Back to school

This time three years ago, when I was starting Sixth Form, I was scouring H&M and Zara, trying on suit trousers and dreaming of my fantasy professional wardrobe, which, if I recall correctly, contained satchels, fitted suits, and gratuitous use of brooches. I wanted to transform myself into an 80s businesswoman carrying four phones a la Kate Beaton, or, on other days, a vintage art student. I had plans far grander than my old, boring school uniform.

Naturally, of course, my neat, pretty little skirt suits and my clicky kitten heels and my carefully-chosen jewellery devolved quickly into a uniform of holey tights, the same scruffy, paint-stained velvet blazer, and whichever pull-on dress I could dig, crumpled, out of my drawer. It is not easy to dress stylishly when you get up every morning, without fail, half an hour later than the absolute latest you should have been up.

Of course, now at university I don't have a dress code. I can rock up to lectures in pyjamas for all anyone cares (and indeed, it might come to that - I haven't become an early riser in the past three years). I still, however, love clothes that catch my imagination and make me feel like I have transformed myself. Here are some looks with blouses, pinafores, turtlenecks and brooches, to wear if you want to feel like a cross between a 70s secretary, an eccentric art teacher and the Queen.

Photos are taken in the garden by my mum, of course; it is back to school after all. (Disclaimer: the glasses are genuinely needed. See: middle photo in which I am squinting, blindly, at the camera, like a pinafore'd badger.)

Outfit 1: Shirt: charity shop, brooch: hand-me-down from my mum, skirt: charity shop, shoes: Deichmann

Outfit 2: Shirt: charity shop, pinafore: charity shop, brooch: my mum's, borrowed, shoes: hand-me-downs

Outfit 3: Top: New Look,  skirt: Topshop, cardigan: charity shop, brooch: car boot sale, shoes: Deichmann, as before

Coatspiration

image via

As far as I'm concerned, this year's pastel pink winter has been the most irritating trend since leggings-as-trousers. (Irritation at said trend may or may not be to do with the fact that I definitely participated it when I was 13 - oh god, the cringing involved in looking back on old photos!) Not because it's aesthetically displeasing, but because I'm ginger, freckled and generally unsuited as a person for wearing pink. There is a woman who lives in my town who has the most beautiful tailored pastel pink coat and since she is blonde (an AW13 free pass to looking nice) looks amazing in it. I will admit that I'm jealous.

Even if I can't wear pink, I'd still settle for a beautiful pastel coat. And I would very definitely nick the little boy's look: shiny shoes, white shirt and a gorgeous powder blue coat. Beret optional but preferred. In an ideal world the walk to school would not instantly muddify my shoes and my shirts would not always be creased and I would be able to look chic and tres parisienne in a beret... But then again, in an ideal world, I'd be pretty in winter pink.

(As for the artistic rebel on the left, a baggy white t-shirt dotted with random colour and a very simple necklace and something denim seems like a great summer option. Thank you, opinionated 50's ad!)