Playing catch up from the last thread. Cookies issue seem to have passed so hopefully, I’ll manage to keep up now. This is mostly in response from the last thread, will catch up with comments on this one later and I’ve probably got some memememe things as well.
Lovely to see all the new/old faces pop up. Welcome back Nink and lovely to see you posting again Methen and good to hear that your life changes are making way for a better work/life balance. Hope your son is doing well too. I saw a lovely slouchy leather bag at Zara the other day but it was really rather large, you’d probably fit in one of your children easily. I saw it in black but it appears to be available in a few colours, I quite like the red as attached. It was surprisingly cheap for what it was as it’s quite well made and the type of leather that does age well.
Some more blossoms for Bloomed 
I’m wondering where my bag was on display, but anyhow, it’s from Rokh. It’s highly impractical but I love it. See pic for a better view of it.
I feel you when it comes to hair loss, it’s very demoralising. I’ve had great success with a dermatologist who put me on Minoxidil, don’t know what the cause of yours is obviously, it could just be temporary but if it’s hormone/medical related I’d definitely recommend seeing a derm. I hadn’t really grasped how much it was affecting me (both in mood and behaviour) until a good bit had grown back in again. Can I also suggest headbands? Hats are great when you’re out and about but if your hair loss is anything like mine it’s at the front/middle parting and on a sweaty day the hat hair result of it wasn’t flattering at all and emphasised that area all the more. There’s a Dutch brand despite their faux French name, Atelier des Femmes, they do seem to ship to the UK but at a high-ish price but they’re very structured with wiring within so they sit very well without movement and constant slippage and they’re quite fun. I’m currently eyeing this sort of silk-like head/alice band, it’s very Jackie O in her Onassis years, more elegant than easy/casual which typifies most of their designs. I saw something similar in Paris in real silk but it was frighteningly expensive.
bani, oh dear, I don’t samba… I do tend to muddle up my Spanish, French and Italian all the time and pretend it’s all one language so I suppose I can wear half of my pair of trousers? I’m not arachnophobic in the least, ok there was that one time that a neighbour’s lost tarantula woke me up in my bed in the middle of the night that left some scars, but otherwise, I think I’m still okay to wear my camisoles at least.
I’d definitely read a column called ‘unpolished shoes and scratched glasses’. We’ll have to set up an online platform even though they’re all going down the drain, we’ll call it Substance over Style or something. As I can only speak for myself but I’d pay good money to see you and Flo react to Loic Prigent’s latest on the Celine menswear’s show and the pseudointellectual boys in frilly silk shirts (they’re probably men and I should really refer to them as such but they seemed to revel in presenting themselves as boys) flocking to attend and their adulation for Hedi Slimane made me want to gouge my eyes out. I don’t think I even made it a third of the way in as the fashion wank was strong and it’s only 10 minutes long.
Red, I’m on the fence with both dresses. Probably because they’d be totally frumspville on me so I tend to categorise them wholesale as such, unfairly. The Hobbs is the better of the two I’d say but I don’t like the blousy thing those dresses do, regardless of whether you have boobs or not it often makes for a top-heavy buttoned-up appearance that then reads as matronly. The animal print dress has a bit of an identity crisis within itself, in my view, it’s cut very straight, especially with the prim collar but the animal print is trying to make it something it’s not as that usually accentuates or creates curves in the right places but it just seems to make you wider horizontally in the pictures, arguably in the wrong places, may read differently in real life? I tend to stick with my mother’s advice, when in doubt don’t proceed, when it feels like something intangible needs fixing it’s usually best to just leave it.
I like the new dress, Bani. I like it with the belt on but it feels more you to go without somehow.
I have to admit I’m much intrigued by balled heel shoes that allow you to walk on ceilings…. They look lovely Xing, do they affect your centre of gravity at all, I find some of those sculptural heels can feel a bit odd when trying on?