Accessories

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Posted on April 25, 2016

Last week in this post I showed you my ‘new’ formal dress. I decided against black accessories and was tossing up on what to wear with it.

I decided to go with silver and here are my new sandals I bought yesterday.

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I bought them at our local independent shoe shop. They are really comfortable and as well as being able to be worn with my long frock they will be great for next summer with a variety of outfits.

This is what they look like on me.

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The next step is to find or make a suitable bag or clutch and finally, something to keep me warm as the event is at night in June. At least (as far as I can ascertain) it is indoors this year unlike the past couple of years.

Project 333 – Shoes

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Posted on July 25, 2015

Today I decluttered my shoes – again! I am now down to 15 pairs. This includes my thongs and slippers which live in my wardrobe but excludes the gumboots and old gardening sneakers which are downstairs.

This is the least number of pairs of footwear that I have owned anytime in my adult life. I do like shoes but in recent years my fascination has not been about falling in love with totally impractical styles and colours but rather about the pursuit of the ‘perfect’ shoes.

It is interesting that the more I streamline the selection of clothes that I wear the easier it is to let go of shoes. If I tend to wear lots of a similar style or colour it stands to reason that the same shoe will work with many different outfits.

Here are the shoes that are in my cupboard today.

On the floor (from left to right)

Hiking boots – rarely worn but still make the cut
RM Williams dress boots – worn with jeans in cold weather
Short boots (red) – bought last year overseas when I needed some to replace a pair of shoes that wore out
Red lace-up shoes – Ecco brand – worn with jeans or trousers
Sneakers – for walking and exercise
Australian Geographic slippers – lightweight, great with socks
Purple thongs – summer casual wear

Top shelf

Bronze Mary Janes – super lightweight and comfortable, can be worn with dresses or trousers
Red Mary Janes – as above
Black patent kitten heel – dress shoe for after-five wear
Red walking sandals – Ecco brand – very comfortable

Lower shelf

Black low-heeled sandal – Taos brand – flexible sole, comfortable but quite dressy
Black low heeled ankle strap shoes – dressy winter shoe
Pink summer sandals – very comfortable
Red summer sandals – as above

Comfort and ease of wearing are my main criteria when buying shoes and they also need to be able to be worn with a variety of outfits.

Here are a couple more that I would like to add to my collection.

These are identical to my red and bronze Mary Janes and are available here.

I love red shoes and this pair look perfect. I don’t know that I can justify them at the moment but I do love them. They are from Frankie4. I have not bought any shoes from this range but a friend has and she recommended them. I like the selection of summer sandals that are both stylish and look comfortable.

I will be keeping an eye out for their spring/summer catalogue as I will definitely need some new summer sandals. The pink and red ones that I have are just about at the end of their lives after a couple of long, hot summers.

What do you look for in shoes? Have your criteria changed over time?

Project 333 – Clearing the Cupboard

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Posted on May 16, 2015

While this post is not strictly about Project 333, it is about decluttering my clothes so I have kept the Project 333 tag for ease of locating the post in the future. Today I decided to empty the entire contents of my wardrobe and dresser. Here is the empty wardrobe. The first category that I chose to scrutinise was shoes. Here they all are. Yes, all 21 pairs. Now, I don’t really know how that compares with what other people have but it does seem like a lot for someone who supposedly tries to keep things to a minimum. I sorted them and these are the ones I have worn in the past week. An additional 3 pairs in the past couple of months. Winter footwear that has been worn in the last 12 months. Three special-purpose ones that have not been worn in the last year but still get to stay. In fact, while typing this I remembered that the patent heels have been worn in the past year.

This brings the total to 18 pairs which have made the grade and will return to the wardrobe.

Here are the three pairs that are moving out.

Black heels which I had replaced but not got rid of them. They have not been worn since the new ones were purchased.

Red flats which are nearly 3 years old. The heels are worn and they are not overly comfortable.

Pewter sandals which were a mistake as they are really a half-size too small. Hopefully someone else will get a really good pair of sandals that fit them well.

I did not cull a great number of my shoes as most of them do get worn on a regular basis. This was a useful exercise as it made me consider each pair and the value of keeping them. I have also identified the next pairs which will go over time and I will be giving more thought to the shoes I buy in future.

Over the next week I will be sharing some of the other discoveries and decisions I made when I emptied my wardrobe.

Meanwhile, I would love to hear about your shoes – what sort? how many?

Shiny Shoes

Project 333 – Winter Wardrobe & Wishlist

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Posted on May 28, 2013

Since it will officially be winter in 3 days I thought a post about my winter wardrobe was in order. We live in a relatively mild climate but it still gets cool enough to need more than summer-weight skirts and t-shirts.

Over the last 10 months I have lost 8kg so that has necessitated moving a number of items along as they were simply too big. This has pared down my wardrobe even more. However, a bonus is that I can now wear these 2 jackets.

They were a neat fit when I bought them a couple of years ago and a little over a year ago they were destined to be given away.

I also have a black cord jacket and a pink suede one.

One of the few things I have bought for this winter is a new pair a tailored black trousers as I did not have any trousers suitable for wearing to work in winter. I gave my only pair away at the end of last winter as they were too big. Last week I had to buy a belt because even my new trousers are a bit on the loose side. I did try the next size down but they were a bit too tight.

I generally wear a collared shirt (3/4 sleeve) under the jacket to work as I don’t want to be rugged up because I work in an air-conditioned office. I have 5 striped shirts. There are also these 2 lightweight knits.

A couple of sleeveless vests, 2 pairs of jeans, 3/4 sleeve tees and a couple of rugby tops pretty well round out my work and casual winter wardrobe.

My shoes are 2 pairs of flats – red and pewter, red lace-up casuals and RM Williams boots.

Now for the wishlist:

Black skirt – purchased and waiting for me to shorten the length
Grey patterned cord skirt – waiting for me to refashion it from a skirt that is too big
Plain black lightweight knit – in the cupboard but need grey skirt to wear it with
Grey/charcoal trousers – need to buy
Black flat/low heel court shoes – need to buy
Black low heel boots (knee-high) – need to buy to replace the high heeled ones I have given away as they were too high and I did not feel confident walking in them
Black stockings – need to buy
Scarves – I would like some lightweight plain coloured scraves – probably black, fuschia and red with possibly mint green or purple as well. Just need to go looking.

I need to try on some boots to see whether they will suit me as I am not overly tall.

I have 6 pairs of grey stockings (most unworn) that I bought last year in the USA and after wearing them a couple of times I have decided that I do not really like the colour, hence I need to buy some black ones.

Recently, I bought 2 pieces of cotton lycra fabric which I hope to be able to make some 3/4 sleeve tees. One is black and cream striped (narrow stripes) and the other is plain in a raspberry colour.

Now that I have written it all down, my plan seems quite realistic and doable. What do you think?