Six Fashion and Styling Goals for 2017

"Fashion is a good way of not having to decide who you are. Style is deciding who you are and being able to perpetuate it" 

- Quentin Crisp

So I didn't make any New Years Resolutions because the thought of goal-setting makes my head hurt. Goal-setting, Goal-setting everybody is goal setting. Bigger House. Better Car. Blah blah blah. No. It's just too much for me to handle, so I looked around for something which was a better fit and set myself some challenges around my personal style and fashion sense instead, here they are

Make the most of footwear

I have a lot of shoes. A lot. I have literally seen my husbands eyes well up when another shoe box appears and yet I always seem to wear the exact same pair of boots. There is nothing wrong with these boots, they are very pretty boots but they are one of seventy-two pairs of shoes and boots that I own (I counted them in an effort to gain some perspective for this post) I am going to try not to wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row for the rest of the year. Likewise I am going to start wearing my heels more often. I'm pretty proficient in heels, I own a lot of pairs that don't immediately cripple me, I have no excuses to be sliding on the same pair of flat boots or trainers for weeks on end. Also while I'm at it (and this is going to sounds nuts) I need to embrace my own foot size. I have size seven feet. SEVEN. Big for a girl right? I thought so too. I also thought that I could ignore the actual size of my feet and just carry on buying size 6 shoes in complete denial of their actual physical dimensions. I. am. ridiculous. From now on I am going to buy shoes in my actual size, I am not Cinderella I am one of the ugly sisters and I am just going to have to accept that

(Sidenote: I also need to start making the use of my accessories in general, I own a ridiculous amount of jewellery for someone that never remembers to wear jewellery. Ditto Hats)

Invest in better quality items 

Despite the fact that the £120 pair of Freddy Ireland jeans that I buy fit more nicely, wear more slowly and receive more compliments than the £40 pairs of Joni Jeans I buy from Topshop for some reason I just cannot stop buying them. If I stopped buying 3 pairs of them in one month then I could use that money to buy one pair of the Freddys. Simple maths. Apparently maths was never my strong point... This year I am going to try really hard not to waste my money on cheap rubbish that I usually bin or shelve after one wash and instead save my pennies for the REALLY good stuff

Have Bi-monthly wardrobe clear-outs

My house is bursting at the seams with clothes. Great joke, Milly. I have this really awful routine where at the end of every season I will put my entire wardrobe away for the next year. When that season rolls around again I will unearth those clothes once again, quickly declare them all to be absolutely vile and then purchase an entirely new wardrobe. Then I'll leave the chest of drawers, suitcase and/or wardrobe containing those clothes to take itself to the charity shop, which obviously it never does. It has to stop. I seriously have about four years worth of unwanted clothes in my house and stuffing the odd skirt or jump into my sister handbag when she visits is not a time effective way of managing the situation

Embrace my Individuality

I don't know where my fashion confidence came from, it crept up on me if I'm honest but I really do not give any flying fucks at all about whether other people like my outfit anymore. Maybe it's an age thing? I like my outfits so much and enjoy getting creative to such an extent that my own happiness effectively voids criticism. It's fantastic. Nothing is too shiny or sequin covered or bright or spangly for me - having fun with what I wear brings me huge amounts of joy. My only aim this year is to continue to nurture my little creative spark and to continue to support others in doing the same. If I'm the 8th person to walk past someone wearing something out of the ordinary I'll bet I'm the first one not to smirk and judge. I'll bet I'm the first one to scamper up and ask them where exactly they got their fluffy purple coat from

Get creative with my looks

Last year I went to a swanky bloggers even in London where everyone fretted on twitter for WEEKs about what to wear, some showed up in designer clothes from head to toe, some showed up looking like they'd walked straight off the catwalk, some even showed up in full length gowns (I think I loved those people most of all) I bought a little grey vest from Topshop and a packet of pearl beads from a craft shop and spent the train journey up sewing them on. I paired them with my favourite jeans, the ones with eyelets down the seam and received lots of compliments and enquiries about my top. It was fab. Since then I've really enjoyed customising my clothes and duping designers items with a glue gun or a bit of paint. I even enlisted my mums help in creating a pair of Gucci-esque loafers, there's a photo of them on my Instagram, click on my feed above to see 

Shop for the life that I actually have

My wardrobe(s) is full to the brim with "going out" dresses, jumpsuits, little crop tops and those long skirts everyone was wearing circa. 2015. I told you I'm bad at clear outs. On the rare occasion that I do have a big night out planned I tend to go a bit OTT on the outfit planning, ordering two or three options for a night that I inevitably wimp out of anyway and spend on the sofa in my PJs eating overpriced pizza. I think it's time that I faced facts and stopped buying all these going out dresses and the like. I barely go out and when I do I'm usually thinking about cups of tea and novel by 11.15pm which doesn't really even make the purchase of an entire outfit for the 3 hours I've been out seem like good value for money. No, this year I'm going to wear one of the stock-piled 50 dresses and save my money for something that won't send the next 18 months sitting in a bag in a wardrobe - like those Freddy jeans that make my bum look fantastic when I'm spending my Saturday night doing the food shop like all the coolest people

So those are my fashion goals, big and small. Did you make any this year? 

Fashion bits I'm currently loving

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