The Marks and Spencer White Top and Denim Challenge.

This is not just a white top. 

This is an M&S soft white, pure cotton, broderie anglaise blouse, cut, for a relaxed fit...

And isn't it pretty? I love all things broderie and this caught my eye while wandering through Marks and Spencer several months ago. There were only a few sizes left and I was in a rush, so I made a mental note to order it online. But could I find it? No, I could not. In common with the store layout, the website is not the best to navigate in terms of using the filters (I'm not convinced they actually work properly) or the keyword search. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen something in a magazine or on a fellow blogger that looks like a designer piece, to discover it is in fact from M&S. Desirable, well-made and well-priced, I've wanted several such items, but they have proven nigh on impossible to find. On this occasion though, my tenacity paid off and eventually I managed to find the top again when in-store. 

Some weeks later, my blogging friends from the The Over 40 Collective and I were discussing Marks and Spencer and in general concluded that it's a favourite for food and lingerie and is a popular "go-to" store for basics. With this in mind, we decided to challenge ourselves to each choose a white top to style with denim to demonstrate how basics from a retailer targeting our age-group, (35+), look on women like us, who are actually in that demographic.

So here is my white Marks and Spencer top with cropped, flared jeans and spotty sandals. I love the cropped, boxy shape and the pretty elbow-length sleeves, which hide a multitude should you need them to. The soft white is very flattering to paler skin-tones such as my own and I can imagine wearing it with denim shorts and a flared midi skirt as well as any other shape or colour of denim jeans.

And now for the rest of The Over 40 Collective. The girls will be publishing their posts throughout the week so please do keep checking back. I will add their links and photographs as they do, so you can see how they too styled a white Marks and Spencer white top, shirt or jacket with denim.

And just so you know, this isn't a sponsored post. We bought our tops ourselves and were not paid for writing the posts. It was something we felt would be an interesting experiment.

And my conclusion to this experiment? 

I love, really love a lot of the clothes as well as the food, lingerie, tights and home accessories. I have it on good authority that the upcoming AW16 collections are strong so I'll be watching with great interest. I am also impressed with environmental concern Marks and Spencer have shown with their Plan A.

I would like to see a slicker website with better photography and I would like the stores to be completely re-merchandised so it is easier to see the wood for the trees, but I think this challenge has proved that Marks and Spencer basics are excellent and I think we as a collective, with our individual styles, tastes and builds attest to that. 

Good old M&S.