Let It Rain

Our late fall weather has been rather mild this year. It hardly even feel like December, except for the Holiday decorations popping up everywhere. We are getting some rain and fog, but no snow or real cold in sight, fingers crossed.  I admit I am enjoying it and taking the opportunity to wear the fall/winter transitional items, that sometimes don't get to be used too much.

One of such pieces in my closet is the Barbour Utility jacket that I bought when I visited Edinburgh few years ago. I had a great time with my good friend I was meeting there. Right before my travel I had some medical tests that turned out all horribly wrong.  Meeting with my friend let me focus on something else and indulge in some dark humor. Shortly after my arrival we were sitting on the sofa late at night, both a little uneasy and unsure what to do with the elephant in the room.  I was wearing a pair of new jeans and my hands got all black and blue from rubbing against them. My friend, who (like me) already had few drinks, noticed the color change and her face suddenly got all white.'What happened to your hands?!' she exclaimed terrified.  'Cancer.' I replied gravely and after few silent seconds I burst out laughing. My friend joined me in the attack of silliness and we could not stop for hours. Everything was easier after that and we had a blast the rest of my visit. Later on, after more tests and a lot more anxiety, it eventually turned out that the tests were a false positive.

My trip to Edinburgh was in January and it was drizzling everyday. Barbour jacket seemed like a perfect purchase then, but after coming back to US I never wore it that first year.  I resigned myself to thinking it will mostly have a sentimental value, which of course was worth every penny, but the practicality seemed to be another story.

 

Well, I am happy to report that I have been wearing it quite a lot this fall. In this outfit, I was able to combine two of my favorite fall-ish color combinations, brown with pink and brown with blue.

I have reviewed the jacket previously HERE. I am also wearing Boden boots, Coach bag, J.Crew No2 pencil skirt in herringbone (reviewed HERE), J.Crew Liberty shirt and a pink umbrella. 

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That's all folks!

Do you use dark humor to exorcise your fears?

What do you think of the Barbour jacket? Stylish or contrived?

Please share, it would be no fun without you!!!

Red skirt for the Holidays (three ways)

Have you been looking forever for the perfect red skirt?  Well, I wasn't really looking but many times when J.Crew came up with different iterations of red pencil skirts there were never red. Modern red as we know is more of an orange and so was persimmon and poppy. So I didn't even think of No2 double serge wool pencil skirts in deep poppy when I saw it online. But then I spotted it in store and it was Red. Medium red, not too deep with blue undertones but also not orange.

Now, in all those pictures below the skirt looks orange, at least on my monitor. I guess it does have orange undertones but irl it reads red. The same thing applies to my Rooftop red Valentinas, they also seem orange in the pictures but they are definitely red. You will have to trust me on that :)

Of course, a red skirt would be perfect for the Holidays. An obvious pairing would be with black and white or black and cream. I think it would be stunning with polka dot sequin top but I don't own it. If you are brave and not afraid of 'sexy' it woudl look great with leopard.

This is what I came up with:

With polka dot Blythe blouse, red shoes and gray tights. I liked how the gray and cream soften the impact of red, but the black snakeskin clutch adds some punch.

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With sequins for some Holiday sparkle:

I kind of wish I have bought that polka dot sequin top, after all. It would have been bold and perfect. But the gray sweatshirt also works, I think.

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Christmas Tree Style:

And to go all out Christmas colors I paired it with green. Usually I would shy away from looking like a Christmas tree but I strangely I don;t mind. I think with the leopard clutch and brown boots I can pull it off. I would probably wear different tights (brown?) but I did not want to change.

Actually, I think this is my favorite look, super cozy but festive.

 My turtleneck is from Brora and boots are Boden. Rest is from J.Crew.

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That's all folks!

Do you own a red skirt?

How would you style it?

Which of the three combinations is your favorite (if you like any)?

Please share, It would be no fun without you!!!