Today's Look: Early 90's Marks & Spencer Blazer

today i wore a vintage, marks and spencer blazer to work. it boasts the m & s gold buttons with crossed-rifle insignia and a long, slim line. i've had it for about two years and found it at the mmrc. it's the first time i step out in it, as it had been stored for my shop during all this time. i recently decided that it should be mine, after all. i tried to find a photo of it online, in order to create a collage depicting today's outfit but it is nowhere to be found.

if the three blazers in the following collage had a bastard love-child, it would look like the blazer i'm wearing. the rest of the outfit is pretty spot on.

my searching did lead me to an article written by pauline weston thomas, for fashion-era.com, in which she says:







"The classic blazer, a late 80s early 90s fashion, remained popular with women over thirty five, especially with subdued worsted wool straight trousers. One blazer sold by Marks and Spencer rumoured to have been designed by Armani was voted a best buy by a national magazine. Many UK women owned at least one of the colours it came in, which ranged over a 10 year era from navy, bottle green, camel, black, wine, red, saxe blue and several dulled tartans.

By mid decade, with its gold finish buttons, now a leftover sign from the 80s, it began to look quite dated, even though the shoulder line was softened and narrowed. Still available it is worn mostly now by generations over sixty."

this may have made sense to someone of a certain age, about ten years ago but times have changed and old is now new (again). i got three compliments on my blazer today and all before two p.m. so if it's not shaped like a box and its shoulder pads aren't so high as to mess with your peripheral vision, then i say rock that late 80's/early 90's blazer, girl!

(i'll take a photo of the blazer this week-end, when i get to see the light of day!)

Read more »

Final Fall/Winter 2012-2013 Office Wardrobe Update

i'm going to lay the whole fall/winter wardrobe challenge to rest today so that i can move on to what i want to put together for spring, as of next week. seeing as i was busy job-hunting, writing up "25 days of etsy christmas", redecorating three rooms in my flat (pictures of that are forthcoming) and working on the new shop, i didn't really give myself time to sew until now. that said, i did scour thrift stores and go through every piece of clothing i own (no small feat, i'll have you know!) and i did put together twelve basic, occasionally interchangeable outfits that are great for the office and that work for fall and winter. i've put together a few collages to give you the gist of these and, although the brands vary from those that i found and own (a lot of my pieces are vintage and i prefer lancome, dior and sometimes mac, when it comes to make-up), you'll get the idea!

i must say that the following h & m trousers were really well priced and are ridiculously comfortable.

i was so happy when i found a similar pencil skirt in this exact shade of purple, in verdun, secondhand, for $5!

my glasses have more of a cat-eye shape and, after buying a pair of cole haan chelsea boots online only to discover that they are too narrow for me, i came across a great pair of baxter boots at last year's swap team exchange. you can see them here.

even though i am a white girl with some arabic blood and probably shouldn't wear yellow, i can't seem to stay completely away. for a more casual work look, i've put together an outfit resembling this one and i like to wear it with a good 'ol fashioned french twist or by styling my hair with a slight, 60's bump at the crown, pinning up the side and letting the rest of it down and slightly curled at the ends. 

although i do my best to jazz up my office wardrobe, i'm usually seen wearing this combo or something quite like it:

a friend of mine bought this betty page clothing dress, never wore it and sold it to me for $20. i wear it with neutral panty hose or stocking and burgundy, suede mary janes that i also got from this friend but at a clothing swap. 

i was also lucky enough to come across a lovely, burgundy, a-line dress with leather pocket trim from lord & taylor. i bought it at my favourite verdun thrift store for $7 but most of their house brand dresses are between $110 and $300 so i'm quite pleased! i won't be able to shoot in natural light until next week-end and i can't find an image of the dress online so it'll have to have its own post, sometime soon!

this is the last time i'll be referring to this particular wardrobe, as i'll be focusing on the spring fashions i want and/or have, as of next week. the timing is great, too, because i go back to working nine-to-five in an office, tomorrow morning. 

Read more »