Introducing The Third Piece

 OK, so it's that time of the season when panic sets in.  That time at the end of a season when I realise that the weather is morphing into the coming season and I haven't worn nearly enough of my favourite pieces from the closing season.

 Today was that day.

After we endured our Siberian winter then enjoyed a few gorgeously sunny days, all in the space of 7 days, it dawned on me that in a few weeks it will be far too warm to wear one of my fave pieces from AW18, the berry coated jeggings from Next. Nor my gorgeous berry boots from M&S.   Nor my grey woolly bardot jumper from Dotty P for that matter.  Cripes!!!

So I remedied that without delay and in one big wollop.  I wore them all together in one outfit with a berry cami underneath, and met up for coffee with TP and our mate.  The mate glanced at my garb and told me I looked like one of The Avengers*.  I told our mate I'd dressed for him.  I hadn't, of course, that was just me in flirty mode.

TP guffawed, perhaps because I don't do flirty so well these days 😕.  Darn it!

When dressing I'd realised that much as I loved the berry jeggings and boots, I could have got a lot more wear out of them if one vital piece was added to the mix. A third piece.  The piece that brings an outfit other.  In this case, a berry cardi.  

With a cardi of similar colour, I could introduce a whole load more pieces to this combo.  That would create a mind-blowing extra number of outfits from those two basics.

I'd been stalking a berry cardi at Peacocks for some time, perfect for my berry bits, but I didn't want to pay full whack.  I'm a pensioner, don't ya know?
My take on dressing these days is that it's worth spending money on core items of clothing in neutral colours that will endure through the years, through fashion and hair colour changes!  But for an injection of colour, it's not worth spending shedloads because chances are, I'll tire of them quicker than neutrals.

And as luck would have it, I'd spotted that "my" cardi had been reduced so after coffee I sneaked off to the shop and with discount and a voucher I bagged my berry beauty for £6!

I tried it on a home and it was love at first wear. I was excited to put it through its paces so  I tugged out a few tops from an overstuffed wardrobe   I judiciously selected a few suitable pieces.

Readers, I give you my third piece, styled in top to toe berriness.  Taadaaahhh!

Here, I teamed it with the longline cami that I'd bought from the same shop some weeks ago.  Remember my top tip, if you're dealing with esoteric colours, buy from the same range for a perfect colour match.  Otherwise, it just gets messy. 

I have to tell you that I am over the moon with this cardi.  It's the perfect colour for all my wardrobe's berriness, it hangs beautifully, it's a perfect length and the sleeves are nicely tight for the elbow roll up thing, which is my preferred way to wear knitwear.

If a pictorial dictionary needs a photo to depict "happy bunny" then use this one above, for that is me, an extremely happy bunny.

And that's where I have to press the pause button on this epic story as I had to break it down into two posts.  Yes peeps, I hear your sobs but it was really THAT big!  So why don't you pop back tomorrow and see for yourself what I achieved with the introduction of this third piece.

 It's worth the wait! 

So, dear readers, I'm wondering whether you're in panic mode too as you rush to wear your winter faves before the weather changes?

*Emma Peel, The Avengers

Yes, our friend has a vivid imagination!

A la perchoine.