Casual French-Inspired Winter Chic (With Added Leopard)

Throw a beret into an outfit and it’ll always have a touch of French chic. Add a BLACK beret and it’s begging for a Breton top and string of onions.

Not really… but to be fair, I wouldn’t wear a black beret in France for fear of looking (feeling) pretty daft. But in deepest, darkest Southwest England? Bring it on.

And a beret – or any hat – does the best job ever of hiding your two months worth of undyed roots. Many people think I’ve changed my hair colour to a warm blonde, but I haven’t: this is just the colour it goes when the Olia rose gold fades. I’ll be pink again hopefully by the end of the week. I decided to have a Christmas of not stressing about anything, including the fact that I didn’t find time to dye my hair.

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And talking of Christmas… I’ll be featuring the dress I wore on Christmas Day next week. Again, I didn’t stress about not getting the photos done to feature them here yet. I’m on it and I’m chilled about it.

We’re well into knitwear season right now. And I have to admit I always love a stylish sweater or cardigan – here are some knitwear styles for mature ladies that you might like.

But what IS perplexing me is what to call the knitwear I’m wearing here. You can’t tell it’s sleeveless, but it is: what item of clothing is it to you? Having searched online for more of the things for you (see the end for choices) I’ve found that we don’t call them one thing over here in the UK. With a fair amount of US influence, we’ve got ourselves confused about what we call this knitted top that doesn’t have sleeves.

I’m old-school British and I still want to call it a tank top. What can I say, I grew up in the 80s. That’s what we called them. But we now know that our US friends call our vest top (sleeveless t-shirt) a tank, and a waistcoat here is a vest there… confused yet?!

So here are all the versions I can think of, which is yours?

Sweater vest
Jumper vest
Tank top (the classic British description in the 70s and 80s)
Sleeveless vest
Sleeveless knit
Sleeveless jumper
Knitted vest
Knitted tank top
Knitted tank
Knitted waistcoat

Or if you call it something else then you HAVE to tell me in the comments (or have I now confused you and you’re not sure what you call it at all? Like when someone asks me how I say “scone”; I don’t actually know which I say, Skonn or Skoan)…

Anyway here’s my French-chic outfit with a great yellow coat, leopard sleeveless knit (!), black beret and some baggy trousers that I’ve been wearing on repeat all winter (don’t ask me how everything is still available, nothing’s particular new). Plus my Orla Kiely backpack* is the most perfect choice colours-wise. I kinda loved this outfit.

Is it a sweater vest, a tank top or a sleeveless knit? What do YOU call it? Scone: skonn or skoan? ; -)

Stay safe, XOXO

Coat: La Redoute
Sweater vest/sleeveless knit/tank top: Daisy Street (there is a UK14 left, or this is similar)
Trousers: Asos
Shoes: Amazon
Beret: Asos
Backpack: Orla Kiely*