Hello again! Team Burgundy checking in! It's funny, I was just thinking about posting again on YLF about my new burgundy trench, and lo and behold there's a post about burgundy! It's been so long since I've been here that I'm not sure if anyone still remembers me (other than the people I kept in touch with on Facebook)! I first joined in 2011, 14.5 years ago, after I had my second child. My uniform at the time was fleece jacket, mom jeans, diaper bag and Merrell Mocs. The YLF community helped me develop my fashion sense and I had so much fun creating a whole new wardrobe. I even loved dressing up throughout my third pregnancy.

I was pretty active until about 8 years ago, but things just got busy with work and the three kids, we started investing in real estate so I couldn't keep spending a bunch of money on clothes, and then COVID hit and because I was working at the hospital during the pandemic, I started wearing scrubs all the time because they were washable (we used to come home and jump straight into the shower in the early days). Then it just became easier to wear scrubs during the day and pajamas when I got home and fleece jacket and jeans on the weekends. I was right back to where I started pre-YLF! I stopped wearing all my heels because I wanted my feet to be comfy, so I only wore sneakers and flats. Somehow over the years I gained 25 lb and a few pant sizes, blame it on aging/perimenopause maybe, but I also haven't been that diligent about diet and exercise. Although we have been pretty active with the kids, scuba diving (they're all certified and my oldest is a divemaster), and camping with the scouts (we went canoeing in the Boundary Waters this past summer). So fashion took a back seat for a long time. Can you believe my oldest just started college?

Recently I joined a Facebook group where they post WIWs in their Tieks ballet flats and it reawakened my love of matchy matchy (they love to match their shoe color to their outfits). I started wanting to make more of an effort to dress up, and pulled out some of my old outfits, but they don't all quite fit (see #1, my Kate Spade trench doesn't close anymore and the H&M plaid skirt doesn't zip up all the way). Being an apple is so annoying! My clothes fit everywhere but the waist and then people ask you if you are pregnant, womp womp. That was my last post before I signed off YLF, complaining that people kept asking if I was pregnant. Yet I'm even heavier than I was back then, ugh!

Anyways, I still like my old style for the most part, but I wanted to get some clothes that fit better. I just don't have the money or time to buy a completely new wardrobe. For a long time I've wanted to get a Burberry trench (although I was just searching the archives, and one of my first few YLF posts was "What's all the fuss about Burberry trenches?" and I said "I'd never pay $3000 for a coat!"...ok yep that didn't age well, haha). Another time I posted that if I ever were to get a Burberry trench, it would be a burgundy satin, not a soul sucking beige. Well that was prescient. I found this "mahogany red" trench on the Burberry website and was completely obsessed. It was perfect. I had to have it, even at full price. I bought two sizes, US 10 and 12, because they were the last two available on the website (besides size 0). My Kate Spade trench was a 6 and too tight, so I figured since I had grown a couple of sizes, that either 10 or 12 would fit. Well they were both too loose, even though supposedly Burberry runs small! But no US 8 available in the entire USA! I found a US 8/UK 10 on the UK Burberry website, but they would not ship to the US and the US Burberry customer service refused to help me. So I ended up buying it on the UK site and having a third party shipper send it to me, paying for shipping and extra tariffs. It ended up being my Christmas present, even though DH thinks I'm nuts for spending that much on a coat. I think it's worth it!

It's not really a keep or return (too late, tags are off!) but I am curious to know what you think of it on me? I hope the fit looks ok. It is maybe a little bit wide looking, but I think a size down would be too restrictive (anyways there aren't any smaller sizes available). I also think the color suits me more as a Deep Autumn (somehow I knew I was a Deep Autumn before because I posted about it on YLF, but I forgot about it). I recently did an AI color analysis using pic #2 and it said I was a Deep Autumn, which is good because my favorite colors are pumpkin, rust, teal, mustard, burgundy, eggplant, navy, etc. This mahogany red/burgundy color matches so much of my wardrobe.

I have a ton of burgundy stuff. Not all of it still fits perfectly, but the skirts fit if I leave it a little bit unzipped at the top (this was my trick to extending my wardrobe when I was pregnant, I managed to wear a lot of my regular stuff for quite a while during pregnancy). I do need to go through my wardrobe and sort stuff (I still have most of my stuff from the YLF days 10-14 years ago!) and pack some of it away. But I don't want to completely get rid of everything just yet, because I'm starting to work on my health again this year and I may be able to lose some weight and fit into my favorites. For now, I've refreshed my jeans wardrobe (Rag and Bone sweatpant jeans are still a thing, hallelujah!) and bought a new burgundy plaid skirt similar to my previous one in a larger size. I may go back and find some of my favorite pieces on Poshmark/eBay in a larger size too. I've been shopping Nordstrom, Amazon, Saks etc. and clothes shopping is not easy. My size is all over the place, I've had to buy and return so much (I brought two big bags back to Nordstrom today)! I'm anywhere from a small to a large!

One of my 2026 goals is to start wearing more "real" outfits from my closet. I've dug out my closet and am starting to wear some things I bought in the larger size but never got around to wearing (like the dress in #4/5). And I found my Burberry purse, and it's also Mahogany! And I found Burberry ballet flats with burgundy stripes on DSW. I'm in matchy matchy heaven (if you don't know me, that's like one of my signature style rules)! And I bought some cherry red platform Doc Martens to edge up my feminine outfits, I like the contrast of urban warrior princess. But I also like cutesy Kawaii like Tokidoki Jujube diaper bags (which I still use even though we are long past the diaper days).

Anyways here are some of my burgundy outfits, most of this stuff is old but I threw these on so I could see what still fits--doing a burgundy post was motivation for me to start the closet edit process. They are not fully styled with jewelry and everything, but which of these outfits work (or don't work)? Can stuff I bought 10 years ago still be in style? Is UWP and RATE Kate Spade still in? I seem to remember someone else had a teal Burberry trench--was it Janet? I missed you Angie and YLF, I know I've been a fashion zombie, but it's nice to be back from the dead!
Natalie (goldenpig)