And here we have the first of my efforts to dress arty, edgy, contemporary with clothes that are already in my wardrobe. I say “my efforts” but 95% of it is Misja’s styling (MisjaB). She came over to my house one afternoon and we got cracking. I showed her this green and blue jumper by Essentiel Antwerp which I bought a while back but just couldn’t style. It always looked bleh or frumpy. Misja said: “Why not combine it with your tough jeans then? Your man repeller jeans? It can create a nice juxtaposition.” And she was so right; I love it. Next she asked me: “Do you have any belts?” Whahaha…do ..read more

The first appearance of my new black blazer, the first of my 10 new items this year. This is a landmark moment. The blazer is by Joseph, a flipping expensive brand, offering top quality so you get your money’s worth. Question remains, can I afford it? One of my favourite shops in Haarlem, LAB Women’s Clothing, sells Joseph and as I told you two weeks ago, this blazer was now half price (come to mama, baby). Daphne, the owner is a sweet lady and a good stylist. She is in for the long term relationship and not for a quick sell, which means she is honest. The white shirt I am wearing with this bl ..read more

Another example of an outfit I don’t really love. Again created with clothes already in my wardrobe, but the result is not particularly striking. The brown patterned skirt is one that I bought some time ago, when a friend of mine was trying it on. Once a garment is on a person, I get an idea whether I want it or not. If it is on a hanger in a rack, it will only catch my eye when it is, well…an eye catcher. You have seen the skirt before in this post with a neon green top. I liked it better that way. The brown jumper I am wearing (really soft) you have seen in this post with patterned trousers ..read more

What a struggle this is…creating new outfits with stuff from my own wardrobe. Honestly, not my hobby. Then again, this pink and black blouse is too good to wear with only one pair of trousers, so I tried. To my mind, I did not succeed. This blouse with my wide leg jeans is sort of OK but the outfit will never hit my top 10, not even my top 20. Which means, I didn’t try hard enough. Kitty was my photographer and we went to the Frans Hals Museum, or better said, to the restaurant next door to the museum, called Cleeff Frans Hals Museumcafé. Below: A statue of Frans Hals behind me. The pink/oran ..read more

Like I promised, here is an outfit with colour instead of all black. And I mean colour! My fluffy pink blazer is a vivid pink. I saw the blazer on a woman whom I follow on Instagram and found out that the blazer was for sale in my own town. So I hopped on my bike and bought it (it was a steal in the sale). It reminds me a lot of my baby blue ‘Big Bird’ blazer, which I still love. Below: Spring is around the corner. More colour with these crocuses. I love that the council plants all these spring flowers in the parks. Loes and I returned to the same place where we had planned a photo shoot befo ..read more

Apparently I am in a quirky mood lately. First the silver pleated skirt and now a big puffy black co-ord. I was surprised how many of you liked the silver pleated skirt outfit. Let’s see how this outfit scores. It is another love or hate item, no wishy washy in between. I bought it at Vintage No 5 in Haarlem; weirdly enough, only the boots are second-hand, the co-ord is new. They sell a few new items. A windy day in The Hague. Marjolein was my photographer and she took me to a church and after that to the Royal Palace Gardens. Below: Marjolein in a purple outfit. The boots are EIJK boots and a ..read more

When I was styling these black flared trousers (brand Joseph), one of the tops I tried was this old black jumper with bat wing sleeves. I immediately liked it. The jumper sits the way it was intended which wasn’t always the case when I combined it with a skirt, like in this post with cream boots and a red/pink bag. The outfit was attractive but the jumper was troublesome. Not so with my flared black trousers. Of course I had to add a pop of colour with the cute crossbody bag from Markberg. It comes in 12 colours and I was after a silver one (damn Instagram). Then I saw this chartreuse one and ..read more

These man repeller jeans by MAC turn out to be just as good as my G-Star Raw boyfriend jeans. Apparently, I like baggy trousers and bow legs. I can wear them with nearly any top. For my visit to Lia, I chose to wear them with a black merino wool top. Nearly all my tops have a boat neck as it suits me best, even though it is rather draughty at the neck. My friend Misja (MisjaB) taught me how to use stripes and I am putting her lessons into practice. Stripy top and stripy belt. Below: We were near an old mill in the village of Maassluis, called De Hoop (The Hope), built in 1690. It got damaged i ..read more

When I was shopping with my Shopping Saturday friends (last week’s post) I tried on this silver skirt. The shop assistant fetched the big jumper, telling me they used this combination for their advertisement earlier that season. Which means the outfit was styled by a professional. The jumper is 68% mohair, 11% wool which is hell for me as it itches, especially mohair. Nevertheless, I tried it on and to my astonishment it wasn’t bad at all. A bit itchy around the neck and chest but not much. I was so in love with the jumper and especially in combination with the silver skirt, that I threw cauti ..read more

Looking at the photo above I cannot help thinking the jeans should have been ironed. Something which was an absolute no-no in the seventies haha. Times are changing. I bought the green jumper while wearing these flared jeans and immediately liked the look. The jeans are high-waisted and I wasn’t sure that the ‘French tuck’ would work with that, but it does when the jumper is long enough. Originally I wore my basketball trainers with the jeans (see styling session in the bedroom below). But the dark blue wash of the jeans stained my laces and the leather of the trainers blue. It took me quite a ..read more