Hi my lovelies!
Hope near-spring is treating you well. Or near-autumn if you are down under.
Here in Pout World it's been pretty much loop living for me. More decorating, more de-cluttering, more dealing with family matters. And the new bed arrives tomorrow so that will be mega exciting!
So it's been house stuff and family stuff on repeat. Most days I've been in my scruffies, so its rather nice to sit here with a cuppa and talk outfits with you today.
Introducing a new piece into the wardrobe is quite a scientific process. The test of its adaptability is to see how it can integrate with the existing pieces in that wardrobe.
The unwritten rule is that it needs to fit into at least three outfits.
So, I put a leoprint shirt to the test. I bought it last autumn in Zara's and didn't really start wearing it until earlier this year. I think it may have been because I ended up with a glut of Zara shirts (a glut, is that the collective noun for Zara shirts?).
My Zara shirts were various plays on red print and so they came out a lot in the lead up to Christmas.
But now it is the turn of the leoprint shirt and it needed to be put through its paces.
Outfit #1.
The first testing is a repeat on the blog but it makes the point without me having to go into repeat outfit changes!
The shirt is still in stock at the time of writing,
Worn loose and long with a leather skirt it is quite forgiving (read slimming)
Simply adding a belt creates a sassier look, IMHO.
Or a sack tied in the middle look in TP's less than humble opinion!
And adding a jumper over the whole lot with just a hint of the shirt peeping through gives the outfit a more casual feel.
So Test #1, it works with a skirt.
Outfit #2
Coated jeans next. And a cardi. (In this pic I was pleading with The Photographer to allow me another change of clothes just before we went out. My pretty-please pleading did not work.)
So I left home wearing coated jeans and a modal vest with the shirt, and a layering of gold necklaces.
Leoprint. Faux leather. Gold. Is this just tooooo much?!
So, Test #2, coated jeans and Bet Lynch vibe, done.
Outfit #3
On yet another day, I put the shirt through its paces with plain black skinnies, black polo neck and the ubiquitous leather jacket.
It was a no-makeup/third day hair day. The hat should have stayed on. Or quite simply, I shouldn't have offered myself to the camera!
But there will be days like this in one's life eh? And I though the shirt worn over black skinnies and a polo neck called for very little else. Or the truth - I had no time nor inclination for make up on this day, and if you'd told me ten years ago that I would be uttering those words I would have laughed you out of town, or at the very least out of the room. But here I am, no make up and I went out the door like that … AND posted the evidence for the world to see!!
Test #3, leoprint shirt with leather jacket and no make up, done.
Now this one was the real test. I'd tried the shirt with skirt, coated jeans and skinnies and leather jacket. But they were all black and quite safe, given the print. But jeans is the real test. If something doesn't go with jeans then it really does not deserve a place in my wardrobe.
Outfit #4 (yes, I made it to #4!!)
Here I wore the shirt with distressed jeans and taupe boots. The choice of boot colour was an attempt to anchor the shirt's colours, top and tailing the brown hues around the jeans.
At first I thought that teaming this leoprint shirt with plain blue jeans was a test too far for this print, but the longer I wore it, the more I adjusted to the mix.
What do you think? Test #4, shirt with jeans done?
So this shirt has passed its testing, creating not three but four different looks. And there are more that I'll come up with over the next few months.
I have felt that this print is a challenge. The brown/caramel/black print colourway I felt was quite limiting. I felt that it would only work with a black backdrop. However, I am drawn to the jeans look now and I think that the denim brings the glam style of the print down to a more day to day level.
And I think that the shirt will work well with chinos in a month or two and I'm quite looking forward to that road test.
In summer I think it will work well with white, maybe over white jeans or draped over a white linen dress.
Yes, I'm conjuring up more possibilities for this leoprint shirt so I think its been a successful testing of its integration into my wardrobe.
What about you? Do you find a leoprint top quite limiting?
Do you find leoprint works best as an accessory rather than a main event?
And do you run a new piece through the minimum three way testing?
A la perchoine,
Mary x.
