Shoes I've Worn In 2020

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2020 for me started off pretty rough.  I'm not intentionally being vague about why, it's just that's not what this post is about.  In a bid to ease what was going on, Mum took me out a lot more than is usual for me.  It was clearly excellent foresight, given what was coming in Spring!  Since the pandemic hit, Mum and Dad don't go out much, my sister has to work and I haven't left the house at all since March.  Most people think that's too unbelievable to be true, but it is.  I'm accustomed to not getting out much, so in all honesty, it's not been too hard or different to my usual life.  I'm not saying it's easy, but after 18 years of it, you adapt to continually missing out.  Anyway, I thought I'd share the shoes I have worn so far this year, actually mostly boots as I was in a right phase in January/February.   

At the start of the year, I was really into wearing longer boots with floaty fabrics, especially looser fitting boots (these aren't shown in order by the way). The Texas boots from the Ashbury Skies USA Road Trip collection with Irregular Choice are one of my favourite styles and that series produced some amazing pieces overall. I don't even mind the rather boring and low-ish heel, because look at all that fancy above it (there's a cowgirl on the other leg)!  They are baggier in the leg and totally what I was in the mood for, especially with this Studio By Preen floral, striped dress. I'm not mad about the shape of the dress (at the waist and the huge sleeves, why do sleeves look so stupid on me?), but I love the mix of prints and the skirt part drapes amazingly.  I played up the colour this day with bright makeup, yellow tassel earrings, colourful headscarf, the Irregular Choice Bellissima parrot necklace and their Bon Anniversaire bag (shown below).  A stranger in the street stopped me to say she loved all the colour on me, which was nice.  

Mid January sparked the slouchy boots/floaty skirt thing for me with my Diamontina (Irregular Choice).  You'll have seen me wear these lots over the years on the blog, they are so easy to wear and I like that you can play around with them, scrunching them down, tying the tassel around the boot etc.  I would absolutely snap up another colour of these...or imagine them in a print! Sadly this year, we found out this heel mould is no longer available, so there goes that plan! Worn with the Studio By Preen 'Bramley Hedge' skirt, which has an awesome asymmetric hem. Again we were out for ice-cream and waffles, with my Dad and sister too.

Beginning of February and I don't think I was going anywhere, but my Mum wanted to get me out, so we went out for a walk (in the wheelchair) and might've managed a slice of cake along the way. These IC Pretty Pooch boots I've had for years, but never worn. I was initially put off them by the low heel, though I do quite like the metal star detail on it. The uppers are really interesting though with 3 layered sections, the lowest one jutting out so it looks like you're wearing ankle boots with leg spats. They are felt and fit very closely to the leg (they just do up and no more on me at the mo) with a big tassel dangling at the back. I wasn't wearing any makeup and was wrapped up for the cold, with my comfy Studio By Preen grunge check dress. This dress has a wrap bodice at the back, so I switch between wearing it the wrong or right way round-it looks fine both ways (though I suit it best the wrong way).

At the end of February, Mum and I had to pop to Dundee for something. I was a little unsure of wearing these IC Satine boots for a long period, given that I'm sitting in the wheelchair the whole time and thigh high boots are notoriously awkward in the knee region. That was actually the only reason I held off buying these immediately, because they are otherwise right up my street, but I worried I wouldn't be able to sit with bent knees in them. Pleased to report, they were fine. They have this amazing rainbow coloured sheen over the swirly print material, it's divine.  Most of my wardrobe is now the Preen collection at Debenhams, so no surprise this leopard print set is also from there (jersey, asymmetric skirt and long sleeved top with frill details).

I wore the Bobs Ur Uncle (IC) ankle boots with the (Preen) palm leaf, khaki, ruched midi dress, which you can't see here, at the start of February.  I also used my IC Party Poodle bag, which you can see here. I loved this combination, but really need to relace the boots, they were too tight and killing me by the end of the day (there's zips so you don't need to undo them each time). I think this was another Dundee trip, not for anything in particular.  

My final trip out this year was March 11th for my 2 year opticians appointment. It actually snowed this day, which was really surprising as we hadn't had bad weather (I find snow pretty exciting still (mostly because I don't have to go out in it when it gets mushy or slippy), so I wouldn't call it 'bad' but you know what I mean). I maybe went a bit too matchy matchy with these Lucky Lady (IC) boots and Renaissance velvet dress from Studio by Preen, that to be honest, I was surprised still fitted! These boots are favourites of mine for all those ridiculous bows and that gorgeous moody bloom print in patent-croc. I have to say, I don't think they're particularly flattering, if that's what you're after. There's little leg definition from the front with the fussy bows and they are a looser fit on me (I sized up IIRC) and as they're mid-calf they hit the widest part of your leg. This dress is also one of my favourites. I didn't used to particularly like crushed velvet, but I adore this. As usual it's got an asymmetric hem and a mix of stripes and flowers.

There have been a few days where I've been properly dressed in the house and worn makeup and shoes. January the 1st, I wore that grunge checked dress with IC's New Rules, for the first time. They have a really awesome printed, glitter heel that I didn't get a photo of. The deep green shade is lovely and I really like all the little embellishments and the frilled straps (although they fray). Again, they seem to be a bit unflattering on me, as the frill adds bulk around the smallest part of my ankle, so I kinda get cankles. In my defence, I think my feet were particularly swollen this day.  

For my 40th birthday in May, I wore my only non-Irregular Choice shoes in this post, Charlotte Olympia Barbie Pomeline.  I posted them on my Instagram here, where you can see the pom pom detail at the front made up of actual little Barbie shoes, it's adorable!  They are mega high, so definitely not for an all-day-outing, but for a mid-lockdown birthday, I managed to get downstairs and sit in the garden for a bit.  I wore them with this floral New Look dress with front-side split. NL have been fantastic for midi length dresses this year, I've bought tonnes as it's unusual they have such modest hemlines (!) and I'm taking advantage of that.  Also, why do I wear pink every birthday? I have no idea...it's a birthday pattern I noticed a while back and pink isn't a colour I tend to wear a lot of usually.  

For Mother's Day, I managed to get downstairs and wore this Collectif Dolores pin-up dress, which has been sitting neglected for a long time. These Glitter Queen mules are one of my Mum's favourite Irregular Choice shoes. I tried the silver Glisten ones on in Manchester with her years ago and she loved them then (same style but they light up), but I was crazy about this colour (as was she when I got them). If these lit up or even better, had they made the Luna Sparkles boots in this shade, I'd have been ALL over them. This photo doesn't do the colour or amazing sparkle justice at all.  I will say the shape is quite hard to style...I feel I haven't found the right look for them yet.  

Basically most of the year I've been living in these Tesoro Mio flamingo slides.  I have several IC slides that I swap over each season(ish) as slippers.  Good reminder that I must look out my Arctic Slide as they're my 'winter' ones.  Worn here with another New Look dress.  I love the colours, but the material is really thin, like it should be a lining and not the whole dress!  

I hope to wear something festive towards the end of the year but we're not going anywhere or meeting anyone, as the four of us can cope on our own this year.  I'm sure you'll have noticed I've been very absent, not just from the blog but more so from social media.  In part that was because I was too knackered and my migraines have been worse, now I'm just scunnered of the whole thing.  Does the fakeness and/or competitiveness of it all ever get to you?  I'm also finding it really hard to see people flouting the rules or bending them until there's no point to them, when others are making big sacrifices or people like me are stuck inside without our daily essential "you'll die without it" vitamin D walks and all that jazz! I cba with it or them and it's too much to look at every single day.  I've had to snooze a childhood friend of mine that I normally adore, because he's so blase about the seriousness of Covid and posts multiple times a day against everything I believe in.  I've missed blogging though, so I'm hoping to keep up with that as long as I can, but I'm not sure when I'll come back to Instagram and Facebook.  You have to do what's healthy for your head and at the moment, Instagram isn't it, so I hope you all understand that.  I also know more people follow me on SM than here and actually very few people read blogs these days, but if I enjoy it, I'm going to keep doing it.