You Ain't Got No Alibi

(Image via Farfetch)

You ugly!

And that is why we love you. For once fashion is embracing the practical and the unconventional in the form of the ugly sandal. It is the shoe trend of the season and I want in. I am entirely in love with the See by Chloe white chunky sandal above, but as a possible one-season-trend I might refrain from spending the big(ger) bucks and look to the high street instead.

I can't even remember the last time that I bought anything from Topshop but that might well change because the are hard at work on the ugly sandal trend.

Prada, Celine et al have been championing the pool slide/Teva style adventure sandal and the fashion elite have been going nuts for them. Who can blame them, quite frankly. The cost of being at the forefront of the fashion biz is surely the constant discomfort of dressing out of season and  sporting perilously high heels. So flat chunky sandals with wide straps must be an absolute delight in comparison.

Another great thing about an ugly trend is that you have to be quite brave to try it, so while the comfort might mark you out as being anti-fashion the ugliness (weirdly in this case) reels you back in to being right on the fashion money. Get in! Being fashionable by wearing just one item? It couldn't be easier.

A probably unnecessary  warning is that those not interested in fashion and particularly those with XY chromosome WILL. NOT. GET. THIS. TREND. It is basically a fashion prophylactic.

But fear not, ladies, if you are the type to dress for the fellas this is no doubt the furthest trend from your thoughts anyway. So as you were.

I wear trainers almost exclusively these days and as the weather is getting warmer I was getting concerned about how to maintain the levels of comfort I have recently become accustomed to. But I can breathe a deep sigh of relief because the ugly sandal is going to keep my feet blissfully happy while doing the same for my fashion sensibilities. I couldn't be more chuffed!

(Images via Topshop)

Too Much to Sandal

 Ancient Greek Sandals

It's probably not a surprise to you that it's cold out. And it's only going to get colder. I don't mean to bring you down, I'm just being realistic. Winter only officially starts tomorrow. There are many more months ahead of thick tights and boots (which I am very fetchingly accessorising with a ropey old bandage around my ankle having sprained the damned thing).

So what is the last thing that I should be fantasising about?

And what is the absolute thing I am fantasising about?

That's right. The sandal.

And quite frankly the skimpier the better. I want to flash some skin, and lots of it. On my feet at least, the rest of me is more than happy to be swaddled in voluminous knits.

My colleague is going to the Caribbean for Christmas and I am having some serious envy about my utter lack of opportunities to get my hoofs out without the threat of frostbite. I might wack up the heating, hose my legs down with some St Tropez, shimmy around in some sandals and to hell with it.

Failing that I will slaver over these delights. Sigh!

 Ancient Greek Sandals

 Dolce & Gabbana

 Gianvito Rossi

Giuseppe Zanotti

 Jimmy Choo

 Marni

 Nicholas Kirkwood

 Nicholas Kirkwood

 Nicholas Kirkwood

 Pedro Garcia

Reed Krakoff

(Images via Net a Porter)

Drille Sergeant

(Image via Vogue)

These Tory Burch espadrilles just seem like the most perfect shoe for summer. Great colour combination and a rope soled shoe speaks volumes of wafting about the Amalfi Coast pretending you are Gwyneth in The Talented Mr Ripley. Yes please, I'll have a bit of that!

Play it Cool

(Image via Vogue)

There are certain women (I suspect not a lot of them British) who can just deal well with the heat. I envy them. As I mentioned, I am a sweaty mess just trying to make the best of it. These lucky young ladies manage to look infinitely cooler, and, you know, cooler.

Rise and Shine

Oh my gosh it's hot. I'm in London, at work, and it's sweltering.

If only I looked as delightful as this lady with a sweaty face. She definitely shines rather than sweats. I do not. Definitely sweaty. The make up is going to have to go. It is positively running off my face. I don't care what people say, no matter how much pressed powder you use nothing is going to stop it from heading south.

I wish I was lying by a pool supping cocktails. Sheesh.

Shear and Present Danger

The Net a Porter 'New In' section is a strange beast right now. It is stuffed with items for summer holidays but then, alongside, I spied the first glimpse of the autumn winter collections.

Now normally that would upset me. Strike me as making an unnecessarily damning comment on the state of the summer. Suggesting that all hope is gone and we should bow to the inevitable that it is going to be a wash out. Yet again.

But I was drawn to these Isabel Marant shearling lined boots, and I looked outside to the cold, grey, wet day outside and I thought how very happy my feet would be snuggled up in them.

 (Images via Net a Porter)

The Toast of the Town

I am not a girl who loves summer. I am definitely cold blooded. Perhaps I hail from the frozen north.

I don't day dream of white sandy beaches. I dream of snow strewn mountains and sleeping under nylon in less than comfortable temperatures.

 When I dress I prefer to wrap up too. I love to layer, which lends itself to a cooler time of year.

So when it comes to summer and shedding those layers I struggle. For one I am not overly keen on showing too much.

I also often feel silly in summer clothes. As though I am one of those optimists walking through town in a maxi dress on a slightly parky, overcast day, pretending that all is fine and you are really quite comfortable, thank you very much.

Don't you agree that summer clothes can seem incredibly frivolous? Great to be 17 and running around in shorts or flimsy dresses, slightly tragic to be doing the same at 34. Or maybe I am just old and grumpy before my time. Don't answer that...

So I think the only solution is to go classic. Not boring, but good fabrics, a bit of tailoring and slightly more substantial than that little scrap of something that they are hawking to the bright young things.

 And for this elegant clothes summer mission?

My go to is definitely going to be Toast. They have some truly lovely pieces. Full of personality and fun but a bit more grown up too.

I dream of being that woman in summer who looks effortless and cool as a cucumber. And I think with this clobber I might just be able to do that. Now we just need the sun to buy into the whole summer thing and we'll be set.

(Images via Toast)

All White Now

I love summer and white dresses. It just makes me wish I wasn't such a mucky pup because I would never be able to keep them immaculate and would inevitably spill my lunch down them on the first outing.

Hobbs

Band of Outsiders

 By Malene Birger

 Carven

Christopher Kane

Etoile Isabel Marant

La Petite S*****

Philosophy di Alberta Feretti

Stella McCartney

Valentino 

 Victoria Beckham

(Images via Hobbs, Net a Porter)