Where I am and where I want to be

It's summer and I have no clothes that I like in my wardrobe, so obviously I need to run out to the nearest shop and buy, buy, buy. Finding myself in Dublin last week on a wonderfully sunny weekend I ran enthusiatically in the direction of Forever 21, an American Store which has the novelty value of not being available anywhere near my hometown and also of offering a huge plus sized range and so I filled my basket with all manner of vest tops, printed tops and a grey bejewelled sweatshirt which you can see me wearing in the photograph below.

I do like this top and I'll wear it a lot but looking at this picture I do have to ask myself why is a 45 year old woman still channelling Madonna in her Desparately Seeking Susan phase? Also my wise and rational husband questioned why I was so keen to purchase from a store which puts biblical verses on their carrier bags.

So come the "fall", as we fashionistas like to dub it, I'm thinking that I really need to grow up a bit and start thinking about clothes more suitable for a lady of my advancing years. Turning to my favourite blogs for inspiration I read an interesting post from That's Not My Age which focused on colour, (in this case vivid golden tones) and prompted me to think about what colours could I wear comfortably and use as a sort of signature.

I've always liked navy, its neutral, not black and looks good in lots of different textures and combinations and to go with this a warm tone of green. Black Watch is after all easily the most wearable tartan.  I found this absolutely stunning blouse from Stella McCartney which shows exactly why I love navy and green together.

I've never shopped for Stella before and was amazed to find that its available up to a UK size 18, which is just about do-able for me. I might need to start saving.

Also as no piece of fashion related writing can legally appear on the internet in 2011 without a mention of Mad Men style I felt I had to shoehorn a reference to my favourite character and current inspriation into this post. Watching the stunning series four earlier this year I was really struck by the clothes worn by marketing exec Faye Miller, played by Cara Buono. Faye is roughly the same age as Joan and Betty but she dresses in a more mature way, bravely channeling a style that is businesslike and feminine. Time and again she turns up wearing what looks like a Chanel type collarless jacket over a printed shell top and matching skirt. I was really struck by this as it is exactly what my mum was wearing in that period and indeed continued to wear into the seventies, at any formal function she'd draw out one of her four or five suits that were variations on this theme and she always looked the business.