Holiday Lookbook: A week in Rhodes

Recently I did something I haven’t done for a while, and went on a sun holiday. You know, when you stay in one place and wear swimwear basically every day and do some sunbathing. If you follow me over on Instagram you’ll probably be aware of that because I was a totally annoying holiday dickhead about it, so if you’re sick of it please feel free to click away now (but please stay). I didn’t shoot any outfits properly in Rhodes, mostly because I constantly look a state when I’m on holiday – no make up, weird sort of greasy but sort of frizzy hair, often sweaty – but we did get a couple of snaps of a few outfits I wore when we were there, so I thought I’d put them all into one post to create a mini holiday lookbook.

Is this a weird moment to confess that I don’t actually know what constitutes a ‘lookbook’? Probably. This will be a little selection of holiday looks, anyway…hopefully that’s about right. Here they are:

Cold shoulder florals

One of my favourite things about being on holiday is that I feel I can wear things I love but that don’t often leave the wardrobe at home. Does anyone else get that? This is one such item – a cold shoulder wrap dress from Topshop. This was only its second outing, the first being the wedding of one of my oldest friends last year, so it’s special to me for that reason, but that aside I just love it. I paired it with these pink velvet block heel sandals which were a last minute purchase when I realise I didn’t have any shoes that 1) had a low enough heel for stomping around in the evenings in and 2) would look nice with all the midi dresses I was taking – they were a bargain at £9 in the H&M sale and my local store still has loads in stock.

Colour lover

Despite the neutral accessories, I am all about the general amount of colour in these photos – they were taken in Symi, which was colourful house central and naturally I loved it. This dress is a few years old now, but I always feel pretty good in it and know I can rely on it in summer no matter what kind of day I’m having body confidence wise, so for that reason it’ll be sticking around for a while yet I think. With black espadrilles and my beloved little Mango bag, it made a really comfortable but pretty outfit for a spot of exploring or a low-key dinner.

Palazzo

This outfit was thrown together on the morning of the day we took these but it ended up being one of my favourites – the trousers are a couple of years old from Topshop, and I lived in them when I was backpacking, but I hadn’t picked them up since. I wasn’t sure they were particularly flattering but paired with this fitted little white crop I think they worked pretty well. The sliders were the only shoes I had with me that were close to going with the rest of it so on they went, and the hat was necessary because my eyes weren’t getting on well with the sun, but let’s pretend it was a fashion statement.

Candy stripes

Because of the cut out/open back situation which means you either don’t wear a bra or you wear a very visible one, I think this playsuit from New Look might have been designed as more of a beach cover up (I can imagine a triangle bikini looking cute with it), but I just went with it as actual clothing anyway. I love the candy shades in the stripes and the tie up front, and while I would never wear it in the UK, strolling through a park in Rhodes felt a little different to my average day in a city so I decided it was fine. I was very pleased to be able to get the Zara basket bag out again after having just retired her for Autumn, since she was practically attached to my arm in summer and I love her very much.

Sassy dancing lady emoji

There are so many people who have this dress I know, but look at it! I mean, what’s not to love?! Red, midi, bardot – it’s all right up my street, and the elasticated waist even more so because it makes this one of my most comfortable dresses. It does an excellent job of accommodating a food baby too. I wore this with the pink H&M block heel sandals and my Mango gold ring detail bag again, because…well, they were pretty much the only things I had with me that vaguely went with it. I felt like the red dress dancing lady emoji though, so it was all cool (until I ate so much that I was nearly sick…not quite so sassy).

Apologies that some of these photos are a bit dodgy – one of the other reasons we didn’t take photos of any of my outfits properly in the evenings was that it got dark seriously early, which I wasn’t expecting. And in the daytime I wasn’t really feeling photos…so when we did take any I was trying to hide my forehead sweat and watering eyes with sunglasses/by not looking at the camera. Glam life goals, I know.

Which is your favourite look? And what are your holiday wardrobe essentials?

Photos: Rob Poor

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