Ever decreasing circles

Whatever you do, don't say 'capsule'

You know that trick about how, in lieu of ironing, you can hang up your garments in the bathroom when you have a shower and the steam will do it for you? Well, it doesn’t work. I keep giving it one last shot, but it just doesn’t work.

It’s been hot in Manchester, too hot to iron as evidenced by the outfits below. The dramatic shift has forcibly shaken me out of a styling lull. It’s been nice to bring some lesser-worn pieces into rotation, but more interestingly it’s starting to feel like the ‘summer wardrobe’ isn’t an entirely different entity brought out of hibernation for high days and holidays. It’s just mostly clothes that I own and wear, peppered with a few more pairs of shorts and sheer options. Please see below.

The most significant new addition to the wardrobe is these Dansi woven leather Mary Jane flats. I bought them new, from the official website and at full price, which is pretty much my holy trinity of ‘nos’. They are, however, perfect. I hate my feet and tend to avoid sandals in the most part, so they sort of fill that gap. They are buttery soft and have received all sorts of unusual comments like ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before’ or ‘you look like you’ve come from medieval court’,

Extreme mum on holiday vibes here, which was the aim. The sandals are a miscellaneous brand from Vinted, as is the shirt. The trousers are current season M&S (heavily influenced by Deji Studios, I feel). Bag is an oldie. Not the woven flats here, that would be too prim - the sandals are correctly ugly.

Shirt and bag both from Vinted years ago, skirt fairly recent from Parfois, and has proven to be way more of a styling headache than I expected. Most footwear reads as too dainty or matronly. Now it’s warm enough to wear these slip on tabis (unbranded, via Vinted), a few more possibilities have opened up.

The outfit is the dress. It’s old Alexa Chung for M&S (old habits die hard). It's a miracle worker. ‘Dress it down by adding a shirt’ proving itself once again.

Variations on the above. Skirt and sandals old and vintage, the butter yellow being surprisingly wearable. The shirt is a new favourite brand - Hemi Blurr - via Vinted, and has a slight sheen and crinkle. Ideal.

I think the through-line in the above outfits is a lessening tolerance for complexity. That’s not to say that I find the idea of ‘the capsule wardrobe’ alluring - it’s deeply boring and flawed - but rather that pieces come together in a less contrived way, while there still being room for playfulness, unexpected combinations, and quite frankly ugly footwear. In short: it’s been too hot to fuss.

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I’ve got a couple of weddings coming up this summer, and so am trying to figure out what to wear, and I am running out of road. I’m trying to avoid the trap of purchasing a ‘wedding guest look’ - something too on the nose that doesn’t make sense in any other context. That said, the Kitri closing down sale of full of pretty, vaguely vintage-looking summery dresses that would fit the bill and be extremely fun to wear. Perhaps sometimes I don’t have to overcomplicate things? There’s a first time for everything. The alternative approach would be to somehow hunt down the Issey Miyake ‘Madame T’ Stole - essentially a very very expensive piece of fabric which you can wear in almost unlimited configurations. Which would be very much the definition of complicating things. More updates on this as I have them…