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Monday 22 September 2014

An outfit for a black tie do.....

 

I realise that I blogged about pleated skirts only a few days ago but I thought that a little update may come in handy. Sometimes seeing something on a "real life" person makes it easier to relate to - either as a way of giving it the thumbs up, or as a way of confirming any "not in a million years" thoughts that you may have been harbouring!  

As I mentioned on Saturday, Mr SG and I had a black tie event to go to. Initially I was offered a choice of dresses by a dress hire company and that would have been great but then a week or so beforehand there was a problem with their system, so all blogger bets were off.

Being busy with work and other things, I didn't really give it any further thought until Thursday morning when I dug the sparkly Dune shoes out. Then I got to thinking about what to wear. I didn't really want to buy a new dress of the "black tie" variety because I knew that I probably wouldn't get a huge amount of wear out of it. In fact much as I was looking forward to the event, I didn't really feel like wearing an outfit of the "black tie" variety at all, which was all well and good but it didn't leave me with any answers. (Also, funds have already been committed to a Whistles dress which is currently on hold for me - more about that another day.) 

But then....well, you know how it goes....whilst in Topshop on Friday, I saw a beautiful white sequinned top which would have worked really well with a high waisted H&M midi skirt that I have and which I half had in mind to wear. The top was similar to this Whistles one (£135).....


...but at £48 it was much more within my price range and as I could have worn it again, I could have justified it.  However all of the ones on the shop floor were damaged - to the point that they shouldn't have been there really. Neither was it available on line and in other stores it was only available in a size 12. So that put me back to square one - minus a bit. And by now it was late Friday afternoon.

Saturday was taken up with an early morning run, followed by a 5k race with the children plus the usual Saturday jobs and with only five minutes before the taxi was due I decided to try the long pleated Zara skirt with an Oasis beaded top. And that was about as far as it went. I'm not sure that I even got a chance to check it out properly. In an ideal world I would have preferred a shorter top but I'm happy not to have made a last minute rushed purchase as they can be the ones that gall most if they're not right.

So, this was the Zara long pleated skirt (£39.99) that I wore and which I will continue to wear during the winter with shorter fitted jumpers, longer line chunky ones and block heeled ankle boots.


I also have this pleated midi skirt Zara (£39.99) at home which is a great option. It's shorter than the other one so probably better on someone who is on the petite side. Having said that, I sometimes think that the "drop" on longer pleated skirts helps the pleats to fall slightly better.


There's also this Whistles faux leather pleated skirt (£135) which I haven't tried, largely because the Zara options are so good but also the pleats in this skirt are sharper, which somehow makes it a little too structured for what I am after.  Nonetheless there will be some who prefer the sharpness of the pleats so it's worth a closer look.


So are any of you tempted by pleats or do they just bring back the horrors and memories of your school uniform?!