At reader Issa’s request, I was trying to take some photos of the work clothes I bought from Marks & Spencer during my holiday, but I kept getting distracted by a bargainlicious find. It distracted me in the store as much as it still does so I figured I’d share this piece instead.
I picked up this very bright red short jacket from the bargain rack at the Marks & Spencer store. It was just sitting there, all its lonesome, looking quite forlorn. I don’t even know why no one picked it up. Maybe they didn’t like the bright red, or thought it might be hard to pull off for work. Or perhaps no one liked the cropped sleeves. It ends about partway down the arm. Still, I picked it up, looked at the size, looked at the price, opened my eyes wide with surprise, grinned with glee and put in straight into my shopping basket.
So yeah, Marks & Spencer isn’t quite the most fashionable store to be shopping at, but for work stuff, I find them good for me. They make clothes that fit me where they should (especially skirts and pants) and I delight in picking up the small sizes because I’m vain that way 😛 I usually only shop their sales though because I’m also a bit of a skinflint that way 😉
And here’s an example of how I’d wear it, paired with a fitted top and a pencil skirt.
Jacket and high waisted pencil skirt from Marks & Spencer (RMB69 – RM35) and Bra Top from Uniqlo (RM39.90) – all on sale! Posing er… fail.
I could and should probably accessorize it a little but I’m a bit of a accessory dodo so I tend to be unaccessorized most of the time. I like wearing colour whenever I can. Black is corporate but damn, its boring.
I poked around a little and I just realized why this was slashed down to such a ridiculous price. Its by Portfolio which is a line discontinued by M&S. Desne!
So, I keep saying it was a bargain. Just how much of a bargain really you’re wondering? Well, try RMB49 which roughly translates to RM24.50 or perhaps just a little less.
You tell me, bargain or not? 😛 How could I have put it down??
Do you like colours for work? Or do you have a sombre workplace that needs you in black white and *yawn* shades of grey?
Paris B
Ribbons! haha that’s the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the jacket. It gives me a ribboney feel, kawaii~~~ And damnnnn it’s so cheap! Plus it’s from M&S, so you know the quality will be there. Sigh, why won’t our outlets here have such a sale? 🙁
On another note, I see Waiter Rant! Is it worth buying? And hehe I also see you tried out Raymond E Feist 😀 How did you find it?
Ee Fei, read Waiter’s Rant! I have it, I’ve read it and I love it 🙂
Ribbons! LOL I didn’t quite think of it 😀 But yes, the price shocked me and the make is good too. Its probably quite an old design but then, I don’t really care hehe… 😉 I didn’t quite enjoy Waiter Rant. I thought it too egoistic and there wasn’t enough ranting or behind the scenes tidbits per se. I haven’t started on the Raymond E Feist one yet – been too braindead lately to read thinking books 🙂
Your post reminded me of it, so I checked out some reviews and many of them say the same =/ There’s another book, Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, that’s supposed to be more rant-ey 😛
I was hoping for some insider info but there was none. Haven’t come across the Waitress one but have you read Hotel Babylon? I thoroughly enjoyed that one. Read it 3 times! 😀
No, not heard of it until now. Oh man, feel like getting it, but if I like it hello lemming for the rest of the series!
Hotel Babylon is good enough on its own 🙂 I haven’t read the rest of the books either – its all stand alone. Can loan that too 😉
Oh I can’t recommend Hotel Babylon enough 🙂 I enjoyed it thoroughly!
I read Waiter Rant since his blogging days (Before the book came out) and liked his style of writing, but yes, not enough insider information 😛
I should have a look at the Waitress book! 😀
Madness!rm25! Would kill for that
But that’ll put you in jail… perhaps in a straitjacket 😛
ooh, so this is part of the famous haul…i like! red looks good on you! and you’re right, it breaks the monotone black! a shorter sleeve works for me, it’s cooler! saves me the bother of having to take it off when i go outside the office..in fact, i prefer short sleeved or 3/4 sleeved jackets except for the most formal corporate events!
Thank you Tracy and while I do think jackets with proper sleeves have their piace, its nice having a shorter sleeved one too 😀 It takes the edge off a very formal outfit and gives it a bit of a casual slant and I can wear it as a casual jacket too if the fancy strikes 🙂
Gorgeous shade and I love how it fits you! Great bargain, PB!
Thanks GT! 😀 Bargains can be found at the strangest places sometimes eh?
It’s gorgeous! I would have easily paid $100 for that beauty, I would. Score on such a fab find!
Thanks Tine! 😀 I think its one of my better shopping bargains to date 😀 I would have paid RM100+ for it too but since I didn’t have to, yay!
Will definitely pick it up for that price. Even though I don’t need it..ahaha..
Bright colors for work reminds me of Hilary Duff in Beauty and The Briefcase… (^.^)
Mmm… I think I missed that movie 😀 But it sounds like a cool one if she wore lovely bright colours to work 😀 Perhaps thats why I enjoyed Legally Blonde. She bucked the dull corporate outfit trend 😀
i dun really wear earth colors to work. so im all nuts iver ur red jacket! n gud for u coz u got one MS during sale, quite cheap. btw, i always love red. =))
Me too! 😀 This is my second bright red jacket. My first is now sadly too large for me so I can’t wear it anymore but I used to have people stare at me in my red jacket – pre AirAsia stewardess days LOL!
hahaah!! they wudnt think of u as one of airasia crews..they’s probably go ” wow wats dat korean stewardess doin here..? ” haha
Hahaha! That would be so cool and funny how everyone thinks I look Korean “Ahn Yeong haseo!” 😀
You really can pull off those reds beautifully! I bought a fitted red blazer from H&M HK when I was there in Feb, but in the end returned it for a more sedate denim blue version (after much dithering and pestering my family for their opinion), because as much as I love the sharp colour, I was worried that I can’t carry it off without looking like it’s I’m celebrating Chinese New Year all the time 🙁 You look really great though! 😛 #givesmehope haha!
aww Foong Jin, you should have gotten that red blazer! Most people might just be staring because they can’t bring themselves to wear bright colours 😉 But yeah, that CNY thing did bug me a little until I decided that I could wear it when travelling too which is then fun! 😀
Eeeks! What a pretty jacket!! ^.^ I’ve always loved colors like that, heh heh ^.^ Psst, my grandma would call it “ang kong keng” (Chinese temple) red, not that you’ll look like a Chinese temple, btw.
Hmm… Chinese temple. Very interesting 😉 I initially thought “Airasia stewardess” 😛
Haha… you look so CUTE posing!! Where got fail! Keep them work clothes pictures / poses coming k! Hehehe!! 😀
And yes, that jacket is such a STEAL! It looks fab on you! 😀
Haha thanks Jenn! Confidence booster you! 😀 Gotta learn to loosen up huh? Though I doubt I’d ever end up being a fashion(able) blogger 😀
So pretty! I have a red trenchcoat that my mom used to wear in college, but I haven’t worked up the nerve to wear it to work. 😛
Hi Kari! A red trenchcoat sounds absolutely lovely! If you could, you should wear it out – you’d stand out in a sea of beiges and blacks 😀
Wow the jacket does look gorgeous, even more so on you 😀 It’s such a steal, too! Glad you got it 🙂
For me, I don’t mind injecting a little bit of colour, just as long as, for example, the rest is black/grey, then a red/yellow/green, or even white 🙂 Too much colour may be overkill! All black makes me look too old for my age haha.
And the first thing I saw in your bookcase was Waiter’s Rant (Love it!) and in that second photo of you modelling the jacket, before I read the caption, I was thinking, “Hey is that a Uniqlo bra top?” 😛
Thank you Stephanie! I was thrilled to find out it was in my size 😀 Although if it was a bit smaller, I’d still have gotten it too LOL! Yes, I try to stick to the “not more than 3 colours” rule or guideline which says you shouldn’t wear more than 3 colours on you because that’s just too much. Some people pull of colour blocking very well though – colour on colour. But I prefer to do colour on neutrals because I like my colours to pop 😀 I think you know your Uniqlo bra tops very well m’dear 😛
Ah thank goodness then that you got it in your size! It’s absolutely amazing, can’t stop praising it on you enough 😀 Yeah some people can pull of colour blocking very well, but if I do I might look stumpy (Perhaps because of my height) 🙁 And yes, same here- I prefer neutral colours + one bold colour so the bold colour really pops! 🙂
I think I own too much Uniqlo bra tops to be able to recognise them haha! 😛
Looks so lovely on you! I love M&S myself. I’ve clothes i’ve bought from 10 yrs back that are still in fantastic condition. I love also, your bookcase. Love the white and how neat everything is! Just curious– was that 2 rows of CDs or is your shelf that shallow? I still havent figured out how to arrange our CDs, so they’re in boxes still (from when we moved house). Our books sit in 2 rows, so those hidden behind the front row tend to be forgotten or inaccessible. I’d wanted those double-walled shelves where you can slide one movable compartment to access the second shelf behind, but my contractor wouldn’t hear of it. 🙁
Thank you AT 😀 I think M&S does fab work clothes although their casuals do tend to be a little boring or aunty LOL The bookcase is just a regular Ikea Billy bookcare 🙂 Its white because … white’s the cheapest one! 😀 The CD shelves have an insert, also available at Ikea that fits the bookshelf so it actually is only using the front portion of the shelf to hold the CDs. The back is empty which bugs me because I dislike space wastage, but it looks good 😛 And don’t you hate it when contractors tell you how you should build your shelves? I do. I sometimes feel that if they didn’t know how to do it, they should just say so and not try to fob off some done to death design on us 🙁
Red is YOUR COLOUR! And very auspicious too!
Thank you Jamilla! 😀 And yes, its very auspicious. I should perhaps wear it to a casino and hopefully attract some luck 😉
That jacket looks lovely on you! I like to stock up on M&S when I’m in Asia, always get so many (nice) comments back home.
Thank you Sam 🙂 Is there no M&S where you are?
Nope, none in Australia. But I suppose there is hope – we got Zara this year and soon Topshop will open!
I’d read about the queues at Zara when it opened! M&S Isn’t quite as exciting but I hope they make their way down soon 🙂
I don’t like the jacket but it looks very flattering on you! Red is your color! Haha…
teehee… probably why it was still hanging on the shelf! 😉 thanks Sesame – I think red is truly my colour!
The jacket looks lovely on you! I doubt I can get anything that cheap from M&S over here so well done on bagging those bargains! 😉
Mmm… one thing I noticed was that everything was Made in China. Might that be why they were dumping them for practically free? 😛 That said, my family picked up some excellent 1 pound deals at Uniqlo last winter – for Heat Tech Tees no less! So I think it always pays to look in the bargain bins everywhere we go 😉
I hear M&S moved their production line to China to bring costs down so I suppose that’s why you managed to bag those bargains! What £1 for Heat Tech Tees?!? Okay that’s it. I’m hitting Uniqlo come winter and of course I need some of those gorgeous bra tops! =p
I guess from a production POV China is the best place to be for low cost manufacturing. The regular priced items in M&S were about the same price as here and the UK but their sale prices were nuts. I do think though that some items are made for the China market – you don’t quite see much bling or sequins or shiny material used in M&S clothes, but there was a lot in Shanghai and people were snapping it up! 😛 And definitely do Uniqlo. I got them at the Uniqlo on High St. Kensington. There’s this bargain bins at the back of the store where there are various items going for a song 😉 And definitely check out the bra tops – I even converted mum LOL!
You look amazing on the photos. I don’t have a very strict dress code but I wear black almost all the time anyway 😉
Thanks Marina! I was in a black phase too but I broke out of it because I realised my mood is more uplifted when I wear colour – although black is still much more slimming 😛
That’s a good fine! and you are so sweet in the red!
I wish M&S can offer us similar sales here!
Thanks 😀 I wish we’d see deals like this at M&S here too but I’m not going to hold my breath waiting!
An absolute steal of a find! And agreed with all the other commenters above, red definitely is your color. Seeing your post kinda gives me the confidence to want to pull out a red jacket I bought 2 years ago (but didn’t dare to wear) and bring it with me to SG! 😛
Thanks Rinnah and do break out that red jacket. As far as I’m concerned, if people stare, its because they can’t pull it off themselves hehe… 😉