The fantasy autumn outfit - Carven and a bit of cable knit

Arctic winds are a-blowing in London today. The sun is warm and the sky is perfectly blue with litle white fluffy clouds speeding across it but the wind-chill and the spine-shivering cuts announcements from the government today just make you want to swathe yourself in layers and layers of cashmere. Luckily this season's trends are, if you hadn't already noticed, big on the chunky knit. But working out what to wear with a big cable knit sweater isn't always easy - a chunky knit can completely eradicate the shape of the person underneath so you look warm but slightly like an oversized cat toy.
My own solution is to go for short skirts and tailored coats or jackets, cashmere gloves and a good scarf. A short flippy skirt may not be the best option when walking over a windy Waterloo bridge, as I discovered during a Marilyn moment this morning, but they do look nice or you could swap them for some surprisingly forgiving leather shorts. A pair of thick black tights will go a long way to preserving any modesty you have remaining.
At the moment I swear by John Lewis' cotton tights, because I'm not meant to be wearing lycra, but usually it would be my beloved Falke Cotton Touch tights.
Below is a slightly idealised version of what I'm wearing today (obviously I don't have this kind of money so almost all of mine is ebay and car boot sale alternatives but a girl can dream)...

Let's start with the coat - mine is an oversized sharply cut black APC number that I found for £10 in a charity shop. I particularly like the pin-stripe lining that peeks out when I unbutton and roll up the cuffs. However in dream land this season I would have bought this and pushed the coat to the back of the wardrobe (or at least taken it to the dry cleaners becasue I wouldn't have to wear it every day or freeze);

Carven belted wool jacket with fur trim - $1660 from www.lagarconne.com

Underneath it would be a much more swish version of the soft cream cable knit chunky crew neck that I'm wearing right now which was £1.50 at the car boot sale and is actually for a 10 year old boy. The luxury version is from Prada, but here's anotehr alternative from D&G - technically a dress but a little on the short side without something underneath it even for me;

D&G Cable knit wool-blend sweater dress - £280 - www.net-a-porter.com

And underneath that would be a silk shirt buttoned all the way up to the top tucked into either shorts or a short skirt. The shirt I'm wearing is a very old, slightly worse for wear, grey, lumberjack, £1 Primark bargain bin find from way back when but I'd much rather be wearing this one;

Rag & Bone Marai silk shirt - £220 - www.net-a-porter.com

With this, which has my favourite thing in a skirt - hidden pockets;

Whyred Pasca drape skirt - £142 - www.urbanoufitters.co.uk

Some kind of ankle boot is essential, and a little platform helps navigate the puddle strewn pavements of London without getting your feet completely soaked. The ones I have on are desert boots (who came up with that name? how can anything suede with a heel be useful in heat and on sand?) from River Island and are a pinky-sand colour with a chunky rubber heel. But of course in fantasy land where my feet never hurt wearing heels I'd be wearing these;

Burberry Aviator shearling platform boot - £695 - www.burberry.com

I mentioned above that the sun is warm. It's also exceedingly bright so some sunglasses would be nice.

Zooey sunglasses - $350 - www.oliverpeoples.com

I don't wear a huge amount of jewellery other than the pieces JFK has given me which I am inseperable from, so one amazing piece like this would do nicely;

Bear Ring - $136 - www.leviticusjewelry.com

And of course a scarf and some gloves are essential.I like my scarves big and snuggly - a hood is definately an added bonus to this one and I could never say no to long fluffy Margiela gloves...

Ann Demeulemeester Bebe snood - £250 - www.brownsfashion.com

Maison Martin Margiela angora long glove - £185 - www.brownsfashion.com

And finally a cup of hot chocolate made with dark chocolate, 50/50 milk and cream, a shot of brandy and strictly no marshmallows... 

The not-quite-£10 challenge - Vintage at Goodwood edition

Having returned exhausted from a weekend at Vintage at Goodwood and jumped straight back into work, my brain hasn't quite caught up with me enough to produce a proper review or even filter through the hundreds of photogrpahs that I took. For the moment lets just say that I had a really good time and was more than happy with my experience of the festival, although there were some obvious flaws with the organisation and planning of the whole event.
It seems to have really divided opinion among the blogging community, but thus far Susie Bubble's take on it is the one that comes closest to my own thoughts.
Another post with more pics and some proper opinions is forthcoming, but in the meantime here's a £10 challenge special.
I've always been a big fan of the land girl look so was more than happy to pull on a pair of wellies made necessary by the less-than-perfect weather. When I was younger I was a trifle obsessed with the 40s and early 50s. I loved the films, the dancing and, obviously, the clothes. I have dabbled a little with the more pursit side of things, taking swing dance lessons and attempting to wear authentic vintage outfits from head to toe, although this isn't quite possible with size 8 feet. But in every day life it's just not for me - I enjoy dabbnling with too many different things to ever commit to one era and there are days when the thought of putting on full make-up is just too much.
But the weekend was a lovely opportunity to dig out some of my favourite vintage pieces and mix them with some of my every-day pieces to create outfits I wouldn't usually feel confident, commited or comfortable enough to wear on the streets of London.
I have a confession to make though - this outfit comes to a little more than £10. I did put together something that came to less for the Sunday, but spectacularly failed to take any decent pictures of it. This dress, which is a little snug, was one of a big bundle that I shoved into a £20 bag at the first Angels warehouse sale last year and I can't remember how many things I had in the bag so I honestly can't tell you how much it cost, but it was almost certainly less than £5.

£10 challenge outfit;
1940's dress - maker unknown - Angels sale - less than £5
Cashmere cardigan - Max Mara - car boot sale - £3
Army cap (with badge removed) - ex-Soviet Army - Portobello market - £4
Sunglasses - Anne Klein - car boot sale - £3

Total - £15

Shoes;
Wellies - Dunlop - Kilburn Army Surplus store - £12

The £10 challenge - silk maxi

I apologise for the slight delay in this, our second £10 challenge posting. It was due on Sunday, I know, and three days late isn't really that slight, but let's move swiftly on.
There will be some interesting guest challengers coming up soon, but in the meantime I'm afraid you're stuck with me. Here we're going to look at an item of clothing I wouldn't usually wear - the maxi dress.
This summer is supposed to have been all about the maxi dress. But the truth of it is that most maxi dresses make most women look bigger than they really are. Yes, maxi dresses have a nasty tendency to make you look fat.
I particularly enjoy it when people write in to magazine fashion advice columns saying they need a nice dress but are not a size ten and the woman writing the column tells them that a maxi dress is very forgiving and glamorous. They are lying.
My very forgiving and glamorous friend B tells me than her bias cut maxi dress is frankly lovely, but that the ones that stick out from an empire line are "fucking vile" and that all the cheap ones that get from New Look with the empire line waist with pouffy pleated skirts that you're supposed to wear on your holiday are going to make you look big, especially if you have boobs. I'm paraphrasing slightly here, but you get the gist.
Maxi skirts are a whole other prospect - easier to wear and less of a commitment. We may talk about this in another post.
The flattering maxi dress is a rare find. If you do find it, hang on to it, regardless of what the style mavens tell you about the longer length being in or out. A flattering maxi dress can do almost anything sartorially speaking.
Sadly the maxi dress I am wearing here is not one of those. This is mainly because it is actually two sizes too big for me. But it is beautiful and would look quite spectacular on the right woman.
It's by Hoss Intropia and is made of the lightest silk. It feels a little bit like wearing expensive air with a couple of fancy corsages attached. It even has the original price tag on it, but its former owner couldn't be bothered to remove a couple of small marks that she had mysteriously managed to sully it's silky loveliness with.
Please excuse the stupid poses, I have been drinking.

£10 challenge outfit;

Dress - Hoss Intropia - car boot sale - £3

Denim jacket - Gap - car boot sale - £2

Total - £5

Shoes;

 Studio TMLS - car boot sale - £5 

(I know shoes aren't technically included in the challenge but I am super pleased with these. They are the kind of shoes that men don't really understand - slight platform, black suede, gold studs on the heel and a ridiculous heel-less ankle bit with insane straps at the back. I'll give you a better view in another post soon.)

postscript: I will probably be selling the dress on ebay, but will let you know when I get around to that.

A slight change of direction

So, things have been a little quiet here. There are a number of reasons for this - 1/ I am lazy 2/ I am poor and avoiding looking at things I can't really afford as it has started to make me a little bit sad and 3/ Life has got all serious and I don't really have the energy to think about the fickle world of fashion every day.
Last week I had a biopsy in a very uncomfortable place. Not that I think having an extra hole cut into you with an extremely large hollow needle is ever anything less than uncomfortable, but this was an especially difficult area of the body to have said procedure performed on.
I'm a tad wary of sharing very personal and gruesome information of this nature with total strangers, but I'm finding it quite hard to concentrate on much else to be honest, except feeling bad for not blogging or making any atempt to do more work outside of my actual work (if that makes any sense).
Although it has stopped hurting now, waiting for the results is almost as bad. I don't know how you're supposed to behave during these things, but when the doctor casually mentioned what he thought the problem might be (not cancer, so I feel like a drama queen for being so upset by something that is 99.9999% unlikely to be life threatening which isn't helping) I think I should probably have asked some more questions. Instead I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, go home and hide under the duvet with some cake.
Which I did.
I even managed to avoid looking up the thing he had said he thought it was on the internet for a few days. I was too distracted by the ouch, but also very aware that looking medical things up on the internet is a very, very bad idea. There are too many worst case scenarios, horrible photographs and distressing stories, plus a whole lot of misinformation. It doesn't help when your tentative diagnosis is for something fairly rare either. Especially when the doctor failed to mention that you may have to live with it for the rest of your life, that it can only be managed instead of cured and that it can seriously effect one of the key areas of your life that makes you feel like a functioning woman.
You may have worked out that I did eventually cave in to curiosity and do a cursory web search. I'm not going to tell you what they think it is yet - it's too personal a thing to share with the world especially before there's a proper diagnosis. Once I have that I need to know what it means and start to work out how I feel about it other than confused and a bit scared.
But, with all my closest friends far away right now, it is good to write about it. Although JFK is being completely amazing, beyond what I could have hoped for, writing makes me feel more in control - that I'm doing something productive instead of wallowing.
In the real world I am mostly trying to have fun, despite the money problems. On Wednesday my dad took me to see two of the greatest Roma gypsy bands in the world at the Hackney Empire, organised by the Barbican, which was rather wonderful. Tonight I am going to see the ballet-comedy Coppelia perfomed by the Bolshoi at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden with JFK, which will hopefully be a little bit magical.
I am still heading to the car boot sale every weekend too, and finding bargains continues to fill me with joy. I think I might start trying to share that a little bit more here.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading my blog. Please do get in touch if there's anything you'd like me to write about. 

Nice surfwear - not an oxymoron after all

Those who have made my acquaintance will agree that it doesn't take long to work out that I'm not really into most forms of exercise. I lack the requisite self-discipline for running regularly, and I can't bear to part with £60 every month for the privilege of exercising in the tiny sweaty box that is our local Fitness First. Last time I tried Yoga I had to sit out for half the class because I almost fainted. Some forms of exercise are fun and satisfying when only partaken in on an occasional basis. Like horse riding, ice skating, long walks on Hampstead Heath with nice people, swimming in the sea in India when it gets too hot to even consider being anywhere but in the water. All of these are acceptable because they are rare treats.
I was even persuaded by one of my oldest friends to try surfing once on a girly holiday in Cornwall. I will grudgingly admit it was quite fun, but I was never going to be an instant convert. After all, surfing may have it's own unique style, but I'm not exactly a fan of Hawaiian prints unless they're on 1950's bombshell dresses. And let's not even talk about wet suits.
Plus I don't hugely enjoy being in a bikini in front of, well, anyone really. Although years of serious training have made me able to pretend otherwise. The lack of mirrors in places like Goa really helps too, as does the fact that most of the skinny girls are on drugs or intensely annoying yoga heads. Or both. Which allows me to feel superior about my various wobbly bits.
But just when I though we had established firm sartorial reasons for my resistance to a repeat of being dragged into another humiliating surf experience, some buggers have come along and created a range of truly lust-worthy surf wear...
Despite having a rather twee Simone de Beauvoir quote on their website and a slightly silly label name, Jillian Demling and Karen Mulligan know what they're doing with Pret-a-surf.
They should do really. Demling is a Vogue editor and Mulligan manages Annie Leibovitz's studio. According to an interview with them in Vanity Fair this month, they set out to design a range of bikinis, swimsuits and rash guards inspired by 50's and 60's style because they wanted to "look good while playing with the boys."
I still think rash guards are deeply unsexy, but a mondrianesque print is a definite improvement. The only downer here really is they've chosen some ridiculously skinny models for the pret-a-surf lookbook, when really what's needed is a grown-up woman with breasts and some toned thigh.

The always swoon-worthy Marion Cotillard does a much better job of the same bikini in her Mario Testino shoot for Vogue, but I could only find these tiny picture to show you.

Pret-a-surf appears to currently only be stocked in the US. Although they do appear to have an online shop that ships to pretty much everywhere, I don't buy swimwear without trying it on first. Especially when it costs more than £100 and I still can't afford to be buying anything really nice at the moment if it's not from the car boot sale. But I really do want that bikini an awful lot. Sigh.

Talking of car boot sales, last weekend was a particularly successful one on that front. he sun brought out some good sellers. I found a cute Luella black shirt for £4, with white polka dots, black rhinestone buttons and tiny bows and ruffles on the cuffs. It's a bit big for me but will look good tucked into something high waisted I hope, or just left open as a light alternative to a jacket this summer. Other treasures from my weekend haul include a black Moschino Couture pencil skirt and a rabbit fur and silk cardigan for £3 each at my local primary school's summer fete. Not bad.

Pain, pain and more pain

So the sales have started. I have had in my possession a card-holders preview voucher for the Liberty sale for over two weeks now. It sits in my wallet unused, staring at me forlornly as I fish around for the final 2p coin I need to add to the pile of shrapnel that is paying for my dinner.
In the past week, more that ten sales invites have popped into my inbox. They taunt me with their bright colours and pretty pictures. They talk to me. And they are mean. They say "har de har har, we've come to prod your financial bruises with the sharp stick of discounted fashion things that you have wanted for ages and could actually afford in the sales if you had been paid and weren't a financial failure." (What they lack in brevity they make up for in maliciousness.) 
And I haven't even begun to talk about the magazine and newspaper features about what to buy now to take you through autumn, or the best 20 dresses in the sales, or how to get the best sales bargain, or the myriad of other repetative and uninventive sales features that inevitably pop up both in print and online around now. I just can't. It's too painful.
On the plus side being poor has inspired a proper return to some of my more resourceful ways. I'm cooking more and taking packed lunches to work every single day, which is healthy. And even on my tiny budget I can still work on my never ending wardrobe evolution project.
I came back from the car boot sale with a brilliant pair of bright pink Topshop heels with a t-bar strap and a dove grey, buttery soft suede Nicole Farhi coat. On my way back, walking along the main road in Queen's Park with B, we spotted a piece of paper pinned on to a tree advertising a vintage sale in someone's hallway. Of course we had to go, and B, as is so often the way, knew the girl who was selling the clothes who allowed me to take away a black 1940's hat with the promise of paying her when I get paid. I have now given B an old display cabinet my mum was getting rid of and she will pay for the hat. I like this swapping of things, it feels useful.
I am also in the first stages of making a full skirt using some of the beautiful peachy-pink raw silk that I brought back from India and a 1950's pattern I bought off ebay aeons ago. I have cut all the pieces and retrieved my battered old sewing machine, a 16th birthday present, from my mum's house. Now I just need to draw the sewing guides onto the fabric (if I don't it will end up a very wonky skirt). But there are ten panels, a waistband and four tab pieces to do and I have hit a bit of a motivation wall. Hopefully this won't end up as just another project that ends up languishing in a corner reminding me that I never finish things...

Two exciting events

Well, they're exciting if you are me. The first takes place this weekend at the Kilburn car boot sale in north west London. I shall be getting up in the wee small hours of Saturday morning (my inner teenager is reminding me that I used to actually stay up til that time in the morning on a fairly regular basis), loading up my cousins car with enough clothes to fully furnsih two other people's wardrobes and then flogging it all off at bargain prices.
Please do come along. There will be cakes if you get there early, and alcohol if we get cold and bored.
Kilburn car boot is actually where I get most of the super-cheap second hand designer loveliness that I so often talk about on this blog, and there are an awful lot of bargains to be had if you don't mind a rummage. It opens to the general public at 11am, costs a measly 50p to get in, and is actually more like two car boot sales as it is split between two sites, one on Quex Road and one on Kilburn Park Road.
Among my goodies are a vintage camera, a full length pitch black satin strapless evening gown with tiny buttons up the back, dresses, hats, scarves, a LOT of jewellery and a basket full of fabrics and other craft and sewing bits and pieces. Mention you read my blog and I'll give you a hefty discount too.
The second exciting event is one I have told you about before, but the invitation has actually arrived now. Yes, it's the Margaret Howell sample sale. Be still my beating heart.

See that bit at the bottom where it says 'credit cards accepted'? That's the really dangerous bit. Or it would be if I was silly enough to allow myself a credit card.

Anyway, myself and Layers&Swathes will probably be there after we finish our respective jobs on the Thursday and will be grabbing a coffeee somewhere afterwards. Come and say hi and show us the practical-but-lovely things you've bought that we wanted but couldn't afford.

All change

I know we're only a few months in, but I have to say that 2010 has been resoundingly shit thus far. I don't usually swear, but here it seems appropriate.
Nearly everyone I know has had a tought three months - there have been family tragedies, collapsing finances, businesses in trouble, arguments and infections. Honestly, it's like the 90s all over again, and not just on the catwalk. In my family, the 90s was not a good period - messy parental separation and breakdown, the repercussions of which we are still dealing with, and the deaths of my much loved maternal grandparents who I still miss every day.
When life is a mess and at the beginning of every day you wake up scared of what might happen next, it's the little achievements that keep you going. A lovely dinner with JFK, deciding to get rid of lots of clutter and finding new homes for things you can't bear to sell to a stranger, getting rid of shoes you really don't wear anymore, meeting your work deadlines, getting through an evening without killing your mother. These are all things to feel pleased about.
And, inevitably, I find solace in fashion. The new injection of minimalism in fashion really does appeal right now. When your life is a mess, a few well cut, clean pieces can make you at least look like you're in control. It's also time to start wearing a little bit less black (que sharp intake of breath). When you're miserable, only wearing black doesn't help improve your mood.
To that end, recent aquisitions include a pair of men's Burberry trousers in a perfect pinky-sand hue, soft and worn and perfect for wearing low on the hips and rolled up to sit just above the ankle, rescued from a pile of mens trousers at the car boot sale; a soft, pale grey, long vest from Cos; nude coloured suede ankle boots with a chunky cone shaped crepe heel from the really-quite-good-this-season River Island; A khaki green Rag and Bone cardigan with elbow patches and pockets, another carboot sale find; the perfect, 'difficult' length, Celine-beige, high waisted A line skirt (50p. At the car boot sale again); sand coloured, high waisted, deep pocketed Ralph Lauren shorts (yes, car boot sale AGAIN).
I feel like I need to show you at least some of these, but having spilt tinned peach juice on my precious beloved laptop I no longer have the facilities to do so.

Pictures!

So, I have now got my camera, charged up the battery, turned it on and realised I don't really have a clue about taking pictures.
Also the lighting in our house is the kind of lighting that older women love - i.e. soft and quite low. Not conducive for taking good quality images of my new silver and black knitted jacket of amazingness. But anyway, here are some of the pictures I promised, and you can see all my rubbish experiments with various mirrors and lighting arrangements.
Um, actually apparently I have to install the camera software first...
Ok, maybe now it will work!

So, this is my teeny tiny doctors bag. I love it. It's like a really classy tardis - you would seriously be shocked at how small it is and how much I can fit into it. I have asked mum to model it so you can get some idea of the scale...

(Think that's project runway on in the background - love that Heidi Klum always gets it slightly wrong with her own outfits but sits in judgement on all these people...)

And here is the shiny, warm, soft, fluffy, £3 jacket of amazingness which is actually warmer than my coat... which is good because it's too chunky to fit under it even though the coat is technically about two sizes too big for me but is APC so I love it.

This was difficult to photograph well and doesn't really look like much but every time I have worn it people want to know where it's from or touch it or hug me.

So there you go. I know I still owe you a picture of the Jill Sander for Uniqlo coat, but frankly that is beyond me right now.

Bargain Hunt

It is rare that a week goes by Chez Magpie without a visit to a car boot sale, jumble sale, swap shop or charity shop. The vast majority of my wardrobe has been bought second hand in these places or on ebay - although ebay has been a bit rubbish and expensive lately.

Everything from Jasmine di Milo dresses and APC coats to vintage bags and belts can be found for less than bargain basement prices if you are persitant, although luck does have a large part to play.

So here, in a first in what promises to be a simply fascinating ongoing series, I am going to show off about my latest piece of uncovered treasure - a tiny vintage black leather doctors bag complete with brass clasps. Had to do a bit of work with some black shoe polish and wax on this one to restore it but couldn't rescue the nice long strap it originally came with. It is, however, the perfect size for a night out and fits the phone, notebook, pen, wallet, keys and makeup. As long as you don't mind rummaging around a bit to find them.

It cost more than I would usually spend on a bag from a car boot sale - five whole english pounds - but I had to have it.

Pics to follow - I am finally buying my camera tomorrow!

Car death

Got up super early this morning (well, for a saturday it was early) because I was going to drive the Boy to work but the car wouldn't start.

I hate this car. It's huge and navy with grey upholstery. And it's always falling apart. Currently, it has one of the front lights held on with brown tape and a radio arial that is stuck inside the car. And it won't start. And it has a front light held on with brown parcel tape. We call it the car of death because it's the first car i drove and there were a few close scrapes. Plus it kind of looks like something an undertaker would drive on his day off. It's the kind of car that businessmen in cheap suits drive on long motorway trips.

In my dreams I drive a dusky blue Nissan Figaro...

Now I'm waiting for the nice AA man and brooding over the fact that this means I will miss my planned car boot sale visit.

Car boot sales are one of my favourite things in the whole wide world. Seriously. I'm something of an obsessive.

Last week I found a deep green, dropped waist Marni dress, a beautifully simple, perfectly cut but sadly too small, black Prada cocktail dress and a seriously Sloaney brown plaid silk Dior skirt that's a little too big for me but will be altered on old faithful (the sewing machine I've had since I was 16). I spent a grand total of £6. Does it get any better than that?

Um actually, yes, the week before was a cream Future Ozbek jacket with an amazing shiny gauze overlay for 50p. Amazing!

This weekend was going to be a full-on car boot fest as I'm also putting together a space-themed fancy dress box for a charity launch night that a friend is holding. If AA man fixes the car and I do get to go will post any amazing finds here.