10 WOACA-friendly fashion trends for spring.
Tuesday 21 March 201710 WOACA-friendly fashion trends for spring
Jane and Beryl, as
usual, are a bit bored with what they've got in their wardrobes (first world problem), and are languidly flicking through the fashion mags to see what's hot for spring in the fashion world. Never let it be said that they are slaves to a trend, but they do like to root around in the great fashion cupboard of life and see what they can come up with. Not put off by the uber-thin models prancing the catwalks, they have come up with a do-able list of 10 fashion-forward ideas which the WOACA can rock whatever her fashion predilections.
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| Vintage Bruce Oldfield coat £50 charity shop. Dress £32. Trend 1 - Clashing Brights |
Jane and Beryl love a spot of colour. Colour lifts the spirits and announces the confidence of the wearer. This season the new kid on the colour block is the combination of yellow and pink. Beryl scurried off to her wardrobe and came up with this combo which she tried out on a trip to Winchester to see Beauty and the Beast with her youngest daughter. No-one actually needed smelling salts or obviously took cover, so she is assuming that the world is ready for a middle-aged woman clad head to toe in pink and yellow.
Trend 2 - Feature Handbags
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| £39 M&S |
Nothing heralds the advent of spring weather like the sudden urge to buy a new handbag. This year's crop are either small, structured and colourful like a packet of Opal Fruits or slouchy and metallic like an astronaut's picnic bag. The former are great with a formal outfit, while the latter are comfortable and practical for everyday life.
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| M&S £25 |
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| Mint Velvet £179 |
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| Beryl's latest purchase, a 1970s vintage bag £22, from Velvet Rose in Whitchurch, Hampshire . Trend 3 - Sports Luxe Jane and Beryl are in two minds about all this fuss about 'sports luxe' (what does this even mean?) They really think that anything to do with sport belongs on some sort of field or other or smelly in a kit bag. The problem they find with these trousers, is that they are a tad casual at the wrong moments - as if they are about to attend a yoga class. So Beryl thinks the trick is wear them with high heels (something that Jane will obviously never contemplate). However, they are told that these items are acceptable in polite society these days and to be fair, this combo below, is phenomenally practical and comfortable, and the jumper has a casual insousciance about it that is redolent of long afternoons lounging on a cricket pitch. |
Trend 4 - New Style Shoes
Beryl has been called the Emelda Marcos of Wiltshire and Jane comes a close second. This season there are many new styles which are the friend of the WOACA. First up the high neck V, which is a Godsend to deformed feet. Beryl's bunion is hardly noticeable in these pink M&S shoes with cone heels, she claims. Jane on other hand is disguising her oddly-sized feet, one a size 6, and the other a size 4 with a pair of silver slides. Jane will take no nonsense from anyone on the subject of difficult feet, as a two size, size difference surely takes the biscuit.
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| M&S £55. |
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| Zara £29. |
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| M&S £29.50 |
Zara £39
Trend 5 - Blazers
Bezza loves a blazer, it reminds her of when she was actually last employed in the 1980s (and was last employable harrumphs Jane). She likes to channel Melanie Griffiths in Working Girl, the bit where she commandeers her boss's wardrobe. Now Jane and Beryl were really excited by this red trouser suit, which is the kind of thing that they see in the Sunday times Style magazine, but rarely get their jammy mits on. However as often happens in Zara the cut, fabric and fit don't quite live up to expectations when confronted with the idiosyncrasies of the mature female body. Also Spanish women are very slight, and although Beryl is hardly a heifer she often has to wear a large, which is just depressing. So in a nutshell the trousers were a little too nylon and the jacket a bit too long for the 'pocket rocket'.
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| Zara blazer £69, trousers £29 |
So the simple truth is that it looks better on Jane, and better with Jane's £10 Tesco jeans. Beryl is, of-course, sulking.
Trend 6 - Floral Trouser Suit
Is this a beautiful and wondrous combo or is it simply gopping? Jane and Beryl can't quite make up their minds... Jane likes the sensuous feel of the silk (not real, of course) but felt rather like a fully fledged sofa bed. They thought it might be a good alternative to The Dress for any of the seasonal events coming up, however, especially for those who eschew the frock. It would be overwhelming for those WOACAs who are height challenged (our Beryl). The coordinating vest top is a triumph though as it fits comfortably over the incipient goat throats around Jane's pits.
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| Monsoon Poppy Print jacket £59, trousers £45 vest £25 |
Trend 7 - Stripy Shirts
Jane and the shirt of any hue are not normally best friends as she is convinced that she looks square in them and there are some unspecified neck issues. She does remember with affection, however, a stripy one from the eighties which she truly loved and wore until the day it fell apart. So, thus inspired, she tried this one from Zara on. The fit was good and the colours not too harsh, however, the fabric was some unnatural fibre or other which made her feel hot.
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| Zara £25 |
Trend 8 - The Flutey Sleeve
'Greensleeves was my delight' goes the song, except the answer is not really. Beryl finds them quite annoying, so this blouse will probably be Beryl's one and only flutey purchase of the summer, unless she manages to find one that has 'bracelet length' sleeves. The other issue is that many of these tops, seem to come with high necks. This one cunningly has an opening and a button at the front. Since Beryl has more neck rings that a two thousand year old oak tree, she is not keen to attract attention to this feature.
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| M&S £29, jeans £10 Gap sale rail |
Trend 9 - Statement Earrings
As you may note Beryl does not feature in the earring shots, as she is a stranger to the dangly earring, mostly because as well as having neck rings, her neck is also impossibly short. Beryl and Jane have suspected for some time that she is actually an inhabitant of Middle Earth. Therefore Beryl sticks to the stud, much safer. Jane, however, is keener to flaunt her swan-like neck over her Hobbity friend (see below). Both of these are out of Jane's archive collection but all the stores have scads of such things. Beryl says that when she first met Jane circa 1995, that's what she remembers about her at a time when NO-ONE locally wore anything like that and spotted her for a kindred spirit. Jane says, so that's what got us into this fine mess...
Trend 10 - Ruffles
Jane has always been mad for a ruffle. They may come and go in the fashion stakes, but Jane cares not. (In 1995 Jane sported chest ruffles that made Adam Ant's outfits look positively straight, says Beryl). So she is very happy that they are to be found everywhere this season and has two offerings for their dear readers. First up is the casual maxi dress bought half price in an end of season sale, while the white cotton shirt (of which Jane has many) is from TK Maxx. Jane and Beryl are fans of Denim & Supply, a younger diffusion range from Ralph Lauren as they find picking of good casual clothes are rich.
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| Lily & Lionel £100 in a sale |
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| Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren (www.ralphlauren.co.uk) £40 from TK Maxx |
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