Second festival of the Summer down, Radio One’s Hackney Weekend. Minus the crazy British weather which had us burnt and then drenched within a minute of each, it was fantastic! The day was amazing, some real great acts and so much squeezed into one day: Tiney Tempah, Florence and the Machine, Professor Green, Chase & Status, Ben Howard, Rhianna, Jay Z and so many many more!!
Here’s what I wore, it was hot but wet and therefore a muddy field to contend with:
In a bid to brighten up my life I painted each nail a different colour, it also created the festival couldn’t-care-less-but-I-do-really look for my trip to Radio One’s Hackney Weekend!
With my ever present collection of rings with bright stones, the nails finished off my outfit perfectly! Will be rocking this nail look on my holidays very soon…
Bright Coral – Revlon | Yellow – Topshop | Aqua – Rimmel | Purple – Xtras | Shocking Pink – Barry M
Hedi Slimane is changing the iconic YSL to SLP. Yves Saint Laurent will now become Saint Laurent Paris under the guidance and vision of Hedi Slimane. It’s a risky move as those three initials are so well known world wide and are instantly recognisable as the Parisian couture house.
Hedi Slimane is not the type to shy away from bold statements and this seems like a clear way to stamp changing times and what he intends to do. He has already moved the creative house from it’s home nation in Paris over to Los Angeles and the name change is another step in Slimane doing things exactly how he wants.
It may be because I’m so used to seeing those three letters together ‘YSL’ that I struggle to see the same impact with ‘SLP’, it just doesn’t seem to have the same ring to it. However, Slimane is a clever man and has had great success so far and I’m almost certain there is an agenda to this that only he can make a success of.
Whilst carrying out some research on the main man I was completely sidelined by the absolutely stunning photography on his website, take a look through as there are some truly mouth gawping photographs. Below are some of my favourites…
NEW YORK GEORGIA MAY JAGGER HARPERS BAZAAR SEPTEMBER 2010
NEW YORK KARLIE KLOSS PRIVATE SESSION VOGUE JAPAN DECEMBER 2011
She’s a super stylish lady that seems to get slightly overlooked with her eclectic look but Fearne Cotton has an amazing style and at the minute she is my style crush. She has a talent for putting together some really interesting outfits and I love that she wears things from her own range. Below are some of my favourite looks and some copy cat pieces should you want to steal the lovely lady’s style.
I don’t post enough about men’s fashion and I don’t really know why because I find it very interesting and would love to either (a) dress a beautiful man in beautiful clothes or (b) be a man for the day and get to wear some ultra dapper men’s clothes.
Last week saw the first week of fashion dedicated to men, London Collections: Men. The quality and creativity displayed begs the question why has it taken this long? London is the perfect location to kick this new week of men’s fashion off with its edgy street style and modern approach to sometimes dull tailoring that is the perception of the men’s catwalk.
Hopefully this will remain a week in its own right and step out on its own from just a closing day to London Fashion Week. Below are my highlights, very different to one another which only further shows the unique and interesting side to men’s fashion…
Richard Nicoll:
All clean lines, whites and creams with the odd dash of colour, predominantly blue. Hints of squares emblazoned subtly on shirts, in long pendants.
Topman Design:
Bright colours, patterns, boyish skater street style. Oversized basketball tops, beanie hats and a few slogan tees. This is very much a young, fun collection.
Jonathan Saunders:
Dark and edgy, very masculine with pops of primary colours and patterns. A much more mature collection in comparison to Topman Design.
Meadham Kirchhoff:
Strange, quirky and classic Meadham Kirchhoff. Just as we see throughout womenswear, Meadham Kirchhoff are not afraid of bucking the trend and following their very own creativity. Florals, bright feminine colours and high tops. The models had quotes printed on their foreheads such as “wallflower” and “feminine by proxy”.
I treated myself to a new nail polish on Saturday taking inspiration from all the colour pops and neon out there, and quite frankly to cheer myself up with this absolutely miserable weather.
I’m a big fan of Barry M nail polishes, the consistency is spot on, you don’t need to apply countless layers and you don’t have to wait hours for it to dry. They’re extremely good value, on average for the standard colours they’re about £2.99 which is an absolute bargain! I’m developing quite a collection now with my little obsession.
Here is my new colour, Shocking Pink (272), perfect in combination with those Summer tans which I am confident we can hope for, soon hopefully!
Totally impressed would be how I would describe my opinion of the Primark A/W collection. I would never in a million years have guessed that the clothes and accessories I was looking at were from the ultra discount brand. The whole collection has an overwhelming 60s feel to it with the mustard yellows, burgundy, tan and pinks. The iconic 60s prints are there in abundance across trousers, shirts and the most amazing platform shoes.
There is some really nice tailoring in the shift dresses, short shorts and cropped Chanel style jackets. There are some masculine inspired pieces in outerwear with an oversized wool coat and a blazer.
I am totally blown away by the entire collection, from what I’ve seen I can’t see anything that I wouldn’t personally wear and obviously nothing is above £40! I’m not usually a massive fan of buying clothing from Primark due to the quality that is, a lot of the time, representative of the pricing, however these pieces are tres chic. And if I do pop down to Primark and splurge I won’t need to feel guilty after my Frugal Fashion post. Below are my favourite picks, head over to Look to see the entire collection…
I get so excited when those little red slips from the postie are waiting for you on the door mat, I know 9 times out of 10 you know what they’re for but there’s always that excitement that it could be a present from a mysterious admirer… or not as of yet!
Anyway, this time I knew what it was for so off I trotted down to the post office to collect my Latest in Beauty box. A small box filled with beauty goodies to try out and more often than not, fall in love with. My box featured 8 products nestled in pretty pink tissue paper:
Pixi Succulent Lip Twin 12g in shade No.4 Poppy Red
Melvita Nectar de Roses Moisturising Rose Nectar Face Cream 15ml
Melvita Eau Fraiche Micellaire Water for Face and Eyes 35ml
Elemis Sp@home Pro-Collagen Body Cream 50ml
Percy & Reed Dry Conditioner 50ml
Moa – the Green Balm – mini pot
2 x Yardley Peony EDT vials
The Original Tanning Mitt
Obviously in order to properly try them all out (and to not bore you senseless) I am going to test out the products a bit at a time.
First up, probably down to my girly magpie senses, I went for the most pretty girly packaging (so much for not judging a book by it’s cover and all that…), the Melvita products. I also thought it would be nice to test these two together as they’re both obviously from the same range of products and should in theory work together to provide me with a gorgeous, glowing complexion.
Melvita has been around for a while now but I wasn’t aware of it until I opened the Latest in Beauty box, after having a snoop around to find out more I discovered they are a French brand and 100% organic active ingredients are used. There’s something very appealing to using natural and organic products on what is actually pretty delicate, your face!
I opened the packaging to the Melvita Nectar de Roses Moisturising Rose Nectar Face Cream, which isn’t that ‘shiny’ clinical type packaging, but that organic-y type that you just know is good for the environment. The smell of the cream is really nice, you can smell the rose but it is far from over-powering and it again has that smell you only find in natural products. I squeezed some on to my hand and for me this is the first test, the texture of it, if it feels greasy I won’t use it as I have combination skin and this can result in oily skin. It didn’t feel greasy, nor too thick so I gave it a go. Its really light yet leaves your face feeling soft, I’ve used it morning and night as directed and it’s great under make-up.
In conjunction with this I’ve also used the Eau Fraiche Micellaire Water for Face and Eyes, this is a cleanser and toner for the face and eyes (as the name suggests!), the idea is to apply it in circular motions and rid your face of all that pesky make up! It really does feel like you’re cleansing properly and my face felt instantly fresh and like all that dirt and impurities from the day had gone. Again, it had that really soft, feminine scent.
The products really are great, organic and fresh feeling. The smell is really pleasant and the look of the product matches the expectations along with the actual results. The cleanser and toner is £14.50 for a 200ml bottle and the moisturiser £24 for 40ml, it’s a little pricey if you were to use it day and night as I’d imagine you’d get through it pretty quickly but if you were looking to invest in a great organic range I would highly recommend this one.
We all love to shop, none of us want to miss out on all the pieces out there, yet we are all feeling the tug on our purse strings. I’ve been doing some hunting around and have got together some amazing cost saving websites. So do not fear, you can breathe a sigh of relief and continue to shop to your hearts’ content.
Obviously as the name suggests, everything is £5. Not everything on here is what you may call ‘on trend’ and some of it is a little reminiscent of the things you may find on your local Saturday market (sorry for sounding snobbish but you know the stretchy, lycra creations I’m talking about…) but that aside there are some real little gems on here. Below are just a few treats I spotted: on-trend Aztec prints, a pretty good Longchamp copy cat bag, Russel and Hobb style tassled loafers and a cute pair of brogues. It’s hard to remember these are all only £5, when you consider you can spend that much on a cup of coffee and a slice of cake or a magazine…
Found at the other end of the scale, the outnet is technically somewhere you can save yourself some pennies on the latest fashion, however it’s not quite on the same level as everything5pounds! Don’t get me wrong you can find some huge savings here but if you can still afford these prices easily I’d make a guess you don’t have to worry too much about discount fashion. That said, it means even those of us with substantially smaller bank balances can afford to treat themselves to some designer goodies.
Below some fabulous fashion savings I found: Jil Sander print trousers (Original price £2,070 NOW £414 80% off), Michael Kors dress (Original price £265 NOW £79.50 70% off), Pedro Garcia sandals (Original price £245 NOW £122.50 50% off).
This site is quite simply genius! So basically the number one way we can all save money on fashion is to not make frivolous, impulse purchases. You know, those items you buy, never get around to returning, and in turn are left gathering dust at the back of your wardrobe. Not making those purchases, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves we’ll be more frugal, will always occur. It’s just the way it is. But now there is a fashionably economical way to make this ok, hallelujah!
Bigwardrobe is basically an online forum where you can either sell your old items for money to go out and buy more (oops that’s not the point is it?!), you can swap them for items with other members for things you will wear, or you can buy other people’s things for cheap cheap.
Below are some excellent little bargains: Topshop leather dress – Brand new (RRP £125, bigwardrobe price £50), Mulberry clutch – Part worn (RRP £340, bigwardrobe price £open to offers), Ray Ban Wayfarers – Brand new (Original RRP £80, bigwardrobe price £60).
You should definitely take a visit to this online treasure chest, so many brand names at such lower prices than you’d expect. It actually makes you feel like it’s acceptable to treat yourself to the real deal rather than a cheaper high street copy cat. But beware it can be dangerous because you feel like you’re committing some sort of crime by not buying everything!
Some treats I spotted are below: Ray Ban original wayfarers (RRP £120, Brand Alley £89), Hunter original tall wellies (RRP £75, Brand Alley £52), Gucci Chelsea boots (RRP £215, Brand Alley £110).
Just as the name suggests, here you will find fashion vouchers. Lots of fashion vouchers. Money off the things you want to buy. Guilt free shopping. I love it. You should love it, there’s nothing not to love! All your favourite high street stores and brands offering % savings and fashion vouchers gather them all up and put them in one easily accessible place. You can browse by category too so if you want to treat yourself to a new handbag you can simply click on ‘handbags’ and all the glorious vouchers are there waiting for you to scroll through. You can sign up to the weekly newsletter and receive all the offers on a regular basis, I’m not sure this will help or hinder the fashion spending problem, but let’s be honest the spending will happen and this helps at least!
So this little competition got my attention and bought out my competitive streak, plus I love making mood boards/ outfit posts because I’m a bit of a geek like that!
New Look and fashion blogger Fashion Champagne have collaborated to bring us this fun little competition in which you must choose 7 dresses to wear on the 7 days of the week, that’s it… that simple! And, you have the chance to win the 7 dresses you have chosen. I have gone for a mix of work wear (as unfortunately too much time is spent there) and non-work wear, with a bit of glam Saturday evening style too.
