Sorry – I know I said this post would be about the jeans quest but they are as elusive as the holy grail and it hasn’t quite finished yet. So today I’m updating you on my ‘after work drinks party chic’. A bit of background: Lancaster castle is renowned for its dark history of punishment and executions and it is still a Crown Court. Because of this there are a number of large law firms at its gates and every summer one of them holds what is probably the city’s most exclusive annual event, an evening garden party. It’s always a bit of a relief when you receive the invitation – you know you’re still ‘in’ but then comes the strategic planning of what to wear.
The mood is ‘Silk’ (if you’ve watched it you’ll know what I mean), very male dominated and the women are supremely successful and very chic; it’s very much office to event wear but quite conservative. On these occasions I generally turn to a Boden Audrey dress. I buy one of these every year and they are just the perfect no-brainer ‘big day in the office’ option. They’re great quality, fully lined, being ponte they cling in the right places but they’re cut so that they don’t reveal too much – and work dresses like this that just hint at sexy are really hard to find. (Whistles and Baukjen would be the other places to go to). It’s been an 8 week wait for this one as I told myself I didn’t need another and missed it the first time around. The sizing has been a bit of a nightmare to get right and I ended up having to order 3 different dresses before I was happy. The problem is that it’s narrow on the shoulder which has taken a bit of getting used to, the reviews have all suggested ordering up a size, which I did, but then it lost its fitted appeal. In the end I went for a 12 long because I really believe that hemlines are starting to lower. Here’s the result:
- Audrey ponte dress: Boden
- Snake shoes: John Lewis (past season)
- Snake bag: Selfridges (past season)
It felt great amidst a sea of black and navy and I had a lot of compliments. I realise that this is beginning to sound a little Boden-sponsored but it isn’t, I just love these dresses.
Yesterday I spent the day in Manchester having my haircut (a little too drastically) and trying to fill the following wardrobe gaps:
- Boyfriend jeans: success will show you next week!
- Straight (not skinny) white jeans: disaster – I give up
- Denim shorts: disaster – giving up on these too
I did, however have great success at the Whistles sale (more on these soon) – they have some great offers on last winter’s collection so if you have a store near you rush in and try things on, I find the images on their website too hard to guage but there are some great bargains. Hobbs and Ted Baker also have amazing reductions.
Finally thank you to everyone who has been in touch to tell me that they can’t leave comments. I think it’s a WordPress / Google Blogger issue as I can’t comment on Blogger blogs either. Anyway we’ve installed a new commenting widget so please could you try again and let me know if you still have problems. And my lovely regular commenters please don’t go away – you may have to input your details again (sorry) but I don’t want to lose you. There’s a bit of a lag in importing the old comments so if I haven’t replied to your last one, I should be able to tonight. I’m really grateful for everyone’s help on this, the blog will only keep going if people keep talking to me otherwise I’ll probably lose the will to post. Have a lovely day in the sunshine.
