I've shared a few times on the blog that when I really like something, I tend to buy multiples of it in different colours. I'm trying to really question my "need" for this, to reduce the size of my wardrobe. I wore two cute little jersey dresses a couple of days ago, with the goal of picking one to keep and one to remove from my wardrobe and add to the donate pile.
Brisbane was tipped to get over 40 degrees Celcius (104 Farenheit for my American readers), so I wanted to wear as little as possible. A bikini was out of the question though, haha! I picked this cute little printed dress as it's great in the heat. We all headed over to my parent's place for the day, to sit and soak up their air-conditioning and protect baby T from the worst of the high temperatures.
I did add a cute little bracelet to accessorise a bit, but it was really too hot to want to do anything to wear this dress differently! Didn't even take a bag - had all my stuff in the baby bag.
Wore this second dress simply too, just added my trusty pistol boots. I know that when the summer heat comes to stay, I won't be wearing them very much, so I'm getting all the wear out of them I can now in Spring! Simple outfit to go visit a friend for a chat with baby T.
I've worn this dress 9 times since I've been blogging, and the butterfly printed one 7 times. Not sure how long I've had them, although I do have an old picture of a night out in 2008 wearing one of them. They've both had a good run in my wardrobe, but as I'm trying to downsize, getting rid of things I have multiples of seems to be a good way to go.
I picked this burgundy star print dress to wear after the multi coloured printed one above, as I was certain that this would be the dress that would be leaving my wardrobe after looking at them both hanging up. However, after wearing this dress, I've decided to keep this one and donate the more colourful printed one above. I just love the burgundy colour of this dress too much!
What do you think? Would you have kept this burgundy star print dress as well, or do you think I should keep the more colourful printed one?
As well as setting myself the challenge of wearing a different dress every day in October, there is another style challenge on instagram (#myStyleOctober) I wanted to participate in. This was the first day I could see an outfit working, the prompt was 'belted' so I knew this belted jersey dress would be nice. I also finished up participating the #basicscheckin challenge by swapping out my bag from the red Marc by Marc Jacobs Ukita I'd carried the day before, as I thought this yellow one worked better with the dress. 3 challenges in one outfit!
It was a nice comfortable outfit for a day out shopping with my mum and sister - we were looking for a dress for a special event my sister had coming up.
When I was trying on jackets in the morning I thought this one looked really nice, but I'm a bit underwhelemed with it looking at the photos. Maybe one that was not as 'busy' would have worked better.
I've worn the bag and dress together before, it's a nice combination of colours. I really liked this outfit. It was perfect for a morning with hubby and toddler T, popping to the library, doing a little bit of grocery shopping and then going out for Sunday lunch as a family.
Almost a year ago I mentioned that I was thinking about getting rid of this maxi dress. I've decided to let it go now. It's a lovely dress, but I pick my other maxi dresses over it frequently. It's going to go into our Frocktober fundraising frock swap party at work, so will hopefully be replaced with another pretty dress!
Winter weather did take a while to arrive in Brisbane so I waited longer to wear this coat than I expected, but I'm still glad I bought it last year and to be able to wear and enjoy it now, it kept me perfectly cosy.
No style challenge for this one, but another excuse to wear navy and burgundy together again. Since I liked the dress and boots combo above with the navy jacket, I wore it again with black ankle boots and my burgundy jersey dress. It was a pretty quiet day with just a few errands to run, but I did wish I'd added a scarf to this as it was a little chilly in the morning.
As it's the second time I've worn this jacket and I try to review everything I buy after I've worn it twice, my purchase review:
I like this jacket. I love the colour, it's cosy for winter, and will be perfect for the early morning commutes to the office. The only thing I don't like is how the lapels kinda stick up a bit - but I'm sure that will settle down with more wear. It looks really nice belted (came with a belt) but I haven't been able to wear it that way and still show what I'm wearing underneath it!
Navy and burgundy look beautiful together, but you could apply this style tip to any colour combination you enjoy. Look at the pieces you have in your wardrobe that will allow you to wear the colours year round. First time I wore navy and burgundy it was with a tank, kimono and pants in autumn. It was easy to wear the same colour combination again in winter with season-appropriate pieces. While both of these dress and boots outfits include the same navy jacket, by changing the other pieces and sticking to the same colour scheme I've created two outfits that look different while wearing a familiar combination. Thinking of different ways to wear a colour combination you love is a good way to come up with new outfit ideas in your wardrobe, without having to buy anything new.
My blog friend Ruth does these 5x5 style challenges on Instagram. Another blog friend, Eileen and I started talking with her about it and thought it would be fun to participate. We decided to do an international style challenge a couple of weeks ago near the end of November.
The rules: 5 pieces of clothing to create 5 outfits over 5 days, with a black and burgundy colour scheme. Accessories like shoes, necklaces, scarves, handbags, outerwear, can be added as needed and don't count as one of the 5 pieces.
Who took part: Ruth @ruthyannie, Eileen @eileensed and myself, @awayfromblue. Ruth did this over autumn in the cold weather, and Eileen had to dress a growing baby bump too! I have so much admiration for them both!
This is going to be a bit of a long post as I share with you what we wore over 5 days! I hope you'll get a lot of outfit inspiration from it though, and discover some new ways you can rewear pieces you already own.
My Capsule Wardrobe
After a few last minute swaps and changes, these are the 5 pieces I came up with for the challenge.
black drawstring waist maxi skirt
black denim shorts
burgundy jersey dress
black, burgundy and cream shirt dress
burgundy slouchy tee
My choices were limited by the colour scheme which helped me make decisions about what to pick as my 5 pieces. The last time I did a capsule, it was my third trimester capsule wardrobe and the growing bump helped limit my options there too! I did have to go into the office for one day which made me pick the shirt dress, even if the print is more red than burgundy. I figured it was close enough!
The main worry I had was around structuring the pieces I wore to allow me to have them washed and ironed ready for the next wear With two messy toddlers it was highly unlikely I was going to be able to wear things twice in a row without washing them! In the end I came up with 6 outfit ideas so that if something wasn't ready in time, I'd have a fall back option.
For the first day of the challenge I went with a classic tee and maxi skirt combo. When I'd first started planning outfits and pieces for the challenge I'd went with a different burgundy tee, and changed my mind and swapped it for this tee instead. I didn't like the way this one sat with the maxi skirt though, I was a bit frustrated with it both tucked and untucked and wasn't as comfortable with this outfit as I could have been. Easy outfit for playgroup though.
This was as 'formal' as my outfits got during the challenge, the majority of them were casual outfits. I had to go into the office, so picked this shirt dress to fit in with the business casual dress code. I found myself fussing with this outfit too during the day though, the dress seemed to ride up a lot and I was constantly tugging it back down. I much prefer wearing this dress as a kimono, or layering it up with tights in winter.
I knew with the darker black and red print on the dress (it's a geometric print although it looks like polka dots in the pics!) that this Marc Jacobs bag would work perfectly with it. This bag doesn't get worn as often as it did when I first got it, but it's still a nice choice for work. It's been tagged in 62 posts on the blog and most of the time it featured in both outfits of the posts, so you can see it was worn a lot in the past! Such a unique colour too, a deep purple-y brown.
The simplest of all my challenge outfits, and also the most popular. I wore this to work from home and attend a specialist appointment with baby boy in the afternoon. With the burgundy star print dress, I added black through my accessories, with the same ankle boots I'd worn the day before and another little worn bag, my Mimco button bag.
This was actually my first expensive bag purchase, despite how little I wear it now I'm never going to let it go. I spent months thinking about it and saving for it and picking out the perfect colour combo I wanted and I still remember the excitement of going to the store to pick it up! Very treasured even if not frequently worn now. I think I bought it in 2007 at the height of the button bag trend, still looks great. Sadly it's discontinued, the closest thing is the Mimco Turnlock bag that's around $200 more expensive than the button bag was 10 or so years ago, or to go to ebay for the classic style.
An incredibly busy day called for a comfortable and casual outfit, and the first wearing of the last of my 5 pieces, my black denim shorts. Added the comfy slouchy burgundy tee and the printed dress was worn as a kimono. Converse were a practical choice for a busy day, and the mustard yellow bag was a fun touch of colour with the black and burgundy.
Baby boy had some more tests at the hospital in the morning, so I had the day off. With my mother in law available to watch the boys, as it was a day I normally work, I made the most of it and she looked after them both once the testing was done so I could gt a rare child free afternoon to go Christmas shopping. And I shopped up a storm, getting the majority of the things remaining on my Christmas present list!
For my fifth and final outfit with my 5 pieces, I wore my denim shorts again and the lovely burgundy dress as a top. I added turquoise accessories with the necklace and Rebecca Minkoff mini MAC bag for an extra touch of colour. I've won dresses as tops before, it's a nice way to wear something a little differently. The extra dress fabric wasn't too bulky although it was a bit of a pain tucking it in to the shorts every time I went to the bathroom! I had considered doubling up on the dresses and wearing the shift dress as a kimono over this again, but despite how little time I spent with the boys the day before it still got messy and had to have a wash. That was the hardest part of this challenge - making sure everything was washed and ironed in time to wear again!
This was a nice outfit to finish the challenge on, I ran around with the boys completing a few errands.
Hope you enjoyed seeing the different outfits we were able to create for the challenge. While it was a fun challenge for me, I was looking forward to getting back into my regular wardrobe at the end of it! Especially after buying lots of new pieces that month that I was eager to wear.
Thanks so much to Ruth and Eileen for inviting me to take part - if you don't already, you should follow them on Instagram!
Jacket: Temt Black trench coat (similar here) Scarf: Gifted black star print scarf from my Mum (similar here) Dress: French Connectionstar dancing jersey dress in red rust/almond (similar here) Shoes: Acne pistol boots in "skin" from Miss Louise sale (similar here) Bag: Rebecca Minkoff Nikki in Silverstreak (similar here)
The Sate of Origin final match is on tonight - so of course I had to wear maroon to show my support for Queensland. Since the dress has a polka dot star print, I thought it would be fun to wear my star print scarf with it too!
I'm not too sure about these boots with the outfit though. Do you think I should have gone for black boots instead? Wanted to keep my feet warm but comfortable, and I like the low chunky heel the pistol boots have so I picked these over my black boots. What do you think? Would you change the boots?
Wore a bit of maroon for the final State of Origin match! Really like this dress and tall boots combination after trying it out before. And of course the maroon blended in nicely with all of the Queensland footy shirts around. Was pretty cool that Queensland won for the 8th year in a row :)
The truth about this branded polo shirt I was given through my work is that it is two sizes too large. They ordered a batch to hand out to celebrate the success of a large project, and there were not a lot of size options available. This was the smallest, but at the time I didn't see it as an issue as I wasn't expecting to wear it often.
When we were asked to wear it again today, it was a little tricky. I couldn't tuck some of it into jeans or hide it under a hoodie like last time, as they are not the best mid-week office clothes. After comparing the options on facebook, I decided to just wear it with a pencil skirt. It was fun talking to the other ladies in the office and comparing the ways they had worn theirs today - a few of us are smaller than a size 12 so we were in the same situation with shirts too big.
Although my office is business casual and people do wear jeans every day of the week in the office, I do try to keep them just to casual Friday. Not every team or department is as relaxed with their dress codes, and I want to make a good impression. Will see if I change my tune when I have to wear the polo again next week of course!
