today i love... dorothy perkins' daily dress up challenge

The concept of the capsule wardrobe is an interesting one. In the days of environmentally-friendly this and economically-sensible that, many people argue that spending lots of money on lots and lots of clothes is a bad idea. Obviously I think they're mental, and I don't believe any of this stuff about 'women only wear 10% of their wardrobes'. Clearly they've got rubbish wardrobes, because I love each and every piece of my clothing and wouldn't be without any of it for the world. I'm also very dubious of women who say they prefer to buy just three massively expensive designer pieces rather than spending the same amount of money on loads of high street clothes. I mean, fair enough, those three pieces are going to be lovely, but after a few days, aren't you just going to be wearing the same outfit over and over again?! I for one hate the idea of wearing exactly the same outfit, well, ever. Yes, I'm perfectly happy to wear the same combination of top and jeans a few weeks apart, but I'll certainly wear a different cardigan/ scarf/ handbag/ jewellery to shake things up a bit. Apart from anything else, I find it extremely boring wearing the same thing. Sure, they'll always be a few items that I love more than others at any one point in time, and these will figure pretty frequently in my outfits for a while, but soon enough they'll be replaced by new loves, and so the cycle continues.

So anyway, the idea of anyone sacrificing the beauty of choice in favour of a capsule wardrobe both terrifies and intrigues me. It's a notion that can easily be taken too far; the girl that tasked herself to wear the same dress every day for a year - and then continued after that year was up - strikes me as a bit pointless and attention-seeking. But reducing your wardrobe to 8 seasonal items for one month - now that could be very interesting. And that's exactly the concept behind Dorothy Perkins' Daily Dress Up Challenge.

I discovered the Dorothy Perkins blog when I chanced upon an article on the Grazia website involving an interview with the lovely DP staffer Rachel, who was championing the original Dress Up Challenge, which took place back in April. Back then she was given 8 of Dorothy Perkins' key pieces for spring/summer and challenged to turn them, and only them, into 4 weeks' worth of fabulous outfits, with the addition of her own shoes and accessories (one of which pictured above). Intrigued, I clicked on through to the DP blog, and was amazed with what I saw. This idea has such a potential to be disastrous, after all, if you pick the wrong girl. But Rachel, apart from being insanely gorgeous with some seriously good hair, is one stylish lady. She took those 8 items of clothing and made 28 truly desirable outfits, which is no mean feat at all (the way she wore the floral culottes was so great I even bought them). It really got me to thinking: would I be able to be that inventive if I had to (God forbid) scale down my wardrobe like that? Rachel hitched up a maxidress to make a midi; she put a tee over a dress and rolled up the sleeves; she tried out patterned tights and over-the-knee socks; she tucked dresses into shorts and used a blouse as a jacket. That takes some serious fashion creativity, my friends, and after having been excited to see her put a new spin on the items each day, I understandably lamented when the month came to an end.

So imagine my joy when I checked out the Dorothy Perkins blog yesterday and found out that the Daily Dress Up Challenge has been resurrected for October. The lovely Rachel is back to bring us another fabulous month full of brilliant outfits. This time she has 8 items from Dorothy Perkins' AW'10 collection: khaki combat jeans, a black drape jacket, a mulberry chiffon top, tan suedette shorts, a fringed maxidress, a grey cardi, a stripy top and a denim shirt. She has so far completed 5 of the looks (day 4 pictured above) and they are all fabulously inventive. I can hardly wait to see the rest, and I strongly urge you to check out the blog. If nothing else, Rachel provides a handy lesson in accessorising, and even though the sensible ones among us would never dream of downsizing our wardrobes, we can at least get some helpful tips on how to revitalise anything that's looking a bit tired. The blog may even get you to see your own wardrobe in a whole new light. So for that I say: thank you, Rachel!