Matching Summer Sets

2021 Summer Trend

This summer's trend is rather matchy-matchy. Mainly tiny tops with matching shorts, short and long skirts, capris, and pants. The models wearing the trend look fabulous with their tanned skin and slim figures. Of course. (This photo was retrieved from wheretoget.com)

Nice: 

I have always been a fan of solid matching sets. Being 5'3" and with the probability of shrinking as I get older, solid coloured matching sets are the nicest for me. That means top to bottom solid colour even shoes. Accessories such as jewellery, scarves and purses send out a colourful punch and make the solid colour a canvas (a thought for another post). I get my fill of the colour trend of the season with accessories and it proves to be more cost-effective. Your "outfits' go a long way for a long time with this kind of clothing strategy. This outfit was available on jamesascher.com, but when I went there, it was sold out. 

My 2 No Thanks rules for matched sets:

1. No thanks to matchy brightly coloured patterns. 

And yes, Guys, the trend is yours as well! But as far as I am concerned, my No Thanks rules apply for you too. This photo was retrieved from www.outfittrends.com.

I once received a shorts & shirt outfit from a relative who had been in Hawaii. It was a swirl of hot pink, bright green, and fluorescent yellow flowers. I wore it once to a theme party. It ended up in a donation bag. I do hope someone found some pleasure in wearing it. 

Whether stripes or a floral pattern, if I absolutely had to, a pairing of pale colour — blue & white, beige & blue, beige & white, yellow, pink, mint green in combination with white is the closest I would ever go to a head to toe patterned match. 

2. No thanks to stripes for bottoms such as these from www.lyst.com. Imagine head to toe black & white stripes and all I can think of are 1920s jailhouse convicts.  There is a mixing stripes idea that suggests putting a horizontal stripe on top with the vertical stripe on the bottom or vice versa. I don't know. Maybe, but for me, I doubt it.

Note-worthy

Pyjamas! Head to toe matched sets — I have several.

Summery Comfortable Casual

Nice: 

We want to be comfortable and we are most comfortable when we dress casually. The question is, what clothing does it take to bring this about in our fashion sense? "Comfortable casual" is too wide a topic to tell you what it is or what it is not. This category is definitely in the eyes of the beholder.

Even comfortable casual changes with where you are and what you are doing. Comfortable casual at a seaside restaurant in France may be different than one in Clear Lake, Manitoba, and different than one on a cruise ship. Yes, what we wear is always "event" or "place" inspired. Appropriateness is important whether at work or at play.

The ultimate in comfortable casual is something that is trans-cultural and can be worn anywhere. The linen pants and top you see in this photo were purchased on a student tour of Italy many many years ago. When I saw it in a shop window in Sorrento, I envisioned myself sitting on a yacht (I've never been on one and it's unlikely I ever will be) sipping a glass of rosé wine. The yacht location has not yet materialized but I've sipped a fair number of glasses of rosé in that linen outfit over the past 20 years. It is one of the most cost-effective outfits I have ever owned since I am still wearing it. It is also one of the most comfortable outfits I have ever owned — pajama-like in feel and cool to wear on the hottest most humid days of the summer. This one definitely has the ability to be worn at a seaside restaurant in France, at an ice-cream parlour in Clear Lake, Manitoba, or in a dining room on a cruise ship.

Noteworthy: 

Accessories can be used to adapt the same outfit to many different situations and locations. Plain as in the first photo makes it beachwear after a swim. Add a statement necklace to take it into an outdoor evening party. Put on a sunhat and there you are on that yacht (if not in real life, in your dreams). 

Necessary:

The one item that is necessary in my life is my favourite everyday casual shirt for the summer — a cotton, white and blue stripe, that can be worn alone, or over a t-shirt or as a bathing suit cover-up. I wear it with shorts, jeans or wide-leg linen pants. 

Also needed a few short-sleeve white t-shirts along with the shirt.

Another Necessary:

Timeless white pants or capris. Jackie Kennedy wore them in the 1960s and we're still wearing them. Everyone needs a great pair of white summer pants. Whether you choose wide-leg or narrow leg, regular pant length, ankle length, capris or walking shorts, it only matters that you are comfortable. Make sure they are a natural fabric such as linen or cotton and you are good to go.

Need:

What are your most adaptable, wear everywhere and feel comfortable outfits? 

And what do you need to complete your summery comfortable casual wardrobe?

ITSO . . . In the Style of . . . Juliette Binoche

Photo Source accessed from The Snipe

 

French women bloom at 40! I can't wait!

Juliette Binoche who is now closer to 60 than 40, apparently had been quoted saying that while in her 30's.

It was the movie Chocolat (2000) where I first noticed Juliette Binoche. I loved the character she played and a love interest with Johnny Depp kept me interested until the end of the movie. And although I had seen The English Patient (1996), somehow the character did not interest me enough to find out who the actress behind her was. That sounds so terrible now that I watched the movie again, and pay closer attention to Juliette Binoche. As an Oscar-winning supporting actress for that role, I'm obviously the one who didn't get it. Now she ranks as "my favourite" actress and I seek out her movies. 

If you don't know her work, this 3-minute youtube video will introduce you to Juliette Binoche, the actress. One of the reviews of her acting career (that I enjoyed reading) was written by Sofia Bohdanowicz, The Double Life of Juliette Binoche.

As I learn more about her political, social, and humanitarian activism, her own choices when accepting and rejecting roles, and the tidbits from her personal life, the more I admire her.

In 2014 her public persona took on a new "face" for Blue Illusion, an Australian clothing company focused on women 45+. Binoche uses the words "effortless" and "comfortable" when describing the look of adopted Parisian style translated by an Australian company. Those two words have different interpretations in Paris as compared with the rest of the world, particularly North America. But, that's another topic for another post.

The photo is one of La Binoche in a Blue Illusion design as sourced from Styling You.

Binoche described herself as "feminine with masculine strength" in a Daily Telegraph article in 2014. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying "A face has to move with the emotions because it's a mirror of what's happening inside . . ." when responding to a cosmetic surgery query.

Interviewers often are surprised by her casualness. British journalist, Tim Adams, described her as arriving in "a plain sweatshirt and no make-up". But more often than not, she shows up in what appears to be a suited look. She arrived at an interview with Kristen Yoonsoo Kim in a "cream-colored suit and baby-pink dress shirt". Perhaps it was that "feminine with masculine strength" that triggered the choice to wear a suit in light colours. The blazer and pants or jeans have always been a "look" I loved but I never thought of it as "feminine with masculine strength", just "feminine strength".  

She will soon be 60 and continues with grace and poise. That's the ticket, grace and poise.

I'll leave you with a gem of youthful wisdom from Binoche,

The only way for me to stay young is to let go of youth. You cannot hang on to the past. You cannot try to be young when you're not young anymore. But the youth is within yourself. How do you renew yourself, how do you go to a new layer of yourself? That is the real youth. That is the renewance of yourself.

Who, Where & What you were Wearing

 

Last night, around the dinner table, we created a game, "who, where, and what we ate". Some of the responses at our table were — "Angie & Jim, at their acreage, German roulade", "Nadia & Joel, Calgary, shrimp and grits" and "Lolita, Arcachon, oysters". 

Here, I have modified the game to do the same with clothing — "who was there, what were you doing, and what were you wearing". "The girls, a bonfire while camping, warm thick sweaters and jeans", "the sisters, cleaning mom's house, stained t-shirt and leggings", "colleagues, retirement party, beige Lida Biday suit & Jimmy Choos" (in the photo). 

Let's see . . . what else? Angelica, Danielle and I — having dinner in the garden in Port Ste. Foy — all three of us in black and white Breton stripes.

Me — Fashion Fur Ladies Wear — my first designer purchase, a knit dress by Louis Féraud.

Me — my Masters convocation — my first Armani suit purchased at Holt Renfrew in Edmonton. Unfortunately, this also brings back memories of me at my heaviest. 

The skirt has been reworked into a pencil skirt from its former tulip skirt self.

Even though the jacket fits a little more loosely, it is so well tailored, I can still wear it and do.

Another adaptation that would be fun —the place, the event, and the shoes. "Winners in Prince Albert — going to Chad & Alyssa's condo at Elk Ridge — bought beige Havaianas flip flops".

My husband and I — after a picnic on the banks of the Dordogne — barefeet.

Let's play . . . hit the comments and tell me: Who was there? What were you doing? What were you wearing?