Pinstripes and Pin Collar Shirts

ASOS Coat | Hawkins & Shepherd Pin Collar Shirt* and Swarovski Pin Bar* | Topshop Leather Trousers | Daniel Boots* | Zara Bag

What do you think of when people say pinstripes?
I'd hazard a guess that your thoughts fall onto your mum mid 90s wearing a skirt suit after she landed that new IT job. I'm not sure about you, but that's never been a look I've particularly wanted to emulate. We've had granny-chic before, but early 1990s mum-chic? I don't think the world is quite ready for that yet.
But with 90's mania still in full swing, what better time to welcome the pinstripe back from fashion exile than in the form of a full length tailored coat? Shaking off its basic boardroom reputation, pinstripes feel more Stella McCartney style scandi-chic than 90's city banker. 
When asked my top style tip I'll always say never underestimate the power and versatility of a simple white shirt. Whether fitted and preppy or oversized in a Breakfast at Tiffany's kind of way, it's a guaranteed classic that's always going to work, so it seems like a natural go-to pairing for pinstripes.
But sometimes classic can get a little bit boring... Taking a trip further down the fashion timeline, this pin collar shirt by Hawkins & Shepherd twists the classic down a paired-back glam 1920s avenue with its smart tailoring and glittery Swarovski pin bar. 
Now if someone asks you to think of an outfit influenced by both the 1990s and 1920s you're probably going to be left with a terrifying mental image of pure style sinning, mashing up a decade of decadent dazzling glamour with another decade known for its stripped back minimalism and sportswear. Basically, a flapper girl wearing a bucket hat and a tracksuit jacket.
The reality? More of 20s tailoring dream played against some subtle striping.
No skirt suits in sight.

 

#WearItPink

I wear: Topshop Bonded Trench Coat (similar here, here and here) | Zara Jumper (similar here) | Zara Skirt | H&M Boots | H&M Bag | Topshop Sunglasses (old- similar here)

As if I already needed an excuse to wear pink, Friday 24th just so happened to be Wear It Pink day.

From the significant rise of boob related things in the news, adverts and in stores, I'm sure most of you are all ware by now that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Every single year 50,000 women and 400 men (yes- guys can get it too!) are diagnosed with breast cancer, so if that isn't reason enough to start checking yours boobs (and his, for that matter), then I'm not quite sure what is. 1 in 3 people will get cancer, so there is always cause to raise more awareness and raise money to help discover a cure and give support to those living with cancer.

On the 24th October people throughout the country are encouraged to wear pink to raise awareness, and pledge a donation to help cancer research. Major landmarks across the UK turned pink to mark the event, but for this occasion, I teamed up with Carl Thompson, founder of Pin Collar Shirts, to do anything pink related that we could think of.

With fashion being our forte, it seemed only sensible to pull our favourite pink pieces out of the wardrobe. Cue the ultimate pink bonded trench coat from Topshop. This was followed by buying the best pink flowers that the local Tesco had to offer (because we're clearly very classy people), making pink cupcakes (definitely not my idea), and several bottles of Ros� (well, it was a Friday after all...)

Throughout October Pin Collar Shirts are donating 10% of all Pink shirt sales to Breast Cancer research. For the full details of what Carl's wearing check out his #WearItPink blog post.

If you didn't wear pink, hate pink, or only wear pink on Wednesdays, you can still help by texting PINK to 70660 to donate �3 to Breast Cancer Campaign.