Armour

Gosh it’s tricky to get outfit pictures during winter! Not only is it bitterly cold, but the sun doesn’t rise early enough, so having enough light to snap pics before work is very hard indeed. Not to mention the rain, clouds and wind all interfering and making my life very difficult (whinge whinge whinge). All that being said I hauled myself out of bed early enough yesterday morning to capture my work wear armour for the blog... 

I say armour because that’s exactly what it needed to be. Things have been a bit tough at work lately so wearing something that was comfortable (it was Monday after all) and made me feel like a million bucks was very important. I picked up this skirt on a sneaky lunch time op shop last week, it actually is black with a navy stripe, but you can hardly see it in this images. Tube skirts are seriously an office-workers saving grace. They are the perfect thing to throw on when you know you’re going to be chained to your computer all day and wearing track pants isn’t an option.

My fab purple hounds tooth box jacket is part of a vintage suit (this one) and is totally amazing, which in turn makes me feel pretty darn good too. Also you can’t feel crap in pink suede pointy toe pumps. It’s just science. 

Skirt: Claremont Vinnies $2

Top: Salvos South Lake $8

Jacket: Good Sammies Fremantle $7.50

Shoes: J Crew, via eBay 

Sunglasses: Miu Miu, via eBay

P.S WOO HOO for another totally second hand outfit!! 

Business Shoes

 

Wittner black and white striped, Celine Monk shoes

Melissa x Vivienne Westwood cherry heels, Chloe wood and leather t-bar platforms

I thought I’d share a little project I’ve been inadvertently working on. Basically a few months ago I realised that even though I have a whole vast wardrobe of beautiful interesting shoes I seemed to wear the same two pairs on repeat to work every day of the week. Even though I pay lots of attention to my clothes when dressing for work, when it came to my shoes I was wussing out and going for the safe option every time. Either I wore my trusty black block-heeled pumps or my a fail-safe Repetto ballet flats (black of course). So I set myself a little challenge to start wearing a larger variety of my shoes, because god knows I’ve got them! 

Wittner strappy sandals, Bass x Rachel Antonoff red patent brogues 

Marni wood and leather platforms, Op shopped pumps with vintage green shoe clips 

Bally ballet flats, J Crew pink suede heels

I’ve been sharing some of my shoe-drobe choices on Instagram and just the other day thought it might be interesting to look at them all together. This wasn’t something I planned or even thought about, but I’ve been enjoying wearing my more exciting heels so I thought I’d share them on the blog too. Plus the weather has been crap this week and I haven’t been able to get out of the house and snap some proper outfit pics, so these images can tide you over until the sun comes out again!

Zara white sandals, Messeca brown brogues 

Asos houndstooth heels, Sportscraft black sandals

Red suede ankle boots, Asos white spikey brogues

I've been using the hash tag #BusinessShoes on instagram, so if you feel like sharing your sweet work footwear situation then please do! I'd love to see them! 

PS I buy a lot of my shoes on eBay. If you don’t have a problem with wearing second hand shoes (which I do not) then there are some AMAZING bargains to be found. All of the above shoes which I won on eBay cost me $50 or less, including the Marni sandals and Chloe platforms!

Long Weekend

Luke and I, plus two of our good friends road tripped down to Margaret River for the long weekend, we ate out body weight in chocolate and cheese, played Cards Against Humanity for hours on end and drank A LOT of red wine. It was awesome! 

The greatest thing about going away with your best friend is having someone to snap outfit pics without the constant stream of complaints. Luke is very patient and tolerant with a lot of things, but taking blog photos is definitely not one of them. So I was thrilled to have one of my besties with me for our long weekend in wine country, I wore many cute outfits and she was there to snap them! (Thanks Tash!)

We stayed at the Redgate Beach Escape, which was perfect for two couples. Luke and I have stayed there before and were so excited to go back. They have four free standing two bedroom chalets all with uninterrupted views over the bush and out to sea. That view is seriously one of my absolute favourites. The chalets are set back from the road and are completely out of the way, you feel so secluded, but it’s only a 10 minute drive into the centre of Margaret River. This totally isn’t an add for Redgate Beach Escape, I just love it so much! The only down side is that because there are only four chalets, they get booked up really quickly. We only managed to nab one over the long weekend because of a last minute cancellation (yay for us!). 

On Sunday we went cruising around to some of the wineries, which was a perfect excuse to don a pretty dress. We visited Xanadu, Voyager, Leeuwin Estate and Watershed (with a lunch stop at Colonial Brewery), all were amazing and I spent way too much money on fancy wine… oops! I think a floral dress, boots and a felt hat is the uniform de-jure of wine tasting ladies, practically every second girl was wearing that combo so I was very tempted to leave my hat in the car for the last few stops. 

Outfit 1

Top: Vinnies Claremont $7

Skirt: Vinnies Claremont $3

Boots: Asos

Bag: Claremont Vinnies $4

Jacket: Salvos Osborne Park $15

Sunglasses: Pared Eyeware

Outfit 2*

Dress: St Lukes Op Shop, Mosman Park $12

Belt: Op Shop

Hat: Op Shop

Boots: Asos

Sunglasses: Pared Eyeware 

*I wore almost this exact outfit in one of my very first blog posts! Two years on and it’s still as fabulous as ever (at least I think so!)

Busted

The first thing I do when I walk into an op shop is make a bee-line for the dresses… well that used to be my first stop but lately I’ve found myself going straight to the men's t-shirts. I love finding funny printed T’s and retro cartoon characters. On my most recent trip to Salvos I found this great Ghost Busters t-shirt. It’s XL, so it’s SUPER comfy, and if I tie it up in a knot at the back then it fit’s just right. 

  

I dressed this t-shirt up with a leather skirt and sky high boots to celebrate one of my good friends birthdays. She organised drinks at a cool bar in the City, and seeing as I very rarely venture into Perth I thought it was a good excuse to wear something a little edgier.

How would you dress up a men's t-shirt? I guess skinny jeans and heels is the obvious choice, but I’m not much of a jeans girl, so my super cool spotty leather skirt made a good substitute. I fell in love with this vintage beauty at first sight (obvs), it was a tiny bit too tight but I bought it anyway. I honestly would have done anything to make this skirt fit, even give up pasta, but luckily once I cut out the polyester lining (and slipped on some Spanx) it fit like a dream, pasta crisis averted!

T-shirt: Salvos Fremantle $4

Skirt: Save the Children Mosman Park $20

Ring: Bindaring Sale $1

Bangle: Opportunity Knocks $4

Boots: Jeffrey Campbell

Clutch: Target

PS Did you know today is Go Orange for PWS Day? If you have never heard of Prader Willi Syndrome (which you probably haven't because it's very rare) then I suggest you check out this link. A good friend of mine has a beautiful little daughter with PWS, so today I'll be wearing some of my favourite orange accessories for her and donating my coffee money here (no one needs a third coffee anyway right?!)

Street Style Steal

Today’s Street Style steal is a combination of two images and ladies I love. Elisa Nalin and Margaret Zhang, both have pretty impeccable street style and neither shy away from bright colours, bold prints and interesting proportions. They are the definition of my style inspiration and I’ll no doubt attempt to recreate more of their street style looks in the future, but for today this is what I’m tackling:

Photo credit 1 & 2 

I adore the idea of a head to toe monochrome outfit, and what better colour then red?! Both ladies look completely effortless yet totally perfect, so I certainly had my work cut out for me with recreating this look. Instead of trying to find the exact same pieces I decided to just pull things I already had in my wardrobe and embody the general style of these outfits (rather than just be a copy cat!). My cupboards seem to be overflowing with patterns so I actually don’t have many block coloured items of clothing, luckily red is my favourite colour so I managed to scrape together this outfit without having to head to the op shop.

I'm going to take this outfit down south with me this weekend, at least I won't get lost amongst the long-weekend crowds when wine tasting! What do you think? Is head to toe colour something you would try?

Skirt: Op Shop $10
Jumper: Good Sammies Freo $7
Boots: Random boutique in Melbourne (I know that's not helpful at all!)
Bag: Amorosa Accessories c/o
Sunglasses: Karen Walker via eBay

Life Recently

Oh my goodness it’s winter next week! How exciting! I always love the change of seasons because it means I get to bring out clothes that I haven’t seen for six months. This weekend some friends and I are going to Margaret River, it’s going to be super chilly down there so I’ve pulled out my faux fur coat, roll neck jumpers and thick woollen hats in anticipation! May is always a fun month with lots to celebrate, including Mother’s Day, mine and Luke’s anniversary and my little brothers birthday (which is today!). I love celebrating special occasions with special people, giving presents and eating cake are some of my favourite activities. 

Recently I’ve been…

Eating crapola, I really need to get back into healthy eating

Drinking red wine and lots of tea
Cooking SOUP!

Watching not much! I’ve been working and blogging and training so much that I’ve fallen well behind with all my regular shows
Reading Paper Towns by John Green, it was great and I can really imagine Cara Delevingne as Margot (she’s been cast as that character for the movie)

Buying these Vivienne Westwood X Melissa cherry heels! I’ve been longing for these shoes for AGES and finally found a pair in my size and price range on eBay, hoorah!

Wearing winter woollies including hats and scarves and gloves. OH MY!
Avoiding buying more shoes… I have enough. Must. Stop. Now. aarrgg
Browsing Etsy, eBay, Pinterest, Gumtree and Instagram for art ideas for my new house. After many years of renting I’m so excited to be able to hang things up on the walls!

Dreaming of the snow! Luke and I have just booked flights to Queenstown for two weeks of skiing and wintry fun in July. I cannot wait.

I hope the last week of Autumn treats you well! (and if you’re in Perth be sure to rug up because it is freezing!)

Photo run down (they are all from my insta @inthedressupbox)

Practicing my  #flatlay skills with my fav new T-shirt

Celebrating 6 years with my bearded babe

All spruced up for the North Cott SLSC awards night

Vintage Celine monk shoes and my new colour-block purse

Found the perfect denim jacket to replace my old one that has literally fallen to pieces

Sussing out new outfit photo locations

Super pumped for the indoor volleyball season (and my cute new training gear)

Tasty treats for a rainy Sunday afternoon