I would use every crayon in my box

I'm sure I'm not alone in the fact that I often randomly buy things I like, with no initial idea of how I will wear them, what to wear them with or how they fit in with my pretencious ideas about my 'own sense of style'. This is especially true for my charity shop purchases (which seems to be all my purchases at the moment...). When I was compiling stock for the magazine I made on charity shops at first I had no idea what I was looking for, which is the real beauty of the charity shop-shopping experience. Many months later I find myself with - among maaany others - a bright red pencil skirt, a bright purple pencil skirt, a rather large coral bow on a hair clip and a fuschia sun dress. Around the same time I also picked up a green skirt in the Topshop sale (call me Miss Thrift). Some mental desire for colour, all spectrums but the brighter the better, seem to have drawn me in, and now I'm left trying to make sense of it all.

Looking to the catwalk for inspiration is obviously a good idea. Inspired by Antonio Beradi and John Galliano's s/s 09 collections, I now anticipate an occassion where I can clash the red skirt with a coral vest, and the pink dress with the coral hair bow. Luella's collection from the same season filled me with even more glee than usual as I spied the same shade of lavender as my skirt, but in the guise of a twee suit, accessoried with- a coral hair bow! She also featured more theatrical versions of the shape of my green skirt, and cleverly re-worked the Liberty style floral prints from her collection for this time last year. I'm not one to throw out things for being 'so last season' anyway, but it was nice to think that I can still feel 'on trend' (shoot me) by wearing a Primark Luella rip off top from last year with both the lilac or the green skirt.

So that is an insight into the way my mind works; like most women I patch ideas together in mood-board moments. Another inspiration for my embracement of colour has to be Samantha Jones. As the most colourful of the SATC ladies, often dressed head-to-toe in a bright shade, you imagine how aesthetically pleasing your life could be if you knew a woman who dressed like her (and regaled you with cock talk over cocktails)

Antonio Beradi- John Galliano- Luella- My sister styled in a pink charity shop blouse and the coral hair bow- Luella- Samantha- Samantha- Me in my lilac pencil skirt (far right)