LEATHER AND LINES

Two of my favourite trends all year round – but especially in the cooler months – have to be Leather (or pleather, ain’t nobody got time money for that all year round) and monochrome stripes. Not only are they complete must haves on their own, but they also manage to level each other out and create just the right amount of smart and casual.

I often struggle to dress for smart/casual occasions, so when the other half’s birthday came round much quicker than I’d ever expected, I knew that this mix of trends was the kinda thing I was going to reach for.

Enter the leather pleather skirt and monochrome striped shirt.

This skirt, I have worn – and will continue to wear – umpteen times. The pleather material means it’s much stretchier than the leather counterpart would be (let’s go with that as the reason that I purchased it and not the fact that I’m a massive tight arse budget girl) and really very comfortable. It’s a nice length too, easily worn sans tights for a dressier, evening occasion but equally nice paired with tights and flats for a smart/casual day outfit.

The stripy shirt. My collection of stripy shirts is potentially more embarrassing than Kim Kardashian’s marriage lengths. For me, the breton horizontal striped top is so classic and just an easy way to make an everyday casual outfit chic. A vertical striped shirt however can just really transform an outfit though, making it smarter, more formal and effortlessly chic*

*I am not being sponsored/paid to use the word Chic.

So after I dragged the other half outside to photograph these pictures before we left for dinner – on his birthday, girlfriend of the year? I think not… – we, well… we left for dinner. The traffic might have been disgusting but the food, and the restaurant itself was anything but. We went to Sheesh in Chigwell which really does deserve a post of it’s own – however, due to very low lighting and an ingrained embarrassment of taking photo’s of food in public (still, even after 2 years of blogging) you’ll just have to take me word for it 🙂