looking back on last year's purchases
By On In Wardrobe836 Comments

To be honest, I wish I could show you guys more colorful purchases than the ones above but I’m afraid this will have to do. I think you’ve seen all of them already except for the black Everlane turtleneck on the left. Overall, 2015 was the year I started to incorporate more black into my outfits and managed to have a small wardrobe crisis halfway through despite a closet filled with clothes. Summer has never been and never will be my favourite season wardrobe-wise. So it won’t come as a surprise that most of my favourite pieces of last year are fall and winter items.

last-year's-purchases

Now onto the purchases. Apart from the Weekday trousers, these acquisitions have gotten a lot of wear. The Uniqlo trousers, cashmere turtleneck and coat are on heavy rotation at the moment. I’m also still very happy with both of the bags. The A.P.C. bag is my current go-to bag when I don’t need to carry a lot. The Mansur Gavriel bucket bag however needs to be worn more often (too afraid to scratch it). Finally the blouses are just okay for what they are. The striped blouse doesn’t look so great anymore after I wore it several times a week last summer, but what did I expect for €20? The silk blouse is lovely, but I regret not buying a silk blouse with pockets.

5 piece purchases
A.P.C. half moon bag
Mansur Gavriel bucket bag
Uniqlo x Lemaire cashmere trousers
& Other Stories silk blouse
Everlane cashmere turtleneck
Filippa K Dean coat
Weekday cotton trousers
H&M striped blouse
Mango leather sandals

style-resolutions5

The heels were a gift and bought for special occasions. Even though I don’t plan on wearing them on a regular basis, I did add them to my basics as I do feel that everyone could use a basic pair of black heels. I opted for a suede shoe with a sturdy, not too thin heel for comfort. Speaking from experience, Isabel Marant’s t-shirts are of excellent quality, so I decided to purchase an extra t-shirt on sale.

Basics
H&M sandals
Pier One loafers
& Other Stories black heels (gift)
Isabel Marant Wenji t-shirt

The items below all needed to be replaced. I no longer fit my old blue jeans and they’re a welcome change from my usual black attire. The black jeans were bought quite unexpectedly but it turns out H&M no longer produces the high-waisted jeans I used to purchase so I figured I should probably have a backup just in case they stop producing them altogether. As I’m going to try to ignore fast fashion as much as I can this year, I need to start looking into other brands for jeans (more on that in my next post about style resolutions).

Replacements
Adidas Stan Smiths
& Other Stories wool long-sleeve
& Other Stories blue jeans
H&M black jeans
H&M white and black t-shirt

That’s it! As I kept track of my purchases throughout the year, I was able to make a fairly accurate estimation of what I spent in total over 2015 on clothes and accessories. I won’t bore you with the numbers, but trust me when I say it can be confronting. That said, I was able to afford it all and do not regret investing in more expensive pieces that I know are of exceptional quality. But I should cut down on the purchases in general because at this point I have enough to wear.

What do you guys think? Is my list of purchases over the course of 2015 reasonable? And how did you do yourself?

viktorrolf-haute-couture-aw-2015-wearable-art-3
By On In Noteworthy45 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year’s Eve with family and/or friends. I’m excited to start the new year! So far I already know that in April I will get a permanent position at the museum which means we can start to look for a house. The process of buying a house seems quite overwhelming but I’m sure it will all work out when we find our dream house. But anyway, for those of you who are taking it easy today, check out the links below while I work on my wardrobe dissection of 2015.

I recently posted a picture of one of Viktor&Rolf’s Van Gogh girls from their SS15 collection on Instagram. We’re currently showing three designs in the museum where I work and they’re even more gorgeous in real life. It’s always a bit hard to define Viktor&Rolf who’s runway shows often resemble a performance piece such as their recent Fall 2015 collection titled Wearable Art. I love how they transform the outfits into actual artworks by unfastening the works from the models and carefully hanging them on a white museum-like wall. One of the designs has already been donated to the museum. You can watch both shows here and here.

The 2012 documentary ‘In Vogue: The Editor’s Eye‘ is also a fun and entertaining watch if you haven’t seen it yet. It focuses on some of the world’s most influential fashion images as conceived by the magazine’s iconic fashion editors. The film features behind-the-scenes interviews with editors who have contributed to the magazine’s legacy, including current editor-in-chief Anna Wintour; fashion editors such as Grace Coddington and Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele (the latter is quite hysterical actually) and fashion designers such as Marc Jacobs, Alber Elbaz and Nicolas Ghesquière. You can watch it here.

review-acne-canada-scarf
By On In Review2,173 Comments

The immensely popular Acne Canada scarf is hands down one of my favourite winter essentials. I bought mine a little over four years ago on sale at Matches Fashion and I haven’t worn another scarf since. What’s not to love: the colour goes with everything, it’s incredibly warm and it can easily double as a shawl because of its size (190 cm x 75 cm) as I do tend to get cold in the office sometimes.

By the way, in case you’re wondering why the logo on my scarf looks different from the one they use now; they changed the name from Acne (Ambition to Create Novel Expressions) to Acne Studios in 2013. Jonny Johansson, one of the founders and now global creative director, initially said he liked the idea of “appropriating a difficult word” and making it cool, but over the years he changed his mind: “I wish we hadn’t called it that. People said it was a weird name, and I agree with them.”

Material: 100% virgin lambswool. The material feels luxurious, soft and quite substantial. The term virgin wool is used to identify the wool one gets from shearing a lamb for the first time. This wool is known to be very soft and fine. It also provides exceptional protection from the elements and is water resistant. Wool is naturally absorbent and is able to absorb almost 20 percent of its weight in liquid.

Care instructions: dry-clean only. I’m usually not that strict when it comes to care instructions. Most of the dry-clean only items that I own, can be washed by hand. That said, I haven’t tried it with this scarf yet. So for now, I would suggest getting it professionally cleaned, just to be safe. Also be careful when it gets really wet and make sure you let it dry on a flat surface so it won’t lose its shape. Never dry it close to a heat source!

Price: €150. This scarf originally retailed for about €110 but currently sells for €150. Only a couple of weeks ago it sold for €130, so that’s a price increase of 15%. To me, that hardly comes as a surprise as it has been extremely popular for several years now and I’m sure a lot of consumers won’t mind paying its current price. But if you’re contemplating buying this scarf, make sure you don’t take too long to make up your mind. Who knows, another price increase could just be around the corner.

Worth the price: I absolutely love it and I have never regretted my purchase for one second. After all these years it still looks brand new; the quality is outstanding. It has truly proven itself to be a worthwhile investment. But, I did get it on sale and to be honest, I find its current price to be quite steep. If you can afford it and you don’t mind paying extra for the brand name, go for it! For those of you who can’t or won’t spend that amount on a simple (yet timeless) scarf, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that there’s a similar, cheaper 100% wool scarf out there that will last you just as long.

Other (cheaper) alternatives: A.P.C. (€145), & Other Stories (€55), H&M (€30), Hallhuber (€70), ICHY (€50), Filippa K (€100)

By On In Style22 Comments

Although this is originally a Youtube tag, I’ve seen a few blogs do it as well. Just five simple questions about style:

1. Who are your style icons?
Okay, did I just say five simple questions? Let see, I get most of my style inspiration from blogs, Instagram and Pinterest but if I had to choose a person, I would go for Giorgia Tordini (picture) and/or Caroline de Maigret. The former sometimes a bit too feminine for my taste but I really love her use of basics. And who doesn’t want to be as well-dressed and gorgeous as Caroline in their forties?

2. What is your best style advice or tip?
Be yourself and be confident. Style isn’t just about the clothes you wear but it’s also a reflection of your personality and attitude.

3. What was your style like as a teen?
I used to spend all of my after school hours inline skating and skateboarding. So mostly a lot of oversized everything. What can I say, I was a tomboy and still am by heart. I stopped wearing oversized pants when I discovered skinny jeans. Lord knows what I would be wearing right now if it weren’t for those jeans.

4. What type of outfit do you wear the most?
This is easy! A pair of jeans with a jumper, blouse or t-shirt with sneakers, loafers or ankle boots.

5. Who is your favourite designer?
Phoebe Philo. If I could afford it I would be decked out in Céline, all day every day.