More Christmas style inspiration




Hurrah - it's only 14 sleeps 'til Christmas!




So, here we have as promised my Christmas styling of the Scottish icon that is the kilt. I bought mine in a charity shop for only £5 and have been mulling over how to style it up for ages. Can you make a kilt funky was my question and hopefully I've answered that with an emphatic Yes!




The addition of the big, bouffant petticoat goes a long way to reinventing the staid image of the kilt, as does the mighty powers of pattern play by way of paisley and leopard print. The red lurex tights pick up the red within the woollen plaid and also connect tonally with the metallic jacket. All in all, it's a wild rendition and I know, not one for the faint hearted!




Piece by piece the outfit reads like this: metallic biker jacket by Missguided, bought from TK Maxx some years ago: paisley print shirt by Lands' End, second hand: kilt by The Tartan Shoppe, second hand: black petticoat from eBay: red lurex tights are charity shopped: leopard print pony skin courts by BCBGeneration from TK Maxx.






Nothing new jewellery-wise - the rose gold necklace was a boutique purchase when I was in St Andrews a couple of years ago: the big jewelled ring is pre-loved and the other ring was a find in a street market in Cape Town.




I'll be back again on Monday with another dose of sparkle and style for your Christmas inspiration. In the meantime, have fun with your preparations and last minute shopping. My shopping has been totally online this year and thank goodness, the mail is still coming through at this end of the country.

                                                                                             Anna x

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Christmas fashion inspiration




Hello lovelies! Here I am strutting my stuff on the island catwalk aka The Flying Boat Club slipway. Fiona and I grasped our opportunity of fine weather on Sunday to show you my latest offering of Christmas dressing. 




I promised you fur and lurex and here they are together with these fabulous paisley print flares with gold thread running throughout. The bell bottoms are from H&M and are quite old, but are perfect for festive outings. These hipster trousers have just the right amount of stretch to allow an extra mince pie or two.




Velvet and fur are fabulous Christmas fabrics, beautifully combined in this second hand Karen Millen coat which I bought a year ago when I was in London. If you missed that post you can see it here. The two fabrics combine to say luxury at its best. 





The lurex polo neck sweater is old (from H&M too). It comes out every year at this time and is a real workhorse of a piece. You'll probably have noticed that polo necks are essential winter wear for me. I love the simple figure hugging lines of this kind of sweater which also provides warmth and a physical barrier against the cold. The sparkle yarn of this one lifts it out of the ordinary and works with so many separates, so you'll no doubt see it featured again this month.




I've piled pattern onto pattern with these amazing black and gold brocade platform boots from River Island (old). To say that the colour palette is rather restrained today, the overall effect still delivers the wow factor. The richness of the fabrics counter what could be read as a brown outfit and God forbid I'd be seen in boring old brown, especially as this claims to be a post about Christmas fashion inspiration!




My mirror Quay sunglasses were a gift from a friend a couple of years ago. 




Both golden rings are pre-loved.





Coming up next time will be the second hand kilt that I bought in a charity shop for £5. I'm styling that up for Christmas to add a flavour of festive fun to what might be perceived as rather staid traditional national dress. It really is just a case of our imagination being the only limitation of our style. I do hope you'll join me on Friday for that one.


In the meantime, take care!

Anna x

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When it rains ...




Hello again! Today I'm working on the principle of When life gives you lemons, except I've applied that to rain. My outfit choice was led completely by the need to take some photos for the blog despite the rain, plus the fact that the only umbrella I could find was this tartan one.




So, apart from the addition of a brolly, I've been chomping at the bit to bring out some of my festive clothes. Much like the sudden crop of Christmas decorations appearing both indoors and outdoors across the land, I'm keen to have this dazzling distraction from the woes that plague us currently. Therefore, I shall be littering the blog for the next few weeks with lurex and glitter, tartan and fur, and even the odd very cheesy Christmas jumper! 




But let's start with today's offering. This feather trimmed tartan shift dress was a Zara purchase some years ago. It's a wonderful twist on what is a simple shape made glamorous by the addition of feathers. 




I've layered it up with an M&S long sleeved thermal top and thick thermal tights, finishing with these rather fabulous tartan ankle boots also by M&S.  I love a bit of tartan at the best of times and it warms my heart how much we associate these checks or plaid (depending on where in the world you live) with Christmas. As a Scottish exile, it's wonderful to wear my national cloth with pride at this time of year. I have a real McCoy tartan kilt lined up for you, brought up to speed with an unconventional partner - so please keep coming back to see that!






Do you remember when you were young being asked what you want to be when you grow up? Well, I've just discovered that I want to be the Instagram fashion icon Blair Eadie. I hope you'll take a moment to click on the link to see what a delight this woman is. It's not her model girl figure, nor her youth that I hanker after, but the absolute magic she conjures up with her style. She covers every trend, colour and fashion turning them into a confection of playfulness and joy; in fact most of the time she does look utterly edible! When she does understatement it's sleek and sublime and likewise when she goes big, then it's totally fabulous! I realise how unachievable this level of perfection is, but it's so good to have a dream. We all need a bit of style inspiration and golly, this girl is mine.






Accessories are: rings pre-loved and Tree of Life pendant was a boutique purchase, but is old. Umbrella was from our local chemist on St Mary's.








My thanks go again to Sasha for her time taking these soggy day shots. I'll leave you with this atmospheric scene looking towards Samson island. 




Thanks for joining me. See you again soon!

Anna x

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A touch of sparkle, our Style Not Age challenge for November



Hello and welcome once again to our monthly style challenge! Never one for understatement, I'm kicking off this month's challenge with a very liberal dose of bright orange sequins as my touch of sparkle. However, you'll see that I'm not so out of step with my fashionista friends with this month's quest as we all limber up in readiness for Christmas.




Hilda has plumped for the glitter option of sparkle in this pretty bronze blouse with black trim to match her black chiffon skirt. Catch more from her on Over The Hilda here.




Jacqui's black and silver sequinned top dazzles in the sunshine, but teamed with these velvet trousers epitomises evening elegance. Read her blog Mummabstylish for her style story.




Gail's take on this month's challenge could be called Glitter, Sparkle and Shine as that's how wonderfully she has embraced the theme! Find out more from her on Is This Mutton blog. 




Emma's interpretation is an eye-catching mix of damson sequins and emerald green chiffon frills. What fun! Do please scoot across to find out all of the details on her blog Style Splash.




As you'll all be aware, I'm on a 12 month shopping ban currently and despite the odd wanton browsing of the Zara website (see this rather stunning bit of sparkle available at the moment), I'm happy to say that this tightening of the belt has only served to show me how much my wardrobe holds. The orange sequinned jacket was from TK Maxx a couple of years ago and the brand is Anothereight. I last wore it almost a year ago (see here) and this is the 4th time I've shown it on the blog. 




And what does one wear with a bright orange sequin jacket? Why, bright orange satin pants of course! These are from the Conscious Collection at H&M, but are quite old. Thank goodness, however, that they're not so old that they don't fit. I have a friend who used to say that some of her clothes tend to shrink in the wardrobe if she doesn't wear them for a year or two ... I know exactly how that goes!




The skinny satin trousers called for statement footwear and these old beauties came to mind. By Office, the chestnut suede ankle boots are far from new, but the towering heels and platform soles still give me buzz regardless. 




Accessories read like this: the gold framed mirror sunglasses (they were just begging to team up with this burnished ensemble!) are by Quay Australia, rings are pre-loved and the rose gold heart pendant was from a boutique in Truro some time ago.




My jewel bright cashmere sweater works so well with today's orange sparkle. In case you missed it last time I was gifted this beautifully soft two ply cashmere jumper by Cashmere Specialist, a mail order company in Slovakia. Please do check out their extensive website and if you quote ANNA10 you'll get 10% off your order, but be quick as this ends on the 2nd of December! 




Many thanks to the ladies of the collective for their joyful contributions and also thanks to Sasha for being the photographer of the day. I love how she managed to capture the reflection of these exotic palm trees in my sunglasses.


Take care and see you next time!

Anna x


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