It is always nice to look slim, especially if you have remained so through diligently exercising and moderating your eating habits. I have long since given up dieting per se, but I do watch my calorie intake, so that yes, I eat butter on my toast, but no I no longer eat a take-a-way curry. I monitor the quality of what I eat not the calorific value.
That said, yes, I am bigger than I was, not majorly so but after I had Leyla I gained a dress size and it has clung on since, mainly hugging my midriff, so that I shun anything too body con or tucked in. For me comfort trumps style and whilst I would never wear anything to clingy I don't mind if sometimes I am hidden beneath woolly layers, sometimes style should be fun, cosy, cuddly and above all warm. So please ignore the shocking quality of the photographs, I am so blind I can't see the smears, sadly the camera can! Instead I give to you some cuddle and some bargains.
Last Friday I had some weird epiphany moment, I suddenly thought I should go to the Uniqlo on Oxford Street, because the sales are almost at an end and last summer I grabbed two wonderful pairs of +J trousers for peanuts right at the end of the sale. Jil Sander has now designed her last collection for Uniqlo, and I missed out online, it pretty much sells out the first hour past midnight.
Amazingly I was able to engineer 2 hours of time up town and so I went, and seriously how weird is this? On one small rail was just a few pairs of trousers, 4 in my size, plus a skirt. The skirt was a no, (I stuck to my rules on that one) 3 of the trousers fitted, (the other pair was a size 10, I misread the label and yet I did pull them on!) 3 pairs! all beautifully cut, all fully lined wool. What I love about +J is that they are cut very generously and are high waisted, which I find so comfortable. 2 pairs were wide legged, but they were so lovely and only £19 each, I had to have them. How is that for luck?
And there is more, I was desperate for a pee, so went over to John Lewis, I tried very hard not to look at the rails of grey cardies, like sirens luring me onto the rocks. Bastards. But they won, kind of, as the fair isle jumper on the left is not grey, and yes, it is a jumper, but the sleeves are woefully impractical and it is less than flattering, but hey, with my new trousers ,I
LOVE it.
Next up is my new, not in the sale grey cardie, worn with the other wide legged +J trousers, a lovely deep moss green. In the middle, I spied near Bond Street, a girl wearing this outfit, clearly younger and slimmer, but I do like the idea of cosy wool layered over flimsy silk, so I may give it a go.
Enough about me, two from Bond Street. above a gorgeous outfit as seen in the Hermes window, love the trousers. and below Tory Burch, I have heard a lot about her and now have seen the clothes, Love them, but would need to be twenty years younger I think.
I had a glorious couple of hours wandering around with no agenda, the morning was bitterly cold and crisp, and London was very quiet, just how I like it.
Sunday was all about Leyla, she finished her final exam and so dragged me around the park with her bloody Rollerblades, which she can't use, and then to see War Horse, which I thought would be dreadful, but is in fact fine. It was not the horse that made me cry, it was the battle scene, all I could think of was how on earth did my Grandad survive?