Next style challenge: Brits vs Aussies

A nice surprise for February was being asked to take part in the Next style challenge. To celebrate the launch of their online store in Australia, they asked ten Australian bloggers and ten British bloggers to style up an item from the Next Spring/Summer 2012 collection in a way that is influenced by their heritage. One lucky lady will get the honour of winning the challenge for their country (it's just like The Ashes but with pretty clothes really).

The date of the challenge happily coincided with my tradition of an annual February trip to the coast. Australia, I see your sunshine and sandy beaches and I give you the wind, rain and pebbles of the great British seaside.

I picked out a colourful pencil skirt from Next's collection: visible even on a stormy Brighton beach.

I wore it with a peplum top from H&M, shoes from ASOS and a gorgeous vintage faux fur jacket from Love Miss Daisy. I wanted to wear something around the idea of faded seaside glamour and the wind decided to play along, wreaking havoc on my hair which was - at the start of the morning at least - a mini beehive.

And then it rained ...

So on came my Bubble Betty rain bonnet, handily co-ordinating with my coat.

Credit for the pictures goes to my friend Vicki whose birthday it was and who got to spend a lot of her special day listening to me grumble about the cold. Here I am with added cardigan for warmth and I'm modelling another great British tradition ...

... trusty trainers for when your heels get too much. Aside from co-ordinating beautifully with this plastic lobster, I really like the way the skirt looked with flats too: I imagine it will be part of my gig going wardrobe in the future. Plus, note the battered gloves with hole in the thumb, or really anything I wanted to show in these photos, but they are actually really useful for being able to text in the cold. That's not a great British tradition, but surely only a matter of time?

And only with heels do I appear to be tall enough to ride the Galaxia.

Thanks again to Vicki for the photos and a lovely day out. Even if it did rain.