What's my style solution?

[dustcollective]

I only wfh mostly, or do nursery pick up, but at 43 I'm feeling like I want to look my best when I can. Try to be on trend and wear colours that suit my colouring etc. Re clothes I always get stuck knowing what to wear, even for a casual day. After I've got dressed in the morning rush I often think, oh why did I wear this sweater with these jeans / trainers etc.

Whilst I've got a great artistic eye for things like interiors, art etc, I'm rubbish at knowing what looks good as an outfit, at putting items / outfits together or remembering the looks I like.

When I get downtime I sometimes look at IG influencers around my age, and Pinterest etc, but in daily life there's no time in the mornings and I end up cobbling outfits together that look and feel bleurgh! Even though I've got a few nice bits individually.

I'm wondering if what I need is a capsule wardrobe? Or one where all tops go with all bottoms - is that even possible? Or just a gallery of daily outfits pinned to the wall so I can just copy one without having to think?

Where can I find outfit ideas for normal everyday stylish / on trend looks? I need ideas for the whole look including coat and shoes, and not just "the colour red is on trend" or whatever. And outfits that are current and not 2021 - I do find Pinterest can be good but you have to scroll through a lot of crap first.

Any ideas how to quickly put casual outfits together? What typical outfits work for you on a casual day?

Capsule and neutrals are my weekday uniform. Some really nice wide leg jogger style trousers around at the moment ideal for WFH/nursery runs, get a pair in black and navy. Dark denim wide leg if you want to be a bit smarter. Wear with fine knit jumpers / T-shirts in plain colours or a stripe. Nice pair of trainers and a decent coat, mac for spring. If the weather is crap, leggings, chunky boots a long jumper or sweatshirt that covers your bum and a padded coat or parka.

In summer can switch out for off white denim or wide leg linen, smart tshirt & sandals. Autograph do nice T-shirts that always hang well and look a bit dressier.

A few decent classic items like a mac, nice sunglasses etc make you feel much more put together even if you’re just throwing them on for pick up.

Not super exciting but comfy and stylish & you can get dressed without any thought!

For inspiration I tend to follow people with the sort of simple capsule style I like and make it a bit more age friendly.

Thank you! It sounds along the lines of what I do normally wear - I always wear wide leg jeans, but I do like the idea of some smart joggers. Do you recommend where to buy those?
I also could do with refreshing my trainers and getting a few other necklaces.

I have these ones from M&S, but also have found nice options in Zara. I wear them with off white leather trainers (also markies) as I’m not quite cool enough (wore them 1st time round) for the dad style trainers!

Someone recommended this on Instagram and it's very good.

www.instagram.com/whattowearfor_?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I agree with a previous pp about still wearing straight leg turned up jeans with boots when it's raining, wide legs just soak up water.

I've got big jumpers in a variety of colours and matching boots, so black, khaki, grey, black, taupe, brown, navy etc - that always makes me feel put together.

I wear the M & S wide legs posted above too, they're excellent. I buy the M & S cashmere V neck jumpers to wear with them and smart trainers.

I also like a maxi cardigan to wear over t shirts and wide legs or jeans.

I love knitted loungewear for at home.

I've just bought two oversized Borg gilets in black and taupe, they're great over the loungewear, jeans or wide legs - the fleeces that are everywhere just now don't suit me.

I do find Summer harder than Winter though.

Do you know what colours suit you?
I would start there.
Plus use the Stylebook app. It can save outfits and give you ideas of what to wear from your wardrobe

Find out what colours suit you (eg neutrals don’t really on work on me). I dress quite casually anyway & on my days off/school run days I wear a combo of loose jeans, cuffed joggers, straight cropped trousers with a jumper of some sort could be cropped or long length in black or a colour with a variety of trainers have a few different coloured suede adidas at the moment. Outerwear is a mac or puffer. I don’t really wear leggings anymore, I don’t like the uniform of leggings & pulled up white socks & avoid wide legs in the rain.
In the Summer I swap the jumpers for loose t-shirts, blouses or shirts & trainers for a variety of sandals eg birkenstocks, strappy thin ones, chunky buckle etc & sun dresses.

Thanks everyone. That IG link is great! Though it makes me covet loads of new coats!

My colouring is very specific actually - Bright Winter (House of Colour analysis). So no beige, yellowy tones, browns, creams and all those fashionable flesh tones don't suit me AT ALL!! Instead I try to wear my version of neutrals (Navy, Charcoal, Black and White, and also a very rarely found sort of mole colour which is actually cool toned). Then I can add colours as well, and my best ones are greens (emerald / pine), pinks (fushia, raspberry) and blues (royal, lagoon).

I can't wear creams at all but white near my face looks good and I've always worn silver jewellery - basically everything has to be super cool toned.

In summer I can wear ice colours (ice pink, ice blue) and even acid yellow, but these are quite rare to find in the shops and usually I only find pastels which I definitely can't wear.

I think swapping out the jumpers for oversize shirts in summer can work and I started buying linen shirts last year.

Yes I agree about the uniform of white socks and trainers pulled up over leggings and puffer coat. I'm in London and that seems to be on the wane now thankfully. I do find I'm less bothered about showing my socks nowadays now though, where in my younger days I used to wear invisible socks and obsess about my socks showing, now I don't care and I quite like wearing stripey socks.

Oh yes I show my socks now under crops etc, bare ankles look wrong but yes in my younger yrs any hint of sock was a crime! 😆😆

To be honest it sound like you've already got a good base wardrobe, and what you need to do is try everything on together, and put together outfits NOW, while you're not in a rush, and not stressed, so you can literally pull out an outfit in the morning, and know that you've already tried it on and it is a look you like.

I've found this post on Wears My Money Blog to be a good one, I've been able to go through my wardrobe and pull out similar enough outfits to give a nod to them, and they have a few touches that are current enough to feel like I'm not too out of touch.
https://www.wearsmymoney.com/fashion/7-easy-outfit-ideas-for-february/

I'm in the same boat. Mornings are such a rush and it's easy to throw things on and feel a bit like a slob later. A capsule wardrobe defintely does help, even just making sure your tops and bottoms can mix and match without much though. When I go shopping for clothing now I only buy high end pieces that can hold their own and that can easily be paired with my existing wardrobe. I stick to 3 or 4 colours that can all be paired. I balance different textures and fits. For example if I wear a tight pair or jeans I will pair it with a loose fitting knitted jumper. I am very picky and selective about what goes in my wardrobe because I do not want to be overwhelmed with decisions when I have 3 screaming kids to get ready aswell. I tend to get alot of inspiration from Pinterest, IG and outfithuntr.com (this defintely helps prevent me impulse buying). Good luck with your wardrobe xx

If you're anything like me you've probably got the basics but they're never all clean or ironed at any one time! Wears My Money is a good bet - she dresses a bit differently to how I would but she knows her style and is good at suggesting other things that I wouldn't normally find that make me feel a bit more current but not fashion-victimy. She also seems really nice!

That all sounds horrendously complicated.

Can you not just buy everything from

Community Clothing

and mix and match?

You don’t need instagram to get dressed for everyday life.