Soft coral is EVERY lady’s colour. IMHO. It suits all colourings and I can’t help but feel uber feminine and girlie in a coral cardi covering.
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But this bright colour is a bit of a shock to the system after months of blacks and greys, so I apologise if your eyes are squinting from the glare!
Simply throwing a cardi over a dress in the transitional months extends hugely the season of dresses.
Some weeks ago I washed an embarrassing number of summer dresses then I matched them up with cardis and hung up the combos for instant go-to ease. Now, several times a week I switch to a dress after my day's work in the home/garden. I feel revived and feminine after a day in scruffies.
My dresses have been acquired over the last 20 years or so (and one beauty from 1986!). This method of pre-preparing the combos makes for a quick outfit change so I'm more inclined to systematically go through my WHOLE dress collection many times this year. Whahayy!!!
Me? I’ve had a three month break from blogging. Did you notice me gone?
I’ve probably lost all of my followers but I needed the break.
None of us has too much time for reading copious amounts of blog narrative in these busy times IMHO, and I certainly don’t have time to spend hours writing and editing blogs, which was the impossible task I’d drifted into previously.
So I’ll keep my posts short and snappy until I rethink a way forward with The Pouting Pensioner.
Hope that works for you.
So here goes!
A summer dress isn’t just for swelteringly hot days. A cardi stretches its use through to the transitional months. .
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I’m loving my new ritual of changing into something pretty when my day’s work in the garden is done. And this soft duck egg cashmere cardi is perfect for dealing with spring’s evening chills.
Are you wearing light dresses in these cooler prelude days to summer?
But it’s rarely one piece eh, for a cardi invariably comes too.
One and Done Dressing
There is a glorious feel to slipping on a dress. Slip on a dress. Why, just those words alone conjure up an image of easeful elegance.
One dress and out the door, no faffing about whether this goes with that. One and done. OAD.
Of course accessories need to be considered. Accessories create extra scope with the one-piece, extra dimension.
Accessories allow for occasion and mood changes.
And then comes cardi selection ...
Ok, one-piece dressing isn't quite the one and done it's cracked up to be but it does make outfit selection a whole lot easier when top and bottom selection is taken out of the equation.
FOMTS
Fear of missing the season.
Not so snappy an acronym as FOMO, I grant you, but this convoluted and clumsy acronym is still real.
What Happened Last Summer
FOMTS is real because at the end of last summer, I suddenly realised I'd spent a huge chunk of summer in everything but dresses.
Dresses are a one stop choice, OAD. They're cool-wear on hot days as there are no tight waistbands to endure when the heat cranks up.
So why they had not been my go tos last year was beyond me.
My Strategy
Well, I don't need to think too much about the whys and wherefores of What Happened Last Summer.
I just need to put a strategy in place to avoid it this summer.
Which I did last week.
I hooked out about 15 or so dresses. Awesome was the sight of freshly washed dresses in their summer hues, fluttering on the line against a backdrop of season-fresh foliage and deep cerulean sky.
15 dresses gives me 2 wears per dress month max, as some
days I'll be in jeans, shorts or skirts.
By the end of summer (September) each dress could be worn eight times, max. Let’s see if that’s how it pans out!
I feel like I'm coming alive now that spring is well and truly here. Does the coming of warmer months do that to you too?
I'm clearly not a winter person and that manifests in my attitude and niggly health problems in the colder months. Then give me a little run of sunny blue-sky days, a jade sea and a garden filled with chatty birds and I am a totally renewed person. Body and spirit feel 10 years younger.
You know, I might just stretch that to 40 years younger because I I'm finding myself drawn to fresh summer dresses which are very similar in style to those I wore in the early 70s.
And when I dress the part, I am the part! I'm 23 again, and feeling that young, free spirit vibe.
Attitude is a big part of the battle on that long and inevitable slide into old age and if a simple sundress keeps me on a positive high for a few months of the year, well that's just got be better than anything that comes in a blister pack eh?!
I'm even styling my dresses as I did in my early 20s.
I'm finding these rejuvenating dresses in Primark, of all places. Here's a short video of my initial try on - it's only 4 minutes long and it plots out the beginning of my summer dress journey, so please take a peek at it.
So my latest dress find is this pretty blue and white affair.
Great news. The Photographer declared this dress a keeper!
And I feel young and fancy-free in it,
so it's a keeper with me too.
I feel like a spring chicken in it, and he gets a "younger" wife - winner winner, spring chicken dinner, YAY !!
Worn with a jean jacket, the essential transitioning item, is just adding to the 70s vibe I'm getting from this dress.
It's a style that spans the 40s and 50s too, IMO, and these are style decades that I have always been drawn to.
What do you think of those style eras?
Do you have a style decade that makes your pulse race?!
I teamed my frill-hem sundress with gold sparkle espadrille wedges, a shoe style that also spans the 40s-70s and now back again here in the teensies.
Heavens, this outfit is like looking at fashion standing still !
The jeans shirt is another overlay I was glued to in my 20s. However, a denim shacket doesn't work as well as the jacket, as it throws the proportions out of sync, rule of thirds and all that. But you know, if I was racing out the door on a cooler day and my hand felt this on the dark cloakroom clothes rail, I'd have no qualms in going out in this duo either. Yeah, I know, I'm such a rule-of-thirds-breaking anarchist eh?!
The buttoned sundress is made up in a beautiful soft toile de jouy fabric, a print style always guaranteed to get my heart pit-a-patting. I like very few prints and toile de jouy is in my top 3.
Oh and the dress is fully lined.
I shortened the straps for ease of wear, otherwise it would need a camisole or an arsenal of safety pins to keep me decent!
So if you too want to put a 20s spring into your 60s step, then head on down to your nearest Fountain of Youth, a.k.a Primark.
And take £15 with you, for that's the ticket price to turn back time!
Now, you'll see in vid that I bought another summer item on my pilgrimage to the FoY emporium, which I thought I'd slip in at the end of the week, so please pop back on Friday and see what else is making me feel 20 again.
I leave you with a couple of questions.
Is wearing styles that you wore 40+ years ago considered muttonish?
And is it so wrong to want to wear styles you wore back then?
Hello my darling peeps. Hope you are well and hurricane-free.
A few days ago I squeezed in possibly my last summer dress of summer. Sad, weepy face.
For Sunday lunch I wore my Roman Originals dress for the first time.
I think I'm in a state of panic. The seasons switched from summer to autumn so abruptly that I didn't quite enjoy all the summeriness I had planned.
So many dresses, unworn. Thus every time we get a sunny day, I sling on something summery. And this was a summery day.
I like this Roman Originals dress. It's pretty, the fabric hangs well and it's lined.
It's a slip over the head and walk out the door jobbie.
I added my Adesso heels and a little bag I picked up recently in Primani. It's roomy whilst still neat and it goes so well with my fave summer shoes. (I'm a matchy gal.)
I mentioned summer weather but hey, it's September, so a girl needs a cardi. Woolovers.
Good to go. Before the weather changes!
We sauntered down to the nearby beachside restaurant.
Nice views from our table. They always seem to give us a window table. Not complaining!
The Photographer fancied a posh meal so we came here. These past couple of weeks have been a major headache (long story) and he needed to get away from it all for an hour or two.
So we tucked into some nice fresh, summery food.
We sipped wine and sat back and enjoyed the view. And chatted. It's funny how sometimes one can clear the mind of all other matters and focus on what needs to be discussed, away from home. Do you sometimes need to take a few hours distancing yourself from troubling matters, in order to talk them through more clearly?
I think that may just have been my last chance at a summer dress this year though.
The upside of summer's fleeting is this, harvesting the summer's garden fruits. Here, little peaches and big pears.
And I didn't forget I set you a little puzzle a few posts ago. Here's the solution.
Move one side of the glass to opposite side, at a right angle, then move the "bottom" of the glass to form a new bottom for the new turned-over glass. Hope you worked it out. Me and my cruise mates didn't! And if you didn't work it out for yourself, you won't from my 'solution' - it reads as total gobbledygook!
Have you tried any Roman Originals dresses?
And have you worn your last dress of summer yet, ladies?
I told you in my previous post here of my First Date Night of Summer. Worth putting some effort into dressing for it then, huh?
So I've set myself a little tradition. It is when the summer dress gets its first outing!
The first few times I was unsure of the dress code for this AGM "date", so kept my options open, like in this demo here. I now know the dress code is that old chestnut, smart casual, but it's with a twist. My twist. I must wear a dress!
These have all been First Dress in previous years.
East dress with La Redoute slinky cardi.
The Photographer likes this combo so it gets worn a lot. By me, I hasten to clarify!
These dresses featured here have been previous FDoS title holders and the old go-to on the right was the lucky title holder this year.
Are you spotting a bit of a trend coming through? Flowers?
Last year I wore a black linen shift with an ivory silk/linen jacket - didn't feel right. No flowers. Turns out, they're what marks the occasion for me.
First Summer Dress = 1. A dress, bien sur! 2. Flowers.
So this year, flowery returned.
You see, because it's the first summer dress outing, I tend to remember what I wore previously. And I analyse. Pretty sad really, considering First Date is a rather serious AGM affair. But that's me!
And here's the truly sad thing. Because it's my first summer "date" I tend to go all "Girls' World".
Girls' World? I try a mountain of dress/cardi combos.
I stand in front of a mirror taking bad photos.
I try on a crazy amount of jackets ... that, on reflection, look pretty much the same eh?!
Welcome to My World!
But it truly isn't a waste of time and effort. In my eyes at least. Because during the GW process I identify little outfits - which cardi goes with which dress for semi-casual and which jacket with the dress for smarter casual. That sort of thing. I hang the combo together on a hanger. Sometimes I spot a perfect necklace or scarf and that goes on the hanger too. Then, when I'm getting dressed in a rush - occasionally (read always) - I just grab the hanger and there is no deliberation. Simples.
A little while spent in Girl's World saves me a huge amount of time (and angst!) going forward, sometimes for years ahead if the combo is a keeper.
So that's my tip for you today, dear reader. Before a special event, or at the beginning of the season, spare some time to put together a few go-to outfit hangers. Speedy, fret-free dressing ... and maybe even time for a sophisticated sip of Sancerre (nice alliteration, Pout!) whilst your nails dry!
Is there an event that marks the start of summer for you?
Have you set up any personal dressing tradition for it?
Do you enjoy a Girls' World session in the lead-up to an event or a new season?
