Introducing A New Piece

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, 

LEOPARD PRINT SHIRT, HERE

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.



3ways2wear Biker Jeans

I've been having a whale of a time with my coated biker jeans from Next.  I had absolutely no idea they would be so comfy and so flattering.  And that a pair of jeans could be so much fun!

OK, Olivia Newton John a la Sandy in Grease is not where I see myself in them.  But maybe others do ...*!

Mine aren't leather, they're not even pleather but boy are they pliable.  Yet they don't seem to stretch and get baggy, despite me pulling them out for every occasion under the sun since they arrived.

You see they create so many possibilities for smart, smart casual and just plain old casual.

So here's my take on 3ways2wear coated biker jeans, showing outfits I wore around Christmas.

Casual

I wore the Dotty P sweater/dress in wine, here worn at hip length.

And here at full length.  I preferred the piece hoiked up to hip level.  You too?

Simple silver jewellery and some black heeled boots was all this look needed.

I took this outfit to our local for a meal with friends. 

I like this combo and will wear it again.

Smart Casual

On another night I wore it to pop next door for drinks with the neighbours.  It's something we do each Christmas.  I've been hosting for years, but this year the neighbours next door took the baton and invited all us oldies round for drinks.  The invite was for 6.30 pm.  I got home after midnight!

Friends popped in that afternoon, just before I was to get ready for the neighbour bash. I'd allowed myself a whole hour, which is totally necessary to scrub myself up these days and it allows for multiple outfit changes.

And of course friends being friends = lots of chat, and I was left with a mere 20 minutes to turn myself round after they departed.  That's for make up, hair AND what to wear!

So, make up done.  Hair, ahem, sort of done.   What to wear?!!  

No time for outfit changes.  Instantly biker jeans came to mind.  I settled hurriedly on this black metallic jumper from Next, which has metal beading around the v neckline.  It's a bit edgy. 

I wish I could put this next bit in the smallest font possible as I'm a little embarrassed, but I have never worn this jumper out before and it's about 5 years old.   But I think it was hanging in my wardrobe patiently waiting for these bikers to come along, because to me they felt like a match that cupid had been planning all these years.  They are quite simply MFEO.

So, black metallic longline sweater from Next and Gabor knee boots.  No jewellery required, the sweater has all the trimmings this a girl could need.  Which was lucky as I had no time for any accessories faff.

And this outfit lasted through the attention* and the wine sipping oh so very easily.  As did I.

Smart

I told you about my bikers in smart mode in  LICENSED TO FRILL (here)

On the night.

The try on session.

I do like the juxtaposition of the rough biker vibe with the New Romantics frilliness of the blouse and the Lady-likedness the pearls. The oversized tux brings a je ne sais quoi to this outfit.  Some may say it brings edge.  I say it evokes a scene from a by-gone era.  Or from an old movie ...

Picture a lady.  A lady in Paris in the early '60s.  It's around midnight, long past a Pout's usual bedtime.  Picture a summer's night.  It has rained earlier; the streetlights shine off the wet cobbled streets (I think we may be in some truly old part of the Marais district).  Our lady steps out of the charming restaurant with her equally charming dining companion, who looks remarkably like Cary Grant.  Well, that's no real surprise as she looks remarkably like Audrey Hepburn.  She is wearing a simple LBD, he's in full DJ.  Standard dining gear for the '60s, we're led to believe.

The precipitation in the air has made the night unseasonably chilly.  She attempts to stifle a shiver.  Our gentleman immediately picks up on this, slides off his tux in one effortless movement and slips it hesitantly over our lady's shoulders. No words are spoken.  They smile, their eyes twinkle, they walk out onto the wet Paris street and into the night ...

And that is how wearing this tux with this frilly loose blouse makes me feel.  I feel that a gentleman has seen my plight and lent me his tuxedo.  Am I an old romantic or what?!!

 But how I am straying away from the matter in hand! My biker jeans, done 3ways2wear.  Focus, Pout!

Biker jeans stand their ground with a chunky jumper, they slip enthusiastically into party mode with the simple addition of an edgy top, and then they quietly drift into the shadows whilst the soft and feminine silk and frills take over.

So I really do think these comfortable bikers have lots of guises and probably have many more that I am yet to discover.

No matter how you choose to style them, bikers bring an instant sassy vibe to your day.

How are you doing with these edgy jeans?  Avez-vous le edge yet?

*Oh and I mentioned earlier in this piece that some see these coated bikers in a ONJ-meets-Sandy light. 

Well, these jeans received lots of attention when I wore them to the neighbour's party (middle pics) so why not pop over to get the full story, WINE COATED CROOKEDNESS (HERE).  It's the one where these bikers transformed me from frumpy old Pout to ... "Pout ???!!" (See below!)

A la perchoine.