I'm busy playing catch-up and so my Boden edit for April is running a little bit late but at least it's now warmer than when we took these photographs last weekend. We were in Newcastle with a bitter east wind blowing and I've assimilated to Geordie life pretty well but not their capacity for short sleeves and sandals in sub zero temperatures so some of the outfits had to be kept inside! It's a great feeling knowing we've finally made [...]
Now that our minds are focused firmly towards better weather I'm bringing you another new season try-on today, this time focusing on new styles for spring from John Lewis. So let's have a catch-up on what's been going on there since I last covered them in October. As you probably know it's all change at the top with the return of Peter Ruis as executive director. He first joined the store in 2005 and was responsible for the huge fashion [...]
With it being Midlifechic's 10th birthday a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd delve into the stats to see what my most popular post has been and ever since I wrote it over five years ago, it's been the one about finding the best bra for your breast shape. Of course it's all a bit out of date now so I thought it was time for a refresh - after all there's no point in moving on to new [...]
Today we're continuing with AW22 and I'm bringing you more ideas for making your wardrobe work hard. I think for all of us it's a season for being realistic; very few people are going to be buying into the 'everything new' mentality - instead it's a time to be savvy. So when it comes to new season, it doesn't feel right for me to just bring you a whole load of 'what's new' posts. Rather [...]
Well as you may have guessed from the picture above, I have something a little different for you today - Mr MC is making his modelling debut on Midlifechic... for one post only. When John Lewis & Partners wondered out loud if we might do a his and hers jeans try-on I wasn't sure how he'd react but he was thrilled by the thought of being at the other side of the lens for a change. His only stipulation was [...]
Thank you for all of your lovely blog birthday wishes last week. I'm writing this in a bit of a time-warp on Tuesday night because we've decided to act on our empty-nesters' ability to be spontaneous and head off for a few days to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We're not going very far at all, certainly not to the exotic climes that we should have been enjoying right now but we've realised that with a new project looming this might [...]
I'm going to talk about how to make winter outfits look pulled together today but first I just want to say how nice it is when a post falls on Midlifechic's actual birthday - my blog is 8 years old today. This is post number 655 and what a journey it's been. As always I've been flicking through my early pictures and my first thought is how tired I look but then I think about how busy life was with [...]
I think this is the hardest time of the year for finding pleasure in your clothes. Between now and early April I feel utterly uninspired by my seemingly endless rotation of jumpers and boots so today I thought we'd start to look ahead to spring. I'm not going to talk about new styles or colours yet because the new season's collections haven't arrived yet. I warn you though that there isn't much to say this year. As you know, retailers [...]
Today's post has been inspired by a personal coat conundrum. As the weather has turned blustery so suddenly in the UK, I've found myself reaching for a coat far earlier than I did last year when I barely needed one until January. Looking at the coat rail in my dressing room, it was hard to see what I have because there are too many and being in a decluttering frame of mind, I decided that rather than needing a new [...]
At last we're heading into my favourite time of year - Spring - and it's time to look at what's going on in the dizzy world of fashion. But actually I'm not going to do a full blown analysis of the trends for SS19. Why? Because for the first time in 26 years of absorbing trends and then trying to reiterate them in a way that's accessible, I've thrown my hands in the air. It isn't that I can't do [...]
Please note this 2019 post has been so popular that I published an updated version in 2024 with current product recommendations - you can find it here. Hello, I'm back - I'll tell you all about our break on Friday when I've hopefully found time to go through the photos (although you can see a little glimpse above). In the meantime I've been wanting to write about how to find the right bra for your breast shape for [...]
We've come to the end of the 'how to build a capsule wardrobe series' and it's taken us nicely through January - didn't that go quickly?! So today I want to wrap everything up by making sure that you have your plan in one place and are ready to build a wardrobe that works for you. I've created one last download and added it to the full collection so that you can summarise all of the work you've done on one [...]
We're coming towards the end of the series on how to create a capsule wardrobe. A few bloggers who cover similar themes have asked why I haven't charged for it or at least collected email addresses in return for the downloads so I thought I'd explain for others who are wondering. I'm very flattered that you think it's worth charging for but there are two reasons why I haven't. Firstly, it's been a way of giving something back to [...]
And here we go with part four of the 'How to plan a capsule wardrobe - women over 40' series - I hope you're enjoying it. It's a short one today because I'm writing it in my London hotel room after a busy day. I've had seven meetings so my head's spinning a bit! This post is another exercise and it involves aspirational thinking. It's time to find your style icon - your dream look. It's something I did when [...]
Well I'm hoping you're up to date with your capsule wardrobe building tasks because the next stage involves thinking about colour and cloth - both intrinsic elements of personal style. Let's start with colour, I'm going to recap quickly on how to decide which colours suit you because quite a few new readers have joined us. Then we'll move on to developing a colour palette that works for you. When you've identified this, it will give you the ability to [...]
I'm so pleased by how well Part One of my 'how to build a capsule wardrobe - ageless style' series went down. As I said on the Midlifechic Facebook page, I felt quite nervous on Friday - it was like handing in an important assignment. So today I'm bringing you Part Two. I know some of you are itching to get down to outfit specifics but my experience of running courses for busy people has taught me to do it [...]
...and let me start by apologising for the 'women over 40' extension on the title there. I know that a sizeable chunk of you aren't over 40 and this process has nothing to do with age, it just helps it to stand out amidst the millions of 'how to build a capsule wardrobe' posts on the internet. So, let's get started with the first part of the series that I put together over the Christmas holidays when I was working [...]
Ok, so in the second of my new season direction posts, I want to talk about colour trends Autumn - Winter 18. There's a temptation at this time of year to leave bright colours behind with summer and slide into a wardrobe of neutrals - blacks, greys and navys. I think it's partly because we often subconsciously associate September with the start of school term and so there's that whole uniform reference in our minds but also because it's just [...]
Ok, here we go, the one some of you have said you've been waiting for - it's the key wearable trends autumn winter 2018 post. I hope you're not bored of trends already because I know everyone's been covering it. However as always, I'm coming at it from the angle of someone who's spent their retail career trying to correlate the flights of fancy of the buying teams with the sales targets of the commercial teams and the wearability demands of [...]
