Hello, it’s a surprise me popping up on a Tuesday I know but I’m heading away this weekend so my schedule’s all mixed up. I have a new try-on for you today – this time I’m wearing White Stuff my way. Every so often somebody will write in and ask me to show more of my village life at home so that they can see how I do casual chic for country life. The thing is that when I’m at home I’m focused on work – this is the place where I’m at my most productive and so I rarely think of stopping to take photographs of whatever I’m wearing. As you know I spend about two thirds of my time here in our village on the fringe of the Lake District and it’s a very relaxed way of dressing. Some days you’ll find me in sports gear so that I have no excuse not to go to the gym after work and for the rest of the time I dress for a day of semi-smart comfort at my desk.
I try really hard not to slip into too much of a jeans and jumper rut and it’s easy in the summer but much harder as more layers are required. To be honest I could probably work in pyjamas if I let myself. We had an office built at the bottom of our garden when we moved to our house 20 years ago so I don’t have a long or even public commute to my desk – I do at the very least have to factor in a lunchtime dog walk though so I have to get dressed. I can’t imagine working in pyjamas anyway. I was chatting to friend at the gym the other day who said she’d noticed I always wear make-up and it surprised me. I realise I never go downstairs in the morning without it, it just wouldn’t occur to me. Back in the 90s at Selfridges we were drilled so hard on standards with regular spot check inspections on our nail varnish and lipstick. I guess it’s a habit that just stuck with me although that kind of thing’s unthinkable now.
Anyway, that was London’s Oxford Street, back to village life. Mal and I have separate offices in the same log cabin. I know ‘the view from my window’ posts are popular on Instagram so here’s mine. I look out across the garden and up towards the house every day, it’s a peaceful place with no distractions other than wildlife and I often find it hard to break away, I spend hours and hours at my desk, especially if the boys aren’t around.
Mal looks out across the canal to the coast – you can just spot the sea glistening through the trees. There’s a cloud bank today but when it’s clear you can see all the way across the bay to the Lake District mountains. It’s lovely on a day like this but wuthering on a howling winter afternoon when there are no leaves on the trees – so I prefer my spot to his.
I still find it odd sitting here and having Zoom meetings with big retailers, I so often feel like a turnip top until they ask me to turn my screen and show them the view. That’s when I realise that I’m lucky to have this hybrid life of town and country. So do I dress differently when I’m here? Of course I do. If I don’t have an in-person meeting it’s all about relaxed comfort but I still like to have an element of chic because I never know if I’ll have to jump onto a video call.
Casual chic for country life
So back to White Stuff and it’s good timing because there’s 20% off almost everything there this week. You already know I’m a fan – I respect what they’re doing as a brand and it doesn’t surprise me that they’re continuing to see constant growth across every aspect of their business, both in the UK and as they expand overseas. They’re one of the few UK retailers that is committed to opening new bricks and mortar shops, the reason being that so much of the pleasure in their clothes is found in the detail – they know that once a customer tries them on, they’ll almost always buy and then return again. That’s because one of their key design principles is that function should always be equal to form – and when you think about it, there probably aren’t many retailers who work to that kind of balance. It means their clothes are always comfortable to spend a whole day moving around in, nothing pinches and fabrics are breathable – and yet they still look good.
The colours they choose are inspired by nature’s palette although I notice that they’re getting deeper in hue which I like because they often used to feel just a little too knocked back for me. When I put their clothes on I feel in harmony with a more rural environment, they just fit in around here and a lot of women in our village wear them. Their press pack for the AW24 season actually made me feel quite moved when it came in. I love the way they’ve summed up how I feel about dressing for where I live – especially the unsuitable shoes bit! So with their permission I’m sharing the first few pages with you here so that you can read it too. The thing is that people in the countryside still want to look and feel good, they just have different elements to factor in – and it may ‘only be a bit of rain’ but there’s a lot of it!
Last season I showed you some of the work White Stuff have been doing with all kinds of different community groups in the UK and here’s the latest one with Cos Morris, a Cotswolds based Morris dancing group for women. I love the celebration of quirkiness, of finding joy in the thing you love.
It’s what we talk about more and more on Midlifechic, celebrating the person you are and not being worried about what other people think – ‘dancing to a different tune’ as Boss Morris put it.
Every time they work with a community group, White Stuff invites them to play around with the new season’s clothes and style them their way so this is how Boss Morris pulled them off. You can see more pictures here and read all about the group.
The other thing that I love is the fact that they choose real customers to model their clothes for the website every season. It makes such a difference when you see things on an everyday body as well as a model with defined proportions. Here you can see Joyce who at 77 is doing her first photoshoot. Her village life sounds very like mine – she sings in the choir, has a book/wine club, walks every day and I wish she lived here because she’s known for her great baking.
So White Stuff create exactly the kind of warm, maverick community that I like best – women from different age groups and backgrounds who share a love of dressing individually. They set a lot of store by getting people to put outfits together in their own style so let me show you what I did when they asked me to come up with three outfits from their latest collection that felt like me.
Casual chic for country life
White Stuff my way
I’m starting with a winner for this time of year. It says ‘new start’ to me because it’s a dress in my old school uniform colours. Navy with this pinky shade of red is spot on and not so much of a burgundy that you wouldn’t want to wear it in spring. One thing that’s new this season across a few retailers is a seasonal adjustment to the calendar. Some, like White Stuff, have started to think about the changing weather patterns and how they affect sales so you’ll notice that there are lighter weight pieces around for September and October that have been released in seasonal colours. That’s because research has shown that a lot of people don’t really feel like buying heavy coats and knitwear until November and yet they want to reflect the season’s transition. This dress is the perfect example of that. It’s in light cotton so it felt comfortable on the very, very warm day when we took this photo and yet as the children poured out of the village school behind me a few minutes later in their smart new uniforms, I still felt autumnally dressed because the colours were right.
Embroidered midi-dress; leather knee high boots; burgundy leather bag
As we move towards October this light cord jacket is the perfect piece to add, later on you’d layer up further with tights and a long sleeve tee underneath. You’ll see I’ve added a burgundy bag because the first time I wrote a review for White Stuff lots of you said I’d missed a trick by not including the accessories as they’re such good quality. It’s true and they’re very good value, especially when you bear in mind that they’re made from the softest leather.
Cord jacket; embroidered midi-dress; leather knee high boots; burgundy leather bag
The footwear is incredibly comfortable, it’s made for walking in – I often wear flat White Stuff boots for dog walks along the canal when it isn’t too muddy but these are a little bit dressier with their low heel.
Moving on to cooler days here with this jumper which has my favourite kind of single layer funnel neck. I’m always slightly confused when I see brands who target midlife women trying to sell double layered roll necks – I can’t imagine anybody over 35 ever being able to tolerate one! This jumper is made from an acrylic and wool blend which some of you won’t like, however sometimes it’s better to have a synthetic mix if you’re wearing a heavier jumper simply because it means it won’t feel itchy.
Funnel neck jumper; jeans; cord jacket; suede boots; burgundy leather bag
I’ve banned myself from buying any more navy jumpers because when I unpacked my autumn box I realised I have so many although each has a slight (but critical!) variation. Anyway this only has a navy fleck. It ticks all of my boxes, it has raglan sleeves so it works regardless of shoulder width and the flattering ribbed hem with its split at the side means that it sits well over the hips.
Jeans sell well at White Stuff and it’s a good place to go if you’re looking for an easy, timeless cut. This weekend style is new and comes in three different washes as well as three choices of length. You’ll see I’ve switched the boots over for navy suede which is always so hard to find. I really can say that White Stuff boots are more comfortable than the brands whose footwear is famed for its comfort.
Funnel neck jumper; jeans; cord jacket; boots; burgundy leather bag
And my last outfit is a medley of greens which go rather nicely with the dappled green of the trees behind me here – I told you White Stuff is all about the colours of nature. I’ve talked a lot about green already this season and I love the contrast of the slightly acid apple shade with the more muted khaki in the merino and cotton blend knitted jacket. I know how well it will work layered over the apple green cashmere crew neck that you saw me wearing last week and you can see that I’ve added the bag I already have.
Tipped knitted jacket; olive cords; pewter cowboy boots
The cords are in my favourite wide-leg cut but they aren’t too baggy or long for lunchtime walks and the pewter boots just glam the whole outfit up, adding a flash of something special to country style.
Tipped knitted jacket; olive cords; pewter cowboy boots
White Stuff gives you such easy off duty dressing – outfits that you can wear to meet a friend for a dog walk that ends up in a nice cafe. I like their size inclusivity, they range from a size 6 to a 24 and often have both petite and long in addition to regular lengths. They’re transparent about sustainability as you can see here. But most of all I love their everywoman approach. Don’t forget that there’s 20% off just about everything here for the rest of the week.
I’ll be back on Friday with a post about style tips that will hopefully give you new ways of thinking about how to put outfits together. And then I’m taking a break – the youngest went back to uni on Saturday and so I feel in need of a reset – but I’ll tell you more about that in the next post, Until then have a great week.
Disclosure: ‘Casual chic for country life’ was commissioned by White Stuff but styled my way, as always
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