The black pleated skirt with cream jumper is an outfit I had kept in my photo album ‘Outfits still to do’. It was time for a blog post with a skirt again, so I forwarded the outfit wearing different boots to my photographer Marjolein and asked her opinion.
“You should wear your white cowboy boots with this”, she replied. I dismissed that suggestion with a “No, I don’t think so” but tried it anyway. And she was right (in my opinion). I liked what I saw in the mirror.

The leopard belt is second-hand from Etsy and adds interest to the outfit (again, in my opinion). For my bag I wanted something else than cream or black. It became the pale slate bag by Demellier, which I think is funky. Inspired two years ago by Susan (Une femme & Susan Blakey).

As I told you in a previous post, it was cold and nasty weather, so I chose the Passage (an old, covered shopping street in The Hague) to do the photo shoot. Alas, despite the glass roof, there was not enough light to get sharp photos but I bet you don’t really care.

We started at department store The Bijenkorf (below) as we wanted coffee and some warmth first. It is a magnificent building. This link tells you more about the building in Dutch (sorry), but there is an amusing video of the build in 1926.

Below: I downloaded this photo from Wikipedia, taken by Choinowski as it is such a gorgeous photo of the building.

Below: Why did we have cappuccino here and not in the Passage? Because Marjolein knew that the Bijenkorf had bears at their coffee place. That was no lie.

Below: Bear and I were going for a walk (kidding).

Below: We wandered through the department store and I took this photo of Marjolein. Her two-coloured shirt and her necklace are a great match. In reality her purple jumper is a deeper shade but if I wanted to show you her new jeans, I had to make the photo a bit lighter.

Below: Even a close-up doesn’t show the shimmer in the jeans. And they look brown in this photo while they are black.

Below: As we went upstairs with the escalator, we saw this Piet (Peet), who is ‘Saint Nicholas helper’, flying, wearing a golden mask. Rather weird as Piets don’t have wings and they don’t wear a golden mask. For me, this is a step too far.

Below: If you go up or down these beautiful stairs, you’ll pass this grand stained-glass.

Below: Time to hit the Passage and take some outfit photos. A chocolate shop with the warrant of Purveyor to the Royal Household had golden decorations. The drapery was mimicking the way I had my jumper tucked into the skirt. Or vice versa.

Below: We tried this restaurant for lunch because of the quirky trees but they only had burgers. Not our cup of tea. A quick photo, an apology and off we went.

Below: We headed towards another restaurant, called Du Passage and sat upstairs where the view was great.

The restaurant was a bit of a gamble as we didn’t think it was all that good, last time we ate here. This time it was really good. Perhaps a different chef?

Below: Fun photo. Marjolein is good in thinking up these things.

Below: After lunch, I wanted to photograph the coats as well. Especially because I was wearing an ancient but rather fabulous leopard scarf.

Below: Vague close-up. This coat is two inches shorter than my skirt. My new coat would have been long enough but that one is less warm. And warmth is what we needed. (I mean the long black coat in this post, also photographed in the Passage.)

Below: Marjolein with a purple coat. We didn’t know about each other, but we both wore a leopard scarf haha.

Below: Outside of the Passage we found this floral mural. Worth taking a picture of.

Then for the historic buildings. The Hague has many.

Below: The grand building of what used to be department store and very chic fashion house Maison de Bonneterie. The name is still on the building, but it’s now H&M. How times are a changing.

Below: Marjolein showed me that when you were standing at a certain point, you could see three towers.

Below: How about this candy box building? Pentagonal tower with a curved window a the bottom.

Below: Two more buildings with fantastic corners.

Below: After one last coffee in this British tea restaurant, we headed home. The restaurant looked nicer from the outside than the inside.

What happened in my life this week

Below: I ordered this jumper from Boden after being inspired by Nikki (Midlifechic), who showed it on her blog in ice blue. I thought it was really nice but hesitated as it doesn’t comply with my three wardrobe criteria, edgy, arty or modern. Unless it is modern.
Then husband Ron said he hated the jumper and I sent it back.

Below: Had coffee with Marita who showed me her wedding photos (as by my request). They were really good. She chose a fab photographer.
The photo below doesn’t do her trousers justice. They were made from the softest fabric, nice and warm.

Below: I wore this outfit to meet Marita. Link to the original post of 2024 with different boots and different earrings and bag. As in the original post, I was wearing a woollen skirt and thick tights underneath the silver skirt. Really warm outfit.

Below: Marcella came round for a chat and a coffee. Love her coat with that belt (her own styling). Her hair is blonde again and quite long.

Below: Been to the hairdresser this Friday; this is how I want my hair to look like. This is without the extra hairpiece. Only, as my hair is thin, it doesn’t look in the light from behind or when the wind blows.

For next week’s blog post, Marjolein and I visited the Iris van Herpen exhibition in the Kunsthal Rotterdam. How one small woman can produce so many incredible, intricate and technically challenging designs blew our mind. Prepare for an overload of photos next week.
Below a sample of what you can expect. If you don’t like this art form, I am afraid, you will have to skip it and go straight to the ‘What happened in my life this week‘.

Greetje