The four styles of the festive period

[JMAngel1]

I know some of you already read/follow midlife chic but she’s just done a really good blog post on the four styles of festive dressing which is really quite good.

1. Formal black tie events
2. Smart day wear - e.g Christmas Day, pantos, nice lunches
3. Casual day/ family events - e.g Christmas Markets, Santa visits, shopping, walks, tree buying.
4. Night out - but lower key than formal events.

Some of her choices are a little too twee for me “Fairy tale of New York” jumper, but the premise of her concepts is good and can be tweaked to individual style.

I may just like it because she mentions Sylvie from Emily in Paris who is my absolute style crush.

Anyway, it’s just helped me to focus my mind on what I really need. I have a tendency to panic buy Xmas outfits and this is helping me to take a breath and think about what I already have. Well worth a read.

www.midlifechic.com/updating-your-festive-wardrobe-for-2024/

Agree @Questionary

All desperately TTH and despite what she claims, that's not alluring.

Bare legs are key, even in winter – your natural skintone is the best way of adding balance to any outfit

Lol.

My natural skintone in winter would be blotchy blue and red. Woolly socks, sturdy boots, a vest and gloves are key to looking my best, which is closely aligned with not getting frostbite. Nicely done nails provide all the 'balance' I need.

Agree with all of this.
Also quite weird to be judging another person’s sex life by their outfits (or at all actually). Going by my friends anyway there is no correlation between the two.

This would never have worked with bare legs.

Agreed although a woman "making an effort" seems to look sexier in midlife than in her 20's and 30's where sexier is more about personal style.

All her looks do seem very contrived though. Zero originality.

Agree with you on this.

Am fascinated by the mention of Sylvie from EiP as there's not an outfit, or even a single item Sylvie would wear.

I can usually find at least one item I would wear, but there's absolutely nothing (and I say this as someone who loves metallic footwear). It's all very bland, and some a little twee. There's an outfit with a silver mini skirt, black opaques and boots. It's just so dated. A sheerer tight would have been much more stylish.

I used to really enjoy her blog &:reading about her family but now find it pretty dated. There's something a little twee & just too perfect about her outfits these days. I far prefer Melissa Murrells festive outfits - I think 20 of them encompassing pjs & casuals as well as full on glamour. Though the only one I've bought so far is the Candy Cane Xmas PJ's.

I’ve seen her advice repeated on here before but never looked at her site before. Much of it looks a little frumpy to me, with a few individual things I like in the mix.

Like most people I buy the odd new thing but I have no need of a Christmas wardrobe.

I have very formal events to go to so I am very much not her market though. And I realise it’s an unhelpful S&B sin to snark about someone just doing things differently to me!

But as a middle aged woman her stuff doesn’t speak to me. And anyone who describes anything as ‘jazzy’ shoots straight into the naff zone for me.

@bunnybunnybunnybunny The silver mini skirt outfit is the only one I like. Everything else looks a bit cruise ship to me, or has something off about it, such as really nasty boots. The boots, in particular, make me think of Johnny Fucking Boden and his 'fun' accessories to 'lift' an outfit.

If the skirt was black, I think sheer tights could look good, but personally I think with silver they could potentially look a bit off - the opaques just fade into the background and let the skirt speak for itself, which, personally, I like.

Just looked at Melissa Murrell’s Instagram and it looks great. Thanks for the tip.

I’ve realised my post should say very FEW formal events to go to. I’m not in white tie every night.

Sorry, that’s dowdy. I’m middle aged and a bit overweight, so no oil painting, but I wouldn’t wear any of her suggestions.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I promise you, sheer tights, even one only a little more sheer than an opaque looks so much better. It's lifts the silver in a way the black does not. The black just makes it look not only too blocky, but retro too (and not in a good way), hence my dated comment.

But, that's just me! Used to loathe all tights until needs must and opted for sheer. Try a more sheer tight some time, it's a revelation! (Always go for charcoal rather than barely black.)

Thanks for the tulle skirt and boots suggestion. I'm small so don't think tulle for winter suits me so!
I have got 30 denier tights recently to go with an aline leather mini, haven't actually tried them yet so hope have the sheerness right! Going to look up Melissa now

Thats a no to the sheer tights from me.....Im opaque all the way! Thanks to horrific varicose veins I really cant get my legs out, sheer tights make me look like Im smuggling marbles in my legs!!
Some of us work with what we've got.😄

I think Im sorted this year though. I cant imagine anything worse then 'an event' and prefer a casual christmas, and Ive just bought a lovely Joe Brown christmas jumper from Vinted for £3.50 so Im set.

This whole idea that every specific situation needs its own specific wardrobe really winds me up. It was created by the fashion industry and promoted by the fashion media just to get us to buy more stuff.

People accept it because it rests on an underlying assumption that certain occasions (usually formal or ceremonial) demand special clothes - it's part of what makes them special. That's pretty widespread in human culture. But over the years, the industry has gradually pushed it to a ridiculous extreme, to the point where we're talking seriously about needing different clothes to go to the pub in late December than you would in late October. Which when you think about it is a bit crazy.

I do wear sheer sometimes, just not with a leather miniskirt. It's not a look I want for myself, although could look great on others.

I find her insufferable now tbh. She comes across as so, so smug.

She bangs on about how authentic she is (often when explaining why she is not like - aka better than - other influencers) so why doesn't she talk about the 'tweakments' she has? If she really wants to show us plebs how to 'look like the best version of us' (or however she dresses her blog up) then she should be truthful about all aspects of her appearance. I mean, nothing else is off limits is it - hair, eyebrows, weight, fitness, skincare, make-up, so why doesn't she fess up about what aesthetic treatments she has had?? Until she does this, then she cannot bang her authenticity drum imo.

Talking of authenticity, her collaboration with White Stuff is embarrassing. She only ever wears the brand when being paid to do so, and just looks so, so uncomfortable in it. On another thread a poster said it was greedy from her and lazy from WS and I couldn't agree more.

I am a real 'girl's girl', it's not in my nature to criticise for the sake of it but you can't put yourself out there in the way she does and then not take a bit of negativity. In the face of this previously, she has trotted out the old 'this blog is simply a record for my grandchildren, it's not a commercial project, I don't make money from it'. Well write a diary then!

The four styles of my festive period are as followed.
Passport.
Tickets.
Flight.
Fun.

And what’s her thing about ‘buy me a coffee’. Why would anyone want to do that?

I really like her posts about retail - I think she writes very well and has a lot of interesting insights. Her lifestyle and outfits aren’t my cup of tea at all, but it’s nice to see someone still spending time creating long form content in the TikTok era, especially not in a paid-for Substack.

@Greentrilby It's a way of further monetising her blog. I guess she's not making as much as she would like from paid partnerships and affiliate links.

Jeez. You know it’s a real person you’re slagging off, right? Would you speak to her like this of you saw her IRL? she seems like a perfectly nice woman with a nice family. Her posts about the domestic abuse she experienced were so raw and moving.

I’ve read her blog since almost the beginning I think (Avril of School Gate Style mentioned her once and I thought it was great). I love her posts on retail trends and intelligence. It’s fascinating. Also I find it really useful when she mentions things like ‘silver will be the metal next season’ - she’s always right and I can spend £20 on a pair of silver shoes and it updates loads of outfits.

Her posts on body shape are great. Also her tips on mixing textures. I’ve bought a few pieces on vinted that look great that I wouldn’t have considered before.

Like most 40-somethings, I liked white stuff 10yrs ago. I wouldn’t touch it now but I appreciate that the blog probably costs a lot of money to run. Hosting isn’t free and not is it cheap. In fact, I will go and buy her a coffee!

She’s a midlife woman trying to help other midlife women. There aren’t many about and I’d hate it if she saw all these comments.

@AgathaMystery I'm not sure any of the above has been too harsh tbh. People just having a different opinion to her style or calling her out for her lack of authenticity. That's acceptable isn't it?

I really like her writing style and agree her honesty about her past was admirable.

I do think the phrase 'if she was chocolate......' is particularly apt for her. She does love herself doesn't she, but I think this is quite a recent shift; I never used to get that vibe from her.

I was disappointed with her ideas for festive dressing. I usually get quite a few ideas and use her affiliated links but not this time.

I have too @AgathaMystery.
I agree with others her knowledge of the retail environment is obvious & her family are lovely. Plus, I'm quite sure she herself is lovely. But her fashion ideas are dated.... & I'm 60. Boden or White Stuff are not really current these days. Plus all this colour & metallic boots is not the look of the moment. I don't think we are being mean stating that.