I need never leave the house again

Which is just as well, since autumn has blown in with cold and wet being the new daily default, all day, every day. Bleugh. Roll on winter I say!
But, as I was saying, I need never leave the house again, having discovered Shop Style. I expect I'm the last person to hear about this website, but not reading magazines or high street fashion blogs or shopping anywhere but eBay of late, I'd been in the dark until an accidental googling brought me there this week.
Shop Style seems to just be a massive catalogue of a good portion of high street through to high end clothes, which are searchable. Thus I could look for capes, filtered by colour and price and see offerings from dozens of different shops.

In looking for some wintery clothes recently, I discovered that I've actually forgotten how to shop. I tried eBay, then Marks and Spencer and then hit a brick wall, where else sells clothes? Duhhhhh...
So Shop Style is a bit of a life saver. Not a money saver though; after a happy half hour looking at lovely things I'd placed orders with 3 shops. They'll probably be totally wrong for me but I was tempted by the offers of free delivery and free returns. I'll probably send them all back. Right?
Anyway.
I thought I'd share some of my favourite items so that I don't have to apply for bankruptcy alone. You can thank me later.

I'm having a cape moment. The catwalks were full of belted capes (Dr's waiting room mag - very informative) and these seem to be getting picked up on the highstreet too. Love this House of Fraser one, though it ain't cheap.

House of Fraser cape

 This jacket with a removable cape is a bit quirky but I'm very drawn to it. Mad Granny or stylish vintage?

Tweed cape jacket

Why is a basic rain mac so hard to find? I've spent hours looking for a smart and stylish coat. This one from Zara is nice, but it's a bit short - my legs'll get wet!

Zara raincoat

Better length but dreaded camel colour. If anything makes me look seriously ill, it's wearing camel.

 Zara trench

Now this is much better. A distinctly 70s style, but it looks flattering, is a reasonable length and has big pockets. I'm not sure about the colour, but I've ordered one. Report to follow.

ASOS trench

Having had some success with the coats, I started looking for dresses. I'm always on the lookout for flattering dresses, particularly for winter. This New Look skater style dress has heavy vintage overtones and the princess seams might make it a flattering fit. This too is on its way.

Newlook skater dress

Not one for me, sadly, but I thought someone else might fin this tempting - it's plus size only (UK20 up), jersey and in a very 40s style cut. Just with they did a smaller version!

ASOS plus sized dress

Still on the hunt for jersey, I came across this. Simple but really quite nice. I love the colour, and the longer length on this too. I may order one of these...

BooHoo jersey skater dress

Red is obviously very much in my winter pallet since I couldn't resist this top. It's limited edition and comes in 3 colours.

New Look blouse

And finally, accessories. I didn't really get into the shoes, since any regular reader will know that I have a small 'substance abuse problem' as Carrie Bradshaw would put it. I love this bag though, and have in fact had 3 bags very much like this before but for quite a bit more than they're charging. Ostrich is also my favourite. Black would be more practical, but the tan would go well with my new trench...

BooHoo bag

OK, I lied. There are shoes. But just one pair. And yes, these also went into my shopping bag. They're perfect for winter, though, and RED!

New Look desert boots

Ah, new season shopping. Got to love it.
Are there any other good style websites out there that I've missed? I'd love to hear how to shop a bit better from the experts!

Vicarious Vintage Inspired Shopping

I'm in the middle of my shopping fast and needed a fix. Touching real clothes would be too much for my jonesing, so it was an online shopping trip only.
I'm sure you're all familiar with the fab clothes available at Heyday, Freddies of Pinewood and the like, so I'm sharing some of my favourite vintage inspired High Street buys. See, under the guise of sharing with you I'm getting vicarious spending done :)

Zara usually have a lot of great 1940s style clothes, but they've come up a bit short this season. If you're into a 60s Mod look, there's plenty on offer, but not much to suit me.
I'm not sure where the waist sits on these, but if it's close to the natural waist they could look great with a 30s inspired top.

Zara WIDE-LEG TROUSERS 29.99 GBP

Zara has quite a few stripey slash neck t-shirts. I think they could work well with high waisted jeans for a cheeky nautical look.

Zara ORGANIC COTTON T-SHIRT 9.99 GBP


River Island has come up trumps this time round. The have a couple of dresses this style, which claim to be knee length. I'm interested to see if they really do reach the knee, but this one in particular is lovely!

River Island beige 50s embellished prom dress £44.99

 The same goes for this one - it's lovely but how long is it?

River Island brown check belted shirt dress £39.99

This makes me think of Edwardian styles, but also of the Mexican blouses that were popular in the 40s. I think this top calls for a broomstick tiered skirt or some wide legged trousers.

River Island blue print chelsea girl gypsy top £25.00

I really like the buttons and the waist detailing on these, nice for the sunny months!

River Island beige button wide leg trousers £34.99


Marks and Spencer have a limited range of interesting clothes for once, I normally find lots of clothes I like but not much today!
This shirt made me think of Katharine Hepburn, it's a great classic shirt.

Marks and Spencer Autograph Essentials Twin Flap Pocket Satin Shirt £29.50

The Roma range at Marks is higher waisted and a bit more generous in the hip! They fit me the best of any trousers on the high street and are where my trousers I wear most often to work come from. These linen ones look like they'd be nice for the park or walking by the sea when it really gets hot!

Marks and Spencer Per Una Roma Pure Linen Wide Leg Trousers £35.00

 Next I looked at Clarks for some shoes! I've been after some white sandals since last summer, and I think these fit the bill perfectly! They ain't cheap but I think they'd go anywhere and I could dance in them. What more could a girl ask for? Clarks have their usual great range of styles inspired by their own archives - I do go on about them though so I'll leave their range at one pair!

Clarks Orinda Cameo £59.99


Office have some nice sandals too. I like these in particular as they're not so high as some of the others!

Office GOLD STAR FOR YOU DARK GREY RAFFIA £46.00

Despite all those lovely things, I think the only things I'd like to go and look at are the Clarks shoes, the M&S trousers and the River Island blouse. At a pinch, maybe just the shoes...am I getting less keen on spending money with my fast?

Vintage in Hay on Wye

 I finally made it to Hay on Wye this weekend. It was only a flying visit, as we had family to see as well. The day was beautiful, the sort of crisp and sunny day autumn is supposed to be full of. The mountains and the trees were wonderful and it's on days like these that I long to live somewhere prettier than Bristol.

The view from the road

We did our normal tour of Hay, taking in most of the vintage and antiques shops, plus a number of the bigger book shops. I took lots of pictures of pretty things, but I feel I missed a lot of the best sights, if only because I was rummaging for goodies!

 



The Olde curiosity shoppe is one of my favourites. It's jammed full of clothes, homewares, music books, fabric and crafting bits and jewellery. I love going in for a rummage!





Sage femme is my second favourite shop, and is more second hand than vintage, but the whole place is themed in a mid C20th French style, so it's full of beautiful finds from France and England, old and new, all presented in a wonderful way.



A stack of vintage veils



 Next, onto  Booths Books, the biggest bookshop in Hay and recently refurbished with a cafe and a number of sofas and chairs. Unlike a lot of Hay, the books are very well organised and alphabetised, so it's easy to find specific books, and there are 2 resident cats!

 There was a sweet shop in the back of a rather imposing antiques shop selling blankets and quilts, along with a few vintage nicknacks. Afraid I forgot to look at the name of the shop!

 Finally I went to another shop I can't remember the name of, but it's one with lots of small traders throughout. The rooms are small and packed, so it was hard to take photos but I got one of a clothes area at the back of the shop. There's always something nice in here and it's got such a huge range of items it's a good place to spend some time rummaging.

Onto what I bought then! In the last shop I bought this trunk for £12! It all works despite a little rust and I'm going to use it ti store blankets I think. It's really big so I think I got a bargain.

 I also picked up a white opera scarf for Tom (becuase we go to the opera all the time dontcha know :/ ) and a suitcase, which was another cheap find for £10!

 Finally, in Abergavenny, Tom saw this owl and bought it for me, bacause I am owl crazy. Isn't he cute? He's supposed to be a doorstop but I'm going to keep him on a shelf so that the cats don't eat him. His name is Lord Oliver Wise, which I think suits him perfectly.