Mn Vogue vol. 2

[MarshaBrady]

For anyone who likes to talk about style, nice stuff that they've bought and so on.

DonaAna - I have slim calves (and feet) as well and find that Sergio Rossi boots (and sandals) are a fabulous fit. Very £££ but can often be found in sales at 50% off at the end of a season. And, like Tod's, I never, ever regret anything I buy in Sergio Rossi!

Yes, I've seen those Next ones pickled - they look good, but would like to see IRL...

Amber check out the consignment/ charity shops in your area for jackets / jersey blazers. I'm looking for a good jersey blazer - want good materials and something that won't crumple hideously in one wear.
Hopefully snap re: boot handicap.

Need to add that if you live in a miserable climate, waterproof rain boots are often a good alternative to ankle boots (for office: slip them off, wear something else - I used to have at least 8 pairs of work shoes in my cupboard). Am happy with my olive green short Ilse Jacobsens for casual wear but need a more dressed up alternative - have been thinking about Aigle slush jodhpurs

Just measured my calves (handy to have a measuring tape on my desk) and at 34cm my 50/50s fit perfectly .

Oooh Bonsoir, Sergio Rossi good for Italian winter, will definitely look for them during winter sales! (Not for Nordic winters - sleet/slush/ice/road salt ruins everything).
And Hopefully, I have a pair of tall brown waterproof Aigle riding boots - they are ?? and have extra narrow calves - almost too narrow for me

Oooh Fritzi thanks so much - that might solve my problem for now!!! May I ask what size do you wear in 50/50sfoot?

In Paris I wear my Sergio Rossi boots on cold, dry days and my Hunter wellies on wet ones. We are very fond of Hunter wellies in our family - DD gets a different colour every year - as they really save leather footwear.

ISPMC will get back to you later - need get some work done now. Nov weather in Rome unpredictable and changeable, you will need layers and one of them has to be waterproof but it can also be very warm (I got tan lines in November last year here)

dona Size 39/UK 6

Thanks Fritzi will order them - a good chance that they will fit - need something other than Uggs to get me through this fall

Just popping in quickly before the school run to say hi.

Dona yesterday was very emotionally draining and anxiety inducing tbh. Does that sound pathetic?

However, this morning I opened my wardrobe and pulled on an outfit that I have never worn before - all from clothes I already had - and felt fabulous :) I am wearing: coffee coloured tea dress with cream spots - has elbow length fitted sleeves with a small frill, brown leggings, brown snakeskin 4" mary-janes and a cream arran cardigan.

Totally agree about the vacupack approach. This tea dress being a case in point as it has sat in a "not sure" bag for the last 4 years unworn. I think two issues are salient here: I am finally comfortable in my own skin and confident in who I am and also my hair has changed dramatically since I bought the dress. I had a neat, sleek dark brunette short bob a few years ago. Now I have long, naturally wavy blonde hair (blonde because I am actually so white but not ready to wholly embrace the white this side of 50). Whereas the dress said "comfy mum" before, it's now got an edgy vibe going on.

Hopefully I am with you on the half leather/half fabric leggings. I think it looks really odd (although not as hideous as this alleged trend for jeans with a contrasting stripe down the side .

Another Hunter welly wearer here. I have plain navy neoprene lined ones (more cosy & snug than my snow boots!) and wear them even with smart dresses and coats when it's raining.

Fritzi am loving your outfit today and am in fact going to steal the concept. (That'll be another item removed from the vacupack this evening.......white collarless pintuck fronted shirt).

I have a S&B confession. I popped out after lunch to the Madeleine where there is a Slowear store of which DP and I are both very fond, fulling intending to ravage the shelves and buy a supply of new winter tops, of which I am in desperate need. But, unbeknown to me, the shop is now closed on Mondays .

So what could a girl intent on shopping do? I went for a wander down the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, checking out Hogan (nothing nice at all) and Sergio Rossi (where I saw some gorgeous fur lined short boots, ideal for pulling on over skinnies - but resisted and left with just the catalogue). And then I thought I'd pop across the road to Prada, just for a browse. There were racks and racks of clothes in the new season lozenge print and it was just too tempting to try some on. And I bought the purple lozenge-print cardigan which I must confess is totally divine and if any of you are thinking of splashing out, I highly recommend it. I can't wait to try it under my sleeveless Cos coat, or with my grey Marni trousers from last year, or even my grey Marni skirt from AW09 which I still adore (and has no coordinating top).

Yep I've been obsessed with collarless pintuck shirts lately - so difficult to find!
Ujj totally agree with what you write. Doing the YAWYW is hard up-front (it's messy sorting out - acknowledging past mistakes and letting go of often expensive / guilt-inducing things or even loved items you associate with good times but that are past their day) but very satisfying after.

I unearthed so many things that are current again - also found fresh new ways of combining and wearing what I already have. Thinking creatively about what you want to say with your clothes is liberating too. I don't need to say the same things I did at 25 - and feel much more comfortable in my skin now.

What seems to work for me is that I have an "On autopilot" side in my wardrobe (tried-and-true basics, my favorite clothes) and a "Feeling creative" side (interesting but more difficult items; patterns, statement pieces, items I like but don't know how to wear). When I'm busy, I can be on autopilot - when I feel a bit stuck and bored, I can experiment with more challenging stuff.

ISPMC Italians dress conservatively in the city. Straight trousers, knee-length skirts, good jeans (bootcuts still fine here) often in neutrals. In my neighborhood, on weekends, lots of padded gilets and hideous Hogans - Uggs too last winter. Last Nov I wore a sweater dress with tights and wedges on some days (either with a navy MJ denim jacket or a wool peacoat), jeans, blazer and loafers on others and during the cold spell jeans, Uggs or short rain boots, merino sweaters, a down jacket and a scarf. It can get really cold, particularly indoors, as central heating is turned on a certain predetermined day (not when it actually gets cold). Stone floors can be icy cold - I wore sheepskin boots indoors all winter and will wear my mink stole at home this winter.
So you should take some opaques/ longsleeved tshirts/woolen ankle socks just in case and be prepared to shed layers during the day. If it rains, it rains really hard. Check weather.com before your trip and plan ahead so that you'll have something sufficient for both min and max temperatures. It was t shirt weather last Nov during the day...

Auld and Shop...I'd never want to make anybody feel excluded from conversations on this thread and that's why I do post so many links-to make the topics more immediate and accessible.

I love art, detest intellectual snobs and bullies and am happy to acknowledge that my familiarity with it is fledgling. So many folks sneer at Vogue magazine but I find so many great articles on artists and their work, not necessarily linked with fashion all the time either.

I'd never heard of Cecily Brown -

www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/cecily_brown.htm

until Vogue commissioned self portraits from several female artists of whom she was one. ! I look at the colour, pattern and shape of art works and seek these reflected in clothing or interior design. Even how I plant up gardens is influenced by what I see. I don't pretend to be able to critique-in fact I think that formal art critique can be an imposition and hindrance to one's own natural response.

This painting of hers, below is one of my favourites but apologies for the long link

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgreshl=en&safe=off&rlz=1C1GPCK_enGB445GB446&biw=1366&bih=653&tbm=isch&tbnid=VcOBKVFPxIVAIM:&imgrefurl=www.vice.com/en_uk/read/neville-wakefield-602-v17n11&docid=puIYLKif4hX1RM&imgurl=scs.viceland.com/int/v17n11/htdocs/neville-wakefield-602/four-letter-heaven.jpg&w=670&h=461&ei=-0JXUNmuMaLX0QWmiYDwCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=900&vpy=306&dur=1357&hovh=186&hovw=271&tx=112&ty=98&sig=107686546363200843101&page=1&tbnh=138&tbnw=181&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgreshl=en&safe=off&rlz=1C1GPCK_enGB445GB446&biw=1366&bih=653&tbm=isch&tbnid=VcOBKVFPxIVAIM:&imgrefurl=www.vice.com/en_uk/read/neville-wakefield-602-v17n11&docid=puIYLKif4hX1RM&imgurl=scs.viceland.com/int/v17n11/htdocs/neville-wakefield-602/four-letter-heaven.jpg&w=670&h=461&ei=-0JXUNmuMaLX0QWmiYDwCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=900&vpy=306&dur=1357&hovh=186&hovw=271&tx=112&ty=98&sig=107686546363200843101&page=1&tbnh=138&tbnw=181&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0,i:101#

I like your Bordeaux dress, Auld particularly the rolled woollen hem and Ujjayui, your outfit sounds delicious. Your hair change from bob to long and wavy would definitely lift that dress out of a more literal 1940's 'vibe' into something more unpredictable and individual.

Does anyone customise clothing? My daughter frequently does this. Like many of us (I suspect),full on Baroque/Brocade is a look too far for her so she purchased a metre of brocade with a pewter pattern on a charcoal background. She cut out and stitched a narrow strip of the fabric to back the reverse side of the button line on a black cardigan and sewed in around the placket too. You see a flash of brocade every now and again when the cardigan is unbuttoned.

I often replace buttons and fastenings to jazz up old faithfuls and it's perfectly feasible to change buttons, patterned linings every so often. V W Rouleaux is a fairyland of possibility and designed to make you spend far too much! If my daughter was still tiny, she'd be bedecked in their amazing ribbons, sporting them woven through every kind of plait.

www.vvrouleaux.com/productcart/pc/web_index.asp

Am looking for that jacket for you, Dona and browsing the Hobbs site. Some lovely items but the most inefficient, inaccurate filters. The Outnet has 6 jackets- I like the Rag&Bone design in grey jersey, a colour that looks particularly cool in marl jersey-

www.theoutnet.com/Shop/Search?keywords=jersey+jackets+blazer%27&x=0&y=0

This is not a jacket and it's from Hobbs but I like this shirt dress and it's on sale -

www.hobbs.co.uk/product/display?productID=0112-5350-3526L00&productvarid=0112-5350-3526L00-PACIFIC-16

Have you looked at Belstaff for boots, Dona? Does anybody else recommend this brand too? We've always been familiar with it for quality because DH once owned a FatBoy and we got our biking clothing and boots from them. I have seen some amazing jackets, footwear and trousers in their A/W collection.

And finally....My day's outfit is two layered long sleeve T's - one in cream by C+C California and the other in cinnamon. I am wearing them with an 'A' line ancient Jaeger camel hair skirt with inverted front pleat, thick wool over the knee socks in cream and a pair of absolutely battered pale gold Miu Miu fugly loafers (my 'Nun on a night out' shoes as DH calls them). I probably look like a weird human item of baked goods in all these 'pie' colours!

I am an inveterate customiser Mignonette, I just can't leave things alone I am currently dying a leather jacket which is a slow process, but it's turning out well

Dona I have a Darel charcoal jersey blazer that is one of my favorite items ever. It has great shoulders which is unusual for jersey. Also have a Ralph Lauren pin tucked shirt.

Bonsoir ego te absolvo - go in peace and sin no more. Link?
Oh and don't want to diss Hogan - I love their white ankle strapped platform ballerinas - but 80sths teetering on wedge trainers in the local park post hip replacement, not so much

Issimma you're welcome - but I warn you my outfits will never get anyone any cutting-edge brownie points will wear exactly the same things this year, +- new boots

Verity tell me more about dyeing leather! And please keep us updated about your DIY tweaks - love them! Oh and I like defined shoulders too secret power dressing fetish?

Amber how is work & life?

Whew, both DC bed without yelling and crying. Last night was awful - overtired children, hungry mother with PMT. DH returning tomorrow evening, what a relief.

Bonsoir sounds gorgeous indeed. Let AW12 commence! I'm starting this week. Can't wait.

Dona water proof sound brilliant. I'm going to get some this winter too.

Need to catch up but just quickly...

Does anyone make their own at home? Is it amazing, do you love it? Am looking for a great coffee machine.

Thank you Dona, that's very useful.

Although I've often visited Rome at this time of year, baby brain might have had me forgetting just how important it is to pack something waterproof. The first time I visited Rome I was a penniless student and spent an entire weekend bone-cold and soaking. November. Another November was very fine and mild. One late October was brilliantly sunny but freezing inside - which is when my mother and I learned about the central heating rule

Interesting that Italians have embraced the Ugg-I hadn't realised! The 'good' bootcut jeans and gilet combo I am familiar with. I enjoy style-watching in Italy very much. In France, on the other hand, I get really intimidated...

Looking forward to it now. Thanks again.

I cannot find a link to the item, though there is a link to the ad campaign for the lozenge print range here. As usual with Prada the stuff on the rails in the shop was mostly runway stuff, but once you're in the changing room trying stuff on the salesgirl is quite happy to show you the same range in styles for mere mortals . She even brought out a lozenge-print t-shirt which was a snip at EUR 180!

Oh, and for anyone who is interested in printed knits (very this season), a friend of mine has a gorgeous cardigan from DvF (which I cannot find a link to) which of course I cannot copy but recommend highly to all of you!

Hi ladies - random question of the evening. I am sitting here with my lovely girlfriend who is after a new handbag. Cross body, evening bag - she loves the 2.55 but whilst being able to afford designer - she can't justify that much £! Max spend £500..... classic black. Any suggestions?

Shop Céline? About that budget, not sure if evening enough.

Love the sound of these clearouts, ujjayi and everyone. Very liberating.

Welcome newbies!

Hopefully not much choice really is there. I'd love loads more. Not just ash, acne etc

Auld don't feel out of depth. It's just all lovely stuff.

Mix match today. MiH Paris, check/floral shirt and stripey jumper with 3/4 length sleeves (Rykiel).

Celine is spot on Marsha - she's looking for a classic - what is it called? I can't find it online to buy........