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FROM TMCM TO BEIRT: A NEW CHAPTER

Introducing Beirt

When we started TownMouse CountryMouse Ireland (TMCM Ireland) in 2012, we were at the tail end of our twenties and in search of an outlet to write about subjects we enjoyed in a project to work on together. Blogs were in their heyday, and TMCM was a moderate success, being nominated for awards and allowing us to dip our toes into the early days of influencing, although our interest and forte was…

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Fashion Fades, Only Style Remains the Same

  Coco Chanel is attributed to the title of this post, which sums up, in fashion terms the general feeling of the moment. It’s been a while since we’ve considered style musings an essential service, and it will be a while until we do again. But we’ll be back, better than ever and with a few little developments and surprises ready to reveal.

Until then, stay safe at home, look after yourselves…

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The only non-glitter make-up look you need this Christmas!

The only non-glitter make-up look you need this Christmas!

Post by Aoife

Dear readers, there’s only so much we can say about dressing during the Christmas season. Need some shopping-to-bar-to-another bar and then a heaving pub style tips? Click here! Want to look your very best in the most polished way from morning to night, without having to rush home to change? Look no further! Content to lounge in comfy clothes, but feel like going the extra mile in…

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Trend Watch: Puff Sleeves or How I Almost Succumbed to a Throwaway Trend Once Again

Trend Watch: Puff Sleeves or How I Almost Succumbed to a Throwaway Trend Once Again

Post by Aoife

I’m in a terrible conundrum. I had thought that I had my Christmas closet all sewn up after one sleepless night when I mentally went through my entire wardrobe and planned each outfit for the week of Christmas, right down to a heading entitled “Unexpected casual drinks in pub”, and was pretty darn pleased with myself and my (scary, uptight, control freaky) organisational skills.

On…

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Winter Style Inspiration 2019

Winter Style Inspiration 2019

Post by Aoife

You may be wondering if you really need more winter (ie Christmas season) style inspiration, now that we’ve helped you discover the wonders of glasualdressing. Well, quite frankly, you do! Moods change, vibes shift, the weather dictates what you can comfortably wear, especially this time of year. A little light browsing of the street style of those with either stylists at hand or…

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Trend Watch: Glasual

Post by Aoife

I’ve been trying to find a name for my current preferred sartorial aesthetic, and it turns out the word has already been coined. I don’t know where it originated; according to a snipit I read on The Telegraph fashion pages it seems to have begun with Marks & Spencer’s AW19 press launch, but I first came across it in this columnby Jess Cartner-Morley in The Guardian. Anyway, glasual…

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Sarah Burton & the Beetles of the Emerald Isle

Sarah Burton & the Beetles of the Emerald Isle

Post by Aoife

The words beetle (well, Beatle) and fashion designer are most often uttered within the same breath as Stella McCartney and her dear dad Paul. But since Sarah Burton’s latest show for Alexander McQueen, on the penultimate day of Paris Fashion Week, she will now be reverently associated with beetling, a 300 year old method of pounding linen or cotton fabric with potato starch in order…

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Trend Watch: Turtlenecks

Post by Aoife

The second fashion month of the year is drawing to a close this week in Paris, and for the first time in I don’t know how long I’ve been mostly, well, meh about the whole endeavour. It usually takes me until the end to really go over the shows and see what’s coming for the following season (so make sure to read that post next week!) but while the month is in progress I like to take…

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Style Eye on Autumn

Style Eye on Autumn

Post by Aoife

Bear with me while I bitch about the weather for a few sentences – I promise it’s a means to an end. This August has been the wettest and most miserable round my parts in recent memory, and we didn’t fare much better in July. Because it’s been so darn shitty the time I would usually have spent reading books outside with some chilled rose, or batting wasps away from my al fresco…

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Post by Aoife

I’m pleased to announce that I shall be embarking on my first actual summer holiday for the first time in I dunno how long, in a few week’s time. I’ve been planning my hot (not mild, not warm, HOT!) weather wardrobe for some time now, and am in the process of whittling down all the lucky contenders vying for a place in my (check-in!) suitcase. As well as that I’ve been feverishly researching ‘holiday reads’, books that will have me turning the pages while I laze in the sun, with chapters short enough to snap shut almost immediately, should a sightseeing, cheese eating or wine drinking opportunity come along.

Gentle readers, I love a good read. I always have my head stuck in a book, like Belle in Beauty and the Beast but without the judgment (“There must be more than this provincial life” said no Country Mouse, ever!). Which is why Chanel’s recent haute couture show, the first under new artistic direction of Virginie Viard, so entranced me. For, t’was library themed! Our mother was a librarian and loves books, a love that we have inherited, so the marriage of books ‘n’ fash has caused quite the stir chez TMCM.

What can we take away from Chanel’s third incarnation, with Viard now at the helm? You can keep your specs on, your accessories minimal and your hair in a deceptively prim, but actually effortless ponytail. Wear nothing but flat black patent brogues and try out sequins for summer. Do the navy and black thing. Oh and wear but one b’feathered earring. These may not particularly suit the boiling heat of the Med, but I’m excited to nod to them come my return to Ireland and weather perfect for library dwelling.

Meanwhile, here’s how I might interpret the fashion meets literature and libraries theme while I’m en vacances en France.

Here’s Belle, the romantic heroine before she sadly succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome.

A fitting update on Belle’s classic outfit, non? That Cult Gaia bag could fit at least two slim paperbacks, and I’ve seen very similar styles in Penneys!

Rachel Weisz played a librarian in fun 90s action flick The Mummy, and I am rather taken with her nerdy-chic look. The movie is set in 1920s Egypt so light cottons and linen are the perfect choice for the heat.

Add a pair of heels and swap your specs for (prescription) shades, let your hair loose like any sexy librarian is required to do once she whips off her glasses, and you’ve got the look made!

You wouldn’t think that prison garb has a place on a fashion blog, but hear me out! Taystee and Poussey (RIP) on Orange is the New Black are dedicated librarians in the earlier seasons, and to be fair rock the looks that are given to them. And what’s one of the key trends for this summer? That’s right, boiler suits!

Wear yours with some very on trend strappy kitten heels and a bum bag to keep pesky pick-pockets at bay and you’ve got yourself a go-to sightseeing outfit (keep your flip flops in there too, there’s only so much almost twisting your ankle on cobblestones you can do  in the name of fashion).

  Is there a literary character more beloved than Elizabeth Bennett? As portrayed by Keira Knightley in 2007’s Pride and Prejudice, she’s yet another bookworm, and her tomboyish femininity is a dreamy look that’s hard to beat.

I get the feeling that our Lizzie wouldn’t be the most dedicated dress wearer if she lived in the 21st century, and would prefer something a little more like the above. Cool, breezy, casual but put-together, even her dear, interfering mama would approve.

While you’re here, would you like some reading recs for your own summer hols? Check out my other, book-based blog here!

Trend Watch: When Fashion meets Literature Post by Aoife I'm pleased to announce that I shall be embarking on my first actual summer holiday for the first time in I dunno how long, in a few week's time.

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Zara has a dupe for Saint Laurent flat sandals - and they're on sale!

Zara has a dupe for Saint Laurent flat sandals – and they’re on sale!

Post by Miriam

Everyone is talking about the Zara sale. And so they should given the number of dupedy dupes that are strewn around shop floors for next to nothing.

I haven’t set foot in a Zara since the sale was announced. because my wardrobe is literally spilleth over but I saw these Saint Laurents and I remembered seeing flat sandals that I avoided in Zara because they weren’ton sale and…

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How to look professional when it's hot and sticky outside

How to look professional when it’s hot and sticky outside

Post by Miriam

Last week was the most Irish week in history. Not only was it cold and wet and summer at the same time, everyone and I mean EVERYONE was complaining about it. In case you didn’t know, moaning about the weather is the national pastime here on the Emerald Isle and there’s never a moanier time than when the weather isn’t to our satisfaction in summer.

It’s taking a turn, though. This…

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Trend Watch: White Tennis Shoes

Trend Watch: White Tennis Shoes

Post by Aoife

The dad sneaker trend is dead, all hail the white tennis shoe!

If my observations are correct – and why wouldn’t they be, for I have had my eyes tested recently and my prescription is right up to scratch – the shoe of the summer is to be, and already is for those who have already had a bit of a summer – the plain white tennis shoe (or, as I like to call them, plimsolls, but they can…

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Quick! Buy this dress in Topshop before your local closes for good

Quick! Buy this dress in Topshop before your local closes for good

Post by Miriam

There was no stopping me on Sunday. I was slightly hungover, I had a lot of time to kill and nowhere to go. So I started walking ‘aimlessly’ towards the St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre and oh! There’s Topshop on the way and, oh my! There is a MASSIVE sale on. How could I resist?

It’s on because it’s one of the stores on Philip Green’s Arcadia hit-list.I’ve felt bad about picking…

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The only 5 items you need to be well-dressed this summer

The only 5 items you need to be well-dressed this summer

Post by Miriam

If you live in Ireland, you’ll be forgiven for thinking the world has flipped itself upside down and it’s winter now. You’d still be wrong, though. Despite the low temperatures and rain and tourists who expected it to be like this anyway, it is, in fact, the middle of summer.

Everyone is talking about the cold, wet conditions as though Ireland has never been cold and wet in June…

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Post by Aoife

Hands up who isn’t a summer person! Just me? Hardly. There’s a very, very narrow window in the year in which I feel truly prepared sartorially, and that is the three week period in late September/early October when I can wear big red woolly jumpers instead of jackets with just a cheeky pair of black tights underneath, while kicking through golden leaves in lightweight flats, like a contrived Pinterest image come to life. Can’t wait. But in the meantime we have summer to contend with. Sigh.

If you’re a sun worshipper by all means embrace this summer’s trends, including cycling shorts, boiler suits and Rixo dresses (or dresses that give a Rixo vibe), but this sunshine-rejecting malcontent will generally be looking elsewhere for summer style. I’m thinking Riviera, I’m thinking the Med, I’m thinking a classic aesthetic that can be adapted for tricky Irish weather…

…first of all, do yourself a quick favour and set the mood with this video of Gwen Stefani crooning about being cool with her old boyfriend’s new lova, while looking hawt in Lake Como.

Right. Now we’re talking! 50s style halters and espadrilles and little sundresses and tiny shorts with demure blouses? Heart eyes emoji x 10. x 20!

But brunette, nude lipsticked Gwen is not our only summer style icon, oh no. Here are a few more who will see us through these difficult few months until we’re back safely in our stompy boots and blazers.

Julia Roberts at the Kentucky Derby in Pretty Woman

Tell me you haven’t seen a version of this dress in Dorothy Perkins or Wallis every summer in recent memory and I’ll tell you that you are mistaken, good sir or lady. Only two colours feature on this palette, which makes for an elegant, sophisticated look. You don’t strictly need the gloves. But, like a good rug in a room, they really tie the look together.

Solange in the Losing You video

I frequently turn to Solange in her video for one of the best songs ever written for style inspo when I feel like my mojo needs a bit of a boost. No one does a clashing print quite like Solange. But see how otherwise classic her looks are? High waisted, lil cardis, heeled brogues? Perfection!

Diane Keaton anytime, but especially in Something’s Gotta Give

Shot by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair

I’ve never wanted a black hat and black tuxedo pants and white shirt and brown scarf and monochrome painted nails more. If the sun peaks through that eerie mist though, you might want to lighten the mood by going beige (another key trend this summer, btw), and complimenting it with white. Lovely little white pumps (€4 Penneys!) will complete the nonchalant and effortlessly chic look.

Style Icons for Summer Post by Aoife Hands up who isn't a summer person! Just me? Hardly. There's a very, very narrow window in the year in which I feel truly prepared sartorially, and that is the three week period in late September/early October when I can wear big red woolly jumpers instead of jackets with just a cheeky pair of black tights underneath, while kicking through golden leaves in lightweight flats, like a contrived Pinterest image come to life.

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Why do men keep judging women on their style?

Post by Miriam

One of the reasons we started this website was in retaliation to a comment a nasty little guttersnipe made to me when I strolled through town in a pair of Victoria Beckham-style flared jeans and high boots. Comment is too mild a word, actually. He called me a cunt. I couldn’t believe it. The gumption! But I’ve realised since that he wasn’t calling me a cunt per ce, he was saying I…