lime shirt with black and white detailsFrom my own wardrobe came this lime shirt. Worn quite a few times but every time in a slightly different way, making the most of it. Usually I just run to the shops and buy new things. Nowadays the subject ‘sustainable’ keeps nagging my brain and of course I know that overconsuming is not helping. OK, I use the clothes for a long time and I give my old clothes to friends and friends of friends, so no landfill here but still…

Which is why I asked my friend and blogger Misja to come and give me some styling lessons. As she has written, photographed and published a book about styling (Oog voor Stijl, in Dutch only), she is clearly further advanced than I am. She knows how to do colour blocking well and I love the way she adds interest to her outfits with simple things like polka dot socks, a brooch, a belt, a scarf. As we know each other a couple of years now, I dared asking her to give me tips, to teach me a thing or two. Sure enough, she rang my doorbell last Monday morning.

Below: Misja arrived all colourful with an interesting belt around her top, hair beautifully done after a visit to the hairdresser.

MisjaB

We went through a lot of my outfits on my blog. In the top navigation is a button called “Outfit Gallery”, documenting most of my outfits, making it easy to pick the outfits I had doubts about and ask questions. In the beginning Misja apologized a couple of times for being honest as she was afraid of hurting my feelings. I assured her it takes a hell of a lot more than that to hurt my feeling. Besides, I asked for her opinion, what good would it do me if I had to guess what she meant. We continued the old-fashioned Dutch way: say it as you see it.

The outfit of this post was one that she put together. I bought the shirt in 2014 (worn with white trousers) and I had done a similar outfit with black leather trousers in winter. To sum up Misja’s pointers: wear it with those 7/8 black trousers, black sneakers, put a polka dot scarf around your waist and carry a bag in a different colour. Those were the tips I was after, hence this outfit.

Loes was the photographer of this lime shirt and Koningshof in Haarlem was to serve as background.

Below: This was my reference…wow, what an estate.

Koningshof

Koningshof

Below: It totally slipped my mind that a family is actually living in this estate. So this is as near as we got to it. The family opened the park for the public but of course they wanted privacy for themselves as well.

Koningshof

Below: Which meant that the green trees were our only background.

lime shirt with black and white details

The sun was shining far too brightly for amateur photographers like us. We took a lot of blurry face photos and couldn’t work out why. Loes is a very patient and optimistic person. Her remedy is: “I will just take a lot of shots; there is bound to be one good one among them”. An excellent approach haha.

Below: This photo from the side shows all the places on the shirt where there are black and white stripes.

Lime shirt with black and white details

Below: Loes took another side shot but in this photo my collar had flopped down. Even though the seamstress reinforced the collar, it didn’t help.

lime shirt with black and white details

Below: I like the collar turned up all the time, so the black and white stripes show. Alas, still too floppy.

lime shirt with black and white details

Below: Floppy collar but at least in this photo I am sharp and the background blurry instead of the other way around haha.

Lime shirt with black and white details

Below: We found another spot where I could sit on a stump and suddenly the camera decided to cooperate.

lime shirt with black and white details

Below: Then I felt the tree stump underneath me becoming very soggy…Panic. Fortunately nothing bad happened.

lime shirt with black and white details

Below: Loes in a dress of a beautiful blue colour. Brings out her eyes.

Loes in a blue dress

Below: Her fun earrings.

Earrings Loes

Below: The details. Lime shirt: Diane von Fürstenberg, scarf/belt: La Dress, black trousers: Marella, sneakers: Essentiel Antwerp and fuchsia bucket bag: Picard. All items are in my wardrobe for years.

Black and white bracelet Little Mole Boutique. Sadly the owner is closing down her online boutique and therefore she is offering heavy reductions on her jewellery.

lime shirt with black and white details

Below: Close-up of the Essentiel Antwerp sneakers. One of my best purchases.

Black sneakers

What happened in my life this week

What a nice week this has been. In the sense that the weather was really lovely, sometimes even hot.

Below: The day I was at the beach it was sunny but not very hot and the wind literally sanded us. Dog Watson loved it, chasing the birds. The ‘birds’ in the air behind me are kites from kite surfers.
The jacket is by Ralph Lauren and I found it in that lovely second-hand shop I went to in Leiden, called Lionheart Vintage Boutique.

Beach visit getting sanded

Our friends Maurits and Marcel joined us at the beach with their puppy dog. We had the usual coffee and lunch and lots of chats. Always so nice to see them.

Below: Even wore high heels in the weekend (only for a short time). (Link to original post.)

Orange suit LaSalle

As I said above, Misja came round on Monday to give me styling tips. I cannot show you all the photos I made as that would be giving away all the outfits I am going to post in the near future.

Below: I wore this dress and Misja added two more necklaces. Why not? Pile it up.

Blue and pink striped dress with three necklaces

One morning I had met Kitty for coffee, this time without her taking photos. I wanted some friends-time with her and not only photographing time. Below: Wore this (link to original post.)

Blue and white striped trousers and yellow top

That day I had a splitting headache, migraine even and it lingered and lingered. And I thought the headaches stopped with my retirement. Fortunately it was totally gone the next day. Strange.

Ron came home with a story…: he was at the seashore in his swimming trunks and asked a couple of older ladies, while pointing at the sea: “Is this the way to England?” They were baffled with that question. He then jumped into the sea together with his dog Watson and stayed under water for about 30 seconds, emerged again and said: “Come on Watson, we have to turn back. I forgot my lunchbox.” The ladies were too surprised to see the humour haha.

Another combination I have been wearing this week: boyfriend jeans with Kenzo top and yellow suede slingbacks.

boyfriend jeans with Kenzo top

Then on one of my cycling tours I spotted these two murals. Neat.

Mural

Mural

Tried Hatha yoga on Friday instead of the Mindfulness yoga on Wednesday and I prefer Hatha. My knee didn’t hurt the day after so that is good news. I am careful and cannot participate with every exercise but for someone my age and never having done yoga, I was quite pleased. It is going to take me a few years before I can really do the difficult positions but the road to it is fun.

Wore this dress and cycled in it. Not a good idea. AT ALL.

Dress on Friday

I bought a white summer dress at the beginning of the year thinking it was perfect. Then when I started to wear it, I didn’t like it anymore. Very strange but the feeling did not go away. A friend is very happy with it now.

We wrapped up the week by eating paella at Georg and Marla. There is a very good shop in Haarlem, called Spanish Harlem which sells all sorts of Spanish food. I picked it up and Marla shoved it in the oven to warm. Very fresh and very easy.

Have a nice week.

Greetje

No Fear of Fashion

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