Vintage dressing gown £60 (Penzance) Vintage umbrella £10 (Newlyn)
Linen playsuit Whistles Sale £95, Zara mules charity shop £7, Earrings £42 Anthropologie


Dress, Somerset by Alice Temperley, £135 at John Lewis, coat, £69, The White House Sale,
bag, £10 at BB Vintage, Trowbridge


Jane and Beryl are busy playing Jane's favourite dressing up game, which we will call 'Bloomsbury'. This is Jane's imaginary life in which she imitates the likes of Virginia Woolf wafting about in Cornwall, trying to look intellectual, literary, and interesting in floppy clothes. Here she is seen in the garden of Virginia's childhood family holiday home, Talland House. Beryl's job is to scrabble about on rocks, trying to keep up with her and carry the equipment. 

'Oh, do hurry up,' says Jane, 'and I hope you haven't forgotten the picnic basket or worse, the umbrella? It looks like rain this afternoon and we won't be able to go to the lighthouse.' Beryl really, really wants to go to the lighthouse. 

Get the Look

You will need
A large hat
A bright kimono 
A plain maxi dress
Arty beads 
Flat shoes

Preloved Dianne Von Fustenberg shirt-dress £30 charity shop, Numph trousers (past season) £60,
Pumps Victoria £37, hat charity shop £10

It was said of the Bloomsbury Set that they, 'lived in squares, painted circles and loved in triangles'. Beryl would also add that they dressed in oblongs. This has to be a plus for a woman of a certain age: everything is blissfully baggy. Bezza's planning a bag of chips on the way home, and she's not sharing. 


Hat, Foxwell & Moon vintage, kimono, Zara, £29.99, trousers, Zara pre-loved, £10,
shoes, Converses, pre-loved £20, bag, vintage, £10

  'There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.' 

So says the great Virginia, but Jane begs to differ: what a lot of high falutin' nonsense. Jane is always in charge of what she wears ('Don't I know it,' mutters Beryl, disconsolately).


Hat, present from Vietnam, kimono, birthday gift, fan, present from Japan, jumpsuit,
pinched from Beryl, shoes, Zara, £29.99

"Anyone who's worth anything reads just what he likes as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm."

The mist is rolling in, but as Jane is in pretending mood, it's easy for her to nonchantantly continue reading as if it's full sun, with extravagant enthusiasm. She has sent Beryl to fetch a cream tea, which will put everything right even if it decides to pour.


Vita Sackville-West


Jigsaw trouser £95 sale, vintage silk shirt £35, Jane's hat, earrings as before

'Extravagant enthusiasm'... she could be describing Beryl's love of clothes and indeed her sartorial spending habits. Here, she dons her this season's linen Jigsaw trousers with a vintage silk shirt, embroidered with Chinese characters. This combining of the old and new seems to be working rather well for our Bezza at present. The vintage provides interest and individuality, while the odd carefully chosen new item, prevents her from looking like a walking jumble sale, she hopes.  

Dress, Ghost, vintage, kimono, vintage, necklace, charity shop,
 shoes, Zara, as before

"No need to hurry.
No need to sparkle.
No need to be anybody but oneself."

Jane has been wearing this dress for over twenty years and never feels anything but herself in it, the true sign of an excellent piece of purchasing. Of course, at the point of sale, one can never tell if this will be the case, and let's face it, how often does this happen. But when it does, oh, the joy. 


"I don't believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun."

Beryl finally gets to Godrevy Lighthouse, of  'To The Lighthouse' fame, and gets the chipped potatoes. Mitts off, Jane. 

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