Five days on a boat with people we'd never met You might remember that two years ago I went sailing in Thailand on a women-only trip. I spent a week on a catamaran with strangers, learning what it's like to discover a new destination from the perspective of its coastline. The one thing missing the whole time was Mal. I kept noticing things I wanted to show him and so at the back of my [...]
Time for some retail therapy and some reader events to look forward to. Now that we're back at our desks and in a position to start planning again, I'm delighted to announce a reader trip that we've been working on for ages. Places will go on sale next Friday and there are only 17 - it's something I'm really proud of but I'll tell you about it at the end of the post. First let's talk about what's in [...]
I want to say thank you for all of the thoughtful messages that you've left in the comments, in emails and via social. Realistically I'm not going to manage to reply to you but we've read them all and they've meant the world - especially to Mal. It's only a few months since I was having a clearout and came across all the cards that I was sent when my mum and dad died. I remember it being a [...]
There's a particular kind of optimism required to style a summer edit on Newcastle's quayside when the East wind has clearly not got the memo. Linen, in May, with the Millennium Bridge arching overhead and the Tyne glowering below (the down jacket came off between shots but the goose pimples stayed put). However I'd been invited to do a John Lewis summer wardrobe edit and if anything I think the colder the shoot, the harder you dream of warmer [...]
You're going to find this a post of contrasts today. I want to start by talking about an exhibition of Queen Elizabeth's style that I previewed recently and end with distinctly less regal everyday life in Newcastle. Right now I'm in Croatia, tomorrow we're due to head off for a few days of sailing around the islands and I'm praying that the weather forecast will improve. If you want to see if it does (or whether we spend our [...]
A week with my adult children - and the small impacts I didn't know I'd had... Ok so I'm still playing catch-up. We're rewinding to the Easter weekend today and a story that I've been dying to tell you, I've had to bide my time and now it's here. For those of you who come for the clothes there isn't much to show you today - but for those who come for the meandering midlife tales there's more. [...]
This year is turning into a runaway train for us, we'll be a third of the way through it next week and so far I've spent far more nights away than I have at home. I have so many stories to tell you about the things we've been doing and life in general and I'm running to catch up so today I'm going to take you back to Mexico for the third part of our adventure there. Even though [...]
I have more new season ideas for you today - ways of updating your look as style starts to move on a little as well as some classic summer brights that are perfect for the summer months ahead. When I took these photos I had a sense of my worlds colliding because it was just as we were waiting for the last Midlifechic Retreat to begin. As readers started to gather in the sunshine they had a ringside view [...]
Today I'm doing something that always makes me happy - crunching data and bringing it to life for you. And I'm trying on a couple of completely new looks as trends are slowly starting to take a new turn. So today's going to be a catch-up with what's going on at John Lewis, Spring 26 but first I just want to say an enormous thank you to everyone who came along to last weekend's Midlifechic Retreat. Once again it [...]
Let's pop back to Mexico shall we? As I type the rain's hammering down outside and it feels as if spring has crept back into its shell. Today I want to take you to Oaxaca which you may remember was the reason that we chose to go to Mexico when we had to pivot away from Cuba rather quickly. It was the place that the well travelled midlife women I met in Thailand voted as their all-time favourite and [...]
As I start writing I'm not sure where I'm going with this post today so bear with me. I find myself running at a frantic pace again, it's been going on for a long time now and my nervous system is already hitting overload at a point in the year when it should be just emerging from a period of winter rest. And it's just how things seem to be for so many midlife couples I know right now. [...]
I have a nice new season edit for you today as the big spring 26 drops are starting to land. And I, for one, am not looking back - not a single new piece of wintery, woolly cold weather clothing will enter my wardrobe... at the moment I feel like saying EVER. You know I'm not a fan of the A/W season, my heart pounds when I see the spring press packs bounding into my inbox in early January. [...]
Well hello, I'm back from what turned out to be the very best celebration we could have had for our silver wedding anniversary. We travelled our way and set our own agenda doing only the things we love. So today's post is going to include thoughts about travelling with your partner, a midlife guide to Mexico City and I'm including a packing capsule too because this was the time that I felt I really cracked the perfect city break [...]
Another quick hello from me. I hope there are signs of spring in the UK - we're moving to hotter and hotter territory so I'll try and waft some sunshine your way. My toughest decision today has been which bikini to choose but I know you're probably not facing the same dilemma so, one more styling post to keep you going. This time it's a recap on 2 easy midlife outfit styling tricks for days when you're feeling uninspired. [...]
As you know I'm away but I didn't want to leave you with nothing to read on a Friday so I'm going to do a series of very short posts on style solutions. No chitter chatter, just down to business. I'm turning the comments off because I'll see them come in and want to answer them - then Mal will remind me that we're away celebrating our silver wedding and I'll feel torn. It isn't that I don't want [...]
Here we are at one of my favourite posts of the year - the one where we leave winter behind and start looking ahead to warmer weather. There aren't enough words to tell you how happy it makes me, I hate the drag of winter layers... and the huge effort of getting lots of individual pieces working together... and the feeling of being covered up. It reminds me of being very small in the days before duvets when my [...]
We've made it to the end of January and I'll just say to those of you who are grumbling about me not doing enough midlife style posts, "give yourselves (and me) (and the planet) a break." I fully believe that in January we should follow nature's example and be fallow for a while, it's a time for rest and regeneration. The shops are full of stuff that nobody wants, discounted more every day and the sale advice endures - [...]
I'd hoped to write a Midlife Lately today because I haven't had a chance to do one since the end of October and there's such a lot for us to talk about but I've run out of time so we'll just have to have a big one in January. Instead I'm going to end the year by pondering over how to make a memorable Christmas. What is it that makes some Christmases stand out with a particularly warm glow [...]
So how are you getting on? One more week of work to go for most of us... and are you skipping or limping? I'm really looking forward to Christmas but this week has felt like one of those long runs where you hit a wall and getting to the end seems impossible. Extra stuff has just toppled me over - like the heating breaking down and a car needing a new wheel... things that involve lots of phone calls [...]
As I start to write this post I'm just waiting for the first person to say, "I told you so..." Today I'm looking at a brand that I haven't covered it before even though I know lots of you tell me how much you love it. I've always known that they do great quality clothing so I've been trying to work out why I haven't looked into them and I think it's because they're so distinctly Cornish that the [...]
I'm short on time today - meetings in London after a week in Newcastle, a 60th birthday with old friends tonight and then the last of our Christmas parties tomorrow. After that life is narrowing down a bit with a focus on close friends and family for December. Phew! So I've had to finish pulling this together on the train this morning and the wi-fi really isn't playing ball. However there are some Black Friday 25 offers on some [...]
I'm approaching Christmas a little differently this year. I can't believe how early the Black Friday madness has started and I don't know about you but I already feel bombarded by gift lists and discount messages. I've been chatting to some of my old Selfridges colleagues this week about how our role at this time of year used to be to create magic for people - to make a trip into London worth it. There was no discounting before [...]
From the comments last week it sounds as though the Christmas spirit is slowly catching light in our midlife world. It's always more fun thinking about the what to wear bit than the sprouts and bread sauce though isn't it? So today I have a little more on that note, not just partywear but winter dressing in general as I bring the latest Boden drop to life. At this time of year I like to find an hour on [...]
As is the way these days the Halloween decorations went down last weekend and the Christmas ones started going up - not in my house but in a lot of others that I spotted when I was driving to Sainsbury's! So, I'm easing you in gently today with one of my favourite topics - party style - or just getting dressed for going 'out out'. I've been writing a version of this piece in early November since 1993 and [...]
It's a bit of a different post today. Before we plunge into the busy-ness of Christmas I want to tell you about a special project that I've been working on and the thinking that brought it to life. Its focus is identity - specifically the way a woman's sense of identity changes as she gets older. For some menopause brings a feeling of rebirth while others report a slide into invisibility. Whichever way it is there's almost always a [...]
So it's time for a Midlife Lately - October 25 and as I look through my camera roll I realise it's been quite a while since we've had one because the September catch-up was all about our break in Turkey. I feel as if I have quite a lot to say but also not much. The last two months have been all about family - watching from afar as the eldest handled his first big photoshoot in Miami for [...]
It's been a while since we've done a department store shop so let's look at what's going on at John Lewis AW25. As I explained in my last JL post back in May there's a lot happening behind the scenes as the new team continues to regenerate the brand. Stores are gradually going into a multi-million pound refurbishment project with the beauty halls as the priority and beyond the shops, the build-to-rent project continues with over 1000 new rental [...]
After last weekend's storms I think we can safely say that the season has changed and it's no longer a case of just playing around with ideas for autumn outfits. With that in mind I have a try-on for you which is going to focus mostly on using brown as a base - although for those of us who have a lot of blue in our wardrobes I have a strong navy option too. I'm looking at Boden today [...]
As promised it's a High Street style edit today and it's been a bit chaotic at Midlifechic towers this week so I hope everything makes sense. You see the middle one's visa arrived with no warning on Tuesday and so he immediately booked his flight for the following day... there was a fair bit of clucking on my part to get him ready in less than 14 hours! In the meantime the youngest has been excitedly viewing and finally [...]
Ok, it's time for our seasonal trend update and I'm short on time because it's been a busy week so I'm whizzing through them a bit. If you've had a look around the shops you may have wondered what's going on because it isn't easy to define the Autumn 25 trends so let me take you behind the scenes and give you a little context. As always, the looks you see on the high street now were inspired by the [...]
And so I'm back... from outer space... well not quite but it feels like it. We had an incredibly relaxing week away doing very little which is exactly what we wanted but it doesn't give me a lot to talk to you about today. I packed very light and it was a selection from my usual holiday wardrobe, almost all of which you've seen before. We did very little beyond sleeping, eating, chatting and sliding in and out of [...]
So here we are in September - those of us who are summer lovers have to remind ourselves that it's a beautiful month, as is October. And actually having been to Medellin in Colombia this year where they live in an eternal spring with temperatures always around the mid-20s and the sun rising and setting at around 6am/pm every day of the year, I'm feeling newly enthusiastic about our changing seasons. After the loose days of summer I'm ready [...]
And just like that another month's gone, the last one of full summer which, for me, always feels a bit sad. I love summer... the slowing of the negative news cycle... the freedom that comes with the quiet retail calendar... the warmth that finally reaches the North on a few occasions... and just the general change of pace. People rush around less, faces are less pinched and good times pop up spontaneously. So here's my Midlife lately - August [...]
Summer Cornucopia - books, beauty, bras and birthdays I'm a bit short of time this week - we've had an unplanned trip over to Newcastle to see mum-in-law because she's been in hospital after a fall and then there's been this weekend's Midlifechic overnighter to think about. So today I'm bringing you a cornucopia, a quick round-up of some discoveries I've been meaning to mention. There's an unbeatable beauty product, some good buys I've spotted in recent drops [...]
This is one of those posts that is all about family and it's where my blog turns personal as a legacy that I hope to pass down. It's a long one and it will hold no interest for some - if that's you, I assure you that normal service will be resumed next week. Others though will understand how the milestones that we reach don't always point ahead, sometimes they cause you to look back along the path that's [...]
We've reached the point in the summer where there are no new clothes for us to talk about so it's just going to be me chatting to you about what I've been doing, wearing and thinking over the next few weeks - let's hope I can make it interesting! So it's a midlife lately catch-up today and we're going back to the beginning of July when we went away for a little break. In the space of ten days [...]
Hello, I'm back after our week away which was so busy that I feel full of life again - and sunshine because we headed South. Anyway I'll tell you all about that next week, today though I have the last of the summer drops for you from Boden who continue to be so supportive of this blog and therefore us as a customer group. As you know they've been working hard over the past eighteen months to return to [...]
If you read my post on Tuesday you already know that June began as an unexpectedly sad month and yet with 'stop all the clocks' absurdity, life carried on. There were still work deadlines to be met and meetings to go to. The sun shone - or rather it didn't much here - Wordsworth would have some 'pathetic fallacy' context on the fact that we were covered by grey cloud for most of the month. With everything that had been [...]
And here we are, at the end of June which is officially the point where the summer season ends in British retail. You'll notice that most of the new drops coming in have long sleeves and autumn hues... my Inbox is full of December related stuff but I won't say the word yet! I think you become less tolerant of fashion's rush as you get older and perhaps find yourself more in touch with the seasons outside your window [...]
As the weather's continuing to play silly games I'm carrying on with the requests I've been having for more outfit ideas with sleeves. I've just done a huge clearout of my dressing room and I've worked out that summer sleeves are what I'm missing too. I have plenty of summer clothes for hot dreamy holidays but not enough outfits for changeable summer days which, let's face it, [...]
It's a post of two halves today, one part thinking, the other shopping, both in response to reader feedback. The thing that I've discovered over the last year is that I enjoy writing this blog more than writing a book specifically because it's a living thing. The conversations we have in the comments help me to know when there's more on something that we need to talk about - or simply when you need ideas on what to wear. [...]
I was supposed to be bringing you my Summer edit of the latest M&S collection today but sadly they're still battling with their cyber incident and we can only keep on wishing the best for them. What a nightmare it must be with stock levels, I popped into the Newcastle store to see if they'd released many new styles but I could hardly see any at all so it looks as though they're holding them [...]
I'm back and firing on all cylinders today - if there's one thing that last year taught me it's that it's no longer worth pushing your midlife body through when you're under the weather. Of course this glorious weather helps, I know the farmers desperately need some rain but it's such a joy living in a world when every day brings sunshine isn't it? Anyway I haven't looked at Boden since before Christmas so today I'm doing a bumper [...]
I haven't had the opportunity to do many retail updates this year and yet I know from the survey I did in January that it's your favourite department store so let's have a look at what's going on at John Lewis. I do have a new season try-on today as promised but first I thought I'd give you a quick update on what's been happening since Peter Ruis was appointed Executive Director last spring. I'm sure you'll remember the [...]
Happy Easter! Wow that came around quickly - even though it's late this year I feel as though I'm still emerging from Christmas in a way. I hope you have a lovely weekend planned - ours is probably going to be quiet because I'm starting the dental implant surgery to replace the tooth that's been bothering me for as long as I've been writing this blog and so I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself today. We're spending the [...]
Broadly speaking I look for one of two emotions when I'm trying on something new, they're the gut instinct signals that tell me whether I should buy something or not. The first is the solid and more prosaic satisfaction that says, 'this is going to work really hard for a long time' and that's good - it indicates the discovery of a wardrobe lynchpin that will pull lots of pieces together. The second turns up less often and it's [...]
Wow - the sun's really out isn't it?! As promised, I have a new season try-on for you today and I'm looking at Spring wardrobe building blocks 2025 from M&S. When their big Spring drop arrived last week they invited me to pull together a small Midlifechic edit of my favourite pieces. As we saw in Friday's Spring Fashion Trends post they have a strong focus on the key colour palette of the season which is a tonal collection of [...]
At last it's officially spring, the last few years have taught me not to jinx summer by predicting a good one so I'm just going to say that if it turns out to be anything like the winter we've had up here, it would be glorious. Who knows what's coming weatherwise but new season has landed in the shops and it's time to look at the Spring fashion trends 2025. There were a lot of different looks on the [...]
I'm sure you're already aware that we're living through a period of nostalgia - it's been happening for a while, people looking back to safer, simpler feeling times. You see it with the throwbacks that are going on everywhere - in fashion, in food, in music... amongst the older generations who remember an offline era that was slower and less pressured... and throughout the younger generations too. Top of the Gen Z Christmas wishlist was a 'vintage' 90s digital camera, [...]
Colombia Guide - Coffee Plantation Visit This is the last of my posts about Colombia - I could happily write about our trip for weeks but new season is approaching so I know we need to get onto that soon. Just now though it's still to soon to be thinking about new clothes, the best is yet to arrive in the shops so let me give a different Colombia guide - the Caribbean Islands & Cartagena. You see after [...]
And just like that I'm back at my desk - it feels impossible that reality and everyday life still exists. Colombia was absolutely the trip of a lifetime and ever since we started the journey home I've been trying to work out why so that I could articulate it here. I think it's because it was so much a road untravelled. For most of it there just wasn't a tourist path and so we were immersed into everyday life [...]
Well hello from Colombia. I thought it was going to be easy to keep blogging while I was out here but this week has been incredibly intense with barely a half hour to rest here and there. If you're following my travels on Instagram you'll know that we're doing an intensive salsa immersion which consists of dance lessons during the day and often trips out to a salsa event at night. Doing that and trying to keep on top [...]
Ok so that's enough of the heavy thinking posts for a while, let's take our very first 2025 look at some easy wardrobe updates. It's so lovely to see the first, very early glimpses of spring. As soon as Christmas was over we used to wait for my dad to start saying "we just have to make it through to the second Sunday in February when we'll be able to have tea at five o'clock with the lights off." And [...]
As it's still January there's nothing interesting in the shops and payday hasn't come around yet so it's another chat post today - how's your month going? I hope you've managed to swerve this week's Blue Monday mood. I know a lot of people get themselves into a pickle about it being a manufactured event but I do think there's something to it. I've noticed that a lot of the chats I've had on the canal when I've been [...]
I'll start with a thank you to everyone who got in touch last week to tell me my site was misbehaving. Midlifechic was having a bit of a midlife meltdown - clearly letting me know that it didn't appreciate being untouched for almost three weeks over Christmas. It seems to be a problem that's only affected PCs and Androids which as a 100% Apple household we were completely unaware of. I've had people working on the back-end this week so [...]
Today is the day I've been looking forward to when the worst of my workload is over. It's a bit of an end of exams feeling by which I mean I'm not as euphoric as I anticipated, there's still a lot to be done on the home front (the big Christmas shop still only has two bottles of champagne in the basket!) but... we have a dancing weekend ahead and at the end of it the boys start to [...]
And here we are, arriving at the very last try-on post of the year. It makes sense, therefore, to do a recap of some of the winter styling tips that we've been discussing in the build-up to the low light days that have now arrived. Let's think ahead to dressing for Twixmas and the January days when the illumination of Christmas is over and we need to bring light into our lives on our own. Now is the time to [...]
With M&S being on such good form this season I've been waiting with interest to see what they'd bring out for Christmas. I've seen glimpses in various press releases and then I just happened to be in the Oxford Street store when they were putting it all out. It meant I was able to spend a happy couple of hours playing around with everything - dresses, tops, skirts, accessories... and there are some great party finds at M&S. This is [...]
Tuesday's intro post about getting your wardrobe ready for December's festivities was a long one but I hope you've managed to read it because this year Christmas comes in from the cold years of the Covid pandemic and there's a lot to talk about. Today I'm going to be referring back to the four pillars of festive dressing that I highlighted and bringing the theory to life. Feedback from the reader get together was that you're enjoying the posts where [...]
My goodness it feels like ages since I've worked on a post about getting dressed up. The Christmases since the Covid pandemic have been so subdued that at a retail level it hasn't made sense to stock a lot of partywear. Well I can tell you that it's all changed this season. I spent an afternoon analysing the London stores last week when I was down for the get together and they were like a huge dressing up box. It's [...]
Bonfire night has passed and so in the retail calendar it is now officially time for Christmas to begin. At least that was the rule when I worked in various head offices, these days it starts popping up after August Bank Holiday but we won't go there. Anyway today I'm easing you into it gently with some simple elevated outfits that aren't just for Christmas, they're things that you can wear throughout the winter season and even beyond. I'm working [...]
Another month gone and October always feels like the most transitional month of the year - for me it began on the beach in hot sunshine and ended in full throttle Christmas prep! We'll start thinking about that soon but first let's have a catch-up with a Midlife lately - pockets of October joy. When I came back from holiday I was full of energy so until my back went I did a good job of taking the everyday [...]
By popular request it's another style tips post today - you see one of the conversations that crops up regularly during the colder months is about how to make outfits interesting. That's because so often our AW wardrobes consist of darker colours that initially feel refreshing after summer's brights but then quickly become monotonous. Of course your individual look has a lot to do with the way you wear things but years of studying market research has shown me that [...]
Hello, I'm back and as you can imagine I have a lot to catch up on so this is just a quick post today. Quite a few of you saw my brief appearance on Instagram while we were away and were keen to know where we were because I didn't link it. The thing is that I didn't want to share it on there because it's such a good find at such a good price that I don't want it [...]
It's a quick post from me today because I'm chasing the sun and heading away for a few days so I thought I'd leave you with some wardrobe styling homework as there won't be a post next Friday. I'm bringing you 3 style tips for autumn outfits - they will interest those of you who enjoy a bit of forensic outfit structuring and for those who don't, there are 3 outfit combinations to help you to get in sync [...]
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 [...]
So here we are, this weekend brings with it the autumn equinox. As I type I'm looking out at a garden shrouded in early morning mist, the apple tree is heavy with fruit but it's been a poor year for the pears. The morello cherries have gone to the birds... again. There's a single day where the fruit suddenly turns sweet and somehow they know. As I mentioned last week, after being reminded that we don't have endless autumns in [...]
From this week's weather it would appear that summer is completely over (9 degrees here!) and I haven't kept my blog up to date with what we've been doing. As you know, these posts are really just for me to look back on in the future so if you come here for the fashion updates, skip over this one, clothes will be back next week. Despite the awful weather, summer 2024 has been one of the least travelled but most [...]
I realise that it's still quite warm and if you're anything like me, you're determined to cling on to every last drop of summer (actually it still feels like the first drops of summer but I won't go there!). However there's no denying that the evenings are cooler and it's getting darker much earlier - autumn is on its way. There will be a day soon when you suddenly realise that the wardrobe turnover is due and so today's [...]
It's another quick catch-up today because I'm immersed in trying to write my book and it feels like time's running out - my Inbox is full of emails about autumn launches and Christmas so my quieter summer period is nearly over. I'm not sure how I'm going to juggle things over the months ahead but for now that's a September problem. So just to keep in touch, here's another slice of summer midlife lately. The weather here has gone [...]
Continuing with my series of shorter posts, here's a little summer 24 midlife lately catch-up but first I must just thank you profusely for all of the answers you gave to my question last week. I'm busy going through them and I'm so grateful to everyone who's shared so much, please know that even though it's anonymous I still feel honoured to have your confidence. I will try my utmost to pull something good from everything you've told me - [...]
I'm playing catch-up today. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we were off for a short break as part of our summer of music project. And I'll start with an apology for the photos - we really didn't take very many because we just switched off and pottered around but I'm pulling together what we have. Our destination was Margate, it's a resort that you hear a lot about but it's a long way from a lot of [...]
It's a quick post today because I'm heading off for a little break as I mentioned last week. The weather's been... well you know... so I don't have any interesting outfits to show you. Instead I thought I'd answer some of the questions I've been asked recently by readers, friends or in interviews I've done. They're a bit random, they cover style, life, books and beauty but hopefully there's something interesting in there for everyone. Questions I've been asked recently [...]
Before we begin, don't worry - I haven't turned into a trad-wife. After a tightly packed few days, total meltdown on the trains saw me stranded in London last week and so I had to take some drastic measures which resulted in an experiment I'd never anticipated - the week my husband dressed me [spoiler - he didn’t do a bad job!]. This is the first of the series of shorter posts that I'm going to be writing over the [...]
Another of the big sales has begun and as with John Lewis there are some great value buys to be had if you're quick. Today I'm taking you through the Boden sale and clearance - what to buy, the great value pieces that will work hard in your wardrobe. Here's my deep dive into the styles that are worth looking at. Dresses Timeless summer dresses I have this linen dress in a brighter red from last year's collection and it's [...]
It's slightly terrifying that we've reached the end of season sales already isn't it? And it's always significant when John Lewis launch theirs because they fire the starting gun for the rest of the retail industry. There's a lot to plough through this year. The bad weather may have made us all grumpy for the last few weeks but it does mean that there are great buys to be had - some are reductions but the real gems are in [...]
I think this will be my last post on the main SS24 collections. We're approaching the longest day so we're growing ever closer to sale season but as you'll have seen from the new TV ad, M&S have gloriously defied the traditional retail calendar with a new release that's bursting with colourful style. And it makes sense doesn't it? Summer has barely shown its face yet in the UK so there's no way that any of us want to see [...]
I haven't worked with John Lewis for ages - there's a new team in place and so today's post is going be a little bit different. I usually do a summer post earlier than this and I tend to go straight to their own brand ranges because I find they suit all kinds of different body shapes and sizes. The good thing about working with new people though is that they have different approaches and they asked whether this [...]
I've had lots of people requesting a return to the brand specific spotlight posts that I ran in the autumn. SS24 has been a bit of a juggle in terms of work, travel and blog so I haven't had time to put a consistent series together but today I'm delighted to be bringing you another one, this time it's a Me+Em review - Retailer Spotlight. Me+Em - brand background in a nutshell Disclosure: [...]
I think for a lot of midlifers the concept of summer changes, especially when you find yourself no longer bound by school term dates or even edging towards retirement. Time stretches and you can take advantage of booking a holiday earlier or later in the season and actually enjoy summer in the UK. But that of course comes with its own challenges, specifically weather because it's rarely quite as good as you imagine it's going to be. And that's where [...]
Hello, it's just a quick post today because sadly one of Mal's aunties has died so we've been spending a bit of time over in Newcastle with the family for the funeral this week. She had a long and happy life so it's been a bit of a celebration too but obviously it's still difficult for those who were closest to her. I didn't have very long to put a post together before we left but what to wear to [...]
At last it's time to tell you about my sudden but very exciting journey sailing around Thailand - women-only trip of a lifetime. There's such a lot to say that I need to split it into two instalments. Today I'll tell you about the trip and what we did, then next month I'll talk about how it felt to travel with people I hadn't met before and the lessons I learned. So let's begin. Sailing Around Thailand - women-only [...]
Another new season try-on today with a look at the continuing evolution of White Stuff. A few of you have been saying that you're missing the retail insight posts that I ran back in the autumn so I'm going to go a little deeper into the the brand background on this one. As you know, I've been following their progress for a while now, ever since they undertook what they called their "quiet" rebrand in 2021. As a retailer [...]
I'm back from my travels and my head feels a bit like an old fashioned camera film - full of undeveloped moments. I need a bit of time to process them so I will write about my trip and also about the intense (and wonderful) experience of spending a week with strangers who have now become friends - but not yet. I've had a lot to catch up on this week, not helped by the fact that my brain is [...]
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 [...]
And so it's time for us to think about our spring wardrobes. Despite the weather's grimmest efforts this weekend I'm convinced that we're going to have a good summer this year - it may be wishful thinking because we're remaining solidly in the UK but I'm sending it out there! Today I'm delighted to be looking at the new season drop from M&S. They're a brand I haven't focused on for a while - as you know that's because [...]
There are times when you settle into a flight home and wonder if you've even been away. And there are others where you've done so much that you feel as if you've completed an episode in the story of your life. That's how our journey through the Valencia region of Spain was, even though we were only travelling for ten days it felt like a month (in a good way I should add!). In a short time we experienced so [...]
Meteorologically at least it's time for Spring 24 - first thoughts about the trends. The buds are bursting, the birds are singing and the new collections are starting to drop. This winter feels as though it's been a long one and although we still have a little way to go, I'll be very glad to see the back of it. So today I'm looking at Boden's new collection which has an opening offer of 15% off with code Q2Y6 (until [...]
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 [...]
It's a bit of a cornucopia today - I don't know about you but I'm starting to feel the winter blues so I'm looking for spring wardrobe lifts that work now. Starting with clothes, I'm not ready to think about buying anything major yet in terms of outfits. The new collections won't arrive for a while but having seen the trends and some of the retail previews, I have a good idea of what I'm hoping to wear this year. [...]
It feels as though the year is slowly opening its eyes doesn't it? My grandma was an incurable romantic and she insisted that Valentine's Day was the day when every bird found its mate. Obviously nature isn't quite as well programmed as that but some are pairing off already - the owls in our garden have been busy for ages and now the herons on the canal are catching up. It does feel as if hope is there, even if [...]
Last week I left you just before we went away for the surprise break that Mal had planned. We set off very early on the Thursday to get to Manchester airport and had a rather anxious drive there because the motorway traffic was awful so it was a rush to the gate... and just as we got there the flight was cancelled. Sudden bad weather over Europe was causing chaos. Of the many travel disruptions we've experienced this [...]
At last, I'm breathing out a bit - looking back through Mal's camera roll I realise we haven't had a Midlife lately for ages so let's have a catch-up (and I warn you it's a long pot of tea/glass of wine one). There are times when I really don't feel like having my photograph taken but in the long run, it's great that he snaps away when we're out and about because it gives me a record of ordinary times [...]
And so I find myself at the last Boden edit of the year which feels like a milestone so I just want to start by thanking them for being such loyal supporters of this blog - and for listening to what everyone here has to say. They've had a very successful season, so much so that when it came to putting a post about last minute Christmas outfits together it was a challenge finding pieces that hadn't sold out. It [...]
So many of you have said you've enjoyed the retail spotlight posts that I'm bringing you one more for 2023. After this, they'll be on pause until January while we focus on Christmas and all of the prep that it entails. So today as well as doing my monthly edit, it's a Boden review - retailer spotlight. Let me bring you up to date with what's going on there. Boden - brand background in a [...]
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It’s time to start thinking about the big day next month – yes I mean Christmas. And if you feel it’s too early, spare a thought for those of us who work in retail and had to start planning it in January! I’m easing in slowly today with Christmas 23 - easy outfit ideas to get you in the mood. Starting to think about whatever you have planned will help you to ease towards the festive feeling. I don’t [...]
Thank you for the feedback on these retail spotlight posts, I'm so glad that so many of you are enjoying them. Today it's Marks & Spencer's turn, a brand whose focus is on affordability at a time when we're all thinking hard about it. It's a retailer I haven't looked at for a long time so here we go, M&S review - Retailer Spotlight, let's see what's been going on there. M&S - brand background [...]
Well hello, I promised a midlife lately - October catch-up today and as I start to type I'm wondering what I'm going to talk about because life since Greece has been all about work so it's going to be a bit rough and ready. I know from the survey that there are a few of you who don't like midlife lately posts, that you'd prefer me to focus purely on clothes and retail - I do understand so I [...]
A new Tuesday and another retail spotlight. This week I'm looking at Jigsaw because after a while in the doldrums, changes are afoot. With a midlife female CEO at the helm there's a store reopening programme, the aesthetic has been updated and there are some beautiful investment pieces that will live in your wardrobe forever. So here we go, Jigsaw review - retailer spotlight, let me tell you more. Jigsaw - brand background in a [...]
I'm continuing with my series of easy style tips today - in last Friday's post we talked about using accessories to add new life to outfits, this week I want to look a little more at using texture with winter outfits. You see texture is a tool that you can't use as well in summer but at this time of year it comes into its own. Before we get into it though, as I go on to talk about [...]
The second in my series of mini-posts in response to the reader survey. Today I'm looking at Mango which in my view is one of the best and yet perhaps most under-rated brands at the lower end of the price scale. So here we go, Mango review - retailer spotlight, let me tell you more. Mango - brand background in a nutshell Disclosure: as with the majority of blogs, products featured on Midlifechic [...]
I'm moving on with the highly requested style tips today. In the survey, 85% of you said that you were looking for advice on how to add a bit of oomph to the more relaxed end of your wardrobe. It was no surprise to hear that 49% of you are buying fewer clothes and trying to find ways of working with what you already have, adding updates here and there. Today I'm looking at easy AW23 outfit updates from [...]
This is the first in a series of mini-posts I'm planning to run in response to the reader survey. I'm going to give you the lowdown on a specific UK retailer each Tuesday and pull out their strengths. The intention is that you'll have an edit on what to buy, from where, and why. I'm starting with Cos because it's a brand turnaround that I've been watching closely. So here we go, Cos review - retailer spotlight, let me [...]
Wow it's back to it this week - straight from summer into a very autumnal feeling north but I'm happy to be here. We've done a lot of travelling recently and so the thought of six months at home feels good. I have no plans to talk about our Greek Island Hopping adventure now, it was always intended to be a private logging off. It was relaxed, low key and low budget - a treat to read, eat, sleep, [...]
And so as summer's last gasp starts to recede, it's time to think about a more autumnal look and that's where I'm beginning with this month's Boden edit which is all about stepping into Autumn 23 - new wardrobe additions. If you read last week's post about the AW23 trends, you'll see I'm working them in little ways as I think carefully about how to expand the outfits that I already have and love. Boden's first big Autumn drop landed [...]
Hasn't it been glorious to have a blast of summer this week? The mid-20s temperatures up here have been absolutely perfect, just what we needed to lift everyone's mood before the season really starts to shift. The leaves are turning, the hedgerows are heavy with berries, the boughs on our pear tree are so heavy with fruit that they're almost breaking which means it's time to start adjusting to the big move on... not in terms of 'buy it now' [...]
Well hello, I hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend. As you know we spent ours in the sunshine with Gillian and Stephen who started off as Midlifechic readers (well perhaps not Stephen) but have now become firm friends. With disrupted travel it's been a hectic week since we got home so I'm inviting you to join us for what will have to be a whistlestop tour of our midlife weekend in Porto. A midlife weekend in Porto - [...]
Hurray - we've had a bit of sunshine across most of the UK at last although looking at the long term forecast it isn't set to stay for very long. So for this month's Boden edit I thought I'd look at capsule wardrobe building with hardworking transitional pieces that work for cooler days as well as warm ones. The thing about Boden's cross-season drops is that it's easy to flick through them and think that because there aren't any show [...]
What should we talk about today? It can't be clothes because I seem to be living in jumpers and jeans so I think it has to be a midlife lately - August. I know that lots of you are on holiday, as are we usually. In fact this is the first August since 1997 that I haven't been away somewhere or other and it feels strange. We spent May, June and July constantly on the move, mostly for work or [...]
We spent the weekend before last in Cornwall, as you know. We hadn't been there for 20 years, in fact the last time was in August 2003 when the youngest was only days old. Back then I'd booked a lovely cottage in St Ives with space for both sets of grandparents, thinking that it would be a good way of keeping the older two entertained while I was getting used to having three to juggle. You see I was [...]
And so, as you'll know if you follow my Instagram feed, there was a big day for our family a couple of weeks ago. It was the middle one's graduation, a day I found myself completely unprepared for in terms of impact. It was a bit like pregnancy when you find yourself so focused on the birth that it's almost a shock when you have to take the baby home with you afterwards and you realise that in the [...]
Now I realise there's some irony to high summer outfit ideas if you're in the UK at the moment because summer seems to be having a holiday of its own and focusing all of its power on Europe. It can't be easy if you're over there in the intense heat but isn't it crazy that such a short distance away we're living through days of high winds, torrential rain and even hail? It's made it a bit tricky deciding what [...]
I'm opening this post with an apology because I said that while we were away last week I'd be over on Instagram - but sometimes you have to put the key people in your life first and we needed a complete break. Life since Christmas has felt pretty non-stop for us. I've mentioned a few times that I didn't think we were going to have the chance for any kind of proper holiday until the autumn... and I know we [...]
And so, as I warned you last week, we're heading towards the close of the SS23 collections so today I'm going to flag up some capsule wardrobe sale buys because some of the best brands are diving into summer sale already. It's been an extremely tough season for retailers; with the cost of living crisis and also the unnaturally cold weather lasting up until the end of May, people just haven't been buying many clothes. From a consumer perspective [...]
A Boden outfit try-on today and it's always the one that gives me a bit of a lump in my throat because we've arrived at the last of the high summer drops. After the June deliveries, retailers will be moving into sale and then season transition which brings more autumnal colours and a change of mood. Anyway let's not think about that until we have to, for now we've reached the apex of clothes for warm sunshine and amazingly [...]
Today I'm going to tell you about our little French adventure. As you know we took a few days off a couple of weeks ago to go and see the youngest who is living in Dijon, studying at l'Université de Bourgogne. Of all the French unis he could have chosen, he opted for the one that's the most difficult to get to from here and with the little bit of time we could carve out from work there were [...]
Ah summer holiday time. Those of you who follow my Instagram account know that we had a very busy but very lovely few days in France last week. I'll tell you all about it when I've had time to go through the photos but today let's think about summer and what we might wear now that the days are softening and trips away are in sight. With different kinds of holidays in mind I'm looking at what John Lewis have [...]
Do we dare say it? Has the weather finally turned? This has been the coldest spring I can remember but last Saturday, after a morning of heavy rain, the sun suddenly appeared. And it was hot which was lucky because we needed to take photographs of Boden's latest summer drop while we were out and about and I'd been anticipating shivering in between the showers. At the moment we don't have a big summer holiday booked, work permitting we might [...]
My goodness, another bank holiday, it's a surfeit of the sweetest things for anyone who's busy at work at the moment isn't it? I wonder how many of you have coronation plans. It seems to be very low key here, nobody we know is doing any kind of royal celebration which seems a shame and I wonder if we've just had so much pomp and ceremony over the last few years that it's lost its edge - or maybe it's [...]
My week has been completely railroaded by work projects I'm afraid. I had to go down to London and then over to Newcastle for meetings which means I haven't had time to put the cornucopia together that I wanted to do. I had two choices - I could either not post at all or show you the photos from our final week in Kenya. I'm hoping it might help you to get into the mood for sunnier days and times [...]
Well hello! As promised it's a bit of a catch-up today and then I have a lovely cornucopia of emerging brands run by midlife women for you. With work and the boys coming home and the various bits of travelling we've been doing, 2023's felt a bit like a bobsleigh ride so far and I have all kinds of things I've been meaning to talk about here. I'm warning you now that this is quite a long one, in [...]
Despite the arctic blasts that are ripping through the garden outside my window I'm full of the joys of Spring 23 again today, this time with a look at Boden. With sustainability in mind they have a focus on 'buy less and wear more' this season and they've pulled together a useful section on their site that they're calling Spring Uniform - an edit of everyday clothes that work together and are easy to wear repeatedly. It fits with the [...]
Happy Easter to you, I hope the sun is shining where you are and that you have a special weekend ahead. All of my chicks are back in the nest so I'm looking forward to having a few days off with them. Hopefully the Easter bunny will come on Sunday despite their now advanced years (and Ted's enthusiasm for joining in any hunt - he's already swiped one pack of Easter chocolates and spent an afternoon feeling worse for [...]
At last, it's officially Spring (although the weather gods still seem to have their ear muffs on). Within the next month we'll have that first glorious day when you can feel the good times coming. So, let's talk about clothes again and easy ways to update your wardrobe for Spring 2023. With an eye on sustainability I've been keeping quiet on the shopping front for a while. I don't feel it's right to keep pushing ill considered purchases with the [...]
Travelling to the Masai Mara - Kenya safari review Oh my goodness the weather! Let me take you to the sunshine as a reminder that it's out there somewhere and will be with us soon. So, as I ended last week's Kenya safari review post, we were having an early night before our long journey to the Masai Mara. It was a break of day start and it took all morning to get there. You may remember that we'd [...]
I don't know how I'm going to encapsulate our Kenya safari trip but since I've started writing one thing's become clear - even though it was only a week it's going to take two posts! I talked about some of the lessons learned in last Friday's post and I have some absolutely stunning photos because Mal was in his element. But I have to face the fact that scenic pics, however beautiful, are boring for anyone who wasn't there. [...]
I'm posting early because I have an exciting afternoon ahead - it's our NW reader meet-up and I'm so glad it's here to bring light into January. So how's your month going? Chilly isn't it? I think I'd rather have it this way than just damp and grey though. There's something special about this time of year when the earth seems to be sleeping until you look more closely and see the shoots starting to come through, signs that soon [...]
Hello and Happy New Year to you - I hope you've had a really good Christmas break and avoided the wretched cold/cough virus that's going around. I had it when I left you last and only started to feel better on Christmas Day which was a bit of a shame as it meant the build-up week when the boys first came home was a bit muffled - but at least it meant we could enjoy Christmas itself. I smiled sympathetically [...]
So here we are with my final post of the year, wishing you a cosy Christmas. I don't know about you but we're limping towards it. We both came back from our week of work travel full of cold and I'm running on a single cylinder so I'm signing off earlier than planned. Before I go though, let's have one last catch-up. I confess photos haven't been on my mind so I've had to scrabble about to put this [...]
Well I said I'd do a catch-up today and it shows how focused on Christmas prep I've been when I have photos and moments going all the way back to the end of October. As you know, I like this blog to be a reflection of a real midlife and while I've been busy getting everything ready for what will hopefully be a fun-filled Christmas, everyday stuff has been going on - as it always does. November, in particular, was [...]
And just like that we're in December! I'm bringing you that last of my Christmas prepping posts today, after this we'll be back to chatting about real life until the end of the year and we have a lot to catch up on because November was a funny old month for us. However we'll talk about that soon, for now I have my final post with John Lewis & Partners for 2022 and it's all about last minute Christmas [...]
As we're getting into the swing of Christmas now, for my last Boden edit of the year it made sense to look at what we might wear when we're in the mood to look festive. Every year, at the end of November ( for me anyway) there comes a morning where I suddenly want to move away from my autumn clothes and add a little touch of something extra to my outfits. And that's what today's post is going [...]
It's always a bit of a shock isn't it? Over the last few years life has started to tip straight from Autumn and Halloween into Christmas. This year it's worth being organised though because we're all watching our budgets and nothing makes you overspend as much as a bout of unplanned, late and therefore frenzy driven shopping. So today I'm going to break you gently into a little bit of early Christmas prep with John Lewis and Partners by [...]
I have a really lovely little find to share with you today. I haven't added to my Great British Boltholes series of good places to escape to since before lockdown but now I want to tell you about a bijou hotel in North Yorkshire. It's the one we stayed in last weekend and when I say bijou, I mean it's small and personal and family run. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about it and its surroundings [...]
It's the last of my AW22 everyday edits today and I'm as pleased as ever to be working with one of my all time favourite brands, Boden. As always with them there are lots of tempting statement outfits but I'm sticking to my pledge to focus on long-lasting wardrobe workhorses this season as I suspect most of us are squeezing our budgets hard. It really has been a case of sitting on my hands, especially when I saw pieces [...]
The weeks seem to be flying past at the moment so I thought it was time to take a mid-season pause and have a catch up with an autumn midlife lately. I've found random photos of various moments on our camera rolls so here's what's been going on in the background while I've been talking about travel and new season clothes. Autumn midlife lately - empty nesting Towards the end of September it was finally time for the youngest [...]
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 [...]
And so I can't hold it off any longer, Autumn is most definitely here and I can't believe how suddenly it's arrived this year. September is often the warmest month of the season for us up here and yet I've already found myself digging out gloves for my walks with Ted. So today you find me edging into A/W22 with White Stuff . I'm bringing you my personal edit from their new collection and to go with it, you'll see [...]
And so I'm back from the unexpected gift that rounded off what has been a fabulous summer - a trip to St Lucia with the team from Sandals Resorts. When I left you at the end of my last post I was feeling both nervous and excited. I was delighted to have been invited but a bit surprised too because I've always seen Sandals Resorts as a honeymoon destination - so let me tell you how we found it. I [...]
Pre-script Since I wrote this we've travelled to St Lucia and on the flight over we heard the sad news that the Queen had died. It felt right not to publish this the following day but a few people have been in touch saying that they'd be grateful for a break in the sad news that surrounds them. So I hope I won't upset any of you by sending this live now. It's difficult being away and not feeling part [...]
Well how lovely it is to be chatting to you again. It's odd but life feels as though it slips through my fingers when I'm not blogging; time's tendrils gather round me and without being logged, the memories evanesce. So my next two posts will be an indulgence for me - I need to squirrel away our happy Kalkan times because the boys' lives are really moving on and I can't see us the five of us having the opportunity [...]
I'm taking you on the road with me again because I haven't yet had a chance to sit at my desk and draw breath. Behind the scenes I'm busy talking to retailers with both my consultant and my blogger heads on so I'm very well prepped for AW22... but I don't think any of us want to go there just yet do we? This is going to be my last post for a little while because we're about to head [...]
We're in August already - the only problem with planning a summer to remember is that time goes really fast! I feel as if I'm on a bit of a one-legged hobble now, finally on the run-up to our holiday so it's a quick Midlife Lately today. I'm whizzing through my camera roll and not exactly jetsetting but last week I had city trips to London and Glasgow and now I'm in Newcastle but I'll save that for next week's [...]
This week and next for me are all about tinsel and baubles. It's officially my 30th year in retail and 'Christmas in July'... I've been doing this for a long time! Going in and out of Christmas events on hot London days does leave you somewhat confused - it's like the feeling you get when you wake up in a hotel somewhere exotic knowing that you'll end the day back in your own bed. However, as the boys would say, [...]
Well hello and a huge thank you for all of your comments last week - I think it's a record. Just as I was beginning to wonder if you'd stopped reading you astounded me. I usually reply to everybody individually but I have a lengthy corporate identity document to complete so instead I'm going to spend any spare blog time I have collating each comment into a report. I'll add 'noted' under each one so you know that your feedback [...]
I'm popping up on strange days again - I'm early this week because we have a family wedding tomorrow which is exciting and I think it might be slightly haphazard all summer but I'll get back into a regular routine when autumn comes. As you know, retail is in full sale so rather than a focused post, it's a summer cornucopia with outfits, travel & The Telegraph. So let's get going. Welcome to new readers I'm starting with something quite [...]
Boden June Edit & midlife lately And so my last Boden edit of the season falls just as their summer sale begins in earnest. The final full SS drop has landed and from the colours you can see the first hint of seasonal transition. As somebody who is at their happiest at this time of year it makes me feel a little wistful but the upside is that our recalcitrant summer is just starting to show up so it's a [...]
A big summer sale started last night at John Lewis & Partners with some really good clearance offers so I'm getting this week's post out to you early. I can see things are disappearing fast and so I'll pick out my highlights and then leave you to look through the rest in your own time. There are particularly good offers on some of our favourite brands including Boden where you can find items that have actually been sold out for [...]
My goodness these weeks roll around quickly when the sun's out don't they? We have a lot going on on the domestic front at the moment and I'll tell you more about that at the end so it's a catch-up post today. I'm going to start with a run through of what I've been doing and wearing, move on to clothing to combat hot weather (I think you need it more desperately in the South than we do up here) [...]
Well the weather might not quite agree but as far as retail's concerned we're in full summer now. There are only a few new drops left to land and the sales will be starting soon so I'm going to be chatting about things other than clothes for a while. Throughout the year I build a list of the topics that you request most often and right at the top is how to look your best in holiday photos. I regularly [...]
And so we have a big weekend ahead in the UK with a languorous four day break for the Queen's 70th Jubilee - whether you're a royalist or not it's hard not to admire her as a woman who's shown lifelong strength and dedication. Today's post isn't about the red, white and blue though, it's the last of my summer posts with John Lewis & Partners which always makes me feel a bit sad because next time I get together [...]
As promised it's a catch up today with a bit of an outfit round-up. I know you've seen snippets of our short break in Lanzarote but I'll tell you a little more about that and then talk about what we did for my surprise birthday weekend. So without coming over all Foreign Office, today's post is all about what I'm wearing at home and abroad. There are a lot of pictures and I've tried to keep the writing as short [...]
Well hello, I hope you're enjoying this week's wonderful sunshine - dare I say that spring has sprung at last? It nearly always shines on my birthday week... as long as I haven't planned some kind of outdoor party that is and then it rains! Today I'm going back to basics and bringing you an update on some of the new arrivals from John Lewis & Partners' ANYDAY range as it heads into its first summer season. I think we're [...]
We're back from our week in the sunshine and I'm so glad that we took the time while we could because we're heading into another busy few months of work. It continues to be an interesting time in retail as everyone tries to second guess the zeitgeist for AW22 - it's looking as though it's going to be a bumpy ride so I don't know about you but I'm determined to make the most of every moment as spring and [...]
I wonder if you can tell that I was in holiday mode when I put this post together. Our decision to head to the sunshine after the last few full-on months prompted a bit of a panic in terms of finding time to pack. And, as our departure date grew closer the weather forecast wasn't looking as good as I hoped - it was more akin to a British summer than one a four and a half hour flight away. [...]
I've had more questions about special occasion dressing than ever before this year. I suspect it's because we're all so glad that we can celebrate again and when it comes to weddings, some are so long awaited that they really do deserve an extra special effort. It's great to have an excuse to dress up again too isn't it? But can we remember how to do it? And with the growing creep of casualisation has occasion dressing changed? These are [...]
Well hello and Happy Easter! Isn't it great to have a long weekend ahead? I haven't actually been looking forward to it because we had meetings booked in (retailers have no sympathy with Bank Holidays) but happily they've now been moved to next week so we have an unexpected break and an almost empty diary so we're just going to enjoy the last weekend of the boys being home. It's a bit of a mishmash today, I have some try-ons [...]
It's a bit of a different post today, it includes clothes (of course) but it's also about growing older contentedly. When I was down in London a couple of weeks ago I met up with Nayna McIntosh from Hope and after we'd looked through the glorious new season pieces that I'll show you in a few minutes, we got chatting about things like the true markers of success as we approach the end of this phase we call midlife. You [...]
And here we are on 1st April which means we're a quarter of the way through the year already. I'm not bringing you the post about getting older that I was hoping to because I just haven't had time to do it properly. Instead, when I was looking back at my camera roll trying to make sense of the fact that the year's going so quickly I realised that there were lots of photos on there that I haven't even [...]
It's been a while since we've talked beauty and today I'm looking at the industry's ultimate grande dame, Estée Lauder. They came up in conversation with our friends John Lewis & Partners just after Christmas and I had to admit that while I haven't really used their products, I was enjoying a large sample of their new Advanced Night Repair formula that I'd discovered in my JL&P advent calendar. So, they suggested that I trial a few more of their [...]
I've been dipping in and out of new season but I think it's time to declare that Spring's arrived. There are hosts of golden daffodils in the Lake District and over in Newcastle this week we've been watching the kittiwakes returning to nest at The Baltic. After two muted summers living under the shadow of Covid I'm looking forward to updating the outfits that I have in my wardrobe and being out and about again. So I thought now would [...]
It's time for a catch-up and to log how much the world has changed (yet again) in such a short space of time. So before I move on to talking about a very special family weekend away, I want to acknowledge it. As you know, I write this blog as a form of diary so for the sake of record it's now two weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine sending Europe and the rest of the world into a state of [...]
I have to say I was getting worried - my favourite Uniqlo collab usually comes out at the end of January and this year there was no sign of it but of course everything in retail has been upended and at last here it is - Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo SS22. This year's inspiration comes from Marrakech and we see the introduction of a red rose print along with cotton pieces with easy box pleats, designed to feel [...]
Today I'm focusing on a brand I haven't covered before with a White Stuff review. I've had to think hard about why I've so rarely included their clothes on here and I think it's because for a very long time I haven't felt as if I'm their customer. However, a little while ago I was contacted by the new team there which I was thrilled to see now includes some great people I know who've moved over from other brands [...]
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 [...]
And it's a back to normal post today with 'How to pack the right clothes for a weekend break'. But first I just want to thank everyone who commented on last week's post about spiking. I've read every one but I haven't replied because keeping on going over it isn't doing me any good. However I have a call scheduled with the Inquiry Manager for the Home Affairs Committee on Monday so I'm hoping to fight back and do what [...]
So that was Christmas! Hello 2022 - I'm wishing a rather belated Happy New Year to you. As you'll have gathered if you follow my Instagram account, our Christmas was lovely but not quite the one we expected because along with so many others, I went down with Covid. It meant that I took last week off to recoup some of my lost time with the boys before they went back - and to recover a bit. So there aren't [...]
I can't believe this is the last post of the year - I'm running out of time and there's lots I want to say to you so I'm going to crack on. I'm starting with a quick catch-up of the last few days, then moving on to a round-up of my best winter buys & 2021 over and out! Christmassy days out So let's start over in Newcastle. We had a whirlwind visit to take mum-in-law out for the day [...]
And hello - as promised a Wednesday post which throws things out a bit but life has been going at a gallop and it's the only time I can find to fit one in. Today all I have for you are snaps of what I've been wearing and doing this week - pre-Christmas outfits. Photos are never very good at this time of year when it barely seems to be light before it gets dark again, we've had miserable grey [...]
Hello and Happy Friday everyone. With the last few posts focusing on Christmas gifts it feels like a while since we've had a catch-up so today I bring you an assortment of outfit pictures with a bit of chat in between. It's a funny old time again isn't it? Just a week ago we went to our first Christmas party, marvelling at how normal everything felt and then within a few days there's a new named variant and we're all [...]
Ah the joy of a Christmas outfit trying-on session at John Lewis & Partners - I loved every minute of it and I'm hoping I have a little something for everyone today because there are so many different ideas. But before we go on, let's recap. In my first post about dressing for Christmas this year, we talked about how the approach is changing; lots of retailers and consumers are trying to be more thoughtful about creating capsules that will [...]
So many of you have told me you've been waiting for the 'Christmas gifts for teens and young adults 2021' post that I'm starting it rather nervously. As always I tasked my troops with helping me but this year the first thing they warned me was that it might be the last time. You see at the moment 'new stuff' isn't cool; when you talk to millennials and Gen Z they're all buying vintage which is great... but it doesn't [...]
This is a gentler opening of my Christmas posts than I imagined back in the summer months when I first started planning my calendar with the retailers who do so much to support this blog. You see we're all going to find the landscape quite different at the upper end of the high street this year as we start to think about what to wear over the festive season. A lot of retailers are giving us a different way of [...]
After playing catch-up on our Greek trip for the last few weeks it feels good to be talking to you in real time again. We've had lots going on and I'm going to write this post the opposite way round to usual because it has some sadness and I don't want to leave you on a downer on a Friday. So I'm starting with some midlife ups and downs and then I'll move on to happier events and what I've [...]
Midlife Guide To Greek Island Hopping 3 - Mykonos Today I have the final instalment of my Midlife Guide To Greek Island Hopping and I'm going to keep it as short as I can because I sense you've had enough of it all now. After six very laid-back days in Ios it was time to move on; the island was closing and anyway, we'd spent enough time there. We were feeling rested and ready for somewhere with a bit of [...]
And just in case you didn't already think this year's whizzing past, today I bring you the last of the new Autumn drops. After this it will just be what I've been wearing and then, very soon we'll be moving into the sparkly season. So if you haven't worked out how you're going to dress most days from now until (let's face it) April - it's time. Today I'm working with John Lewis & Partners and I've put together a [...]
Midlife Guide To Greek Island Hopping 2 - Ios As promised, here's the next instalment of our Greek Island hopping adventure, moving on to a very different spot, Ios. I have a mixed up week ahead because I have to go down to London for longer than originally planned so I won't have time to write a post on Friday. I thought I'd let you know now because lots of you tell me that you read my Friday night post [...]
Last Monday Boden's biggest Autumn drop arrived and there I was shading my screen from the Mykonos sunshine, trying to think ahead to what life might be like for us all at home over the months to come. As you know, before we went away I'd already categorised the principle lifestyle areas that I need to focus on this season: working from home with the occasional client meeting; casual weekends and relaxed nights out. I know I keep banging on [...]
And, rather regretfully, we're back. What an incredibly reinvigorating time we've had Greek Island Hopping. I knew the work would have piled up for our return and so I wouldn't have much time to write about it but so many of you have asked for tips and information that I've been putting notes together as we've gone along. It means that this post might be a little less lyrical than I'd like it to be and I'll have to spilt [...]
A new range of simple, sustainable basics for fashion As I type this Mr MC is busy filling in our passenger locator forms and we're forcing ourselves to think about leaving the Mykonos sunshine to come home. At this particular moment Autumn feels like a million miles away but I know that in just over 24 hours it will be a reality. However at least we won't be going home to an empty nest quite yet; the eldest has been [...]
Autumn wardrobe planning - a new start for a new way of life I might be a bit later than the back to schoolers but I certainly have a feeling of new term butterflies in my tummy this week - a mix of worry and excitement about what lies ahead. Of course for us this season (and this weekend in particular) really is a new start as we empty nest but I'm sensing that lots of people are feeling the [...]
AW21 trends and easy ways to wear them Trends - do they even matter any more? Whereas designers and glossy magazine editors used to dominate the world of fashion and dictate what we'd wear every season, since the arrival of the internet and social media in particular there's been a real change in the balance of power. Now pretty much any style goes if you own it and wear it with confidence. So I almost decided against doing this new [...]
Over the weekend I realised how many outfit pictures I have clogging up my camera roll so it's time for a catch up. Of course the highlight of my weekend was the wedding we went to so today's post is a mixed bag of summer and autumn outfits cumulating with what to wear for a wedding over 50. You see the last few weeks for us have felt a little more like life before lockdown especially as far as work [...]
And so here we are with the first post of the Autumn season and it's an exclusive - trying on Inès de la Fressange at Uniqlo AW21. I'm so sorry that it's late, the samples just didn't arrive and so today we've had a mad trip to the Manchester store to try the pieces I wanted to show you so that we could photograph them and send this post live. It's been a crazy day in hot sunshine and I [...]
Happy Friday! Although it already feels like an age ago, today I'm bringing you my British City Staycation - Newcastle Part 2. I left you last week as we were hit with the news of Mum-in-law's diagnosis and everyone in the family was reeling. I'm grateful to all of you who've sent advice and links to the various organisations you recommend. The doctors have told us that the most urgent thing for now is to get the LPAs in [...]
Well hello, it's good to be back and talking to you after our two weeks away. I'm wondering how this post is going to work because a few of you will already have seen the photos on Instagram but of course there was no space on there to give you the full story behind them so I hope it will still be interesting for you. As you know after various holiday cancellations we decided to spend two weeks over at [...]
Midlife lately - Covid finally hits us I feel as though I've been holding my breath over the last few posts. Covid finally reached our doorstep and I felt incredibly superstitious about mentioning it until I knew we were all through to the other side. So that's the reason behind the lack of 'midlife lately' recently - you see I've found that whenever I say what a lovely summer we're having up here it starts to rain so I was [...]
I've found time for an extra post this week, just a quick one because when I did a real life outfits post a couple of weeks ago a lot of you asked for more of them so I've been trying to remember to take quick outfit shots as we've gone along. My phone's filling up so let's have a catch up with some recent midlife summer outfits - what I've been wearing and doing. Midlife summer outfits - a trip [...]
Well I have a funny old post for you today, you see I was hoping to show you the pictures of our completed apartment but at the very last minute there was a delay on the curtains which means we're having to go over again tonight to finish things off. As you can imagine this week's been a busy one catching up with work and I haven't had time to come up with any other ideas so I'm just going [...]
Well here we are with a Bank Holiday weekend ahead of us in the UK and as I type this (on Thursday) it's warm and sunny - could it be that the weather has finally caught up with the date? I'm taking next week off because we're going to be in Newcastle for the final push, hopefully getting the apartment finished so I'm signing off for a while with a style cornucopia - new brands & old favourites. Style cornucopia [...]
It's that cruel point in the season when the sun's barely started shining and yet it's time to start wrapping up wardrobe posts about Summer drops. Already the new season previews are starting and I find myself peeping reluctantly through my fingers at Autumn clothes. This is the last of my SS21 posts with Boden and I've been thinking hard about how to approach it because I'd usually be talking about packing for Summer holidays with wafty beach dresses and [...]
Slowly, slowly the warmer days are creeping in as the temperature starts to rise. We've been feeling impatient for it and when you think about it we were all spoilt by last year's glorious Spring because it's usually still a bit chilly in May. I know when the boys were little I always used to refuse to go camping before 1st June because although they didn't care, I wasn't keen on sleeping in a woolly hat and hiking socks, it [...]
Style, menopause, hot sauce & books - how's that for a lead in?! A surprise mini post today because there are a few things I've been meaning to mention and one in particular that I need to flag before Friday. I do like posting on a Tuesday again though - even if it's just a quick 'hello' it helps me to feel as though life's getting back to normal which it is in a way. I had my second jab [...]
And hurray for a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, don't you just love this time of year? It has to be said that if any month deserves not one but two Bank Holidays it's May so I hope you have plans that include at least one pop of joy. We're currently over in Newcastle starting to bring our ideas to life. As you know all we've done so far is paint the whole place white, not because that's the [...]
Well hello, how nice it is to be back on a Tuesday for a change. It's just a quick post today to tell you about the latest SS21 drop at John Lewis & Partners. As we discussed last month they're going through a style evolution on their fashion floor and we're now moving into stage 2 as more small labels arrive to augment their already established collection of brands. Their vision is to have a foundation of good capsule pieces [...]
It's one of those 'conversations with a friend' posts today because I had a panicky text from one who'd been told rather suddenly that her office is going to reopen for three days a week and she was dumbfounded. "It's going to mean going to bed and getting up at regular times again... and setting an alarm... and packing lunch... and getting dressed - I know you've been getting dressed all through this so tell me what to wear?!" Well [...]
Well hello, I hope you've had a good couple of weeks. Ours have been busy - I never want to paint another wall again, especially with Mr MC as my foreman, he has levels of perfection that way exceed my skills (and thankfully I think we're agreed on that so I may be reassigned to something that plays more to my strengths... such as shopping!). So how has 're-entry' felt for you this week if you're in the UK? Different [...]
It's time for a March cornucopia because there are a few things I've been meaning to mention. Let's start with clothes because change is afoot in the UK with groups of six being allowed to meet outside from Monday - and of course this will soon be followed by pubs opening their outdoor seating areas on 12th April so we need to think about what to wear for outdoor meet-ups. This week I've noticed that lots of pubs are busy [...]
Thank goodness - on Sunday we'll reach the Spring equinox and then in a week's time the clocks go forward. These are the little things that mean such a lot at the moment because they'll make a significant difference to the lives we're living. Today's post is all about new season, this time with a focus on more everyday outfits that will take us from lockdown to beyond. I'm pleased to be working with one of my favourite retailers again [...]
I know we've had crazy weather in the UK this week but we're turning the corner towards springtime and it feels as though it's time to start looking ahead, albeit tentatively. Today I'm working with Boden, doing a bit of wardrobe planning for SS21 - thinking about going out. Of course we'll all be emerging from lockdown at different paces but here's the roadmap that we have in England at the moment: 29th March - golf is back for those [...]
Well hello, how are you? Feeling buoyed by Boris's roadmap or not? I've noticed that this week has been an emotional one for a lot of people. Everyone I've spoken to seems to be swinging between elation at having a hairdresser's appointment in the diary and despair at still having weeks of limbo ahead. I feel the same and I'll have a go at encapsulating it in Midlife Lately at the end of this post because I'll be fascinated to [...]
Today I'm working with Uniqlo to kick off the new season by launching SS21 - Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo. Like the first snowdrops, for me this shoot is always the sign of brighter times ahead and it feels particularly victorious to still be able to bring it to you this year despite the added hurdles that are impacting retailers everywhere. We're slightly later than I hoped to be because the clothes samples only arrived at lunchtime today so [...]
And here we are in February, a month I like because it takes us swiftly out of winter and into the beginning of spring. It's a month of love in our house because not only do we have Valentine's Day but also our wedding anniversary. First though comes Midlifechic's birthday. Yesterday this little blog of mine reached the grand old age of seven and of course in the context of the lives that we've lived, that doesn't seem very old. [...]
Here we are at the end of January, we've made it through the year's darkest month so I think this weekend should feel like a small celebration of some kind. A glass of wine... a bar of chocolate... a new lipstick... a jumper in a spring colour, there's definitely a reason for a little treat. The buzzword for it would be 'self care' but I hate that so I'm just going to call it a personal reward for keeping on [...]
Happy Friday everyone, that's the most difficult week of January over with and even I have to confess that I've found it trying. It began with Blue Monday and then we were battered by Storm Christoph - I'm hoping that none of you are in the worst hit areas, extreme weather really isn't what we need at the moment. Once again today's post is a mix of things that have caught my eye or sprung to mind while I've been [...]
Ah your responses to last Friday's post were so interesting - if you haven't had time yet, go back and read through the comments because they give really good insight into the myriad ways we're all living and feeling at the moment. They showed me that although we remain on the same wavelength, we're all having completely different experiences of lockdown, particularly this time around. I'm going to be holding that in my mind as I write my posts over [...]
Well how are you? Full of beans and ready for the Christmas break or limping and just desperate to get there? I confess that I'm in the latter camp. I woke up yesterday wondering what on earth was wrong with me because I felt as though every last ounce of energy had left my body. I had a flu jab on Saturday so at first I thought it must be that but then I mentioned how I was feeling in [...]
Thank you for your comments and messages after my last post, I'm going to reply to them tomorrow but before that I have a few last thoughts about Christmas to share. Now that my nest is full again I'm finding myself drumming my fingers and waiting for Christmas to begin but as it is, we're all still busy with work, lectures and school, limping slightly as we see the end ahead. This is the last of my posts with John [...]
It's been a while since we had a midlife lately catch up because I've been so busy with everything Christmas but it's starting to feel as though most of the planning is done now so I can come up for air. Wasn't November a funny old month? Even more of a nothingness than November usually is so I'm not sure how interesting this post is going to be but I suppose we're all in the same boat. As always, ours [...]
I've been meaning to write a post about cashmere for ages and with Christmas approaching, it seems like a good time. In the comments you often mention that you feel quality has declined over the last few years and wonder why. So today I'm focusing on a small family run business The Cashmere Specialist to bring you a cashmere 101 and looking at why high street cashmere isn't what it was. (In the interests of transparency, this has been commissioned [...]
As promised, an extra post from me this week focusing on the 12 days of Christmas dressing - dressed up or dressed down? Today I'm working with John Lewis & Partners and I've decided to look specifically at the retail approach that they've taken to the tricky proposition of Christmas 2020. As you no doubt know, when lockdown hit us all so suddenly in March retailers were pretty much at the point where they'd usually have Christmas all planned out. [...]
This is my last Boden post of the year and so you won't be surprised to hear that I'm looking at Christmas. Like every retailer, Boden have condensed their partywear collection this year because, of course, there won't be as many (if any) parties. However, as I've already said, there are those of us who are craving a reason to dress up and Christmas itself gives us all the excuses we need. If you follow my Instagram feed you'll know [...]
And we're off, I'm officially launching Christmas 2020 on Midlifechic with 'easy Christmas chic'. Yes it's going to feel different... but isn't that great? After all, I think a lot of us have been guilty in past years of muttering "here we go again..." as soon as November comes round. The thing about Christmas in midlife is that we often find ourselves in the position of family matriarch and as such, a lot of Christmas falls on our shoulders... [...]
Well the clocks go back here this weekend so we'll be officially saying goodbye to British Summer Time. Today I'm doing a Baukjen AW20 try-on, showcasing a few pieces from this tiny British brand that has continued to shine ethically throughout this difficult year. And at the end of the post I'll show you my tiny collection of new bags that have finally arrived after the hard work we did in the summer. New readers often ask me how Baukjen [...]
The 4 coats you need for a lockdown winter A big hello to you from Tier 3 - if you haven't joined us yet, I hope you're enjoying your relative freedom. Well actually as we're so close to the county border if we turn one way we're in Tier 3 and Tier 2 if we go the other although I suspect that will soon be irrelevant as the country levels up. As the rules stand for us at the moment, [...]
I know some of you, the Scots in particular, have been wondering whether I was ever going to publish this. It's two weeks since we went away for Mr MC's birthday and already it feels like a lifetime ago - not just in terms of time but also in lifestyle because now our freedoms are far fewer again. We were so lucky to snatch a weekend of fun when we did and looking through the photos it reminds me that [...]
Well I hope you're getting used to the increasing levels of lockdown if you're in the UK. Given our proximity to a two university city with rapidly increasing rates of infection, we were quite surprised to find ourselves in tier two but I suspect that will change very soon. So as today is my sister's birthday, I made the most of being able to spend this morning drinking coffee with her in her garden which means today's post is a [...]
As promised, today's post is an AW20 Boden edit - and by that I mean my pick of the pieces that have arrived over the last couple of weeks. Like me you'll be getting used to the fact that retailers are working around delayed deliveries this season and so quite a lot of product is only available on backorder. However, everything I'm showing you here is available now. As always, I was drawn to some of the stunning dresses that [...]
Today I'm really pleased to be working with Uniqlo again. My brief was to have a look at their denim and write an honest review of some of this season's core styles. I don't know whether you're aware but Uniqlo take denim very seriously; they're constantly working on it and their ultimate objective is to create a capsule of timeless jeans in the world's favourite cuts: skinny, relaxed and straight. So they gave me free range to put together some [...]
Typical - I spend ages planning a 'what to wear when you're back in the office' post only for the edict to come out that we're all to base ourselves at home again. So instead I'm answering the clamour of requests from people who mourn their work wardrobes. Today's post is going to include a few ideas for working from home - elevating the basics. Like so many of you, Alison summed it up in an email when she said [...]
Well what a week it's been here, I have lots to tell you. In this post I'm wearing quite a few new season pieces for people who just come for the clothes and I'll finish with a surprising development on the life front for those who follow my ups and downs. But first, a huge thank you to everyone who joined me for a workout in the park with Sally at an ungodly hour this morning - I'll embed the [...]
In Friday's post we dipped our toes into the cooler waters of Autumn and then of course there was a heatwave! However there's no denying that colder weather is on the way so before we all get distracted by emails from retailers telling us what we 'must have,' I thought I'd do a capsule wardrobe refresher. And let's face it we're moving into a season that's going to be very different to our usual Autumn/Winter. I suspect the lifestyle changes [...]
Happy Friday everyone, it's a quick post from me today with a first look at the new season deliveries and some outfit ideas for Autumn 2020. I don't know about you but I'm holding on to summer clothes for as long as I can although I'm slowly accepting that Autumn seems to be making an earlier appearance than usual - there's no sign of an Indian summer here. I'm going to be more analytical about it in next week's post [...]
Today I'm wrapping summer up with one last blast of sunshine from Turkey before I move into everything autumnal. I have lots of questions coming in about Kalkan - I think a few other bloggers have been out there this year so it's on the rise as a destination. People are asking me for more detail about what it's like and whether I'd recommend going there now. Of course I can't tell you what is and isn't safe - you [...]
I came back to such a heavy workload after our holiday that it already feels as though it was at least a month ago. I'm not complaining - anybody who runs their own business will know how grateful you feel to be busy but it perhaps means I'm going to write this post in a different way than I would if I could still feel the glow of the sun on my skin. The thing is that I don't want [...]
I know I'm probably going to throw you out for the week by posting on a Monday but this Bank Holiday always feels like a good time for setting new intentions so I'm taking my first look at what we might be wearing over the season ahead. Of course the last five months have made us reconsider our lives in countless ways and one of those is our approach to style. The whole world of fashion has been disrupted and [...]
Well it isn't good to be back from holiday but it is good to be blogging again! So hello, how are you? I hope you've had a good couple of weeks. I have lots to tell you but it'll have to wait until next week when I've had time to go through the photos we took in Turkey. In the meantime as promised I'm bringing you my insights on the latest collection from Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo Autumn [...]
Retail update - small British brands - and à bientôt... I'm typing with my fingers crossed because if everything goes to plan, we'll be setting off on our holiday tonight. Preparing to go has been challenging because all kinds of things have kept changing. This has included our usual petsitters being offered a holiday that was too good to resist on the same dates as ours which wasn't a problem until we realised the cats' inoculations had run out and [...]
It's been a much quieter week here this week, we've been balancing our leap out of lockdown by being home-based again in a strange kind of exposure equation. It means I don't have anything exciting to report on but I have been trying out a few new things so I'll tell you about those instead with a cornucopia including a Stitch Fix review, some honest beauty recommendations and a singalong. Stitch Fix review I'm starting with a Stitch Fix review. [...]
Hello, how are you... it's been a while. As you know I've been away from my desk for the last week staycationing in London and Newcastle which means today's post is going to be a catch-up (and it's a bit of a long one so pour yourself a drink). So what was it like to go away just as the lockdown began to lift? Staycationing in London post Covid 19 London Thursday We started our journey on a very quiet [...]
I'm early this week because today's post includes quite a few pieces that have just gone into the sale and I wanted to get them to you before they all sell out. I'm heading down to London in the morning, Friday will finally be haircut day for me and Mr MC is coming too (to London, not the hairdressers). We'll be making the most of a couple of nights away because I want to be able to walk everywhere rather [...]
Hello everyone. Well another week has gone by, the first one of relative freedom and it was interesting to read how some of you were slowly moving out of lockdown in the comments after my last post. As so many people said, it's clear that everybody has a different attitude to risk and the good thing is that so far, most people seem to be able to live alongside each other without judging. Mr MC and I are finding that [...]
This new schedule of only posting once a week is going to take some getting used to but it's nice to be back. It's going to be a bit of a cornucopia today because there hasn't been much going on here other than work which has mostly revolved around planning and strategy meetings and I can tell you, they've never been harder than they are after more than 100 days of lockdown and counting. However we are, at last, making [...]
Hello, I'm a day early but the Hush sale has started so I thought I'd bring you my Hush sale top ten. I warn you, the sale site is a pain to go through because when you click on an item it doesn't usually remember where you left off so you have to scroll down to find your place again. Before I go into my top picks though I thought I'd give you an update on sales in general because [...]
Well (and I say this cautiously) it's starting to feel as though we're coming through to the other side of the great coronavirus lockdown. I hope you've had a good weekend and that you've managed to start meeting some of the people you've missed so much. We've caught up with a few friends and clients now (although the weather hasn't been great here so some conversations have suddenly been cut short by torrential downpours) even so, it's felt good to [...]
We have a post with a purpose today, it's all about chic heatwave dresses because Meg wrote in to say "I have a colleague who's been looking effortless in the heat when we have our Zoom meetings. I'm still struggling to make the transition from office to home and I find I'm sweating in front of the camera wearing the structured ponte dresses I usually wear to work. Can you help me to find the kind of thing I'm looking [...]
The zeitgeist and what to wear for the weekend Has anyone else found this week to be a tough one? For me it's been by far the most challenging of lockdown, not for any particular reason other than the new monotony. As I've said before I've realised how much I rely on forward goals to keep me going and with the endless uncertainty that seems to surround us in the UK in particular, it's still impossible to implement any. Of [...]
Hello and happy Tuesday everyone. I'm back after a couple of days off last week when as you might remember, Mr MC and I intended to make a plan for the next few months. We wanted to focus mostly on our business but of course like most people's, our work and life is so closely interwoven that we needed to consider everything else as well. So, we sat down with coffee and notepads and after some drumming of fingers we [...]
Hello, I'm out of sync at the moment because I had two days off for my birthday last week and then tunnelled into the Bank Holiday. It means I'm behind with the comments (and everything else) but I'll crack on with them after this. First of all though, a catch-up, starting with midlife lately and then I'll move on to some SS20 at home outfit ideas because a few new drops have landed this week and they'll be the last [...]
Hello and first of all thank you to everyone who took the time to send a birthday wish on Tuesday. I was showered with messages from every corner of the internet and it was lovely to know that so many people had me in their thoughts, in fact I couldn't wish for anything more. I'll tell you more about what we did next week when we have a catch-up but in the meantime I want us to start thinking about [...]
Happy Friday everyone - yes it is Friday if you've lost track of the days. Actually I've had a really busy week this week, things suddenly seem to have taken off again although I don't know for how long and I'm not complaining - but actually I am a bit, I'd got used to having an empty Inbox! While we're on the subject of complaining I'm just going to do the thing I keep telling my boys not to by [...]
Quarantine - as the days roll on - Coronavirus 2020 How are you getting on? I have to admit that today is the first day when I've felt a bit fed up of all of this so I'm glad it's a blogging day. With the possibility that somebody has happened upon this post few years on from now, let me just apply some context. We're now in the eighth week of quarantine and in Boris Johnson's broadcast on Sunday evening [...]
Hello everyone, how are you? After dedicating the comments to the kindness competition last week I feel a bit out of touch with you all. Mind you we're getting used to that feeling of general disconnection now aren't we? I've had a few emails from people asking for more ideas for working from home chic, especially now that we seem (fingers crossed) to have moved firmly into a rather lovely British spring/summer. As I mentioned last week, Boden kindly invited [...]
Lockdown week 5 Well, here we are at the start of a shiny new month, probably not as far along as we thought we would be when when we turned from March to April but it feels like progress nevertheless. May is my favourite month of the year and of course that could just be because it's my birthday month and so it always feels as though it's brimming with promise but even so, I still believe it's the most [...]
Pandemic diaries Hello from a suddenly chilly north of England. Just as I'd got into the swing of summer dressing it's behaved true to form and gone the other way - I've just had to break off to go and put some socks on when I thought I'd finished with them until October. I suppose it reflects everything else that's going on because I'm finding I just can't plan ahead for more than a week at a time at the [...]
Hello and happy Friday everyone. As promised I'm taking a break from coronavirus today and thinking about clothes instead. You see as this long spell of sunny weather continues (and I realise I've probably jinxed it now), I'm finding I don't have a lot of options in my wardrobe. I know that's hard to believe but when I thought it through I realised that my summer clothing budget usually goes in two particular directions. You see at this time of [...]
We're coming to the end of the third week of lockdown and so I thought I'd do another simple diary. As readers you will of course know what it's like to go shopping at the moment but I'm recording it here for legacy purposes. I hope that soon we'll be looking back with disbelief and I don't want to forget how extraordinary this time was. So today do please add in the comments anything that's struck you as you've tried [...]
I thought we'd take a break from discussing the virus today and settle back into our happy zone of what to wear. I'm keeping it relevant because this is a personal project. On Sunday I sat down as usual to think about the week ahead and with no complex projects ahead, it struck me that this is an opportunity for a quasi-clinical test on the smart casual element of my wardrobe. So I set myself a test to build a [...]
Hello everyone - are you still hanging on in there? I'm delighted to be bringing you some lockdown outfits today because I'm determined we'll stay chic, even if we're all at home. I'd like to say a huge thank you to Boden who are working with me today and are the only large brand to have honoured their commitment. Occasional posts like this will enable me to keep Midlifechic going so if you want this blog to survive they're a [...]
Supporting small brands through difficult times Every time I start a post the world seems a little stranger and today I feel as though I'm broadcasting from a bunker. It's a concept that's quite vivid in my imagination because I've always been a bit of a living history geek. When I was at Selfridges I seemed to be the only person other than the archivist who was interested in the store's story. Sensing a kindred spirit he used to allow [...]
Easy spring looks from M&S and a try-on Spring's going to be here any minute - really it is and so for my latest Marks and Spencer edit, I thought I'd look ahead to warmer days. It's been a struggle to get my head in the right place because we've had gales blowing here every day but today the sun finally shone through and I managed to get some pictures outside for the first time in months. As I searched [...]
It's a while since we've been away. When we adopted Teddy we decided that we'd dedicate three months to settling him in so we've been home based since January. But then an invitation to review The Devonshire Arms came in and because it isn't far away, I decided the boys could do a night of Ted duty so we had a 24 hour escape. As you know, I spent part of last week unravelling future trip bookings that have been [...]
Spring / Summer 2020 trend update It's time to move into new season with a spring / summer 2020 trend update. Before we start, I just want to apologise for being behind with the comments, I've had extra things eating into my time this week with the demise of FlyBe (flights and claims to be dealt with) along with Coronavirus. I thought we'd be relatively insulated from it up here but after spending the last few days getting the youngest [...]
A casual midlife lately Hello, it's time for a quick catch up I think with a casual midlife lately. Wasn't February grim? It really seemed to drag, I think everyone in the UK is feeling battered by the weather. We usually go away for our wedding anniversary early in the month and I really missed it - thank goodness it's March. We're surrounded by signs of spring up here - the daffodils are out, there are lambs in the fields [...]
What to look for when you're buying jeans It's another denim try-on today, this time I'm working with John Lewis & Partners, looking at their And/Or range which is good because last time I did this, I found the jeans that have been my go-to pair for the last two years. When I asked in the reader survey which looks were most relevant to your lifestyle, smart casual (jeans with a blazer) and relaxed casual (jeans with trainers) scored 82% [...]
Repeat after me "I won't complain about the weather..." Grim isn't it? It's actually appropriate that my inbox is full of London Fashion Week for Autumn 2020 because spring feels a long way away. As always I've been busy saving the information that I'll need when we come round to discussing AW20 in September but actually, there are details we can take from it in advance. It's going to be a while until we start casting off layers so we [...]
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 [...]
What I've been wearing and doing in February Hello, I hope you're sitting somewhere warm away from the storm - crazy out there isn't it? I'm still busy poring through the survey results - it takes quite a while to read through 3000 sets of comments but as I said last week, it's fascinating. One of the most common requests that's coming up is for more general outfit shots of what I've been wearing when I've been doing everyday things [...]
It's a retailer try-on today with my first M&S edit of the year so let's have a look at what's going on there. As we discussed back in September, there's a new womenswear team on board with a strategy to address the basics. Their view is that the marketplace is already well served with fast fashion retailers chasing the latest trends so the role of M&S should be to get the core basics right - which is something I think [...]
First of all, thank you to everyone who's taken part in the survey, it's now closed and I've been busy going through the responses. My goodness they're interesting, I'm really grateful for all of the careful thought that you've put into the comment boxes. I'll be taking suggestions on board and starting to answer some of the questions you had in posts as I go along. Now, it's a while since we've had a cornucopia so here are a few [...]
Here's a sign that Spring is on its way, heralded by one of my favourite posts of the season – the Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo SS20 preview. We’ve been granted an exclusive early look at the collection again but before I show you the clothes, remember that with this range you have to be quick. The online allocation often sells out by midday and just because something is in your basket, it doesn’t mean it’s yours - if [...]
What I wear in January, outfit ideas women over 40 Today's post is the first of a new series that I'm aiming to include every month featuring a compilation of outfits that I've been wearing for work and weekends. These posts will show you what I wear day in, day out and they should contrast nicely with the new season try-ons that I do with some of our favourite high street brands. I'm not going to patronise you by saying [...]
It's all spinning a bit too fast at the moment, despite the fact that I declined the blogger invitations that came my way. We haven't had a Christmas as busy as this one for a long time so I haven't had time to come up with a post... all I can do today is take you along with me virtually. Allons-y! Christmas midlife lately - ordinary work day This was last Thursday (I think) when for once I had a [...]
Hello, it's a short post today because I doubt any of us has a lot of spare time for reading and writing. I've turned down all Christmas blogging jollies this year because we have so much going on here - there are two more busy weeks of work lunches and dinners ahead before it all starts to quieten down a bit and become more family and friend focused. So, I'm doing my best to snap outfits as we go along [...]
It's the last of my Christmas 'what to wear' posts today and I'm pleased to be working with Boden, bringing you my edit of their current collection. The great news is that in celebration of their 28th birthday, they're offering 28% off almost everything including the pieces I've featured in here until Thursday 21st November with code 6T2C so hopefully I'm bringing you these ideas at just the right time. I'm operating within the Four Pillars of Festive Style that [...]
A love letter to Leeds Well what a fabulous time I had last Friday talking about festive dressing ideas at John Lewis & Partners, I hope that those of you who joined me did too. I've been on a high all week, replaying our conversations in my head and just wishing there had been more time for us all to chat. For those of you who couldn't come, let me see if I can make you feel as though you [...]
I'm pleased to say that today's post has been prompted directly by you. You see I had the pleasure of chatting to lots of readers at the John Lewis & Partners event on Friday and one topic was requested more than any other: 'relaxed winter chic for women over 40.' So, before we launch headlong into the whirlwind of Christmas, I thought I'd recap on the basics of elevating your winter look. What's coming up on Midlifechic? But first I [...]
A winter blue capsule from Marks & Spencer And so my friends, I'm tentatively launching into the party season. I know it's early and some of you will get grumpy with me but as always my view is that it's best to get all of the planning done now so that when December comes we can just enjoy it. This way when the glossies are running features about how to avoid Christmas stress, we'll be blowing party poppers and wondering [...]
Something a bit different for you today because thinking we were going to be almost through to the other side of Brexit, I planned a British brand focus. As it happens we're not (why am I surprised?) but I'm going to talk about three of them anyway. Before I start though, I have an apology. One of the enquiry forms on Darryll and Bettina's website for The D'Azur failed on Saturday and so all of the enquiries that you sent [...]
And so my first proper get together with readers finally happened last weekend in the particularly glamorous surroundings of the French Riviera. A lot of new readers have joined us recently so I'm just going to backtrack a little to explain how it all came about. Earlier this year, friends in London introduced us to Darryll and Bettina and they invited both us and the boys to stay with them at The D'Azur, their villa in the South of France. [...]
It's been a while since I've worked with them and a few of you have been asking me what's going on at hush. It's a small company that has found itself growing so fast that it's suddenly had to switch its focus towards gearing up for growth in a big way. Everybody here of course has known and loved hush for a long time, but two years ago when they launched at John Lewis & Partners, they were introduced to [...]
As you know, I spent some time in Leeds this week getting ready for the Midlifechic reader event next month. I love being there because it's one of my favourite John Lewis & Partners sites. It's the anchor store for Victoria Leeds, a shopping centre that opened in 2016 incorporating some of the restored Victorian arcades and I don't think I've seen a more architecturally beautiful shopping centre in the UK. The new glass buildings compliment the old iron structures [...]
I'm early this week so apologies to everyone who tells me that my post is part of their Friday wind-down routine, I'm juggling again and so it was now or never. So it's a Friday cornucopia today (on a Thursday... confused? yes me too) with a mixture of clothes, beauty - and... a chance for us to meet. At last! More about that at the end of the post. Hush mid-season sale - recommendations I'm going to start with the [...]
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 [...]
Oh it went so quickly, our weekend break in Spain - and well done to Jenny who was the first to guess our destination of Jeréz. We decided on this trip on our wedding anniversary in February when we were looking through the 'wallpaper roll of dreams' that we made when we were first married. Amongst other things it lists all of the places that we hoped to travel to and because we've spent so many years choosing destinations that [...]
Today I'm really pleased to be bringing you a bumper Boden edit - Autumn 2019. Longstanding readers will know that I've been trying to open a dialogue with Boden for years. As you've seen, since spring we've been getting to know each other by doing a small monthly edit - and during that time, from your feedback and comments they've learned a bit more about you too. For this post I've had a chance to go [...]
It's a quick post from me today, I don't have much time because it's Mr MC's birthday this weekend and we're going away... but I'll tell you more about that later. In the meantime I've come up with a few more ideas of what to wear as we transition from summer to autumn when the weather's still relatively warm but unreliable. I've collated some chic autumn basics - wardrobe building blocks that don't immediately look exciting but will work harder [...]
Hello, I'm breathing a small sigh of relief this week because the North West business exhibition that we've been managing is finally over. It meant that I didn't have much time for Midlifechic last week so why I thought it would be a good time to do the sale I don't know. As some of you gathered, there were technical gremlins galore on Friday night and I was stuck in the office on my own unable to get through to [...]
Today's post is all about M&S but it isn't just my usual monthly try-on of new styles in store, I want to talk a little about why I'm making the statement that 'hope springs at Marks and Spencer.' And yes I know the first thought that's going to come into your mind is that last week they dropped out of the FTSE 100 for the first time ever. I'm sure when that result was announced you could quickly reel off [...]
Today, as promised we're going to look at easy ways to update your wardrobe for AW19. Hopefully since the A/W19 trends post you've had a chance to think through what you already have. This perhaps includes blazers, jumpers and jeans for a simple start, maybe midi-skirts and dresses too and a couple of pairs of wide leg trousers. Thinking back to the 'how to build a capsule wardrobe course' we did in January, I'm hoping that you're still using the [...]
Well I've had it with Summer. It's been like a bad boyfriend, letting me down so many times that I'm over it so, let's move on to our Autumn/Winter 2019 - trend analysis. Now it isn't the easiest of seasons to get your head around this year. There are no significant outline changes as there were two years ago when we moved into the new silhouette of the midi and wider trousers. This time it's more about a mood [...]
Ah the Bank Holiday... lovely wasn't it? The problem is that it's hit the Inès de La Fressange launch at Uniqlo and as a result, the warehouse just couldn't get samples to me in time to shoot them. We all know what a tight turnaround this limited release has and please take me seriously when I say that it will have mostly sold out by lunchtime today because really, it will. (For US readers it goes live this morning here, [...]
I have mixed feelings about seeing the new deliveries starting to arrive for Autumn because it's hard to say goodbye to a summer that hasn't even started and yet I'm ready to give up on summer clothes. I suspect it's going to feel like a long winter for us in the UK this year, kicking off with everything Brexit but let's not dwell on that. The farmer in my genes (good job this isn't a podcast!) tells me there's a [...]
Hasn't the weather been awful this week? Let's go back to Turkey! Join me in the sunshine for the second half of our holiday - there are a lot of photos so I'll try to let them tell the story without too much rattling on. At the end of the last post, I left off when just six weeks before we were due to depart, I discovered that we had nowhere to stay for the second week. Thanks to the [...]
Well hello... it's been a while so I hope you're still there. We're back from the longest of our summer trips this year which was a fortnight in Kalkan on Turkey's Turquoise Coast. As you know it's the place where we find we can completely switch off. We first went there in 2000 when the eldest was just a toddler so we've seen it change over the years. This time I have to say it was very, very busy. Kalkan [...]
The warm days were so slow to arrive in the UK this year that it's been hard to get into the mood for summer clothes until recently hasn't it? Of course now that the sun's finally shown its face, most stores are heavily into their summer sales which can be too much hard work to navigate. I walked down Regent Street and onto Oxford Street when I was in London a couple of weeks ago and I just couldn't face [...]
It's another reader request today - can you tell I'm ticking off my to-do list before we go away? A few people have mentioned the difficulty of finding truly invisible lingerie to wear under things like white linen trousers and low backed dresses in the summer, especially since I featured the halternecks I wore for our French trip. So, over the last few weeks I've been calling in samples to test and I've come up with my pick of the [...]
At last I’ve had a chance to go through the photos from our long weekend with teens in the French Riviera - we took so many that it’s going to be better for me to let the pictures do most of the talking or this will go on forever. A long weekend with teens in the French Riviera - Friday As I mentioned when I was busy planning what to pack, we were invited to stay with Darryll and Bettina [...]
As you know, over the last few months I've been starting the journey towards going grey with the team at the Josh Wood Atelier in London. I still have about 50% of my natural blonde and brown in my hair so I won't be completely grey for a few years yet however I'm no longer trying to conceal the transition. Instead I'm allowing the strands of silver to shine though in all of their glory. My first appointment was at [...]
Just a quick post today because I can't imagine many of you will be reading when there's glorious sunshine outside. Anyway, we're back from France and I'll tell you all about it and how the packing capsule worked out next week. In the meantime I'm whizzing through some 'summer sales - great buys' and I'll end with good news in a quick midlife lately roundup. Summer sales - great buys It's hard to think of anything other than t-shirts at [...]
After months of toil and tension, the exams have ended and this week our summer of last hurrahs began with the first of the trips you saw me planning - a few days in the Lake District with teenagers. We were invited to stay at The Swan Hotel and Spa at Newby Bridge which is in my favourite part of the Lakes, the Western Peninsula. The Swan has always been one of my top five hotels in the Lakes but [...]
I'm trying not to mention the weather but... I am finding myself glad that we have a couple of escapes to the sunshine booked (although last time I looked, it was even raining in Turkey). Anyway I'm working with M&S today and the focus is holidays. We've spent enough time on here planning holiday wardrobes so I thought I'd look at last minute travel buys, the little extras that make all the difference. I love doing posts like this because [...]
It's a quick one today because it's one of those days when work has to come before pleasure. This post was prompted by a distress call from an old schoolfriend. She defected to the south years ago and messaged me last week because of the rain. You see she's been away so long that she's forgotten how to dress for a summer that doesn't turn out as expected. She needed a wardrobe solution for a wet summer; her words were [...]
What to pack for a chic weekend in the countryside can be a far harder challenge than preparing for hot sunshine. While the rest of the country barbecued from dawn until dusk last weekend, we had a band of incessant rain in the Lake District with cold winds too - I had to stop looking at Instagram because it just wasn't fair. However, we plough on and this post is, in fact, me planning for the first of our 'summer [...]
I often receive emails from readers who tell me that they love the outfits that I put together on Midlifechic but don't have the budget for a lot of the things I feature. It gives me a real quandary because I want this blog to be relevant to all women, regardless of age or spend. However I'm also increasingly trying to steer it towards social, ethical and environmental shopping which tends to carry a higher price tag. An interesting conversation [...]
I'm starting to think I may have been a bit ambitious with my adventure planning this year. Summer is usually a quiet time for our business but I don't think anything's running its usual course in the UK is it? I'm definitely not complaining, I'm seeing it as a positive sign that the country is ploughing on regardless - nonostante tutto! I'm just going to have to be very organised and it may mean that I do shorter blog posts [...]
Whenever I work with M&S the feedback you give me is that you find it helpful to be guided through their huge inventory. So, today I'm going to do a trying-on session of some of the things that have caught my eye recently and then I'll talk you through a few M&S updates. As always, they've had some huge successes and I appreciate it can be frustrating when online stocks are limited so I'll highlight when you may need to [...]
What to pack for a long weekend in the French Riviera: I'm killing two birds with one stone today because as I mentioned on Tuesday, as soon as the exams finish we have a few different breaks planned so I need to be organised. We're having some little adventures because I've realised it's the last time I'll be able to plan these things for sure. The middle son is hoping to go travelling next summer and I've no idea where [...]
Who's looking forward to a holiday? I certainly am. As soon as the dreaded exams are over, we've decided to have a summer of fun with the boys so I have a few different things to plan for. We're aware that with one finishing school and the other graduating there may not be another stretch of unplanned time like this so we're going to make the most of it. In the meantime though it feels like eat, sleep, revise, repeat [...]
It's hard to imagine summer at the moment isn't it? The picture above was taken last weekend and it was freezing but the sun's going to break through next week and we need to be ready. So today I'm looking at elevated summer style, because dressing for summer in the UK can be quite tricky. There are days when you don't want to wear the classic jeans, t-shirt, blazer combo and I've chosen these pieces with that mood in mind. [...]
It's been a hectic week - I really wanted to bring you a nice shopping post for the Bank Holiday weekend but I just haven't had time to put it together so I'm going to whizz through what I've been doing instead. After this weekend I'm refusing to move from my desk for a while so next week I'll be going into full summer wardrobe planning mode with holiday packing posts, summer workwear and all kinds of other things in [...]
It's just struck me that we're almost at the end of April - the late Easter this year has confused my body clock. It means of course that we're in a retail hiatus because the big summer drops usually arrive in the first week of May. So, there are some good retail offers as they clear stock to make space for the new arrivals. I'll cover those later in the post but first, a round-up of spring sunshine outfits from [...]
Happy Easter! I hope this post finds you at the beginning of a long break either at home or away. We aren't going anywhere - the boys are in revision lockdown so it's a very serious house at the moment. I am also on enforced rest. I'm going to have to rename this blog MidlifeCrock because I've now hurt my back. All I did was bend over to pick up a pizza that had slipped out of my shopping bag [...]
So many of you have mentioned your newfound love of Uniqlo in the comments recently that I thought it was time to have a look at them in more depth. Rather than focusing on a particular range like IdLF, this time I thought I'd examine their specific strengths. Before we start, I should say that this post is in collaboration with them and they kindly sent me the products I wanted to try however it is an independent review. Understanding [...]
It's lovely to be working with John Lewis & Partners again. Rather than write a general new season review, I thought I'd have a look at their own label collections and define what each brand stands for. Then I'll move on to a show-and-tell as I try some of the pieces myself and tell you what I think. It makes sense for John Lewis & Partners to continue developing their own ranges. Traditionally, department stores have operated as a 'house [...]
I usually do a special occasions post later in the season but I've been so overwhelmed by requests this year that I've pulled it forward. It's the things we have in common that draw us together and this year it seems that one of those things is graduation ceremonies. My friends started asking me what I was going to wear for the eldest's on New Year's Day. The ceremony isn't until July so I'd imagined thinking about it in June [...]
Well here we are on 'Brexit Day' at the end of what must have been one of the craziest weeks in British history. Our business is feeling the impact. We work with a number of Sci-Tech businesses that are being badly hit by the loss of European funding, the stalling of potential global funding and the inability to get innovations passed in the absence of a governing system. As a result, some people we know are facing the loss of [...]
For the last few weeks I've had my nose to the grindstone, working hard to meet client deadlines for the end of the financial year which have had to include multiple strategic approaches for the potential outcomes of Brexit. I think we all knew it was going to be a rocky road didn't we so, when I was invited to review The Wordsworth Hotel back in December, I deliberately asked if I could schedule it for now. A Lake District [...]
Hello and happy Tuesday, apologies for there being no post last Friday but as I mentioned I'm juggling madly at the moment. Anyway I have a retailer focus for you today. It's time for my JD Williams edit SS19 and this time I decided to look through their current collection for some outfits that I'd wear for my usual tasks of working from home, weekend and night out. As you know, I enjoy working with JD Williams (this post was [...]
Last week we looked at the trends for SS19 and established that it's a quiet season. There are no big changes and so a lot of our clothes can carry over quite happily from last year which is good for both our bank accounts and the environment. In a season like this though you tend to find that the detail of your outfit becomes the focus. So today I want to have a quick look at some of the simplest [...]
Hello and Happy Friday! One of the most common requests from the survey feedback was for more pictures of everyday outfits so that you can see how I recycle things. I've been doing my best to remember to get them - it means they're all just iPhone shots so maybe not the best quality (although I'm sure Apple would disagree). So here you go, a few early spring outfits of the day. Liver bird This is from a couple of [...]
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 [...]
I know I don't usually post on a Thursday but my schedule's a bit topsy turvy at the moment. I have some heavy marketing projects that are keeping me busy and given that we're running a business in the shadow of Brexit (or are we?) I'm not complaining! I'm also halfway through reading all of the feedback to the reader survey so in addition to feeling buoyed by lots of heart-lifting comments (thank you so much), I have some conflicting [...]
The sun is shining, in fact the tabloids are calling it the Moroccan Melt so to everyone who asked me to bring the weather back with me from Marrakech, you're welcome! It means that for once, the new Spring collections that are arriving feel timely. It's usually hard to imagine spring in February but this week retail sales have been booming as everyone casts off their winter layers. I'm sure we'll have another stretch of jumpers and boots next week [...]
At last we're moving into Spring and once again I'm delighted to bring you the exclusive on the new collection from Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo. As I say every time, Inès is my ultimate style icon so it's a huge honour when Uniqlo give me this opportunity to be her English counterpart. The collection launches here today at 7am in the UK and here in the US. Sorry Australian readers - I couldn't get any info for you [...]
Let me take you to Marrakech for a blast of warmth and downtime... it's a long post but there's a lot to say. As you know, for the Christmas before last Mr MC gave me a jar of money and a promise of time away together in 2018. We'd hoped to go somewhere in October but with the sad news of his brother, it wasn't to be. And so we made a plan to head off for our wedding anniversary in [...]
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 [...]
Well after a month's abstinence I think it's time to have a look at the shops again and it's so cold that my mind's on jumpers (many jumpers - our heating's packed in!). I'm looking at 'pop of colour outfit updates' so let's have a think about them from a capsule perspective. I don't know about you but my body temperature has changed in midlife. Thanks to my HRT I don't have hot flushes but I definitely find myself getting [...]
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 [...]
And just like that the A/W season's over and the sales are beginning. As retailers start to announce profit warnings it's clearer than ever that it's been one of the worst trading periods on record and so there are going to be some dazzling markdowns. While I've been having a clearout, I've made a point of looking at the pieces I wear on repeat and asking myself why. As part of this process, I've been struck by the fact that [...]
It's a quick post from me today because as always when we're approaching a break, I have a desk full of projects that have suddenly come in. One of them is particularly interesting and so I foolishly put my hand up for it. It's a timeline covering 1000 years of history and I've really enjoyed researching it but as a woman of many words, I'm finding it almost impossible to condense it down into a few soundbites. There are just [...]
It's been a while hasn't it and some of you have written in to ask why I haven't been doing Midlife Lately. The thing is that for me, this is not a job. As I've always said, I started Midlifechic primarily as a personal journal so that I could leave a record that my future great grandchildren might read. I was inspired to start writing after reading through boxes of family letters that I discovered after my mum died. For [...]
Happy December everyone. Before I go on with this post I just want to say to everyone who's been asking for a Midlife Lately - it's coming on Friday. There's a reason why I haven't been doing it and I'll explain why then. In the meantime, last week Marks & Spencer challenged me to look through their partywear and put together an outfit for one of my early Christmas events. The first party in my diary was a work related [...]
Hello - it's a quick post from me today because the Black Friday offers have run on into Cyber Monday so I thought I'd bring my Pyjama Fairy post forward. If you're a longstanding reader you'll know that the Pyjama Fairy always comes to our house on Christmas Eve while we're out at the panto. Even now, as soon as we get back the boys regress and race each other upstairs to see what's been left on their beds. They [...]
So here we go, it's clear that thanks to Black Friday, this has become the key Christmas shopping week in the UK. It's been interesting because last year there was a retail revolt as a number of store groups stood together and refused to run with Black Friday. However this year has seen consistently subdued sales figures. Retailers can usually rely on 'organised mums' to start their Christmas shopping as soon as the schools return after half term but even [...]
Another short edit from me today - this time I'm looking at party shoes. The best thing about a pair of glittery heels is that they're the easy way to instant glamour. When the phone rings with a spontaneous invitation, all you have to do is throw them on with whatever you're wearing, pick up your Midlifechic metallic clutch(!) and you're party ready. The evening is yours for the taking... after all, look at what a pair of sparkly shoes did [...]
Well we're in full party mode chez Midlifechic. In fact as we were getting ready for yet another black-tie event on Friday, Mr MC and I concluded that it must be a sign of northern frugality that our dressiest events of the year seem to fall in October and November i.e. before venues start to add their seasonal levy! So, it seems appropriate that today's post is all about a strong northern brand that seems to be bucking the trend by [...]
So, continuing on from this week's quick post about party tops, today I'm going to have a longer look at Christmas party wardrobe planning. Thank you for your response to my post on Sunday, it's great to know that so many people are being selective about where they shop. The high street looks very different this year however, there is one big store group that we can always rely on to do the right thing and that's John Lewis & [...]
It's time! As soon as the blaze of bonfire night dies down, for me it's time to look ahead to the next point of light which, of course, is Christmas. So here's the plan. I'm going to bring you quite a few bitesized posts like this one today but they'll be interspersed with longer ones. They'll all be clearly headed so that even if you don't feel like thinking about Christmas yet, you can find them easily when you do. [...]
I'm hoping to make this a monthly feature in 2019 because I really want to start focusing on small British brands run by women like us. Why? Well of course it fits perfectly with the Midlifechic ethos that this stage of our lives is just the beginning - especially for women who have arrived at the magical age of 50. If you're younger, keep going - your best time is still to come. However my other reason for doing this [...]
I mentioned last week that I'm thinking carefully about how I can make Midlifechic count. Without changing things too much, I'm going to work more with charities, find brands that have good environmental and social policies and also help support small companies, particularly those run by women over 40. Today's post ticks off two of these criteria because I want to you to tell you all about what went on at a charity fundraising event that I went to last [...]
Now that the weather's suddenly turned cold, I have lots of questions coming in about what footwear works best with trousers and jeans so it seems like a good idea to write a practical post. The best solution is a pair of ankle boots but you need to get the balance right - as always, it's best to think about the body in an architectural way and understand the best part of your leg to focus on. If you have [...]
Ok, I promised we'd have a catch up and I have so much to tell you - October has been a blur but let's start where I left you last time, just before the funeral. Newcastle It was, as you can imagine, heartbreaking. When you're inside a family, you never really see the impact that your relative has beyond your immediate enclave until something like this happens. As we arrived at the crematorium, we were overwhelmed by the sheer size [...]
Well hello, I'm back and if you're reading this it means you're still here. I thank you for sticking with me during my absence, I just needed to take some time away. Anyway, I'll update you with a 'midlife lately' next week but today I'm easing myself back in with a look at one of my favourite brands, Uniqlo. You see as I've been collating your feedback on some of the retailer-specific posts that I've done this season, the cry [...]
Just a quick hello today because as I thought, getting the shop ready for our delivery of chic new bags has helped us to keep our minds occupied over the last few days. Before I go on to talk about them though, I just want to say a huge thank you for all of your kind messages that have been coming in from every direction. I've been reading them out at the dinner table as they've arrived and we've all [...]
A new brand edit for you today - I'm bringing you a selection of winter warmers with an edit of coats, knits and boots from JD Williams. As always this season, they have a selection that spans a wide range of price points and, of course, sizing as they continue to champion midlife women across the board. For AW18 they've asked me to focus on coats, knitwear and boots which, let's face it, is probably the most relevant field for [...]
I do find the new retail calendar weird. Mid-season sales in the third week of September would have been unheard of a few years ago but of course retailers do smaller drops throughout the season now to meet the demand for perpetual newness. So, I have two of these new drops to whizz through with you. They're both from retailers that tend to sell through quickly and in my eyes, these are the best pieces from the latest collections. Hush [...]
One of the things that I often hear people say about Marks & Spencer fashion is that there's just too much of it, that it's too hard to know where to begin. So I've spent some time going through the current collection identifying the particular strengths that I can see at the moment. Of course it makes sense to look at what I see as being their hero areas, however they're pretty strong on some of the new season trends [...]
I thought I'd take a breather from the madness of new season so that we can have a quick catch up. Today I'm bringing you a post of recent outfits, try-ons and a midlife lately catch up which has ended up being more introspective than I intended but that's what happens when I have something on my mind. So, as far as the weather is concerned, we seem to be sliding quickly into Autumn here but every so often, summer [...]
In my posts about trend and colour, I included some of the press shots from the John Lewis & Partners new women's clothing collection which, it has to be said, are lovely. But then PR shots always are - so what I really wanted to do next was road test some of the styles to see how they look on a normal woman (me) shot in less than ideal conditions (the incessant rain and wind that we're experiencing in the [...]
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 [...]
I'm really pleased that so many of you said you enjoyed my edit of the Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo collection because I have a few more reviews of individual retailer collections planned over the next few weeks. Today I'm looking at Hush and I'm working in exactly the same way, in a collaboration where I'm free to style the clothes as I want to and talk to you about how they feel to wear. I know quite a [...]
It's time - I'm excited to bring you my Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo Autumn 2018 Review. Yet again they've identified Midlifechic readers as their core audience and so I've had the chance to examine some of the pieces early - I can't tell you how happy this makes me. For US readers it should be going live for you today too. Just in case you're a new reader, what's so great about this Uniqlo collection? It consists of a [...]
And so here we go, the last taste of high summer on Midlifechic before we move on to Autumn. That means we should talk a little bit about beach holiday style before we move into cosy jumper and boots territory. So here's my beach holiday packing post mortem. Packing for a beach holiday - conclusions As an experiment, I packed differently this year. You may have noticed that about 95% of my holiday wardrobe focused on dresses. Once I'd worn [...]
Hello, I'm back and I've already been down to London but I'm itching to blog again so I thought I'd divide our Kalkan summer holiday into two parts. You see we didn't really do much in the first week which means I have enough time to give you part one today. So, seeing as the forecast is bad for the Bank Holiday weekend, I'll bring you a taste of sunshine. Before I get to that though, let me tell you [...]
I've been interviewed for a few magazines and websites recently. So, given that quite a few of you said you'd enjoyed the FAQ post I did last year, I thought I'd pull some of the questions together just to fill the gap while we're away. I've added some of the questions that I'm asked regularly by readers too so it's a bit random... but welcome to the inside of my head (my family would tell you that it can be [...]
I know, there wasn't supposed to be a post this week but just as I was about to log off for our holiday, one last interesting opportunity dropped into my Inbox. But this time it wasn't for me, it was for the boys which made such a nice change. So often I see mummy bloggers doing posts with their little ones and wonder what it would have been like to work with mine when they were little and pliable. Poor [...]
So you may remember that a few weekends ago I mentioned that Mr MC and I were heading off for a couple of nights on our own. We'd been invited by Warner Hotels to spend a weekend at Thoresby Hall and it was a real treat. As you know, I've been travelling up and down to London a lot recently and so we've haven't seen much of each other. At times like these we fall back on the well oiled [...]
As we reach the tail-end of the summer sales, stocks are running low and autumn styles are suddenly appearing. There are only a few brands you can turn to if you still want to buy a late summer holiday capsule and one is JD Williams. I've been working with them for a year now as a member of their Colour Council which means that every so often, I pop up on their website with a few style ideas. During this time [...]
At last, we've nearly arrived at High Summer which for many is the chance to step aside from the treadmill or at least set it at a slower pace. This is the last week of grind in our house. The youngest is already on holiday and the middle son breaks up on Friday. I have my final few days of working in London for a while and so I will be able to catch my breath at last. I don't [...]
It's a quick catch up on recent outfits today before Mr MC and I head off for a weekend à deux. Isn't this weather great? I know some people are getting tired of the heat but I love it. I don't know about you but my childhood summers always seemed to be like this one. I probably have 1976 on a permanent loop in my mind but for me this is how it should be. Of course after a few [...]
I hope you're enjoying the glorious summer that I ordered for you all the way back in the dark days of March - I told you it was going to be a corker didn't I? You find me feeling a little weary today. I don't know how it is where you are but everyone in the north is in full-on spontaneous party mood and we seem to be going out almost every night. It's lovely but I need to up [...]
And so the world of style blogging is hitting its summer lull. As the sales are in full swing and the storybook sunshine goes on, I can feel my mind turning away from its usual fascination with retail towards the things that matter more. I'm very aware that for our family, this will be our last calm summer for a while. We have no important exam results to anticipate and when autumn comes, our status quo will continue with everyone [...]
You have no idea what a rollercoaster ride it has been in the world of retail this summer. As I mentioned last week, in my April meetings the brands that I work with had all scheduled a summer sale 'pull forward' because of the bad weather. Since then they've been playing chicken with the weather and delaying the start dates for as long as possible. This is when the 'Ops' teams send the marketing teams to the verge of a [...]
A quick one from me today because having said that my schedule was calming down, I'm now heading off to London again. The light at the end of this current tunnel of madness is our holiday in Turkey so I've been having one last look around at holiday dresses for hot summer nights before the sales start. Here's a shortlist of the best hot weather dresses I've found that still have stock available. Holiday dresses for hot summer nights Before we [...]
Hello and Happy Friday - we had a surprise parcel from Turkey this morning so I'm talking bags today. This will be the last delivery for the Midlifechic Boutique for a while because my factory have had all of their capacity taken over by one of the big Bond Street brands who have high demand for their Autumn collection. It means I can't have any more made until August but I don't mind because working for this iconic luxury label [...]
I hope you're enjoying the glorious summer that I ordered for you - it's causing chaos in the retail world. Back in April when I met up with lots of key retailers they were all making plans to pull their summer sales forward because of the awful spring we were having. They were busy trying to order restocks of warmer clothes whilst anticipating a glut of flimsy summer layers. Of course since then, the situation has completely reversed - they [...]
I realise that Wednesday's post was a long one so I won't take up too much of your time today. As the sun keeps shining down on us (I'm typing with my fingers crossed), I've actually got over my usual mania for madly wearing dresses before the clouds come back. This week I've found myself veering towards summer t-shirts, worn with shorts if I'm working from home and wide crops or a skirt if I'm in the office. Now this [...]
Hello, I'm back. My schedule is still slightly disrupted but it's good to be blogging again. Let me tell you all about our trip to Valencia which turned out to be very simple and very relaxed - just what we all needed. This is one of those posts that is a bit of a personal journal as well as a midlife style blog. As you know, one of the reasons I write is for any future great, great grandchildren of [...]
Wait! Before you go any further you're going to need a pot of tea. This is a long post but I'm going to be disappearing for a bit so I thought I'd leave you with plenty to think about while I'm away. Today we're having another wander round John Lewis, this time with holidays in mind. I particularly wanted to look at how to find the best swimwear for your body shape after 40. So, a couple of weekends ago [...]
This morning I am feeling every one of my 51 years which could have something to do with the fact that I decided to party like a 15 year-old in celebration of my 51st birthday. I haven't stopped all weekend and my brain is dead so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking and share a bit of my birthday joy with you. It all started on Friday night when my sister and brother-in-law popped over with presents. [...]
Right, I've started my research and stock of high summer clothes is already looking low in some places so it's time to crack on with the capsule holiday wardrobe 2018 posts. Quite a few retailers have told me that although sales of ordinary clothing have been depressed by the slow start to spring, holiday clothes have been selling well for a while. It seems that people have found consolation in thinking ahead to their sunny holidays and it makes sense. [...]
I have a few different things to talk to you about today. Firstly a capsule summer city wardrobe challenge - can I create a chic wardrobe for a month in just fifteen pieces? Then a few outfits of the day and finally, full details of the blogger sale that will open on Sunday morning 13th May at 11am (British Summer Time). Please read the details carefully to avoid any misunderstanding or disappointment. Capsule summer city wardrobe challenge I get all [...]
Yes you've guessed it, we have a festival coming up so I'm thinking out loud again. Luckily for us it isn't a wet wipes / queue for revolting loos / lose your tent kind of festival. It's a taxi ride away from home so we can go along until whatever time we please and then return to the comfort of our own bed each night. So of course I'm now thinking about what to wear and imagining that it's going [...]
I have a big project on at work so it's a speedy post from me today but I just wanted to bring you an edit of some of the 'new-ins' now that it looks as though spring is finally arriving. Let's look at Summer 2018 at Hush and Uniqlo. Hush Summer 2018 Hush have launched their summer collection today. As always, they have included loose, flowing pieces that can be tricky to style. However they are balanced by figure defining [...]
It's one of those medley posts today with my analysis on how to find a good hairdresser followed by a bit of this and a bit of that. Before I start though I must share some good news. With having a week away I forgot to tell you that my mum-in-law has the all clear after her breast cancer scare. It means we still haven't got to the bottom of her chest pains but at least it's not the thing [...]
Hello, it's good to be back - I feel as though I haven't blogged for ages so I'm going to make up for it with a long post. As you know, I spent a few days in London last week so I thought I'd do a "working in London - what to wear" post and of course tell you all about the UK Blog Awards 2018. By the way none of this trip is sponsored but I'm going to add [...]
As you know, I've had an ongoing relationship with Specsavers since last summer. They're a brand that I particularly like to support because of all of the quiet behind the scenes work that they do, giving back to both their local communities and the anti-bullying charity Kidscape which I discussed in my post about their fundraising awards. This season they have asked me to look at two of their spectacle ranges in more depth. The Twiggy for Aurora collection which [...]
Well first of all let me start by thanking you for the overwhelming response to the survey on Tuesday. I've switched it off now because there were many more replies than I expected and it was getting expensive but it was worth every penny. I'm currently going through all of the data and comment fields. I will get back to you on some of the points that popped up repeatedly over the next few weeks and I'll answer the first [...]
Please note that this is a sponsored post in collaboration with John Lewis. As such, links are affiliated and upon purchase, a small commission may be paid to Midlifechic. The retailer pays so this costs nothing to readers but it enables me to continue bringing you two posts a week. Now that Midlifechic is being viewed over half a million times a month, It costs into the thousands of pounds to keep it running and loading smoothly. I thank you [...]
One of the things I love most about blogging is that I never know what it will throw up next. A couple of weeks ago I was suddenly offered the opportunity to have afternoon tea with Twiggy. It was short notice - I'd just got home from London and it meant me turning round to go straight back down again but I couldn't resist. I always welcome the chance to pick the brains of an older woman and I was [...]
Hello, before I go on I must thank you for all of the fascinating feedback on my last post - it's been interesting to hear so many different thoughts about Boden. I will be replying but I'm having a crazy week (again) so please do bear with me. In the meantime, we've just had such a great weekend break that I thought I'd share it with you. Plus there's a new drop arriving at Hush today so I've shortlisted some [...]
Right everyone - the clocks go forward this weekend, it's officially spring (whatever the weather thinks) and I have barely done any shopping this season. You rely on me to keep the inspiration coming so I've given myself a kick up the bum by doing an old Midlifechic favourite - the Boden order try on. Before I start I must point out that this is not a sponsored post or collaboration with Boden in any way. They still refuse to [...]
I'm short on time today, we have a pre-Easter rush on in the office and it's all hands on deck. So I'm bringing you a spring smörgasbord - small new season treats that will begin the journey towards warmer weather (I'm convinced it's just around the corner). I'm starting with gelato colours which, along with their bolder Crayola colour counterparts, are dominating the new collections. If you're worried about looking like a fondant fancy, the best way to incorporate the [...]
I confess that as we head into another weekend with a forecast of bitter weather, I'm beginning to feel at a bit of a loss as to what to write about. It seems that we're living in Narnia's perpetual winter. Spring has completely stalled up here, the birds are quiet, buds are barely showing on the trees and the skies are many shades of grey. Even I don't feel like shopping when every day is just another jumper day. So [...]
I'm planning to do some capsule wardrobe collections over the next few weeks in the hope that Spring will at some point show its face. Jeans of course are always the lynchpin of a casual wardrobe and so I thought we should focus on where they have settled as the transition from skinnies continues. As we've already discussed, a key shape for Spring / Summer 18 jeans is the wide leg crop. I'm enjoying wearing my dark denim ones but I'm [...]
I've had a great week and it's all thanks to you and the very first post that I wrote this year when I was looking for a better way to manage 2018. If you remember, I was feeling as though I was being pulled in too many different directions and not doing anything well. Since then I've been spring cleaning my life whilst incorporating some of the tips you shared and at last I'm starting to see the difference. Lots [...]
(Note to confused overseas readers - Mother's Day or Mothering Sunday is on 11th March in the UK) I've always maintained that Mother's Day is my favourite day of the year. It's better than a birthday because you don't get any older and it's a celebration of the incredible task that we undertake as we help our children grow into decent human beings. For the last 20 years I've been lucky. On Mother's Day my nest has been full and [...]
Wow - what can you say about the weather that hasn't already been said across every news channel?! As I type, Storm Emma is blowing in from the sea. There is nothing to shelter us from the coastline and so the winds are whistling around us like something from a horror movie. In all of the years that I have lived here, I have never known the snow to fall so incessantly. So, I decided it was time for one [...]
At last it feels as though Spring is really on its way. As always it's heralded by one of my favourite posts of the season - Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo SS18. We've been given an exclusive preview again. Before I show you the clothes, remember that with this collection you have to be quick. The online allocation tends to sell out by midday. Just because something is in your basket doesn't mean it's yours. If someone else checks [...]
I've finally managed to plough through the hundreds (yes honestly) of photos we took on our midlife adventure in Transylvania. There's just so much to show you that even after some serious culling there are a lot of them. So I'm going to try to make sure this Ice Hotel Transylvania review isn't too wordy. Join us virtually through the pictures... and even the occasional video. Before I start though, I just want to say that I have two pieces of fashion [...]
Hello! We're back from our amazing adventure in Transylvania and I have so much to tell you. However today I must crack on and catch up with the work that I've missed so I'm forcing myself to stay away from the photos until I have more time. In the meantime, I have a post about how to keep your complexion glowing in midlife. I've been putting it together since I included this picture a couple of weeks ago and was bombarded [...]
Capsule packing for a winter city break. In my last post I mentioned that Mr MC and I are heading off for a winter adventure. You may remember that back in October we went to a formal dinner with friends. At the end of the meal, there was an auction in aid of our local homeless charity. Having had a few glasses of wine, I found myself momentarily inspired to bid for a weekend in Transylvania, fully expecting lots of [...]
I've decided it's time to look at the Spring 2018 key trends for ageless style. It's always a good idea to peruse the new trends early so that your eye has time to adjust before the clothes hit the shops. In theory it should be an easy thing to do because there are so many images from the Fashion Week catwalks. However when you've worked with high street retailers for as long as I have, you know that the looks [...]
It's been a busy week so it's a quick dose of real life today. I've remembered to get someone to take a quick shot each day so here's a week of winter outfits for women over 40. Winter outfits for women over 40 Library Sunday We're starting last Sunday with me in my happy zone - I had to go analogue for some research I was doing. It may be a nerdy thing to admit but I love it when Google doesn't [...]
To celebrate the end of what is allegedly the most miserable week of the year, I thought we'd indulge in a spot of retail therapy with some January casual wardrobe updates. Before we do, I just wanted to say thank you for all of your kind and very touching words after my last post. It was a difficult one to write because I just don't know how many people read my blog locally and I don't want to make anyone [...]
A little while ago I mentioned that just before Christmas, I was invited to review the newly refurbished Pentonbridge Inn in Cumbria. I don't know about you but I'm busy plotting things to look forward to - so I thought I'd give you the lowdown on why this place is worth a visit. It's close to home for us but we'd travelled from one end of the country to the other because we arrived straight from spending two days in London [...]
We have some catching up to do. Forgive me for the fact that this includes Christmas, luckily there aren't many sequins because we did most of our partying earlier in the month. When I left you in 2017, it was the eldest's 21st birthday and he was due to arrive home from London late that night. So, we're picking the story up as we arrived at the railway station to meet him. The 21st birthday Poor boy, I don't think [...]
T'was the week before Christmas... and I looked at my diary only to realise that I have blithely arranged for an awful lot of festive gatherings to take place... all through our house. I'm not quite sure how that happened but I have some serious food prepping to do. So, as I will shortly be mutating from Midlifechic to Midlifechef, my last post will have to be a quick one. I'm starting with a quick winter sale edit because if [...]
It's hard to believe but we've arrived at the post where I reflect on my chic buys of 2017- the pieces that I've worn over and over again. It's trickier this year because I've been experimenting more. As you know when a brand gets in touch with a gifting opportunity, I try to step outside my comfort zone and play with a look that I wouldn't risk my own budget on. This means that there has been less of an opportunity [...]
It's an exciting day for our Midlifechic community - we have come to the attention of John Lewis. Because of my day job, I don't have much time to pursue relationships with brands but I have been hoping and wondering all year if they would spot us... and they have! So it is with a feeling of great honour that I have taken my first challenge from them - to create a post about Winter Florals. Knowing me as you [...]
Christmas has felt a bit chaotic in our house this year. When I had more time on my hands I used to shop very methodically, starting with everything planned out on spreadsheets as soon as October half term finished. Now I seem to shop from my own posts as I go along and so deliveries have been piling up in my office. It's only today that I've unpacked all of the parcels to see where I've got to! I'm just [...]
It has been such an exciting week winning the WeAreThirtyPlus Blogger of the Year Award and none of it would have happened without you so I just wanted to share the evening with you... and answer all of the questions that so many of you have had about what I decided to wear. About WeAreThirtyPlus You may remember I was surprised to find that I had been shortlisted a few weeks ago because I hadn't submitted an entry. I have [...]
So today I thought we'd take a break from Christmas because I have a few random winter outfits of the day that have been sitting on my desktop. There is no particular theme or order, they're just things I've been wearing for work and weekends. Before I start though, some of you may be aware of questions that have been raised recently on various forums (can't help thinking the plural should be fora) and social media channels about bloggers and [...]
Relaxed Christmas party outfit ideas. If you're anything like me, you may have one or two dressy events lined up but the rest of your Christmas will be a more relaxed affair. I think some of the best times are the spontaneous ones when someone calls and asks if you fancy popping over for a drink... which inevitably turns into three or four. So today I'm bringing you outfit ideas for when this happens. Looks that say you've made an [...]
Gift ideas for women over 40. This is an important post. Why? Because quite a few of my friends' husbands shop from it so I feel a huge sense of responsibility. So, chic Christmas gifts. Ideas for the woman who doesn't really need anything but would quite like a little something to open on Christmas Day. Before I go on, I have a couple of apologies to make. Firstly if you read via Bloglovin, I have been having some compression [...]
Phew - I've reached the halfway point of this week's blogging marathon! I hope you're not getting sick of me, we'll be back to normal posting next week. Today I'm looking at the best Christmas dresses for women over 40 but I've chosen ones that won't expire on New Year's Eve. Bear in mind the new silhouette that I keep banging on about. The trend for modest dressing is continuing as far ahead as we can see on the catwalks [...]
Chic Christmas jumpers 2017 edit. So I'm back again with another item that has become a Christmas essential over the last few years - the Christmas jumper. It seems to have reached an extreme this year and as I was researching this, some of the slogan jumpers that are being sold at places like Top Shop, Next and Asos made my toes curl. There are days when I am very grateful that I don't have a teenage daughter! However I [...]
Hush Christmas Edit. Christmas started for me with a bang this week when I went to do a talk for Hush at the “My John Lewis” shopping evening on Wednesday. My brief was to pull out my favourite Hush pieces and discuss them. So, I took lots of lovely ladies through five specific capsules that I’d created for days that are likely to crop up in our Christmas calendar. At the end so many of them came to tell me that they'd [...]
Marrakech in 3 days with teenagers. Before we dive fully into Christmas madness, I thought you might like to join me for a few days of sunshine. As you know, we had a little trip to Marrakech last week. It was a plan that we came up with back in the spring when we realised that my 50th birthday was going to be somewhat subdued because it fell, as it has done all of my life, in exam season. Why [...]
Although I am currently enjoying the sunny skies of Marrakech, I've been working on Christmas for a while. Can you believe that I had to put some of our Christmas lights and a Christmas tree up in our house at the beginning of October? All I could think about were the problems it would have caused if the boys were still little! However, now that we're into November it feels like it's time to talk about partywear. I'm going to [...]
A quick post from me today because I'm busy trying to get the shop ready for my blogger sale tomorrow. I have purged my dressing room and there are nearly 100 items of autumn clothing from all kinds of brands. Everything goes on a first come, first served basis. It's a bit like an old fashioned jumble sale and those with sharp elbows will be the most successful. I'm just warning you that the majority of items were sold in [...]
We've talked about the dominance of vivid scarlet in this autumn's colour palette but there is another seasonal theme coming through and it reminds me of the colour of toffee apples. Reds and greens are often associated with Christmas but if you think about it, they feel right now too, as we approach bonfire night. I've put together a selection of easy pieces to inspire you (and me - when I tried to put an outfit together to show you, [...]
Autumn 2017 coats. In my last post I mentioned that longer length coats were more prominent this season. However coats are an investment and I had a couple of emails from readers saying they didn't want to buy something that could be a passing trend. So, today I'm looking at all kinds of coats for autumn 2017. I've focused specifically on day coats though because we'll be going full steam into partywear before you know it. In the meantime, there [...]
Now that we're well and truly into autumn, I think we're starting to get used to the new silhouette that has come in. The midi length hemline and the move to the straight leg jean are two of the easiest styles to adopt and I've been really enjoying wearing them as you'll see from some examples below. The other key focus of course, is colour. I really like the bright scarlet that is everywhere but a lot of people have [...]
As you know, I've been down in London again this week and I thought you might like to join me at the rather glamorous party I went to. Specsavers invited me to attend the Spectacle Wearer of the Year awards ceremony so that I could learn more about the fundraising they do for the anti-bullying charity Kidscape. Kidscape is an amazing organisation dedicated to helping children and teenagers who are being bullied whilst supporting their parents and teachers too. Kidscape - preventing [...]
I'm following on from my post about leather leggings with a focus on a different type of trouser. You see when I was down in London last week, I gambled on not having to stand up too much in my consultancy sessions. For once, I travelled light without 'street shoes' in my bag. It misfired. I was working with a larger team than expected and so I had to stand to enable everyone to hear (and see) me. We were [...]
Wearing leather leggings after 40 - this is one of those posts that specifically addresses an email from a distressed reader. When I published my autumn trends post a few weeks ago, Victoria emailed to say "I can cope with the demise of skinny jeans but what about the expensive leather leggings that I've invested in - am I going to look stupid if I carry on wearing them?" The short answer is no. All you have to do is [...]
It's time for a catch up. I have a few random outfit photos that are cluttering up my desktop so I'm posting some everyday looks from the last few weeks. Before I do though, I just need to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported the launch of the Midlifechic Boutique. Each sale, thought or note of encouragement has really helped me to have confidence in this new venture. It has gone better than I could ever have [...]
While we were on holiday, I published a post containing the questions that I am most frequently asked by readers and journalists. A few days later I received an email from Zoe who said, "come on Nikki, you must have bigger plans for Midlifechic. You've created something special here, I can't believe someone like you doesn't have a dream." Of course Zoe was right. Niggling away at the back of my mind there is always my love for retail and [...]
At a business lunch recently, I was sitting next to a lady who was returning to her career after spending ten years at home with her children. We chatted about how it was going as you do, bemoaning the perpetual juggle of the work life balance. After a while our conversation turned to our sense of identity and how much clothes matter. At this point I mentioned that I write a blog about such things and her eyes lit up. [...]
So, as you will already know if you follow me on Instagram, last week I was invited to celebrate relaunch of Issa at House of Fraser. The venue was Kensington Palace which, of course, is where William, Kate and Harry all live. It was an especially auspicious time to go there because it was the day that Kate's third pregnancy was announced. Our event was in the Orangery but I couldn't help looking across at the Palace and feeling sorry [...]
You may remember that back in June, I had a lovely evening at The Ned in London with some other over 40 bloggers where we were shown the forthcoming Hush Autumn 17 collection. I have to say that one of the things I like most about Hush is that they are actively nurturing their over 40 customers. For a brand that feels very youthful, I believe that they genuinely want to see women of our age wearing their clothes. It [...]
It's back to school for us today which means back to work too. We need to get back into the swing of mealtimes and bedtimes, lunch boxes and shoe polishing - all of the things that don't seem to matter over the long summer break. I had a shock last week when I realised I only had one set of name tapes to stitch into uniform this year. I still have a large pack for each boy in my sewing [...]
So we're kicking off Autumn 2017 with my favourite post of the season - the launch of Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo AW17. It is live now in the UK and launches at 9pm ET in the US (although be prepared - it launched an hour earlier than advertised in the UK). I think everybody who reads Midlifechic knows that Inès is my ultimate style icon. Other than Helen Mirren, I don't think there is anyone like her in terms of [...]
It feels too early to be doing this. I made a quiet pledge not to complain about the weather but really - 2017 has been the year that summer forgot. So, I've been finding myself looking ahead to Autumn without feeling guilty. After all these are the clothes that we wear for about nine months of the year. Style-wise there is more change afoot than there has been for quite a few years so I thought I'd kick off with [...]
Hello, I'm back! It's always a bit strange starting the first post after a holiday. It reminds me of the first day of term when you used to feel a bit nervous about going back to school even though you were going to be reunited with all of your friends. I hope you've had a good few weeks. I'm just going to write one post about our family holiday in Kalkan this time because I'm going away again next week [...]
It's a last minute post from me today as our house / catsitters have arrived and we're heading off on our holidays. I've been working really long hours over the last couple of weeks just to get everything finished so I feel ready for a break. We're going to our favourite Turkish resort of Kalkan. It's our first family holiday without the effervescent eldest and so I thought we'd go somewhere that we know well. It's going to be very, very [...]
Hmm..what shall we talk about today? It's that finger drumming time of year so I thought I'd show you a few of the outfits I've been wearing recently. It will give us a chance to have a little chat about what's been going on too - I have a story that I've been meaning to tell you for a while about the trials of student internships. A school mum outfit Some of you may have seen this on Instagram. I [...]
I've been very organised with planning my holiday packing this year but there are just a couple of spaces that I need to fill. Plus the weather forecasters are saying that we have another heatwave on the way so I've been scouting around for summer clothes to buy now - by which I mean ranges that are not in the sale. This is what I've found. Good for changeable weather Baukjen released a small new collection this month and I've [...]
I have a late addition to the summer sales for you. Hope will be opening their sale tomorrow (Saturday 8th July) and I have a VIP preview which means you can go onto the site and snap up the bargains before everyone else. In preparation for the new stock arriving, they are having a huge clearout from past seasons and a lot of items are 70% off. It's a great opportunity to buy something of high quality at an amazing price. Here [...]
As a break from the summer sale madness, today I thought I'd talk to you about my new glasses. I've been aware that I need some for quite a while but, in the same way that some people dread going to the dentist, I dread the opticians - so I always put it off. The reason for this is that my mum had Macular Degeneration and was nearly blind towards the end of her life. Watching her lose her sight [...]
Another week has flown by and I didn't have time to post on Tuesday so I'm bringing you a cornucopia today. Let's start with Hush. I meant to cover the sale on Tuesday but didn't because I was actually down with Hush in London. They invited a small group of over-40 bloggers for a sneak preview of the Autumn / Winter collection. We met at The Ned, the new and most talked about hotel opening in London. What a fantastic [...]
Let's have a quick catch up today. I say quick because I lost a whole day's work this week thanks to lightning striking the local substation. It meant that we had no electricity on Wednesday from 11am until nearly midnight. The schools were closed and, as always, at first it was fun. We played boardgames and then lit the barbecue so that we could munch our way through the melting freezer food. By 9pm though, when we had reached the [...]
Now, regular readers will know that there is an important annual event in my work diary. It is a summer garden party that is hosted in the shadow of Lancaster's ancient castle by one of the oldest law firms in the North. Why there? Lancaster Castle has a busy Crown Court where famous trials from the Lancashire Witches to the Birmingham Six have taken place. So, as you can imagine, a thriving legal scene surrounds it and people from the [...]
Hello everyone and Happy Friday! The sales have begun so here's the first of my 'best summer sales' posts highlighting the top picks from some of my favourite brands. I've focused mostly on pieces that I have and wear a lot so that I can genuinely recommend them to you. I'll add my pictures to the brand's shots to give you an idea of what they look like on an ordinary body. Best Summer Sales: Baukjen Baukjen has definitely carved [...]
Hello - as promised, I'm back with part two of my holiday packing posts for women over 40. It has taken a very long time to put it together so I'm mostly going to let the pictures do the talking. Thank you to everyone who got in touch to say there was a mistake in the downloadable packing list. I have a junior designer in the office with a red face but really it's my fault for not checking it [...]
Well if the UK's future was unclear when I left you last time, it is even more so right now! However, as women over 40, we know things will sort themselves out one way or another. In the meantime after a week of unsettled news and weather, I've found myself focusing hard on the thought of escaping it all for a sunny holiday. I had an email from a longstanding reader saying that she keeps a print out of this [...]
It's all my fault. I jinxed the summer by packing away my Winter knits over the weekend. I even switched the heating off. We had a barbecue and everything was lovely - then Monday dawned with torrential rain and a temperature of 12 degrees! However, I've had a lot of emails over the last few weeks asking for a post on what to wear for Summer in the city. I then included this dress in my Chelsea Flower Show post last week without [...]
If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I spent some of last week down in London with my blogger friends from the Over40Collective. Enticing invitations have been coming thick and fast this season and if I had the time, I could have spent the summer wafting from one fabulous event to another. Sadly whenever one arrives, I have to grit my teeth and remember that I have a day job to do and an agency to run. In the end [...]
It isn't often that I dedicate a whole post to a single outfit but then it isn't often that you are approached by a brand like Winser London and invited to choose a special new outfit. It was easy for me to make my choice, I wanted to celebrate the return of the trouser suit. I showed you a glimpse of it in my last post because it is what I wore during the day on my 50th birthday. Single breasted [...]
Hello everyone. I'm just dropping in to share my simple 50th birthday celebrations with you but, before I do, I want to say a huge thank you for every single one of your kind wishes. I felt buffeted by love from every angle on Friday. Whenever I checked my phone there were new messages from different sources and I read every single one. It was absolutely wonderful and I'm so grateful to everyone who took the time to share a moment of the day [...]
I'm very pleased to be working with Baukjen again today. You may remember that they were the first of my brand Spotlight Posts back in February and this time they've sent some of their Spring / Summer 17 collection for me to review. As always, when I work on a Spotlight post I like to assess whether a range can work hard for me by covering my key wardrobe requirements: work, weekend and evenings out. Baukjen Spring / Summer working wardrobe Starting with workwear, [...]
I've set myself a completely different kind of challenge today. Let me tell you how it all came about. Over the last Bank Holiday weekend, Mr MC and I were reminiscing about the different holidays we've had. He asked me which was the best one and although it was hard to choose, one that really stands out is our first holiday abroad as a family when the youngest was very small. He asked me why I'd chosen that one and there [...]
Well a huge thank you from me to everybody who supported the sale on Saturday. I had no idea it would be quite so manic, nearly everything sold out in 20 minutes (the last few pieces will be live here until Friday when it closes). I have finished wrapping and dispatching everything and so it is all on its way. I apologise in advance if it smells very strongly of roses. The youngest was keen to be involved so I [...]
May has always been my favourite month. I suspect that when I was younger it was because it is my birthday month. I anticipate birthdays a little less eagerly now but I still love May. For us, being rurally based it's the month when everything wakes up. The trees bud, the flowers bloom and people re-emerge from their houses after the dark days of Winter. Every weekend there is a fete in a different village - the time of eating of [...]
So, as you know, yesterday I went down to the Boden press show to see their Autumn collection. I'll tell you a bit more about that at the end of this post and show you a few pictures. Before I set off though, I thought I'd better have a look at their site so that I was up to date with their current collection. There were a few things I hadn't seen before and I ended up placing an order [...]
I'm sure you remember the mad week before Christmas. You were desperately trying to finish your Christmas shopping and I was pestering you to vote for me in the UK Blog Awards "readers' round." Well, as you know, your kindness won me a place in the finals and the big event was last weekend. Like most people, I have been to lots of Awards ceremonies. A lot of them were during my years at Selfridges when we were in the process [...]
Just a quick hello from me today because after being preened and pampered, I am now heading down to London for the finals of the UK Blog Awards. I'm going to have a relaxing train journey and catch up with all of your recent comments. In the meantime, here's a quick 'What I Wore' from the Easter weekend. Girls night out outfit This was last Wednesday, my friends had broken up early for the Bank Holiday and were keen to celebrate over a bottle [...]
So, looking at capsule wardrobe ideas again, it's time to start thinking about slightly warmer weather. I've put together two new collections to give you some weekend wardrobe ideas. They have enough breadth to cover both smart and casual requirements. Let's begin with grey and blush which is this season's current winning combination - think of the shades of Provençal rosé. Weekend wardrobe ideas - rosé and grey Rosé V neck sweater - this is out of stock at hush but [...]
Happy Friday everyone. As we count down to the Easter weekend I'm hoping you can feel that Spring is in the air. Today I'm reviewing Uniqlo's new collection. As you already know, Uniqlo is a brand that I rate very highly. One of the the things I like most about them is the balance of their retail mix. They launch limited edition collections which are collaborations with brands and people ranging from Inès de La Fressange to Miffy. This means there is always something new to see. [...]
As you can imagine I spend a lot of time looking at the websites of our favourite brands at Midlifechic and sometimes I find myself yearning for something new. Today I'm bringing you two new ones that are on my radar - Sézane and Kitri. Before I start I should say that I have no connection to either brand and I haven't tried their clothes yet but I suspect that as usual, I will end up shopping my own post! [...]
Happy Tuesday everyone. It looks as though I will be spending a disproportionate amount of time driving this week as I have meetings that range from the Scottish Border right down to the Midlands. So I am putting together a quick post with a few of the things that I have spotted recently that I think you'll like and I'm finishing off with a round up of Mother's Day weekend. Easter This is probably the last stretch of time that we [...]
My most read wardrobe posts are always the ones that focus on creating an edited collection so I thought it was time for another one. I've been working on my own wardrobe for Spring as I'm having a huge clearout and so I'm using my own plan as a basis for this post on capsule wardrobe updates for women over 40. I'm going to start with jeans because they are increasingly becoming acceptable for working wardrobes as well as weekend looks. [...]
So it is with great pleasure that I bring you the second of my spotlight posts which, as you will remember are the posts where I focus in greater depth on a single brand. Today I am looking at Pure Collection. I will be honest and say that when they first got in touch with me before Christmas, I told them that I wasn't convinced that they were the right fit for Midlifechic readers. Although I knew that they made great cashmere, I didn't [...]
It's great to be working with my friends at the Over4Collective again today. We've been so busy getting our website together that we haven't had time to do a project for a while so I decided it was time to introduce them to one of my favourite brands, Finery so that we could bring you a Finery Review Spring 17 . I've spoken before about how fond I am of my contact at Finery, a young French woman who never questions the [...]
I'm bringing you some quick Spring 17 wardrobe updates for women over 40 today. I spent the weekend happily packing away my winter colours (I'm tired of burgundy and dark green) and now I want to add some more vibrant accents to my wardrobe. So, let's start with casual. We've already talked about the new looser jeans shape and I'm sure that everybody is starting to see it come through into the mainstream. The dominant colour for Spring and Summer is going to be [...]
Wow that was quite a response to the last post on midlife loneliness! As I said at the outset, when I receive a cluster of emails on a particular topic, it suggests that something is going on at a wider level. I knew I could count on you to rally around Anna but what I didn't anticipate was the wonderful outpouring of empathy. I'm not going to write a long post today, partly because a power cut has wiped five hours off my [...]
So you may remember me saying that I had a couple of other new February outfits to show you from last week's deliveries. I was waiting to get some slightly more exciting photos than a trying on session because we were going to the opening of a new play. We are 'critical friends' of the local theatre and every so often they invite us along to see something they have been working on and get our feedback. This was a one woman [...]
Hello. We haven't had a 'trying it on' post for ages so today I thought I'd show you some of the things I've been ordering. It's half term here and I've been doing my best to work from home and spend some time with the boys because I know these days are trickling through my fingers. In fact I only have 4 more February half terms left in my life. So, join me in the chaos. In the pictures below, you can see [...]
I am very pleased to bring you the first of the spotlight posts. It's a big thank you to Baukjen for being the first brand to come on board as part of this series and I'm particularly pleased to be working with someone that I haven't featured before. I have only one Baukjen piece in my wardrobe and it is a jumpsuit that I bought in a hurry after seeing it featured in a magazine last year. For some reason [...]
This is going to be the first of a series of occasional posts where I am going to revisit the cornerstones of our wardrobes - the unsung heroes that are the building blocks of our everyday style. I'm starting with the ultimate breton top because when I was writing my Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo post last week, I caught myself saying that I wasn't looking forward to wearing breton tops this Spring. If I'm honest I've been unenthusiastic about [...]
So, I am proud (very proud) to be the first blogger to bring you the new collection from Inès de La Fressange at Uniqlo. As I have said many times before, if I could align Midlifechic with any woman in the world, it would be Inès. I have been eagerly (and rather nervously) awaiting the launch of the Spring range. Why nervously? Because I didn't feel that SS16 was as strong as the Autumn ranges and I hoped that wouldn't [...]
Boo! I'm surprising you with a Monday post because after my two days in London everything feels out of sync - plus I have something special to bring you on Thursday. So today I'm going to start with some rather random recent outfit shots and then move on to the thoughts I had when I read your midlife comments as they came in whilst I was on the train. What I've been wearing Now, this was over a week ago on [...]
Today's post is one of the ones that goes a bit wrong. I had initially intended it to be about the new pre-collection from Hush but when I looked through it, it wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped so the only piece I'm going to feature is the charcoal and brown sugar stella jumper which is back in stock. These jumpers are a lovely cut and they somehow make you look younger. Charcoal and camel star jumper I have one in [...]
I confess that I have always struggled with the month of January. So much so that we set our wedding date for 10th February so that I would have something to keep looking forward to during the darkest month. Although I love living where I do, the absence of bright city lights is something that I really notice at this time of year. The usually stunning vista of wide open skies is bleak and grey. Now that I've been blogging [...]
Hello and Happy New Year! I know I'm supposed to be full of perky new year's resolutions but I tend to see September as more of a time to start afresh than January. For me the decorations are down, the middle son has already gone back to school and this morning, I faced the scales which led me to a moment of self loathing because I've put on half a stone. However, when I look back at the fantastic Christmas we've had, I [...]
Hello - I hope you're all having a wonderful time. I'm just popping in with a few outfits of the week as promised because by next week, sequins are going to look a bit out of place. I thought it was going to be a quiet one this year because most of our friends and family are away but actually, when I look back at Christmas 2016, I will remember it as the funny one. The boys have been on [...]
The end of year sales are starting so it's time for my annual Awards, defining my chic buys of the year 2016. Being an analytical person I like to reflect on where I've spent my budget and whether it was worth it. The surprise difference for me since I started blogging has been my changing history with Boden. I've transitioned from spending most of my budget there in 2014 to spending a lot in 2015 and returning about 50% of it, to barely [...]
It's getting closer....Our weekend was a rush of decorating and entertaining. Here's how it went. Festive Friday I was working at home for the day but then had to go to a client's drinks party. Although they were all wearing suits because they'd gone straight from the office, I felt fine wearing a jumpsuit. It's such a saviour for things like this...not too smart, not too casual, not too dressy... Jumpsuit - this year's version; Jigsaw ponyskin heels (past season); Necklace; Earrings [...]
Hello, I hope you had a great weekend. I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit tired of reading Christmas gift articles so I thought I'd do another post on one of my real life weekends and share some of my Christmas outfits of the day. Christmas outfits of the day - Friday night So, on Friday night we had to go to a business event: the mayor's Christmas party. It was one of those occasions when I should really [...]
It's the busiest shopping weekend of the year so I'm just going to get straight to the point and give you my 'ultimate Guide - best cyber weekend offers 2016' post, an easy to use listing of all the best offers in one place. I've listed the best deals first. The links should take you straight through to the landing sites. Cyber weekend - Fashion offers Finery 30% off everything (ends midnight Sunday 27/11) Hush 25% off 25 items (ends Monday [...]
Hello, I don't usually post on Thursdays but I wanted to alert you to some great offers from Finery and Hush. This is not a sponsored post by the way, I just don't want you to miss out. I've also listed the brands that have gone live early with their Black Friday offers at the bottom of this post with the links and codes that you need to redeem the offer, I'll continue to update it throughout the day. But [...]
Save The Children's Christmas Jumper Day has become a real institution in the UK and this year it's on Friday 16th December. It's good to have a festive jumper or two in your wardrobe to throw on if you're Christmas shopping or cooking or just popping out for drinks. Even if you're frazzled inside, you will at least look as though you're in the mood. I've scoured the high street for chic Christmas Jumpers - there are a lot of horrors about. "Sleigh [...]
It's all well and good having a Cinderella moment and turning up to a party in a sparkling gown wearing glass slippers but the reality is that most of us prefer to invest in a dress that will give us cost per wear. It's a wonderful thing to have a dress or two in your wardrobe that can cover all occasions. Women will always wear these dresses better than girls because they require a certain earned elegance to pull them [...]
It's been lovely to have had so many people asking when this relaxed Christmas Party Outfits post is coming. I thought I'd make it the first of the outfit posts that I'll be doing before we move into the excitement of gift ideas. Don't worry, they'll be ready in plenty of time for Black Friday. Before we start though, I want to recap on the trends for this Christmas. It can't have escaped you that velvet has taken over from [...]
Well hello everybody and happy November. There's no avoiding it any longer, we're on the Christmas countdown. I'm diving in head first with another party dressing feature (there will be a few). This time we're looking at what to wear for a formal party. So let me give you a bit of background. We've had a 'save the date' in our diary for a long time. A client who has become a friend is having a special celebration in a [...]
Hello and Happy Friday! It's ages since I've done a casual outfits of the week post but we're now in the hiatus between new season and everything sparkly so here's a dose of real life! It's been a much calmer week. For once I haven't been travelling, so I've been able to opt for a low key wardrobe as I've either been home or office based. Half term finally begins here tonight and I've been trying to get things wrapped up so [...]
You may remember that when I went to Paris in May, one of the things I commented on was that lots of Parisians were demonstrating the art of chic layering by wearing a Uniqlo quilt underneath their coat. I have since discovered that Uniqlo is a big thing in France. When they opened a new store in Bordeaux recently, the police had to be called in to control the excited crowd. Of course I'd just like to add that living in the frozen North, [...]
Just a quick extra post today on the Hush Flash Sale. It starts today and finishes on Sunday 30th. It includes a number of items from both this season and last Winter, here are the things that I think are the best buys. Hush Flash Sale - last year's stock These pieces have the biggest discounts Cashmere crew neck jumper in cloud 44% off Annabelle dress/tunic in atlantic blue 45% off 2015 jumpsuit in black or burgundy 33% off - these [...]
There comes a point each year in my blogging calendar when I notice that all of my Summer brights have given way to a dull palette of grey, camel and black. As I was looking through my Instagram feed and pondering this, it occurred to me that it is easy to wear colour in Summer when you only need to co-ordinate one or two items of clothing at a time. As Winter approaches and you pile on layers of tops, bottoms, tights, coats, [...]
It's the time of year when invitations start coming in. I'll be covering party dressing and black tie for women over 40 in more detail in a few weeks' time but I thought I'd show you what I chose to wear to a Black Tie event last Friday. I'd been thinking about what I was going to wear for a while. I kept looking through the barely worn cocktail dresses that hang in my dressing room, not wanting to wear [...]
I thought we'd take a break from clothes today and look at chic Autumn outfit updates to add to the clothes you already have in your wardrobe. We talked about the difference that a pair of statement shoes or boots can make a few weeks ago. Now we're going to look at affordable bags and jewellery because they make such a difference. I have lovely memories of helping my dad buy a khaki handbag for my mum, not knowing that it [...]
I don't know about you, but every so often an occasion crops up when I use what I'm wearing to boost my confidence. It's almost like putting on a suit of armour to help face something bigger than an ordinary day. Usually for me, it's a meeting with a tricky client but last week, as you know, I went to my middle son's school for the preview of the BBC documentary that he has been taking part in. We were only given a [...]
As the nights grow darker, my usual Autumn treat to myself is a cashmere jumper. Every year however, prices seem to climb higher so I decided to set myself the task of looking into my little indulgence as carefully as possible. When I was in London last week, I had a couple of hours to spare between meetings which gave me the perfect opportunity to compare as many stores as possible so that I could write a cashmere review. Anyone who knows [...]
I don't know about you, but when I get to this point in the season, I'm over the excitement of Autumn clothes because I've become accustomed to the new trends. It feels as though each retailer is simply offering a slightly adjusted version of the same thing and I yearn for something that stands apart. There are a handful places that I turn to for visual refreshment: Cos, Me+Em, Kin at John Lewis (not Modern Rarity - I feel like I'm the [...]
Today I am pleased to be introducing you to Lotus, a small UK based shoe brand. Until they got in touch with me, I wasn't aware of them. As you know, at the moment I tend to rely on Boden, Marks and Spencer and occasionally Clarks for my everyday shoes and Jigsaw for the special ones. It's always good to add a new brand to your arsenal, especially when it's an affordable one. A little while ago we talked about [...]
I can't bring you any insight at all on Boden. It isn't just me, they don't communicate with anyone I know in the over 40 blogger world. They do seem to feature 20 and 30 something bloggers quite regularly on their site but that's as far as it goes. This means that I don't cover them as often as you might like me to however, I do have a few favourites amongst Boden's latest collection. Boden's latest collection - working wardrobe The hero [...]
Hopefully you remember that back in July, just before the schools broke up, I went down to see the new Autumn collection from Hope Fashion and spend a day with the team shooting their 'real women' campaign. There was no point in me telling you about the clothes then because they weren't available online. You can now see photos of the day on their website and they have just released the Autumn collection so it's time for me to show you how [...]
Today we're looking at Marks and Spencer fashion for women over 40. As you know, ever since I went down to the press day I've been excited about their new looks for this season. My favourite pieces still haven't been released but I think they're off to a good start. To launch the new season they are running a blogger challenge. A couple of weeks ago they gave a number of us a look book which contained about 40 different items [...]
Today I'm talking about Hush, another of our favourite Midlifechic brands. I've been trying to meet the team there for a while and it has become almost a running joke between us that whenever one of us suggests a date in London, the other can't make it. In the end serendipity played a part when I went down to London for the John Lewis 'Christmas in July' event. I'll tell you more about that soon but the important thing for today [...]
I'll come straight out and say it - this is my biggest blogging high to date. Uniqlo has selected our community at Midlifechic to be the first to see their new Inès de La Fressange collection. I feel so proud that we are being recognised by brands as a group of intelligent, vocal women who deserve their attention. They are beginning to realise that just because we are over 40, we have not given up on style and Uniqlo is [...]
A mystery package arrived this week and it was lovely to open it and find that The White Company had sent me their new Autumn candle to review. As you know, Home Fragrance is really important to me and you could say that it was a brave move to send it to someone who spent last year working as a certified 'nose' for the UK's biggest home fragrance manufacturer! Industry knowledge means that I know quite a lot about The White [...]
So here we go, we're ready for Autumn. I am finding that my approach towards shopping for clothes has evolved now that I spend so much more time thinking about it. As you know I bought very little over the Summer which turned out to be absolutely the right decision. I'm not going to moan about the weather but we have only had a handful of hot sunny days in the Lakes this year. This means that Autumn buying makes much [...]
So let's get on with the second instalment of "Kefalonia with teenagers." The first week of our holiday flew by. For a change of scene, we hopped onto the ferry that trundled into the harbour every morning and headed over towards the mainland for an afternoon. Prices were about 30% lower than in Fiscardo so we had an especially nice lunch and did a bit of kaftan shopping. The distinctive thrum of a Greek ferry engine transported me right back to [...]
Hello - I'm back, it feels like a long time since I've posted. So - as a lot of you guessed, our mystery destination was Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands. I managed to keep it a secret until a few days before we left when I had to give the boys a small clue in case they read my last post. As it was with you, the one I chose was too easy - Hellas. In an instant they knew [...]
There is tumbleweed blowing through the streets of our village. Everyone we know seems to have packed up and gone away for the Summer... except us. When I booked our holiday, it was such a relief that for the first time in ages our dates weren't dictated by the dreaded exam results day that I planned it for later than usual. We're doing our best to have fun in the Lakes which, after all, is a holiday destination for lots of [...]
I was chatting to my blogger friends in the Over 40 Collective recently about how difficult it is to know what to blog about during this fallow period when the sales are on, especially when the weather is as mixed as it has been. We talked about paring things back to simplicity and from there an over 40 style blogger challenge arose - styling a white shirt with denim. Of course the sale period was a problem until somebody suggested Marks and [...]
As you know, I spent Tuesday with the team at Hope Fashion taking part in their Autumn shoot in which they decided to use real, everyday women rather than models. As you can imagine, it was great fun. All of the clothes were hanging on rails and they quite simply let us loose to see what we would do with them and then they shot the outfits we had put together. I'm not going to show you those pictures now because [...]
Today saw the release of the Boden early Autumn 16 collection with some great trans-seasonal pieces to see you through this 'not Summer' weather. With every day bringing a new sartorial challenge, these pieces will help you to layer now and all the way through to next Spring. Soft blouses like this have been my failsafe this season, they have enough arm coverage to stop you shivering but are loose enough for you to still feel cool when the sun suddenly emerges from [...]
When I asked you what you'd like us to talk about during this mid-season period whilst the sales are on, these are the two things you wanted most. Firstly, ideas of what to wear when the sun doesn't shine and secondly to see what I wear day in, day out. I haven't covered daily outfits for a while because it goes against all the advice given to bloggers. You are supposed to keep on showcasing outfits but when I think about [...]
I think summer in the city is one of the hardest things to get right sartorially. I'm casting my mind back to my commuting days, heading into the urban heat island of London and seeing the yellow haze of smog hanging over the city as the train approached Waterloo. A hot city is a harsh environment but wearing the right clothes, whether you're a tourist or a native, can make all the difference to how you cope with the day so, summer [...]
I don't know whether it's because of the sudden burst of hot weather in the UK or simply because it's holiday season but Summer clothes are now disappearing from the shops so I'm writing this 'what to pack for a hot beach holiday' with some urgency. In Friday's post we took a fantasy trip to the Brittany coastline for a breezy holiday with unpredictable weather. Today we're jetting off a little further so we need to pack for a hot beach holiday. [...]
It's time. By the end of June, the sales will be starting and all the good clothes will have gone. We need to think about holidays and what to pack so today we're focusing on what to wear for a holiday by the sea. I can't tell you where we're going this year. You see last year I booked a very luxurious villa in Turkey thinking that it might be the last holiday we would have as a family of [...]
In a post last week, I explained that my midlife return to Paris centred on a special dinner, the culmination of a promise I'd made to myself 29 years ago. It was special because I was with the right person, in the right place at exactly the right point in my life when new beginnings are opening up all around me. It was extra special because I had a second elegant dress to wear. The look I was aiming for on [...]
As I looked around the plane on the way to Paris, I could see lots of excited little girls dressed as princesses on their way to EuroDisney. I don't think we ever grow out of that fairytale dress dream - although perhaps our tastes become a little more sophisticated and I had the same flame of excitement burning inside me knowing that I had two special dresses in my suitcase. I am now quite often approached with offers of clothing (and [...]
Paris is always a good idea - you'll be pleased to know that our trip was good. So good in fact that I've had to break it up into 3 consecutive posts, Paris by day followed by 2 Parisian nights. So, how do you spend two days in Paris when you already know the city well? You revisit a few of your favourite places and make the rest up as you go along. This was our weekend... When we woke up on [...]
You may remember that we were going to the Hacienda Classical concert on Sunday. Before I tell you a little bit about it I'll explain why I wanted to do this post. The event was going to be outside. I had planned what I was going to wear in advance and it consisted of lots of layers that I could take on and off. Then, as you'll know, the sun came out unexpectedly in the UK last weekend and it [...]
Now that the sun has finally appeared, I imagine everyone will be shopping frantically so I just wanted to show you this simple summer broderie collection from Uniqlo. Why? Because the pieces are less than half the price of broderie from some of our favourite retailers. I really resent paying £60 for a little white cotton top. Maybe it's just my laundry skills but I find that they only last one summer before they go chewing gum coloured and need replacing. These [...]
As you know, I'm really keen for my blog to help other midlife women to succeed in the second half of their lives. As such, there are certain brands that capture my imagination because they are run by women like us who have put everything on the line to follow their dreams. They include Finery, Winser, RachelWears, Baukjen, M+EM and Hope. Today I want to talk to you about the baby of the group, Hope Fashion. I introduced you to [...]
I'm really glad that you seemed to like last week's post which featured a mixture of things. Here comes another one. I've sifted through the best of the Bank Holiday sales and discounts for you and I'm going to do an unusual thing of sending this post live before I've finished it because lots of the items are selling fast. It might be worth you coming back later (refresh your browser) to see if I've found any new offers. Firstly Hush have started their [...]
My last two posts have been practical ones, focusing on summer essentials - tailored cropped trousers and summer sandals so today I thought I'd do something a bit more frivolous. I'm writing especially with Nicky B in mind. For those who read the comments section, you'll know that she is my longest standing and most regular commenter. She has been with me since the very beginning (shortly followed by Nicola R who is also very special to me) and I [...]
I think that you have to be more careful buying summer sandals than almost any other kind of footwear. After all, you are wearing them with bare feet so they are in direct contact with your skin. Any friction is not only going to hurt your feet but it is also going to create inflamed patches and hard skin which isn't a good look. Without you really noticing, the arch of your foot starts to suffer during your 40s. This is why [...]
I've been searching for the best tailored cropped trousers for women over 40 and this is what Marie Kondo has done to me - made me super fussy. As you may know, she has developed a fascinating process known as the Konmari method and some of you have been in touch to tell me just how truly life-changing it has been for you. The interesting thing about the process is handling each item to see whether it sparks joy and if not, [...]
Last weekend I finally achieved my Marie Kondo session and decluttered my dressing room. I had felt a bit cynical about the book's title "The life-changing magic of tidying" but in fact it is gradually feeling a bit life changing. Our bedroom is now very minimalist and I'm finding I'm sleeping better as a result. I sent ten bin bags of clothes to the hospice that cared so well for my mum and dad in the last weeks of their lives. [...]
With Easter having fallen so early this year it feels as though we should be in full throes of Spring outfits but it's just a bit too chilly. This is usually the time when I fall back on a jersey breton and a pea coat but for some reason I'm just not feeling much love for them this year. I was struggling for inspiration until I received a Jack Wills email. Jack Wills are well known for the the British preppy [...]
We've been celebrating Christmas chez Midlifechic this week and it's all been a bit hectic. I'm not sure if you remember that I was disappointed in December because the impact of Storm Desmond meant that my brother and his family changed their plans to come up from London so we didn't see them. Anyway they arrived this week and we've had a lovely time. My nephews are 24 and 26 so it was a real treat to spend some time with [...]
We've had bright sunshine all week in the Lake District. The daffodils are out, the lambs are gambolling and it feels as though a new season is finally rolling in. This always makes me feel as though I have nothing to wear. Suddenly the core wardrobe of camel and grey that I've loved all winter feels dark and dull so I'm very much in the mood for some new season shopping. Last Autumn I focused on specific retailers which you seemed [...]
I was very excited to be approached with my first 'style challenge' last week. Gina Bacconi asked me to look at their luxury occasionwear selection and style 3 outfits my way with Mother of the Bride /Groom in mind. Now this was good timing because I've had lots of requests from you for help with outfits for weddings, race days and even a garden party at Buckingham Palace. However, the thing that made me really want to accept the challenge [...]
One of the interesting things that my new site has shown me is which have been my most popular posts over the last 2 years. Top of the leaderboard is 'chic basics for women over 40'. Unfortunately because it is now so old, most of the products are no longer stocked so today I'm giving it an update. Here are my capsule pieces for a simple Spring wardrobe, the no brainer items that enable you to look perpetually well put [...]
Hurray - I'm free! Thank you so much for your very supportive words over the last week, I'll tell you all about it in more detail soon but I'm rushing now because I'm off to spend the weekend with some of my favourite bloggers including Annette from Lady of Style and Catherine from Not Dressed As Lamb. In the meantime, two things have kept me smiling during this life changing week - your fabulously considerate comments and the thought that I would celebrate [...]
I'm very late blogging this week (again) but I have news on my work life balance and a tough midlife career decision that I can finally share with you. One Sunday night a few weeks ago, I was sitting at the dinner table with my head in my hands dreading the madness of the week to come, feeling that I was living in a very small but very fast hamster wheel. Mr MC looked across at me and asked me what [...]
We've nearly made it to the end of January which has to be the toughest month. Actually it would have been tougher for me if I hadn't been doing Project Happier - although I've stumbled at times, it's kept me focused. Today is my first day of not working for 12 days and I apologise if you were looking out for my adventure with my reader Sarah on Instagram on Thursday but all my plans had to be changed at the last [...]
Everyone I speak to seems to have had 'one of those weeks.' It makes you wonder whether all the media hype about Blue Monday brings it to fruition. I knew it was coming but my work week has been tougher than I anticipated. We have a number of big exhibitions and launches coming up on top of our usual workload and these are the times when I really miss my days of working for big corporations with large teams. As Head [...]
Reading your comments I realise you're way ahead of me on this one, Mari Kondo's 'Life Changing Magic of Tidying' arrived last week along with 'Spark Joy' but they're still sitting in their unopened packaging. I had intended to start reading them on the way back from London but I'm still ploughing through Gretchen Rubin's 'Better Than Before'. However, even though I know spark joy is a tool to use in a decluttering sense, the words have been floating around my [...]
Well I'm delighted that so many of you are embracing Project Happier - everyone I talk to seems to like the idea of making small improvements rather than huge changes. The trouble is that it's hard to keep change going. We're only in the second week of January and I can already feel myself being pulled into the Slough of Despond - not the literal Pilgrim's Progress sense of guilt for my sins (I don't have much time to sin) but [...]
A quick post from me because it's a school night and I'm helping the boys with their homework which requires more and more concentration these days. However, with one eye I'm perusing the Hush January 2016 sale which started this morning and I thought I'd tip you off with what I think are the best buys. This wrap shirt is my favourite and I've ordered it to replace the Mango one that I wore over Christmas because the cleavage on [...]
As we come to the end of the year I'm in a reflective mood so I thought I'd share an article about a new year life audit that I read at the hairdresser's. Unfortunately because I took a photo of the pages I can't tell you which magazine it was but it was by Libby Purves and she was talking about a new year walk that she takes with her husband (she said that it was important to do it without your children to [...]
Hello everyone - I've found a quiet moment whilst my brood are in a post Christmas lull. It feels like ages since I've had time to post so here's a quick catch up with some activities (and outfits) from the crazy Christmas period. Those of you who follow me on Instagram will know that the fun began for us on Friday 17th, in fact this photo sums up the mood of our Christmas. We've all been so pleased to be together again and [...]
A quick and functional post from me as the Boden sale has just gone live. A lot of the reductions seem a bit mean after all the recent discounts so it might be worth playing chicken with some of these items if they're showing good stock levels to see if they go down further over the next couple of weeks. Anyway I had a good look through the site last night before it started so that I wasn't distracted by the discounts [...]
Two posts from me in two days - the sales are starting all around us so I thought I should quickly cover off my best chic buys 2015 (there are lots more but obviously I'm only going to feature things that are still available to buy). Sometimes you make mistakes when you shop and sometimes you strike wardrobe gold. This is a recap of the style staples that I've bought and worn consistently (as you will know if you're a regular reader). Most are already [...]
Well what a week we've had in the aftermath of Storm Desmond. We were stranded at home until Wednesday (much to the delight of the boys) as the schools and the roads were closed. We finally switched over from the emergency generators to the mains supply last night so life is just starting to get back to normal. It has been a strange, dark time, dark because everybody has had to conserve the little bit of power we had, so [...]
Just a quick hello from me today to thank you for all of your messages of concern over the weekend, it's certainly a been dramatic time. As I finished my last blog post on Saturday, I was telling you that all of the shops were closing in the village and the power was failing. We're based in a coastal village between Kendal and Lancaster, our house is sea facing with the canal at the bottom of the garden but luckily [...]
At last - I know some of you have been asking me to cover new brands for women with curves for a long time. The thing is that because my year has been so busy with my new job, I haven't been able to look beyond my own horizons for a while however I have two new brands to talk about today. Like most women, I've collected all kinds of different friends over the years. The fabulously fashionable ones are [...]
As the Christmas jumper continues to grow in popularity, I've had to overcome my frugal Northern ways and devise a method of getting value for money out of something so seasonal. I am therefore declaring Christmas jumpers to be fair game from 1st December along with sequins, feathers and glitter. Although it isn't officially Christmas jumper day until 18th December, if you want one you need to choose quickly because they're selling out fast. (By the way, if you're wondering about the post [...]
I had wondered about doing a 'gift ideas for men' post but I've been lucky to have the opportunity to chat to all kinds of women over the last few days. As part of my research, I've been asking them what they are buying for their husbands and they all seemed to have it planned. So I then asked them what they were hoping for themselves and the stock answer was 'oh I haven't got time to think.' And actually [...]
Last week we looked at formal dresses for the lucky people who have glam parties ahead. I don't know about you but my Christmas events tend to be more low key - popping out for a meal with friends, drinks at people's houses, and a couple of trips to the theatre so I really don't need an extravagant frock. Over the last year I've developed an easy shortcut for this kind of going out and I always feel casually glam. [...]
I've had a few different emails about Christmas party wear this week which made me realise that I haven't given any thought to my own Christmas party either. I also spoke to one of my friends who works in the head office of one of our favourite store groups. When I asked her how sales were going she said that the usual trend had reversed - gifting and outerwear is down (presumably because of Black Friday and the mild weather) but [...]
I love half term. Somehow it's aways a more chilled out break than the major holidays - you expect less, good weather is a bonus and nothing is scripted. When the eldest was busy packing for uni back in September, I decided we needed to work on our new shape as a family of four rather than five so I booked a break for us all to look forward to. Of course the prices of all of the hotels are [...]
I'm late this week I know but I wanted to write this post carefully and yesterday I was being scalped by a new hairdresser who, when I commented that my hair was VERY short replied 'but it just feels so nice to cut!' Oh how I wish my regular hairdresser would come back from maternity leave. Anyway we're on a mission ladies. Some of you saw a comment from a new reader, Sushma, a few weeks ago and were kind [...]
As we're still waiting for most of the winter collections to hit the stores, there don't seem to be many new clothes around to get excited about. So, seeing as quite a few of you have been in touch recently to say how helpful you find it to see what I wear day in day out, I thought I'd try and achieve a photo every day this week. As I mentioned in my last post, the shorter days are making [...]
Hello friends. It's been a very busy week - I feel as though I haven't stopped talking - presentations, long shared car journeys, meetings and dinners. It will all start again on Monday (yes I'm working on Monday again - the 3 day week isn't happening)! I need to retreat into some peace and quiet to recharge my batteries for a bit. So - not as many words as usual today - I know you'll understand. Instead I'm treating you [...]
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the supportive emails and comments after my last post about the end of days, every single one has lifted my spirits. Even Mr MC came out of hiding and posted his first comment - who knew he reads my blog - not me - until now! Because we moved to the North from London when my eldest was 7, my everyday friends here are the ones that I made via the younger [...]
It's a quick post from me today because we are on the final countdown to dropping the eldest off at university tomorrow. I'm not going to talk about how I'm feeling now because I suspect I will be offloading on you when it's all over. Suffice to say that the letting go is yet another bit of motherhood that no-one prepares you for and boy does it hurt. In the meantime, I've had a week off; I've been doing shoulder rehab [...]
Something a little different for you today. As Midlifechic grows I'm finding that I'm being approached by lots of brands who are keen to work with me. This is immensely flattering and in another life I'd try running a hugely commercial blog and accept all of their offers. However as things stand, I just don't have time to write about anything I don't genuinely think is great so 98% of the time I take a deep breath and gently turn the [...]
So, we've looked at Boden and Hush, so today I thought I'd share a Marks and Spencer order with you. I can only apologise for the photos - my photographer arrived home late from school after a week that has been filled with rugby trials and endless homework. He was tired and most definitely not in the mood to play David Bailey but he gamely did his best. So here is a rather dark try on of my M&S delivery [...]
I've given up - although the sun is shining in these photos, the Indian Summer doesn't seem to be showing any signs of arriving so I've been busy placing Autumn orders. My Hush parcel arrived today. I like Hush but it doesn't usually suit me. Even though I love their look, I think I'm too much of a neat freak for their clothes to work on me. However this season I received an email saying they'd been paying more attention [...]
I hope you've had a good week, it's going to be a post of two parts today. First of all a style fix for those who prefer this part of my blog and then we'll move on to the next instalment of the work life balance discussion that we've been having over the last few months. At last I'm starting to get my head around Autumn 2015 style for women over 40. There's no doubt that skinny jeans and tailored crops [...]
Hello, here I am as promised with the first of my new season posts. Going forward I'm planning to look at specific categories - jeans will be one of the first because shapes are changing. I'm going to spend a day on my own in Manchester tomorrow doing a serious recce of the shops, but this week I thought I'd do a review of Boden autumn 2015, showing you my try on of the things I ordered from the new collection. For [...]
Hello dear friends - it's been a while but we're back from our holiday in Kalkan. The daily grind has resumed and before the glow wears off, let me take you with me to Turkey for a whirlwind tour of our lazy days and nights. Before we get on to outfits I must remind you that my life was so very hectic in the weeks before we went away that, unlike last year when I shopped and planned outfits for [...]
Oh it feels as though it's been a long week. Here's a quick update on what I've been doing. As you know, last weekend we went down to London to undertake the task of sorting through the belongings of my friend who died a couple of months ago. It was a very strange thing to do. If you've ever had to do this sort of thing, you'll know that you go into a very operational mode. I think it's a [...]
A superfast post from me tonight before I head off down to London. A reader, Sally, emailed me this week and said that she was missing my weekly work outfit round-ups because she finds them helpful, even if I do repeat things. So that made things easy, here goes: this is what a Head of Marketing & Creative wears for work.... Monday - late home after supper with our German agent Whistles double faced blazer; Boden blouse; Boden bistro crops; Zara shoes Tuesday [...]
Hello, I'm late posting this week, I know...and I haven't been very good at taking outfit shots but I thought I'd tell you all about the fragrance training I've been doing which, given the weather and the lack of opportunity to wear anything very Summery, is far more interesting. So, as you'll remember, I had my 'nose' tested a few weeks ago and it transpired that I have a relatively good sense of smell. This means that I've been given the [...]
A very quick post from me today because despite the wind...and the rain...and the cold of this non-existent Summer that we're having in the UK, we're going camping. I'm not feeling very excited about it but it's a trip that we go on every year with the same friends and I'm aware that it could be the last time that our eldest wants to come with us. We need to make some memories. We're very close to these particular friends [...]
You might want to make a cup of tea - I've got lots to talk about this week! First of all it's been very exciting to be approached by Boden. Lots of you have been commenting on their growing relationship with bloggers and how they seem to have been focusing on the younger 20-somethings who, realistically, have never been their core audience. There have been a few threads discussing it on Mumsnet with women noting that whereas most brands are making [...]
Sorry for the late post, for the last two weeks I’ve been out and about seeing clients which has involved lots of wining and dining. I’ve been getting home late in the evening, dealing with A-Level stresses, rolling into bed and then waking up early to go out and do it all again. I must face the scales tomorrow, everything is feeling very tight but I’m hopeless when faced with lovely food that has been cooked by someone else. Anyway [...]
Well I'm amazed by how much correspondence my impending Pete Tong night triggered last week (I have yet to answer the emails but I will, I promise). It seems that you were either horrified or intrigued by the thought of it and lots of you wanted to know why I was still up for a night that started at 10pm and went on into the small hours. There are two reasons. Firstly, as I've mentioned before, Mr MC, being slightly younger [...]
Hello, hope you're all having a lovely weekend, especially everyone in the UK as it's the last Bank Holiday for a while. Lots to tell you about this week so I'm going to dive straight in - I've reluctantly promised to do some planting today so the garden centre is calling. I always thought that I would find my gardening mojo when I was grown up and had a big garden. Well I have the big garden but the mojo still [...]
Another week gone already - before we know it we'll be halfway through the year. It's been an interesting week for me, as you know my day job includes the creative direction of the products that we develop and this week I've had two days out of the office devoted to beautiful things which has to be good for the soul. On Monday I was down in London at a trade show where the small, creative companies release their concepts for [...]
Happy Friday everyone, I hope you had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend and a good week. It's my favourite month, everyone around here starts to emerge from their Winter sleep and in celebration of the Spring, each village holds a special event. Sadly the dreadful Bank Holiday weather spoiled the first two that we'd planned to go to last weekend and we ended up spending Saturday hunkering down on the sofa with the boys having a popcorn and movie extravaganza. [...]
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 [...]
And I'm back. I just needed a bit of time out after the funeral I went to last week. If you aren't a regular reader, a very close friend of mine died suddenly a few weeks ago and I spent a few days either side of the funeral last weekend with his family. It's been tough; somehow even when you come back to your own life, grief clings to you like smoke and you just can't shake it off. I [...]
Well there's lots to tell you about this week and the eagle-eyed Instagrammers amongst you will know why: yesterday I was working with the BBC Breakfast show - not as Midlifechic but in a professional capacity. They've been travelling around the UK talking to businesses that have had an interesting journey out of the recession, so yesterday they came to Cumbria to talk to us and I thought you might like to know a bit about how it all goes behind the [...]
Another week over already, it’s been tough going to work and leaving everyone at home snoozing and I’ve missed the usual fun I’d be having with the boys but it's been an uneventful week and given the way things have been going recently, I'm utterly grateful for that. Thank you for all of your lovely comments and emails last week, the funeral isn't for another fortnight so I've been trying not to think about it. Before I go on to [...]
I'm back, another week over in this busy new world of mine. It's all workwear this week - I spent last weekend celebrating one of my favourite friend's 40th birthdays. Love her though I do, her idea of fun was to spend the weekend in the wind and the rain watching rugby matches (she plays hooker for Cumbria) so, given the weather, the photos were a bit of a no no! Outfit of the day: Monday Here we go, work [...]
Hello dear friends - what a week it's been, but this is effectively the start of the weekend for me. Here's my update, starting with last Saturday when I had to do all the boring things like taking the car for a service that I would previously have tucked into the week. Happily before I set off, a mystery parcel arrived from the lovely Rachel at RachelWears. I had no idea what was inside but it turned out to be [...]
Oh it's good to be back in my blogging haven - it's been a long week starting my new job even though I've only worked for 3 days. Friday is my day off which will be a luxury, I've never done a 4 day week before. So this morning I'm luxuriating in not having to set off for an hour's drive. I started on Tuesday and didn't feel nervous but did feel very unsettled, almost homesick in fact. Although I've [...]
Tomorrow is D Day for me and I'll be starting my new job so I thought I'd try a new superfast post to cover off a bit of weekend chic. This might be the sort of post I have to do for a while until I settle into my new routine. Quite a few of your survey responses (yes I have read and analysed every single one - thank you so much for your time and enthusiasm) have asked me to [...]
When I was shopping in Liverpool a fortnight ago my mission was to find the best black trousers on the high street. Many were tried, in fact so many that I could no longer see any difference between them. So, I bought a hat (as you do) and decided to order the best I'd seen and try them on in one session at home. In my old life I used to have a personal shopping session every season at Selfridges [...]
I had a surprise delivery last week. A little while ago Berghaus asked me if I would review one of their new season jackets and then I didn't hear from them for a little while so I forgot all about it. When a parcel in a black bin bag came through the letterbox I assumed that the boys and been buying from Ebay again until I saw it was addressed to me and inside was a bright Berghaus Paclite III [...]
So, whilst we wait for some of the new things I've ordered to arrive, I thought I'd take you on a trip to Liverpool. If you remember, Mr MC had booked us in to stay in the city overnight after his meeting last Friday although it very nearly didn't happen. Our youngest woke up that morning with tonsillitis and if it hadn't been for my lovely sister quickly rearranging her plans, we wouldn't have been able to go. I can't [...]
Thank you for all of your good wishes for my new venture, it's lovely to feel your encouragement behind me. You just never know what's in store for you do you? If somebody had told me on 1st January that I would be a semi-invalid for the next 6 weeks and that I would then be embarking on a whole new career I would have told them they needed a sit down! I remember being in my 20s and thinking [...]
On Friday I signed off by saying that big changes were happening in my life. If you are a regular reader you will know that since having my second baby in 2001, I have been running a small creative agency with Mr MC. It's been fantastic and we've worked for some really big clients such as Marks and Spencer, John Lewis and New Look along with countless smaller companies in the UK and overseas. However over the past year I've [...]
So now that you've had time to recover from culottes, I've found another look that's filtering through to mainstream from the rarified heights of the fashion cognoscenti. Flares. The fashion forward have been wearing them for a couple of years now but this is the first season that I've really noticed them in all the high street retailers which means they're officially going to be a 'thing.' Skinnies have dominated for so long and of course, they will still be [...]
I know I'm late posting this week but I wanted to do a Finery London review as soon as my delivery arrived. If you've missed the excitement, Finery launched on Thursday and currently ships to the UK, Canada and the US. They describe their range as "design that's contemporary but forever, beautiful but accessible, for women who love clothes as much as we do". I also like the fact that they say "I think we understand that women don’t shop by age, [...]
It's a day for celebration: Midlifechic is 1 year old today, a great excuse to bake (and eat) cakes which, as you know, is one of my favourite pastimes. What a year it's been, I've loved every minute of blogging and watching the readership grow as I've undertaken my mission to travel from frump to fox. The journey isn't over but I'm certainly feeling more confident than I was a year ago. It's been lovely getting to know some of [...]
So, as you know, I'm limited as to how much I can type or drive. This is a recipe for disaster because I'm bored. I've tried watching daytime TV but I just can't do it. I was obviously brainwashed at a young age because all I can hear is 'why don't you...just switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead' (this is a small test that will tell me which UK readers are around [...]
I think the lack of sleep and inability to do my hair properly is really starting to show in these pictures but I wanted to do an Inés de la Fressange at Uniqlo review before I sort out my returns. As you will know if you are a regular reader, Inés is my style icon so I get very excited when a new range comes out although I still think the Autumn ranges tend to be better than the Spring. However before we start, here [...]
Hello dear friends, thank you so much for all your kind words with regard to my shoulder problem. I'm realising how lucky I've been to breeze through life with great health - I had no idea of just how painful and limiting something like this can be until now. So, as kindly suggested by Greetje, I am going to keep on posting but they will be short Winter chic pieces for a while. I've also kept my replies to your [...]
Brrrrrr! It's the only thing to say at the moment. After last week's storms we now have freezing fog and ice. It isn't my favourite season sartorially, some people look great in lots of layers but I just feel lumpy. My theory is that it's a season that suits a column shape best. Because I have relatively broad shoulders and hips I need to cinch my waist in which isn't very flattering when you have about 6 layers underneath your belt! Anyway another [...]
I should have known better. All through Christmas I kept on top of work and Midlifechic by curling up on the sofa with my laptop. During the first week my neck started to feel a bit sore, then my shoulder . In the second week it was moving into my back. I kept on ignoring it thinking it would be fine, I even thought it would be a good idea to keep going to the gym to hammer through the [...]
Have you noticed that the days are starting to get longer - they are, they are. However it's all still a bit cold and gloomy and I'm tired of grey so I've been looking for ways to add a touch of Spring whilst still dressing for Winter. I've managed to find some cost-effective easy Spring wardrobe updates (ok and two not cost-effective but gorgeously luxurious splurges). The weather here has been so bad with wild storms, that we've battened down the [...]
I always admire people who burst into the new year full of enthusiastic new year's resolutions. I don't know about you but for me, January always seems to be a time for quiet reflection. Maybe it's because of where we live, nature has well and truly hunkered down for a big sleep, nothing is stirring, even the ducks on the canal at the bottom of the garden are silent. Of course it only seems this way on the surface, deep down bulbs are [...]
As you know I've been reading lots of style books over the Christmas holiday they were definitely my most useful and absorbing presents. Actually they couldn't have come at a better time, because they reminded me that a truly chic wardrobe isn't filled to bursting with lots of different clothes, in fact it is pared down to a number of essentials that all work seamlessly with each other. So when the sales started I was far more eclectic than usual. [...]
A very quick post from me to wrap up the old year and welcome in the new. Our social life has continued to be stymied by the flu bug that must surely now be an epidemic. We haven't had it yet but nearly all of our plans have been disrupted by phone call after phone call from people saying they're down with it, we feel like we're more-or-less the last family standing and we're living in isolation. It's made me [...]
I hope you've all been having a lovely time. The others are out walking Gary so I've found a few moments to say hello. I've been enjoying having a little more time on my hands to play around with some old favourites in my wardrobe for a Midlifechic Christmas. Here are some outfits of the week with links attached for anything that is still in the shops: Book Club reunion chic! This was where I left off in my last post, [...]
I'm back again with a quick update, it's been a busy weekend. When I left you on Friday we were off to Ambleside for a pizza and to see the long awaited last instalment of The Hobbit movies. If you ask me, it was just a lot of fighting but it was voted as excellent by the youngest who is a Tolkien buff so that's what matters. If you're a regular reader you'll remember Cinderellagate from a couple of weeks [...]
Hello lovely people, some of you have been in touch to say that you're going to miss my blog if I don't publish over Christmas which is very, very kind of you so I've been thinking about how I might keep in touch. I'm going to post sporadic Christmas diaries when I get a chance so here's a quick recap of the last few days: Last weekend the school that the oldest and youngest go to held their 'Nine Lessons and Carols' service [...]
I was going to do this post in a couple of weeks but given that the sales are on and some of these items are heavily reduced I thought I'd give you a break from tinsel and do it now. As you know this was the year that I decided to have a major wardrobe overhaul and many of you have travelled the journey with me since I started this blog. I gave myself a budget (which has now completely, utterly [...]
After weeks of discounts you need a clear head to navigate the Boden Winter sale this year. So here it is, my Boden Winter sale 2014 edit. I've tried to make sure that there is plenty of stock of everything that I have recommended and I've picked out the best bargains. They fall into one of two categories, either wardrobe workhorses that you'll wear again and again or wardrobe heroes that will lift ordinary outfits when you need them to. [...]
I'm going to give you not one but two posts this weekend which means today's is going to be a bit shorter on words than usual. A few winter outfits of the day now and in time for the 9am start on Sunday, I will bring you my edit of the Boden sale. I'll be trawling through and and picking out the best buys that fall into two categories, firstly wardrobe workhorses to fill gaps and give new life to [...]
I now declare Christmas to be in full swing. As you will remember, on Friday I was going out with Mr MC's university karate team - it certainly wasn't the sort of student night out I remember! I think they were at the very end of their funds because apart from enthusiastically accepting all offers of drinks that were bought for them, they otherwise earnestly sipped tap water throughout the evening. It was interesting though, it's a long time since [...]
And we're off - the first official Christmas 'going out' event. One of the karate clubs that Mr MC trains with is at Lancaster University so tonight we are going out with a group of students on their dojo's night out... now there's a wardrobe conundrum if ever there was one. I am absolutely old enough to be their mum and my one hope for the evening is that this isn't their first thought as I walk through the door. So, casual [...]
Hello dear friends I've missed you. I have been laid low. Having not had so much as a cold for years and years I can only assume that I picked up a brutal virus in London and can hear my grandmother muttering about keeping away from filthy cities. Anyway I'm back and will respond to all your comments and emails over the next few days. Now, the post that I did a couple of weeks ago about pleather leggings triggered such a big [...]
Well I'm back from my fab few days of London chic and I feel as though I've been time travelling. It's so strange to step back into your old life for a little while and see what's been happening there. Let me give you a little bit of context. As you know, the main reason for my trip was to go to a Selfridges reunion. In 1993, I was one of the first recruits into what they called the masterplan [...]
Surprise! I know I said there wouldn't be a post today but I was sent a request by somebody who has a jumpsuit but feels she has worn it too often recently so I've put together a couple of alternatives which of course, I now want to buy. In each set I've created an option for a more casual Christmas Day / Boxing Day drinks look along with a full on party look. In the same way that dressing for [...]
As you know, on Friday night we had a little party. An old friend from the playground has recently switched from running Pampered Chef parties to 'Virgin Wines At Mine' parties (which personally I think is a much better idea) and I'd promised her ages ago that I'd hold one at our house. The tricky thing is that you need to keep the numbers to a maximum of 18 so that she can talk about the wines and get everyone's feedback. [...]
Another quick post from me today as I reach the end of a week that has been busier than most. I'm sure we're all in the same boat with Christmas shopping adding to the general workload that we all power on with. Anyway today we're looking at workwear chic for women over 40. As I mentioned in my last post, we had to deliver a pitch for a new account on Wednesday. Because we're going in as a creative branding [...]
A quick post from me today - everything's a bit chaotic, I'm juggling this week's party at home, next week's big Selfridges reunion in London, Christmas shopping and work along with the usual cans of worms that the boys unearth on an almost daily basis. And I know I said I wouldn't be doing any more clothes shopping for myself and I haven't but...the bloggers' favourite faux leather leggings that I ordered from Next back in September finally arrived. So [...]
Lots of people have been in touch to say they found the piece on creating a chic casual wardrobe from scratch really useful but that they'd like to include a skirt or two. So, buoyed by your enthusiasm, I've created another set. I've tried to make sure that the new pieces work with the ones from last time so that if you're in the lucky position of buying them all, the combinations are endless! The sudden cold snap has seen [...]
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday As you know, the first few days of our half term were packed with our trip to Newcastle and then the Boden party which took up the whole of Monday and Tuesday. Fortunately the smallest boy was keen to help at the Boden event which meant I felt I'd at least spent some time with him. He also managed to win a £50 Boden voucher in the raffle but was most disappointed as he'd had his [...]
It takes longer than it used to to recover from a late night of merriment and on Monday I was still feeling weary. However there was no getting round the fact that the Boden van was in its way and we had been told that we would be the first people to receive the new Boden Winter 2014 range. You will remember that we were holding our party in the village Church as all proceeds will be going towards the [...]
You may remember that last weekend's post was all about the joys of one of our normal, healthy weekends in the Lake District countryside. Well hold onto your seats because this one was completely different. As I mentioned on Friday events had conspired to enable Mr MC and I to combine a karate competition with taking the boys to see their lovely grandma thus giving us a night out on the 'toon' in Newcastle. And a night in Newcastle is never [...]
A task driven post from me today. I love getting emails from readers who have found Midlifechic at the beginning of their journey and are just starting to feel excited about the idea of a period of transformation. The first question they ask is where to start and, in addition to urging them to begin by eating and drinking healthily and finding a form of exercise they love (which is the bit no-one ever wants to hear), I always suggest that [...]
So after the electricity meltdown that was Friday, we had digital meltdown on Saturday and Sunday with absolutely no broadband. This is extremely rare in our house. Because I often like to work from home we have 2 lines, just in case, so if one goes down there's always a spare. But no, this weekend we had digital silence. So given that it was my first at home for 7 weeks, I decided to make it a mindful Midlifechic weekend [...]
Being your own boss is both a blessing and a curse. On days like today I hit Friday morning and wince at how little I've actually achieved because I've been maxing out my 'flexible working'. However I have at least been trying to dress the part. As we're moving fully towards an Autumn wardrobe now, I've been trying out a few items that are on the edge of the culling pile just to see if I still like them. Unless you're [...]
Well hello world - oh I do like saying that. Welcome to my new followers, emailers and commenters this week from Holland, Germany, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and yes, finally, the USA. It's been really lovely to hear from you and I'm amazed by how many of you already shop at Clarks - there was me thinking it was a little British brand when it's obviously already global. For those of you who have asked for a facility to subscribe [...]
Actually I think they're pretty perfect for women of any age but I'm discovering that there are so many ladies out there adding 'women over 40' to their search phrases that this helps them find us. So, before I start, I just wanted to apologise for (and growl at) the gremlins that removed all my carefully worded replies to your comments on the last few posts. I can't understand what happened but I wasn't being lazy I promise - I do appreciate the [...]
Well that took us all by surprise didn't it - one day we were feeling complacent about the Indian summer and the next day the North wind blew in with Autumn. So as you can see from today's pictures, in the space of a few days I've gone from blazers and slingbacks to coats and boots. Suddenly in our house we're discussing what to do for Hallow'een and bonfire night and the subject of Christmas has been raised more than [...]
You may remember me saying that last week got off to a lovely start (before it all went rather wrong) when I met up with a Midlifechic reader. Rachel Roberts was one of the very first people to contact me via Twitter - I was sending my blog live for the first time as she was also about to launch her new clothing brand so we were both feeling very nervous. We finally decided to get together and it made [...]
First of all thank you for all your lovely comments and emails after Friday's post. Your collective display of empathy and united loathing of the trials that rugby inflicts on the mothers of Britain has cheered me up no end! As did a night in Newcastle. If you've ever been there you'll know it's never dull, although unfortunately we had to avoid the more crowded bars with the eldest and his Captain Caveman cast in case it was knocked. So, [...]
What a week it's been chez Midlifechic. As if the rugby injury with its ensuing disruption wasn't enough, the dark clouds of doom have remained over us. When I first started this blog, I never thought I'd be sharing my woes like this but here we are. There have been perpetual roadworks on the motorway in Cumbria and twice in the last year Mr MC has been flashed going at 48 in a 40mph zone accruing 3 points on his licence [...]
How typical. It started to rain (for the first time in weeks) just as the youngest exited the changing rooms for his first appearance on the rugby pitch...and it stopped just as the match finished and we got back to the car. Haven't we been spoilt this summer with the fabulous sunny days that seem to have lasted pretty much since the end of June? Anyway grey skies, rugby matches, this will be my life on Saturdays until about Easter, [...]
Hello, hope you're all well. I feel as though I've hit my 'wall' this week to borrow a runners' term. I think the initial new term energy burst has worn off in our house, especially as there seems to have been a school related meeting every night that I've had to go to which makes for long days. The eldest is mid-UCAS statement and application, still not having a clue what his 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th choices will be, [...]
I'm a latecomer to leopard print. For some reason, until I started blogging, it never occurred to me to wear it. As I've said many times, I'm not keen on any kind of pattern and I think I'd lumped leopard print in that category. However, back in March I dipped my toe into the water with a pair of leopard print shoes from M&S (figuratively speaking of course). They were only about £20 and a fabric print rather than ponyskin [...]
As you know I've been culling my clothes with the aim of establishing a chic core wardrobe and, in fact, have been shamed by the number of you who have said you do it every 6 months. I vow to try this so that it won't be so painful next time. Anyway, I figured it was time for a reward by doing a bit of online shopping to find some chic core Autumn basics. I know you like a 'new items' [...]
It's time to talk about Winter coats. Even though the sun is shining and we seem to be having a lovely Indian summer, it seems that if you haven't committed yourself by the end of September the best have gone. I think it's important to look at coats as investment purchases that will last a few years. Cheap fabric shows and coats with a high proportion of man made fibre tend to look stiff and feel scratchy. Let's face it, [...]
Well, I'm gradually getting back into the swing of term time routine. I have to say that although I miss the long lazy days, I quite like having uninterrupted batches of time to myself again. Some of you have mentioned that you love September and the feeling of new beginnings it brings and I do agree. I think however old you are you always have that feeling of starting afresh. So, with that in mind, I've decided it's time for [...]
Ok so I'm accepting that it's now September and, even though it's still feeling like late summer, we need to look ahead. One of the great things about working at Selfridges was the pre-season briefing on colour palettes that guided all our work. If you've developed a wardrobe of chic basics, it's easy to add accents of seasonal colour to stay on trend. So today I thought it would be helpful to kick off Autumn dressing by going to the [...]
I know I promised you a piece on the New Season colour palette but up North, at least, the weather has been too nice to think about Autumn so although it's nearly ready, I refuse to publish it until September (which is, after all, next week). So it's a quick round up of my week in 'transitional chic' outfits I'm afraid. It's been a 'half woman half biscuit' week - I've been juggling the boys and work in a big messy muddle. [...]
Well I hope you're all having a lovely Bank Holiday weekend. Mine is rather quiet because Mr MC has gone over to Newcastle for a karate course (we're well and truly back to normal) taking the 2 smalls to see their grandma. The 17 year old is packing in his restaurant shifts before he goes on rugby camp next week so it's just me and the cats - thank goodness for them! I thought I'd cover off the rest of the [...]
The reason I didn't blog on holiday. I don't know about you but I spend ages imagining the first day of our holiday throughout the winter months, planning it really carefully to make sure it's perfect. This year it wasn't. As you know our plane was delayed and so instead of a good night's sleep in a nice hotel, we had to force ourselves up after just 3 hours. I had barely nodded off because Mr MC, high worshipper of [...]
Well hello, we're back...shivering...blimey! Holiday chic already feels far far away as I tell myself I can't possibly put the heating on in August! Thank you to those of you who kept in touch via Instagram, it was lovely to hear from you. As you've gathered I didn't blog while we were away - there's a story behind that and it involves a very unfortunate loss of equipment but I'll come to that in a later post. So, a quick one today [...]
At last it's holiday time in the midlifechic house. As usual my list of things to do is so long that I keep sitting down with a cup of tea and wishing we weren't going but I don't really mean it. Of course it hasn't helped that the younger boys have been floored with a stomach bug which means I'm running on very little sleep. I think it's been a karmic response to last week's wanting to feel needed again. [...]
So here we are, it's all over. The celebrations, the tearful moments, the milling together with other mums in the same situation...all finished and I'm left feeling surprisingly flat. I worked out that of the 38 families, 25 of us were what the school calls 'farewell families' leaving primary after a sequential run of siblings so it was quite an intense week. There was less of the general joy that was there when my other two left - everything (even [...]
So we're here, the last few days of our primary school years. There are so many leaving events that this is going to be a quick post but fear not, I'll be back with all the detail at the end of the week. Because he goes to a grammar school and they often have to go in on Saturdays, the eldest broke up ridiculously early 2 weeks ago. He has now established a firm routine of sleeping until midday when he [...]
Wow this weather is crazy - Mediterranean weather last night (even here), mad wind, rain and thunder this morning. The forecast is so bad for the weekend that we've had to cancel our annual camping weekend with friends. We've braved it through so many years of flash floods, plagues of big black bugs, gales so strong that the tents have been flattened and even tents setting on fire that this year we've decided to do the sensible thing and just [...]
The plan was that this was going to be the epitome of a hot, sunny post but it's all gone a bit wrong again thanks to our bizarre weather. If you're a regular reader you'll remember the post when I was feeling sad about our friends (J&R) who are moving. These are the friends who, for 10 years, have lived just around the corner and, even though they're moving to a village nearby, it won't be quite the same. R [...]
Well as you know, last night we went to the HEIST education marketing awards. They are held in a different city each year and, conveniently for us, last night they were in Manchester at the very splendid Palace Hotel. As you can imagine, I started thinking about black tie chic when I knew we'd got through the elimination rounds in April. Like everyone I have various cocktail dresses that I've only worn a handful of times but with the slender [...]
Today I'm going to show you the most beautiful piece of clothing I've ever worn and it's vintage chic. Our village school is a C of E school and each year the children have the choice to be confirmed. Along with lots of his school friends, the small one decided that he would take part and Sunday was his big day. It was a really lovely occasion and a good excuse to invite lots of great aunties and godparents, my [...]
I know there's a heatwave in the South and if you're one of those people that is complaining about the heat I'm sticking my fingers in my ears because for the last few days it's been raining here - and it's cold - I'm wearing socks for goodness sake! As you know I've been feeling a bit shaky about the little one leaving primary school, the big one heading off to university interviews and all the change that is looming. [...]
It's very disconcerting but suddenly everything seems to be changing around us and I hate change. We are now on the final countdown to the smallest son leaving primary school which will be the end of 14 years of school runs, nativity plays, class assemblies, handmade mothers' day cards and things constructed from cereal boxes. I apologise in advance if you hear a lot about this transition over the next few weeks but have faith, there are 17 days and [...]
Ok, so we all agreed that the culottes didn't work and they went back (the post is here in all its glory if you're a new reader). However I am still determined to diversify from jeans a bit more and so today I'm revealing a whole new trouser pleasure: loose cut, light fabric, elasticated waist(!) - what can you not love about these. Apart from the fact (for me anyway) that Mr MC definitely doesn't love them. He doesn't loathe [...]
Well I think the mini heatwave has taken everyone by surprise over the last few days - we certainly aren't used to it in the North! The weather forecasters must too scared to tell us when it's coming in case it doesn't and they're then lambasted by the Daily Mail. Anyway when it comes from nowhere it certainly gives you a problem with sunny weather outfits. I was doing a bit of people-watching in town the other day whilst the [...]
Chic boyfriend jeans for women over 40 Ok so here it is - the chic boyfriend jeans post. As you'll know if you've been following the blog for a while, I love boyfriend jeans but have taken a stand against 'distressed'. I'm not saying that I don't think women over 40 shouldn't wear them, or indeed that they don't look fab in them - it's just that, as its name suggests, the whole purpose of midlifechic is to encapsulate 'chic' [...]
Quick update today on what I've been doing. I can't believe it but my smallest boy is going to the local grammar school in September. Of course we're really proud of him for doing so well but I just can't believe that he's big enough! (He'll kill me if he reads this). Anyway, yesterday was his transition day. I quite liked the way the school organised it - he and the other members of his new form met up for [...]
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 [...]
I've had a few emails recently from people telling me that I don't show my necklaces well enough in my photos as they just can't see it and I also often focus on the clothes and forget to credit it. Apologies for that, I probably need to go through the pain of having more pictures taken of each outfit so that you can see it better. Anyway I thought I'd do a round up on the pieces that I wear [...]
There seem to have been endless grey skies over most of the UK throughout May and I think everyone is sick of being stuck in a jeans rut. Given that summer dresses just haven't been an option I've been looking for something different to wear. At the festival we went to on Saturday there was a group of urban 30 somethings who stood out from the rest by virtue of their chic attire (they must have been tourists who had [...]
So, last weekend was a big one for us. As I think I've mentioned, Mr MC has been training 5 days a week for a year (yes really) for a particular karate black belt grading on Sunday. So on Saturday to take his mind off it, we headed up to a family festival in the West Lakes. Glastonbury it isn't, but it does have some great music, food, a mini Chelsea-type festival and lots of other stuff going on. I [...]
Well I'm going to fail a bit in my attempt to bring you caravan chic because in all honesty it wasn't very chic. As we drove North on Friday we watched the temperature dropping by 1°C for just about every 10 miles that we travelled and when we finally got to the site it was spookily shrouded in a thick mist. It was late, it was cold, we were all tired and as anticipated there was no wi-fi. I have [...]
I can imagine that in the South, Boden parties are ten a penny, a bit like Pampered Chef, but up here there only seems to be one a year - but boy is it a good one to go to. Last year my friend and I were unsuspecting, just putting the postcode into the satnav to see where it would take us and were quite alarmed when it took us down a mile-long sweeping drive bordered by trees until we [...]
Thank you for all your wishes yesterday, I was successful in my mission to celebrate all weekend and today I feel a bit more than one year older! When I left you on Friday, we were off to our primary school family fun night where we got together with a great group of friends for rounders and a barbecue. We're lucky because one of the playground dads is MD of a well known wine company and so donates fabulous wine [...]
Well the weekend is here at last and it looks like it's shaping up to be rather a good one for me with a few little pre-birthday celebrations on the agenda. The actual day isn't until Monday and as there's nothing I can do about being another year older I intend to enjoy myself! Last night we met up with my brother, sister and their spouses in a burrito bar. Actually I think my brother had completely forgotten it's my [...]
It's exam week in our house so things are very quiet and serious. It somehow doesn't seem fair to be tripping about the house trying different outfits so I'm going to do a different type of post. As you know, up until now I've been focusing on reinventing my casual chic wardrobe and I feel it's finally starting to get somewhere. For a change last week I pulled out some of my older workwear to give it a whirl and [...]
Whose idea was it to ban jeans for my working week - I'm glad it had a bank holiday in it. It showed me how lazy I've become recently relying on jeans for workwear chic as well as weekends. It's just so much easier now that I've sorted a casual midlife chic wardrobe, especially when you can dress it up with heels. It's also much simpler to wear jeans when the weather's grim, as I think it has been everywhere [...]
Midlife chic Friday When I left you, I was off to Manchester for another 100 mile midlife chic haircut. It wasn't quite as drastic this time (and the roots still need doing - I have to leave something for my faithful local hairdresser). I had a lovely day mooching around the shops although there wasn't really anything that I hadn't seen the week before in London. I did have an interesting time trying lots of things on though, learning more [...]
Well it's been back down to earth this week at midlife chic after my exciting time in London - no more Waldorf or Gant or first class travel, just work, washing, cooking and mopping the brows of the AS Level / SATS revisers in the house. Sunday was another big day in the village - we like our celebrations up here. This time it was the St George's Parade with brass band and marching cubs, scouts, brownies etc right through [...]
Happy Monday everybody. I'm comfortably back in the North after my hectic time last week. So, picking up where we left off, I arrived in London with just enough time to get to the hotel and change. I knew it was pretty close to Covent Garden tube but when I got above ground Google maps wouldn't work on my phone so there was nothing else for it but to take a cab...or...a rickshaw - made me smile! So which outfit [...]
Hello All, First of all can I say thank you for all the comments / tweets / emails I've received over the last couple of days, it's been amazing and I'm really grateful. I will get back to you just as soon as the next 2 days are over. I'm writing from a lovely 1st class Virgin Pendolino on my way down to London. I have a contract with a few universities in the North to deliver lectures to businesses [...]
Well here we are, back in the land of broadband - my mother-in-law doesn't see the point in the internet, not even dial-up, so we all literally switch off when we go to Newcastle. So, starting from where I left you last Wednesday night, you'll remember that we had to delay our trip because Mr MC still hadn't hit the deadline for the ad campaign he was working on. This meant that Thursday saw us at the cinema again trying [...]
Well my last post seemed to go down well so here's part two of what I've been wearing during the Easter holidays. Just as well because my chances of going anywhere near any clothes shops during these two weeks are zero. Spring has finally arrived in the Lakes over the last few days and of course, with the daffodils out, we're all feeling very lucky and 'Wordsworthian.' Mr MC has been working like a dervish to hit lots of deadlines [...]
No I haven't been dressing up as the Easter bunny but as you know, I have been without a phone for a few days after I inadvertently dropped it down the loo at the cinema. Amazingly, after being left to dry for a few days, it came back to life - pretty amazing! So here's a round up of the last few days and what I've been wearing. Tuesday: the sun appeared briefly and friends came for lunch so I [...]
Today's post was going to be about this weekend's Boden delivery but infuriatingly I dropped my iPhone down the loo at the cinema this morning during a trip out with the boys and it had all the photos on it. Having recovered from the grim experience of having to put my hand down a toilet that looked as though it hadn't been cleaned for weeks, I'm now watching it dry in a bag of silica gel and just keeping my [...]
After the dominance of the skinny silhouette, there's a new trouser shape to try. I know it's been around at the Net A Porter level for a while, but when you start seeing it being merchandised on A-sites at places like Top Shop and Zara, you know it's time to try it out. The trouser intro at ASOS reads "this season's trousers are loosening up. Baggy is better as trouser legs get wider and slouchier." Variously called the peg, the [...]
Thank you so much to everyone who tweeted, emailed and commented over the weekend. It's so exciting to know you're out there, it makes it all worthwhile. This weekend we went to our first 50th birthday party - I remember this happening in the run up to 40, first our older relatives, then friends, then us...it's coming!! So the honour of the first event went to my niece's husband who takes great pleasure in calling me "auntie" even though he's [...]
Ok, so following on from yesterday's post about core chic, let's identify the chic basics you need as workhorses to form your casual weekend wardrobe. This little group should take you through Spring and early Autumn. Bear in mind we're looking at absolute essentials here - the fashionable pieces will be added in a later post. Here are some Pinterest pics to show you what we're aiming for - it's basically a European version of preppy. For more inspiration see [...]
I've been quiet on my blog this week because I've been spending a lot of time analysing 'chic' and, in particular, midlife chic. It is after all what I set out to do. My plan is to create the ultimate timeless wardrobe of essentials that can then have the odd fashion accent applied to them. I've been studying the women who really inspire me to try to find what it is about their style that encapsulates midlife chic - I've [...]
I had to attend a client's board meeting on Friday. They're a law firm, so dress there tends to be pretty subdued, although I've found they expect their creative agency to display a little pzazz. I think they like to see us as a slightly exotic species that flies in to entertain them with marketing fluff. So, as it was officially the first day of spring (and despite the driving rain outside) I thought I'd go for a touch of [...]
So the shopping trip for a Spring 2014 wardrobe update begins. Saturday definitely felt like the morning after the night before - I think we overdid the pre and post show drinks a bit in our excitement at being away. Anyhow, after raising my blood sugar a bit at the hotel breakfast buffet, I was a woman with a mission. I'd decided that I needed to focus on some core wardrobe essentials. On the list was a jacket, at least [...]
So, if you've been reading my blog you'll know that I'm off for a heady weekend with Mr MC in Manchester. Even though it isn't quite Marrakech or Moscow, sometimes just a little bit of away time is all you need! Grandma has already arrived to look after the boys and is snoozing on the sofa. I've thrown a few random things into a suitcase hoping that I'll see lots of new things to buy and I won't need any [...]
What's going on at M&S? There's a lot of noise about M&S in the press at the moment. Spring / Summer 2014 saw the second collection launched under Belinda Earl's reign (note: Belinda's previous roles were at Debenhams and Jaeger - let's hope she's bringing more of the latter than the former with her). She sounds as though she's in touch with the customer that M&S is aiming for - she's reported as saying that they might be 40 plus, [...]
Back to back client meetings today and the trouble with this time of year is that it's not cold enough for a winter coat but everyone still has their office heating turned up to the max. In the 90s a suit would have solved the problem and I keep hearing that they're coming back but then they never quite do. Anyway the sun's shining for once so I wanted to wear something bright but it's a bit too early for [...]
Boden's timing was good last week - 20% off just as the sun came out and made me want to think about dresses. Of course there were also some restocks on the 80% clearance that I'd been looking out for and I was only being kind to Johnnie really by offering to add a few to my basket. Anyway delivery today. Item number 1 - big fail! Now if I took any notice of my own advice on this blog [...]
Busy day of meetings and then tonight I'm going straight on to 2 parents' evenings - 2 different sons, 2 different schools - it's going to be a frantic night of running around. My blog went live today and I've been really encouraged by kind comments from other bloggers - what a nice community the 40-something bloggerati seems to be. Better than my family anyway - Mr MC has taken to calling my blog midlife chick whereas the sons are [...]
Last week I went down to London for a meeting with a new business that I'm getting involved with - more about that another day. Everything was very nice, great people with lovely offices in Kensington, the only drawback was that as we're a new team, we all had to have our photo taken for the bio page on the website. To start with, I wasn't confident that I'd chosen the right thing to wear. My comfort ground for this [...]
Lovely shoes – so forgiving – however big you’re feeling your feet can always look beautiful. Shoes. And coats. I have too many of both. I have piles of shoeboxes at the back of my dressing room and I know it’s one of many areas where I need to have an amnesty...but some of them I’ve hardly worn and they’re really lovely and I keep thinking the day will come when some great event will mean that I need them. [...]
I'm showing my age but I remember back in the nineties everyone having an obsession with 'Colour Me Beautiful.' They used to run sessions where they held scarves up against your face to find which suited your skin colouring best. I remember being told what colours suit me - peach and lime green which I wasn't too keen on, but they also introduced me to grey and that has remained a lifelong love affair. They do still appear when you [...]
The 2014 metallic trend is an absolute gift to women over 40, with a simple accessory from the high street you can raise any outfit from humdrum to chic. I've always loved metallics, I remember having a bright pink metallic bomber jacket in about 1982. Now they're back in a big way - the only thing about them is that they do shout "look at me" which was fine then when I was 15 but now I'd prefer to suggest [...]
Courtesy of Pinterest In the same way that many women are addicted to shoes, I’m addicted to coats. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s always so cold where we live or because I just want to cover up! The thing about a coat is that in the UK and especially in the North, you need one (or at least a jacket) for about 75% of the year. The other benefit is it doesn’t really matter what you’re [...]
When I started wanting to change how I dressed, I started shopping like I’d won a trolley dash. I’d hit the weight I wanted to get to, I’d taken lots of my old clothes to a dress agency to be sold and I truly believed that everything I saw and liked would now look great on me. Because we live in a retail desert, I did huge orders from Boden, White Company, Zara, Hobbs, Jigsaw and ASOS expecting to have [...]
If you're anything like me, you will be reluctantly accepting that you'll never be the shape that (a) you wanted to be and (b) you were sure you would be again if you lost those last few pounds. With each child I've had, my body has changed because it has been stretched beyond recognition with each successive pregnancy. Not only that but my hips have widened through giving birth, the skin on my abdomen is looser and even my feet [...]
