I wear approximately 10% of my wardrobe, 90% of the time. The below constitutes almost everything I’ve been wearing over the past month. It’s my Springtime In New York Uniform.

By the way, nothing qualifies me to write about clothes, at all, so please do feel free to ignore everything I say and make sarcastic comments to yourself about my sense/lack of style.

Saint James stripe top from J Crew.

The perfect stripey top. I mean it. Perfect. Not too thick, not too thin, not too tight, not too loose… It’s just right. It’s the Baby Bear Porridge of stripey tops.

 

 

ASOS Boyfriend T-Shirt With Crew Neck

After years of wearing the most threadbare, oversized, mittel-grey moochy t-shirts I could find, you know, the kind that gets holes in and you think ‘yes! awesome!’, I am now craving a nice stiff white tshirt with preppy little roll up sleeves. This one is GREAT. I am stockpiling for summer. I should also warn you that ASOS has a number of different similarly titled tshirts but this one is the best. (I really did test them all. I am the kind of person who tests and returns tshirts to ASOS. I know. I’m a dork.)

 

 

Orange pashmina

Mine was about $4. I bought it in Hong Kong when visiting my folks a few years ago. It never says die. When I am looking too monochrome (almost always) and I think it is colder outside than I’m ready for (also almost always) then I grab it on my way out the door.

For period in my 20s I lived in Parsons Green in London, which is in an area I affectionately referred to as ‘Pashmina Arc’, as every second girl at the Sloaney Pony in 2003-6 had a pash garrotting her jugular. But, fuck it. Pashminas are so unfashionable, I’m reclaiming them. Keep them loose and flawy, not all tied up. Some in a bright poppy shade is nice when all you wear is white, black, navy and nude. (Me.)

 

 

Dr Denims in Arlene

Soooo high-waisted and clingy, push everything up and in, and yet don’t cut off the circulation. I spotted them last year on a very chic girl in my local dry cleaning place, thought ‘those are the sexiest goddamn jeans I have ever seen in my entire goddamn life’, and bent right over to get a good look at the ass-label in case she did the annoying ‘these are from Korea but from like four years ago so you can’t get them now’ thing that mean girls do. (They are not from Korea, you can buy them on ASOS! Hurrah.) Veh stretchy but the sizes are off so go one or two sizes up from your normal jeans. They’re also tres comfortable and make you feel like a Daddy Long Legs spider. In a good way.

J Brand Aidan Boyfriend Jeans.

For a long long long time I wore a perfect pair of boyfriend jeans from H&M, but they fell apart from overuse (no, really, they did, they split from seam to seam in like six places) and I could never find them instore again. (Why does this ALWAYS happen with anything decent from H&M, by the way? It’s so frustrating. And I definitely don’t have the same good H&M karma in the NYC that I did in London. Something is wrong with the store layout here. Though, the formerly PERFECT H&M in Knightsbridge in London had been rearranged and was a pungent claustrophobic nightmare last time I was back. I digress.) These are great jeans. I am wearing them right now as I type this. Comfy as hell.

WOW. I just saw these are almost 300 quid in the UK on Donna Ida. Put the crack pipe down! I did not pay that. I got mine on the Outnet, but they are on sale at Anthropologie in the US, and if you’re in the UK you can get these and these on sale too, delivered from Shopbop, PLUS there’s a 20% off sale today, just enter the code WEAREFAMILY13. Or fuck it, buy them at Topshop. They’re probably exactly the same. Boyfriend jeans are usually cut super-roomy so you don’t need to size up to get that nice mooch.

 

 

Boyfriend coat from Topshop

Actually the one I wear is from last year, and Fox hates it so much that he pretends to throw money at me when I wear it as apparently I look like a homeless person. (As opposed to, you know, a stripper.) But I love it. It makes me feel a lil John Hughesy.

Converses Slip-On In Natural

Last year I went all French yummy mummy and got a pair of white Superga, after a lifetime of total loyalty to Chuck Taylors. I am back. These are slip-on which is essential if you are a bit lazy, like me.

I’ve also been wearing this pair of studded navy velvet slippers from Topshop, but they don’t sell them anymore, so I found these ones for you instead. (Let me take a moment to apologise to Caroline, my friend with the velvet phobia. She’s currently working on a TV show in the UK so it’s not like she’s in any imminent danger of seeing them in person, but if she even reads this, the word ‘velvet’ will freak her out completely. Seriously. Right now she is clutching her neck and saying ‘Gemmaaaaaaaaaah’.)

After a long, long, long winter wearing bright red (MAC Lady Danger) and dark red (Hourglass Icon) and purply-brown (Chanel Culte), I am digging a flashy pop of hot pink. I’ve actually been wearing a no-name Hong Kong brand shade that my mother gave me in about 1997, nope I am not kidding and yah I know that’s probably really gross, but I tried on this one at Sephora the other day and it rocked. Lip Tar in Pretty Boy by Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. They deliver worldwide.

Amalfi Blush by Cargo. 

I met a lovely woman a few weeks ago who works at Cargo and she sent me some awesome Cargo make-up to try, as they’re reformulating the stuff. I’m officially in luff with with this Amalfi blush. It gives the most perfect flush with hot pink lipstick. I shall start testing their bronzers the moment it is warm enough here to faux-tan.

Punker Eyeliner by Ardency Inn

I was obsessed with Rimmel liquid eyeliner for years, till the formula started to make my skin tingle in a weird itchy way. (Tingles are great if they’re from being with a dude, bad if it’s from makeup. And yah it was a brand new one.) This one is fat, squeaky, and satisfyingly easy to apply.

Sabre sunglasses in Runaway.

Pitch black huge fat cat-eye sunglasses. I lost these last year, and after a week of kicking myself and telling myself I did not deserve to replace them, I thought, bugger it, and bought another pair. They really are amazing. HUGE and very very dark. Revolve Clothing delivers them worldwide.