These photos were taken at the same time as the ones in my previous post, but in the end I decided to let the Pearl coat have it's own post because it's just so pretty.

Anyway, this is the outfit I was wearing underneath the coat, which is formed mostly of components I've had for at least 5 years - in fact here is me wearing practically the same outfit (in much warmer weather) in 2013.



All of the items are from the high street, but styled in the right way they lend themselves well to a vintage wardrobe. The skirt in particular is very reminiscent of some of the border-print 1950s style skirts available from lots of retro and repro shops but in fact came from Primark. If I remember rightly they also had a few different patterns available in the style at the time, which I am sad to this day I didn't buy. Of course this purple one is so pretty (and even has it's own built-in petticoat) and it honestly deserves to get worn a lot more often than I reach for it. I think because I no longer have that many other things in my wardrobe that match it colour-wise, but this keeps surviving any wardrobe culls because deep down I really love it.





Recently I'm really loving my hair in a roll; it's very practical for bad weather and as a bonus it doesn't matter whether or not I have curled my hair. I use a hair rat, and just twist the sides a little bit then hide any mistakes or messy bits with hair flowers, which is pretty much one of the most useful hair tricks I know. I'll definitely be rocking this as a fairly quick and easy hairstyle for early mornings this Spring.

It's still pretty cold here even though little signs of Spring are starting to show, and we might even be due more snow. Although that's not exactly what I'd like to see as we head into April, it does give me the opportunity to wear my gorgeous new Collectif Pearl Coat, which is something I've had my eye on for years. After I managed to get my hands on the Hell Bunny Elvira coat in black at the end of last year I knew I wanted to get at least one more in a shade of brown so that I'd be sorted for pretty much any outfit. I actually would particularly like one in camel, but I also think this tan one will be very useful and to be honest I was a bit restricted in choice because there is just no way I can afford one of these full price. At least I have quite a lot of tan accessories to go with it.



I was so excited about being able to photograph the coat that I completely forgot to steam out the creases from shipping, but I still really enjoyed twirling around in the daffodils and having myself a Jon Snow moment with the fur collar. I really like how the collar on this one has a hook and eye underneath so you can wear it either open like I am here, or like a little muff. (Are they even called muffs if you wear them around your neck? You know what I mean though!).

This has all the same perks as the Hell Bunny coat, so of course I love it. You can read my full blog post about the Elvira coat here, but I think all these 1950s-style coats have a great flattering shape and glamorous look, as well as being long enough and wide enough to fully cover my swing skirts/dresses.



I opted for a UK size 10 in the hope that I would be able to fit a couple of layers underneath, but I could easily have sized up to a 12 to get some extra space. I'd say the 10 fits more like what I'd expect a size 8 to fit like so depending on your fit preference you may wish to size up by 1-2 sizes. Of course this isn't the sort of style where you'd want a baggy fit, but I do have some quite thick jumpers (necessary for the weather here!) that I do want to be able to fit under my coat without feeling uncomfortable and bulky all day.