Styling Culottes (& #Passion4Fashion Link-up)

I was growing board of constant jean wearing and felt like i wanted to add an injection of colour in to my wardrobe in a new way. Its that in-betweeny season for us here as its neither hot nor cold. My brain is kind of against wearing tights at this time of year (i have a weird OCD in regards to some forms of dressing in some seasons.. its weird, i know :( ..), which kind of rules out dresses as its really not that warm, plus these legs just so happen to not be anywhere near 'summer ready'. I will hasten a guess they may never be, but alas i shall just have to just face that as and when (if?) the warm time comes.

Anyway, yes, so dresses are proving to be awkward at the moment and it just seems to be the relentless daily role out of jeans jeans and, you guessed it, more jeans. 

So I thought to myself culottes seem to be a good middle ground.

Ankle baring and a bit breezy, yet covered doesn't require tights and most importantly is not a pair of jeans.

Giving it a try seemed to be the route to go down.

And well it was a good route. I like them, i felt nice to be out of the usual leg coverings and i actually felt pretty snazzy (note to self: no one says snazzy.. apart from me).

Rust red culottes aren't the type of outfit that blends in to the crowds, that i will give you, but strange glances from on-lookers aside, i really liked the difference.

And a change is as good as a rest as they say!

 Thoughts on culottes ladies?

Outfit Details:

Culottes (available in this brick red and also lovely wearable navy)
Blue Lace-up shoes
Cream Cold Shoulder top: F&F (on sale in store) Try this
Cream Bag
Navy Trench Coat: Dorothy Perkins (old) Try This one

An InLinkz Link-up

Perfect Culotte Wearing Weather

Oh yes it is. Culottes seem to be made for this inbetweeny weather we're having here in the Uk right now. Its not warm or cold, but inbetweeny, kinda like the leg length of these trousers, which are called culottes but i'm not sure if they're actually more of a wide leg cropped jean.... either way i really, really love them. 

It took me a while to come around to the culottes trend after Brownie Uniform memories came to mind from my youth, but as long as they aren't in brown and are a little longer then I think they are now acceptable.

On my culotte hunt i ordered this pair from Warehouse  which turned out to be absolutely dire on me. They just drowned my frame and made we look so wide I thought I suddenly became of oopma loompa stature. Those got sent straight back.

I turned to Shopbop, as although they're American I have to say every time I've ordered from them they've actually arrived quicker than most UK companies (UPS 2 day transit from the US.. It's impressive). And with a gift voucher in hand i got to looking for some culottey options.

My first thought was too these Madewell Wide leg Jeans but alas, not in my size.

So i searched and searched and these Etienne Marcel came up. And me likey.

When they arrived I tried them on straight away, they were wide but yet more streamlined than the Warehouse previous pair, making me less Oopma Loopma. 

They are high waisted which really helps with the leg lengthening too as culottes can be a little shortening, and at 5ft 6" its not a problem I'd ever encountered really, but yes midget status can easily be acquired in the wrong kinda culottes (so i had discovered).

Plus they are really-really comfy, a super soft denim which drapes nicely, but still has that fresh crease to the front which i love for smartening a pair of trousers and giving them some streamline. This only happens when i buy them as i can not iron for shit. My creases would be more like a concertina down the leg, thus missing the point.

Have you ever seen the film  Begin Again with Kiera Knightly and Mark Ruffalo? Well she plays a British musician in NYC and blah blah blah (Its a good film, go watch it), but i absolutely love her style in it. It's so tomboy-esque, so relaxed tailoring. I love it, and pinned it a lot ( see here) for inspo.

Well these trousers kinda remind me of that style she has. I'm very much looking forward to remixing them through summer with a boxy little top too.

 *Culottes: Etienne Marcel
Blazer: Next(old) Try this gorgeous one
*Lotus Shoes (which are sublimely comfy)
*Madewell bag
Topshop Cami Top
Yosa Necklace and Bracelets



So ... Culottes. Thoughts?

Ps If you caught the rather pleasant message on the gate behind me in some of the photos, i do apologise on it's behalf. The gate obviously has greeting issues. Or is just really mean.