Meeting up in London with some fellow 7 Steppers

Sunday 1st July

I'm on the train on the way to London to meet up with some of the 7 steppers (7 Steps to Style) I have got to know online - and Imogen Lamport, the founder, who is here from Australia. Her blog is Inside Out Style. https://insideoutstyleblog.com
where you can get all the details of the different programs.

Last week, LNER took over the running of the trains on the previous Virgin East Coast line. I was a bit concerned that my booking made with Virgin might have gone wrong but I needn't have feared. I always do fear though! I booked first class advance for a bit of extra luxury - the only downside being that my train time is set rather than having an open ticket. That of course gave me another concern - getting to the train on time as David can't drive me. Again I needn't have worried - the taxi arrived in plenty of time and I was able to relax on the train for 20 minutes before it left. At weekends first class doesn't do the excellent weekday menu, sadly, but I am going for lunch so that's not an issue. Plenty of drinks available (no, I'm not referring to alcohol!). The train livery is still Virgin. Outside too though I think some have changed

I've been catching up on some posts and blogs as I haven't had time recently. That's calming my nerves. I'm both excited and nervous about the meetup! I'm looking forward to it. I think.

It's interesting that you can almost immediately tell who wants to talk and who doesn't. My first seat companions did but they got off at York - my new fellow traveller doesn't. I realise I'm glad about that. Generally, I like to find out about other people and am happy to talk - or to sit and write blog posts!

Down the carriage, I can hear some people playing bridge; I don't know how many of them there are. I’d like to join in. I won't of course.

I still haven't completed the personality style analysis as I'm humming and hawing over some of the questions. That and the fact that I have difficulty choosing from a menu (often regretting what I chose) and like to keep options open might suggest one direction but other aspects are firmly in a different direction. Now, however, I'm not sure how much of my need for decision making (yes!!) was to do with business need rather than my personal style. I find it fairly easy to be adaptable and have learned lots of ways of functioning over the years. Be interviewed on national radio? Sure! (Terrified inside and regretting acceptance). Give a talk? A lecture? Okay! (Help!!) Meet a group of people I've never met irl? No problem (only minor anxiety). Last year I accepted an invitation to a weekend sewing session in a small group and to stay overnight with the organiser - I didn't know any of them and only the organiser briefly online. That was fine, I enjoyed it and have made friends. My motto is ‘have car, will travel’ . Having said that I'm a ♋ cancerian (do any of you believe in that?) and a home lover (I'm always desperate to get home) and very soft centred, easily hurt but with a harder outer shell.

Our train is delayed as there is a broken down train ahead so that has caused delay. Fortunately I got an earlier train than necessary so this might work out well. We're near Newark.

We might be stopped for a while - they can't tell us yet how long. But I'll wait a while before putting on my makeup. Oh, we're moving!

What else will I say at the moment? I feel unprepared clothes-wise and style-wise for today's meetup. I've put on weight and have nothing that fits well. It's hot in London so I'm wearing a blue patterned summer dress. It's lined and a little less loose than I'd like! With being up at my mother's helping her move, I haven't had time to get my hair trimmed. Oh well! This is more the real me! Make up will help.

I've remembered to bring my colour swatches. We're shopping after lunch. I'm a RTW Faster so am not intending to buy anything but I would if I saw the ideal item! It would need to be at least a 9 out of 10. I'm sooo short of clothes and just haven't had time to make. I have fit issues and there is still no TNT on the horizon. Losing this extra weight is going to take a while - easy on, difficult to get off. I neeeed clothes!

We've just been told the delay cost us 30 minutes so that is pretty good timing to meet some of the others. There are still some FB messages going back and forth so I have been able to say that I will be at the meet point.

Last night we heard that one stepper coming from Austria had a problem due to her flight being cancelled. I hope she makes itIf everyone makes it, we will be 13 in number. Are you superstitious? I'm not, really.

I'll carry on with this post on the way home.

I'm on the train. On my way back home. I'm glad as I feel quite tired. I have a lovely seat. Just the right temperature and wi-fi.

There were 13 of us. Daniella made it from Austria. I met up with 4 others in King's Cross and we walked to the Granary Square Brasserie and bumped into Daniela on the way. Because it was such a hot and sunny day, they were going to seat us outside. However, we were in favour of sitting indoors with the air conditioning and plenty of cold drinks. One of our party, Alison, is in a wheelchair and needed suitable facilities

It was lovely to chat to people I ‘knew’ but had never met. I had never had my signature colours done because I felt my photos were of such poor quality. I took advantage of Imogen and had them done live; she also confirmed my colour and value contrast and body shape. I have quite a few signature colours - I'm very lucky. Not everyone has so many.

This is my swatch. They're not ask signature colours but there are quite a few!

A signature colour is one that enhances eyes, lips or skin. One of the pinks tones in with the lip gloss I wore today.

Because I have colour in my eyes and skin, I can wear two colours rather than the neutrals plus one colour I previously thought.

It was very interesting seeing the colour swatches of the others there and comparing and contrasting. Some shades overlap, of course.

There was a lot of talk of personality types. I'll work on mine next week. I have a better idea now. Imogen had previously said to contact her but I didn't have time and didn't want to take up more of her time today.

You won't be surprised to learn that by the time we had eaten and chatted and got the bill sorted (thanks Tracey) people were getting ready to return home or to their hotels. No shopping. Well it means I haven't broken my fast!!

Ruth and I had a bit of time to kill before our trains so we sat with a cold drink and poured over the latest issue of Burda and discussed sewing until it was time to leave for our trains.

It was a long and expensive day but worth it! I'm playing in a golf league match tomorrow (the last of the season) but I have time to settle, get to bed at a reasonable time and even have a long lie if the birds and sunshine allow! I will have to wear the golf trousers I showed on my last blog post but hopefully I'll manage to make a nice pair of trousers - I've set September as a target.

I've just moved coach as our air conditioning broke down. This coach is much cooler. I've decided to post this blog if I can - I've never done it entirely on my phone! I didn't ask permission of the others to post their photos.

Colour - the third step in 7 Steps to Style - part 1

This is a pictureless way overdue post; it has been in draft for many weeks. 

Colour has always been important to me. I recognised early in my life that there were some colours that I shouldn't wear. Not always for the most obvious reasons. One of these was orange during the Orange Walk (orange and turquoise were the seasons colours) ;  another was green for similar reasons - at that time,  when I was young,  there was a lot of  bigotry dressed up as football support; one team was green and white and Roman Catholic, the other was blue and Protestant. I was challenged on many occasions (what team do you support? - 'None' wasn't an acceptable answer) and attacked on one. I detest bigotry.

Another was the mortification of being so tall that I was made a daffodil in the school play. Green and yellow. Not my colours. Yet in my late teens, I had a yellow unlined, thin cotton blazer that I loved. A better shade of yellow! 

I wore whites for tennis and  badminton but recognised that they didn't suit me; it didn't really matter much,  though, as this was the required kit.  Black drained me. I still disliked and avoided green. All greens. 

When I got married, as I have posted in an earlier blog post,  I wore ivory as I didn't suit white. I don't need to say more here. 

35 years ago,  I had my colours done by Colour Me Beautiful in a group activity. This was great as there was feedback from everyone in the group. My 'best colour' (a beautiful blue) was recognised by everyone. There was no doubt I was a 'summer' - in those days there was no subdivision. I was given a fabric swatch of colours; there was even a green that was good for me. The trouble is, I was stuck with what the shops actually sold. One year the 'in colour' was lime green - so not me. I didn't dressmake in those days, although there were far more fabric shops. I'm not sure how fashion affected the availability of colours in fabrics in those days, but assume I would have had a greater choice. I've lost the fabric swatch somewhere in my many moves over the years. 

Fortunately, work involved a uniform,  of sorts. In the first few years,  a white coat,  then in later years business type suits with blouses. The suits were never lime green! I favoured navy.

Towards the end of my career,  I became more casual.  I had achieved everything I wanted to and no longer needed to impress on the basis of a suit which didn't work for my normal work. There was an increasing split between the clinical side (suit far too formal to communicate appropriately with young people - what message is it giving? - trousers and top ideal; jeans would have been okay if I'd been younger but young people hate their elders trying to be trendy if it's not their usual behaviour) and the management side (suit expected). I decided to move back from the management side - I'd done my stint.

My trousers were usually black or navy. Not exciting but a good basis for tops of various colours and styles. Black really isn't my colour but it's so universal. It's okay keeping it away from my face.

Cool v Warm
So far, using colour swatches from 7 Steps to Style, I have confirmed that I lie on the cool side rather than the warm side of the spectrum. I tend to suit silver and white gold jewellery rather than yellow gold, which isn't surprising when my hair is silver grey. My reds are blue reds rather than orange reds. Blues are pretty good. Blue allows green to be worn, though I don't like it - yellow greens are awful on me. Black, yellow and orange are virtual no-nos.

Bright v muted

I suit muted, smoky or soft rather than bright colours. That is, colours with more grey in them. This is common with age. The brighter colours that I loved may not be the best suited to me as I age. My makeup colours will also be softer. I don't dye my hair but if I did I'd need to be careful about the shade.

Light v Dark

The third component is light v dark. I am light. That is I suit lighter rather than darker shades, on the whole. My favourite colours are darker, though, sosome adjustment needed here. 

Contrast value

I have medium value contrast. This is because my eyes are quite dark and my hair fair.

All these factors need to be taken into account when considering the best colour, tone and shade to wear.

Sublime v Serene 

I was sent two sets of colours to test.  Sublime v Serene.  Each of these sets had a subset of neutrals and a subset of colours. I saw both colours and neutrals in both of the sets that would suit me. I eventually managed to post photos of me holding the cards,  to help decide,  via the Facebook forum,  which of these sets of colours was more appropriate for me.

I am a serene person! 

Interestingly,  the cards had some greens and I was able to identify virtually matching shades in my wardrobe - I found a long sleeved tee shirt,  a jumper and a short sleeved T-shirt.

Signature Colours Identification overdue! 

I am way overdue to post photos to further refine my best colours. Unfortunately, I've been unwell and my skin has been looking rather green and sickly! I'm beginning to feel better now,  and the weather has picked up, so I hope I will manage to do this next step soon, once I'm back home. I'm helping my visually impaired mother with her paperwork; she is moving house to a more appropriate one level flat. 

I will take my best colours into account when making new clothes. Anything I make will have to work with multiple garments and there will have to be a clear need. One of the first things I want to make is a well fitting pair of slim trousers. I think grey is my black. Grey goes nicely with a lot of colours.

I think burgundy (or marsala?, Pantone colour of the year) is likely to be a suitable neutral along with grey and navy. I have lovely pieces of wool in burgundy, grey, navy - and black.

But that's me jumping ahead again! I reckon I need to post this post as part 1 because it's been sitting in draft form for weeks! Then I'll post part 2 when my signature colours are identified,  with the help of the Facebook group and of course Imogen. 

I feel I can't post pictures on my blog on this topic as I'm not sure about copyright etc. Am I allowed to post a Pantone colour?  I'm not sure about Imogen's swatches. Does purchase of these mean that I can? I assume not.