I'm going to start this post off with a little confession. Just a teeny, tiny confession, which I'm sure a fair few of you will also be guilty of.
I am a trend follower.
At the start of every season, I postulate that this will be the season I finally nail that capsule wardrobe, finally start investing in my fashion and finally top it up with trend pieces. Every season, I end up forgetting this entirely, and going all out for the trends.
As a blogger, and someone who has had a keen interest in fashion for years (not that you'd believe it looking back at old photos of me!) I can testify to the fact that it is so easy to be swept up in the glamour of buying new clothes on a regular basis, and the pressure to fill my Instagram grid with photos of me wearing said new clothes, or carrying a new bag, wearing new sunglasses and breaking in a gorgeous, but hugely uncomfortable pair of shoes.
When I worked in the city, I was especially guilty of this. More or less every day I would head out on my lunch break and come back with something new for my wardrobe. Now that could be a pair of 99p socks from Primark, or an £89 coat from Topshop, but the pressure was there, and my bank balance really felt it.
Now I work from home, I'm really noticing the difference in that respect. The temptation isn't immediately there, and so it's a lot easier to resist the daily purchase. Please don't get me wrong, I still shop and update my wardrobe fairly regularly, I just tend to order online instead. ASOS Premier has become a very good friend of mine, as has the ASOS returns service.
In addition to making more sensible purchases, I've managed to fall back in love with a lot of the pieces already in my wardrobe which have been neglected over the years due to my fast fashion mentality. A lot of these things do not sit squarely on trend at the moment, so I'm going through a process of trying to wear old items with new items to put together new outfits which didn't break the bank. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I've been on a couple of shoots with Laura and Shelley lately and they've taken some lovely photos for me; not everything in these photos is new. In fact, most of the clothes I've worn in those photos so far have been old, with just one new item of clothing or accessory in each shot.
And do you know what? I am LOVING recycling older items from my wardrobe. I feel much less guilty about spending money on clothes when I do make a cheeky ASOS order or head into Norwich City Centre and I am loving the challenge that using those older items of clothing brings. I imagine it's definitely easier now because things tend to stay 'on trend' for a few years before they are replaced by new must-have styles but it's still hard sometimes to look at my wardrobe and put together things I've never tried before, instead of sticking to the same things I wear all the time.
One of the things I've fallen back in love with are these leopard print shoes from Topshop. I bought these for Norwich Fashion Week at the start of the year and loved them so much I decided to 'keep them for best' afterwards. Which means I'd decided to leave them in my wardrobe, out of sight, pulling them out two or three times a year, not getting the cost per wear down and not wearing them as much as I'd intended to, for fear of ruining them. I have to admit, they were surprisingly inexpensive for Topshop, and I seriously toyed with buying the red version when Topshop brought those out a couple of months ago. I resisted thankfully, and instead decided to try and make an effort to wear the original leopard print ones a little more because they are a gorgeous shoe, are extremely comfortable, and they do deserve to be seen. Plus, they're brilliant for making a statement with an otherwise standard outfit, be that all black, or blue jeans with a white tee.
So the moral of this very long story, is that if you have something in your wardrobe which you love, find a way to wear it. Wear it on its own, wear it with old items you already own, wear it with new pieces, wear it to the supermarket. If it makes you feel fabulous, it's already a winner.
LAURA
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