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/

Gosh sorry I didn't mean to be harsh. I've never seen the woman before tonight. Same age as me then.

I really enjoy Nikki's writing and content, even though I'm not someone who buys new clothes every season, and my style/ colouring/lifestyle would not suit some of the outfits she posts. A blog of my clothes would be much less colorful and varied. That said, I really enjoy getting new style ideas from the blog, that work for me.

So much of Midlifechic is not about style, but is a very well- written journal about health/ happiness/ travel and other "life stuff", that is very relevant to my life, that I'd read it even if I never intended to buy another outfit.

Good post.

I guess that there are significant costs to running a site/blog as opposed to just Instagram, and she needs to cover them somehow.

Websites, particularly ones of this nature, really don't cost that much to run. Having set up several, the domain name costs £16 a year and the site, £28 a month, less if it's purchased yearly rather than. monthly. That's one of the more expensive options.

I think the reason she features Boden, JL and White Stuff so heavily is that she won’t promote brands that are dismissive of the value of middle aged customers. She made quite a point of saying that M&S had fucked her off when she tried to work with them and she felt it was because she was too old to be interesting. I suppose you could flip that and say that’s her ego talking.

Have to say, I’m not a fan of the tulle skirts she’s so attached to. They look a bit bonkers woo shopkeeper to me rather than style icon. And I don’t like pointy toe boots whatever they’re made of. I have abiding memories of them from circa 2006, and the pointy toe always getting scuffed, so they look cheap to me.

M&S are really missing a trick if they don't work with any middle aged influencers.

I do think MLC is trying to do a good thing, she's just not my style.

On another note Wearsmymoney's endless affiliate link posts are pretty shit, particularly her Amazon ones.

I use Wearsmymoney to see individual items I might not have known existed. I don't use her links, and normally can't afford her items anyway but I then look for cheaper versions!

M&S are mad not to work with older influencers given that realistically middle aged woman are their core customers. But I rarely see anything I like in there anyway to be honest, and I can't face trawling the gazillion things on their website either.

I think there probably are things on M&S, but like you I can't be bothered trawling through. But if someone were to go to the effort of finding them all then I would be interested.

Yeah, there's usually a point every year where I see something from M&S and am impressed. But in store it all looks horribly frumpy/day to day.

And when something nice comes to my attention it has usually already sold out

Agree, and on top of that, why fight against it with such determination? The whole business of "allure" smacks of poor self esteem and has a whiff of desperation.

I used to read her a lot years ago when I wanted tips and found her writing style interesting and refreshing to read. But I agree-it’s gone a bit garish now and the severe hair and white teeth a bit too bright for me. She has written very well about things we all come across-loss, menopause, children growing up-but my taste and hers have diverged over the years-I live in hiking stuff for casual things as the technical material is comfortable and for dressing to go out, have much more of a Toast look as I like the cut-but don’t buy much due to £££. I definitely spend more money on individual items but buy far fewer of them-MLC with all the different outfits seems a bit like going on a cruise and dressing for dinner every night-and being embarryabout wearing the same thing twice!

Totally! It feels like a bait and switch sometimes. Here's the one thing that everyone wants but that's sold out so why not have a look at our collection of sky blue polyester and over-ruffled skirts instead?

Ha yes!

I think that she very much does know her market - northern chamber of commerce/institute of chartered accountants groups - usually up for a bash and more dressy than Londoners would be at similar events (other than livery dinners). Usually a lot of fun to be had. She's also right to structure the blog around the categories the retail buyers work to as that is what is in the shops and is what we have to work with.

Her style doesn't work for me as I am a different shape and as I've got older I've needed more black and navy and less colour (Irish genes that traditionally rely on a contrast between pale skin and dark hair so I've struggled a bit since my hair is (ahem) less dark). Having said that I can imagine it would be very helpful for someone my age who suddenly realized that the work Christmas do is rather formal this year and is worried about what to wear.

That's true, but if we think about the value of time - writing the content, setting up the backlinks, taking the photos...? I see so many people on Instagram asking for you to sign up to their Substack for a weekly post at £4 a month which will be then full of AF links anyway, being able to read free, thoughtfully written content is a pleasure even if the outfits are generally not to my taste!

I never charged for any of my content, but then again, I am not looking to earn money that way. Not charging enables one to be subjective and authentic.

Maybe that's the difference? I don't know. Charging for a substack is transparent and honest. A free blog/newsletter filled with affiliate links less so, ditto paid partnerships and paid ads. That's clearly not authentic in any respect.

Apologies, am being unnecessarily harsh here. I know this.

No need to apologise! I wrote a blog for many years (when it was a far less PR/sales orientated landscape than it is now) and no money was made. It was a personal project which connected me with like-minded people, and I ended up with a piece published in a book. That was all very nice. Round about the time I was considering winding it up I started being approached to host content on my site from pretty big brands, one that sticks in my mind is Irn Bru (I'm in Scotland), but I knew it was coming to an end and declined. If I was still doing it now and I was approached with a commercial partnership, would I say no? I'm not sure! Some of the utter shite I see churned out online that is monetised content makes me think I could do it 1000 x more eloquently and it would be money for old rope.

I look after social media for a local business, but my main job is lecturing in marketing, so I'm interested in the whole thing - but I have no skin in the game as far as MLC is concerned. I'm not her in case anyone is wondering.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses Oh, not at all!

I come from a similar place and it was always side projects to connect with like-minded people rather than try to monetise. I was approached but I can't blindly follow and not be critical (as my posts often attest). I also hate being told what to do. Am glad I went off in a different direction as the landscape is so different now, and much like personal shopping and styling, it's over-saturated.

Maybe that's my issue with so much of the content now. It's just going through the motions/by numbers. And like I said previously, am not the target audience anyway as I'm probably too fashion literate/secure in myself and my style.

Having thought about this more (in the bath!) I wonder if the “problem” with MLC is that the blog started as organic content, then developed into a money-spinner, and there’s something of a disconnect there? I know she is now writing a book and reaching out to her audience as “research” which I am not very keen on. I am not really interested in the clothes she posts as they’re just not my bag, and her overall “look” is very different to mine, but I do enjoy her writing. I consume a lot of content on TikTok and like the fast pace of it, but there’s a lot to be said for spending ten minutes reading a proper blog post. (Likewise I still subscribe to a couple of physical magazines.)

I actually think her posts about life/family etc (not specifically her own family but things like kids leaving home) are better than her fashion stuff these days.

I love her writing and retail knowledge. Just not all the sponsored posts.

In all fairness I've just read the Mid Life Chic recent post regarding M&S Xmas fashions & enjoyed it.
They're not necessarily items I would wear but were well put together.
But walking the dog in a gold mini skirt 🥶

I have followed her for a long time now but find her outfits too jazzy (as someone upthread said). She had a furry coat on recently that looked like something Joe Lycett would wear on stage! I have never seen anyone in real life dress that brightly except maybe Sue Pollard!

The " Joe Lycett" coat also reminded me of Alma in Alma"s not normal ( BBC comedy series)