kingofdesigns

kingofdesigns

Thrift My Style Inspiration for Summer Boho Tunic Blouses

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend! The weather has been really nice and sunny and I've been able to wear a recent thrift find that I know is going to be a firm favourite this summer- a boho tunic blouse. I was fortunate to find it at the beginning of the week and was hoping I would be able to wear it this weekend. I've been drawn to this style of top as it's not only stylish, but having different colours in it makes it so versatile for wearing day or night. Here are my Net-A-Porter picks which gave me real thrift inspiration whilst hunting down my perfect blouse:

Matthew Williamson £346

Kate Moss for Topshop £60

Etro £555

Diane Von Furstenberg Bryn £240

Diane Von Furstenberg Syrah £144

Diane Von Furstenberg Jana £203

As you can see, my newly thrifted blouse is heavily influenced by the Diane Von Furstenberg styles, so when I found my Monsoon patterned chiffon tunic blouse in a neighbouring towns Sense Charity shop for £6, I eagerly snapped it up! I wanted a chiffon style so it would be lovely and cool in the hot weather: 

 

I really love Monsoon pieces, I thrifted a patchwork print tunic top a couple of months ago and because of the mix of colours which are predominantly peach, blue and brown, it also goes with a lot in my existing wardrobe. I did a spot of denim diy last week on my Gap slim boyfriend jeans and turned them into cut offs, so I now have a couple in rotation.

What style of top or blouse are you favouring for summer? Last week whilst in Primark I bought a bright pink and a ribbed grey vest, both £2 each which are also proving their worth to my existing wardrobe- you can never have too many of these!

Thanks as always for your lovely comments and reading, as always it's much appreciated and I'll be trying my best to visit you as soon as I can- wishing you a lovely weekend, whatever you are upto!!

ThriftMyStyle for Patterned Floral Cropped Jackets this Summer

Hi everyone! How was your weekend? From heatwave Friday, it was sullen Saturday and Sunday and miserable Monday- no sun on the horizon so it's definitely back to jackets and summer scarves for the forseeable future I think!

On a thrifting trip a few weeks ago I came across a style of jacket that I really didn't think was me, but it intrigued me enough to try it on. Summer jackets in floral designs aren't my 'go to' style of jacket, but having seen what's out there, they are definitely growing on me as a style alternative to a denim, camo, quilted or kimono jacket. Here are my favourite picks of what's available at the moment, both on the High Street and designer:

Dolce & Gabbana £1860 at Net-A-Porter

Biyan, £1755 at Net-A-Porter

ASOS, £50

Jonathan Saunders, £690 at Net-A-Porter

ASOS, £55

So here is my thrifted alternative that I found at my local PDSA charity shop for £6.99. It's by River Island and is a linen cotton mix and feels much like denim. I was drawn to it as I thought it would be ideal to pair with blue, white, black or coloured denim this summer and I really liked the cropped style to it, both in the arms and the length:

It does have a slight boho vibe to it and I've already worn it a couple of times. It is one of the items that had zero hanger appeal to me but once on actually is much preferable! It goes great with skinny jeans and denim skirts and it's definitely a style of jacket that's grown on me and I'm now happy to have!

What style of jacket is on your Summer style list? Are you after something patterned or floral or are plain light colours more your style, I'd love to know!

Have a great week to you all and thanks so much to you all for your continued support and reading!

Thrift Inspiration....Doing it Net-A-Porter Style in Thrifted Gap Dresses

Hi everyone!! I hope you are all well and having a lovely weekend! My week has been filled with working, general housework and being around for my youngest who is currently sitting some of his GCES and end of year exams. He has been working extremely hard and with the World Cup on the horizon this is a much welcome distraction for enjoying his downtime! 

My blogging reading and posting has been very sporadic due to a major life change imminently on the horizon which of course is taking top priority at the moment. I do try my best to read your blogs even if I'm not leaving comments and to try and get my own life back into a normal routine I am hoping that I'll eventually be able to start blog posting and thrifting more regularly too, so do please bear with me!!

Anyhow, back to all things style and this post has been in the making for a couple of months as both items that I've thrifted were found this Spring season. Like everyone else I love Summer style and each year I always eagerly look out for dresses as my main outfits of choice. Being such an avid jeans lover for the other three seasons means I'll favour either a vintage or modern, designer or high street dress that over the years has tended to follow one main theme- floral or patterned.

When the trends for Summer were being shown in winter, one particular item caught my interest which was the denim/chambray summer dress. I already have a chambray denim maxi dress thrifted from last year but as the new year came in I really wanted to find 'the' denim dress. 

Inspiration wise there are so many fabulous chambray and denim dresses around for Summer, not just in a variety of different washes ranging from bleached to indigo, but styles range from shift to belted to cowboy to corset. Here are my favourite that I've picked from Net-A-Porter if money were no object and are pretty indicative of the styles that I like to thrift too:

ACNE Studios, £400

Sea, £340

Current/Elliott, £280

See by Chloe, £240

R13, £430

Theyskens' Theory, £320

So here are the dresses I found which I've already started wearing and are proving to be well worth the buy!! This first one is a very light blue chambray linen blend thrifted Gap shift style dress which is actually even lighter in colour than the photo suggests and was from the Sense charity shop for £3.40:

I first wore it for my lovely blogger meet with Michelle a few weeks back and funnily enough whilst we were eating lunch I managed to drip garlic butter on it-oh noo!! Thankfully a dose of fairy liquid and vanish got rid of the big blob in question and now laundered and pressed is ready for action again!!

This next purchase was from the boot sale back in March or April and is a dark indigo western style denim dress by Gap and was only £2:

It's quite a slim fitting dress and comes just above the knees, but again is a perfect summer day dress and with both dresses coming in at just over a fiver they are my perfect denim style investment pieces this summer!

Did you indulge in a chambray or denim dress for this coming season? I'd love to know what style of summer dress you are currently favouring, be it plain or patterned, floral or stripes, shift or fitted, do share!!

Thank you as usual for stopping by with your wonderful comments, opinions and observations- they are so welcomed and appreciated and I do look forward to catching up with you even if it's later rather than sooner!

Wishing you all a great week ahead and enjoy the sunshine if you're lucky to have it with you at the moment!!

The One That Nearly Got Away....Reviewing potential Ebay sales

Hi everyone! I hope you've all been having a lovely weekend- the weather has been so temperamental and the mini summer heatwave from last week is beginning to feel like a distant memory!!

Like many fellow bloggers I do every now and then review my wardrobe as to what is in, what is out, what goes to the charity shop and what can be sold on ebay. I think with the hot weather coming early on in the season, I have been concentrating on sorting out my summer wardrobe and filling it with thrifted pieces such as dresses, shorts and shirts and also summer inspired patterned jackets.

I've been purging things that aren't me and that I appear to have more than one of too. Recent sales on ebay have included a rain jacket and trenchcoat- however much I feel I want a trenchcoat in my wardrobe it's the one item over the years that I don't feel is me and therefore doesn't get worn. Another jacket that was put on the sales list was this River Island melton wool cream biker jacket which I had bought about this time last year but upto last week had not worn! So a couple of weeks ago it got listed on ebay but with the weather turning wet and windy and with a slight chill in the air, I tried it on to see whether I wanted to still keep it or not:

I found that after wearing it for a trip into town it proved to be the perfect cover up as it's so light to wear but the wool content gives some warmth. I paired it with my thrifted Reiss bleached skinny jeans which are from my local Sue Ryder charity shop and were £2 and the recently bought thrifted espadrille canvas slides:

I'm not really sure if the pleather/leather sleeve look is still 'on trend' or not, but the jacket when paired with simple basics such as a plain black tee and jeans is a perfect mid season style staple for my wardrobe so it was taken off ebay and put back into the wardrobe!

Do you review clothes that you spontaneously edit from your wardrobe before they reach the charity shop or a new buyers shopping basket on ebay? I definitely can be too eager to get rid of some things as I donated a tee which although I'd rejected as a working day item would have been perfectly adequate as a lounging piece with leggings-c'est la vie!!

Wishing you all a really great week ahead whatever you get upto!!

My Weekend with Michelle of MyFashionable40s and a Thrifty Sunday!!

Hi everyone!! I hope you've all been having a great week, the time seems to be flying by and I'm so behind with catching up with my favourite blogs! I hope to remedy this over the next couple of days as I'm not working so should have time to make overdue visits to you all!!

This weekend was an absolute scorcher weatherwise and for me a really fabulous one too as I finally got to meet a wonderful blogger friend- Michelle from MyFashionable40s. We've been in contact with each other for a while and our day on Saturday has been a few months in the waiting and we met at Paddington station and immediately went into the nearest bar for a glass of prosecco and an eagerly awaited chat!! Fast forward nearly two hours later we decided to jump on the tube to Kensington for shopping and firstly lunch at Cafe Rouge. We started off sharing some pain a l'ail, which is rustic bread served with garlic butter and we were very good for our mains as we both had Paysanne salades, which was a chicken salad with bacon, egg, avocado, tomatoes, french beans and parmesan, soo delicious!! I had martini and lemonade and Michelle had prosecco to accompany our meal and after we were delightfully replenished we decided we had to check out the shops along Kensington High Street. Sadly, we both pretty underwhelmed by H&M, Uniqlo, Zara and Topshop- not for the want of looking, we just didn't really see anything that got us swooning. Just as we were about to leave Topshop, I did spy these slides and for £22, I did indulge as they will be very handy for Summer:

We then decamped to the nearest pub for some much needed liquid refreshment and sadly had to make a move so Michelle wouldn't miss her 8:30 train back home. As I had known I was seeing Michelle for a couple of months it gave me a chance to put together a goody bag of thrifted bits and pieces for her that I'd seen over the last few months. I was over the moon when she sent me these pictures of her looking fabulous in this Celia Birtwell for Uniqlo dress I'd found for her:

Plus these gold Gizeh Birkies which she manged to wear whilst out and about this week!

It was testament to what an awesome day we had as we were both as bad as each other in that we never got any obligatory blogger shots of us together, our outfits or our meal, hehe!! It was too much chatting, laughing and enjoying the day which was top priority and Michelle is such a wonderful kind lady who is now a very lovely and good friend indeed and we've already made plans for future visits this year- I so cannot wait to see her again!!

So after having a fabulous Saturday I was up and out early on a gloriously hot Sunday to the local booty, where I did quite well on the thrifting front. I'm into black for Summer and I found this perfect little black wraparound Broderie Anglaise sleeveless shirt by Ralph Lauren for just £2:

I also found a pair of black linen shorts for £1.50 which I'm so pleased with as I currently had only 2 pairs of shorts in my wardrobe- a pair of 7 For All Mankind denim cut offs and my Liberty print floral shorts:

After the boot sale I went into town for a much needed iced fruit smoothie and sit down in Costa Coffee and walking on route to the park I found these gorgeous Monsoon Fusion floaty bird print chiffon shorts for just £5.99 in the local Barnados charity shop:

I then went onto my local park and spent a couple of hours chilling out under a shady tree, watching the cricket and relaxing- a great way to spend a hot sunny afternoon!!

I had such a wonderful weekend and it was made all the more special for meeting up with such a lovely lady-thanks Michelle for a great day and a firm friendship-look forward to seeing you very soon my lovely!!

I hope you all have a good long weekend to come-it's a Bank Holiday here in the UK so fingers crossed we get a weekend weatherwise like last week! 

Thanks as always to you all for stopping by and catching up with reading my posts, it is very much appreciated and I look forward to visiting you all as soon as I can!! xx

Thrift Inspiration.....The Boho Hippy Ethnic Style Summer Jacket!!

Hi everyone!! Hurrah, the 'heatwave' is officially here- two days on the trot I've been in short sleeves and not needed a jacket, which is quite ironic considering my post is about them!!

I noticed in my wardrobe that I've plenty of blazers, winter coats and jackets and denim jackets. Upto last week I actually owned just two printed jackets which is my Camo Pepe jacket and my floral River Island jacket which are both for Spring and Summer. The River Island jacket is more of a bolero shape so although I love the pattern and colour, it's not been quite long enough for what I've been after. So cue Pinterest again, to give me an idea of the sort of jacket I would like to add to my wardrobe. I knew I wanted it to be patterned and to include some red or pinks in it.

Here is what I was inspired by:

My first find was on ebay and is actually the pink version of this Jaeger jacket that I found at a vintage fair about three years ago for my birthday present. I subsequently went and sold it on again so I was really pleased to find it's coloured sister!

The styling is very much an Ethnic Ikat pattern and is also 100% wool even though it feels like quilted cotton and it's also lined. It has some minor damage which requires attention, but after selling a jacket on ebay this one has stood me in at £2.33, so any professional repair and cleaning won't add much to the overall cost!

Then earlier this week on a thrifting trip in a neighbouring town I found this gorgeous washed silk, reversible Ethnic jacket by Neeru Kumar:

Neeru Kumar is a renowned Indian fashion and textiles designer and has been in the business for three decades and her clients include Selfridges, V&A Museum, British Museum and Zara Home Spain. She has also had her work featured in Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire. A similar silk jacket in the traditional Kantha work retails at $445 and uses patches of different vintage fabric sewn together, much like the processes of my one above. It's fully reversible and the other side is all red as shown in the cuffs and edging- a real boho authentic Ethnic bargain from the Sense charity shop for only £4!!

So my summer jackets are all sorted for now and when the gorgeous hot weather does cool down- not soon though please- then I'll be wearing these with a little cami vest top and jeans as my go to daily outfit.

What type of jacket is on your Summer wishlist for those cooler days? So many styles are in trend at the moment, from denim to floral bombers to boho chic to monochrome blazers, there's plenty to choose from whatever your own style and budget!

Wishing you all a really lovely weekend whatever you are up to and thanks once again for all your kind and lovely comments and for reading too!! xx

Thrift Inspiration............Blue and White Checks and Stripes for Summer

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a great weekend, what with the freaky windy and rainy weather I haven't been up to a lot over the weekend- a lot of rest and relaxation, watching films, listening to music and indulging in my favourite pastime, pinterest. I've updated my cover boards and added more pins with my current summer inspirations, blue and white- in particular checks and stripes:

 

I'm wearing an All Saints shirt which is a thrift find from the St Francis Hospice and was only £2- this is my first time of wearing it and I've paired it with my black French Connection capri pants and black espadrilles:

I haven't worn the shirt 'blogger style' aka 'the half or full tuck', I'll check out this look another time!

I've been after a blue and white stripe shirt for ages now- I actually saw one at the boot sale a few weeks ago and should really have bought it, I don't why I didn't! Anyhow, I found a perfect one on Saturday which I'm hoping to get into an outfit very soon and these stylings have very much influenced how I may wear it. I don't own any white skinny jeans, so I'll substitute black or blue instead:

images: via pinterest and google

I think blue and white stripes are very chic and a smart or mens one can easily be dressed down with jeans and a blazer or black shorts, it's definitely a look I can't wait to start wearing regularly this season.

Are you hunting down anything in particular for this coming Summer? Black for Summer is also on my style radar and I'm keen to thrift some perfect cotton pieces, I'll keep you posted with any future finds!!

Wishing you all a great week ahead, here's hoping this heatwave we've been hearing so much about actually starts to materialise!

ThriftMyStyle Pictures and Outfits for April

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a great week, sorry for infrequent and sporadic posts, life has been rather hectic and busy and what with work in the mix too blogging has been rather on the back burner.

However I thought I would share some pictures with you from April, starting with a clothes swap event I attended a couple of weeks ago at the East London Fashion Exchange 

Event organisers Elisa and Krissie were on hand to oversee designer, vintage and high street goodies were immediately displayed for instant swapping and whilst I was there a good few ladies came with items to swap, so the rails were constantly being refreshed 

My bargains of the day were a Miss Selfridge floral summer skirt, perfect for pairing with a little vest top and denim waistcoat or jacket for the coming season; I also snaffled this gorgeous tan leather vintage handbag which the lady behind me in the queue had in her items for swapping, I eyed it immediately and couldn't wait to nab it! I've still got a good few stamps left for my next visit at the end of May which I cleverly realised meant I don't have to lug any more clothes next time to get swapping with! 

After leaving the event I had to check out the local charity shop and was so pleased I did, as I found this cute dark apricot broderie anglaise trimmed summer dress by Whistles for just £4.50; up close for a mix of black embroidery and denim, my outfit of the day

Wearing H&M denim waistcoat, thrifted at the boot sale last year; cream tunic with black embroidery from the Salvation Army chairty shop bought a few days before the clothes swap for £2.50; black French Connection capri trousers from my local Sue Ryder charity shop bought about 3 weeks ago for £3 and my trusted orange Birkies. Outfit number two is another charity shop find from March and is an authentic Austrian linen smock blouse for £1 from the St Francis Hospice charity shop, worn with thrifted Gap slim boyfriend jeans found last Autumn from the Salvation Army, £2.99- photobombed by the eldest boy!!

A boot sale find from the beginning of April was this moss crepe Celia Birtwell style print vintage 70s dress for just £1- unlabelled but a fine piece of vintage which fits perfectly for Summer

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend ahead, I hope the weather takes a turn for the better and this long awaited heatwave we've been promised starts to materialise.

I also just want to thank all of you for your continued reading and comments on my blog, I really look forward to your thoughts and opinions and I'll be trying my best to come visit you back as soon as I can xx