Battling cold weather in a skirt

Much like dresses, I consider skirts one of the most comfortable pieces of clothing a girl can wear. And if done right, one of the warmest too.
For this outfit I chose one of my personal winter staples: My black, wool-blend, high-waist, knee-length, bubble-hem skirt I made out of a 6 euro Bershka dress almost two years ago. I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but elastic waists rule! That skirt is so versatile and comfortable, it's a miracle I don't wear it 7 days a week.

This time I added a grey V-neck cotton sweater (cotton means no itchiness) and my extra-long green wool cardigan (yes, the same one I have in purple-red as well).

And two scarves.

You've probably seen me doing the double scarf thing before in this blog, but in this case it's more out of necessity than looks. I needed one scarf to cover up my shoulders and chest and one other to create some sort of a solid barrier around my neck. Something I can stick half of my head into when the cold wind gets too sharp for my liking, if you know what I mean. If you don't, just scroll back to the first picture of this post.

Another tip coming up here... As I mentioned, my cardi is really long. Which is a good thing, as the longer it is, the more fabric to keep me warm. However, that also means it keeps peeping out from underneath my coat's hem. Not good, but easy to correct. I simply button it up and make it sit on my hips. No peeking allowed!

And speaking of a coat, it was the turn of my favourite green Attrattivo coat to make an appearance.

Warm as toast!

Black bubble skirt, made from a BERSHKA dress. Grey V-neck sweater, BERSHKA. Green cardigan, MANGO. Black jersey scarf, ZARA. Black and grey print scarf, ZARA MAN. Greyish brown leather boots, ZARA. Green coat, ATTRATTIVO.

I saved (a) Luella (bag)

Never mind the details, yesterday I found myself inside a designer outlet somewhere in Athens. I saw the Luella Peony Oversized Clutch, stroked its supple napa leather and tickled the double heart charm. We fell in love on the spot, it was on sale (actually cheaper than on luella.com), I bought it and we lived happily ever after.

The end.

Battling cold weather in a dress

But not just any dress...

The basis of my favourite warm-yet-stylish cold weather outfit, is the knit dress.

Criticized by many for being too body-conscious, the reality is that if you find the perfect one for your figure, the knit dress can be really flattering. I personally swear by this A-line one by Zara. I actually own it in camel and in grey as well and they all get tons of wear every time the weather gets nasty.

But sometimes even a knit dress isn't enough. Sometimes, I just want to layer like crazy to make sure I don't freeze! This was one of those times...

I actually added two extra layers of knits: A V-neck sweater and a long cardigan, made of pure wool. This makes my dress look more like a skirt, but who cares? It's cooooold here people!

I kept my outfit from getting too bulky by making sure all three of my layers are quite thin. The objective is to be wrapped up nice and snug, but still be able to move.

To cover up my neck and shoulders - and to accessorize of course - I topped my knits with a grey pashmina and my passe-par-tout bead necklace.

And after all those layers, a trench coat is more than enough. Doesn't add any more bulk and is always more preferable in wet weather, not to mention that cream is always a better choice than black for your overcoat, when your job involves places full of drywall dust.

Good to go!

Black knit dress, ZARA. Teal sweater, BERSHKA. Purple red wool cardigan, Mango. Grey pashmina, bought from a bazaar in Turkey. Cream trench coat, ZARA. Bead necklace, H&M. Brown leather bag with studs, ZARA. Greyish brown leather boots (new), ZARA.

Hearts and dots, and some stripes too

Who am I kidding? I don't want winter to end just yet. Not before I get a chance to wear all my favourite leg wear, that is! My sock drawer is my colourful treasury.

Socks and tights by H&M, Oysho and Topshop.

Summer come soon. Please?

My order from Ruche is finally here!

Pink Studio "Thora" peep toes in olive $57.99


light linen pocket dress $34.99 down from $44.99


fruity pebble flower beaded ring $20.00

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I placed this order sometime during the holidays, waited anxiously for the days to pass and when the parcel notification finally arrived, guess what? I had it lying around for more than a week, unable to find time to collect it from the post office. Bummer, I tell you. Good thing for me, sister came to the rescue and offered to help...

I know all the stuff I got are way too summery, but I couldn't risk missing out on them.

Especially the Pink Studio shoes...

This was love at first sight people!

It was also my first time ordering shoes from a brand I've never tried on before. Sure, I have ordered Chie Mihara and Camper shoes online before, but I already knew what size I take there, so there was no nail-biting involved. But in this case, I was actually too scared to try them on when I first opened the box. Turns out, I shouldn't be. They fit like a glove, and on top of that, they are super comfy too! I usually wear european size 38 or 39, and for those I ordered an american size 8, which couldn't be more perfect.

Shipping from the USA to Greece was $25, which is almost double the $13 shipping fee I paid on my order from Nasty Gal, but again remember this parcel contained shoes - definitely bulkier and heavier - so I consider it fair enough. Overall, I am very pleased by the quality (the shoes are real leather), the selection of styles and the prices over at Ruche and I totally recommend it.

The only bummer is that it's still January... No sandal-and-sun-dress-wearing for me just yet.

Oh summer, please come sooner this year!

PS: I thought it would be useful to mention that Ruche is offering a 10% discount through The Clothes Horse till the end of January. Read Rebecca's post to take advantage of it. Who knows, it might come in handy!

[all pics in this post from shopruche.com]

Today

If you haven't ever been to a Larry Gus gig, you are seriously missing something from your life. Plus, two more of my dear friends will be performing, namely Yorgos MC along with Larry, and Lee Turtle doing the VJing.

Today at BIOS. Come.

Larry Gus by RTMone tee

[modeled by Larry Gus]

I will be wearing mine tomorrow @ BIOS. More info coming.

Skeletons you won't mind having in your closet

A.Y. Not Dead Skeleton Tee Dress
€61.62 NOW €30.81


Richard Sorger For ASOS Flamingo Skeleton
€147.89 NOW €82.57


Richard Sorger For ASOS Skeleton Arm T-Shirt
€117.08 NOW €65.32


Richard Sorger For ASOS Jersey Shirt Dress With Gibbon Skeleton
€172.53 NOW €86.27

Oh, the ASOS sale! Are skeleton tees the evolution of the - totally overdone - skull scarf? Who cares, right? They are gorgeous!

I'm still standing strong though. Just looking, not shopping, at least on-line... I do have one order from Ruche, placed before the holidays, still waiting for me to collect it from the post office, but that's it!

How are you holding on?

Weardrobe 100 missing one?

Talk about inspiration... I'm happy to see many of my favourite fashion/style bloggers have been included in fashion social network weardrobe's 100 best of 2009 list, namely

The Clothes Horse
Style Bubble
Fashion Toast
Le Blog de Betty
The Cherry Blossom Girl
Karla's Closet
Le monde de Tokyobanhbao
Sally Jane Vintage
Hot Chocolate and Mint
Lulu and your mom
Fashion Chalet
Style Rookie (her link on the list doesn't work)
Liebemarlen Vintage
Song of Style
Hanneli
Fashion Fillers
Childhood Flames
It's her factory
Fashion Squad


The about reads:

We at weardrobe have been truly inspired by the creative and amazing styles of fashion blogger in the community. So much so that we decided to create the weardrobe 100 - the best of 2009 street style from the top fashion blogs online. What you see here is a compilation of the top 100 personal style shots of the year from all over the web. Each photo was selected to represent each fashion blogger's unique style. From London to Stockholm, Brooklyn to San Francisco, we'd all better keep an eye on these girls in 2010.

My big question however is this:
Where the f@ck is Queen Michelle?

After all, Kingdom of Style is a personal style blog bursting with high-quality outfit pictures like the one above, has had a huge following for years now and was ranked #37 on the last Signature 9 99 Most Influential Fashion & Beauty Blogs list, where it was competing along with many professional, non-personal-style blogs, like street style photography heavyweights The Sartorialist and Garance Doré, fashion portals like FabSugar and fashion news pros like The Cut and Fashionologie. Unless Queen Michelle herself was the one who asked not to be included, I find that quite unacceptable.

Other than that, I find the whole project beautifully executed and immensely inspirational. In fact, I hope they soon get a book deal, cause I'd love to have it in print!

see all the pics at weardrobe 100

UPDATE: I contacted Her Majesty through e-mail and she was kind enough to answer back stating that she wasn't aware of that list. That means no opt-out from her side.
I say, their loss!

Realisation

As much as I hate to admit it, my natural habitat is the Zara fitting room.

A realisation I came upon and tweeted earlier today, from inside that fitting room. Purchased goodies photos to come after the weekend.

Hang in there little skirt

Oh, the mysteries of the universe. For example, why do all major clothes manufacturers - H&M, Zara and Topshop to name a few - insist on adding ribbons to their t-shirts for us to hang them by?

Hello? We have shoulders for that.

I'm sure lots of you fine people out there soon get fed up of constantly tucking away those little annoying bastards that insist on peeking out of your clothes and reach for the scissors to chop them off. Right? Cause that's what I do. And then, of course, you can't bear to throw away the ribbons, as (read in Valley girlish) they're like soooo cuuuuuuute. And then you end up with a bunch of cuuuuuuute ribbons (if you don't feel the need to use the letter U seven times, there's not enough cuteness) just waiting for you to transform them into some amazing DIY project you haven't exactly conceived yet.

Yeah, been there, done that.

Listen sistah, it just ain't happening.

On the other hand, we have the curious case of the ribbonless skirt. According to my totally scientific research, 93,7% of skirts don't come with ribbons on the sides for us to hang them from.

Can you guess where I'm getting to?

So, tonight is the night I will address this injustice. I officially declare this the sewing-the-hang-ribbons-cut-from-my-t-shirts-onto-my-skirts night. Let the sewing begin.

Quite the start for 2010

satin dress by H&M


grey leather studded purse by Zara


lipstick by Clinique in Parisian Red


gold ring by Topshop and sparkly bow ring by Accessorize


In all, last night's outfit components.

This time, I decided not to do any resolutions. Like I said last year, I believe that if you really want something to happen, you shouldn't have to write it down. So there.

Happy new year!