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.

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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

HOW I WORE MY NEW POLO RL BLAZER

Hi everyone, hope you are well.

As our summer is coming to an end, I decided to make a stocktake of my wardrobe to make sure that I am ready for autumn.  During this process it was revealed that I might need to buy myself a new jacket as the one I’ve been wearing last season has become slightly tight 😡. 

I have been thinking of investing money into an iconic blazer for a while and looks like the time has come for me to do just that.  Paying a fair amount of money for a good quality, timeless pieces of clothing or accessories aka investment pieces is not a new concept to me and I can attest that if you do your research and spend your money wisely, it’s money well spent 👍. 

 

Truth be told, I can’t remember ever spending a small fortune on my clothes or accessories, however over the years I did pay fair amount of money on high end leather goods like handbags, shoes and belts and never regret buying any of these items.  When you buy an expensive handbag, you are not just paying for the label, you are paying for high quality, excellent services and years of enjoyment.

 

Clothes is a slightly different matter, still a good quality item of closing should last you for a few good years without showing any signs of wear as well as always looking smart and in fashion.

Armed with this knowledge, I set myself out on a mission to buy a good quality smart looking blazer that will not break the bank.  Alas, after perusing the internet for a few hours, it appears to be a slight problem as every item that I liked costs much more that I was prepared to spend. 

 

Then one day I was shopping for a gift for my husband at a department store and stopped at Ralph Lauren’s concession stand to check what’s on offer.  Their blazers look sharp and smart but I dismissed the ones that bore the RL crest on a breast pocket but then a plain double-breasted black blazer in knitted fabric caught my eye.  The crest was nowhere to be seen, just the signature silver buttons that run along the front and four buttons on each cuff.  It looked good, so I decided to try it on.

 

I instantly liked its fit. I have quite narrow shoulders and often when I put a blazer or a coat on, it looks like the shoulder line of the garment extends well past my shoulder bone which makes the extra fabric sag around my upper arm which does not look good at all.  Luckily, this blazer was exactly what the doctor ordered 😉.  I liked its length, not too long, not too short.  It looked sharp when buttoned-up and has a casual chic vibe when opened.  Long story short – I bought it.

 

I was keen to see how well it would look worn with my existing wardrobe, like I do with any new item of clothing that I buy before I make a final decision.  After a few different combos, the verdict was in, I am keeping it.

 

Here is just one outfit that I came with during the “trial period” as I call it.  It has been quite a few years since I wore a short skirt but I thought I would give it a go.  I wanted to maintain a smart look despite that my skirt was quite short and for that reason I chose to wear black from head to toe.  The only exception to it was a long string of white pearls which I wrapped around my neck. 

 

I have another outfit in mind that involves this jacket but I will save it for another post.

Until then,

Anna

Linking up with Independent Fashion Bloggers 

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

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