Expect the unexpected
Well, where did that week go? At this time of the year, every year, it feels as though there is a steady gathering of pace, as we gallop towards the end of the school year and holiday season. Today’s post is a slightly shorter one for that very reason, the busyness of life! But I love this space and that I can weave posting around all of the other pieces in the joyous puzzle of life.
In this age of ‘must-haves’ and ‘what’s hot on Instagram’, I’m working on remaining open to the unexpected. Hence this week’s post topic which looks at an unexpected styling, an unexpected good shopping find and an unexpectedly excellent tailoring job. A loose thread of thought I know, but hopefully neatly woven nonetheless!
Unexpected styling
You’ve probably heard of the Allison Bornstein’s ‘The Wrong Shoe’ theory. The idea is to push beyond the first instinct of what shoe to pair with an outfit, and to shake things up by adding ‘the wrong shoe’ and creating some new combinations. Well, I applied this worthy principle this week when styling a dress for an upcoming wedding. But instead of adding the ‘wrong shoe’, I added the ‘wrong jacket’. In the past, I probably would have paired this Grecian style shirred dress from & Other Stories with a traditional boxy jacket, probably in ivory, to create a ‘wedding appropriate’ look. But wedding guest attire is becoming a lot less scripted and more personality driven - see Sheerluxe’s take here - so I scanned my own wardrobe, and landed upon this! It’s a tweed blazer from the
collaboration with Warehouse, from many moons ago. While not the expected pairing, I think it works! Did I mention that the wedding is on an island off the west coast of Ireland? I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this :)My second unexpected pairing of the week was for a girls dinner last night, on which turned out to be the stormiest evening of the summer, so far! Ditching our rather optimistic outdoor reservation at a new-to-town tapas bar, we hightailed to the nearest cozy ‘English’ pub who unexpectedly serve Malaysian food. When I found this dark green velvet vintage Jaeger jacket (similar preloved jacket here) in my local charity shop a year ago, this was the vision I had for it - teamed with a white tee (the best in my humble opinion), straight leg jeans and trainers. But these are not just any trainers (think M&S sultry voiceover here), these are Adidas x Wales Bonner trainers (similar here). The fastest preloved purchase of my life when I found them for £60 on Vinted!
Unexpected find
I think I must have manifested in some way last week by saying that I’m rarely afforded the opportunity to shop IRL because I managed to sneak a lunchtime browse in TK Maxx this week. You hear of how some people LOVE spending hours pouring over the rails in here - my SIL’s mum allocates a half day, brings a snack, and gets to it - but I really don’t enjoy it and have never found anything of note there. BUT, having fallen in love with the idea of a kaftan style dress after seeing Lucy Williams’ enviable Greek Island getaway wardrobe and in particular her Suzie Kondi number, when I laid eyes on this gorgeous black and gold embroidered dress from Rose & Rose (similar here), I knew it was for me. And at nearly 10% of the RRP, I was sold!
Unexpected excellence
And finally (before we get to wish list pieces), do you remember I had found some Totême linen-blend trousers on Vinted for an absolute steal? I had then styled them in my post ‘Three pieces, three ways’ here before they had even arrived!
But when they did, they were actually quite a bit bigger than I’d expected and required a tailoring job. I was nervous as I’ve never used a tailor for something that I’m really invested in (figuratively speaking here) but remembered
wisdom that:Fit is paramount. It’s almost never a good idea to buy something that doesn’t fit well. The exception is when I am confident that I can alter it to fit well, and that I will actually take it to the tailor to do said alterations rather than let it sit on The Bench indefinitely.
Thankfully my local tailor did an unexpectedly good job! I can’t even see where he has adjusted them or how but they are literally perfect now and I can’t wait to style them as I had planned above and below.
Inspiration and wish list pieces
Oh, have I mentioned Lucy Williams’ Greek Island getaway wardrobe enough yet? :) Needless to say I’ve been obsessing. Her Bode top! (heart). While her style is more eclectic than mine, I find her so inspiring in how she adds colour and texture to an outfit while keeping things simple. My kaftan style dress wish list piece was completely inspired by her, but tweaked to work for my shape and colouring. See Lucy’s Suzie Kondi kaftan dress below.
One of the first IG accounts I followed was Louise Byrne’s (previously A Simple Style) and have continued to enjoy her styling, as a fellow minimalist (I would guess) and Irish girl. She recently styled a pintucked skirt from H&M on her holidays, very simply with a cream linen look tee and flipflops and looked so effortlessly glamorous (see below). The skirt is currently out of stock but I’m watching and waiting, ready to tick it off my wish list.
Let’s start a convo! Have you made any excellent preloved purchases that you’d like to share with our little community? Or made any unexpected styling choices which sparked joy? I’m all ears - I’ll start a chat once this post has reached you and let’s see where we go!
Thank you once again for supporting and reading My Style Rush. I hope you’ve enjoyed and to see you again next weekend, Jenny x
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