Black and white summer favourites

Even though I won’t be shopping the upcoming three months, I’d still like to share a little style diary with you. These are my summer favourites in the Black&White theme.

So, within a few days the Slow Fashion Season will start. During these three months 10.000 people have committed themselves into not buying anything new. Second hand, vintage, swapping and borrowing is allowed, just new new should wait until Autumn. Last year I took part in this challenge as well and I must say: it was definitely the best way to start my sustainable fashion journey. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so under the following link.

For now we can still dream and shop our summer favourites…

For now, we can still dream over beautiful sustainable and ethical items. And if we really love something, we can still buy it, without ruining the challenge. Those items below, are my favourites at the moment.

How do I decide what I like?

There are a few things I’ve noticed in the things I like. It’s a pretty consistent pattern that makes me choose the items that I choose. The first step to find out if I really like something, is my instant feeling for it. Is it a “wow” when I see it? If yes, I will save it in my reading list online, so I can check it again after a week or more. If I still like it, it’s a good sign.

Then I ask myself, am I able to wear this in my every day life? I live in The Netherlands, where our culture is very active and practical. I have to at least be able to ride a bike with the item. Also, I love walking a lot, so the items have stand the 10.000 steps a day.

Besides that, I ask myself, if I’ll be able to wear this for more than one season? Summertime is a pretty short period in the north of Europe, so if it’s too summery, I cannot wear it that much.

Another important thing I always take into consideration, is the fact if it matches at least 60% of the items I already own. If I can’t combine the item with what I already have, what’s the point of buying it then?

All these things together, made me pick the following items.

The results…

The items below, have passed the “wow”-test. I’ve seen these items more than a few weeks ago and I still think they are amazing. They have a chic and feminine touch, yet are comfortable and easy to wear.

I’ve noticed that I am very drawn to easy black and white outfits. I love the classy look of colour blocking, where white and black will always be stylish colours. With those two, you will not have to worry about trends. Black and white is never a trend, yet always on trend. This will allow me wearing the items for more than one season. If you think, white and black are boring colours, you can always spice them up with accessories or vintage items, a thing I like to do a lot.

Besides the colours, I’ve noticed that I like retro shapes a lot. For example squared toe shoes. I think it’s very pretty, but also very comfortable. Pointy shoes are beautiful too, but my feet start to hurt a lot wearing this awkward shape, so I am looking for rounder or more squared shoes lately. Also puffy sleeves have drawn my attention. For warm weather it’s a great way to create some coolness, for cooler weather, it’s easy to layer it over a simple long sleeve. Another thing I like a lot recently is silk combined with pearls. I think this look is so so timeless and stunning. It has the perfect retro vibe, without being too outdated.

Let’s move over to the actual items I’ve picked for this summer style diary. All the items match my style, which I try to describe as retro, feminine yet modern. I like vintage shapes, flowy materials and solid colours.