London:

I know - plain, but paired with some special pieces I already own and realizing what my life is really like (as opposed to my dream of tooting about Manhattan with Ema!), these are the kind of pieces that will get added this spring and summer.

Eventually, my closet will only have things I love in it.  But that will take time and the same patience and commitment to rigour that I used in the mall. 

As I boxed away items, I was more and more reminded that clothing is a wonderful thing, but really, how much do we really need?  And why do we feel like we need it?  And if we are forever switching it all out because we are dissatisfied (oh or because we've gained or lost weight which I had), then our choices are likely not as thoughtful as we would want them to be. 

Those are questions for the psychologists in the room, not a mere sociologist like me!

I must tell you, having less money for clothing has been one of the greatest gifts!  How's that for making lemonade out of lemons?

Now if the flowers could only bloom in real life...

Have an awesome Thursday and stay safe out there!








 

Style Wednesday - Nougat London

Hi all,

I would not presume to post on Brora or The Rose - my pals Dani and Steph do that better than I ever could!  But there is a mid-priced British Line that I like very much - Nougat London - so I thought it would be fun to share some things I like in their fall line.

I have a few Nougat pieces that I love:

The silk and knit dress

The glittery cardigan

The special dress I bought for Barry's 50th...

My pink meringue confection

and peasant top

 

What I love about Nougat London is the small touches that make the piece special.  There is a timeless and vintage vibe to their pieces, but they do not cross the line into costume.

I have been so sad this fall, because the local shop that carried Nougat has gone out of business; I may be forced to throw myself on the company's mercy to find online shopping here in North America!

I got an alert on Facebook this morning that most of their Autumn/Winter line is now available online.  You can visit the whole line here, but my favourites are the following:

The Lavinia Vneck Dress, so softly autumn...



The Crepe Dress with Pleated Neck details is like something Anne Shirley would have worn in Anne's House of Dreams:


The Sybil batwing top in peacock would be so lovely with a plain skirt:

The jacquard dress is so chic:

as is the pencil skirt, which has pockets!

I love the sweetness of this camisole:

and the simplicity of the jersey crepe de chine wrap top:

And how lovely would the following knits be for the holiday season?

And this dress isn't online yet (but they show it on their blog) and I think it loves me...

Aw - who am I kidding?  I'd buy pretty much the whole line and perhaps when I am a famous authoress visiting London, I will!

Until then, I will scheme to find pieces here in Canada!

Do you own any Nougat London?  Do you like the line?

Hope you have an awesome Wednesday - stay safe out there!




 

Style Wednesday - what I REALLY wore this summer....

Well today is August 21st.  Our favourite retailers, via the web and big thick glossy magazines, are wooing us with their wares, tantalizing us with their stylings, their colours, their vision for us.

And you KNOW I am not immune to the siren calls of the fashionistas, who loll upon the rocks in their burgundy lips (which is apparently the NEW! look every fall..), camel coats (INVESTMENT SHOPPING!) and IT bags.  If Summer is bohemia, Fall is Christian Dior New Look.

You just KNOW that this, or a variation thereof, is the sartorial catnip of our Septembers:

Virevolte suit, Christian Dior, Autumn/Winter 1955

Source 

Put it with booties and patterned tights, and away you go!

But I cannot move to Fall yet.  I am not yet done with Summer.  Not because of the fine weather that still is with us.  No - I am not done with Summer yet as there are lessons still to be learned from the Wendy Summer 2013 collection. 

I remember the heady early planning days, when I imagined how I would wile away my summer, resplendent in so many delights....

Remember this red Lauren shift?  I wore it twice so far.  It seems that I forgot that I was no longer working and would therefore not search out a shift dress regularly...

How about the black linen dress? 

Wore it once.  Ditto the reason...

Bought this blazer from J Crew - wore it twice:

Mint sequin cami?  Once

Now some of this you could blame on my current state of transition.  You would be right.  Some of this could be blamed on an overly-optimistic image of drinking in trendy clubs or dining in fine restaurants.  You would be right.  Some of it could be blamed on a rainy summer.  Yup, that, too.

But the reality is that I am still a work in progress in defining my stay-at-home style.  I still have an extra 15 lbs on my body, and I refuse to feel uncomfortable in anything.

So what did I wear this summer?

Well, I wore this little Theory jersey dress quite a bit, along with the Michael Kors black Tstrap sandals:

A Navy J Crew tshirt and a Gap linen skirt recommended by Ema.

And the following two piles of clothes:

1) pink/white pile:

And Navy/Blue/Black pile:

All in all, it turns out I wore about 30 articles of clothing in June, July, and August...

I was captivated by light pinky or white/creamy hues, which I only spiked with my Nougat London dress in the watermelon shade.  The light nectar J Crew lightweight cashmere cardigan was worn constantly.

 

As was the little top of unknown origins with its sweet birds that reminded me of a happy painting...

 

 My nougat London top, white J Crew linen skirt, ivory café capris, pink glittery sweatshirt..

A little cotton H&M top..

 The Blues were pale as well - my pale blue blazer, my jeans, my nougat London boho top, my floral A line cotton skirt...

 

Blue sweaters, silk top...

Black café capris, gap silver maxi skirt, grey and black jersey skirts and tops from Fig and Horny Toad...

Oh sure, some others things were worn - like tees and tanks.  The VERY odd pair of pants, my Anthro moto cardigan.

But really, if you happened upon me at all this summer, this is what you would have seen me in. 

30 items (plus work out duds and the odd jackets and of course loads of little shoes and necklaces and earrings...). 

I looked at the rest of the things in there and divided them into reasons they were never worn:

1) too dressy/corporate
2) didn't feel like "me" anymore
3) slightly tight - I refused to wear anything that didn't fit perfectly
4) didn't have any "occasions".

Then I looked again at what I did wear against the recently completed Style Statement that I mentioned last week, and picked out a couple of key points that I thought related best to clothing:

Creative:

They live to express themselves in their own way.

Nostalgic:

They put creative thought into their home and appearance and love trying their treasures and good finds together with contemporary basics.  Attracted to the whimsical and the precious, Nostalgic had a great eye and hear for detail and seeks to fill life with the small pleasures that matter most.
And while everything shown above may not EXACTLY fit into those descriptions, they are certainly REMINSCENT of them. 

 

 So now, I believe I have a sense of what worked and what my mistakes were this summer.  Many things I got rid of along the way - some things I will put away at the end of the summer and see what next year brings.  Some of the dressy or fun things will have their place in the sun at some point no doubt, and a black linen dress is always a lovely thing for the inevitable sombre summer event.  But in the end, I still basically only wore 30 items. 

So in addition to the colour story that we discussed yesterday, my fall purchases, and decisions as to what to keep or not keep of what I already have will be based on:

1) does it fit?
2) is it comfortable
3) is it flattering?
4) do I love it?
5) am I actually going to wear it or have I just seen someone I like wear it or a jcrew/anthro/whatever label model wear it and think I need it to?
6) does it fit with my style statement - which in the end should be linked to #4....


Sorry to be long-winded!  Hope this little exercise has helped someone else as well as they think about fall.

In the end, we must style ourselves. This review has helped me realize what my new style is.

Tomorrow is J Crew's September roll-out, and I am sure I am going to have something to say about that....

 Have a great Wednesday and stay safe out there!!!