Fashion: Welcome summer and win £250 gift card to spend at OUTFIT

There is much we can learn from putting together a summer holiday capsule wardrobe. Which, of course, is something we all do at around this time of year, and if you don’t, you really should, if only to escape the horror of discovering that half of last year’s holiday clothes no longer fit, the buckle has broken on your trusty sandals and the elastic has bust on your bikini bottoms.

Some people I know, not all of them male, actually keep under their bed a prepared suitcase of holiday items, including decade-old swimwear, half-used tubes of suncream. raggedy shorts, beer logo tees and a pair of manky old flip flops. They simply drag the case out the night before they are due to set off for their holiday destination and use it as the basis for their packing, piling a couple more beer logo tees on top, a few pairs of pants and that’s it – good to go.

Much as their time-saving endeavours are to be, er, marvelled at, this is not the way to go about creating and enjoying an effortless holiday wardrobe that will see you from beach to bar, sight-seeing to supper, dawn til dusk and on til dawn again, looking amazing and stealing admiring glances from locals and holidaymakers of all nationalities.

Holidays are as much about the preparation as they are about actually being there. Once you’ve established what you’ve already got, then it’s time to make a list, starting with basics and adding a few new season key pieces, such as an off-the-shoulder maxi dress. Seeing suggestions for everything you might want or need all under one roof is a massive time-saver in this regard

Outfit is the out-of- town Arcadia fashion store that pulls together collections from Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis, Burton and Topman, plus Evans, Warehouse and Oasis in selected stores. The Holiday Shop is in-store now with summer pieces perfect for breaks spent at home or away, for the beach, a city break or long summer evenings.

If you’re looking for cool boho chic, try Miss Selfridge high summer range, while at Wallis check out floral and tropical prints, bold and sophisticated. At Dorothy Perkins find simple lines and ‘90s inspired sports-luxe. In menswear, Burton offers a smart collection of timeless summer pieces, with some lovely print shirts to choose from.

There’s a Collect from Store service, allowing customers to order from any Arcadia brand to deliver to any Outfit store. In Yorkshire, there are Outfit stores at: Kirkstall Bridge Shopping Park in Leeds, Forster Square Retail Park in Bradford, Parkgate Retail World in Rotherham, Monks Cross in York and Kingston Retail Park in Hull. See www.outfitfashion.com.

To celebrate the launch of Outfit’s new Holiday Shop, we have teamed up with Arcadia to offer two lucky readers the chance to win a £250 gift card each to spend at any Outfit store, including the one at Kirkstall Bridge Shopping Park on Savins Mill Way in Leeds.

To enter, simply answer the question below and email it in to: [email protected] or send it in on a postcard to: OUTFIT Competition, ℅Stephanie Smith, Fashion Editor, Features Dept, Yorkshire Post Newspapers, No 1 Leeds - 26 Whitehall Road, Leeds LS12 1BE. Whether email or postcard, make sure you add your name, address and telephone number. The first two correct answers drawn from a hat after noon on the closing date of Wednesday, June 29, 2016, will win a £250 gift card and be contacted by telephone. Usual Johnston Press rules apply, go to: http://www.johnstonpress.co.uk/competition

Question: What is the name of the shopping park in Leeds where the Outfit store can be found?

Twitter: @yorkshirefashQ