Dreamy dresses our SNA challenge for June

Hello and welcome to June's Style Not Age Challenge where five friends throw down the style gauntlet month after month in rotation resulting sometimes in angst other times in joy. Jacqui came up with Dreamy Dresses which seems to have been a happy choice this month. Mine is yet another second-hand find from Vinted and I'm delighted with what's surely going to be a very useful summer frock. But let's look at my fashionable friends first shall we?

A very dreamy setting for Jacqui's summer dress, a new purchase from Matalan worn with old sandals and handbag from New Look. Catch up with all of her news on Mummabstylish

Emma's Dreamy Dress comes from TK Maxx worn with sandals from Coast and bag by Fenella Smith. Read her back story on the Style Splash

Gail wore her Dreamy Dress to the Vivienne Westwood exhibition at Christies recently and didn't look at all out of place. See more from her on Is This Mutton. 

Hilda's Dreamy Dress is from Whistles (not new) but worn when she was taken out to dinner recently in Derry. Find out more on her blog Over The Hilda.

This lightweight dress is made from polyester making it easy to wear and cool on this bright sunny day at work. I'm sure this will earn its place in my wardrobe this summer.

This pretty frock has a myriad of colours making styling so very easy. I've added these fuchsia flatforms from last summer which are super comfy. Then I took orange as my next lead colour adding this stretch belt from Amazon, again purchased last year.

What's not to love about a dress that says Love on it?

The lemon mini bag with beaded handle by Dune was a TK Maxx find last summer - it's uber cute don't you think? My rings are old, pre-loved too.

My sister Dianne recently sent me this pearl and heart necklace, in fact two of these, one in white pearl and the other with grey pearls. This is perfect for today's look.

Another splash of colour comes by way of these old sunnies by Zara. It was great fun putting this outfit together, where it was all about colours and as many as possible. Thanks for joining us this month - I hope you've enjoyed our challenge!

                                                                Anna x

Homage to Iris, our Style Not Age challenge for March

Earlier this month the designer, decorator and style icon, Iris Apfel died at the age of 102, leaving behind a wealth of imagery to inspire the fashion lovers amongst us. Her viewpoint that "colour can raise the dead" sums up her dedication to powerful dressing. Iris enjoyed finding a bargain and never paid full price for her clothes or jewellery, trawling shops, flea markets and bazaars for unique pieces to add to her immense collection. To quote the Guardian Obituary, "She is the most decorative sight in each shot, her ensembles put together with complex cadenzas atop an underlying, tailored, structure - they are like jazz - not a statement, but a conversation."

A chestful of jewellery was her most favoured look and one that I've taken to heart for this month's challenge. I felt I simply had to choose Iris as our theme this month for all the right reasons. She stated that money couldn't buy personal style - according to her all that mattered is "attitude, attitude, attitude". Curating her clothes and improvising an outfit was her daily ritual, a joy, resulting in a 'zingy pzazz' unlike any other. 

I love Hilda's interpretation of this month's theme - I'm sure Iris would have approved too! The colourful shirt is fabulous adorned with bangles, beads and baubles in excess. See more from Hilda on her blog here. 

Another splash of colour in these citrus brights comes from Gail in her sporty homage to Iris. Catch up with all the latest from Gail on her blog Is This Mutton? 

Jacqui has taken a monochrome twist for her homage to Iris. Beads and bangles inject that signature pzazz to her dress and boots combo. See Mummabstylish for Jacqui's latest news.

Emma is sporting her Iris Apfel suit from the H&M collaboration (which I too proudly own) plus matching slippers topped with a fabulous jacket and Iris earrings. What a fitting homage to the Queen of Style! Emma carries the look off with true panache. See more on her blog The Style Splash. 

I bought this new suit with today's feature in mind as the colours and pattern are as bold as you get. Purchased on Vinted for the bargain basement price of £10 I thought it tied in with Iris's shopping philosophy too. 

The leather boots were also Vinted bargains at only £6 leaving me feel rather pleased with myself. I only managed to wear them for a few hours, but I felt they were essential to finish off the outfit.

Dressing fancy and fancy dress could so easily be confused, but hopefully I don't cross that line with my outfit of the day. I wore this to work last week to our first Timeshare drinks party and it did garner me some compliments rather than raised eyebrows.

I'm currently waiting for my copy of the book Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverant Iris Apfel and can't wait to feast my eyes on her exuberantly idiosyncratic style.  I was a latecomer to her fan club, but she epitomised all that I aspire to be - bold, bright with I-couldn't-care-less-what-you-think-of-me style where age is totally irrelavant to how one ought to dress. Every photo of her spoke of her joy in dressing up for the day, the pleasure to be had in mixing colours, fabrics and textures, no matter from what era or corner of the globe. I admired her strength, her self-knowledge and complete disregard to the self limiting rules of dressing. She truly was an inspiration and an icon. 

                                                                        Anna x

December is for Dressing Up, our Style Not Age challenge this month

Hurrah and Happy Christmas to us all! I do hope you're having a wonderful time. Our challenge this month has a festive theme and was chosen by Gail. I'm not averse to a bit of dressing up as you may know and so it wasn't a terrrible hardship to push the boat out for this most special of posts. Let's see how the others fared and come back to mine later...

Gail has totally embraced her prompt by pairing lime green sequins with a gold faux leather skirt to glamorous effect! Catch up with her on Is This Mutton blog for the full story.

This is Hilda's Christmas Day outfit which looks not only fabulous but also comfortable too which is very clever bit of Dressing Up. Read her backstory on Over the Hilda blog.

Gold satin and red wide legged trousers are another successful festive take on December Dressing up from Jacqui.  See more from her on Mummabstylish blog.

Pink, silver, glitter and sequins - Emma's brought it all in her Christmas outfit, even a bottle of bubbly! Find out what she'll be getting up to today on her blog Style Splash.

My trouser suit is a Christmas present from my son (under my instructions obviously) and is by Lavish Alice, a brand I've not come across previously. Its silver and gold pattern screams out festive dressing and I hope to find an excuse to wear it soon. 

I've teamed the suit up with a silver and white sequinned top which is very ancient and was a charity shop find. Sparkly rings are also pre-loved and the silver chain necklace was a Vinted purchase recently. I'm wearing classic black sunglasses by Radley London and must admit I felt red carpet ready in this glitzy lot!

I took myself off the Tresco Abbey Garden for this photo opportunity and think it makes for a lovely backdrop to the silver outfit.  My leather boots are old, from TK Maxx and are utterly fabulous don't you think - the brand is Buffalo.

And just in case you're wondering, I didn't traipse the mile from my home to the Garden dressed like this. I made use of the large loos on site to act as a changing room as no-one was around on the quiet Sunday afternoon. It was a two-for-one day as I captured last week's ensemble and this one at the same time.

And that rounds up another year of our Style Not Age challenge. Thank you so much for joining me and my blogging friends and I do hope you've been inspired to maybe try out something you've seen with us.

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas!

Anna x

Inspired by Autumn, our Style Not Age challenge

Hello and welcome to November's Style Not Age challenge, chosen this month by Hilda. Inspired by Autumn suited me down to the ground as this was my work outfit from Friday showing my version of autumn delights. Burnt orange is a favourite seasonal choice of mine, but let's catch up with my blogging friends first to see how they interpreted this one...

Well, it looks like Jacqui and I were singing from the same sheet this time with our orange jackets, floral dresses and boots. Her jacket and dress are both from Bonmarche and boots are Clarks, handbag gifted from Teddy Blake. Catch up on her latest news on Mummabstylish.

Emma has shopped her closet for this stylish outfit - jacket and handbag were both from eBay, trousers and boots from M&S and top was from Joanie Clothing. The rich burgundy velvet jacket certainly says autumn to me! See more from Emma at Style Splash blog. 

Hilda's weekend look is indeed in autumnal hues. She too has shopped her closet for the challenge adding the only new item, a bright red scarf to finish her outfit. I love her boots and jacket and will be hopping across to her blog for more details - OvertheHilda. 

Zingy lemon and orange are Gail's autumn colours, and golly how fab they are together! The coat is from ASOS, scarf and top are from Kettlewell, leggings from M&S and boots are from Office. See more from Gail on Is This Mutton. 

Details of my ensemble are: fur coat from TK Maxx, dress from Joe Brown's (gifted), roll neck, old and charity shopped, boots from ASOS, belt from Amazon, gloves (old), sunglasses from Radley London, resin necklace (very old). 

To keep out the November chills at work I donned this extra layer - another autumnal offering by way of this fairisle cardigan (charity shopped last year). A woollen layer is what my mother-in-law always urged me to wear if I ever complained of being cold. It tickles me that I now pass on these wise words to workmates whenever they remark on our draughty workplace.

I'm still breaking in my new orange leather boots (from ASOS), but did manage to wear them all day long this time. The heel isn't terribly high, although the pointed toes do eventually tweak by the end of the day.

No new jewellery here, simply orange rings and necklace from my collection. Stretch belt was from Amazon earlier this year.

Despite the Gallery being closed for the winter, I do still like to make an effort and dress up for work. We have our winter schedule in place which means we have artists' residencies running over the next few months so I do see a steady trickle of them over the course of each week. Me dressing up is another way of conveying the fact that I take my role as Gallery Manager seriously; I do like to still have an air of professionalism about the place. 

Thanks for dropping by for our monthly challenge - I do hope you've enjoyed it!

Anna x

Jeans and Jewels, our Style Not Age challenge for October

Hello and welcome once again to our monthly Style Not Age which this month is led by my choice, that of Jeans and Jewels. I must confess that I stole the idea from the very talented professional Photographer Elisabeth Hoff who posted the details of a photoshoot on her Instagram account recently - see it here. I'm huge fan of Elisabeth's since we met on the JD Williams set some five years ago. I view her account often as she photographs a huge variety of famous models and actors. Elisabeth was incredibly kind to me, helping me to settle into this rather daunting role as fashion model. I worked with her on three campaigns for JDW and she even stepped in to change my outfit on our last shoot together in South Africa as she didn't think it reflected my character. See Elisabeth and I together on location here.

Emma built her Jeans and Jewels look on this fab vintage denim dress embellished with beads to which she added her statement necklace. Catch up on all of her news on her blog Style Splash. 

I love the layering that Gail has done with her jewels for this challenge. Her Georgian style necklaces are from Etsy and her jeans jacket is from Amazon. To get all the details of her outfit see her post on Is This Mutton blog. 

Hilda's given us a double dose of jewels with her jewel bright coat along with a totally bling necklace (inherited from her daughter). See more from her on Over the Hilda blog. 

A glitzy necklace and beaded jeans are Jacqui's offering from this month's challenge, capturing the essence of this contrasting theme perfectly.  Read her back story on Mummabstylish blog.

My jewels are all old pieces, some vintage, others that have been lurking in the back of my jewellery boxes for years since I started blogging.  I decided to add some brooches to my new Jack Wills jeans jacket. Some of you may remember I have another jeans jacket adorned with brooches too - see it here. 

I bought my Levi's jeans in Camden Market in September and just love them! The long, lean leggy look is fab considering I'm none of those things in reality. I've added height (and glamour) by wearing these stilletto heeled silver leather boots (old, by Buffalo). 

My bejewelled belt (from Amazon) seemed like the perfect accessory to go with today's look along with these twinkly rings (pre-loved). Sunglasses are by Radley London.

The backdrop to my photoshoot is King Charles' Castle located on the North End of Tresco. I was lucky to have a day off when we had a fine day of weather and took myself off there at the end of the day to capture the golden light (most flattering for older complexions).

I do hope you've enjoyed this month's Style Not Age challenge. Please do pop over to see the full stories from my stylish friends too if you have a moment. 

I'll be back next week with another post, but the subject isn't clear as yet. The Gallery is now closed, so dressing up is no longer essential, but that's not to say I'll be scruffing about in joggers any time soon! Thanks so much for joining me.

                                                                                            Anna x