Haute Casual or as I call it - Elegant Slumming.

The laptop is still going bonkers and whirring and clicking like Wall-E so I've commandeered the Grumps' laptop for a quick post before it gets dragged off me (he gets a bit precious about his toys).

I've been reading posts on this thing called "haute casual". Depending on which post you read and how it's interpreted, to some people it's about casual clothing in luxe fabrics and to others it's just wearing casual clothes and making them look expensive. I don't mind either way because it gives me a legitimate excuse to wear my joggy bots out in broad daylight (a big taboo in mummy land). Okay, I'm jumping on a late bandwagon and I don't know what I'm on about but I wanted an excuse to wear some joggy bots simply because I love wearing joggy bots.

Pic 1. The Basics - Topshop Oxblood Tee + H&M Joggy Bots & Converse

Pic 2. Topped off with Next Cream Bomber Jacket Thing

I had this fantastic brainwave as I was folding up Ben's joggy bots. I buy him his joggy bots from H&M for £5.99 and they come in a variety of colours but essentially they are quite a slim cut. Well I was eyeballing them and thinking they're quite nice and I hadn't seen any in the shops which ticked my criteria of (1) not too long (2) not too expensive and (3) not too thin when I had the lightbulb moment of raiding the boys section in H&M for a pair which might possibly do the trick. I was fair giggling to myself at my sheer brilliance and even more so when I found myself in an H&M changing room pulling on a pair of boys black joggy bots (height 152cm which equates with an 11-12 year old boy, I think) and they fitted!

 

Pic 3. It's not haute till you put a furry thing round your neck

Pic 4. Ta dah - haute casual (okay I'm taking the proverbial Michael here)

The sweatshirty knitty bomber jacket cardigan thing is from Next (yes Next!) which I spotted when I was using it as a thoroughfare to get to Zara and spotted it out of the corner of my eye. It's warm, stretchy, comfy and light coloured which makes a nice change from the darks which I've been gravitating towards just recently. The picture online is dreadful and I would not give it a second glance if it weren't for the fact that I saw it in real life first. And then I got to thinking where's the haute in this outfit? It's not haute in that anything is in a luxe fabric so I will have to take it the other way and try to make this look more haute by sticking a fake fur stole around my neck. I love this furry stole thing. It's the kind that you stick on the lapels of a coat to give you a fake fur collar but I have never worn it that way. Instead I tie one end over the other and it has a little hook in the right place so I can fasten it in place. I used to wear it when I was working in an office over my cashmere jumpers to stave off the air conditioning. 

So there you have it - my take on haute casual or as I prefer to call it ... elegant slumming. Whatever term you choose - it's still a good excuse to don some comfy pants isn't it?

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Last Note :

• Joggy bots aka jogging bottoms aka tracksuit bottoms aka sweatpants aka sweats.

• If you're thinking of going for a pair of joggy bots in H&M - get one size down. They loosen up and I am now in size 146 which is age 10-11. I'm getting younger by the day!

• I think this will be my staying in outfit for the next two weeks whilst all the boys are off (school and work).

• Whilst I was researching this Haute Casual thing which I believe was penned by Sarah Harris, I didn't find her original article in Vogue but I found this blog post which I found very interesting (for wardrobe fanatics like me). http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/the-great-divide/