Boo! I thought I’d surprise you with an early post this week. It’s actually because I’m heading off to the funeral shortly and so I’ll be mostly offline for a few days. I will however be able to spend some time answering emails on the train – I do apologise to those of you who have sent messages and haven’t had a reply, I’m catching up slowly. So, the nice thing about this week has been that the Spring has even reached the far North of England, we’re unfurling and opening our faces to the sunshine. This has put me in the mood for a spot of shopping so here are a couple of wardrobe ideas for new Spring fashion for women over 40.

Now I’m sure you’ve read that khaki is going to be this year’s neutral replacing last year’s pale grey and the navy of the year before. I know you’re going to say that grey and navy are timeless and I totally agree. Everyone’s raving about khaki but actually I find it quite hard to wear, it isn’t a colour that I’m drawn to and I know it isn’t in my palette so I thought I’d look at a way of being on trend that would still work by restricting it to trousers. The left hand side is a casual outfit and the right is more formal.

new Spring fashion for women over 40.
Pastels are another key Spring trend but personally I’m going to completely swerve them. In my view colours like mint green and pale yellow are really difficult to get right after forty and you risk veering more towards the frump than the fox category. So I’ve moved on to Summer’s bright pink that is starting to arrive in stores.
My week has been good so far. It’s typical isn’t it, my blog has really taken off just as I’ve started a big job again so the invitations for press days have been rolling in just when I don’t have the time to go. However I needed to go down to London to visit the department stores and do some comparative shopping so I decided to time it with just one press show. It was really hard to choose but in the end I opted for Jigsaw which, along with Whistles, gets my vote for the most chic and wearable fashion this year. They’ve been busy reassessing their core collections and the range from August onwards is absolutely fantastic. It’s pricey but the cloth and cut is so good that I really do think I’ll buy fewer things this Autumn but of better quality.
I took lots of photos but as we’re heading into good weather, now isn’t the best time to show them so I’ll save them until later in the year.
Here’s a quick recap of random things I’ve been wearing. A dressed down Sunday outfit for a day of chores, a homework marathon (which involved choosing an endangered animal, writing a speech for it and making a mask to wear – I thought those days had ended with primary school) and prepping for the week.

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Gap marl sweatshirt; Next relaxed skinny jeans; Zara flats

Yes I’m wearing ballerina flats again – my feet ache for them after a week in pointy heels. Jan raised a good point in the comments – perhaps they look best when they have a very flat, almost integrated sole like proper ballet shoes – what do you think?

On Monday I wore this new Boden metallic shimmer jumper for work:

new Spring fashion for women over 40.

Whistles blazer; Boden metallic shimmer jumper; Jigsaw London fit trousers; John Lewis shoes; Zara necklace

Here’s the jumper without the jacket:

new Spring fashion for women over 40.

And a back view, it’s very light weight, perfect for Spring – I really like it.

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Finally this is very early yesterday morning when I was waiting to head down to London.

new Spring fashion for women over 40.

Whistles blazer; Next smart tapered jeans; Finery Ashwin silk jersey top; Whistles bag; Jigsaw Milly shoes. Another shout out for these fabulous £20 tapered crops, they’ve nearly sold out, get some quickly if you can.

I added my pompom scarf to please the Jigsaw team

new Spring fashion for women over 40.

And that brings us up to date dear friends. The next few days will be tough ones, I’ll be saying goodbye to a special friend and staying with his Mum and Dad for a few days to try and help them through. I’ll also be catching up with lots of old chums but not in the right circumstances. Hopefully we’ll share some happy memories and make a point of remembering the good times when we were 20 somethings and fancy free. I don’t know about you but I always end up having really restless nights with strange dreams when things like this are going on. Expect to see me with big bags under my eyes next week! Keep in touch.