My Autumn Uniform

I’m not entirely sure what’s happened to the quality on these photos and why they’ve gone so grainy – I’ve gone from one thing to another with photo quality recently, from oddly blurred/pixelated images for apparently no reason (which has sorted itself out on both my blogs now) to suddenly grainy ones! But since I got some proper photos of this outfit, and it was one I’ve been wanting to share for a while, we’ll have to go with them! I’m imagining this time it was probably just my editing or the lighting the photos was taken in, fingers crossed it’s not the camera playing up again!
Anyways, onto the outfit – this is my staple Autumn Uniform outfit look at the moment, and oddly for me it’s quite different to the style I’ve been wearing a lot over the past couple of years. In January 2014, I made a resolution to wear more things that I loved, and I wanted that style to be more “classic”, with longer skirts and dresses, more investments pieces and less “on trend” ones. And I think I’ve mostly succeeded in that. I’ve rarely gone to Primark and bought things just because I liked them – in fact, I think I’ve only really bought a couple of things from shops like Primark over the past couple of years. Instead, I’ve bought pieces that are slightly more expensive but fit more to the style I was trying to head towards – vintage, retro and pin up, with a focus on independent and/or British brands. I’ve also invested in a few more vintage pieces. But the biggest change I’ve made is with sewing a lot of my own things now – if I’m in a shop or looking online and I see something I like, I now tend to stop for a second, look more closely at what it is and whether I’d be able to make my own version of it. It’s not necessarily a money-saving tactic (as in reality, if I were to price up the garments I make, including the time taken charged out at an average wage alongside the materials, they’d be around the same price). It’s more that it forces me to look at things more closely and realise what it is exactly that I’m spending my money on. Add to that the fact that I really enjoy the process of sewing my own clothes and the satisfaction of the end piece. So in the end, I’ve found I’m buying less and wasting less money (and subsequently, wasting fewer resources by not having to get rid of so many clothes and not supporting the “fast fashion” movement to such an extent as I was before), and I’ve also ended up with a number of pieces I love and wear time and again.
So, as I was trying to say, this is a slightly different outfit to all the ones I’ve been trying to wear to fit my new style image in my head – it’s definitely more of an on-trend outfit, as it’s more seasonally orientated and bought mostly from a high street store, but they are pieces that I’m now wearing as an “autumn uniform”, rewearing and remixing.

Leather Jacket: Matalan (old but ) | | |

So this is a difficult one – the jumper and skirt are both new, bought specifically this season from a high street store. They don’t fit what I identify as my “signature style” at the moment and they’re on trend pieces. But I love them. And I’ve worn them more than I probably should have done recently. The jumper I will give myself allowance for, since I tend to push things like jumpers to the top of my purchase list rather than my “I can make this” list since they’re not exactly easy to make, especially since knit fabric is hard to come by, and I also can’t knit (although one of my goals for next year is to learn this). The skirt, however, with the right kind of material and a couple of hours, I could probably put together fairly easily, so I am feeling slightly guilty for buying it. However, like I said, it’s strangely become part of what seems to be a little capsule wardrobe made up of a few pieces I’ve bought this year, plus a number of others from past years, including this leather jacket which has almost made more appearances than me on the blog, and the boots which are from last year.
I’ve always been a fan of remixing clothing and showing how to wear it in different and realistic ways on my blog, and I’d like to think this is just another part of that. I don’t plan to buy any more autumn clothing this year, and I probably won’t buy much other winter clothing either, as I’ll use pieces from seasons gone by, and the pieces which I am buying are investments because I love them. They’ll get far more wear than something cheap from Primark or similar would. To be honest, even buying these few pieces from Urban Outfitters, though it’s still a high street store, was a bit of a step away from my old Primark-buying self. I would never have thought to spend that bit extra to get something I loved, rather I would spend that same amount of several cheaper pieces (like a competition with myself, how much cheap stuff can I get for the price of one thing). That’s not to say I’m going to go and buy designer pieces at thousands of pounds though – I’d just prefer to spend a little more on something I’ll wear more often nowadays and will last me longer.
And the planned point of this post?! Well, it was actually going to be talking about how this is very different to my usual style in aesthetic terms rather than how it went! It’s a short skirt with ankle boots as opposed to a longer skirt with ballet flats or mid heels. Saying that, I’m definitely not giving up the retro/pin up style I love any time soon, I’m just loving another option for getting dressed in the morning at the moment, plus short skirts are a lot easier to wear with tights than midis!