Wednesday 24 February 2016

Awnings and deck chair stripes 

Beryl is very keen on the stripe and tells Jane she must get her act together if she wants to be on trend. Jane says that stripes, she has, but Beryl insists they are the wrong type of stripe - they must be blocky and wide to fulfil madam's criteria: Beryl's thinking deck chairs and 1970's caravan awnings of which she is a connoisseur. Beryl's wardrobe, needless to say, is choc-a-bloc with the 'right' stripe (apparently), Jane's isn't, so off they go to Debenhams to put this right...

Jane is a big fan of navy and white or cream, and in fact had one of her greatest holiday wardrobe triumphs when she confined her entire suitcase to these colours and nothing else whatsoever, so needed no persuasion to don this striped coat from Jasper Conran at £85. She is wearing it with a bright yellow vest top from Oasis (£22) to which she is less attracted as yellow gives her face a very unattractive tinge, but at least the effects were partially ameliorated by the stripes. The bag was about £50 and also gives a pop of colour amid the deck chairs. Jane has put on her own silk jersey trousers with this, which were £22 from the unlikely Roman last year, but great if you are heading off on a 

Roman holiday as she was. 

Still in the cheap chic trews, this time Jane has put on another unlikely, for her, garment: a tunic top (she despises these as they suck all shape out of her already rather square torso). But on a mission to find stripes all options must be considered, and what Jane and Beryl liked about this one was the hot  pink cuffs (tick another trend, says Beryl). From Oasis, it is £36.

The thorny problem of knitwear rears its ugly head, and Jane and Beryl doubt that this £36 Oasis number will have any longevity, but it does fulfil the blocky stripes criteria. They deemed it a good bit of kit for a cruise, or whatever your holiday predilection is, provided it was passed on to the charity shop on one's return. Jane is wearing it with linen trousers she searched out last summer when the linen trew was wildly unfashionable - but she loves them, and will not be put off.

When Jane put this on in the changing room, she rather fell for it, but thank goodness she didn't buy it, as on reflection, she rather thinks it has the look of the 1960s housecoat about it, and quite frankly the fabric feels like the nylon so beloved of that decade. It is from Red Herring at £38. The handbag, although a bit on the plasticky side, is £20 but this Jane and Beryl can cope with for a bit of 

good, clean  holiday fun.

Beryl bought this chevron stripe skirt from Anthropologie (£89) last season. Made of heavy jersey, it drapes well and can be dressed up or down, here it's seen with a T-shirt, but it also tips up with flip-flops. The jacket is Hobbs and came second hand for £40. Trusty £12 Zara sale shoes complete the look. Accessorized here with Jane's stripy sofa 

This dress arrived in Beryl's wardrobe last summer and has earned its stripes, (groan). This Hobbs frock is very versatile, Beryl bigs it up with a posh colour block coat, from Goat £150 in a sale, or sticks a cardi on top and plimmies and heads for the beach cafe. The beauty of this dress is that the stripes are a bit fuzzy like a Rothko painting, as stripes can often be a bit hard edged literally. 

  These are technically 'striations' rather than stripes (sorry, dropped into art school lingo), but also a beloved  dress. This came from Antropologie and cost £150 last summer and went Italy to sing an opera. (Jane says, Beryl should've been singing in Grease). The cardi is from a charity shop and is Top Shop and cost £3.50 and the plimmies are ASDA's best, £3.

Jane is making Beryl wear her denim jacket (M&S £38) because she thinks Beryl's clothes are a bit too ponsy today. Ponsy? how very dare she! The trousers are Italian (89 Euros in a sale), OK maybe she has a point.