Living where I do, and dependent on public transport  (which is pretty good here) dressing for travel in winter can be something of a challenge! You can get soaked just walking from the bus to the ferry, and with our 'four seasons in a round of golf' weather  I try to be prepared for anything. So...too boring to photograph my winter wardrobe is completed by waterproof backpack, duvet coat with hood, thermal layers and always, an umbrella.

I seem to have all four seaasons in the house just now - tulips, roses, gourds and pressed leaves and  a St Eval cinnamon and orange candle - all of which I have photographed, but since the latest update on my phone changes have been made - it is the nature of the beast - and I've not yet figured out how to get them on here....sorry!

Is your wardrobe ready for the season where you are?

A little shopping in my own closet. Picking out a few things which simply make me feel cosy. I am also being mindful of what I am eating as I would like to feel good in my chosen clothes. Goal one is to fasten my jeans with EASE again. A modest goal  :-)

What would your winter wardrobe goal be?

..and gloves. Just a few minutes putting some wintry favourites together in one drawer.

I'm not discarding at the moment so no difficult decisions and ethical dilemmas - just picking out some things I feel like wearing just now. Easy. Simple. Fun even (is fun still allowed?).

The other evening I realised I was wearing my gardening clothes even though I had not gardened all day (it snowed). I had just put on the first things I saw in the morning..

I decided to do a quick easy wardrobe sort and start wearing some of my nice winter clothes.

Step one took about 5 minutes - I removed all te summer things.

Step two took about 10 minutes - I put like with like - all the trousers toether, all the sweaters together etc

I'm simply not in the mood for a major wardrobe project but thought I would just pick out some favourites and start actually wearing them!

These plus of course wellington boots and walking boots will see me through the next wee while.

It seems to me that there is a fine ine between 'drapey' as in soft and flattering, and 'droopy' as in saggy and ageing and I think how I accesorize these new htings will be important.

I won't be wearing a floaty skirt and dangling earrings - that look would be much too boho for my taste and would accentuate the already droopy lines on my face! (When did that happen?)

Instead I will wear a sharp pair of straight leg dark navy jeans (I like Sienna Straight from M^S), simple navy ankle boots and a neat crisp style of earrings. Like these vintage Swedish ones. A subtle balancing act. A nice challenge.

• Trying different combinations of the new things will be fun.
  

Have you bought yourself anything new lately?

I am really liking my new clothes fron Kettlewell Colours. I bought the first short cascade wrap and infinity scarf a few weeks ago, and they felt so right for me that I ordered another of each in different colours.

They work well with my standard round neck long sleeved T-shirts.

You know those things that when yu put them on you just feel like yourself and you can forget you are wearing them because you feel confident that they are right for you? That is, you don't feel self conscious in them, just very comfortable both physically and psychologically. I think when you find them you stock up!

Tomorrow making sure 'drapey' doesn't become 'droopy'..

The Kettlewell site has a quiz to help you decide what colours suit you best.

I mean, why wouldn't you?

I think my new boots fit the bill..but I still haven't found a pair of slippers that are remotely joyful. Perhaps there isn't such a thing!

What are you doing this week? And what will you wear?

You will now have your basics, your key items identified and sorted (maybe added to) and ready to wear. So now comes the fun bit. Making conplete outfifts for whatever you are doing this week.

I went to the city yesterday, and am seeing a friend for coffee and hospital visiting. I have family coming for dinner on Friday.

Between the outffit here and this one, I think I have things covered! I have hung these two outfits at one end of the wardrobe, while I contemplate the rest..

Loojing out the accessories that I like with this top..

I think I will wear this brighter version when I visit my friend in hospital - I'd like to think it might cheer her on her way to recovery.

The top is from Sea Salt - useful, easu to wear and easy to look after casual clothes and a local shop offers residents a generous 20% discount on them.

Do you have a favourie lablel you might explore?

Slowly does it this time round with my wardrobe sort.  A close look at what is left after steps one to five, reveals that my key items are jeans - dark navy narriw leg, long sleeved crew neck cototn T-shirts also navy,  ankle boots navy leather.

Not very exciting but can be dressed up and dressed down and can take me (allmos) anywhere, so I am checking them over for condition and making sure I have them ready to wear. Style wise I choose classic for these. I just bought a second pair of Supersoft indigo mix Sienna straight leg jeans from M&S (photograph the label and find a helpful assistant if like me you are not able to read lables and signs.).

The other two key pieces are a navy duvet coat, and a lightweight showerproof one both with hoods. The lightweight one is great. I have been wearing it for years and it still looks new. Slightly crinkly material so it rolls up small when need be without looking any the worse, the colour is like natural linen or the froth on a capuccino. I really love this colour.

STEP SIX   Identify/consider/improve/plan/shop your key items. I would suggest taking some time ovver this. Make notes, take photographs etc.  Getting this bit right makes the rest easy!

Hopefully after steps three and four you are left with only clothes you can wear - clothes that fit, are right for the time of year, are clean and in good repair (not needing altered. A little more culling required?).

There are so many ways of doing this sort but this time I am going to look at my activities for this week only and decide what I am going to wear for each one. The whole outfit.

So STEP FIVE  is to create two or three outfits out of the clothes that I do wear and that are ready to wear. The nicest, most attractive and most apporopriate that I can manage - which may take quite a bit of thought. I suggest that even if you are staying at home all this week, you still create two sets of at home clothes that you feel really nice in, and that you actually enjoy wearing.

..as a guilt-free wardrobe?

I was so shocked at the nunber of things I don't wear!

Were you?

STEP FOUR. Renove to another place hot weather clothes (or whatever is appropriate for where you  live).

What the wardrobe said the morning after I had done steps three and four was 'Aaah, I can breathe!'

So STEP FIVE is to take a breather and a sterp back, and to find sources of inspiration for the next few steps. Can you find half an hour or more to browse YouTube, books, magazine articles , whatever motivates you.? Make it fun it will get done to quote FlyLady. While  I take a short blog break I will ponder this.

Don't miss the fascinating comments on this last post. I don;t say often enough how much I appreciate your comments. They motivate me to keep going. There is friendship, kindness, humour and wisdom there and they enrich my life every day. Thank you to everyone who has ever commented.

I may get into the deep existential questions later, but right now I am looking at the clothes I have with a dispassionate eye.

STEP THREE I am making this step as easy as possible by suspending judgement and postponing decisions on what to do with these items. So, all I am doing in this step is removing from the wardrobe, for now, all the things I do not wear.

One muddle sorted! I had a lovely day in the garden yesterday. Do you think maybe life is just sorting out muddles, one after another?!

The last time I asked the wardrobe question was in this post. Do read the comments. I am sure some if not all will resonate with you. Lucille's comment especially spoke to me this time

I spoke to the wardrobe again this morning and it said it was having an identity crisis, and I replied 'So am I!'
So over the next few weeks I will tackle this (the wardrobe sort and the identity crisis). In my usual grasshopper brained way I will probably jump about but I will also focus on small do-able steps that won't stress me out.

Join me?

STEP ONE  The simplest of starts to sorting the muddle. I rearranged the hangers and put all the sweaters together, all the tee shirts together etc etc.

STEP TWO  Over the next day or so I will wash what clothes are in the laundty basket and retrieve those at the bottom of the ironing pile. I will do this after dark because the sun is shining and I am getting out into the garden!

So far, so easy. No big decisions, no judgement, just doing it. 

Re-reading Simply Stylish I came across the question 'What is your wardrobe telling you?'

So I went up and asked it.

It was a little slow to reply.

And then it said just one word:

'Muddled.'

Hmm..

A colour I have mever worn before. I think I can get away with it if I have a scarf next to my face...

I like the proportions of a short jumper over a long T shirt with narrow jeans and have not seen short jumpers in the shops for years, so I snapped up this even though I had doubts about the colour.

Tackling my clothes feels like a hige task right now though it has felt like fun in the past, so I will look through my own Simply Stylish posts and see if I can get that fun feeling back!


Will wear this tonight when out for a family dinner. That will be fun :-)

Old faithful shoes go quite well..though getting a bit scuffed.

PS   The evening did not go quite as planned. We had barely started our meal when my grandson was sick all over the seat, his Mum and the floor of the restaurant.  We abandoned the night out!

It may well be a bit  narcissistic to write about my clothes (It may well be a bit narcissistic to write a blog!) but clothes are important to me and fashion is my fun.

I think I have always loved clothes and can remember very clearly things I wore when I was little more than a toddler. I studied printed textiles at Glasgow School of Art, and I love people watching - just seeing what people wear and trying to understand what it is about those people who just get it right...

There are quite a lot of posts under Simply Stylish if you have time to browse, and in 2013, in an attempt to get my own style right for me and avoid buying things I then did not wear, I started my own style notebook.  See here.  This has been invaluable.

The biggest wardrobe change since then is  that as I can no longer drive, I use public transport and that definetiely requires different clothees. Buses, ferries and trains combimed with unpredictable weather can make it quite a challenge,

Well travelled Mary collects scarves as souvenirs - a treasure trove of memories!

Here's how my friend stores and displays her scaves. You can see her colour palette is very different to mine, and she loves pattern. I think it looks like an art work. Gorgeous.

Scarves

 
I've been sorting winter scarves. I love scarves. The thicker ones I keep rolled up in a drawer, the thinner ones I hang. I prefer natural materials - wool, felted wool and linen. Most of them I have had for many years. No matter what I am wearing I think adding a big loovely scarf and a pair of earrings can take me anywhere!

A different kind of street photography. I enjoy a browse every now and thhen of The Sartorialist. This one features scarves..

..of clothes. Shopping in my own cupboards again, I am enjoying the change to different textures and colours. I know in many parts of uk you are still weating tee shirts and shorts, but it is cooler and wetter here on the west coast of Scotland, but I don;t mind. I am ready for a change.

All several years old - the jacket from Zara, good fabric, not terribly well finished but very inexpensive. The scarf from The White Company - very fine wool, it feels really beautiful and doesn't crease. The brooch I've had forever and the earrings are from a wonderful website called Scandinavian Silver - sadly no longer trading it seems.

I am wearing these with jeans and soft brown leather lace-up ankle boots and a new white long sleeved tee shirt has provided a freshness.

Must see what else I can find!

I did find a bargain! Cotton, quilted and fully reversible - reduced from £50 to £31. For the chillier days to come.

I have plans for some sunshine!

Isn't it wonderful to make plans again, with a reasonable expectation that they will come about? Do you have plans? Do you find that the planning part is almost as exciting as the event?

Love them!

The rest of the online shopping?

Not so good....

I bought a pair before breakfast today! (Well there has to be some fun in life when you are tidying in Marie Kondo's komono category ..... )

My post yesterday made me think What if they discontinue my favourite shoes?

It happens doesn't it? You spend years finding the perfect shoe/pen/shampoo/bra/whatever and before you think of stocking up it's discontinued, or they make a new version, or change the formula.

A friend sent this phtograph of a childrens' shoe shop in Bruges. Thriling. Better than a sweet shop!

Back to my favourite shoes. See this post. I have them in lime green and in blue and have just ordered them in red  (half price in White Stuff sale) - all of which go with my neutrals  navy and grey, and can be matched with my new necklaces! 

I just need somewhere to go now!

Among my copious notes I found this advice -

If the shoe fits, buy it in every colour!

!
I photographed this shop window in Venice one evening and planned to visit it next day, but next day - lockdown!

Oh well, I couldn't have afforded to buy every colour and would have had a very hard time choosing...