It's getting hot in here!
Spring is definitely here. Tomorrow is going to be 29 degrees in the Huon Valley, Tasmania, on the 3rd of October. That doesn’t mean it can’t
still snow in three days time, but it does mean that it might be time to have
some warm weather gear on hand. And perhaps it means that we should make sure we are doing our part to slow global warming. (Is 29 in early October in Hobart normal?)
So, although global warming is still a contentious topic, not everyone agrees it is happening, I am going to dedicate this post to two themes – environmentally sustainable wardrobe behaviours and nice spring clothes. Oh, and if you can’t get behind global warming it is also going to be budget friendly, which is good news,
perhaps, unless you are a clothing boutique owner. Can’t please everyone!
So what is on the menu for spring? There are so many different ‘looks’ these days and they are all ‘current’. High waisted skinnies with a fairly solid shoe and a short top are still a real thing, although perhaps they are only popular with a young market?
High waisted from cotton on. Popular with young ladies this spring.
The art gallery curator influence is still very strong – think beautiful without being body focused, lots of drape and just the right touches. But functional. This look has been described as crossing age boundaries and appealing to more and more younger women.
Art gallery curator fabness from COS.
There is the fairly sexy, without being explicit, dress cohort. They are in slips sometimes with jumpers, and puffed sleeved waisted dresses, generally with length. With sneakers a lot, boots in winter and birkenstocks this summer.
Beautiful dress from Borgo de Nor, curtesty of the outnet.com.au.
What else? Wide crops. Jump suits. I am loving jump suits. A friend gave me a black one and I bought a mustard linen one last summer. Such coolness. Some people find them a bit cool when you have to peel it all off to pee, but oh well!
Jewellery is still often gold, and fairly dainty in size, although maximal in layering and also in the use of irregularity such as mis matched earrings.
Hair. Long bob done in neat beach waves is still around, but ‘french hair’ – ie not so obviously neatly done is more ‘fashionable’.
Colour is big. As are white dresses.
Shoulder pads are a little bit of a thing, as is belting jackets, jumpers etc.
Sneakers, sneakers sneakers.
Nice suiting, but pants, not really pencil skirts. Cropped pants and long lengths.
Jumpsuit and colour, both good for 2019. Zara.
So, have we missed anything? Oh, look, probably. It is HOW you wear your clothes in part that marks you as looking good. But some things that are not very in? Low waisted pants, espec boot cut. Body con dresses, they are trying too hard. But if you are sufficiently cool and you wear these, then you might just be the person to bring them back.
So, am I suggesting that you rush out and buy some of all this fashion goodness? No I am not. Katie’s first rule of buying trends is ‘thou shalt not buy more of a trend than thou canst get good wear out of in a season.’ Define trend here as anything that you didn’t like until you saw it well styled recently. If you have always loved baggy arty tailoring and will probably do so for the next long while, then buy up while it is around. For myself, I have some things that I always love, like cream chino pants and an elegant jumpsuit, but plenty of things that I do not love any more once they are no longer trendy. Sad but true. So I hold my fickleness in check by only buying a bit of trend and wearing the heck out of it. Everytime it is clean and the weather agrees I will wear my darlings type of thing. And at the end of the season I pack it away. If when I get it out next season I do not love it, at least I didn’t waste it!
People are different and some people have a very strong signature style little influenced by fashion. I do have a signature style but keeping current is part of mine. So, yeah.
I read an interesting comment a while back that in our grandmother’s day, and my gran was in her 20s in WW2 to give you a time frame, women often bought a new wardrobe (clothes, not timber) at the start of every season, with roughly one outfit per day of the week and a couple of things for evenings and Sundays. Then they wore those clothes out. They didn’t have huge wardrobes, and they found it easy to get dressed as they had bought complete outfits. When they bought those two
skirts and three dresses they bought the shoes to go with as necessary (unless
they already had something suitable).
These days, we buy that shirt not because it completes our 6th outfit for the season, but because we like it, or we’re bored, or we have gone shopping and so that is what we are doing. But do we need it? Sometimes we buy the same type of clothes over and over because we like them and they are an easy fit for us. And we often leave certain items because we find them hard to buy. But if we do not discipline ourselves it becomes very hard to build outfits. So you like shirts and have tonnes, but what are you wearing on your butt? Those jeans AGAIN??
And sometimes we buy the same styles over and over. We still want to wear low waisted boot cuts cos they looked great on us way back when. And if you really love ‘em great. But perhaps something more current will make you feel absolutely
fabulous. It is worth giving it a go at any rate.
So this spring, I will have a plan. I am going to have a certain no of work outfits
(say 8) and maybe 10 casual day time outfits and some nice stuff for evening
events. Bit more than gran, but still it would be a very manageable wardrobe. And
the stuff I am not wearing I will store, so if I want it I can get it out. Will I be buying much? I would love a new white fashion sneaker. Mine are pretty worn out. And a very comfy sandal. I will probably get a Birkenstock as the sandal, but am unsure what sneaker to get. I am wide in the toe area and don’t want bunions, so I am a bit fussy.
I want some black ankle skinnies to wear with a vintage beautifully cut black (shoulder pad) jacket that I am going to wear with laser cut sandal booties in brown. I will belt the jacket and it will be my fashion forward ‘industry’ outfit for networking events etc.
I want a nice dress in ‘my’ colours, that showcases my waist. I have found it again after 5 years and a few kids, so I want to give it a run! All my dresses from the last while have been cut straight, because I was straight (ish).
And I am going to buy some white suit pants. I have been wanting to for ages. They are for work and I am excited. I love to combine white with bright. And I have been seeing some good white suiting around. To me it is not a trend, I will continue to wear it after everyone else stops, but I will try and keep it current by pairing it well with new things.
And that is all that I will buy. At least until the summer sales where I give myself some budget to see what bargains woo me. They have to fit and I have to love them, but I do not mind if I have to buy things to wear with them. They often
become the nucleus of new outfits.
So, to sum up, don’t buy too much. Don’t have so much in your cupboard that you
get lost in it. Create some outfits out of what you have already. Identify any
thing you need to buy to make it work (if you have budget) and then work your
plan. Try not to buy junk that you don’t love just because it is there and so are you!