What I wore: Old clothes, new tricks

You know those days when everything in your wardrobe sucks and you hate each and every item of clothing you own? Well, I'm having one of those days but it's been going on for weeks. I think it's the fact that we're coming to the end of winter and I'm just so bored of wearing all my winter clothes (also, the fact I've spent the entire winter on a spending ban means I haven't had much in the way of new clothes coming into my life recently).

Anyway, while throwing the entire contents of my wardrobe around the bedroom in a strop the other morning, I chanced upon this combination: as the floral dress flew threw the air and landed on the collared blouse, my eyes lit up. And so this outfit - which I'd categorise as a sort of preppy cosplay meets cute indie pop - was born. There's something deeply satisfying about taking items I've had in my wardrobe for ages and building a whole new look from them. This, combined with a recent post by Hazel, has prompted me to look more closely at the clothes I own and try to think of new ways of styling them.

The floral dress is an ancient A-Wear one which I hardly ever wear due to its weird puffy sleeves and strange neckline, but layering it with the Peter Pan collar blouse and the cardigan creates a whole new silhouette. The amazing Scrabble tile J brooch that Kezzie gave me stops the cardigan from being one massive expanse of navy blue boob. Finally, cosplaying at being preppy would be no good without the addition of a satchel. It made the perfect outfit for a cinema date last week (we saw Wild, which is ace).

* Blouse: Primark * Cardigan: H&M Basics * Dress (worn as skirt): A-Wear * 

* Shoes: Office * Satchel: H&M * Brooch: Gift (homemade) *

The Big Blog Clothes Swap

I think most of us have those clothes in our wardrobe: the dress we can't quite work out how to style; the trousers that were a sale bargain... if only they fit properly; the shoes that don't go with anything. Stuff you can't bring yourself to donate or eBay, but haven't actually worn in months or even years. Clothes swaps are the perfect home for those clothes.

I've wanted to run a clothes swap for ages but was intimidated by the amount of work I'd potentially have to put in to secure a venue, promote and run it - and the fear that, after all that work, no-one would turn up. So I put the idea to the back of my mind until I was chatting to my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Steph, on Twitter recently and had a brainwave: what would happen if we tried to organise an internet clothes swap?

I'd seen Steph, in her guise as The Wardrobe Angel, run individual swaps for her own clothes, and looked on in envy at Donna's regular frock swaps (envy because none of her dresses would fit me!) and I started to think about trying to do the same thing, but on a larger scale. Gathering together as many bloggers, and blog readers as possible, pairing them up according to clothes or shoe size, and letting the swapping commence.

And so here it is: the big blog clothes swap!

Want to take part? To sign up, all we need is the following information emailed to jbistheinitial@gmail.com by the 9th February:

Name:
Address:
Blog address and/or social media:
Clothes size (if you need to split this for tops/bottoms, do):
Shoe size:
Swapping preferences (for example, Do you want to swap one item only or more? Do you have specific clothing preferences, e.g. dresses only? Would you be willing, or prefer, to swap shoes, bags, accessories, etc?):

I am especially keen to ensure this swap is inclusive for all sizes, so please do sign up whatever size you wear. I don't fit the 'typical' fashion blogger body type and often struggle to find plus size clothes at swaps, which is partly why I want to run my own.

Once we have all your responses, Steph and I will wade through them and pair you with someone of the same size. You can, if you wish, then use social media to get to know your partner and their style, or you may already have planned ahead about what you want to swap. Either way, you'll be responsible for parcelling up your swap items - be it one top or a whole horde of goodies - and posting them to your partner by the deadline of March 10th.

So, what are you waiting for? Off you swap!