Amber Jewel would love this Hobbs suit

I don’t know about you, but I never want to spend much of my hard earned cash on office clothes. Everyone at my bank looks almost exactly the same. Personality is bad. Even wearing the wrong kind of ear-rings could be a make or break career move.

If you work in a corporate zone like this, my advice is: keep it simple.

I have one navy blue pant suit and one grey pant suit. Black is just a little too black for me, reminds me of all those funerals I used to go to when I was growing up in Texas. I guess my parents knew a lot of old folk.

Anyway, I bought the pant suits in those high street stores where the office clothes aren’t too expensive but are good quality. You know, Banana Republic, Anne Klein, that kind of place.

To go with the suits, I have five shirts with collars as big as I feel I can get away with. Two are white, two are light blue and one is blue and white stripes.

I wear black shoes with a little heel in the bank, but as soon as I’m outta the door, I slap on flats because I love to walk all over Manhattan in comfortable shoes.

It’s kind of soul-destroying to dress entirely like a corporate drone though, so best to add a few small touches to your outfit.

Mine are my Texan turquoise bracelet, a present from my Daddy. Also my handbag – a tooled leather Texan treasure and my wrist watch – which is a man’s watch with a square face, Roman numerals and a genuine gator strap.

I know Texan girls are always billed as blonde, busty and dressed to impressed, but we aren’t all like that. Texas is the home of the cowgirl too.

I like to think of myself as a cowgirl gone undercover in the corporate world.

Red Stingray boots for girls, from www.timsboots.com

Guest blogger, Em, from The Jewels of Manhattan writes:

I may live in New York now, but I grew up in Texas, so I still like to wear cowboy boots.

Once you’ve worn them in good, cowboy boots are comfortable, practical and kind of unique.

I like mine made of cowhide and mainly black, brown or tan with just a touch of embroidery or tooling. But hell, I do have a pair of red lizard skins for dress up days.

That’s a pretty conservative boot wardrobe for a country-bred Texan because usually our special occasion boots are made out of the fanciest leathers you could ever imagine.

Ostrich, alligator, lizard, eel, elephant hide, hippo, python, even bull frog skins. Basically if your bootmaker can catch it and skin it, he can make a pair of fancy boots out of it along with a belt and a hatband to match.

Check out this pair of reds made from stingray skin by those nice guys at www.timsboots.com.

I mean stingray skin!!

Who even thought of that?

How do I like to wear my boots once they’re all beat in and comfortable?

Under jeans is good. Under a denim mini skirt is even better. If your boots fit nice a slim to your leg, I guess you could wear them under a loose dress, but make sure it’s no longer than knee length, otherwise you’re heading into Little House on the Prairie territory.

I’m kind of liking cowboy boots and leggings, but the leggings must cut off below the knee. You need a flash of leg between legging and boot. Cowboy boots and tights… no, I don’t think so.

I have gorgeous beat up suede boots in dark brown and I wear these over my black skinny jeans. When you’ve got your boots on, stomp about a bit and sing Nancy Sinatra. All together now: ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking… that’s what they’re gonna do… One of these days these boots are gonna Walk Right Over You…’

Rock those vintage rocks

Hi, Annie here. For the next few weeks, I’m handing the keys of the blog over to my lovely friends from:  ‘The Jewels of Manhattan’. First up, Sapphire Jewel, antiques jewellery expert, writes:

I know round about this time of year, the nights get dark and all the jewellery store windows start lighting up for Christmas. Everyone wants brand new sparkly stones in the right kind of box from the right kind of jeweller.

But in your jewellery box, I bet you already have some lovely old pieces, maybe from your grandma or your great-auntie that you never ever wear because they look dowdy and old-fashioned.

Well, here’s the news: real vintage jewellery is totally in fashion right now. So it’s time to take that piece out of the box and first of all clean it up. There are some great tips on cleaning fragile, vintage pieces right here: http://www.pastera.com/cleaning-care

When that piece is sparkling again, it’s time to wear it with a twist.

Could that old-fashioned brooch be turned into a stunning cocktail ring? Check out this photo from US Vogue.

Or you could string your brooch onto a ribbon and wear it round your neck or even pin it to a hairband and wear it in your hair.

Check out vintage jewellery stores and jewellery auctions for true bargains. Prices are good right now and I promise you, the quality of older pieces is so much better than new. As we like to say in Texas, if you buy vintage, you are going to get so much more bang for your buck.

Sarah Lund's cuddly jumper

OK, I may have come to the Danish TV series The Killing later than many, but now I am just as obsessed as anyone and cannot wait for the second series.

Detective Sarah Lund’s jumper, a hand-knitted traditional number from the Faroe Islands which she wore almost continuously, was chosen by the actress because she didn’t want to do the female cop-in-a-suit thing. She wanted to look original and soften up her hard, determined character with something a little cuddly and woollen.

Apparently the jumper is full of natural oils and self-cleaning, which is just as well because apart from a day or two in a dark blue version, Lund never takes it off, despite finding herself in some very sweaty situations.

Sarah Lund, played by actress Sofie Grabol

The jumper is still available right here www.gudrungudrun.com on the website of this quirky Faroe Islands designer along with matching hats which come with pompoms made of real fox and racoon fur, which British people will find startling, but I’m guessing the Faroese are a hardly lot whose priority is keeping warm. They even sell fish-skin shoes lined with lambswool here and a crazy pink mohair skirt which was definitely inspired by Bjork.

But if we are really going to have a third Arctic winter (please NO!) then I can’t think of a better place to start kitting yourself out.

Because we love Sarah Lund and because we are all craving a homemade, home knitted kind of vibe this year, to offset the global economic doom and gloom, Nordic and all kinds of traditional knitting are Big News.

Here’s a lovely Nordic cardi in Shetland wool from the knitwear supremos at Brora and even Topshop has gone all snowflakey and Fair Isle – but in acrylic, my lovelies! Now you just know that will not be the same.

Olive but not oil: jacket

It has taken me a while, I have to admit.  When olive first appeared as hot colour of the moment, I just about ran away screaming.

Eeek! Olive? So sludgy, so military… visions of students in the 80s in army coats with knapsacks. Not nice.

But… but… sometimes, you’ve just got to let your eye adjust. Sometimes they launch a colour one season but it doesn’t really come into its own until a whole year later.

Now, I am all set to reconsider the virtues of olive. The best thing about this muted shade of green? It is so versatile. It suits every kind of hair and skin colouring… blonde, brunette, redhead, dark, medium, freckly and fair. Agreed?

Olive is a neutral, but with much more interest than boring old black, navy or grey.

Plus, you can wear it with your black boots or your brown. Is this not genius? And you can pair an olive item with just about every colour of jumper, skirt or handbag you can think of: olive and red, yes; olive and yellow, kerching; olive and white, right; olive and insert-your-colour-here, it will probably work.

The lovely olive leather jacket pictured, which would solve all sorts of outfit and accessory headaches, is by the appropriately named, Isabella Oliver.

Loving the jacket

It’s a bittersweet moment when the first autumn catalogues land on the doormat… it’s like the first brown leaves falling from the trees.

But really I love autumn. We can all stop wearing sandals, summer dresses and pretending the weather is hot and start wrapping up in gorgeous things for winter.

King of the clothing catalogues has to be Mr Johnny Boden. While I don’t love all his clothes (many are just way too mumsy), I love his way with words. He has given us the ‘flippy’ skirt , the ‘rainyday’ mac, the ‘Notting Hill’ jumper and so many others.

I also love the fact that he offers early birds a 10 per cent discount on the new collection. Why doesn’t everyone offer their loyal customers this? Come into the shops, buy autumn/ winter right now and get a discount. How can we resist?

If you ask me, the best item in the latest Boden catalogue is the printed velvet jackets. I think there will be a stampede for these. So funky and so wearable: over jeans, over skirts, over dresses. A velvet jacket is dressily casual, warm, but so much more chic than a sweater. Loving. I think I want the ‘grey leopard’… even though that sounds like a handsome guy over 50.

If you are an unusual size, start shopping for winter right now (yes I know it’s still August!). But you will find rows of boots in size 3 or size 9 and racks of size 8 or 18 clothes. If you leave it till October, you may have left it too late.

A long sleeved below the knee lace evening dress…

Where has this dress been all my life? Could anything be more ladylike meets devastatingly sexy? This is new season D (and sign) G perfection.

My favourite label for dressed up glamour. Best for LBDs and stunning evening shirts.

Try one of their lace or chiffon numbers flung over jeans – mamma mia! (And the price tags are not too scary-crazy either).

]]> http://annievalentine.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/lace-go-sexy-and-ladylike-with-a-stunning-new-look-dg/feed/ 0 annievalentine lace dress image http://annievalentine.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/the-pick-of-the-sales-summer-time-shoes/ http://annievalentine.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/the-pick-of-the-sales-summer-time-shoes/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:42:37 +0000 annievalentine http://annievalentine.wordpress.com/?p=240 Continue reading →]]> The weather might be a bit iffy but the sales are still HOT! I find it oh so very hard to resist a price tag which has had the red-pen treatment. You know, £345 crossed out, then £185 crossed out, then £125, then a tantalising £75 only…  But many, many wardrobe mistakes are made in the sales, so be on guard, try things on with care and attention and only buy the pieces you know you’ll make good use of.

My favourite summer sales:

A shoe from Toast is always a beautifully made, wonderful piece of art.  Take a look at these breath-taking sandals from Chie Mihara via the Toast catalogue. Ruched raspberry suede… need I say more? What could be more wonderful  than ruched raspberry suede? I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry.  I’m thinking raspberry coulis over a chocolate mousse, or plump berries beside a chocolate cake… yummy. Hands off! I’m buying them because they are better than half price and they will make me happy for the rest of the summer, even if the weather never cheers up again.

Toast shoes are always beautifully made

If you’re inspired, take a little peek at this lovely website from Chie Mihara and drool over polka dot shoes and sandals cut so beautifully that your size eights will look like dainty size fives. Also she promises her shoes will be just as comfortable as they are adorable.

Polka Dots

Harvey Nichols is a sales must – because the discounts here are dazzling. The longer you can bear to wait, the lower the prices will go… but will they have it left in your size?! I like to pitch up just a day or two before the final curtain (July 17^th this year) Then everything looks like a steal. I’m already hovering over a D&G tuxedo jacket because it’s a classic: a totally useful, totally gorgeous classic. Reduced from £660 to £220. Ed, please look away now.

Finally, and I know it is very naughty and I know I definitely shouldn’t: but there are some gorgeous, gorgeous things for children at Children Salon. And if they’re in the sale… Obviously I’m not about to wrap the twins up in Dior and Chloe every day, but a little touch of Petit Bateau or Oilily is very hard to resist.

One day, one single day of gorgeous balmy weather and then what do we get? Ping pong balls of hail. Ping pong balls!!

I like a fashion challenge, but hail stones? What can we wear in a hail storm?

The plastic hat, my darlins, we may have to resort to the pac-a-mac and the plastic hat.

Not a chance of looking as lovely as this girl here. Surely her many talents are wasted modelling for the collapsable rainwear catalogue?

Phew! The temperature is up at 33 degrees in central London today and if we don’t want to look as sweaty as Andy Murray in a tight fifth set, then we are going to have to wear breezy, cooling, chilled out fashion.

Take tips from the slickest New York fashionistas. It’s broiling hot all summer long in Manhattan, so these girls know just how to keep their cool.

Long, floaty midi and maxi dresses that create a light breeze when you walk. Keep the straps minimal, or go bandeau top and have no straps at all. No sleeves please, sleeves will just show how much your pits sweated on the tube and who wants that?!

Keep your hair tied up in a loose ponytail or chignon and let your feet breathe in a chic pair of flats. If you’re going New York stylie, then you must, must, must accessorize with a pedicure in an exciting new colour, plus lovely necklace and chic bag, preferably Coach.

Bare shoulders are for the street and the cocktail bar only. At work, in the soothing blast of the air con, you slip on a light linen jacket so you’ll still look the business.

I’m not a fan of linen trousers or linen dresses, they wilt in the heat and go from smart to sacky quick as an ice cream melting in the sun. But a linen jacket with just the right amount of crumple is perfect Italian Riviera chic.

Don’t moan for one minute about the heat my lovelies, you know just as well as I do that it’s going to be right back down in the 20s tomorrow and probably back to cloud cover and rain a few days after that – so sip a frappucino and enjoy!