What I've Been Wearing This Summer

A popular outfit this summer for over 50s blogger Is This Mutton: lilac check top, white shorts and lilac bag and brogue shoes

This summer's most popular outfits for me have been mostly "oldies but goodies." A couple of the new items I bought have gone virtually unworn. I wear the outfit above nearly every weekend, or when working from home.
What makes it work is the accessories -the matching shoes and bag. The shoes are now in the sale. The shorts and top were both from M&S last year. I haven't worn the shorts to work, although I could (a lot of the men at the engineering company where I work do wear shorts).

Dramatic circle print wide leg trousers worn with a cream silk blouse from Boden and plenty of gold necklaces.

For work I tend to wear these circle trousers from River Island (above), my striped trousers or my pink or beige midi skirts. The circle trousers are a delight to wear: they need minimal ironing, if any, and can be dressed up or down. Here I'm wearing them with a cream silk Boden blouse (available in several colours, here). A couple of plain silk blouses is a staple in my wardrobe. A few long necklaces make it look a bit more pulled together.

Striped trousers worn with polka doe kitten heels and a white cardigan

Here are the striped trousers which were a real snip from Florence and Fred at Tesco. A plain white cardigan from Oasis, pattern mixing with polka dot kitten heels and a blast of colour from the pink bag, make it look more high-end.

Millennial pink midi skirt, sandals and rose print blouse worn by over-50s blogger Gail Hanlon at Is This Mutton

M&S do a good line in A line midi skirts and I've had a lot of wear from this year's pink version, now sold out, although I find the colour a little pepto-Bismol if I'm honest. I like to wear it with a two year old top from Warehouse, above, and my old pink sandals. I experimented with green when I first showed you this skirt back in April, but I haven't worn it that way.

Beige skirt worn with a camo tee and leopard print accessories

Last year's M&S midi continues to be worn a lot, both summer and winter, and the colour goes with everything. Above I added a touch of leopard print and my old gold mules. The t-shirt, from River Island, was a summer purchase this year and has been great for casual wear and good quality. It isn't in colours that suit me but I bought it because I knew it would look good with this skirt and my khaki trousers. But it just goes to show that colours unflattering to us, worn near the face, make us look pale and washed out!

Finally I knew this soft and silky Esprit blouse from Asos would be a high performer and it has been. It doesn't need ironing (this seems to be becoming a theme!) and I tend to wear it either with shorts or my white jeans. I bought this back in April!

Silky print blouse from Esprit worn with white jeans

So you may be wondering what were the summer misses? Well, I only wore the green print jumpsuit selected by Stitch Fix once, when I was on holiday, but I do love it and can imagine wearing it again next year. This floral Nancy Mac dress was only worn once at the Chelsea Flower Show. It was perfect for that occasion but it didn't strike me as work wear and it's maybe a little formal for most evenings out. And to be brutally honest, I thought it would look better if I lost a few pounds which hasn't happened yet!

Green print dress from Nancy Mac worn at the Chelsea Flower Show

And there are still a couple of dresses bought last year which haven't had an outing, despite my attempting to restyle them. As Nicole wisely says, at High Latitude Style, "When you didn't wear an item in a season, you will not wear it in the next season. It will just take up real estate. Donate it or toss it, but get rid of it." So that's what I will do.

If any of you would like the Nancy Mac dress (above), the Anthropologie colour block dress or Monsoon maxi dress, all UK size 12 (US size 8), make me an offer at isthismutton96@gmail.com. I'll donate any money raised to the charity Bloody Good Period, which aims to end period poverty. You'll need to cover postage or shipping costs.

There's a trend here which is that most of my unworn items are dresses. I seem to get a lot more wear out of skirts and trousers/pants in the winter. So here's a memo to myself: stop buying dresses!

Do you have any items you haven't worn this summer? 'Fess up in the comments with your reasons why!

Time for #WowOnWednesday

Last week's most clicked was Laurie from Vanity and Me with her post Two Casual Summer Looks Styled with Van-Dal Sandals. I love how she styled these striped sandals, bringing out the colours in her nail polish, trousers and bag.