What to wear at 29yrs with a toddler?

[mummy2munchkin]

swallows pride

Hello, I'm new! I would really appreciate some help from you fashionistas. I am a sahm of a 2.11 month year old daughter and I love it (most of the time apart from when the terrible two's kick in during a trip to the shops). I was previously a big fan of clubs, bars, etc...I have many pairs of heels, beautiful night time dresses and bags but unfortunately I lack a sense of style when it comes to my daily uniform nowadays. I do have a lot of clothes but don't seem to be able to have a put together wardrobe and I'd love to look more polished.

I love bargains, also love designer and everything inbetween. My main clothes shopping sites are gap, zara, H&M, www.theoutnet.com, boden, the white company, isabella oliver, I try the department stores (selfridges, john lewis, house of fraser) but shopping online with them is too difficult..rubbish websites, I do like the tall section of topshop as I am 5"10 but this year we took munchkin to camp bestival and I walked past a 13 year old wearing the same dress as me from topshop so got put off it (rightly or wrongly).

Anyway, is there somewhere I'm missing? Is there a golden rule of how to get dressed in less than 15 mins and look good, how do I do it and what do I wear?

Any help greatly appreciated, I do love fashion, beauty and hair products and hope to be of some help in return!

Hello, welcome to MN

If you would like suggestions as to clothes/outfits etc, maybe could we have some info on your vital stats? We've got your height but maybe clothes size, shape/body type and maybe a celeb whose style you like?

General advice would be to do the whole 'capsule wardrobe' thing - I buy so much less but spend the money on higher quality items and buy in outfits so I know exactly what goes with what (no decisions = faster dressing). I also buy a few outfits the same colour palette so items can be interchanged to make lots of outfit combos.

Hair wise - I don't know what your hair type is but mine was straight and always looked a mess unless I had 1 hr to style it every day. Got a perm about a month ago, now wash and leave to air dry and looks fab with no effort whatsoever.

hello and welcome, I'm usually asking the advice not giving it!
But my new plan is to buy something each month from isabella oliver and jazz it up with high street accessories.

I've always thought the IO collection looks extremely polished and everything 'goes' with other items in the collection IYSWIM.

Well that's the plan anyway.

pro, totally agree with IO their clothes always look lovely and feel like quality made clothes.

inagarten - I am 5"10, size 10 with 34b up top but wider hips, my body feels quite long so when it comes to jeans and skirts I've always favoured hipster styles, they seem to look better.

I just had a hair makeover at nicky clarke - I actually cried when they'd finished because I'm so pleased with it, it is a few inches past my shoulders and mid brown/dark blonde. I just read another thread about being a 'winter' and was intrigued so googled it and worked out that I am an autumn, although my husband seems to think I look best in red (hmm, don't know about you but most men I've met seem to like the colour red). Celebs I like - not necessarily a celeb but Blair Waldorf the gossip girl character has a style I love, although I wonder what she does I do also like Alexa Cheung's style.

Hair sounds beautiful. If you are looking for a quick hairstyle, heated rollers might help you look more polished?

I too suffer from long body + wide hips syndrome and tend to wear lots of things that go in at the waist but quite high up i.e. just under rib cage, slightly above waist to give illusion of longer legs. I'd say dresses are the way to go for easy dressing on day-to-day basis. If you like Blair's polished, classic style, can I recommend something like this - it goes 'in' in the right place for figure flattering, is nice colour, pop on pair of tights and some ballet pumps and you're done. I'm quite tempted to get it myself :)

Aha, you started one

Ok... so what do you find easy to wear?

I don't really do casual, am not comfortable in jeans; so live in dresses and skirts.

Have you got a good pair of boots? What kind?

I'm marking my spot because I am now a SAHM to a 6month old and still trying to get to grips with "casual". I realised today that I haven't ready Grazia or any fashion mags since I became pregnant last summer (didn't seem much point at the time!) and I feel a bit out of the loop as to what to wear!

Lovely warehouse dress, the only problem with it is that it would be very short on me, my thighs aren't my fave part of me either, I have skinny shoulders/arms and chunky thighs!!

I feel best in my dresses at night all dressed up with nice hair and make up. In the day I find that I wear jeans more than anything else I think because of lack of inspiration. I wear leggings and they seem to look ok with body skimming jumpers for the winter. The summer I don't have a problem with, it's dresses every day.

I have some lovely boots (1 pair of the controversial bodens, black favourite boots) one pair of brown riding style boots, some olive green heeled boots but they are a little tight on the calf, a couple of pairs of uggs although I realised they should be kept for freezing days last year, that is it. I love my green hooded parka for this weather on top of pretty much anything, I bought a gorgeous marc jacobs tweed coat from the outnet last year which is very blair...I'm also thinking of getting some brogues from aldo. Thanks tethersend, I did, if it weren't for some nice posts I probably wouldn't have done. I'm not overly sensitive but when challenged about how I feel about being a mummy I tend to get a bit tetchy.

Have you looked at the wearing it today blog?? She's only 30 and always looks quite casual in a stylish way, lots of jeans, Bretons and leopard print scarves, pony tails and good manicures and pedicures make an easy mum uniform, lately she's been wearing printed/coloured jeans and grey marl, simple and effective ( can you tell I'm a bit of a fan?!)

I'm not a dresses person but live in jeans. I go for good quality jeans such as for all mankind, nudie etc, but tend to pick them up in the sale. My wardrobe does some real bargains and there is a shop near where I live where I have picked up Hudson jeans for twenty quid. My wardrobe sale section is great, and service is fantastic too. (I don't work for them!)

I tend to wear a lot of stripy tops, they go well with jeans, and plain stretch tops from warehouse definitives. I'm not really a patterns person so tend to stick with plain stuff I can mix and match.

I like to have a decent coat too, when you are out and about so much I think it's worth it.

I just googled and found that blog. Looks like she is a my wardrobe fan too!

Ha ppop I did think that was a well timed cross post, though you may be actual wit girl herself!
Op also worth looking at avid and wise thread here on s&b, they have many nice links and some are sahm's like yourself.

Thought not though

I can only dream of looking like her, sadly!

Hi can't you wear knit dresses in winter? If you wear them all summer just transfer
Thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/1300902-Please-help-me-find-a-couple-of-winter-warm-dresses

Esprit and uniqlo also are good sites that I use

Ooh, I've gone right off WIT since she's done that my.wardrobe promotion It was far more interesting when it was more high street based.

what about putting on a fitted blazer with your jeans for a smarter look. Im looking for a tweedy one for the autumn. I automatically feel smarter when I put on a blazer. Zara have some nice ones.

Thanks for posts, love that blog, particularly her Wednesday 14th look! Could I wear that with tights and pumps? Lots of my-wardrobe on it which i do like but she has an obvious sponsorship!

I almost live in some splendid jersey trousers I bought from there while I'm at home! Going to look on esprit, uniqlo now and I do like wool dresses but not baggy ones.

Miss b was thinking the same thing myself.