OOTD: Dress Up Friday – Extra Smart with a side of Pinstripe please

G’day all!

Today is Compliment Day according to the cute calender, that is according to the calender for international novel dates, and it ties in wonderfully with the first ever group Dress Up Friday for which I’m sure I’ll be bubbling with many happy and instantaneous compliments to go round!

Dress Up Friday is basically the opposite of dressing down on a Friday hence I call it ‘Dress Up Friday’ :-). The idea is to make Friday special and fun by dressing up as much as you’d like and making an outfit of the day/OOTD blog post. Dressing up is based on a person’s own taste and comfort.

Some of lovely ladies from the following blogs may join in today and perhaps the idea might catch on to others 🙂

1) Maricel – My Closet Catalogue

She’s one cool cat eh? Strangely enough we both went with pinstripes, shirts hanging out and walking shoes today 🙂

2) Sabrina – Sabrina Au Fait

Wow a real wild card! The beautiful Sabrina took Fancy Friday to ethereal other realms and pulled it with flair!

3) Leah – Morning Ink

Smart, feminine, pretty all in one outfit with style expertise in staying weather appropriate and layering!

4) Nadia – My Hartjie
5) Vanessa – Ness Bow
6) Marta – Mimosas And Fashion

Like a real retro queen plucked straight outta the 70’s Marta strutted her stuff in this funky outfit like she was born for it!

7) Motown – This is Motown

Who doesn’t love Black and Pink?! Motown made it super sweet here with the polka dots and cute pose!

8) Camila – The Geek Chick
9) Kate – What Kate Did Next
10) Alena – Pennies To Pins

They all have fabulous OOTDs in general as it is, so it’ll be great to see what they come up with! I’m sure I’ll be bowled over with delight let alone the people who see them in ‘real life’!

“What to wear? What to wear?”

So today I was in that frame of mind, not harried or chewing my bottom lip as is the image usually conjured by such a question but just a tad perplexed. Plus I had pinstripes on the brain. Like many people in that situation I decided on the trusted and true method of returning to ones ‘go-to’ combination. For me that consists of a smart pair of pants/trousers, a roll or high neck long sleeved top or shirt and a long waistcoat.

I thought about this outfit but I don’t have that waistcoat anymore

My go-to outfit combination. Smart pants, top/shirt and long waistcoat.

My other long waistcoat is in the wash and my go-to Black polo necks are made of fabrics not suitable for the weather (lycra and polyspandex respectively)

My favourite item of clothing – the high neck long sleeved top.

So I compromised with a short waistcoat and a White shirt/blouse with Silver pinstripe. (It took me ages to find a White shirt on sale that I was happy with, seriously does anyone else have a hard time finding ones that aren’t the standard school uniform type? I like shirts to have a bit of character but still be smart and White ones are hardest to find, I only come across one I like enough to buy once a decade it seems.)

I paired those with a jacket of the ‘cooler’ bold pinstripe and more subtle pinstripe pants.

I wanted to wear fitted trousers like in the inspiration collage but have found it necessary to wear my walking shoes which are bulky, padded and comfy and needless to say don’t really go with smart or dressy outfits 😉 hence the wide leg column pants to cover ’em up 😛 I’m not sure if they go as well as fitted ones would or if they look a bit silly with other pieces that are fitted but hey they’re comfortable and that’s important 🙂 I also put my hair in an updo that I thought looked smart yet unusual and added a little flourish to my eye makeup.

Happy Friday! 🙂