Thieving Thriday! The Suit Heist

See what I did there?  Thieving Thriday?  A portmanteau merging Thursday and Friday together creates one post for both days, and thus brings me up to day (sic!) with my days?!!!

So today, instead of thieving from another blogger, Pinterest, or a Madeleine catalogue, I'm thieving from my own wardrobe today.  Thieving from a suit to be more precise.

When searching in my archives recently I stumbled upon a whole range of smart summer wear that I used to wear, BITD, when I worked for a living.  Each time I come across these stashes I haven't the heart to move them on.  I still like them, I like the colours, I like the styles.  But they're just too posh for the life I lead now, retirement life.

So it made sense to try to incorporate some of the items into my retirement life.  A few items in various shades of aqua caught my eye.

Here's how I got on.

It started with a suit.  An East two-piece - is it me or does that sound very '50s.

A two-piece, that's what my mum would call this duo.

An aqua linen two-piece suit.  Great as businesswear, I wore it loads in the noughties summers but now, not so much.  Well, actually not at all!

Got a suit YOU don't wear?

So when I stumbled upon this two-piece I thought hey, I have quite a lot of these posh suits that get absolutely zilch wear in the teensies, but I cannot bear to throw them away.  So why not repurpose them?  And the repurposing turned out to be so simple.

Thieve from the suit !!

Thieve the jacket to wear with jeans, blue or white, either will work.

This instantly brings the jacket down to the level that is my pensioner life today.  Casual, and mostly (hopefully!) smart casual.

Then let's move on to the jacket's twin.  The dress. The label said 'dry clean only'.  I washed it.  It didn't die.  It may have lightened a shade, but I'm splitting the suit so ain't no biggie!

It's a rather lovely lined sheath dress.  Thieved away from the jacket, it still needs bringing down a notch further to make it a dress I can wear day-to-day.  So I added low-wedge pink sandals and a pink necklace.

Aqua is yet another colour that my gorgeous silk butterfly scarf compliments perfectly.  

Pout Tip: Remember, if you're investing in a scarf, choose one that has pattern, one that has as many of your fave colours in the pattern as is artistically possible - you will then find that this single scarf compliments most of your outfits.

Keeping with the smart casual look I desired, I switched to another pair of low-heel sandals, this time in metallic leather.

I added turquoise jewellery; on reflection, it should have been metallic too.

My recent Woolovers purchase in embellished aqua provides a co-ordinated coverup for this time of year.

For a slightly posher casual look, I switched to a chunkier necklace and Adesso taupe high wedged heels.

But keep the two pieces apart to avoid slipping back into posh!

The addition of the jacket returns the look to special occasion posh, not a day-to-day  retirement look but fine for a summer wedding or a meet-up with the Queen at Buck House - I don't think she'd kick me out wearing this little two-piece, do you ?!!

Try it out for yourself.

So, my dears, the purpose of this post today is this.  If you have posh combos that you love, like suits, two-pieces, whatever, and you can't bear to throw them out because you they still give you joy each time you see them, then 

- Think about how you can split them to make each individual piece more casual for the life you lead now.

- Then think about bringing the tempo down on each piece - a jacket worn with jeans and maybe a complementary scarf, a fitted dress worn with lower heels, chunkier jewellery.

2nd Love your poshwear !

A la perchoine.

TOMORROW: pop back to find out where I took my aqua linen sheath!