What I wore in September - Part 2

Time is marching on relentlessly. In just a matter of days, we'll be turning the calendar's page to the year's penultimate month. Still, no matter how hard I try, my blog keeps running way behind the times, so let me whizz you through the rest of the month of September.

The weather in the week of the 15th of September was a jumble of clouds, sunny spells and showers, with temperatures ranging from 18 to 22°C.

Work continued to be hectic and chaotic, leaving me too tired to do anything else than flop down on the sofa after work. I'd been feeling a bit out of sorts as well, slightly nauseous and headachy, as if one of my migraines was coming on. Consequently, not a single outfit photo was taken.

By the end of the week, the weather gods decided to crank up the thermostat one last time, treating us to highs of 27°C on Friday.

Not having to go into work, I woke up feeling completely revived, a sure sign that all of my ailments were work stress related.

Still, there was no rest for the wicked, as I had a hairdresser's appointment at 10 am. To save me the bother of using public transport, Jos drove me into Antwerp. As I was early, I was ambling around taking a couple of photos - just look at that deep blue sky! - when I was approached by a girl with a camera. She introduced herself as a photography student and asked if she could take my photo.

She told me she was looking for people with individual style and loved what I was wearing.  As you can imagine, this really made my day!

This was my outfit of the day, which wasn't even something all that special in my book.

My skirt was bought brand new on the high street a couple of years ago. The sailor-style short-sleeved jumper is from Belgian retro label Who's That Girl by way of a charity shop, while the green shoes were an adventurous buy from Think Twice in September 2023. The bee brooch I pinned to my jumper was found at the indoor flea market in April 2024 and, finally, the green and yellow beaded necklace - from Les Cordes, one of my favourite brands - was a birthday present from my friend Inneke.

Hair freshly and expertly cut by Michel,  I went for a quick browse in the charity shop near the salon and fell for this brick coloured, ruffled Soaked in Luxury blouse. As the weather had taken a turn for the worse by the time I was ready to photograph it, the colour isn't exactly true to life. Fear not, though, as you'll get to see me wearing it very soon.

Saturday was mostly cloudy but very humid and muggy at around 23°C, with lots of rain in the afternoon.

I dug out one of my Diolen Delights - a Think Twice find in the Spring of 2024 - adding a charity shopped snake print belt at my waist. The silver and gold patterned ankle boots were found in a second-hand pop-up shop in Antwerp in April 2023.

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed the postcard propped on the shelf in front of the glass-fronted cabinet behind me. It was a lovely surprise found in a recently charity shopped book, where apparently it had been used as a bookmark. The perfect reminder to make another batch of Welsh cakes soon! Go on, do have a try if you like. They're absolutely delicious!

For some reason, nothing felt quite right that day and even going for a rummage wasn't exactly  straightforward. We'd planned to drive to the shop in Mechelen, where we hadn't been for ages, but as this was complicated due to roadworks, we decided to go to the three-floored shop near the park in Duffel instead. Here, however, we found the car park being chock-a-block, so that there was nothing for it but to make a U-turn and driveve back the way we'd come.

We were about to give up and call it a day, when we remembered the charity shop in Reet. This is one of the smaller shops and tends to be a bit hit or miss. However, as if to make up for our thwarted plans, I was in luck this time around. 

First up is the teal retro-style Wow To Go dress on the left. I used to be a big fan of the label, which was considered to be the grown-up sister of the aforementioned Whose That Girl, back in the day. In fact, I even bought this particular dress in one of their sample sales about 12 years ago. Sadly, it had become too small and I'd moved it on, although for some reason I'd kept the belt. A very serendipitous thing to do, as my new acquisition came without one!

The zipper front dress on the right is a King Louie in a thick knit and I've got plans to wear it this Winter with a contrasting pair of opaques.

I also grabbed two blouses: a ruffled one with a lovely leafy pattern (above), which is from a Paris label I'd never heard of called Daphnea ... 

... and a black floral tie-neck one by Zoë Loveborn, which I wore on Sunday the 21st of September. 

I patterned mixed it with a skirt in similar colours and picked up the green bits in both garments with one of my beaded necklaces and a stretchy belt.

And just like that, Summer had come and gone, and we now found ourselves officially in Autumn.

What's more, it was a miserable start to the new season, with granite grey skies, lots of rain and a considerable drop in temperature.

To cheer ourselves up we booked a couple of days at our favourite B&B near Bruges for the first week of November. Not long now!

The weather continued to be cold and miserable, with highs of only 16°C, in the last week of September, when the weather gods presented us with the kind of soul-destroying murky days on which daylight hardly gets a look in.

Work continued to be relentless too, but at least my energy levels were up, so that I was more than happy to show you what I was wearing on the Wednesday of that week.

My dress with its Art Deco style pattern was another King Louie which I found during one of our rare visits to the Oxfam second-hand shop in Wilrijk in June 2021. The long orange cardigan and necklace were charity shop finds, as were the slouchy tan boots.

T2 was having another round of their famous sales and with prices down to € 4 by Wednesday, my weekly cappuccino catch-up with Inez was followed by a rummage, which yielded a green wallpaper patterned short-sleeved dress and a blue and red patterned oatmeal blouse.

I also found a peach coloured vintage slip - these things are rare as hens teeth these days - but the colour didn't photograph well, so that I'm afraid you'll have to use your imagination.

And so we've arrived at September's final weekend, starting with Friday the 26th.

A cold wind was blowing from the East, but had thankfully died down by late afternoon.

I made a start with my wardrobe changeover - always a very daunting and lengthy project - switching around some of my skirts and coats. Unfortunately, I haven't got the space to leave everything out all year round, which would make things a lot easier.

Another King Louie with an Art Deco style pattern, my blouse was charity shopped back in June. Its companion, a green zig-zaggy St. Michael skirt, was a gift from Vix which I keep reaching for time and again. 

A wine red belt, greyish green wooden necklace, multi-coloured glass ring and green squirrel brooch completed my outfit.

We were looking after our neighbours' three cats, Bobby, Billie and Pip, that weekend, so we walked over for final instructions before doing a food shop in the afternoon.

We were treated to the odd sunny spell and highs of 18°C on Saturday, which I guess wasn't too bad for the time of year.

For its first outing, I paired my recently charity shopped Soaked in Luxury blouse with a floral extravaganza of a skirt in shades of burnt orange, blue, pink and fudge on a chocolate brown background. I pinned one of my vintage brooches at the blouse's neck (but might have wrecked it by doing so) and chose a multi-coloured beaded necklace picked up from the charity shop in Poperinge many years ago. The tan leather belt with its unusual buckle was charity shopped earlier this year.

Apart from the pleasurable task of feeding the the cats across the road and playing with youngster Pip, we hadn't chalked in any plans for the day. I continued with my wardrobe changeover and then we dropped off a couple of bags of donations at the charity shop in Mortsel in the afternoon.

In return, these two books came home with me.

We continued to be in the weather gods' good books on Sunday, when we went for a walk in Hof ter Linden after lunch. The castle is still under renovation which seems to be coming along nicely. For some reason, I only took a handful of photos that day - none of them of the castle's progress, alas.

Proof of a lack of rain over Summer is in the puddle (below, bottom right) which was all that was left of the mysterious pool I first laid eyes on back in April ...

Finally, here's a look at the dress I was wearing that day. It's from a Finnish labels called Heikkilä and, although it was a Think Twice find quite a while ago, I believe this was its very first outing.

My necklace, belt and Mephisto boots - which are my preferable footwear for Autumn walks - were all charity shopped at one time or another.

I'll try to squeeze in one more post before we are off on our next adventure. If not, see you on the other side!