30 Wears: Black Printed Moto Leather Jacket by Markus Lupfer

I've mentioned on previous posts in this 30 wears series that finding clothing I've hit more than 30 wears on has been tricky. It's certainly easy to find accessories I've worn 30 times, but I'd love to try show more variety and include some clothing options.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was writing a post and searching my blog for the last time I'd worn this black printed leather jacket and discovered it had been worn over 30 times! It's the middle of winter here in Australia, and we just had a very cold snap in Brisbane so perfect timing to share some ways to wear a leather jacket. Apologies to those in the Northern Hemisphere facing heatwaves!

#30Wears: Markus Lupfer Black Printed Moto Leather Jacket

I bought this Markus Lupfer printed leather jacket in one of the ASOS sales in Autumn of 2013, so I've had it just over 4 years. 30 wears in that timeframe is quite low, but I did try to avoid my leather jackets for the two autumns and winters when the boys were babies, so I'm actually impressed it's been worn so much when you take that into account.

When I bought it I was definitely swayed by the sale price (reduced from $385 to $150). Check out the ASOS sales for leather jackets, you can get some amazing bargains. I wasn't sure how wearable it would be with the navy and grey print but decided to try it and give it a go. It was a special 'ASOS Black' collaboration with Markus Lupfer so I figured it would be the only time I'd get to buy a designer piece of clothing. I tend to splurge on designer bags instead!


Despite being unsure about how tricky the print would be to wear when I saw the jacket online, I'm glad I took the chance and bought it anyway as I loved it the minute it arrived! It really can be worn with so much, as you can see from the 30 wears below.

Black Leather Moto Jacket and Dress in Winter

I love layering up my dresses in winter with some cosy fleece-lined tights, boots and a leather jacket. With the subtle print on the jacket, I find it works well with plain dresses, but equally well with printed ones. I like the 'tougher' printed leather moto jacket with something feminine like a dress too, it's such a nice outfit combination. My favourite dress to wear with it is my navy and black striped tee dress, the print on the jacket is the perfect accompaniment with it!

Black Leather Moto Jacket and Jeans

My stay at home mum winter uniform quickly becomes jeans, leather jacket and cosy scarf, as you can see in these pictures! I like that this jacket works well with skinny jeans and flares, and it's just as good for casual Friday as it is for weekend wear. When it gets really cold I add some leather boots. I feel like a printed leather jacket like this is an easy and cosy way to add a little bit of edge to an otherwise plain jeans outfit.

Leather Jacket and Skirts

I still like to wear skirts in winter, usually with some fleece lined tights instead of bare legs when it gets really cold. A leather jacket is a nice piece for added warmth in the cooler early morning commute too. While I have worn these outfits to work, I always swap the leather jacket out for a cardigan once I get to my desk. My office does have a relaxed dress code but I just find a leather jacket a bit much to wear in the office. It's perfect for any times I'm outside during the day though.

Leather Jacket and Maxi Lengths

I've only just started wearing this outfit formula recently so I don't have too many examples of it. But this printed leather jacket instantly makes a maxi outfit look more pulled together. A maxi skirt and knit can be a cosy winter outfit, but looks a little plain. The printed leather jacket is the perfect topper, and it keeps you cosy too! I'm planning to wear a leather jacket and maxi dress a lot more often this winter.

Printed Leather Jacket and Printed Clothes

Despite my initial fears with the print on the jacket, I have found it to be really wearable! As you can see in the photos above I like wearing it with colourful printed scarves, but I'll happily wear it with other printed pieces too like jeans and skirts. The subtle print is just enough to add interest but not so much that it clashes with other prints in my outfit.

If you're calculating cost per wear for this leather jacket, over 33 wears it's down to $4.54 a wear. Definitely something I'll continue to wear for years to come and can see it getting down to a $1 or less a wear - it still looks pristine.

I hope this has given you some inspiration for how to wear your leather jacket. If you're in the northern hemisphere you can always pin this post for later!

Leather Jackets Under $150:

There are a few fun Markus Lupfer pieces for sale at the Outnet right now too, although not as cheap as my jacket was.


Want more outfit ideas? See all the ways I've worn my leather jackets.


More posts in the 30 wears series:

• 30 ways to wear a black maxi skirt
• 30 ways to wear red Balenciaga velo bag
• 30 ways to wear gladiator sandals
• 30 different ways to wear striped maxi skirt
• 30 different ways to wear skinny jeans
• 30 ways to wear a grey Rebecca Minkoff MAM bag

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#6MonthsWithoutShopping: Lessons From a Former Shopaholic

It's here! The end of June! After completing my #6monthsWithoutShopping challenge without a single fashion purchase, I think I'm officially able to call myself a former shopaholic!

I love shopping and bargain hunting a lot. Getting together with friends would be an excuse to shop, I'd shop during my lunch breaks, shop when a sale email came through....shop whenever I got the chance basically, and often that meant shopping more than once a week. I'm an emotional shopper too - happy, sad, bored, all were excuses to shop. My parents taught me the value of money so I wasn't spending huge amounts and never more than I earned, but I suspect I was shopping a bit more than average. Especially after discovering designer handbags 😂

How My Wardrobe Grew

Wardrobe at my parents 2008

My wardrobe expanded from a single wardrobe at my parents to a wardrobe and a half after getting married and moving in with hubby, then adding on an extra clothes rack and eventually taking over an entire room filled with clothes and bags. I routinely broke the clothes racks from overloading them! I had way too much stuff. It was when my 'wardrobe room' was turned into Toddler T's nursery that I did my first big declutter. I got frustrated at the amount of new with tags items in my wardrobe and resolved to shop better.

The year Toddler T was born I realised if I was going to be adding things to my now limited wardrobe space I'd best be sure I would get use from them - and so started thinking more critically about what I bought.

I attempted a few 'tricks' to help tame my wardrobe and my shopping.

• Started the 'wear twice in a month after buying it' rule. 
• Donated or sold everything I tried on in the postpartum days that I no longer liked the fit or practicality of (this was a mistake and I tried to avoid doing it after Baby Boy's arrival! Your body changes so much - wait a while!).
• Had a professional wardrobe detox session which helped declutter and reorganise my wardrobe.
• Changed my shopping rule to 'wear twice in the month I buy it' to force me to only buy things I'd want to wear so frequently.
• Attempted No Buy July in 2015 and successfully completed No Buy July in 2016.
• Set myself a clothing 'wishlist' to shop from.
• Started and completed 6 months without shopping.

Wardrobe 2012

Why #6MonthsWithoutShopping?

I covered it in more detail here, but basically it was another 'trick' to hopefully curb my shopping and help me use my existing wardrobe more, so I could wear more of what I own 30 times (idea from The True Cost movie). I wasn't sure I could do an entire year, 6 months seemed more reasonable.

Wardrobe 2014

How did I manage no shopping for 6 months?

I couldn't make it 31 days without shopping before, so I'm just as amazed as you are that I made it a whole 6 months without spending anything on fashion. There are a few things that helped make me successful this time around that I thought I'd share, in case you want to do your own no-shop challenge for any length of time.

• Major life change. I mentioned it briefly on the blog, but the later half of 2016 was a bit scary, particularly in December when Baby Boy was admitted to hospital. The next few months involved re-prioritisation and shopping was just not on my radar.

• Tell people about it. Of course I shared my intentions online on the blog, but I told everyone else about it. Friends, family, everyone was 'in' on it to help me with my goals. I'd meet up with them other places instead of defaulting to shopping as an activity.

• The long timeframe. I didn't want to be that person that caved in the first half of the challenge, and by then I'd had 3 successful months behind me so didn't want to invalidate it by buying something in the last 3 months. It actually got easier the longer it went on.

• Timing is everything. The challenge started in summer, and after an autumn full of heat-waves I was thoroughly bored and uninspired by my current wardrobe. When the temperatures eventually dropped, I got to unpack all my winter items and feel like I had something 'new' in my wardrobe. As I don't pack away much of my summer clothes, I wouldn't have had the same enjoyment if I'd started this in winter and had to box away half my wardrobe when it got warmer.

• Get another hobby. I've always said shopping was a hobby for me - instead I took that time and channeled it into something else. I recently started a volunteer job as an example.

• Limit your time. Similar to the point above, as Baby Boy grew and he and his big brother napped less, I had less time to shop. Instead of online shopping on the computer when they went to bed, I'd be trying to write a blog post or read the blogs I didn't get to through the day.

• Have a reward. I purposely asked for (and gratefully recieved) a lot of gift cards for Christmas. It was my 'reward' at the end of the challenge. Didn't make sense to spend money in my favourite stores when I had gift cards just waiting to be spent in July!

• Practice makes perfect. I didn't always meet my goals when I did No Buy July but I did learn more about my shopping habits - when I was inclined to shop and break the challenge and how I could avoid doing that in future. They were lessons rather than 'failures'.

Wardrobe 2015

What Next?

I have the gift cards ready to go, I've had 6 months to put together an updated clothing wishlist...but I'm not going to be marking the 1st July with some purchases. I'm going to do #noBuyJuly17 instead, making it 7 months without shopping.

Why another no shop challenge?

As I mentioned above, my parents taught me the value of money and I'd frequently buy bargain pieces to fit my budget. 30 wears and the 6 months without shopping has taught me the value of quality: to have a wardrobe that I love, that I wear often, and where every piece is something I'd want to wear 30 times. It doesn't matter if something was $5 or $50, as long as it's something that's actually getting worn.

I think I have so much further to go to really get value from what I already own in my wardrobe, so I'm not looking at shopping again any time soon. I calculated if I wore some things 30 times I'd have 11 years worth of outfits. Not really feeling the urge to add to that number at the moment! Buying more just means I'll wear the existing things I already love less.

I'm not saying I'm never going to shop again, just that I'm content with the wardrobe options I have at the moment and don't yet see the need to add anything new. I'd like to wear more of my recently unboxed winter pieces before I buy any new ones.

I'm definitely a former shopaholic!

Wardrobe 2017

Have you ever attempted a no-shop challenge? Do you find my tips useful? Or did you just scroll in amazement at my ever-changing wardrobe?

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Wearing Havaianas In Multiple Seasons

Thanks to a knee injury a few years ago, flats are my most worn shoes.  Out of all the flats I have, I'm sure that my Havaianas are the most frequently worn.


While I do tend to swap them out for my ankle boots in the middle of winter, like the majority of Queenslanders I love my thongs (a.k.a flip-flops for the non-Aussies). The mild Brisbane weather means I can wear them for most of the year, and often do. I'm not as dedicated as some of my friends or Gold-Coast-living-sister who wear them constantly year round, but I have worn them in winter a handful of times despite how much it makes people like Beth in chilly South Adelaide shiver at the thought!


They are so incredibly easy to wear and I'm sure most people have a pair somewhere, even if they only break them out in summer. Despite their popularity, I doubt you'll see Havaianas announced as one of the latest fashion trends (I hold out hope as it was only recently that slides were 'in'!). There's no denying that they are a very common choice here in the sunshine state of Queensland. I wasn't able to find a better shoe to wear through all trimesters of pregnancy, especially in those final days when my feet were so swollen nothing else would fit!


Here's some different ways you can wear Havaianas away from the pool or beach. And yes, some of these outfits were worn in winter!

Havaianas and Maxi Skirts

One of my favourite ways to wear maxi skirts is with a pair of my Havaianas. You can layer with things like a denim jacket when it's cooler. The outfits below were what I wore for a bunch of different activities: working from home, a coffee date with a friend, visiting the zoo, and a day shopping at the outlets. Not a beach in sight.

Havaianas and Jeans

This is a good way to keep your legs warm if the weather is cooler but not yet cold enough to wear boots. I wear this often in autumn. You can add cosy scarves and cardigans if it's cooler, or wear my spring favourite outfit topper: a pretty printed kimono. Havaianas are so easy to slip on to run errands, go to playgroup, or even a casual BBQ which are some of the activities I wore the outfits below for.

Havaianas in Summer

They really are a great summer shoe! You don't have to just wear them with a bikini, you can try denim shorts, skirts, dresses....you really can wear Havaianas with so many different outfits and to so many different places.

You can see why they are a favourite. Do you have any Havaianas or similar shoes? Do you only wear them for summer?


This post was created in partnership with Flarecom. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own.

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