Purple Phase: purple with shades of grey

Hi, hi.

The eagle-eyed amongst you - or those of you who live in England -  might guess that the photos in today's post were taken a couple of weeks ago now. Because right now there's no way you'd get me to pose in my back garden in short sleeves and sandals.

Today I'm wearing 2 pairs of socks, legwarmers, boots ... and my arms are buried beneath so many layers they might just be turning into coal at the bottom.

However, today's colour palette is perfectly suited to this cold turn in the season and it's appropriately cool and wintery:

Ahhh grey. Lovely, lovely grey.

If you thought I had a lot of purple clothes ... you need to see the mountain of grey billowing from my wardrobe.

Grey really is my new black. Where I once would have turned to black as the default shade for my basic items [t-shirts, tights, socks, cardigans ... especially the cardigans. If it's grey .. and a cardigan ... I have it] I now turn to grey as a softer alternative.

Particularly with purple:

While black and purple certainly do work together there's always the risk of it going a bit Goth-y. Which is perfectly fine, if that's what you're aiming for [I've been there, done that, bought the eyeliner] but there's less contrast between grey and purple so the overall effect is lighter: 

And yes, that is indeed a purple bag I'm brandishing ... because, after remembering that I had 2 pairs of purple shoes [in this previous post] I also remembered there was a bag lurking on a hook somewhere ... beneath the other bags ... of which there are a few! So I dug it out for the occasion.

I don't think I'd use the bag if I was wearing an outfit with a lot of purple in it already [looking like Barney has never been high up on my style agenda] but as an accent of colour amid the grey, with just the dress to co-ordinate with, I think it worked!

Dress: H&M ¦¦ Bag: Primark ¦¦ Jacket: TopShop ¦¦ Jeans: Primark ¦¦ Sandals: Moda in Pelle ¦¦ Necklace: Lemon ¦¦ Scarf: handmade gift from Kirsty Neale 



------------------------

To be honest I'm getting quite attached to blogging about my clothes. Putting outfits together was possibly the first creative thing I latched on to as a toddler so I don't think there's any possibility of me changing now. And it's reminded me of how much I enjoyed doing the My Year in Outfits project a few years back.

So, after the Purple Phase is over, I'm thinking of continuing to blog outfits every now and again and would love to know what you think.

Note: If you think it's the worst idea you've ever heard, ever, there's a good chance that I won't listen to you and will carry on regardless ... just so you know ... ;-)

I'm not sure how I'd work it yet without a focus - like 'purple stuff' - so:

• I'm open to suggestions on what kinds of outfits I'd blog;
• What, if anything, you might like to see;
• What reasons there might be to blog an outfit. [Other than I like playing with clothes! Or maybe that's enough in itself?!]
• Challenges you might like to set me! And ...
• whatever else you can think of ...

[Unless you're going to say 'don't bother' in which case ... I'll be putting my fingers in my ears].

OK, then ... over to you ...

Julie :-)