I am on holiday from 17th August until 24th August so I have arranged for some guest posts from some fabulous bloggers. This post is written by Simon who is a male fashion blogger. I hope you enjoy this post.
Rachel x
Hi, I'm Simon. I'm 35, married to the lovely Elaine and after living around Greater Manchester for 12 years have grown to love this city! I've been working on women's fashion and styling for about 12 years and in the last couple of years have started writing about this on luv4fashion.com The blog also finds me writing about food at home and dining out, as well as anything else we get up to.
My style has changed a lot over the last couple of years; since I turned 30 and became an office worker I've gone through two different styles in just 5 years! After leaving hotels and being tied into office job where I was restricted in shirts and ties I went into a job where I was able to wear anything I wanted too.
Being a geek I indulged in a few pop culture t-shirts to wear every day with jeans. I say a few, I think I still own about 100 of the things. It suited my lifestyle; working in a casual office, not needing to dress smartly and it was enjoyable collecting all those t-shirts with everything from Jamie & the Magic Torch & Ghostbusters through to Jaws & Star Wars. See I said I was a geek, 100% and I'm not ashamed of it!
One thing I did always like though was a good suit, I'm a big fan of tailoring so I always kept a couple of good suits and some nice shirts and ties for special occasions. I always used to collect new suits, at one point owning 7 of them. Not excessive, but I guess it is when you don't wear them for work! My favourite still is the fantastic grey slim-fit three piece suit from next, a bargain at £129. Would be fabulous if I could fit into it properly now!
Over the last 18 months I made a decision to move away from the t-shirts and jeans and have been rebuilding my wardrobe in almost every sense. I put away lots of the t-shirts, even threw some out. Taking inspiration from my love of tailoring, I looked at casual shirts, chinos and casual shoes.
Anybody that knows me is aware chinos have never been my things, but visiting H&M, Primark and Next I found everything I could want to start a new trend in my wardrobe. Different coloured chinos, even some cardigans, something I'd never normally wear and some new shirts meant there was a new me walking down the street.
I've now started a new obsession with collecting sports and casual jackets, you'd be amazed how much difference they can change an outfit to make it look smart and give an appearance for a smart night out, any level of budget can pick up a nice one, priced from £10 up to £100 depending on your need!
Since then I've even moved onto chino shorts, summery short sleeved shirts and loafers. After I visited the new Topman store I've picked up even more; I'd even joke that I'm down with the kids and starting to dress like One Direction or whatever the hell they're called; I'm 35, I do women's fashion and to find a new style for myself has been good fun and refreshing.
Simon
