Summer Style Guide - Mauve & Tan

I bought myself some amazing pale tan wide leg trousers from the Zara sale the other week. I didn't hold out much hope, as Zara is classically cut for women with no hips and ridiculously long legs but these just so happened to fit like a dream when they arrived. I think it's the wide leg cut, which my not-quite-svelte bottom fills out a touch more than it would on those elegant European types they have modelling on the site... But no matter, fit they do and they're incredably flattering and comfortable, the brushed cotton feels almost like silk, and people keep asking me if I've lost weight when I wear them. Lovely people...

I'm not 100% sure these are the same ones I bought, but they're very similar sohere's a pic for you anyway

And if you happen to be a size XS then they're now down to only £12.99

So now I have an absolute obsession with tan paired with pale, summers colours and light, floaty fabrics. I've been teaming these trousers with my *coughPrimarkcough* mauve chiffon ruffled sleeveless shirt and a taupe cropped cardigan, and killer pair of slingbacks also from the Zara sale.

So with a view to more such summery outfits I put together a little summer style guide treasury on Etsy.


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Hope you like it. I wish I hadn't chosen quite so many higher budget pieces though. Now I want them all!

Oh so lovely Jennifer Lily

I wish I were one of those people who just happened to be lucky with Charity and Vintage shops. Some of my friends can walk in there and walk out again with armfuls of bargains and be delightlfully smug with themselves that not only are they being kind to the environment, but nobody's going to be wearing the same dress as them at parties. Me, when I go into these places, I seem to be confronted with walls of mothball smelling christmas sweaters, sad looking winter coats and endless poorly tailored trousers, none of which will be remotely my size.

Vintage online can be a similar minefield, if you do happen to find something you adore which hasn't been marked up 200% by the fashion savvy opportunist, it's more than likely to be made for one of the rail thin lovelies that seemed to grace all highstreets back in the day. Honestly, I'm forced to imagine that either nobody was a "normal" size back then, or all the vintage size 16s took their clothes with them to the big swap shop in the sky.

So imagine by joy when I came accross Jennifer Lilly Clothing. An Etsy shop full of flatteringly shaped and made to measure dresses in the most adorable range of vintage print cottons imaginable and at less than high street prices (which you don't get often for hand made!)

I've already bought a couple of her vintage cardigans (swift delivery and freshly laundered, no hint of mothball here!), but now I'm swooning after this:

For only £22.49 plus about £4 postage

and this:

For the same price. Look at the lovely lace collar! There's even a choice of length for those not so confident about their knees.

Oh Jennifer Lilly, I heart you. And when I have some more pennies your dresses will be mine!