Tag: my style

Outfits, Uncategorized

Paperbag trousers… ready for the new season

by s.a.b4 Comments on Paperbag trousers… ready for the new season

I know it has been a while since my last post but between a new role at work and my commitments to my little family it’s been a little busy. Just a couple of months ago we were down by the coast for a last peek of Summer during the children’s half term holidays, and the weeks flew by and before I knew it, Autumn and its beautiful colours is here. I owe you all a few posts on some of the recent trips we made recently, I promise I will get to it, but today it’s an OOTD post. Time to don my knits and brace myself for the weeks when the glass wall in my home office will mean it gets a little chillier than comfortable.

Recently I have fallen head over heels in love with Lezanne Viviers, the designer behind Viviers Studio and the most dreamy pieces of clothing, mixing impossibly couture details, impeccable tailoring and a creativity not often found away from Paris Fashion Week… I found her totally by luck by going down my Instagram feed rabbit hole, and a few months later Lezanne and her team of incredibly talented tailors have made me a few beautiful pieces, all made to measure, including this fantastic pair of paperbag trousers. I fell in love with the structured look and oversized legs, and who cares if even my highest platforms disappear underneath, I adore the look. Although they are made of denim, the look ends up being very couture and fun but grown-up, if that makes sense.

Another current obsession of mine is puff sleeves. I can’t get enough of them, in dresses, blouses and this cool square neck knit. I like the 1970s vibe and how it makes my shoulders balance out the whole silhouette. It makes for fun MTeams looks as well, of course… Looking at my arms in the photos though I wonder if I shouldn’t have sized down. Perhaps a slightly warmer wash than advised will fix this.

I did give my Bronze B a little outing for the photos only… these days I barely need a bag to go to my “office”… Perhaps one day I will get back to putting full outfits together for work meetings, meanwhile, accessorizing for blog posts is all I got. How about you? How is the working from home situation going for you? Have you recovered from the loungewear everyday phase?

With love, S.

Outfits

Wintry tones and cozy knits

by s.a.bLeave a Comment on Wintry tones and cozy knits

How is everyone keeping with lockdown day… what is it now? 93? It’s been a while since my last outfit post… mainly because I’ve not been bothered much with putting together any interesting outfits but also because I’ve been working like a maniac and there has been little time to post. In the meanwhile, Winter has most definitely arrived here in South Africa, and if yesterday is anything to go by, it’s going to be a cold and miserable one… Most days are spent at my home office desk, sitting through various video meetings and progressively getting more frozen, so I’m mighty glad I never acted upon my idea to just leave all my warm knits in Europe…

I’ve been wearing a variation of today’s outfit most days in the last week, although I rarely put on shoes, it’s mainly slippers and Birkenstocks at the moment… And who can blame me, when there’s nowhere else to go but my home office? It’s usually a cashmere knit as a top, jeans (how skinny or loose depends on how tired I feel in the morning, as well as whether I had a little bit or a lot of bread the day before…), and slippers… So when I put together today’s outfit it seemed a little more photo worthy than normal, and here we are.

The top here is not a top by the way, it’s a cashmere mix dress by McQ, and I’ve had it for more than five years… Remember what you read about designer pieces being investment pieces etc.? All true. I wear this dress every single Winter: it’s super warm, with a tiered detail, and usually falls to just above my knees. Here I lifted up the bottom part, hooked it up with three little safety pins that hide in the folds, and there you have it, fun sweater look with a dropped waist detail.

I added some black skinnies with a lot of stretch (what would lockdown life been if someone hadn’t invented elastane, I wonder?) and that made my outfit. Then I remembered I hadn’t taken my Hermès Kelly 32 out for a little tour of the house in a bit, so I brought her out: funny how she still has a twilly on, usually I don’t bother with twillies around handles, except if it’s the height of Summer and I’m going for long day of meetings, they avoid any moisture from my hands to transfer onto the leather.

I added a cashmere and silk shawl: this one is another one that I got from the men’s side at H, some seasons I don’t like any of the designs they have on the women’s side, so I cross over… and I share it with Hubby Dearest. Not only does it have a gorgeous grey blue colourway, but the design has loads of stars and sketch-like drawings, which I love.

Ok. Before I go, I need to leave you with a word on these boots. Chanel has been making a version of these in the last couple of years, but each time I’ve tried the leather version it felt horribly stiff and gave me visions of painful afternoons ahead, and let me not tell you how much I hate the version with the patent tips… but this pair, in the softest possible suede, in a go with everything grey, was just perfect, and it was waiting for me at the Heathrow shop on one of my stop-overs, with the nice duty-free discount as well. I am obsessed with them. By the way, anyone else missing jet-shopping at the moment? I know I do…

With love, S.

Outfits

Sailor stripes and kitten heels

by s.a.b7 Comments on Sailor stripes and kitten heels

As South Africa moves slowly into Autumn, it’s still very much the same routine day in day out, with mornings and afternoons filled with video calls and emails demanding urgent attention (everything is suddenly urgent), but yes, we continue to work from home here.

I am still resisting the idea of spending my days in PJs; instead I’ve gone the opposite way and go visit my very redundant accessories in the morning, at least to try a bag or two or see how heels feel these days. Not very comfortable, I’ll admit, but so so pretty. Also, notice how I took these pictures by my Globe-Trotter wheelies, if that’s not a subconscious attempt to get closer to travelling again, I don’t know what is…

Today didn’t feel like a jeans kind of day, it might have something to do with all the delicious tarts and homemade bread we’ve been baking lately, although I’m pretending it’s just because I am a little tired today, so instead I am wearing cargo trousers that have a very nice drawstring waist, which means they can be let out or in as needed. I originally bought these trousers from Theory for travel days, however with the tapered cut and lightweight fabric they are perfect for transitional weather, and yes they are incredibly comfortable. Drawstring trousers are also a great idea for post-preggo waists that are finding their way back to their normal selves (I haven’t been pregnant in a good few years but we can still pretend my waist is working its way back to what it was ten years ago can’t we?)…

I adore big sailor stripe jumpers, and this one with the gold tone buttons on the shoulder is one of my favourites; it’s from Court & Rowe. I have a similar one with blue stripes on cream but find this one is more flattering as the darker colour is more predominant (and the shape is quite forgiving, isn’t it…). This is the kind of jumper that looks amazing with jeans and Stan Smiths, but it also gets dressed up easily: sometimes I wear it with a white button down underneath and some cigarette trousers.

And, just because it was the morning and I wanted to play with some accessories, I pulled a pair of Manolo Blahnik slingbacks from my closet (the kitten heels are easy enough but my feet are most definitely resisting closed shoes, especially the pointed toe kind) and a Céline classic box. It’s important that they feel the love as well even though we’ve got nowhere to go, right?

With love, S.

Outfits

Working from home… again

by s.a.b2 Comments on Working from home… again

It’s getting colder here in Johannesburg… and I’m starting to sympathise with that colleague of mine who was confessing with glee that she was very happy to work all day in her PJs (see, I told you I’d slowly get there, I’m not quite there yet, but soon, I’m sure), especially as I just heard our office would remain closed for another four weeks at the least… That’s a lot of home-based work outfits for me to pull together.

I found this knitted dress during last week-end’s closet clear-out, it was hiding under some (many) jumpers… It’s from Mango, which pretends it delivers in South Africa: in reality it still ships your orders from Spain and you get wacked with a major duty invoice if you’re not careful, I learned the hard way…

I’ve been wearing trousers most days since lockdown so this is a nice change. In all honesty this feels very close to wearing PJs at work… After all the knit texture is super comfortable, very unlike the more structured shapes I often wear in the office, and this outfit took exactly five seconds to pull together. I am however wearing Spanx-like undies, for obvious reasons (try wearing knit fabrics over lacy lingerie and get back to me), does that redeem me?

I did make an effort with the accessories (pretty much like my colleague of the PJs: she puts a nice necklace on top of a sweatshirt and there you have it, dressed) with my favourite Hermès CSGM, a design called A Cheval Sur Mon Carré (it’s over ten years old, is at the top of many H fan’s grail list, and yet I scored in a sale!), a few fun pearl earrings from Samira 13, and my favourite Chanel slingbacks, which would need to be replaced at this point after three years of traipsing the streets of many cities the world over, if only Chanel would re-issue this very classic grey flannel combo instead of issuing some pretty garish colourways…

Watch this space, at this rate it’s very probably I’ll soon be wearing something very casual indeed to get me through my daily video call marathons, and when I do, I’ll be sure to document it.

With love, S.

Style, Style Notes

The new office style

by s.a.bLeave a Comment on The new office style

I have to say, this whole working from home situation has created a conundrum for me. You see, most days, my usual getting ready routine in the morning involves getting dressed from the shoes up… and most office days, that means high heels, the more fabulous the better. Now, with most of us non essential workers (yes I also feel very valuable thanks to this term…) working from home, high heels are suddenly redundant, much to my chagrin, and in fact I feel a little odd even putting on shoes to walk to my desk, turn on my laptop, and start what usually looks like a never-ending symphony of video calls.

I know, there are some hardcore fashionistas out there who work from home with their 120mm Loubies on and I applaud them; there is also the other end of the spectrum, with the club of pyjama all-day lovers, and actually the other day I was on a video call where someone forgot to put a top on and yet hadn’t realised their camera was on (at least I hope they hadn’t realised). Let’s not judge…

Still, in these strange times where your bed is metres away from your desk, when your children’s headmaster is also your husband, and the school’s recess time with all its squeals often coincides with that big deal conference call about how this funding structure or that guarantee scheme will save the world’s economy, it’s fair to say office style has taken a whole new meaning. Also, why do most people insist on video calls? What is the appeal of a poor resolution image that is badly-lit and weakens the connection? And whilst we’re here, why can’t video call apps have a filter that smooths out wrinkles and exasperated facial expressions….? Dear Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Skype creators, food for thought. Until then, I’ll use a combination of my desk lamp and my selfie light to create the illusion of a glow, and the minute non essential goods are available to buy again in South Africa I’m ordering one of those ring lights used by make-up artists. If you’re going to spend your day on a video call, why not look good.

Anyways I digress. You’ll find I do that a lot. We’re talking style, specifically home office style. Getting ready in the morning is still very much a pleasure for me. With the aforementioned video calls in mind, I now start my outfits from the top down. I usually opt for a light top, because that makes a nicer frame for my face on video. I have loads of open embroidery blouses in whites and creams, most of them from Zara, and they are getting use a lot. When I have a very serious meeting ahead, I usually opt for a classic button down, like the one in the photos above, which is Misha Noonoo’s Husband Shirt. Without knowing, one could guess that my bottoms are just joggers, but to date I have not gone there yet; then again we’re only on week four of this lockdown, ask me again in a few weeks and I may be a completely different person. For now, I usually go for jeans (no, I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone, but it helps to make sure they still fit from time to time, what with the fridge and pantry so close to my office) or paperbag carrot trousers, they are my favourite cut at the moment and I love the ease of the knotted belt.

What I miss the most in this new office style is accessories… Picture this: me packing my wallet, mobile phone, make-up goodies etc into my favourite Chanel jumbo, only to walk down the corridor to my home office, how silly would that be? How about me wearing some serious heels, only to take them out as I fold my legs under my to sit more comfortably through virtual meeting number five… I mostly wear flat espadrilles, sometimes a wedge if I’m feeling particularly committed to the stylish cause, but yes, I miss my accessories. Sometimes when it’s a bit chilly, I wear one of my CSGMs, and seeing as we’re going into Autumn and Winter here, with a bit of luck that will be everyday. Until then… let’s just say my home office style is quite basic.

With love, S.