Building a Summer Capsule Wardrobe with The Lexicon*:

As you might've seen on my instagram, a couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to be invited along to Bracknell's new shopping centre The Lexicon for a 'Summer Capsule Wardrobe' styling session. It was a perfectly timed event as Mark Hayes was also there on the day talking about summer fashion, specifically looks for some fixtures on the summer calendar: Ascot, Wimbledon and Henley. 

I will openly admit now that I am the worst at capsule wardrobes. I love the idea: a few key pieces that mix and match perfectly to keep your wardrobe streamlined, easily organised and coordinated (especially in the summer and holiday with that 20kg suitcase limit!) but in reality i'm the kind of girl that has an overflowing wardrobe and takes at least 10 pairs of shoes on holiday so I was so excited to see if The Lexicon could change my mind - and packing style! 

First stop was Brown Bag, a gorgeous little cafe in the Lexicon where we had breakfast (their brekafast pots are amazing - so much bigger and cheaper than Pret's!) and had a masterclass in capsule wardrobing from Jessica (aka Styling by Jessica Eades). Jessica showed us her top picks for a capsule wardrobe and how to mix and match effectively. It definitely gave me some tips and Jessica's picks were gorgeous - as you can see from the first picture of the clothes rail - I love those striped shorts! 

After our masterclass and coffee, we headed off into the Lexicon to check out their amazing range of stores and see what pieces grabbed our eye for a capsule wardrobe or for summer in general... as you can see from my pictures, I stayed true to form as a handbag obsessive!  There's a lot of Gucci dupes out there: the quilted backpacks are Primark and those beautiful mustard and black mini bags are Topshop (my favourite place to shop for high street handbags!). The neutrals and metallics (always so on trend for summer) in Accessorize really caught my eye - the large nude bag on the left would be the perfect airport/beach bag and the round silver clutch could double up as a makeup bag also! I love Accessorize as most of their bags tend to be leather so they last forever.. I still have an incredible Mulberry dupe I got from there more than 8 years ago that I used as a college bag for two years - and it's still in perfect condition! 

Accessorize also had some amazing swimwear in. I normally think of them as an accessory / handbag shop but as you can see, their swimwear is beautiful. Plus white for summer is always a winner - a good white dress is a true summer staple and Accessorize's would be great to great down over a bikini or up, with some metallic heels. 

In terms of other clothes, the Topshop pink co-ord really stood out to me - I love that the two pieces could be styled separately or worn together for a real stand out look. I think their pairing with a blouse would be great if you were sightseeing maybe, but equally you could just throw the skirt on over a bikini or the jacket over any dress! I'm normally a total colour-phobe but Topshop are really killing it with their bright denim co-ords this season. A really cute alternative to blue or black denim! Clothes wise I was also loving Jack Wills, again their was a lot of white and denim but  also loved the palm print dress - perfect for a summer wedding. 

And finally, totally off topic from clothes but Tiger had the cutest home-ware bits in their window display (I managed to avoid going in, because I knew i'd end up bringing home half the shop!). I love the tropical prints for summer and my home-ware is no exception - I love digging out my pineapple glasses and plastic plates as soon as the sun is shining and they always sell home-ware bits at really reasonable prices. 

After all that shopping I managed to catch the start of Mark Heyes showing us all what to wear to all kinds of occasions - there was a particular focus on the races, due to our proximity to Ascot, but also weddings as well. I saw Mark suggest a jumpsuit as an alternative to a dress for a wedding guest look which I thought was a genius idea - dressed up they look just as gorgeous as a maxi dress but without having to worry about it blowing up or flashing too much flesh when you get carried away dancing! As you can see from the pictures though, there was a huge crowd and i'd arrived too late to get a good spot so after a couple of looks I headed home! 

I'm completely amazed by The Lexicon and how brilliant it looks - it is clean, well signposted and the shops are so spacious. It has really breathed life into the centre of Bracknell with a fab range of shops - watch out Reading! *The Lexicon did also very kindly gift me a £50 gift-card to spend in the Lexicon which I spent almost immediately (shopping has always been a talent of mine, what can I say!) but i'll pop up a separate post about what I picked up.* 

Thank you very much to the Lexicon for having me, and Jessica for such an informative guide to capsule wardrobes - hopefully this year white packing for my holiday i'll manage to get the shoes down to two! 

Have you been to the Lexicon yet? What are your tips for creating a capsule wardrobe? 

G