Mumsnet Vogue - vol 77 - the Spring trends edition

[shopafrolic]

Join us to talk all things fashion and beauty. The clocks go forward next Sunday (who's bright idea was it to organise that on Mother's Day?!). Longer days and hopefully some sunshine - we're dying to get our ankles out.
All welcome :)

I'm useless at excel so if anyone could send me a version I'd be grateful as I'd quite like to do this.
novice I also remember that thread about wearing something 30 times. It's not always possible if you have specific evening/occasion wear.
dry I've probably got about 10 lipsticks, some of which are Clinique chubby sticks (great colours but rubbish staying power).I vary to as which is my favourite. I tend to go damson in the winter and coral in the summer with pink anytime. My ultimate fave is probably the HOC fuschia one which I tend to only wear for evenings/occasions or smarter days out.

Blair I'd love your version too whenever. I won't get to this until after the BH weekend so no rush
Just went to Reformer Pilates for the second time this week after 10 days off - really hard work. Had to have a pub lunch afterwards to recover

OMG I'm in shock. Ive been playing at relearning excel while doing a wardrobe spreadsheet and I can't believe how much I've spent since February. Thats only counting items that i can remember while sitting on sofa. I also would like a version of your super spreadsheet Blair it's stealthily addictive. going to make a general spending one next & lock away credit card for a while. (unfortunately I know all the numbers in my head)

well done on pilates Shop, I went to yoga for first time in months yesterday & i can feel it today. I'd kill for a pub lunch at the moment. Joined WW in an attemt to shrink the expanding waistline. No gin for meuntil we go to an engagement party on Saturday.

I know a category for Dream and Shop's spreadsheets... whether or not an item has stripes (and then give us the %!)

That will be high Blair

Lipstick is only a puck me up if you get home and still love it....often happens that I hate the colour in my own mirror curses store lighting. Like Bernice I'm searching for the holy grail. Just need to learn what I hate too creamy, sticky and stick with the texture I love rather than only looking at colour.

Have never done a spread sheet in my life........my wardrobe is rammed. 80% rubbish I suspect. But almost 100% natural fibres.

Nor had I done one in real life until this afternoon Dry & while it's fascinating, it is also horrifying at the amount I spend. I'm happy that i remembered how to do autosum though

Blair I've added a stripe category for fun. You've created a new addiction for me, I'm creating spreadsheets for everything now.

dry with lipsticks I've learnt 3 things-they look better put on with a brush (one me anyway), don't buy anything that you can't try on (it means spending more but wasting less) and when you've tried on, always check what it looks like in natural daylight before buying.

I reckon I wear most of my clothes regularly except a few dresses which are for going out. I'm going to dh big work dinner in June and am hoping it's black tie so that I can wear the Westwood again. What I wouldn't want to put on a spreadsheet is handbags. I know I'm guilty of being lazy and using the same ones over and over. And because I cycle to work my handbag needs to fit in my pannier bag. Also I probably have too many occasion shoes although I love getting the velvet and sequins out each winter!

Bernice I love my giraffe print dress and wear it a lot with a thin polo underneath and opaques. I also have it in burgundy which I'll wear with bare legs in the summer.

Yes Everyone I did get the Next red peasant top and I love that too although only worn twice - again, waiting for the weather to warm up!

This 'wear an item 30 times', is it in it's life, or over a year? apart from basics and possibly footwear, I should imagine that's pretty difficult to do.

Lib did you try on the Jigsaw dress today? Hope you had a nice day off.

Dh is the spreadsheet wizz in this house but I can just imagine his face if I ask him to analyse my wardrobe £ column would feature heavily I suspect

I'm too scared to put my stuff in a spreadsheet i know I would be horrified plus it would prob take me about a week to list it all
I have loads of lipsticks prob close to shops 27 I do wear lipstick everyday though. My favourites are Chanel adrienne (a pinky nude) for everyday and Nars audacious brigitte for when I need a brighter colour.

Sorry to hear about the break in blair what gits.

No shopping to report although I just bought some Anastasia Beverly hills Dipbrow. www.cultbeauty.co.uk/anastasia-beverly-hills-dipbrow-pomade.html It came today and after a quick try I have to say it is very very good. It stays on and looks natural.

fedup I didn't go shopping after all - decided to chill properly and DH and I went to the gym and then went out for lunch. Was lovely. I'll definitely try the dress soon.

Sounds like a nice day Liberty

Very good advice QueenC. I never try on in store feel a bit weird about it, stupid .....will do so from now on.

Thanks all, the garage has now been visited by a locksmith twice so fingers crossed they're deterred. :) I am knackered though, and I think it's the stress because I don't feel I've been sleeping badly.

I've put some formulas into my spreadsheet and found:
Top 3 colours: Navy, grey, cream
Top 3 brands: Uniqlo, H&M, Topshop
Top 3 fabrics: Synthetic, Cotton, Silk
(All purely on quantity... doesn't take into account how often things get worn - yet )
7% of my wardrobe is stripes.
53% is casual which isn't great, but the other half is either work or both, so maybe ok?

Cool High st gingham as recommended by the Frugality

Still playing with my spreadsheet.

I ended up with 133 items - the process made me bag up about 15 items all of which are ok but that I never wear (in a couple of cases have never worn).

I then went through doing a very quick love/like/ok against each item. This is really, really interesting! I have 39 items I have said I love (I set the bar high here - there are lots of items in the like list that have love potential!)

The average price of the Love items is £78 compared to an average £35 per item on the like list and £40 per item on the ok list. I think the average on the like list is pulled down by the fact that lots of things like basic t-shirts and layering tops are on this list.

The ok list having a higher average cost that the like list is interesting. For example this Me&Em dress is on my ok list. I think the thing that made me keep it was the fact that it felt like a great bargain (£55 reduced from £185) and it looks nice on - the shape suits me and it's very appropriate for work i.e. it looks smart and professional and as a dress with sleeves it's an easy option for getting smartly dressed quickly on days when I am rushing out the door. But it got an ok rather than a like as it just doesn't feel like me and the navy is too dark.

This has given me lots of food for thought. I'm going to put all the love items together and for the next few weeks see if I can dress as much as possible just using them and see which items from the like and ok lists I need along the way to complete outfits or to have all options covered. I'm hoping this will help me identify a core wardrobe. If items like the Me&Em dress end up in the core wardrobe then I think I'll aim to do the 30 wears things that Bernice talked about and then I can justify replacing them with something that I love.

Going to do shoes and accessories next...

I'm so glad I did this! to Blair for the idea.

On a note DH has pointed out that I (a) have clearly got time on my hands as my big work project is just about finished and (b) am my own worst enemy as it seems that as soon as I have a bit of time on my hands I immerse myself in another project that takes up lots of headspace instead of chilling out [hmmm]

Love this Lib really interesting what you say about cost of the Love stuff too. I am learning that if I spend more on an item, it tends to last longer, and I wear it more because I love it more. Most of the stuff I am 'meh' about in my wardrobe is usually basics, and GAP stuff that I bought as fillers on the run up to holidays etc. I think I need to wait longer, save up and then buy the stuff I really want rather than cheap fillers because I think I can't afford the real thing.
I completely emptied my wardrobe today, laid all the clothes on the bed and then cleaned the wardrobe interior. So. Much. Dirt. Especially when I wiped the hanging rail itself. Really quite grim.
I am only putting back in the things I want to keep and then will do the spreadsheet.
The pink SE boots are about to be sold. Never worn. Love them but no point just looking at them.
In other news - I sent a message to Trinny and a pic of me in the pink sweatshirt of love and she messaged me back saying I looked great - made my day. And yes, I know how sad this makes me.

Has this already been linked for the gingham lovers

Shop when we did the big declutter and clean up for selling I cleaned and vacuumed all the wardrobes and they were disgusting - the dirt on the hanging rail was grim here too - glad it's not just me!

How lovely of Trinny to message you!

The cost factor is interesting - there are low cost items on my love list like my olive and teal merino Uniqlo sweaters. But many of my favourite things that I wear over and over again such as the M&S leather skirt (£200 on a 20% off down from £250) and my navy and gold stripe Toast dress (an item I stalked until it was reduced from over £200 to about £70) and my Goat cardigan (£130 on Outnet reduced from over £300) are things that I watched and considered for a couple of months and then took a deep breath before buying.

Lib I'm so happy you love the idea! I must admit when you asked why I was doing it, I had a momentary panic that you thought I was nuts I really think something like this can be quite therapeutic, if you like spreadsheets of course...

Totally going to steal your Love/Like/OK idea. Tempted to bring spreadsheet to work, haha!

Shop how fab re Trinny, you should get her on here!

Oh Blair I do think you're nuts!!

But so am I so it's ok - there are few things that make me happier than a spreadsheet full of data I can spend happy hours analysing. We can be obsessively analytical and nuts together

Great idea about the love/like/ok category Lib I agree with both you and Shop about cost/love especially in footwear. I love my Pistols (agonised about spending that much for ages) & I wear them all the time. On the otherhand I've got about 3 pairs of black ankle boots (hudson & topshop) average cost £80 & I've hardly worn them /never worn them. I'm not feeling the love for them & don't feel "good' in them. I think I probably impulse bought.

I buy cheap for holiday stuff because I seem to be heavy wearing on hot/beach clothes &would be devasted to ruin something expensive with suncream.

Going to empty wardrobe tomorrow & continue. This is such a good idea Blair I'm off to watch some more Youtube tutorials about the joys of Excel & what you can do with it.

shop Don't be I would be ecstatic to get a message from Trinny

Having Kondo'd my wardrobe I am going to do The Spreadsheet this weekend.

Ridiculously excited about it!

happy me too-I can't wait for the weekend to do it!! I'm so intrigued by what it will show.

Hopefully queen it will show up all the huge gaps in our wardrobes that we must fill as soon as possible

I am away this weekend at ILs - going tomorrow night, so am spreadsheeting tonight only!!