Life in Colour - 5 Wardrobe Must Have's To Wear This Spring

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Spring is the perfect time to refresh your wardrobe with a few key staples that make getting dressed effortless. In this episode, I’ll share the 5 must-have pieces every wardrobe needs this season—think a versatile denim skirt, a classic linen shirt, a cosy cardigan, white or cream trousers, and a great pair of flats. These essentials will keep you stylish, comfortable, and ready for anything the season brings. As a bonus, I’ll also recommend some of my favourite stores to shop for these pieces. And because I’m a colour analysis consultant, I can’t resist giving you tips on which colours work best for your personal palette, making sure you not only feel great but look amazing in your best shades! Tune in for styling ideas, colour recommendations, and expert advice on where to find these spring wardrobe must-haves. 00:43 Introduction 02:08 The Versatility of Denim Skirts 09:42 Choosing the Right Denim Skirt for Your Body Shape 1 1:40 The Essential Denim Skirt 13:04 Linen and Cotton Shirts: Versatility & Style 15:57 The Comeback of Cardigans 21:54 The Case for White and Cream Pants 32:08 The Perfect Spring Footwear Want to learn more about seasonal colour analysis? Get my free Finding Your Colours Guide @ https://www.lovingcolour.au/findyourcolours Or want to know your perfect colour palette now? Purchase a Virtual Colour Analysis with me to find out exactly which colours light you up! Go to https://www.lovingcolour.au/colouranalysis Follow along on Instagram: https://instagram.com/lovingcolour__  

Welcome to Life in Color, the podcast where we dive into the real, raw and wonderfully colorful aspects of life. I'm your host Ashley and I'm here to explore the ins and outs of seasonal color analysis, navigating motherhood, thriving in your 40s and beyond, and embracing health and wellness with a healthy dose of humor. Join me as we uncover the secrets behind finding your perfect palette, share stories of the joys and challenges of being a mum, and from practical tips to heartfelt conversations, life in colour is your space to laugh, learn and live life unapologetically in all of its

colourful hues. So grab your favourite drink, settle in and let's add some colour to this adventure that we call life. Welcome to Life in Color. Hi everybody and welcome to this week's episode of Life in Colour. This week we are talking all things, the five essential items to have in your wardrobe as we are in the season of the weather season of spring in the Southern Hemisphere. So I think that there are things that everybody sort of, we already know that we have in our wardrobes or maybe there are a couple of items that you feel are missing to give you a really good kind of base wardrobe that you can then build on with statement pieces and other bits and pieces. But I think these five things are something that everybody should have in their wardrobe

and they just make getting ready so much easier and putting outfits together so much more easily, especially when you're running around after kids and everything in the morning. Let's face it. As you all know, I have three and even though they are much older, they still need me so much in the morning. You know, where's my socks, where's my lunch, or that kind of palava. So by having these basic things, and when I say basic, it's more about the basis of your wardrobe rather than it being a basic item. These are the kinds of things that are going to make it so much easier for you. So without further ado, let's get into the first one. Now, a top pick for me that I think so many women and in particular, I am going to call out sort of more mums who are in that

phase at the moment where they are stay at home moms or if they're working part time or if you are in the season of that you work from home as well. So like I do, I think having a denim skirt is an essential item to have in your wardrobe for a number of reasons. One, they go with just about everything. There's a number of different styles that you can wear, which we will go into in a little bit. But in particular, they're just so easy to wear. Now, years gone by, you know, I have an amazing denim skirt, actually, that my dad bought me when I was 18. I still have it in my wardrobe. It's an amazing Calvin Klein one. And I love it, but it's very rigid. You cannot really move in it. You can't. It's not, it's not that it's uncomfortable. It's just, it's more that traditional rigid denim back

then denim didn't have sort of the same amount of elastane and stretching it as we do today. So whilst I love it, it's not one that I would necessarily wear as a, if I'm sitting down at my desk all day. Whereas a lot of the denims today and a lot of the denim skirts today, they definitely have a lot more of that elastane in them. They can sometimes be a blend of like cotton and denim. And so because of that, they're a lot more comfortable to wear. There are also so many more styles. And so you can actually, I think, get away. especially if you're working from home. Obviously, if you've got a nice top on, but you've got denim skirt on underneath, it's really versatile.

And you can, you can dress a denim skirt up or down. Obviously, it can also depend on the wash and the colour that you go for. But I know just about everyone, I think, all of my friends, even my daughter, everyone I know pretty much has a denim skirt. So let's quickly talk about the different styles. Now, in terms of style, if you think of length first, first you've got your minis. which obviously I don't quite rock the mini the way that I used to. But personally, for me, my preference in the length of a denim skirt that I wear is short. I like it quite a bit above my knee.

It's just my personal preference. And it suits my particular body shapes that I am a rectangle. And so for me, that is the kind of denim skirt that fits and suits me really, really well. You've then got other denim skirts that you then go a little bit lower and they're just above the knee. I think having a skirt that sits just above or sort of just below rather than hitting you right on the knee is the most flattering because otherwise it can look sometimes depending on the start, it can look a little bit frumpy if you do that. So I think there are so many beautiful skirts. So for example, because I will talk about stores in this particular podcast, obviously this is for those listening overseas, this is a podcast that is based in Australia for Australia, New Zealand. And a lot of these stores are going to be relevant to you.

And I'm sure a number of them do international shipping as well for those of you that aren't down under like I am. Now, I was in Elm the other day and they had a fabulous variety of denim skirts. Now, they're really nice on the waist as well. Like I was talking about before in terms of the comfort of wearing a denim skirt. So much recently, you have like an elasticated band that goes around the back of the skirt. Sometimes you might even have an elastic band that goes. right the way around the skirt. You might even still have a button, but then the rest is elastic. So it makes it a lot more comfortable to wear a lot more versatile and I think so many more

body shapes therefore are actually able to wear them comfortably and they feel really great in them because of the different versatility of styles that are out there now. So Elm had some really, really great ones at the moment. I should have mentioned when I was talking about the shorter ones. My particular shop that I go for for my denim skirts is seed heritage. I absolutely love their denim. I have been wearing their denim skirts and their jeans. Oh my gosh. I must, it must be about, what, 10 years now, even a bit longer.

It must be because my oldest is like in her late teens. So, yeah, I would say at least 12 years. And I love their denim. It washes so well. It doesn't sag out. It just keeps on going. Like I've actually got some jeans that I've changed sarah. There is nothing wrong with the jeans.

The jeans are still going strong after all this time. It's actually that I've changed size and therefore I need to, I needed to go upper size. And that's why I bought a new pair. So seed heritage, I think for me, if you're looking for a shorter denim skirt, they fit really lovely. They fit beautifully. They also do have some longer styles, which I'll talk about as we move on. If you're looking more for that mid-length kind of denim skirt, I think this is where

places like Suzanne's, Suzanne Graves. can have some great styles as well. Country roads sometimes do the longer style denim skirt as well that sort of sits just above the knee. I know they've also done like the very long ones, the maxi skirts. And then as I was talking about Elm, when I saw those, I was really, really impressed by them. Now you can also get in terms of denim skirts, sometimes it's not necessarily a denim. It's more of like a chambre. You know how you like you can get that in shirts, like a chambre shirt or a chambre dress.

You can also get that in a denim, in like the equivalent of a skirt. The only thing I will say is obviously a chambre is a much lighter fabric. And because of that, you're not going to have necessarily the structure and the same kind of fit. So if that's what you're after, absolutely they are brilliant, but just bear that in mind, it's going to be quite a different fit. Places also like Birds Nest have a fantastic variety of all lengths, all different kinds of styles. recently we've even started to see that sort of buttoned down denim skirts have started to come back, which I actually really like. I think they're lovely. And then, of course, we had the trend that

came out, I would say, in the last, what, 18 months, two years of the maxi denim skirt. Now, for me and my body shape, they do nothing. I've tried them, trust me, because I actually really wanted one and that did not work out for me. Not well at all, unfortunately. But there are some great maxi skirts out there in denims and again they're in beautiful fabrics lots of different washes obviously you can go when we're looking at color analysis you do have the difference between warm denim and a cool denim very quickly to touch on that cool denoms have more of that icy grey kind of tone to it like a purpley almost tone a warmer denim is going to it has like that earthy i don't want to say dirty it has like an earthiness to it sometimes they can be quite a

bright blue and then like a dark indigo it's just got this real richness behind it but you can see the yellow that is coming through in that really deep rich indigo so um obviously i know that it's hard when you're listening to a podcast to try and picture all of these colors and styles and everything in your mind whilst i'm talking so um in the show notes there's going to be a link to my website where i will have detailed and got lots and lots of pictures for you so you can actually see what I'm talking about and put pictures to obviously the styles. Now, you've got with the maxi ones, you've got full-length maxi ones and then you've got ones that have like a split. So that was the one that I ended up actually purchasing was one that had a split at the front. Some have got like

splits at the side. Others have maybe a split at the back. Some have obviously like at the front. It's just about finding that style that suits you the best. Now I would say for rectangle shapes like me, that kind of style just makes us look more boxy. It doesn't do anything for us. We need things that give us the shape to our hips. Obviously, if you are an hourglass, that kind of figure can wear a number of different styles. If you are a triangle and you are a little bit, obviously, if you're a triangle, you're going to be wider on your hips than you are on your shoulders. you don't really want to be adding too much extra bulk to your, when I say bulk, it's bulk of fabric to your hips. And so you're wanting to balance yourself out a little bit. And by doing that,

it's going for more of a streamlined denim skirt. So one that is maybe a little bit more figure hugging in particular on the hips. You're not wanting one. Imagine like an A-line skirt that is sort of fitted at the waist and then it's like fit and flare and it's just so much fabric. that kind of fabric for a triangle is not going to work for you because you're going to find that the bottom half of your body is just so voluminous because you've got so much fabric and therefore you're going to feel even more out of balance potentially. Whereas if you're an inverted triangle where your shoulders are wider than your hips, having a skirt that does have that extra volume on the bottom is going to help balance you out. So knowing your body shapes is

really key to understanding how the different styles in the stores will work for you. Now that I've managed to ramble on about denim skirts for 10 minutes, I think it's probably time that we move on to the second item. Otherwise, we might be here for a while. Safe to say, just finishing up denim skirts, they are a wardrobe staple for a reason. There are so many different shades of denim that you can go for. Light, mid-wash, bright, muted, grey.

Obviously, there's black denim, there's white denim, there's cream, there's cream denim. There are so many different varieties that you can go for. Safe to say, there's going to be one out there that is absolutely perfect for you. Now, moving on to the second, that thing that I think that is absolutely a wardrobe must have when we transition into the warmer months of the year is a linen or cotton shirt. Now, I'm not necessarily talking about the classic white shirt here because not everybody, as we know, through colour analysis, necessarily eight suits white. And secondly, not everybody wants to wear that.

They'd like to wear some color. And I think in the last few years, we're definitely seeing within shirts a lot more color coming through. Now, my love of a linen shirt started, goodness, I think back in about 2017, 2018, maybe even earlier. When I went to Singapore and in the window of the store, because it was spring over there when I went, there was an array of color in the window and it was just all linen shirts.

And I remember looking at it thinking, wow, look at the colors. They're beautiful. So happy, so vibrant, just really, really lovely and so easy to wear. There's a number of different ways that you can wear a linen shirt or a cotton shirt, whichever is your preference. Now, I'll talk about brands in a minute, but let's just talk about the fabrics as such. So cotton, you can get the really soft cotton like I've got a shirt. from Scotch and Soda from years ago, which was an investment piece.

And that is definitely a really soft cotton. Like I can move really easily in it. There's not a huge amount of structure to that cotton shirt. Whereas you could buy a white cotton shirt, for example, that definitely has that structured collar. And when you move, yes, the shirt moves with you, but there's definitely structure to it. Maybe the fabric is a little bit thicker.

The way that it's been designed is not so relaxed. like there's a purpose behind it. So there's definitely differences when it comes to shirts. I feel that when I bought my linen shirts from Marks and Spencers all those years ago, I definitely do think that linen has really come into its own in the last few years, A, because it's a fantastic natural fibre, but secondly, because of its versatility, how cool it is, especially in warmer climates like how we have in Australia,

well, when it's not freezing outside, like I'm in a jumper and it's the 18th of over. But they definitely have such a place. Now, not everybody likes linen, and I totally understand that. So I'm going to talk about some other options that you can have instead of a linen. One of the things that people don't necessarily like about linen is it can be really scratchy or it can be really kind of rough. Now, it depends on where you get your shirts from, I think, and how they have treated the linen before they've actually sold the garment. it also comes into, I think, a personal preference. So I'm quite sensitive when it comes to things like that. I don't like any kind of fabric that is scratchy. So even like in winter with a jumper,

like anything that's real like mohair, things like that, I don't like it because I generally find it quite scratchy and irritating. However, with linen, you can, I do find the more you wash it, generally speaking, it will soften. But I do have a lovely client in my colour collective membership and we were talking about this within the membership because she finds it really, really hard in order to soften up linen. Now there are things that you can do, for example, like soaking it in vinegar, obviously using like a fabric softener or a conditioner, but obviously that can also change the actual, not everyone likes using a fabric softener or a conditioner because it can build up in your washing machine. This is a whole other topic

and tangent that I'm going off. But anyway, stay with me. But I definitely think, with linen, it comes down to personal preference and that's where touching it, trying it on and feeling it is really important. Now, when you're buying something online, I prefer to shop at stores that will give me a refund. I don't always want a credit note and I find them really irritating, to be honest. I understand having had an e-commerce or two e-commerce fashion businesses myself, I totally understand why businesses only give credit notes. However, just make sure if you're going to shop at a store that does that, that you are confident that's going to be something else that you want to buy. Now, going back to linen, in recent years,

I also think more linen blends have been coming through. So like a linen rayon or a linen viscous, and that just makes the linen a little bit softer. It gives it a little bit more movement and it's just easier to use. It's also easier to launder. So in terms of lining. Now, I know a lot of people don't like to iron. Sometimes with my shirts, I'll iron them and sometimes I won't. More often than not, I do just because that's the look that I like to have with my linen shirts, whereas other people prefer not to and they prefer sort of the worn in, lived in look that happens. If you like that, my recommendation would be to hang the shirt on a hanger on the washing line, so then it naturally drops as it's drying and stays in that kind of a shape. That's a really, really great

way of doing it. The reason that I think a linen and or a cotton shirt or any kind of shirt, cheesecloth shirt, that kind of thing, rayon shirt is so versatile is because of the way the A, you can layer them. But secondly, they're just so easy to wear in those months when the weather can be really unpredictable. So the reason that I like to wear a linen shirt is that I like to, most of mine are long sleeves and I roll them up. I never wear them just with the cuffs right the way down.

I prefer the look of them rolled up a little bit. I just also find that they can make you look put together really quickly and really easily. Like if you think of a linen shirt, cotton shirt, with a pair of jeans, you can just add a belt to it. You could put a little swipe of lipstick. You could put a couple of bangles on or earrings and you look really put together really, really quickly. And so it's a very easy outfit formula to follow. And you can use them so many different ways. So you could wear obviously with a denim skirt, with shorts, with denim jeans.

You could then wear them with a pair of wide leg pants. You could then put a singlet underneath them and wear them open. So then it becomes more of like a open, soft kind of jacket, I want to say, rather than being a formalised jacket. A lot of people like to wear them over their swimmers when they're going on holiday. There are so many different ways that you can wear a linen shirt. and I love generally that now the variety of colours that are coming out in linen shirts, you can really express your personality and your colour palette through the linen shirts that you're

wearing. It's not all navy, white, black and grey, which I think for so many years, retailers have sort of pushed everyone into thinking that they're the only neutrals you can wear, but it really isn't the case. And so if I'm looking over now, I have a coral, a light blue, I have like an aqua, I have a pale pink, I have like a peachy kind of pink, I have your traditional white. But those are definitely things in your wardrobe that can put an outfit together easily when you want to. Now, a linen shirt in terms of work, you might want to go for more of a cotton if you're needing structure. If you're in an office environment where a linen shirt is going to be deemed too casual, now there are ways of dressing it up, but if you feel like it's

going to be too casual, then I would definitely go for a more structured cotton kind of shirt. There is a brand called Comixir that do really lovely cotton shirts. They do striped ones. They do block colour ones. They are your 100% cotton shirt. Unico is also very good at doing shirts in a number of different colours. Then you have your more traditional sort of linens and I would say like Country Road generally has a really wide variety of colours. They're constantly bringing out different colours within their linen shirts. Target this year have been absolutely knocking it out of the park with their linen. I have been so impressed.

It has been so soft. Do I dare say that their linen is almost softer than what a country road linen is? But they have had a great variety of colours and they've also had long sleeves, short sleeve, and then also sleeveless as well. So don't just think that when you're wearing a shirt, it can be long sleeves only.

Absolutely. Especially in the warmer months of the year, a short sleeve linen shirt can be absolutely brilliant. to wear. If you're wanting to wear a linen shirt to work and it's more of a corporate environment, the ways that I would layer that and I would tackle that so that, because obviously it will crease, so I first, I would recommend that you would want to iron it rather than it being sort of air dried on the washing line. Then I would recommend you put it with a really nice pair of tailored pants or a tailored skirt because you need that kind of

of structure almost to tie it together. And then it's your accessories that are going to bring it together. So imagine that you are a winter and you have gone for your traditional black and white, a pair of tailored, say, wide leg black pants. And then you've got your really beautiful crisp white linen shirt. And if you're a winter, you've got some really beautiful silver jewellery. You may have a red lip on. Obviously, you've done your hair. Depends on whether you want to wear flats or heels, and then the bag that you put with it. You could actually put like a red bag with it. You could stick with black if you wanted to.

That is the way that I would do it to dress that up. Now, you could also put a blazer over the top. So if you're in an office environment where you can wear jeans, I would then wear jeans and the linen shirt, and then I would pop a blazer over the top of it. And again, I would use my accessories in order to up the ante. So whether that's a really nice pair of hair. heels, whether you have got a really nice pair of like drop earrings on, you've got layered

necklaces or using your makeup. That's where you're using like a pop of pink or a coral or a really nice like rusty kind of think these brown lipstick for autumn's looks absolutely beautiful. Don't just rely on the outfit to do the work for you because your accessories and your makeup are what can bring it together. So that's where I 100% think that a linen and cotton shirt is an essential item for the warmer months of spring and summer. The third on my list is a cardigan. The reason that I like cardigans is like we, like I mentioned today that I'm wearing a jumper, it's the layering factor. And we all know that even if you are, say, 35 degrees outside in the height of summer, you can go into your office or even in your house and your air conditioning is

blasting and therefore you need something to pop over. Now, I'm not talking. about like the chunky, really chunky woolen knit cardigans. I'm talking more sort of your cotton cardigans or your really light, fine cardigans. In the last year or so, as you know me, I am not into trends, but this is more about things that are coming back. And I feel like the shorter cardigans are definitely on the comeback. And I really, really like it. I've got so many long cardigans and I love them and I wear them. But sometimes you don't wear. want to have that length because it does change the dimensions of your outfit that you are wearing. And I feel that a really nice short cardigan, a buttoned one that you can either wear as a top

if you want to, so then you're getting versatility and cost per wear out of that item too. But you can then put it over the top of, you heard it, a linen shirt. You could put it over a little camisole, you could put it over just like a tank top. There are so many different ways that you can wear a cardigan. And they're just the perfect item that you can then throw in your tote bag, whether that or put on the back of your office chair or have in the car when you're picking up the kids. So I absolutely love them. Now, people used to think that with Cardi's, because you're wanting to wear it with other items in your wardrobe, that again, going for the neutrals. And an oatmeal or a chocolate or a rust or even an olive like khaki green, fabulous as neutrals for my warm seasons.

of spring and autumn for my cool seasons of summer and winter. You're more thinking along the lines of your navies, your ivories, your whites, your sort of like torp kind of color and your grays. They're fantastic, but don't be limited by that. There are so many cardigans out there now, like I mentioned, that can be worn as a top. One of my favorite places that does so much coloring cardigans would be Bowdoin out of the UK. Now, if you're overseas, obviously, majority of places now you can get Bowden sent to you. I definitely know you can get it sent to you in the US. Obviously, it's a UK-based brand.

And in Australia, we have our own Australia-based website. I'm pretty sure it's called the Catriona Cardigan. I don't have one yet because I've been waiting for my right colour, for my light summer colour palette to come out. But they are absolutely lovely. They're super light. They can be layered really easily. But they are perfect for those in-between transitional seasons.

where you want to wear something potentially that's long-sleeved, but then you want to be able to pull up the sleeves or undo it and have a tank top underneath and you've still got a really lovely outfit. So that's what I would recommend. Don't shy away from colour when it comes to those cardigans. And when you find one that you like, I would even recommend getting a couple of colours

within that particular style. I'm all for when you find something that you love, like look at me in that Marks and Spencer's linen shirt. I think I have about five colours in that shirt. And I have to say, I still love them. They wash and wear every day. And I wish that they had more colours in them because they're just the best. So so far, we've had a denim skirt, a linen or cotton shirt, a cardigan.

Next on the list, it's going to be a little bit controversial. So stay with me. It's a pair of white or cream pants. Now, jeans. Now, I know some people are going to go, oh, my goodness, she's insane. I have two small kids, I can't wear white. I totally understand that. It really does depend on the season of life that you're in.

However, you could still then go, if you are warm seasoned in spring or autumn, you could go for like a light tan or a light caramel kind of colour. Likewise, if you are in the cooler seasons, you could go for like a light kind of grey, like even grey denim, would look really, really lovely. It's just having something that is a little bit lighter on the bottom half. It's so easy to be tempted to continue. wear darker colours on the bottom half. So black, navy, chocolate brown, like a deep khaki. They're

lovely colours. I'm all for them. It's just, I think sometimes when you come into the warmer months, it's really nice to balance it out and have that freshness on the bottom as well as on the top. And just think of all the colour combinations that you can do. You can even reverse and have a dark top on rather than having dark bottoms. I'm all for them. Now, there are so many different kinds of whites out there. So as a quick recap, if you're a winter, you're thinking that stark hospital grade white. If you are in the summer seasons, then you're wanting to be more in sort of your off whites in your ivories, your springs and autums, you're looking at a really nice light coloured cream. And then if you are actually a warm autumn or a warm spring, you can go

that really deep cream where you can see a lot of yellow in it. is it's going to look absolutely phenomenal on you and bring colour and life to your face rather than somebody who would wear, who's really cool-toned, like a cool winter wearing a rich cream, it's going to make their face look yellow. So really have a think about the kinds of colours that suit you and think whether you might be more cream-based or more white-based. Now, I'm going to do a whole episode on ways to discover if you are warm-toned or cool-toned, which leans into this whole white versus cream. But for the sake of this, that's what we're looking at. Now, in terms of pants, there are so many different varieties of pants that you can go for.

So depending again on your season of life, you can go for a pair of jeans. Fantastic. There are so many different kinds of jeans out there. Skinny leg, wide leg, flare, cropped, raw hem, obviously proper stitched hem. There are so many different ones that you can go for. then you can also go for culots starting to make a little bit of a comeback now on someone like me on 163 centimetres those collots actually turned out to be full length so they're more like a wide leg on me target had a fabulous pair of they were off white they would suit so many seasons because of actually the colour of the white it was like that real sort of neutral in between white and they had a variety of different sorry they had a variety

of different styles available. So they had a full length one, which on me was way too long, but really lovely, fully lined, I have to say as well. They had the culott's length. Then you can have something that is a little bit more relaxed, like a cheesecloth kind of wide leg pant. In the surf shops, they are everywhere. And they are super comfortable to wear if you're wanting to have a casual

pair of white pants that you can put a top or a tea, a tank, a denim jacket with it. And there's your, outfit sorted for the weekend, whether you're going to Saturday sport or you're going out for lunch with your girlfriends or your partner. Then in terms of white or cream pants, you have your more structured streamlined pad that you would wear, say, in a more corporate kind of office, the more tailored pants. They are absolutely stunning and beautiful and they can look so smart and chic. So don't underestimate wearing a pair of those to work. They will look amazing. Obviously,

you're generally looking for something that's got a bit of a thicker fabric. You don't want it too thin so that you will then see through it. That's the last thing that you want. Do think about your underwear choice. Obviously, when you're wearing those kinds of pants, especially if you're in a, like a customer-facing meeting, things like that. But also potentially look at heavier fabrics, like those kind of crepey kind of fabrics that have a beautiful weight to them. So A, they will effortlessly move when you move. They won't cling to you. They glide over your body rather than clinging. And so that will look absolutely amazing or the kind of style that you're after, whether that is a wide leg, a straight leg, a tapered leg. It really does depend on your body shape. Like everything

else we've talked about, there are so many options out there. It's just kind of determining what is the best for you. So that's all the clothes. The last one that I'm going to say, is actually a shoe. And these would have to be for me, my favorite pair of shoes to wear in the warmer, sort of in spring. You can wear them to work. You can wear them anywhere. And that would be more of your traditional kind of, I don't want to say ballet flat, but a flat. So I'm going to give examples of loafers, a flat. It could be a tie tie up one. It could be just a slip on one. So I'm not talking about sandals. I am talking about an enclosed toe. shoe. Now, whether that be pointy, round, square, it really depends, again, on your personal preference,

on your body shape. Obviously, a pointy toe shoe is going to elongate. So if you are on the shorter side or you feel that you want to elongate your legs because you have shorter legs to your torso, then a pointy shoe is going to elongate and give the impression that that is, that your legs are longer than what they are. But they're just such a great way. Imagine you've got that linen shirt and your pair of jeans on, you could absolutely put your white sneaker on. It would look great, but it dresses it down. Instantly, you change to, say, a pointed tan ballet flat, and you put a tan belt on, and you've got a handbag, and you've put a nice coral lipstick on, and you've got your jewelry.

Suddenly, it is totally elevated, and it's literally generally just by changing the shoe or changing the accessory. I can't tell you not how to underestimate how much an accessory can change your own. outfit or how a shoe can change your outfit. So my favorite place to buy my ballet flats because I get really sore legs from my endometriosis. So my place of choice is Frankie Four. I wear the poppy and I know that they've had, I think it was called London. I find them really, really comfortable. I can wear them all day long. I can be on my feet. Obviously being a color analysis consultant, I'm on my feet quite a bit when I am with clients, when I'm face to face with clients. So I absolutely love Frankie Four.

I know that there are others like bed, but there are so many different places where you can get ballet flats or loafers from. Again, don't feel you have to just go for a neutral. There are so many different coloured shoes that are coming out now. And ballet flats or a flat are no different to that. So think of wearing a bright red one or a bottle green one or a hot pink or a gold or a silver. There are so many different options that you can go for. and they will go with so many of your outfits. I promise you having all of these things in your wardrobe,

it's going to make it so much easier to get ready because say you're wanting to wear the white shirt and the denim skirt together, but you just want that little pop of colour, that's where your shoes come in. And so you've made a really lovely everyday outfit really, really easily and they all start to come together really beautifully. So that's my roundup of the five must-have-euvre. items or essential items that I think every woman should have in their wardrobe. I would love to

know what your favourite items are to have in your wardrobe in the spring season. So make sure you can drop me a line at Ashley at lovingcollar.a.u-cour. C-O-L-O-U-R. We have the you in it. Otherwise, you can find me on Instagram at Loving Color double underscore. I am always up for a chat to do with anything to do with fashion, style, health, wellness, beauty, motherhood, you name it. I'm on there chatting about all of it. So make sure you come over and follow me. Otherwise, I will catch up with you next week in next week's episode. Thanks so much. Take care. Bye.