Ok so firstly, sorry for being AWOL! But I do kind of have an excuse, I’m going to be a home owner and for anyone that’s gone through that process you’ll appreciate the stresses that come with it!!
With this in mind I’m afraid I’m going to be all about the home for the foreseeable future, and this post is the start… All you beautiful people that love fashion will surely appreciate the design though…
This is the start of a crazy collection of ideas and things I love, I was going to buy some home magazines but then I thought what is the point to this when there is the one and only PINTEREST! This place is totally incredible for gathering ideas and determining how you want to decorate your own little pad.
On a Rainy Day
Dream Home
Absolutely love this idea and whilst snooping around my garage and shed I actually found an old wooden ladder which will work a treat to create something like this!
Just a quick note to say “adios amigos” I am off on holiday tomorrow so I won’t be posting for a few weeks, I’ll be sunning myself in Benicassim, Valencia and Barcelona…
I’ll be back soon with no doubt lots of green eyed monster inducing snaps
I went and did more holiday shopping Saturday, I have serious issues. I have begun the ritual of packing and unpacking a million and one times and it’s safe to say I have enough clothes to make four ensemble changes a day! So I certainly don’t need more but it’s just too much fun! This is what I wore for the day, flats for some hardcore shopping striding.
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
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.
Harvey Nichols‘ new advertising campaign certainly grabbed my attention and made me snigger, but perhaps not for the reasons the brains (term used loosely) behind it had intended.
I wrote a piece about their Christmas ad campaign back in December (Walk of shame) which was also fairly controversial but wasn’t crude or in bad taste, it was something we could all relate to around the party season and was just on the right side of acceptable. This new campaign for the Summer sale however is not. The adverts feature models with a damp crotch (eurgh sorry I hate that word but how else to describe it?!) and the strap line “Try to contain your excitement”… I can see the thinking behind it and perhaps could be seen as humorous in other, very different, circumstances but how on earth did it get through each meeting stage in it’s creation without anyone questioning whether it was right for the brand?
Harvey Nichols is a classic British department store and is upmarket in terms of brands and products lining the store and this campaign is far from what you think of when describing the high street staple. Quite frankly, it just brings about thoughts of soiled clothing and doesn’t particularly inspire me to hunt through the sale racks. It sounds a bit extreme but it leaves me feeling a bit grubby at the thought!
I also struggle to see who the creators were trying to target with this bizarre idea, I find it highly unlikely that the clientele that frequent Harvey Nichols in their designer clothes and best of the best make-up and jewellery would be rolling around – or even dampening their trousers – out of humour or excitement. This all being said, the campaign has probably received more press than any other and as they say all press is good press.
This weekend has been much much fun! The weekend started off with a shopping trip and a bit of background research for my debut article on British Style Bloggers which will be coming soon. Then a lovely dog walk around the forest followed by a scrummy pub lunch. Followed up by Dot to Dot festival at Nottingham then a Jubilee buffet! Phew!
I am very excited to announce I’ll be writing for British Style Bloggers as a seasonal columnist this season, my first article will be published this Friday and this weekend started off with some background research on my topic, mixed in with a little bit of shopping. Every store has gone Jubilee crazy with bunting and corgis galore!
Saturday I met a friend for a country bumpkin day, dog walking and pub lunch. We headed out to a pub and wandered around the forest with two very excitable puppies, it didn’t rain which was a massive bonus. Followed up by a huge pub lunch, one thing I’ve noticed as I’m writing this is that my weekend predominantly revolved around food and drink! Eek I have to keep reminding myself I have to be in a bikini in 5 weeks…
Next up on Sunday was Dot to Dot festival across various venues in Nottingham. The weather was truly grim. Rain, rain and a bit more rain, not what you want at all when you’re in and out and don’t particularly want to look like you’ve been involved in some kind of monsoon. However, rain aside, the festival did not disappoint as usual. I’ve become a fan of the festival over the past few years as it’s a great platform to see up and coming music acts in a small intimate setting and Nottingham really does have some great music venues.
Highlights of the day were (I’m a bit biased here) my friends’ band Wanderlings which played a blinder! They’re definitely starting to get noticed now and rightly so. I have a huge girl crush on Lucy Rose, the girl is cute, beautiful and my god she can make good music. Really easy to listen and watch and seemed really humble and genuinely thankful for the huge crowd she drew into Rock City. The best act of the day by far was Jake Bugg, I certainly predict big things for this guy. He’s only 18 but seems so much more mature and his confidence is warranted and not at all arrogant. He too packed out Rock City, quite a feat for someone largely unknown, he did Nottingham proud. Dog is Dead, another great musical talent to come out of Nottingham, were amazing. They’re so tight and seem so much older and experienced than their years. I saw these guys at last year’s festival and they were in the basement of Rock City which was kind of full but even at full capacity the room isn’t huge by any stretch of the imagination, this year they completely filled the main room and everyone looked to be completely loving them. That is what I love about this festival.
Monday was mostly spent cooking up a storm in the kitchen ready for the Jubilee celebrations yesterday. Tuesday was completely revolved around food and drink, all British of course. Scones, clotted cream and jam, Jubilee champers, cucumber sandwiches (with the crusts cut off), victoria sponge and tea. Watching the legendary Liz on the telly getting all patriotic and quite choked up about our great Queen and nation. Fantastic weekend and the best bit, not long until the next!
As if I needed another reason to re-visit Edinburgh, it’s a beautiful city, there is another reason to go and I’d be killing two birds! Topshop and Travelodge have joined forces, it’s not the most obvious of collaborations to say the least.
Topshop’s Edinburgh flagship store has transformed its former stock room into a 96-room hotel, so you can quite literally shop then pop upstairs, and drop! And… rooms start from only £19!!
I have a feeling the hotel may notice a higher percentage of female visitors than what is usually found.
