Keeping your feet warm

Can you still feel your feet?! It’s a bit on the chilly side out there at the moment. I feel daunted by the winter if this is what we’re facing already...and that my wardrobe is woefully inadequate.

I remember when I was in Copenhagen last December seeing proper winter clothing but for city wear, rather than skiing or rambling around the countryside...clothes that didn’t sacrifice style for warmth (though this also included a woman wearing a padded jump suit with heeled (heeled!) furry boots, walking in thick snow...not a look I’ll be emulating but hats off for fashion bravery!).

I realised that because our winters aren’t usually so harsh, there isn’t quite the choice on the high street and often what is there for winter wear cannot cope with temperatures that don’t get above freezing.

The black over the knee, fur-lined boots I bought in Copenhagen last December are never off my feet when it starts to get this cold. The lining means my feet and legs are kept warm and it has quite a rubbery sole that grips really well (until I blog tomorrow and tell you I’ve fallen over!).

But I don’t want to destroy them by wearing them every single day so I am on the look out for some more fur-lined boots. And yesterday, as I walked past Dune, I spotted them! It was closed, so I haven’t tried them yet...but oh how I want them!
 
So here are the winter boots I’ve got my eye on and a round up of some of my other favourites on the high street.

Dune multi-buckle biker style boot - £120

Clarks Maddie Ann boots - £79.99

Aldo Warmuth boots - £120

Topshop damask over the knee boots – £135

River Island light brown ankle boots - £44.99

Bertie Drew fur ankle boots - £125
 

Debenhams H by Henry Holland knee high boots - £72
 

Clarks black patent knee high boots - £120

Fashion Inspiration from Zara

There is a risk that the Edna blog, at times, sounds like an ad for Zara...but once again I am taking inspiration from there! I just find that the collections are completely in tune with my life and the sorts of outfits that suit my working environment. Smart separates, evening wear that can easily be dressed down for the office, a real sense of grown-up clothing for modern women (not girls!).

Admittedly there are dresses and skirts that are too short for me...and every pair of trousers seem to be about a foot too long for me...and the sizing is odd and can be on the (very) small side. But casting all this aside, the clothes are great and the website has a monthly lookbook which is really inspiring. It makes me want to be a grown-up, looking groomed and stylish...which is amazing for a high street store!

Rather than listing items and their prices, I just wanted to share some of my favourite looks from the Zara website. Hopefully in weeks to come you’ll see me being ‘inspired’ by some of these looks in my existing togs (if I have bought anything new, feel free to tell me off, you know I shouldn’t be spending a penny!)

 

p.s. I'm planning to celebrate the start of the festive season with a Christmas gift guide this week...so please send me your gift ideas (then you can forward my blog on to friends and family and drop hints!!)

Thermals & Sequins

What I’m lusting after this week is frivolous and a treat. What I’ve actually been buying are thermals! I’ve bought a stack of the Uniqlo heat-tech vests, leggings and long-sleeved tops and bought some thermal leggings in M&S...which I have on as I type this and are a treat!

They are so warm and cosy and actually look pretty too, rather than looking like you’ve got grandma’s long-johns on! They are £18, so not cheap, but I’ve been so cold that they seemed worth the investment. My only advice would be to buy a size bigger than you think you are. I’m a size 8/10 and bought a size 12, which are snug.

Back to the lust item of the week.

Sequins and the festive season are a total cliché, I know. The whole sequin and frill overload is a bit much and actually it’s often nice to go for something completely different and wear much more under-stated outfits and save the sequins for other occasions.

But this time of year is perfect for stocking up on them because every single shop is bursting with sequins! So buy now, use later!

Or with this lovely copper sequin bag from Mango, you can easily dress up a very plain outfit with some under-stated festive sparkle. Boyfriend jeans, stripy top, blazer, with some heels and a cross-body sparkle bag. Perfect for a Christmas pub lunch!

Sequin chain bag in copper - £37.90

Illustrating Fashion

Tonight I went to see a wonderful exhibition at Somerset House of the fashion illustrator René Gruau. His illustrations are synonymous with Christian Dior and were used throughout the last century for Christian Dior perfumes, as well as sketches of iconic Dior outfits (which were some of my favourites). 

My drawing skills are non-existent and the times I have attempted to sketch, it resembles something a child would produce...if not worse. But I love fashion illustrations...they are beautiful and inspiring. I got a book for Christmas last year “100 Years of Fashion Illustration” and it is a treat. So if you know anyone who loves fashion, you could do worse than buying them a book of fashion illustrations...or if you’re near London, take them to see the René Gruau exhibition!

p.s. Happy Thanksgiving to anyone reading this in the USA...or in fact any American reading this based anywhere...such as my wonderful friend Michelle, a committed Edna reader, based in Perth!

Winter warmers

I haven’t done a little fashion shoot in a while, so tonight’s blog shows one of my fail safe winter outfits. Layers, layers and more layers.

I won’t bore you with all the layers underneath the dress (there are lots) but the dress is one of my favourites that I’ve blogged about before. It’s fitting that in the week of the latest H&M frenzy, I show one of my outfits from a previous H&M collaboration, last year’s Sonia Rykiel collection. Both the black swing dress and the Edna infamous black gilet are from there and will be on my back loads this winter. Both are wool...both are warm.

I'm trying to show the swing of the dress!

The coat is the Juicy Couture number I bought at London Fashion Weekend for...wait for it...£60 (I know!). Even Mr W has said he thinks the coat is one of my best ever buys!

The boots are the fur lined, over the knee leather beauties bought in desperation in the depths of the Copenhagen winter last December.

The handbag is last week’s £10 bargain.

And the necklace was a present from my mum!

Hats On

So the Lanvin for H&M collection went on sale today...and sold out pretty much immediately. Did you have any luck getting hold of anything? Did you queue outside for hours? If you did, you’re a much more committed shopper than I am!

I know my sister made a brave attempt to buy online at 7.30 this morning but had no luck at all. I guess it’s a big marketing ploy – fan the flames of shopping excitement, don’t have enough stock to go around...and never, ever prepare your website so that it can cope with the volume of traffic. If it seems so hard to get hold of anything, it adds to the excitement and exclusivity of the collection.

Not that I’m bitter or anything!

I’m having a bit of a winter theme with the last few posts on Edna...and given that snow is possible later this week, it’s still all I can think about. How to stay warm in the freezing cold?

A hat is essential. I cannot survive the winter without them. Each year I buy a new one to add to my collection...also because for some reason the hat I’ve pretty much lived in and loved the previous winter doesn’t seem to look right the following winter! (I can feel Mr W rolling his eyes at this statement already!)

I’ve never heard of this brand before but Asos stock Catarzi hats and there is many a hat I would like to have sitting jauntily on my head this winter.

Catarzi felt riding hat - £23

Catarzi felt trilby with ribbon - £23

Catarzi bowler hat - £25

Catazrzi felt school cap - £25

Wrap up Winter

I always get to this point in the year and feel as if somehow autumn has completely missed me and we’ve gone straight from the tail-end of summer into utterly freezing winter. All my light-weight jackets only seem to get an airing in the spring...I go straight from summer cotton jackets to multiple layers and a big winter coat on top. And not to be too depressing on a dark Sunday night in November but we’ve got months of it left!
 
However, there is something cosy and reassuring about putting on a thick winter coat and heading out into the chill. A good winter coat makes the winter bearable and enjoyable. As long as it’s not chucking it down with rain, I love going out for winter walks and feeling the cold on my face. And if it’s snowing it is physically impossible to keep me indoors!

So as we edge further into winter, I’ve done a round-up of some of my favourite winter coats on the high street. The most expensive is £129, so none of them are financially horrifying...though given we live in a cold(ish) country, a good winter coat is an investment worth making. I have quite a classic military styled black woollen winter coat with satin detailing which is about five years old and gets worn a lot every single winter.

Red Herring black blanket coat - £36

Peacocks ladies Victoriana coat - £40

Butterfly by Matthew Williamson black flecked cape coat - £63.75

M&S collarless coat - £69

Topshop faux sheepskin cape - £70

River Island light brown swing coat - £74.99

Uniqlo +J wool singled breasted coat - £99

Asos premium dip back coat - £100 (gorgeous coat but a shame that they seem to have a child modelling it!)

Dahlia buckle detail check coat - £110 (would probably pair with clothing on my bottom half just to make the outfit winter proof!)

Wallis 1948 red bow back skirted coat - £120 (but 20% off everything online until midnight Monday)

Zara mao collar coat - £129