Stina Auer

I read an interesting post from Stina Auer about the lack of 'dress up' opportunities in her home town.  The comments made for interesting reading as people discussed the reasons for the laissez-faire attitude that seems to prevail in most places.
For me, dressing up is as much part of a night out as the event itself, in the 80s, when we regularly headed to 'black tie' events, the glass of champagne in the bath, the smell of hairspray and heady mix of perfumes as the gang all got ready together, was as much part of a good night out, as the event itself. To be truthful, it was probably the sense of anticipation and Cinderella style transformation, that was the best part of the evening.
It all started to go a bit wrong in the 90s when effortlessly beautiful people adopted the 'grunge' look, perfect for flawless waifs, not so good if you are built like two ton Tess and need the structure of tailored clothes to look your best.
Glamour definitely came back to certain places in the 2000s, the arrival of the super rich and their super clothes in London, meant that in 'certain' places the dress code was back to OTT.  Cipriani, Nobu, Blue bar at the Berkeley, the Connaught bar, Zuma, Claridges, Mortons, The Wolsey all require a bit of effort.
But for everywhere else, be it in London or other cities in the South East, over-dressing is a big 'no no' anything more than jeans and a nice top in Oxford is seen as tragically try-hard.  I have heard rumour that in Northern cities you can really 'dress', but I am not sure if that applies only to 18 year-olds out clubbing.
And so there's a dichotomy, where thanks to the internet we have access to every 'look' under the sun and yet in the main we gravitate to a safe uniform of skinny jeans, shoe boots and ZARA sequin jackets, or is that just me?
I was going out to dinner at a friend's house last night and after reading Stina's post made a conscious effort to 'make an effort'.  Basically by looking at my wardrobe and thinking what would Stina wear?

The final selection was Chanel shirt (v old and inherited from mum, but still going strong), Herve Leger skirt (again v old, bought in the 90s, when after his 80s hey day, HL was well and truly off the radar and could be picked up for a song), Ash shoes (from Ebay £9.99) and Hermes cuff.

What is it like where you live? Do you get the opportunity to dress up for a night out or is the vibe more laid back and casual?

Frugal Feb......not really

Normally I'd like to think of myself as quite frugal, I've never been a big 'shopper' and clothes are ebay or charity shop bought.  I'm in a new job where everyone is weirdly encyclopedic about fashion.  Literally, they could win mastermind with their knowledge, I do slightly wonder if the endless fascination we have for the contents of our and other people's wardrobes could have found a cure for cancer were it channeled a bit more usefully, but hey-ho here I am writing about clothes (again)

I have bought too much but my excuse is new job and no 'new' clothes since about 2001, so I do need a few bits and pieces....

I bought these in the my-wardrobe sale, they are Ash and were about £80, they are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn

 These are Joseph gabardine and leather trousers also from my-wardrobe, I think still on sale now (£495)

 I bought a jumper from ZARA like the one above, but can't find online (£60)

 The top above from Joseph on Brompton Cross £180

 Markus Lupfer from matches.com (on sale £165)

 Another jumper from Joseph £140

Herve Leger leggings from Net A Porter (too expensive to admit but I will wear them forever)

Missoni dress from my-wardrobe £585 still on sale now

2 wild fox from ASOS about £90

What is interesting is most of it is just 'buy now wear now' there is no point in even thinking about Summer as the weather is awful and by July I will have changed my mind 10 times about what I would like to wear.

The Missoni dress is my only forward planning.

I notice I have basically bought all luxe sportswear, it just shows you can take the girl out of the gym but you can't take the gym blah blah blah.

They'll be pics to come of all of it as I put it together in my usual haphazard way, it is no wonder my mum feels inclined to keep a steady supply of clothes coming my way.

Have you succeeded in having a lean February?

Does anyone ever actually buy 'new season' and wait for the good weather?

Or like me are you more, buy it now, wear it now?

Nights out...Nights in...

 Unusually we went out twice in one week and both experiences have made me rethink what constitutes a good night out.  Of course good company and booze come top of the list, but after that, what separates a good night out from a really memorable one?

The first night out was with a friend who has lost a great deal of weight and has shrunk from a 16+ and is now in a Karen Millen size 10 dress.  For her, the priority was to get really dressed up in her new wardrobe of clothes that she has dreamed of for the last decade.  They had a big night out in London and were due to spend a fortune, so wanted our night to be a chance to dress up but not too expensive.  I thought a local brasserie would do the trick and promised that I would wear something clingy (Herve Leger dress and very light suede jacket) so that she wasn't the only WAG there.

We started with a bottle of champagne at home and then hit the road, the problem was that the restaurant was really average serving expensive pizzas and lacklustre meat and fish dishes. You just knew that there was no chef cooking and most of the food was the boil in the bag variety that could be prepared by anyone with 10 minutes training.  The bill was £140 for the four of us after wine, drinks, coffee, service etc, and what was meant to be an inexpensive night out was just a fairly pricey mediocrity. 

A couple of days later we went to some friends who live nearby, with 3 children under 5, and just having moved into their new house, we got a hurried phone call saying only,  'Kids sleeping, barbeque on, come now and take us as you find us'.  We drank until 2am, ate mountains of burgers and kebabs and polished it all off with pavlova and hot chocolate.  Our contribution was a couple of bottles of wine and the pavlova, the beef was from a local farm as were the strawberries.  Both the hostess and I were dressed in the local 'evening out' look,me, skinny jeans (Next), sparkly top(Temperley)  and cardigan.  Her jeans Jbrand, tunic top Tory Burch (we both thank live 5 miles from Bicester Village so outfit choices are not as extravagant as they might sound).
We had such a great evening that it made me question why we ever bother with those 'middle of the range' restaurants, with food that you could do yourself for a fraction of the price.

 Going forward, I am planning to reserve 'nights out' for only really special destinations with great quality food and an ambiance that suggests an 'event' rather than a school dining hall.

Now that most of our friends have teenage offspring, rather than babysitter-needing little ones, all other nights with friends will be home based and here are some of the ideas/my checklist that I was hoping will make this possible....



1. Make sure everyone in the house puts away everything that they have used during the day before they go to bed.

2. No more piles of ironing, wash and put away and iron at wear.

How my sofas look most of the time

If the house is tidy-ish and the table clear, 50% of my effort/resistance is removed from entertaining at home.


3. Always have a bottle of fizz in the fridge and some nibble-y bits in the larder. I must stop eating and drinking everything in sight.

 4. I need to learn to cook/precook/ get utensils for some signature dishes that look like restaurant food

Love these salads in jar idea, just add dressing and shake and great for lunch the next day...

 A hearty creamy homemade soup that can be kept warm and served whenever...

 Premake and freeze lobster cakes can cook loads at the same time and ready in minutes...

 Massive plate of anti pasti always looks inviting...

 Luxury foods to have with champagne....

Throw in some luxury components to simple foods, like truffle oil pop corn, caviar and smoked salmon or lobster crab cakes to raise the food above the average run of the mill home cooking.
5. Allow guests to bring something, when they offer, they genuinely want to help, so rather than saying no, I will let them do cheese or pud.

6. Work out how the chocolate fountain works (has been in the attic for years)
7. Interesting lighting makes any evening special, people rarely eat by candle light or fairy lights so I will  make it memorable and it costs little, the 8 year old in all of us still loves tea light candles and fairy lights.
I bought these on ebay for the garden and they are brilliant and solar powered

What makes a really good night out for you? Are you shy about having people into your home or do you find it easy? What are your top recipe tips for stress free entertaining?

My Paris outfits

I have had a MASSIVE clear out, ie everything is gone except for about 40 items of clothing (that's in total) jeans, tops, dresses etc etc.

Therefore I needed to be unusually organised about my stuff for Paris in order to not pack it up for removal.

The travelling outfit consisted of Blumarine dress (worn as top) It is beautiful lace and sequins, I've only ever worn over a copper one-piece as a beach cover up in the past.  It was from TK Maxx in Kensington and I had my eye on it for a while, it started at £249 and I finally bought it when it was reduced further to £49.

The trousers are the most amazing elastane Joseph jodhpurs from a second hand shop that was closing down   they cost about £10, they have stayed brilliant white and kept their shape for about 15 years, if I ever found another pair I would buy in a heartbeat.

Belt was from Nicole Fahri from my friend's shop, unfortunately it has fallen victim to unrealistic business rates and impossible parking restrictions.

The coat was £200 from Ebay (ever the contrarian, I bought it in high summer when nobody else is seeking out shearlings)

I thought my 'shopping' outfit for day two quite successful, until I saw the 'real' pics, where my bad deportment and Gargantuan proportions next to my fine boned friends, are  not good.

The dress is from my favourite consignment store, which has truly beautiful clothes.  It is Missoni and I got it in last year's summer sale for 60 quid.  

The belt is £6.99 H & M and the coat £4.99 from Karen Millen via Ebay.  

It was so hot that the coat wasn't needed and I'm not sure that I should EVER venture out in the dress on its own again.

This black number is for drinks at Costes, it was £11 from TK Maxx at Clapham Junction, it is is pure silk, fitted around the hips and baggy on the top, it is by a Scandinavian brand called Tiger, and when I put it on, I noticed that the label said 699 euro! Shoes are my only high ones, from Reiss (Bicester about 40 quid)

The final outfit is an Herve Leger dress from Ebay, I bought it for £50 and what you can't see is that the zip is broken and the back completely open with just a hook and eye at the top, I would never squeeze into it if the zip actually worked, and I don't mind how it looks.  I would always wear with this cardigan top from Jigsaw (Bicester 30 quid) anyway.