From Petite to Plump on Safari

Hello my lovelies!

Here’s another From Plump to Petite outfit.  Over time, instagrammer Annemarie

(HERE)

and I discovered we often have similar items in our wardrobes, and occasionally identical - see our matching summer dresses in this post

However our body shapes are very different, petite and plump.

Yet somehow the pieces and styles work for us both. 

So what fun it was to discover recently that we have identical safari jackets (Primarni, 2019).  The jacket is made from a soft linen, a perfect fabric for the summer we’ve just had, and it’s double breasted by way of brown buttons.   

However, it’s a jacket that can work well in the autumn too. 

Annemarie has had good use out of hers these past three years.   

Me, not at all!  

My jacket was left in the UK house after purchase in 2019 and Covid allowed it to hang out in a wardrobe unworn for three years. 

This was the first opportunity I had to wear mine. 

Let’s take a look at how Annemarie styled her jacket. 

A soft khaki/olive tee is worn under the jacket, and that accent colour is followed through in the cross body bag. 

The outfit is finished off with stone coloured chinos and cream flatties to create a long line through to ground level. 

I absolutely love her styling of this safari jacket.  

And now, I have to apologize for my ”styling”, or rather, lack of it. 

When Annemarie and I met up, my clothes, footwear, bags, jewellery, you name it - all had been packed away in removal boxes. 

I struggled to find something to wear with the jacket. 

So it’s no wonder we were laughing a lot during this shoot!

All I could muster was this.  An ivory vest, white baggy chinos, some old white flatties.  

And that was it.

No jewellery, no bag, zilch embellishment. 

Annemarie, beautifully styled and well turned out.  

Me, not. 

But styling or not, we always have a blast when we get together.  And I hope we get the message across in these  pics - this kind of soft and loose jacket suits both body shapes and probably everything in between. 

A la perchoine,

Mary xxx. 

 

Shirts on Larger Ladies Formula

 Hello my lovelies!

Shirts.  On women.  Plump women!

I’ve been in training with shirts this summer.  

Over the years I felt that I looked too matronly in shirts, a bit sergeant majorish in them.  Top half issues.  

So 2022 is designated as my last ditch attempt to see if I can get them to work for me. 

I think the trickery may be in the fabric, both the texture and the colour. 

Finding the right formula to allow larger busted ladies to look good in the masculine shirt shape can be a challenge, but I think I’ve found a winning formula!

Taadaah, I give you …

The Pout’s Formula for Shirts on Larger Ladies 

1. Shirts in finer fabrics drape well and look less matronly

A fine slinky fabric or a cotton lawn drapes well over the larger torso, as seen with this lawn shirt from @marksandspencer.  

2.  Then chose a pretty feminine colour or print to negate any hint of masculinity that a shirt brings to the female form. 

Like pink.  

And that’s it.   Simples. 

Yup, I think I’ve sussed this shirt wearing malarkey!

And finally I’m wearing my 👚 shirt with pride!

Other shirts I have been in training with

Light lawn jade oversized shirt. (Me, messy; him, elegant!)

Striped (and embroidered) loose shirt - I’ve worn this many times this summer.  

Brown linen on a windy day 

And of course, the classic white linen fitted shirt worn in many combos, but here worn with light wash blue jeans. 

Do YOU wear shirts?

Do you find their masculine shape a challenge?

I’d love to hear how shirts work, or don’t work, for you in the comments below. 

A la perchoine,

Mary xxx. 

Classic Dressing - Beachwear

Hello my lovelies!

I hope you’ve managed to keep cool this summer.

I have, by spending many hours swimming in our island’s invigorating and clean sea. 

I sling on a pair of shorts or this dress from Next 

and head for the beach, here with my Dutch friend La Duchesse. 

This is my favoured beach, Grandes Rocques.

It’s just down the road from my house so is convenient for a quick dip. 

On this day it was covered with long strands of sea weed, both on shore and in the sea, which made for pretty messy swimming.   I’m glad to say it’s not usually like this. 

So I spend a lot of time of the beach in summer - but what do I wear?

Swimwear, obvs. 

See some posts I’ve written previous on swimwear HERE

HERE

and HERE

Do check the posts out - in one you get to see The Photographer doing his Daniel Craig on video!

You’ll see that the swimsuits I wear these days all provide good coverage.

No so much coverage in my younger days though, 

here’s what I wore in slimmer times. 

A bikini in a brown cotton with white pinprick spots. 

A black and white striped jersey bikini. 

Both of these bikinis would still work today, but just not on me.  

These days it’s not bikinis for me, obvs.  

You’ve seen my body covered, and that’s bad enough!

Trust me on this one. 

 I like  need a good cover up. 

Because this swimsuit (from Marks & Spencer) covers nicely around the bust area, I can just sling shorts or skirt on which makes for a fairly decent combo for walking to, from and on the beach. 

I also bought the same style in a different fabric.  

I wear these two on repeat all summer long. 

I have to say that because my time on the beach is either swimming or sitting in a granny chair wearing a beach dress cover up, these two practical swimsuits are my go tos for dipping. 

My view is that an abundance of cleavage isn’t a good look on a mature lady.  I felt uncomfortable wearing some of my older swimwear.  It was like I woke up one day and suddenly became aware that all my swimsuits were practically cut to the navel!  And although my bust still looks ok, I realized that an older woman displaying her wares wasn’t something I felt comfortable with.  

So I searched out a swimsuit with good cover and support around the bust.  

This style is perfect for a lady of a certain age.

But I will say that this style of swimsuit took an awful lot of googling so persevere if that’s the route you want to take.  I had to resort to a slightly unusual choice, as you will see in one of the links above.  But it works. 

Over the years my go-to online shop has been Bravissimo.  They do an excellent range of larger cup sizes in bras and swimwear, which drew me to the site. 

Find the BRAVISSIMO swimsuit range HERE

So I’ve been wearing my cover up swimsuits only these past few years.  My others don’t get a look in these days.  Like this one, sadly. 

This is a very pretty tankini from Bravissimo and it always reminds me of the Cote D’Azur.  I think it looks fresh and French; I can imagine a latter day Brigitte Bardot wearing something like this. 

And I did wear this on the Cote in 2016 so there is that too - a swimsuit with happy memories!

Our beaches are reminiscent of the Côte d’Azur, as the sea is a sparkly blue/jade and the sand is soft and white too. 

But back to my pretty tankini set shown above - it is a bit cleavagey and it also has underwiring. I no longer think underwiring is healthy for that sensitive area of my body, so I haven’t been wearing it, though one day I may remove the wire and see if the halter neck alone provides sufficient support. 

But there’s still the cleavage issue .,,

so maybe it’s time for it to go. 

Are you sensitive to cleavage display as you age?

And what’s your view on underwiring?

So, me and swimsuits have moved on light years. 

This is the closest you’ll get to seeing me in swimwear these days, mostly submerged in the sea. 

Or a head and shoulders

No full body shots!

The swimming has been simply wonderful this year. 

We’ve made good use of the beach.  

We’ve been careful to protect ourselves from the harmful rays of the sun of course. 

Chips of the beach is a once during the summer treat!

Yup.  Life really has been a beach this summer. 

 

Fortunately our beaches don’t get over crowded; these shot comparisons were taken on the same day during our first heatwave.   

I think the UK beach is Southend. 

In a UK heatwave, many living near the coast head for the sea to cool off, though I was surprised that more weren’t cooling themselves off in the sea.  That beach must have been hot!

Wishing my UK readers a very pleasant and sunny 

Bank Holiday Monday. 

A la perchoine,

Mary xxx. 

 

The Accidental Monsoon Haul

 Hello my lovelies!

Now let’s get this one out of the way, first and foremost. 

I really don’t like the use of the word “haul” in relation to shopping.  Especially clothes shopping.

It goes against all I believe in terms of the environment, fair labour and the imbalance of world economies. 

So what have I done?

I’ve got myself a haul.  A Monsoon Haul. 

It started when I was hunting for a July wedding dress.  The Photographer reminded me that every single thing I’ve ever bought from Monsoon I’ve worn ad infinitum over the years.  

So of course I bought a dress from Monsoon.  Job done.  

You can see the dress by clicking

summer-wedding-outfit-HERE

and

HERE on from-wedding-outfit-to-beach-dress

Right, dress for wedding, done ✅. 

But then it gets messy.

Let’s see what transpired. 

I gave the whole Monsoon thing much thought.

Oh TP was so good right about Monsoon pieces, I do wear them on repeat and through the years.  

So he planted that seed in my mind, and that seed unfortunately germinated during a very dangerously time - their summer sale.  

And even more unfortunately Monsoon runs occasional seemingly random 70% off periods during the sales. 

And even worse news still, I’m on their mailing list and they tell me when these rock bottom prices are available, so I know when to pounce.

Yup, a perfect storm.

YIKES!!! 

So let’s check out the damage. 

I bought this shirt.  Loved the pattern and soft colour mix. 

I apologize now for all the bare face, unkempt hair, lack of styling and the messy background you are about to see. 

Loose. 

Side tuck. 

This bedroom try on it with buttoned white denim skirt. 

The shirt is a nice length and I can see this as having many possibilities through the seasons. 

(And it doesn’t crease!)

But as if to throw fuel on the fire, it came with a matching skirt. 

So of course I couldn’t separate these twinnies, thus I got the skirt too. 

Nice drape and length. 

The twinnies can also be used as a co-ord, so on-trend right now.  I can see this in winter with a deep leather belt around my, err, waist”, to separate and break up the patterned pieces, and rounded off with some nice boots. 

For AW23 the skirt can be worn with a jumper, the shirt with black coated jeans, e.g.  There are many permutations, eh ladies. 

These two Monsoon pieces are going to be wardrobe workhorses, and that’s a fact. 

Right, that’s a skirt and shirt under my belt. 

Did I stop at that?  Did I rest on my laurels?  Nah!!!

An olive mustard linen tunic top popped in my basket too. 

I love the colour with my grey hair. 

It’s loose and very cool, so has been an ideal wear during our several heatwaves., despite linen’s propensity to crease. 

Here’s my “haul”.  

Did I stop there?

Oh no, I did not. 

I attempted to buy this jumper to go with it, but Monsoon doesn’t ship this item to the Channel Islands.  

Narrow escape! 

And TBH I really don’t know what all the rush was to snap up some 70% bargains …

… for this is what I’ve been wearing most days through July and August. 

Not a lot!

So ladies, this is my accidental Monsoon haul.   And all because TP reminded me (many weeks ago) how well my previous buys from that brand have fared. 

And thus I am exonerated.  This sales spend has absolutelyNOTHING to do with me.  I didn’t intend to shop. TP subliminally planted the shopping seed, did he not?  

Did he not light the touch paper and then retreat out of harms way whilst I exploded on to the sales scene and did all that shopping damage?

Help me out here guys!

Have you accidentally shopped the summer sales?

And do you have a favoured or site for your sales shops?

Do you shop from Monsoon?

A la perchoine, 

Mary xxx. 

P.s.  Oh dear, it doesn’t end there  -  THIS accidentally happened too … 

More on that accidental pleasure in another post.