Khaki and Navy, Honestly Created

Anna's challenge was Wear Khaki and Navy. 

She's cast out a few challenges recently.  Like wearing shorts - that one took me way out of my comfort zone.  And, you know what. I discovered that I loved them and stayed in them for the rest of the summer.  They had to be prised off me come September!   

And sometimes due to time constraints. I've had to use my creativity (I've cheated!) with other challenges, as I did for her white-t-shirt-and-jeans where I posted a 35 year old photo of me wearing the ensemble.

But his time round, dear reader, I have put together an honest and legitimate offering for Anna's Khaki and Navy challenge.  OK, I had to shop a visiting wardrobe, but I got there.

Allow me to set the scene.  I was meeting up with a cousin and her hubby for lunch in the town.  I decided that I would wear black jeans with an ivory drape top and a grey edge to edge cardi.  But first I'll just try on the Khaki and Navy, do a quick photo shoot, tick the challenge box and then change into my chosen lunch outfit spread out on the bed.

So I give you a khaki Primani wrap top with Next navy (ish) jeans and M&S snake print flatties.

Now this feels OK.  Where can I take this?

Why not sling on a navy Primani slouch cardi.   Yup, that works.

OK, now we're cooking.  How about switching the jeans for some Primani navy chinos and switch the cardi for a neater navy one courtesy of M&S; gives me a slightly more smart look.  Nude heels from Debenhams.  Yup, that looks rather OK.  Rather smart casual.

Oh and I'm walking to lunch, along the sea front, so let's try on a scarf picking out the colours. 

How about a stone-coloured wool jacket from Cotton Traders, and switch back to some flatties as walking is on the agenda.

Look who's got a grump on!

Hmmnn.  Not sure if I want a jacket, I feel a bit frumpy.  Ditch that idea.  It's a lovely day.  Don't need a jacket anyway, just that little M&S cardi which I can sling off in the restaurant (and I did, the day was sooo hot).

So you can see what happened.  Along the way I decided that I actually liked the outfit I was playing around with.  It was perfect for a lunch with family. 

I ditched my planned outfit and left the house in Khaki and Navy.

I had a new outfit that I hadn't thought to put together before.  So thank you, Anna.

And Anna's challenges are all about that.  Participating gets you to think about new combos that you can put together from your wardrobe.  Clothes that you have, worn in a different way.  Clothes that you have maybe never worn come out to play.  Clothes that you were maybe thinking of consigning to the charity shop suddenly get a new lease of life.

Now at this point, it's only fair to fess up.  When I heard of the challenge and struggled to find something khaki, I did at some early point think naughty. "How can I cheat?".  Bad Pout. 

You see, this outfit sprang to mind from my post here.

The shirt and top are khaki.  Perfect.  The shorts, well, they are denim, but they are blue.

But you know, I'm really very pleased that I took the honest route because the little exercise gave me a perfect little lunch outfit. 

Maybe you'd like to try a challenge.  How about this one?  It's not stretching things too far, eh?

Just stretching your imagination a tad.

We do sometimes get drawn into our own rigid boxes of dressing, our own idea of what we should wear and once it becomes habit it sometimes stays that way.  And hey presto, you find yourself wearing your own "uniform".  But to open your eyes to new ideas, new combos, gives you so much more mileage, more leverage from your wardrobe.  And it is a great perk-up.  Because I think you can see from my face that I was (mostly) having a lot of fun during the process.

A la perchoine.