IT IS TIME TO BRING BACK A LITTLE GLAMOUR

Hello dear friends, hope you are doing well.

Now that the COVID restrictions in Australia have been eased dramatically, our lives are almost back to BC (before COVID), alas overseas travel is still wishful thinking 😞, it’s time to bring back a little glamour.  

Speaking of which, have you by any chance happened to watch Halston miniseries on Netflix?  I am totally fascinated by his vision, the beauty of his creations, his enormous talent and driving ambition that helped him to rise to international fame during the 70's.  Pity about cocaine though, that initially was the starting point of his downfall😢.

I learned a few quite interesting aspects about Halston's life including the fact that his muse, Elsa Peretti, became a great jewellery designer for Tiffany's and when I looked her up on Google, it made me realise that a couple of pieces of jewellery that my husband has bought for me from the House of Tiffany were designed by her.  

Going back to today's outfit, it’s a funny fact, but it is only in recent years that I developed a taste for sparkles and other shiny fabrics (just check out the dress I wore for my last birthday party here) so it was no brainer that when I spotted this little black number twinkling under the bright spotlights of an H&M store, I grabbed it off the rack and went straight to the counter to pay for it. I was taken slightly by surprise that my husband liked it too so it became a keeper 👍.  

Apart from the presence of sparkles all over this jacket, its cropped silhouette adds an urban edge to it and would look great paired with white or black jeans and a t-shirt and could be worn during the day as well.  The reason these photos are taken indoors is that the weather outside is not photo-shoot friendly and I really wanted to share this post with you hence you get a glimpse of my home.

The silk red pants that I am wearing are quite old, I was quite pleased if not somewhat surprised to see that they still fit.  I was expecting the worst. They are from Equipment, I love their colour and cut, unfortunately, they crease quite a lot but it comes with the territory, I guess.  Ditto my old Christian Louboutin open toe shoes that you have seen me wearing quite often in the past.  I think the last time it was in 2019.  

My handbag is a belated gift from my niece, it’s from Tory Burch and is more a wallet on a chain since it does not fit anything thicker than credit cards or a driver’s licence.

And that is it for today’s post.

Would you like wearing shiny sparkling clothes? Please do share your thoughts in the comments below.

 

Until then

Anna

I am pleased to announce that this post was featured on Links à la Mode fashion roundup by Independent Fashion Bloggers.

More fashion articles:

• Who Put the Fruits onto the Garments? by High Latitude Style
• It's time to bring back some glamour by Looking Fabulous at Fifty

PRINTED MIDI DRESS - TRIBUTE TO THE 70'S

 Hello dear friends,

This is another outfit of mine inspired by the 70's vibe but whereas in the previous post it was about  wide leg pants and oversized hoops (you can read about it here if you missed the post) today it is all about colours and the print.   

When it comes to colours and patterns of that era, the first image that comes to mind is shirts and dresses in bold bright colours and large prints and patterns sometimes inspired by psychedelic art and culture.   The trendy colours of the 70's were bright blue and turquoise, bright yellow, saturated orange and brown while the injection of white was used everywhere, to offset and highlight them.  

And that is exactly what I saw when I walked into Zara store the other day, i.e., a midi dress 👗 in bright colours with an oversized print, hanging off the rack, I could not tear my eyes off it.  If you ask me to describe this dress in one word, this word would be FUN.  It has a happy uplifting vibe due to the presence of the yellow and orange colours, its style is quite simple with side splits without which the dress would be too narrow and difficult to walk in.

My husband was slightly hesitant at first but once I tried it on, he just smiled and strolled to the cash register to pay for it 👍😊.

My initial thought was to wear it with a pair of sneakers but the dress kind of lost its high vibe, so I discarded the sneakers and instead put on a pair of high-heeled knee boots.  That instantly not only gave me a couple of centimetres in height but also a visually elongated and slimmed silhouette.  

Your thoughts are important to me so please do share them in the comment section.

Until then,

Have a colourful week 

Anna

CHANNELING 70'S VIBE WITH WIDE LEG PANTS

Hello dear friends,

I am so glad to hear the good news regarding the easing of COVID restrictions and rolling out the vaccinations 👍.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might have noticed that my last couple of posts were all about monochromatic, black and white outfits that were not exactly formal but leaning towards an office attire.  Today's outfit is completely the opposite, it has colour, it's fun and is totally casual.

The main feature of this look are my new wide leg trousers that are so on-trend right now.  If you think that they are not for you, let me assure you that they are super versatile and there are options to suite any height, shape and style 👍.  

You can channel this sleek 70's style with beautifully tailored high-waisted wide-leg trousers made in expensive fabrics like wool or silk or go boho with slouchy wide-leg cropped trousers in a more durable fabric like thick cotton or denim.

I opted for the latter, tan coloured, cropped and rugged bottom trousers that I found in Zara.  I paired them with a similarly slouched jumper in light peach colour.  My shoes of the day, to keep with the casual vibe, were a pair of white sneakers by Spring Court.  

I have, however, paid a small tribute to glamour by wearing my new oversized hoop earrings that I've become addicted to lately, have bought 3 pairs so far 😉 and my LV scarf, previously seen here.

And that is it. 

  

Until the next post

Anna

xoxoxo

HOW I STYLED MY NEW RL POLO BLACK DOUBLE BREASTED BLAZER PART II

 Hello everyone, hope you are doing well

By following the blogs of my English friends, I learned that the things in Britain are looking good 😄:  the businesses are starting to open up and people can move more freely and do a lot of things they were not able to do for a long, long time.

We Australians, consider ourselves extremely lucky as we practically got rid of locally transmitted Covid-19.  Our borders are still shut to the world😞 and the only people who are allowed to cross them are Australian nationals returning home.  

Do you remember my new RL black double breasted blazer that I recently shared with you here?  As our weather is cooling down, I am relying more and more on its presence in my wardrobe.  I am wearing it with almost everything, thanks to its versatility which brings me to today's outfit.

It is another monochromatic outfit but this time it's in reverse, i.e. black on the top, white on the bottom.  I love wearing white denim pants and judging by the number of outfit images shared on various media platforms, so do many other women, and not just in the warm months but even in winter.

The top is above mentioned RL black double-breasted blazer (new), all other elements of this outfit are old and have been shown before in various posts.

Have a great week ahead

Until then,

Anna

xoxo

This post was featured on Links à la Mode fashion roundup by Independent Fashion Bloggers.

More fashion articles:

• Perfect for Spring Breton Tops, Blazers, and Denim by Midlife and Beyond
• Ageism Part 1: You're Not the Boss of Me by Lucy Bertoldi
• Iconic Initiations by Carole Shashona
• What To Wear - 8 Solutions of Outfits for The Fabulous Spring; Summer! Part 2 by Our Life Is Great
• How I style my classic blazer by Looking Fabulous at Fifty
• The Lounge Set You Need for Spring and Summer by Krystin Tysire

BLACK LINEN PANTS WITH PEARL BUTTONS

 Hello dear friends, hope you are well.

I had quite a busy week.  My grandson just turned two months and I thought it was high time to introduce him to my extended family.  BC (before COVID) times, they would just roll up at the hospital the next day after his birth bearing gifts, flowers and best wishes and it would be all.  Now, with the restrictions limiting the number of visitors to just two at time and the time that the mother and a new born stay at the hospital is shortened to the necessary minimum, some of them didn't even have a chance to stop by.  Then my daughter didn't want to have anything till his first vaccination, then there was Pesach closely followed by Easter and at long last, the date was set.  

Traditionally, it's the young parents who would host such an occasion with the help of grandparents, of course, however, unluckily for me, my daughter wasn't interested in doing anything at all which I kind of understand, what with looking after two children under school age and all, so I took it upon myself to take charge and have it at my home.  

I prepped, chopped, sliced, marinated and cooked loads of food for twenty people (eighteen of mine +my two in-laws).  My husband took a rain over BBQ while I was playing a role of the hostess with the mostest 😋. 

We both felt totally exhausted by the end of the big day but everyone seemed to be enjoying  themselves judging by the number of phone calls and messages I received from my guests afterwards thanking me for having a good time.  Mission accomplished👍👍👍. 

Although the Australian summer season is officially over,  the days are surprisingly warm and we can still wear our light clothes.  Speaking of light clothes, this summer season the most commonly worn fabric on the fashion scene was linen.  

I have never seen so many women dressed in linen smocks or men wearing linen shirts and shorts since my last trip to Italy.  I wasn't going to jump on this wagon until I saw these black cropped linen pants from Pingpong.  

The problem with having too many black pants is that quite often they look almost identical unless there is some distinctive feature that will tell them apart.  In the case of my new trousers, it was the presence of white pearl decorative buttons that set makes them look different that caught my eye.

This outfit is rather obvious, a never failed old time favourite black and white combo from head to toe.  The blouse is from Reiss that I previously modelled for you here, I like the striking contrast of these two colours:  white blouse against black pants punctuated by the big white pearl buttons all the way dawn to my black&white LV sneakers.  Even my off-white Furla handbag comes with a black trim around it 😀.

Hopefully the weather will hold a little longer so I can give my new purchase a whole run.

Till the next post, dear friends

Anna

xoxo

POSTER OF FIGS BY PHOTOWALL

Hello everyone, how are you all

Today’s post is not much about clothes but more about home décor.  I don’t think I ever mentioned it but home styling and decorating is one of my passions and I am more than happy when my friends seek my advice on this subject.  I also run a small consultancy business where I advise my clients on colour schemes and accessories and help them in sourcing furniture, textiles and art which brings me to the subject of today’s post.

Recently I was asked to collaborate by a company called Photowall where I was offered to have one of their works of my choice.   I was quite interested to find out what type of images are on offer in case one of my clients would ask me to help them to choose an artwork suitable for their home so as you can see this collaboration was right up my alley.

I wasn’t familiar with this company before.  As the name suggests, they specialise in printing artworks of your choice that could be framed (and you can choose from white, black or a natural appearance) or an unframed picture, with or without a border, you can have it printed on canvas or as a poster.  You can also select the size of your artwork.  Their library is enormous, there over twenty categories on offer, covering all sorts of tastes and interests:  nature, mystic, architecture, cities and places, children, food & drink, just to name a few, some of them contain more than thousand choices but if that cannot satisfy your demand,  you can ask them to customise and print an image of your own.  

Some people like to scroll through the whole library just waiting until something catches their eye, others would know exactly what they are looking for.  Either way, once you decided on the image you would like to purchase, you will be asked to choose its appearance, i.e. would you like to have it printed on canvas or paper, framed or unframed etc.  All steps are pretty straight forward and each option can be clearly seen on the screen.  All the steps are pretty straight forward and once the invoice is paid, the final artwork can be at your door within the next 3 days, depending of what type of delivery you paid for.

In my case, I knew exactly what I wanted.  My daughter and her partner are renovating a kitchen/dining area of their home as we speak and this image of ripe figs that I chose for them would be perfect for this part of their house. 

Meanwhile I am incorporating it into a small vignette above my antique wooden cabinet that my husband schlepped all the way from South Africa.  Do not you think this image is lovely? I am sure, my daughter would be happy to have it on her wall.

You can view the Photowall work by clicking on the link.  Use this code lookingfabulousatfifty25 to receive 25% discount and have fun.

If you unsure of what image to hang on your wall, I will be more than happy to help you with your enquiry.  Just send your question to my email:  annamarcus@optusnet.com.au.

 

Until then,

Anna

xoxo