But what has actually influenced your wardrobe shopping choices?

[DeHumanaeMentisApatheia]

There are intermittent threads asking for lists of where people shop - I’m not sure how compelling these are for readers. (And where the OP takes no active role in the thread it’s hard to believe they’re not just some sort of AI generated thing.)

Surely the crucial thing is what shapes a person’s tastes and preferences - all the more so for mature women who have more hinterland. Whether that’s your parents’ interests when you were a child, or shopping with friends as a teen, or a revelation at university or in early jobs. As much as life stages, health, environment, finances.

My ‘reading Vogue from 13’ history is all over S&B.

What influenced you, before ‘influencers’? And how does that affect how you shop now?

Films are great for inspiration; I like reading about how they found the items and why they were picked for a particular scene, how the colours work on camera, all that nerdy stuff. Like the green dress in Vertigo; so striking.

Films always, yes. But it seems to me it’s only in the past couple of decades (apart from 1960/70s Top of the Pops) that I’ve ever noticed what people wear on TV. Perhaps because I was away from the UK for long periods until around 2005 - and the British / US TV I saw abroad seemed entirely style free zones meant to appeal across eras and continents?

But obviously lately TV has become a huge talking point because of the clothes. I’m not sure how much it actually influences people though. All the S&B threads here about Shetland, or The Split attract posters apparently furious about the price of the clothes used, and adamant that the fictional characters involved couldn’t or shouldn’t be able to afford them. People are more chilled about The Traitors … 😄

I’ve always had a fairly good sense of style. I’ve tried to work out what suits me and accessories accordingly.

As I’ve aged I dress more for my figure. But eg at size 14 barrel legged jeans/trousers suit me. I know this due to compliments.

I used to like looking at the outfits in Gossip Girl Apatheia and of course SATC. But that's years ago now.

I don’t know if I’m the only woman on Earth who wasn’t a fan of SATC?

If anything, the one or two episodes I did see rather put me off buying Manolo Blahnik shoes, though I already owned two or three pairs.

I do remember identifying a bit with Ally McBeal, though. Particularly in the episode where she explained to someone that being able to buy a few lovely clothes and pay her rent didn’t mean she was rich …

I watched it now and then, it was entertaining enough. I do remember an episode where Carrie loses her shoes at a baby shower or engagement, and wants her hostess to pay her back. Then one of her friends says, but she (the hostess) will one day pay you back, when you have a baby shower. And Carrie replies, 'And what if I never marry? Will there be a party for 'congratulations for not marrying the wrong man?' And I thought that was amazingly forward thinking. I didn't like the excessively high heels, I find that unflattering, and the outfits often absurd and unflattering.

That’s the one episode I remember with any positive feelings. 😄

I loved the simple elegance of Gillian Anderson’s clothes in The Fall, but as I am neither slender or tall they didn’t influence my style 😂

Ah, I never watched that.

But Helen McCrory! In both MotherFatherSon and Peaky Blinders she wore some of the best outfits I’ve ever seen on TV, just beautifully. I still think of Kathryn, from the former show, sometimes when I’m pondering a new purchase.

I’ve also wished I could wear slinky, silky, barely there clothes with the rangy casualness of Nessa Stein (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in The Honourable Woman. I tend to gather lovely things about my person in a deliberately haphazard way because I just don’t have the necessary qualities for sleekness. Fortunately that isn’t the impression of me that I’d want to convey, anyway!

Gillian Anderson is a massive 5’3” tall. 😀

She did wear lovely silky looking shirts in that show but it was her beautifully blow dried hair that set it off. ( Superintendents tend not to traipse around all that often in heels and pencil skirts. ).

Influencers don’t influence me. I usually flick through Net A Porter/Farfetch and get inspiration for the new season that way.

Really wow so not much taller than me, she’s obviously much (much😳) thinner.

yes hair, painstakingly applied makeup and clothes not at all realistic for the job.

Hopping on to say that for those of you who love the 1940s and 1950s clothes, you should still buy and wear the originals, many of them have aged surprisingly well.

I am a huge fan of Dorothy O'Hara and Ceil Chapman and on the odd occasion I wear one of the former's dresses to the office, they usually cause quite the sensation (draped, fitted, but modest. I avoid the ones with the bust draping for work 😄).

I do! But I like to mix them with contemporary pieces, otherwise I feel a bit like I’m in fancy dress, and that’s where I sometimes struggle for inspiration.

I’m sitting by the window in the room I keep clothes I’m currently wearing. Outside all the leaves are green or golden and beginning to show more bark. And (after last night’s storms) there’s a bright blue sky above. Inside, almost all the clothes hanging up or waiting to be ironed are … yellow / mustard / olive / brown, with the odd shout of sky blue! It’s intriguing because it definitely happens organically - other clothes that suit the temperature tend to get much less wear. So in terms of colour choice the seasons are obviously more influential than I realised.

Anyhow - I’m currently rejoicing over this choice of outfit featured in this weekend’s HTSI magazine. The interior designer Beata Heuman says she wears this to go ‘out on the town’.

https://www.ft.com/content/7f8e36d6-b044-4610-bdd5-db56c77a0c4f?shareType=nongiftInterior designer Beata Heuman talks taste

It’s such an incredibly refreshing idea of an ‘out out outfit’.

Great outfit and I love her story about her and her husband getting the same jacket. Mr Flo and I both own remarkably similar blazers. Normally we seem to instinctively avoid wearing them at the same time but occasionally the style gods conspire against us and then neither of us will back down so we go out almost matching and feel uncomfortable all day!

I've just read an article in the Sunday Times Style magazine about how tweens and teenagers are now seeing stylists I know the whole idea was to wind me up and get me clucking and pursing my lips and..... it worked. Sorry I can't link but I read it the old fashioned way in the pub.

Have been out so haven’t seen the Sunday Times yet - but it seems a natural extension of parents engaging interior designers for their offspring’s’ rooms in student halls.

Does seem a shame though - at a time when one’s so free to choose and experiment and throw it all out and start again.

It was really just a filler piece intended to get me frothing about 'young people today' etc etc but I mostly felt sorry for them, especially when I read about the stylist giving them colour analysis. I really wanted the interviewer to ask them what they thought would happen if they bought 'the wrong clothes'.

It's a great article, & her house has lots of interesting quirky things in it too.

But I was more taken with you saying that you were sitting in the room I keep clothes I’m currently wearing ... I so want one of those!

You really wouldn’t want mine.😂 It’s just a more convenient bit of space for things that need airing after wearing. Even my grandest ‘dressing room’, long ago, was only half of a guest room.