Jeans 👖 and a Nice Top

What's the dress code?   If I'm asking a girl friend for guidance on what to wear to an invite these days it's no longer "smart casual" but "jeans and a nice top".

It's the new teensie's dress code and I guess smart casual now sounds a bit nineties , a bit last century.   Do you agree?

So more and more in the teensies my head is telling me to wear jeans and a nice top, or JAANT to give it a whizzy acronym.

I struggle to find jeans that fit me in my wardrobe these days having lost a bit of weight, but certainly it's a nice struggle and it's not going to deter me from wearing jeans and a smart top when the occasion calls for it.  

So I bought some new jeans!  See JEANS ON TRIAL, HERE.

And armed with my surprisingly addictive distressed jeans I've put some nice tops through their paces.  All shopped from my wardrobe.

The aim of this little exercise is to find some go-to outfits that I can roll out at a moment's notice when time is short or when my outfit head is having a day off.  I look on this little exercise as a training day.

I had to find outfits for two dates yesterday, coffee at the golf club and drinks with the neighbours.  Let's see how my training went.

The Talk Through

intro

(30 secs)

The Try Ons

(4 mins)

The Detail

Lace and silk ruffles tops from M&S

Leoprint (Zara), boho (Primark), dress/shirt floral thingey (Zara)

Floral frilled blouse from Zara

Black jersey and chiffon tunic and top, M&S, black frilled linen top from East

Zara silky print pussy bow

I asked Instagram for help in tieing this very long bow and received some very helpful suggestions which I will try out and show you soon.

Monsoon jersey/chiffon/beaded top

 Those that didn't make the video

They were the also-rans (meaning they seemed rather meh!)

JonesofNewYork cashmere cardi, Zara silky tunic, Madeleine cashmere cardi and lace cami.

My socialising is unflinchingly casual these days.  I have about 2-3 slightly dressier functions a year.  The rest are very casual, very JAANT.   

Right now  I'm  wearing on rotation coated jeans, black and distressed jeans - I'd add grey  to the mix if I had a pair that fitted.  I'm attempting to remedy that.

My tops, dresses and skirts still look ok even though I'm down a dress size or two, but jeans show the weight loss and obviously look pretty awful.  I've taken jeans in in a previous life, running new seams down the legs but it doesn't really work as there's a lot of clumping around double seams and pockets in the top bit of the jeans.  So new jeans are the cost of slimming down because I think jeans are the biggest indicator of weight loss and I want them to be with me on this journey!

So I'd better add some go-to JAANT outfits with my new jeans  for an easy teensies life.  Are there any here that you think I should add to my arsenal?

Here's the shortlist put together by The Photographer With Fashion Views for drinks with the neighbours.

And this is what I we eventually settled on..  Easy wearing with a touch of sass.

This was my choice for coffee.  A black jumper dressed up with old jumble sale jewellery.  I wore black knee boots (Gabor).

The cool thing about this day's dressing was that for the evening drinks all I had to do was switch tops and tweak jewellery, hair and make-up.  A moment's work - my kind of dressing!

Do you find yourself reaching for JAANT outfits more and more?

Do you have any go-tos?  Any faves?

Perhaps I've helped with some inspo for next time your dress code is jeans and a nice top,  or JAANT.

A la perchoine,

Mary x.