Bright red and pink mini bagThe world is on fire and talking about outfits seems trivial. On the other hand I want to provide some light entertainment for all the women keeping social contacts to a minimum. As I am housebound, I have nothing better to do than to create blog posts anyway.

The minute my friend Marjolein drew my attention to this bright red and pink mini bag, I was sold. Such eye candy, such a chocolate box bag….it immediately made me think of an outfit styled by another blogger, Eugenia. I loved her outfit and wanted to “recreate it” (nice way of saying copying). I had all the items besides a beautiful little red bag. And here was that missing piece. I did think about it, I did walk a few streets before I headed straight back and bought it. All sustainable conscious women are frowning now. I know, I cannot restrain myself.

Below: Let me show you Eugenia’s outfit. See how it is almost identical? More photos of it on her blog, Age of Grace. I love Eugenia’s style. She is sophisticated, modern, elegant with quirky details sometimes. Of course I owned up to her.

Eugenia of Age of Grace

Loes and I took the photos in the old town of Haarlem.

Below: Swirly skirt (from the Max Mara outlet in Turin). You saw it before with a white top and python print boots in this post. The jumper (sweater) is very old and still one of my favourites. The red belt is Max Mara and my mum’s birthday present last year. The ankle boots are the Essentiel Antwerp ones. The ones I could use with so many outfits but which are still difficult to wear because of their height.

Bright red and pink mini bag

Below: I do wear a slip underneath the skirt, just in case the swirly skirt does a “Marilyn Monroe act”.

Bright red and pink mini bag

Below: We tried to take shots showing the outfit and the bag properly. The neck of the jumper has widened on the hanger. I am laying it flat on a shelf now.

Bright red and pink mini bag

Below: We found a beautiful house with this old silversmith sign. The sign might be an old design, the silversmith and his phone number are current.

Haarlem

Below: I sat myself down on the bench in front of the house, absolutely unaware of the resident who was joking behind the window. I am going to show you several almost identical photos. Loes was killing herself laughing and pointed out what was going on above my head.

Bright red and pink mini bag

Bright red and pink mini bag

Bright red and pink mini bag

Bright red and pink mini bag

Bright red and pink mini bag

That was funny!!

Below: Loes photographed the street we were in. Such a shame that the house at the end of the street was being renovated and had scaffolding plus a hideous toilet box in front of the house.

Haarlem

Below: We encountered a woman with a cute dog. Loes in her yellow coat.

Loes

Below: Cute dog. He is smiling for the photo.

bulldog

Below: Note the striped cuffs of Loes’ jacket.

Loes

Below: Walking towards the restaurant for some warmth and coffee, we spotted this French bulldog standing in the window of the shop, being cute. He is a real dog, I saw him move.

pug

Below: Lovely coffee at one of my favourite restaurants: Meneer Frans. When we chose this lovely restaurant as background for my long green skirt in January 2019, they opened an hourly early to let us do “our thing”.

Loes

Below: This lady came into the restaurant, dressed so cleverly. By wearing a bright yellow top underneath a basic black outfit and adding the bright coloured scarf, she achieved a big impact. As I saw her passing, I thought she was striking. When I asked, she agreed to being photographed for my blog.

Lovely lady

Below: Her daughter wore these great earrings.

long orange earring

Below: Close-up of the sweet bag.

Bright red and bright pink mini bag

What happened in my life this week

Saturday: Loes and I did another photo shoot and had lunch. Another pleasant way of spending the day.

Sunday: bridal dress shopping with stepdaughter Nicky. That was fun. We all kept our distance and didn’t shake hands. Saying goodbye by blowing kisses from afar (more than 2 metres).

Monday: working from home, which I will be doing for the remaining two weeks until retirement. I have hardly any tasks anymore, so why go to the office and be among people? I have voluntarily confined myself in lock-down for 14 days. Cancelled all dates with friends, even my photo shoot with Kitty (help!!).

I read the interview with trend watcher Lidewij Edelkoort and I think she is right. She has been right many times before. Click on the title:

Coronavirus offers “a blank page for a new beginning” says Li Edelkoort

Tuesday: again, working from home. Received all kinds of jokes and videos in Whatsapp groups. Although the virus is very serious, I think it is important to keep on laughing when you can. Even in wartime they did that. The camaraderie is big. Creativity as well.
I put together an outfit from my wardrobe and even wore high heels. As Kitty isn’t going to do the shoot, I asked Ron to take photos of my outfit in our garden, like in 2012 when I started this blog. Although he swore never to photograph my outfits again, he complied. These are difficult times haha.

Wednesday: did a couple of grocery shopping, trying to be as careful as I could. Did the shopping by bike in order to get some exercise. Tuesday I was dressed to the nines, Wednesday I didn’t even shower. I just threw on some clothes which were lying around and didn’t even put any make-up on. If this is what retirement is going to be like, it would mean the end of my blog. I have to fight this.

Thursday: got properly dressed again and felt good. Our help came to clean the house but Ron has said she cannot come anymore because of the contamination hazard. Aaaagghh… I detest cleaning the house. To make matters worse: many hairdressers have closed shop. Mine hasn’t yet, but I bet by the time I have my appointment (April 5) they will have. But open or not, with all that blow drying going on, it isn’t wise to go, so I won’t. That will change the outfit photos quite a bit, dear readers. Never mind: these are such minor inconveniences compared to the misery others have…forget I said it.

Friday: started to read a thick book: ‘Most people are good‘. It is a Dutch book and it comes highly recommended. I needed some positivity as I thought more people are basically bad rather than good. Even at page 30 my spirits were lifted. By that time I already knew ‘Everybody (or nearly everybody) thinks people are bad and will behave badly in crisis situations. Solid research has proven the opposite’. Honestly, I am so glad I bought this book.

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

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