Wardrobe Wednesday | Getting my stripes & patterns on!

In two days time the family and I fly to Queenstown, in New Zealand’s beautiful South Island, for a holiday. I’m in that pre-packing stage of going through my wardrobe and trying to limit what I take – rather than throwing in too much at the last minute – and then only wear a quarter (which is what usually happens).

It’s autumn and the temperatures vary significantly in a day. I’m loving wearing boots again and leggings for a change, from dresses and skirts with bare legs and jandals. However, I’m kind of feeling I need to be a little bit careful about how I wear my leggings now that I’m nearly forty (I shall commence my last day of my thirties on Saturday!).

These patterned leggings jumped at me as I walked through ‘The Warehouse’ the other day. I used to have a pair of ‘harlequin’ styled black and grey leggings in my University days (my husband still talks fondly of them!). Anyway (getting very side-tracked) these leggings called to me, in a way of reliving my youth… (my nine year old daughter was a little, ‘They are cool, but I’m not sure how they’ll look on you Mum…’ and my seven year old daughter was, ‘Wow, they are very 1980’s…’ I’m left thinking, ‘Since when did my seven year old know so much about fashion in the eighties?!’).

This outfit took a few tries before it got to where it is in these photographs. I tried a grey mini-skirt (little tight on the backside – so the hemline was falling a little long around the front) and black top; a dark green mini-skirt (it was very thin, tight and looked ‘cheap’) and black top, a black skirt and black top (the two blacks were different shades and just looked messy)…

I also thought the top didn’t really ‘sit’ well on my upper body (though I like the sparkly rectangle on the front and three-quarter length sleeves for this time of year).

So, finally, this was what I ended up happy with and will pack this outfit in the holiday wardrobe – with the gorgeous black wrap (in four different ways!) – a wonderful mix and match staple. I love the stripy jumper – though I am sometimes a little self-concious of how it sits on my post-three children tummy (plus I stretched it to the max – wearing it the day before my third daughter was born!).

So, there you have it – one outfit for my wardrobe (and some other items shifted to the recycling bag!). Also, I cut in a fringe to my hair earlier in the week – and now really regret it – so am tying it back with a little hair-band!).

Linking up with ‘Kiwi Womens Style’ for ‘Wardrobe Wednesday‘
– who is taking a look at ‘First Impressions’ in her post this week.

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