Why it’s taken me over a year to wear this red pleated skirt ► Suzy Turner

Have you ever bought something that you felt looked fabulous in the changing room, and then when you got home, it just didn’t look right? This happened to me with this red pleated skirt. I bought it over a year ago, with my best friend who agreed at the time how fabulous it looked. Strange, that the moment I got home, it looked awful. I can’t explain it. And no, it’s not the magic mirror in H&M!

I’ve tried it on numerous times with various different tops and each time, I felt fat and frumpy. It seemed to draw my eye to my mid-section. Which, let’s face it, not many women want eyes drawn there! So I sighed and put this cute red pleated skirt right back into my wardrobe.

And then a couple of weeks ago, I visited a fellow blogger (unfortunately, I can’t remember who it was because it was one I’d not visited before) who was talking about pleated skirts. This got me thinking about my H&M red pleated skirt again. I was determined to make it work (writing this just now made me think of Shelbee’s post last week – she’d bought a fabulous dress but then really struggled to style it) so I got the skirt out once again and tried once more.

All I knew was that I wanted to wear a cardigan with the skirt. And this grey cardigan is my favourite – it’s been on then blog loads of times in the past. And, coincidentally, it’s also from H&M. I recently bought this pair of grey tights from my local supermarket (Jumbo) and thought just maybe, they might work with my skirt! When I put them both on together, along with the cardigan, I knew I was finally getting somewhere. I opted for a pretty grey tee beneath my cardigan – again, another item bought from H&M lol. And then decided to add more grey, to elongate my legs with these grey heeled pumps, which I’ve had for years. I love the shape of these shoes, so much so that I also have a pair in purple.

And then I simply added a red necklace (a gift from my mother-in-law), and my gorgeous new Desigual handbag et voila! I finally made the red pleated skirt work for me. And I was delighted with the way it looked. Unfortunately, the storm that was brewing overhead as we took these photos, decided to hit us minutes before we were due to leave the house to head to our friend’s for dinner. The wind was absolutely howling and the rain lashing like whips. I couldn’t leave the house in a thin skirt like this!! So, I rushed back upstairs and changed into a pair of jeans and boots instead. Can you believe it? All that effort for nothing lol.

And then, to add insult to injury, when we arrived at our friends’ house, we sat down for dinner and I got the most terrible tummy ache – which left me spending the best part of the evening in their bathroom. Nooooooo! The next day, I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. I could barely move, every pore in my body hurt. Why, oh why do I always get hit with these horrible bugs? Fortunately, today I’m feeling a little better, but still not quite right. Hopefully, by tomorrow I’ll be ready to face the world once again 🙂