If you needed to start from scratch and buy an entire wardrobe of clothes, what style would you go for?

[EverAfterHigh]

What would you buy if you had to start from scratch.

What style would you go for and which shops would you go to for them?

I'm 32, 5ft 5inches and a size 8 and need an entirely new wardrobe of clothes, mid-level high street shops budget.

I like the liberal arts studenty style I fell into just as I was leaving university: colours that remind me of a stormy English countryside landscape (indigo, oxblood, cranberry, aubergine, charcoal, forest green, stormcloud grey, silver grey, navy, etc), slim fitting trousers and blazers, a-line dresses and skirts, Dr Marten boots, subtle coloured tights, too much silver jewelery, and as much 1990s inspired stuff as I feel I can get away with.

I buy my everyday smart-casual clothes quite cheaply:

Straight-leg, medium rise cord trousers in navy and cranberry from M&S;
Straight-leg black denim jeans with lots of stretch (I get mine from Sainsbury's as they're the only kind that fit properly - YMMV);
3/4 sleeve, scoop neck linen t-shirts from Zara in dark colours, for layering;
Lace trimmed vest tops in dark/muted neutrals from Primark, for layering;
Above-the-knee tube skirts in dark block colours or stripes (the Hush ruched one is nice);
Oversized grey denim shirt from the men's section of All Saints (used to be DB's until he grew out of it), worn open over a vest top;
Cowl neck jersey tops in black and dark purple from H&M, for layering;
Unfussy, longline, jersey waterfall cardigan in black (from Tesco years ago, but I can't find any non-frumpy replacements in the shops now);
Silk velvet blazer in black (boutique designer, bought on ebay for a song);
A line leather mini skirt in black (again designer, bought on ebay very cheaply).

With a bigger budget and a different occupation, I'd then save up/use the left over money to get some really beautiful smart dresses, silk blouses with open collars, and a perfectly fitting pair of black dress trousers from more expensive shops. That might not apply to you - I have to because I have a really awkward figure to dress for formal situations (short, very small waist and good legs, but GG/H cup boobs and wide hips).

Oh, and I have no idea what I would do for shoes in formal situations. My 6 hole Dr Marten boots have been a mainstay since I got fed up with turning my ankles... I do have a really comfortable pair of black patent leather Mary Janes with 3" heels from M&S (£30, and the best everyday heels I've ever had), and two pairs of almond toe patent leather courts from M&S Autograph (£45ish, and the best smart heels I can imagine for non-party situations)/

Your look sounds fab Vet. I'm not at all liberal artsy though, I did maths at university so can't really pull off a creative, artsy look because my geekiness keeps seeping through

Thanks, EverAfter! Geekiness and artsiness [sp?] aren't mutually exclusive, though, so you could probably pull it off if you wanted to... (She says, as she types up her literature thesis with Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe playing in the background.) Tim Minchin manages it, anyway .

Are there any particular looks that you do like (or even just single items of clothing)? If so, dressipi or pintrest might be a good place to start exploring. I've used both websites and been really impressed by how easy it is to figure out your taste once you've got a decent moodboard of stuff you like, so it might be somewhere to start off while you're waiting for more responses.

Id go for the natural look, which is comfortable as I hate anything fussy

If i were you, I would start with a few basics - like jeans and possibly a nice dress and then work my way from there.

I'd go for items which compliment each other eg colours that go together.

Id go for the natural look, which is comfortable as I hate anything fussy

If i were you, I would start with a few basics - like jeans and possibly a nice dress and then work my way from there.

I'd go for items which compliment each other eg colours that go together.

Oh crikey, If it could be anything I think I'd go to a fancy dress shop and live out my days dressed as Marie Antoinette.

If I was buying an entirely new wardrobe from scratch I'd first spend £200 on the House Of Colour style and colour day.

I did just the colour day a few weeks ago for £99 and it's changed the way I shop. I'm far more confident about what colours really suit me. I wish I could throw all my stuff out and start again!

LadyV. I am absolutely loving your description. I love your devotion to a colour scheme. I wish I could commit. I am very skittish and impulsive. Hence a very varied feast. Even though I have colour diagnosed myself I am still sleeping around with the entire colour wheel......

Thank you, propertyNIGHTmare! The colour scheme was pretty much the result of me slinking reluctantly out of my goth phase for my first proper job, and wanting everything to match! However, I've since decided that I'm much better off for having allowed some of the other 359 degrees of the colour wheel to enter my life - I even have a cool red woollen trench coat these days!

Colour is fun - I wish I had the right complexion and personality to experiment with as many shades as you do! Sadly, DH has reliably (albeit tactfully) informed me that orange, yellow and ivory will never love me as much as I've come to love them...

If you don't mind me asking, how did you diagnose yourself? I have a feeling I'm a Winter, but I'd be interested to double check! (I definitely need quite a lot of contrast to tie my pale skin in with my very dark hair and eyes, and suffer from the aforementioned inability to pull off yellow, ivory, orange, warm red, or camel...)

It took months to diagnose myself. Months, I tell you. I basically got busy on pinterest and the Internet and read lots. I concluded I was a winter. Most of it fitted, some colours really suited me but it didn't feel quite right. The breakthrough was Kate Middleton. I read an article about how she is exceptionally hard to diagnose and most think her a winter whilst she is in fact a soft summer. Bingo. I have similar colouring and soft summer fits me 100%. I still do every colour though. I think to a degree you should. Kate wears just about every colour and looks pretty good the majority of the time.

Wow, that is some commitment! I'm surprised to hear that KM is a summer - the tan had me convinced that she was warm but, now that you mention it, she looked great in her white wedding dress and all those cool blue and icy pink dresses she used to wear. (Haven't seen any photos of her since she gave birth, so for all I know she could have switched to nice, practical paisley prints as an anti-posset-stain strategy by now!) What a stroke of luck for you .

I'd love to be able to do every colour - I've tried so many shades and there are a few that just won't work... Yellow and camel clash with my pale olive toned skin and make me look all sallow - an assistant in a prom dress shop even remarked on how unflattering those colours are on me once! And proper orange turns me orange, much to DH's amusement, allthough oddly I get compliments in pinky-orange coral. From my mum, anyway... On the plus side, my favourites all seem to work - I just need to convince my sceptical DH that it's perfectly ok to wear deep purple shoes with an emerald green satin dress at his next office party, and then I'll be skipping around most of the colour wheel like nobody's business .

Purple shoes and green dress sounds beautiful. It sounds like you have a good handle on what does and doesn't suit you. Wear what you like and what makes you feel good. I certainly would not pay £100 to be told what I should and shouldn't wear

Thanks for the reassurance, propertyNIGHTmare - I'm glad it's not just me who likes that combination! (To be fair, DH is still perplexed by the notion that women require shoes in colours other than black and brown, so I probably shouldn't have mentioned the idea to him to begin with!)

I totally agree with you about the cost of colour analysis - I know a lot of people are really positive about it, but I can't help thinking "£100?! But I could buy a new pair of Doc Martens with that, and have enough money left for a Shakeaway..." Plus, what if they told me that black makes me look like I've been exhumed? I doubt I'd stop wearing it, but I'm damned if I'd feel quite as good about it afterwards!

On the flip side, I'd love some kind of confirmation that my skin is definitely cool toned, though, because my hair's been going grey since I was 13 and I've got a feeling it'll be all-over pewter by the time I'm 30. I've spent the past 10 years promising myself that it'll tone in with the rest of my colouring (which it had better do so, as my skin definitely won't tolerate dye), but I spend enough time wondering about it that it might actually be worth £100 just to put the matter to rest! (Although, again, I'd be buggered if the consultant said "Oops, sorry, you're an Autumn...")

Ha ha, to Autumn! Do you feel that you best suit silver or gold? I look at my hands for this. I knew when young that gold did not quite suite my skin. My hands are a bit ruddy. The slight red tone on my fingers does not fit gold perfectly. My friend looked ace with gold rings on her hands and I remember being jealous at about age 13!

This might be useful. Off to bed now.

claresauntie.typepad.com/beauty_school/2009/01/lesson-1-skintone-am-i-cool-or-warm.html