One can never have too many stripes

Stella McCartney pre-fall collection

(from style.com) what ever that is, but truly I am just not done with stripes yet, in fact I would like more black & white stripes please. Talking of stripes, Kitty too has picked up on this and loves them nearly as much as I do. Having commented on the conservatism of some young blogger's I realised that she too is a very classically understated dresser unlike Daisy who is from the Babushka school of 'clash to match' layering. Nothing so experimental in Kitty's repertoire she is a very preppy dresser with a very particular sense of style, I wonder how they develop their style since they rarely if ever read a magazine, definitely innate.
Kitty was for a long time a big fan of Zara but it's star is waning due to poor fabrics and overly fussy details. Instead Kitty's new retail squeeze is ......

Top Shop

Well it had to happen, much as though I loathe Arcadia and all he stands for, a recent visit with Kitty and I could see why she loves it in there. I find many of the fabrics do not warrant the price tag, but she has a coat from there that is still looking good so who am I to sneer. She diligently saved all her Christmas money for this classic beauty.

An eye watering £50, she did wait a week whilst thinking about it but she was nothing if not determined to have it and she really does love it. It takes me back to my childhood and sneaking a peek into my fathers old briefcase, especially the traditional catch, which reminds me, when I was on the tube recently a very stylishly dressed twenty something jumped on the tube, she was carrying a heavy small suitcase plus a vintage briefcase, she was clearly wounded having bashed her hand trying to get both case and briefcase onto the train. So although the briefcase oozes vintage chic, it is and they always were brutally heavy, cumbersome bags that have been rightly usurped by cross shoulder bags. High fashion is clearly never pain free!

I have been low for various reasons, a heady mix of yet another period after only a 2 week break, a head cold again after a 2 week break from the last one, mixed up with being sent back to emotional Coventry. The latter's origins far too complex to relate but the combined effect is wearing to say the least and so I went into my cubby hole cum office and did some painting. I am too unwell to do it with any great outcome but just the action lifts the spirits and at least I feel as though I have achieved something.
Having endured a remarkably stress free year with he Who Must Be Obeyed it has come as a bit of a surprise to revert back to our petty ways, it has only served to highlight the shallowness of our relationship as well as highlight just how much I have used the girls as an emotional crutch. If this Christmas was a taste of things to come I thank god I have saved enough and have enough of a pension to go my own way.