What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 31 - The Last In The Series!

I can't believe we're here! Day 31! I did it! An outfit illustration each day for 31 days. It's been an amazing month, and I really hope you've enjoyed following the What Emmeline Wore In October series. 

At the moment the Thought Bubble Festival preparations are in full swing, but as it's Halloween I'm definitely going to put aside a little time to carve a pumpkin and get together with friends to watch some spooky films tonight. We've also got an amazing boardgame called 'Betrayal At House On The Hill', which is all about exploring a haunted house co-operatively, before one or more of the players turns evil in one of 53 different scenarios! I can't recommend it enough (especially for Halloween!).

Today I'm keeping with the orange pumpkin theme and I'm wearing my cute little orange high-heeled boots from Boohoo, along with my black tights from Topshop and what I like to call my "confidence dress". I bought this dress from H&M last year, on a day where I overcame a lot of anxiety and did something I thought I could never do - it was a treat, and it's stayed with me as a dress to wear on days where I need that little extra reminder that "I got this" and that I can be a lot stronger than I think I can be, sometimes. You might also recognise it from the press photos from the Freelancer of the Year awards in June - it definitely helped a lot that day, I was a bit floored by that win! So, today, I'm not dramatically facing any personal goals, but it's just such a gorgeous dress (and actually looks a little bit like my drawings!) that some days I just wear it to feel like I'm wrapped up in art. 


I think I'm going to miss doing these illustrations when tomorrow hits! Keep an eye out for the full final round-up of the project - I'll post it up this week!

If you want to see all 31 illustrations, you can follow the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'. Here's to facing challenges, and making it through!

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 30

Wow! Only one day left of the project! In a way, I'm pretty excited that I'm at the end of this tunnel, but I think I'm going to be at a bit of a loss without these illustrations to do each day. I'll write a proper round-up of the project in the week, but I just want to say that the support I've had for this series has been really incredible, so thanks everyone!

Today, comfort has been the key with my outfit. It was definitely a late night at the party on Saturday, so I needed one of those slobby days (I'm pretty sure right now you'd be getting an illustration of my pjs if I hadn't stayed at my friend Luisa's house!). I've mostly been playing xbox, and I streamed my first Twitch broadcast today!

As a short but sweet list, today I'm wearing my pinnie from F&F, a cardigan from Joules, a simple top from Primark, a charity-shop lambswool scarf, and some costy tights from H&M.

So I must be feeling the Halloween vibes...I tried to type 'scarf' just then, I actually typed 'scary', ha! Have a good Halloween everyone!

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'. 

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 29

Okay, as you can probably tell, this is not my usual attire. Tonight I'm going to my friend's Halloween party! Her party last year was incredible, decorations everywhere, and absolutely everyone in fancy dress. 

This year I've been in a bit of flap about my costume, I had huge plans, but between illustrating, house-hunting, learning to drive and well, living life, I just absolutely ran out of time. Most of this afternoon was spent running around Chorley charity shops looking for some weird outfit I could work with for an awesome costume, but alas, the sea of charity shops did not provide a bounty. 

So I've decided to cobble together some items I have at home and I'm going to be going as a evil woodland fairy/spirit, I haven't actually changed into my costume yet, so this illustration has acted as a sort of costume design process for me. Hopefully it will look okay! I'm about to start making the wings...

If you're interested in this outfit in general, the dress is from Next outlet, and the wings are, well, handmade by me. Have a happy Halloween party night everyone!

You can see the less spooky illustrations in the series using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'. 

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 28 x Joanie

Okay, so I love cats, and I love books. Two of my very favourite things - and now...everyone will be know! I absolutely LOVE this outfit from Joanie. The jumper has a big ol' cat face to make my affiliation with the cat kingdom perfectly clear - and the bookshelf print skirt is absolutely going to be my staple for any book launches, or events I put on at the local library (I'm part of the Friends of Chorley Library group, we host board game nights and other cool stuff to support the library!). 

Joanie have loads of really lovely vintage inspired, quirky pieces and they're an absolute gem - I'm so glad I found out about them! I'm a huge fan of their whole 'Adorkable' AW16 range!

As for books, I'm currently reading The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (author of Day of the Triffids, which is incredible). I've just finished the last in the series of the Saga graphic novels by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples as well, which is....insanely good. Honestly, I probably recommend Saga to far too many people, but I just love it. If you're interested in what I'm reading, I have a Goodreads page, and I'm always up for chats about books.

With only a few days left, you can look over the rest of the series using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'. 

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 27 x Lowie

Apparently it's maxi skirt week for me! It makes a glorious change from my frequent skinny jeans option in any case.  This gorgeous piece of bohemia is Lowie's Paisley Maxi Pinafore Dress. I'm not one to shy away from a statement piece, and I have to say I feel amazing wearing this. I've paired it with an organic cotton roll neck top from People Tree, which compliments the ethically made dress! 

So, when I was little, my favourite coat was a reversible red and blue jacket (which I sometimes wore with a reversible hat too), so yes, I love a bit of versatility - so it was really exciting to find out that you can actually take the bib off this pinafore and wear it as a maxi skirt - yesssss.

I look a little bit away-with-the-fairies in this shot haha. Maybe I was thinking about how many deadlines I have coming up! But yeah, I'm absolutely in love with this dress. I think you just have to be bold sometimes and wear something you feel brilliant in rather than worrying about standing out too much in a sea of grey hoodies and blue jeans (although, hey, no problem with that at all!). 

17-year-old hippy ridiculously-in-love-with-music-from-the-early-70s Emmeline would be over the moon with this dress, so I'm glad that just over ten years later I can do her proud. 

Also very much worth noting that Lowie provide a free repair service to extend the life of all their clothes - which is AMAZING. I've mentioned before about how I so much prefer to repair and repurpose my clothes rather than throwing anything away, so huge points to Lowie for being so conscientious about their products and their sustainability!

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'. 

A huge thank you to Lowie and to the lovely ladies at the London Fashion Agency! x

Please note this is not a paid for feature!

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 26

So, this is my "hey, is that girl on fire?!" outfit. In fact, this skirt was the bargain of a century - it's amazing: long, flowy, perfectly fitting, awesomely coloured, and I found it for £1 in my favourite Chorley charity shop. Today I'm wearing it with my most-complimented boots of all time, a pair of red suedette fringed boots from F&F - no other item of clothing has caused so many people to come up to me in supermarkets, at gigs or in the middle of town and ask where on earth those gorgeous boots are from. That's probably why I've nearly worn them to death (they're kind of on the verge of falling apart), but I'm going to look at ways to repair them.

I'm also wearing my favourite black corduroy jacket (a hand-me-down from my mum!), which was originally from Dorothy Perkins, and a simple dark grey vest top from Topshop.

Truly an Autumn look!

You may have seen that yesterday I posted up a collection of days 1-16 of this project, and if you haven't seen it, you can do so here! 

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'. 

What Emmeline Wore In October - Days 1 to 16 Round-up

Okay, here goes! I know a lot of you have been following my 'What Emmeline Wore In October' outfit illustrations so far this month, so I wanted to do a quick roundup of the first half, days 1 - 16 (slightly higher res version here). 

I think there's a lot of value in seeing all the illustrations together. As an illustrator (and particular as an illustrator for books and comics) having a character look like that same character throughout a book or series is really important. With these illustrations I'll admit that hasn't been my main focus, but obviously the added pressure of each of them being a self portrait has given them a bit of consistency! 

Drawing as part of a series each day has its challenges - some days you just really don't want to work (especially Sundays!), but I think having that discipline to create the illustration, post it, and on some days take photos of the outfits and features has had a positive effect on the rest of my illustration work. Sometimes you just need to jumpstart your motivation by giving yourself a task.  I've also found that for the most part the time it's taking me to draw these illustrations has gone down by a hefty percentage. Like everything, illustration takes a lot of practice - and again, like everything, daily practice is always going to have the best immediate effects. 

It's been really interesting keeping these illustrations and blog posts as a sort of visual diary as well. Yesterday I was asked what I did the Tuesday before, and knowing what I was wearing that day jogged a lot of the memories! It's surprising how much of an effect it can have. 

A lot of people have commented that if they were doing this project they'd be wearing the same clothes (or pjs!) for most of the month - and believe me, that is one of the hardest parts of this challenge! Some days you do just want to slob out in the same clothes you wore the day before, but this project has encouraged me to root out my lesser-worn clothes and make a bit of an effort to wear something different every day. It's also prompted me to donate a lot of my clothes to charity, as it's really highlighted the clothes that I actually want to wear.

We're on day 25 of the project now, and you can catch up with all of the daily illustrations through the hashtag #wewio or on my What I Wore blog section here. Tumblr and Instagram are great ways to have a quick look at the entire spread of illustrations too! 

A huge thank you to all the companies that have collaborated with me, and all of the support for the project so far (especially all the love for the series on Instagram which I didn't  have last year)! Less than a week to go!

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 25 x Oasis

Okay, so this dress is officially the new jewel of my wardrobe. How ridiculously gorgeous is this? Oasis have teamed up with the Warner Textile Archive to produce this insanely beautiful series of jacquards for AW16, which launched this week!

I was lucky enough to take home this stunning Elizabethan inspired Warner Jacquard Midi Dress and believe me I'm going to find as many excuses to dress up as possible in this (although, who needs excuses, really?).

The Archive has one of the largest collections of historical fabrics in the UK and is home to 100,000 textiles. Each of the designs in their collaboration with Oasis is based around 18th century style, one is a paper design which is hand- painted copy of the embroidery, and one is even from Queen Victoria’s coronation! I love delving into history, and this whole backstory to the collection just gives it that lovely bit of depth and uniqueness. I'm definitely going to put the Warner Textile Archive on my to-visit list - it's obviously full of creative inspiration!

Above is a snap of the original fabric which inspired the dress I'm wearing - It’s a copy of an 18th century design, woven in the 19th century and apparently would have been worn in a candle lit ball room *google search nearest ballroom*.

I've paired the dress with a cute pair of brogueish style heels I bought in Oxford Street's Dorothy Perkins. It was a few years ago, but I vividly remember buying them in a slight panic on my way to an exhibition, as my other shoes had broken!

It's always quite tricky to portray gold in an illustration, so I wanted to include this little gif to show off just how beautifully the fabric catches the light. Okay, I'm going to hold off any more ranting about this dress now, I'm just a little bit in love, I don't think you can blame me!

The full collection is on the Oasis website here, and you can find out more about the Warner Textile Archive collaboration here.

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'. Hurray for collaborations!

Please note this is not a paid for feature!

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 24 x Joy The Store

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for pattern. Quite often a gorgeous pattern or a snippet of unusual embroidery is all I need to have me reeling over something, especially clothes. If you've seen my 'The Wardrobe and the Jewellery Box' board on Pinterest, you'll see what I mean. So when I saw this embroidered pinafore from Joy The Store I just fell in love with it - the embroidery is so gorgeous!



I have it paired with a lovely olive green turtle neck (yep, I'm all for those too right now!) and some black tights. It's a super simple outfit, but the flower design is what makes it really unusual. I had a lot of fun replicating the embroidery in the illustration today! If you follow my work, you'll know I often include a decoration of leaves and flowers in my illustrations - so I think this outfit might get me a few more "Hey! You dress just like your work!" comments.



You can find the pinafore in all it's embroidered glory on the Joy website here, and the Trent top here. Joy is no stranger to stocking the cards I illustrated with Ohh Deer as well, so keep an eye out for those next time you're instore.

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'.

Please note this is not a paid feature.

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 23

Today's been one of those days where everything seems to go wrong, so forgive me for posting this at half past nine at night rather than my usual 11am upload! I think to be completely honest the drawing every day is getting to me quite a lot at the moment - it's odd with this project, some days I absolutely love it, but on weekends especially it can be tough to feel in gear to draw as a task. I know that in the end it's definitely worth doing, and I think any sort of challenge like this is going to have it's grueling parts.

I'm wearing my Radical Face band t-shirt today. I picked it up when they played in Manchester's Deaf Institute (an amazing venue) a few years ago. They've been one of my favourite bands for a long time now. I really love songs that tell a story, and Radical Face's albums definitely do. 

I'm feeling a bit grumpy today, so I've gone for comfort over everything, and I'm wearing the band t-shirt with some comfy jeans from Joules and some thick wooly socks from H&M to save my toes from the progressively bitter cold. I'm admittedly going to change into pjs the second I upload this, but I've been wearing this all day I promise!

You can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin' if you fancy it. Honestly, the support I've been getting for this project has definitely been perking me up on days like these! Thanks everyone ❤

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 22

I've posted this one up quite late today (it's past 5pm!), but today I viewed SEVEN houses, so I think that's quite a good excuse...

We've got to the stage where our tiny (honestly, tiiiny) flat is just too full of books, figurines and illustrated prints, and we're hoping to do the almost mythical thing for a freelancer and buy a little place of our own. So between commissions, Thought Bubble preparation (and all these daily outfit drawings this month!) I've been trawling the housing websites for somewhere lovely.

House-hunting has been an equal mix of hard work and a lot of fun so far! There have been a couple of horrors (one house's neighbour used the front of their porch as a toilet for a million dogs - literally three square meters carpeted in dog poo! Ergh!), and some really gorgeous ones with tons of potential! I'll keep you posted.

It's really quite freezing cold today, so I admit I was wearing a coat as well, but here's me in my cosiest cardigan from Joules, some comfy black denim skinny jeans from H&M and my lil' green shoes from Next.

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'.

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 21 x People Tree

Despite all the bold colours and patterns I like to use in my illustrations, sometimes I like to keep my outfits dark and minimal. I've been recently getting back into the turtle-neck game (after a long stint away from it. Seven-year-old me rocked a mean lilac one to school!) - and I'm in love with the simple loveliness of this organic cotton roll neck from People Tree! I've paired it with a dark grey jersey skirt and my "Emmeline-classic" teal leather boots from Red or Dead.

People Tree have long been one of my favourites. You might remember me featuring them in last year's What Emmeline Wore In July project - well that dress has since become my go-to for making me feel confident when I'm doing illustrationy business things (in fact I wore it the day I did my Freelancer of the Year presentation in front of the judges! The confidence boost must've helped since I walked away with the title). They've always got such stylish pieces, but I'm really enamoured with their ethos and commitment to fair trade and organic clothing - it feels extra special to know your clothes have come from a good place.

Like all good skirts, this one has pockets. So expect them to be filled with scraps of drawings or receipts for books soon! My boots were my first ever extravagant purchase (I've had them a long time!) thoroughly encouraged by my brother and best friend. I had a few years off them after the heel snapped off on my way to the cinema (which led to a bit of an awkward hobble back later). Last year I finally took them to an actual cobbler in Chorley who fixed them up amazingly! I'm a firm believer in mending and altering old clothes and accessories rather than throwing them out (maybe that's why I have too many..). 

A huge thank you to People Tree for being involved in the project again this year! You can find the lovely top and skirt, and a little bit more about their values on their website here.

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'.

Please note this is not a paid-for feature!

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 20 x Joules

I've hardly been able to wait to feature this gorgeous outfit from Joules! If you've been following the What Emmeline Wore In October project so far, you'll have noticed I have a bit of a passion for mustard yellow in the Autumn months...and paired with dark grey and plum? Well. 

I've always been one for a good walk, whatever the weather is doing. I've often been met with a surprised look when I tell people that I chose to walk a few miles in the rain rather than jump in the car, or if I'm up for going on a hike when the skies are moody - but I love it - as long as I can stay relatively dry (or I'm on my way home!) bring on the storms. These Evendon wellies from Joules are my favourites for that now! They're actually warm! And they have a yellow ribbon on the back! If I'd ever wished for a pair of wellies...honestly, this would be them.

I'm wearing the wellies with this comfy pair of Monroe black skinny jeans, yellow Frankie jumper and this gorgeously shaped Lana cardigan 💛.  

Remember you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'.

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 19

I'm about to zip off to my driving lesson (yes, I'm finally going for it again! 🚗🚗🚗) but I haven't decided which shoes to wear yet, so let's just leave it at tights.

I'm in full Thought Bubble preparation mode today, so I'm wearing one of the comfiest outfits in my wardrobe to get me through the day. A dark denim dungaree dress from F&F, a snuggly dark blue 'Hollie' top from Fat Face, and of course the plum tights from Topshop. The scarf was a charity shop find (apparently I buy a lot of scarves from charity shops!).

As always, you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'.

What Emmeline Wore In October - Day 18

This is a bit of a different outfit illustration for today, as this evening I have my Karate class! I started going to Karate about a month ago as I wanted to feel, well, strong, and try something a bit different. It's Goju Ryu Karate (a hard-soft style from Okinawa) with an extra focus on practical self-defence - the class is mostly men, but it's really inspiring being paired up with an amazing lady black belt that goes to the class! 

I've been really enjoying it, but the only issue I've had is feeling very protective of my wrists and hands as obviously they're muh bread-winners as an illustrator. I think as I continue my practice I might look into gloves, and I'll be strengthening my wrists up as much as possible! 

I've found a lot of the time that people have had vivid preconceptions of what picture book illustrators are like (I've honestly had someone assume I only draw teddy-bears all day... what?), so it's quite fun to breakdown misguided those stereotypes if they crop up! I think now there's such an explosion of amazing children's illustration work out there, things are starting to shift a little and people know that illustrators come from all walks of life (and that's what makes the books so exciting!).

So at the moment for Karate I'm wearing a simple black vest top from Topshop, loungey pants from Primark and a white hoody from Next. I'll update you if I ever accessorize it with a belt ;-)

As always, you can keep up to date with the daily 'What Emmeline Wore In October' illustrations by using the hashtag #wewio on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram, or over on Bloglovin'.