[Outfit post] Suits you, madam!

 Here I am, getting my Katharine Hepburn on. Yeah, the suit's new. As in, shop-new. High street. Not even repro. I'd wanted a suit for a while, and thought it would be good to have something conventionally smart in my wardrobe. When I bought this I thought the trousers would also be good for my holiday.

It's navy. Again. Sooner or later I really will have to go cold turkey on the blue.
The suit is from Next, who seem to have – without much fanfare – started doing decent ladies' suiting again. Their premium ranges are made with actual wool, and that's not something I've seen at the more affordable end of the high street in a long time. That said, this is from the regular line, it's a linen-look coarse weave, and set me back £65, which is pretty good for a smart new suit. One of the things I really like is that Next offer a range of bottoms per jacket, so while I prefer the Katharine-esque masculine 'slouch' style of trouser, if bootcuts are your thing they do those, and skinny-fit trousers, and some jacket styles come with a dress or skirt option too.

I thought about ways to make my suit a little more feminine, adding flowery tops, brooches and so on, because I worried that if I kept it plain it'd look like the sort of uniform some banks or building societies issue their staff with – you know, not the sort of suit people choose but the sort they get stuck with. Then I looked at photos of Katharine Hepburn, who wore a trouser suit like very few other ladies could, and noticed that she kept things very plain indeed, pairing hers with a white shirt and brogues.

I suspect that the Tao of HepKat would read, “When one owns a suit, one must own the suit.”

It occurred to me that half the point of Hepburn's look is the fitting/not fitting aspect. Whereas Dietrich's dinner jacket and bow tie fitted her perfectly and were clearly tailored for her, Hepburn's trousers and shirts were looser, as though cut for someone larger (though the perfectly-fitted waist and properly-hemmed length tells us that this is an illusion). Dietrich's menswear is her own, Hepburn's has a 'borrowed' quality. But Hepburn's are always well-pressed and smart, even while they're slightly large.

Inspirational as she is haven't gone for the Hepburn look, as I haven't styled my suit as severely as she wore hers. The top is from Seasalt; I love the colours and, again, I bought it with my holiday in mind as much as work. I did bling it up a little; my best Lisner brooch matched the top so well I couldn't resist popping it on the lapel.

How do (or would) you style a suit?