Charity Shop Chic AW11 – Colour Blocking

Posted on October 29, 2011 by admin

I am coming toward the end of my Charity shop chic for AW11 series. I have by no means exhausted all of the trends out there but I think I have covered everything that I want to. Whilst I get inspiration from the catwalk for many of my outfits, I don’t really follow the trends exactly as I like to try and make them my own.

For example the colour blocking trend that I inspired todays outfit tends to be a fairly minimlist look. I really struggle with minimalism so have added a colourful necklace.

I really love the colour block look and it is a fairly easy one to put together using pieces from the charity shop. The best thing about it is you can just choose your favourite colours which in my case just happen to be really bright, you can also experiment with clashing colours. My local charity shop has rails of colourful knits. The one thing that I struggled to find was a pair of brightly coloured trousers but as an alternative a pair of brightly coloured tights with a neutral skirt and colourful top would work well. I just opted for this bright yellow top that I have had for ages and orginally got from the local charity shop and an M & S cardigan with jeans. An easy casual outfit but just a shame the top creases so easily.

Last week, we had a new charity shop to open in town, I have never seen a charity shop so busy. I managed to elbow my way through the grannies and grab myself a few goodies including this faux fur coat, a bargain at just £12. It is in great condition and I know it is going to keep me so snug and warm this winter. Hopefully, I will be featuring in an outfit soon!

In case you have been wondering what I have been up to this weekend, I have been busy making scary masks for the teddy bears ready for Halloween.

I hope you are having a good weekend. Are you doing anything fun for Halloween?

With warmest wishes

Ceri X

Charity Shop Chic AW11 – Monochrome

Posted on October 17, 2011 by admin

I hope that you had a lovely weekend. It was amazing to have such unexpectedly warm weather. I managed to put together another outfit for my charity shop chic series, which includes a sixties vintage dress (by Lerose) which I bought from Oxfam online. If you haven’t checked out the Oxfam online shop yet, I would definitely recommend it. They have a whole section for vintage clothing. The red shoes were given to me by a friend as they didn’t fit her, they are brand new. The belt was handmade by Emma of Style to Wear.

As far as I am concered monochrome outfits never really go out of fashion. But for Autumn winter 2011, they featured heavily at Marc Jacobs, Giambattista Valli, Chanel and Phillip Lim.

Apart from putting together my outfit, much of the weekend was taken up with tackling the huge pile of ironing that seems to have mounted up. I did find a bit of time for relaxing and went into to town with Mr Style Eyes and the girls for dinner and also did some cooking with the girls. My mum gave me a great big bag of cooking apples from her tree and we also had piles of tomatoes so we made toffee apple muffins (just used a normal muffin recipe and added cubes of apple and fudge), apple crumble, fresh tomato sauce and Normandy chicken pot roast (the recipe was in the Tesco magazine, you can find it here) which was very yummy and surprisingly easy.

Mr Style Eyes was busy putting up his new green house, I wonder if that affected his choice of outfit (green t shirt, green short and green boots!) Here are a few random instagrams from the weekend.

tomatoes Charity Shop Chic AW11 Monochrome apples Charity Shop Chic AW11 Monochrome

cooking Charity Shop Chic AW11 Monochrome

toffee apple muffins Charity Shop Chic AW11 Monochrome

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

With warmest wishes

Ceri X

Charity Shop Chic AW11 – The Classic Shift Dress

Posted on October 13, 2011 by admin

Dress - Oxfam (Originally Laura Ashley)
Tights – Henry Holland for Pretty Polly
Boots – Dream in Green (at Spartoo)
Necklace – a present

For todays Charity Shop Chic, I decided to feature one of my favourite pieces of clothing, the classic shift dress. I love this style as it is both flattering and slimming. I found this cord version recently in Oxfam and I wear it loads because it holds its shape so well. There are also so any different ways that you can accessorise it for different looks. The shift dress was a key shape throughout the forties, fifties and sixties, all of which featured heavily on the catwalks for autumn and winter 2011.

I treated myself to some new tights for autumn from Tights Please, this pair by Henry Holland being one of them. As I wear dresses and skirts most of the time tights are pretty much an essential for autumn and winter and I also love using them to add a bit of colour and pattern to an outfits. I haven’t yet discovered an eco/ ethical option for tights (please let me know if you happen to know one) but kind of justify buying them with the following. A pair of tights is a small addition to my wardrobe that can be used to update numerous outfits for the season. This pair were also made in the UK. That doesn’t change the fact that most tights are made from nylon which uses non renewable resources (coal and energy) and lots of chemicals to make. They also do not biodegrade. It’s a difficult one. I want to minimise my impact on the environment but I also need to keep warm.

I have in the past also talked about difficulties in finding ethical shoes. I am pleased to say things are improving all of the time and this pair of boots is my latest discovery by Dream in Green at Spartoo. They are made in Spain from vegetable tanned leather.

I hope that you are having a good week.

With warmest wishes

Ceri X

Charity Shop Chic AW11 – Tunic and Trousers

Posted on October 10, 2011 by admin

I seem to have been having a bit of a charity shop splurge recently, but I can’t help myself when I see something amazing that fits. Still at least I am not spending loads of money and charity shopping has a relatively low environmental impact. This weekend I have been clearing out my wardrobe to make space for all of the charity shop updates I have bought for autumn. As most of the stuff that I clear out ends up going to the charity shop too, I can feel good that I have done a bit for charity as well as having a much clearer cupboard.

One of the trends for AW11 that I spotted at Oscar De La Renta, Alberta Ferretti, Michael Kors, Osman and Ermanno Scervino, amongst others and wanted to try out was tunics and trousers. I love the way that this look covers all those lumpy and bumpy bits (of which I have plenty) and the proportions also seem to work well for me being only 5ft 2. I found this beaded tunic at the local Oxfam shop and though it would be a great alternative a dress for a night out. The beading also reminds me of spiders webs so I might even wear it for Halloween. If you like this look, you can also trend out for any short shift style dress to wear with trousers for a similar look.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend. I am suffering today as I woke up with a very sore back, I have been taking Nurofen and Parecetomol and I am currently sat with a hot water bottle on my back. Fingers crossed it is better tommorrow.

Look out for the next post in my Charity Shop Chic Series for AW11 which will feature the classic shift dress.

With warmest wishes

Ceri X