Ok so I’m accepting that it’s now September and, even though it’s still feeling like late summer, we need to look ahead. One of the great things about working at Selfridges was the pre-season briefing on colour palettes that guided all our work. If you’ve developed a wardrobe of chic basics, it’s easy to add accents of seasonal colour to stay on trend. So today I thought it would be helpful to kick off Autumn dressing by going to the Trend Council and looking at what the retail buyers were given when they began looking at the current season (whilst I was there, I noticed that the colours for Spring 2016 have just been issued)!
Lovely colours but especially when you see some of the unexpected contrasts that they put together anchored by core colours such as navy or black:
Here are some other perfectly ‘doable’ ways to use colour contrast:
(All images from Pinterest)
So – your homework for today (seeing as it’s back to school time) – think about your core Autumn wardrobe. Using building blocks of things like black, navy and grey trousers, work out how you’re going to update them with new season colours.
Chez Midlifechic
Of course it wouldn’t be a real post without a little update on what’s happening here. Well I’m distracting myself by blogging because today was the dreaded day when the youngest started at grammar school. It feels every bit as big as it is. I spent last night tossing and turning, thinking of all the things I haven’t done enough of while the boys were little and beating myself up for never letting them have play dough in the house or pets in cages and other random midnight regrets that came into my head.
He was so excited this morning and I am so proud of him but it is just such a big change, I have been ‘school running’ since 2001. Here are some pics of this morning (the middle one goes to a different school and was feeling very smug about not starting back until Thursday and so being able to stay in his onesie):
I know I don’t need to worry about him, especially as he will have spent the whole day with his big brother who is head prefect for his year (although as you can see from our walk to the bus, he doesn’t seem to be taking much notice of him and yes, we were the embarrassing parents who went to wave them off at the bus stop).
It’s just me that feels empty. However as my mum said to me when I had to go back to work and send my eldest to nursery ‘it will just become a way of life.’ And it will…and of course we will be busy every weekend going to university open days because this time next year the eldest will be leaving home…! So – on that note, here’s a shot of what I wore to our first open day on Saturday. I really enjoyed it, partly because my son wants to study marketing which, of course, is my profession and also because it gave me a chance to monitor the outfits of lots of mums from all over the UK. Most of them were smart casual wearing a mixture of jeans and jackets like I was so if you’re heading off in the same direction, as I know some of you are, you know what to wear!
- Blazer: Whistles
- Guipure lace top: Zara
- Relaxed skinny jeans: Next
- Silver slingbacks: Boden
- Bag: TK Maxx (I bought this as an impulse before we went on holiday and can’t believe how much I’ve used it since)
So there we have it. As I type, the youngest has just come through the door tired but smiling so I think it’s been a good day. Must go and catch up on the news but please let me know if the colour detail was useful, of course I must do my homework too and work out how I’m going to introduce more interesting use of colour into my wardrobe.
