Notes on Styling | 66 | Knowing when to let go (of a skirt).

A story from the Autumn shopping trenches.

Hello my lovelies,

Shopping is not a perfect art. Even for the professionals. I wasn’t sure where to go with what I’m sharing today. Mostly because I should know better.

That’s the thing with our personal style and our decision-making around it. It’s so personal to our own idiosyncracies and the strange little quirks that make up our style DNA that noticing things we do and think and feel - as we do and think and feel them - can feel murky.

I saw this M&S skirt instore in Dublin recently. I loved it. It’s from Autograph. It is their wool blend pinstripe maxi skirt (and had a matching cropped jacket too).

I think my brain, in the recent deluge of fashion for Autumn, became flooded with wanting something different for my wardrobe this season - but still something that felt like me. So I began to put this skirt on a styling pedestal. One that’s been hard to climb off.

All the wonderful little things I saw in my head …

• A wrap that’s not stressful/ tight/ tricky to put on or feel on my body (tick).

• Everyday chic - will feel elevated and cool but still not over the top dressy (can style with trainers) - I was picturing it teamed with cosy oversized jumpers or a simple white tee (tick).

• Felt like it would bring all the feelings I love in any item - chilled/ natural - effortless - elevated (tick, tick, tick).
  
  …And so I began a buying obsession. All the ways I would wear it, why my wardrobe needed it, the feelings that would wash over me when I owned it.
  
  But you see they didn’t have a 10 in store. So I stood at the counter, after having the lovely sales assistant check every store in Dublin. (I tried the 8 and it was a too tight). I perched myself against the counter in M&S on Henry Street and bought the 10 online, to be delivered home to the UK just in time for my return.

  This is where it all went wrong. Royal Mail lost my parcel.
  
  A few days later I bought it on the Irish website, to be shipped to my Mum, who could post it over to me in the UK after I left.
  
  In the meantime, by a stroke of luck, I got to Marks & Spencers in Liffeyvalley in a last-minute dash before my flight (see, crazy buying obsession 😳). I got to try the 10 and these weird feelings of ‘it wasn’t quite what I expected’ washed over me. I was in a rush. I should love it right - after all I had built it up so much? I’ve worked hard for this skirt. I bought it and ran for my plane.
  
  I now own 3 grey pinstripe skirt’s from Autograph ㋛

One that’s missing.

One that’s currently in my Mum’s.

And this one I bought in Liffeyvalley in a rush and now wonder about.

And so I am going to play with it, style it up, make it feel a little more like me and see how I get on - but honestly? There is the little voice in my head saying, if it clings even slightly to your bum, will you wear it Julie?? Is the fit really what you love to feel or are you trying too hard?

I share my funny little story, because these are the stories wardrobes are made of.

Good things are bought, but not-so-good things can also be built up in our heads until we *have to have* them, only to get them home and wonder at ourselves.

I might have 3 skirts to return but one things for sure, when something settles in and is imagined within our wardrobe doors, the merry dance is accepting that not every great item is easy to come by but when you do get it right, it’s always worth the work.

Julie x