This is it....

For my inaugural post you must know about my new found love of winter staples which I've updated just like the magazines tell you. I have a confession to make. I bought a beautiful leather pencil skirt with a side zip from Joseph. It was from my  - wardrobe  and I used all my discount codes and vouchers to get it.  It cost and arm and a leg and whilst it is soft and perfect in length and fit I am sorry to say that it hasn't been worn as much as it should have been. You know they always say it's all about the price per wear when talking about investment buys and God knows this skirt counts as investment, but I have systematically failed to justify its existence. It had a few airings around Christmas and then nada, nothing  (as they say in my native Yorkshire "now 't "). 

I was skimming through the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago I had a eureka moment. There was my leather skirt with a trendy t shirt , block sandals and a silk bomber jacket. And right there, I realised where I had been going wrong.  

Update number 1. A pair of block heeled sandals in black.

They have to be black and minimalist.  Also having shelled out for, as it turns out, "non" (cough) 

investment buy in the skirt, I didn't want to compound the agony by looking at sandals that we're going to cost the earth.

Off to Zara then. They have a blue leather block sandals in store. 

Amazingly,they came in at £ 29.99. 

Did they have them in black - did they heck as like. 

Online they have black but not in leather which should have put me off. 

Ordered the black ones. Here

 But then I saw the Topshop version. Slightly more expensive at £55 but in leather. And this swung it for me. Ordered these online as couldn't find them in store.  

Here

 Now call me a leather snob if you want but I do veer towards the natural material rather than the man made. There is no good reason for this. I thought that leather equals quality and comfort but to be honest that does not follow and neither is price any guide to comfort in my book. Suffice it to say that the Topshop ones were black. Tick. They we're block heeled. Tick. They also looked like I was about to go and dance around a pole for a living and I'm not talking the ones with ribbons that symbolise springtime has arrived. No, these block heeled sandals would not work on my less than twig like legs. Definitely not suitable for anyone who wore block heels on shoes in the nineties.  

Next stop, a reassuringly expensive version in Russell and Bromley. Here

They are black with a block heel and certainly had the minimalist vibe going on but the heel was to my utter disappointment GOLD.  Why oh why?  Is it because at these prices R and B can justify the hefty price tag if they add a bit of bling?  Complete turn off for me, I'm afraid.  I don't know why this should be as I have a love of gold shoes generally at the moment and could kick myself for not buying those rose gold Whistles French 75 ones when I had the chance and then have subsequently seen on everyone including breakfast telly presenters. This, incidentally is not fair. I don't need taunting about my lack of perfect rose gold courts before I start a stressful day of ferrying children, working, ferrying children and then b****cking children into homework duty. Back to the block heeled sandals in a moment but let me show you the courts that are the object of my obsession.

 And then on dragging out my favourite white jeans from the back of the wardrobe ( another post about these coming up).  I realised I had overlooked my blocky (sort of) heeled sandals that I bought in the sale from Sandro last year. Now these were not an investment buy at all. I just loved them to bits and waited until I could get them in the sale. I dragged the kids off to South Molton Street in early January 2013 en route to see Matilda and fortunately for me they had them reduced and in my size. Never usually happens like that for me. Job done

Update  number 2   A trendy but not a logo t shirt

I have been stalking the brand of t shirts by Etre Cecile for a while now. So my first stop was to check these out on line.  Sadly, the one I liked was not in my size. Here

I took the girls to the V and A to see the Italian fashion exhibition this Easter. We had to check out Etre  Cecile in Harrods and then Liberty. 

In the end I tried my skirt with a trusty white Whistles tee. Et voila. It worked probably better than the Etre cecile one but I am still in love with that label. Another post for another day.

Update number 3. A bomber jacket.

Now I was slightly ahead if the curve last summer when I purchased the khaki silk bomber from Whistles.  I wore it like a cardi. As you do. Dear God, sometimes I worry myself.  I even told the SA in the Whistles branch in Bath that is how I was wearing this article of clothing when they spotted me sporting it in their shop whilst trying on their loose fitting sweatshirt and joggers ( don't ask). So, with item number 3 under my proverbial belt I put the whole outfit together.

And here I am wearing the whole outfit ready to go out with Him Indoors on our Anniversary dinner a deux. Well, you have to make an effort after 20 years! 

I like to think I was rocking (hate that word so don't know why I used it )  a vibe that was "a cool but yet casual in a slightly dressy but not too dressed up kind of way". Effortless, is the way the marketing gurus put it, I think. She Who Has the Hormones approved, and believe me she would soon tell me if I had got it wrong.  Him Indoors didn't  say anything like "What are you wearing, exactly " or even damned it with faint praise as an ensemble either.  I liked the look so much that I wore it again on a night out with friends to celebrate a fiftieth birthday (gulp). Thankfully not mine. I am still only! 49 - since you ask. 
 

Here I am with my Saturday outfit going to meet She Who Has Hormones for a coffee in town and bring her back home after a cheeky look at Russell and Bromley for new sandals as the vouchers they sent me are burning a hole in my pocket.

Jeans - J Brand (old)

T shirt - Zoe Karrsen Asos

Laurel skate shoes - Carvela

Iris blazer in black - Stella Macartney

Alexa satchel in oak - Mulberry

And here out on Saturday wearing my new found love. The Sandro sandals again. Off to go out to a friend's house for dinner and my youngest took the pic but I think some training is required and the lens needed a clean. 

Tuxedo silk collar blazer - Sandro

Private pant leather leggings - Sandro

Silk shirt pistachio - Hobbs

Abracadabra sandals  - Sandro

Back tomorrow with my white jeans post.