Hello my beloved readership,

the essentials of this year’s summer-season are white clothes and golden shoes. Check out the style of summer #1 here.

Two years ago I had a traumatic experience: I accompanied my husband to a business trip with our children to Austria and from one day to the other everything changed: Once we arrived in Vienna I drove to the city center with our children looking for a playground where our son could play while I could feed our then six-month-old daughter with mash out of the glass. Something I did not consider until then: wasps. A mass of them flew rapidly right at me and made me run away and scream like a lunatic. Ever since I went through the worst summers of my life feeling haunted and paranoid. At this point however I would like to thank the very kind people in Vienna for helping me kindly like they did when this incident happened and not considering me a mentally disturbed as I felt to be. I did not realize it immediately but as the days passed the fear of even opening the window or going out in fact felt like a horror to me. At least when the sun was shining.

Is it not funny that just one day before this incident happened I enjoyed a whole pizza on the countryside of Austria, which I wrote about here, and even went bathing with the children even though there was the same amount of wasps outside theoretically? Trust me, throughout three summers within two years I have tried all: meditating, hypnosis, watching expert videos, reading articles, talking to different kinds of people… nothing seemed to help – at not the way I would expect it like an analgesic that soothes your pain. I felt helpless and desperate. I could not enjoy the warm season let go any kind of rays of sun, which I felt about to not be right. I knew, I was not necessarily alone with the plague of wasps, yet I felt like I completely failed. I took different kinds of options I took into consideration such as feeling better outside when being in a company or not standing outside waiting, being out at certain times of the way (not the hot midday when you should not be outside anyway) and do not forget the before-and-after-questioning as well as the “why” and “how”. You see, I really was clueless at a certain point, well, desperate as I mentioned.

“Only confrontation helps to overcome a traumatic experience”, was all that stuck on my mind and in fact I still went out, I still opened the windows because I had to and because the children wanted to. I did not necessarily feel good while doing it, still I did. Do not ask me about the why, how and what in the end but meanwhile I feel like I am finally starting to heal feeling more confident. Of course, not in every situation but pretty much being able to have a cooler head and actually enjoy being out again. Perhaps in fact it was the progress of constant confrontation and not putting this fear into the center of my life letting it take over me. Just because the fear of wasps made me not being able to enjoy the sun any longer it did not mean that I have not been longing for it. But also my growth of feeling responsible to act rather than to hide and changing some habits in summer are making me more than getting back to my normal state even growth further and become even more fearless.

Trend: Vertical Stripes

Did you miss the cheeky stripes in spring? No worries, summer serves with even cheekier stripes. Vertical stripes belong to the popular summer-pattern of this season. Summer is a time to wear a lot of wild pattern anyway to remind of the typical always hot destinations of this world and live them up. Personally I consider stripes as a good summer item in blouses which I can wear for meeting to maintain a serious business-look yet maintain the lightness for about 40 degrees. Especially worn with flats and clean white skinny jeans with a good blouse a blazer remains unnecessary or serves as jacket if needed.

“Summer is simplicity and glory at the same time.”

Trend: White

Summer is simplicity and glory at the same time. It is warm, it is dry, the days are long. If we could we would spend the whole day outside, would we not? And even a summer rain is nothing we flee from. It is the complete opposite that the faith in the hot weather makes us welcome these rains with dance and a great laughter. No surprise big festivities are rescheduled to summer time. Therefore you need some discreet glamour in your accessories à la French Riviera such as golden shoes. Referring to the trend color white scientifically speaking dark colors are not recommended anyway as black is more likely to burn under the hot sun. In combination with gold (the high society has shown it often enough throughout the years) white is the ultimate glamorous summer must-have.

My Look in Details

• Blouse by Orsay
• Skinny jeans by Orsay
• Ballerinas by Orsay
• Watch by Wempe
• Earrings by GUESS
• Lipstick by NYX Professional Make-Up

Love, Johanna