Christmas dreaming

This is definitely a dream list for Christmas as we have decided on a very small budget this year. Still its fun to wish!

With only 25 days till Christmas have you written your lists? What's on them?!

Take Note Guys

From time to time, we get requests to blog about men's fashion or redirection to men's fashion blogs. We don't mean to be mean but we usually just say 'we don't know'. And that's the truth: we know zilch about men's fashion.

Personally, I think guys look particularly charming in suits. But of course, I can't expect them to be in suits all the time, afterall overdressing is seriously uncool. So how should guys dress casually? The answer is, it's all very personal. Most of the time, guys seem to be in T-shirt and jeans, or maybe in preppy sweaters and vests. I'm not such a big fan of that look, but really, I've just never thought much about male fashion until I saw these photos of Orlando Bloom:

Yes, it's Orlando Bloom strolling on the streets. Doesn't he look like he's walking on a runway? Now here's a fantastic outfit. It's casual and put-together in an imperfect way. (The aim is to not look like Mr always-perfectly-groomed-Beckham.) And points for not wearing sneakers (as most guys I see seem to wear.)

Another good male fashion role model (just my opinion) for young guys is Logan on Gilmore Girls. I love how he wears T-shirts, maybe a sweater with a blazer or leather jacket. OK I think I just like Logan too much and shouldn't drag him into this post.

Oh, and just to clarify, this post wasn't supposed to let us oogle at only Orlando, (hmm or maybe it was,) but do you know how hard it is to find photos of guys dressed nicely in casual clothes? What do you think guys look best in?

A Big, Roomy Messenger Bag

My favourite trend from SS07 (which I assume will carry onto FW07) is big messenger bags that double as handbags. They are SO useful and cool.

I'm on summer holiday at the moment so I've been able to use my non-school-bags. I haven't bought a bag since last summer so I've hit a bag dry spell. Luckily, my mum bought a few bags for herself and I managed to 'borrow' her Marni balloon bag. I'm really loving it right now. It's SO roomy so it fits pretty much everything in it -when I went to the hair salon, I stuffed a magazine and book in; after I bought skincare products, they fit into the bag too. It's just so convenient to be able to just grab a bag and run out of the house. Plus I love the dark purple -it's the perfect shade of purple to make the bag look pretty, but just dark enough to make it look almost black thus making it versatile. Plus, huge messenger bags seem to go with volumous clothes. Right, I should stop gushing. Here are some others that I found online:

Kooba's Charlie bag from SS07 is so pretty and simple that I can't get why shopbop still has stock (-on sale!) The style reminds my a bit of a less feminine version of Miu Miu bags. And the metal hoops add some detail to the otherwise boring design.

Urban Outfitters has this canvas convertible bag online. It looks kind of like Balenciaga's motorcycle bag. Think what a great school bag this would make!

I usually don't like Marc by Marc Jacobs' handbags, but it surprisingly has a collection of pretty bags this season. Now this Dr. Q tote would make a fantastic travelling bag because it's huge and soft (so you can stuff the bag into hand luggage comparments.)

I absolutely adored this Miu Miu bag when it first hit stores last FW. Who knew it would still be around, albeit in different leather and colours? It's super girly yet it's still practical. Why oh why didn't I buy one last FW?

Because I love this bag so much, here it is in another colour. I can't decide whether a mono-coloured leather version (the one before) is better or this one. There is a contrast between the brown leather and tan kanvas that makes this bag seem more casual and easy-to-use. OK, I'm going to stop obsessing over this bag now -but don't you just love it?

Lastly, I just can't resist tagging on a picture of Ashley Olsen with one of last season's hot bags, Givenchy's Nightingale. I'm not in love with this bag myself but see what I mean about messenger bags? The bag looks so practical and pretty, and you can just throw things in quickly!

Back To Classics

For fashionholics, one of the funnest thing about flipping through Sept. issues of magazines are the new FW07 ads. As we all know, magazine ads usually focus on marketing products from the seasonal collection, especially the 'it' bags. All the products come from one collection and have a common theme. But interestingly this season, Prada and Louis Vuitton, both huge bag sellers, have dedicated one or two campaign images to their classic bags.

Maybe because the creative directors behind the ads did a really good job, or maybe it's because the bags are just so classic -not matter what, these classic bags fit in surprisingly well with the seasonal clothes. I mean, look at this Prada ad, even with the artistic and somewhat weird clothes Prada has this season, the bags still seem to belong there. The puffed up messenger bags totally fit in with Prada's intelligent, artsy image.

As for the Louis Vuitton ad, the classic monogrammed bag fits in really well with the whole posh, well-dressed, high-maintanence woman image. (For once, I'll refrain from ranting about how much I dislike celebs posing in high fashion ads. Sigh...) Even after looking at this uber-glam ad, I still don't feel the urge to buy this monogrammed bag, although to be fair, I'm not a fan of obviously-monogrammed bags. Oops, now I'm ranting about monogrammed bags.

Anyhow, classic bags seem to be getting a push from large brands this season. Are the execs hoping more people would fish out money for their classic bags, or is this a nod to the late 80's/ early 90's trend? No matter what, at least you know if you buy these classic bags, they won't be particularly 'out' next season!

New York SS08 Fashion Week Wrapup II

More about NY Fashion Week...

Marc Jacobs

Woah, this collection was a bit unexpected. I've always imagined a lot of Marc Jacobs' normal typical clients liked cute, funky and clean-cut clothes, which is why this collection of sexed-up clothes surprised me. I'm not really loving the underwear theme or the random slits up the skirt or belly-baring tops, but a lot of individual outfits were pretty cool.

Looks like black sequins will still be 'in'. The dress on the left is so cool -I really like the deconstructed black sequin dress with the nude slip under.

The outfit on the left reminds me of Miu Miu FW07. Anyways, you can see a lot of body parts which are usually covered up.

The dress on the left is so pretty! I'm still not sure how I feel about the daywear though (like the one in the middle.)

A lot of putting-together of pieces. The thing with MJ is that even though just by looking at these photos, my first instinct is to dislike the red outfit (left,) I can imagine it looking cool and funky on certain people in real life.

3.1 Phillip Lim

Looking at Phillip Lim's clothes always makes me feel so sad and happy -Happy to see such girly, chic clothes, and sad to know that I can't afford any of them!

Love love love the cocktail dresses! They're so perfect for people in their 20's.

Everything here just looks so cool and chic, (although the outfit in the middle could do without that weird necklace...) Got to try that all-white with trenchcoat look some time in the future!

And more pretty eveningwear.

Narciso Rodriguez

Narciso Rodriguez is a brand that I actually really like the designs of, but I never notice it much in shops or think about it much because it's a) not suitable for my age yet, b) doesn't advertise much. But everytime New York Fashion Week comes and I see a new collection, I just cannot help looking over the collection many times. I love the clean, structured cutting and colour palette.

There was a lot of office clothes and simple, structured clothes.

And then there were the cocktail dresses which I LOVE. Take the dress on the left, I love the way the sequins are placed -it looks like black and purple were sprayed on. And I love that shade of purple of the dress in the middle and the way the fabric is draped. I want!

Teen Choice Fashion

Hey people, so sorry for the uber late posts. I'm at my aunt's house in San Francisco at the moment and the internet connection is sort of wacky here. (Thankfully BG posted for me yesterday!) I'll talk about last week's LA in the next two days, but first, the Teen Choice Awards! OK, so the fashion there was so boring and uninspiring that I wasn't even going to blog about it but staying in the States for a week has turned me into paprazzi-obsessed (temporarily hopefully,) so I'm going to blog about it anyway.

Hilary Duff -She was the co-host so you will notice that she had more than one outfit. I quite like her wearing this Corey Lynn Calter black, sequined dress, although it feels more nightime than daytime.

Hilary's other two outfits were very 'her'. I like her in the blue and black sequined dress, and so-and-so about green jeans. What I don't like about her is her hair! What happened to those classy locks? What is up with the gradient-coloured hair?

I may like Avril's music but I'm really not a fan of her clothes. I used to like it when she kept it simple with jeans/ pants with tank tops, but now her clothes (and pink hair) are just, for a lack of better words, not cool. Actually I suppose this outfit isn't too bad, but it would have looked much nicer if her hair was just left straight down.

I've never liked Fergie's clothes so I'll just say here that her grey heels don't match her polka dot dress.

Lauren and Audrina -Kind of typical choices for them, but they could have chosen cuter dresses. Audrina's dress is too nighttime clubbing-ish, and Lauren's is just not as fun as her usual choices. (Lauren's dress is from her upcoming collection.)

Jessica Alba's dress is really nothing special, but seriously, that girl can make anything look amazing. Jessica not surprisingly, won the female hottie award. I really want to watch her new movie, Good Luck Chuck!

Emmy Rossum is finally not in a boring long dress, but I don't really like her dress here either. The pink looks great on her, but maybe the way the fabric is draped on her just isn't that cute? Or maybe adding a thin belt around her waist would have added more shape to the dress.

Wow, Sophia Bush looked amazing in a hard-to-wear Herve Leger dress. I love her playful dress with that cute but proper hairstyle. I guess she had to look good, afterall, she won three awards!

Vanessa Hudgens -The dress really suits her, except the clutch doesn't match the dress. OK, I accidently watched two minutes of High School Musical 2 this afternoon, and I don't get why they are so popular! True, they do seem talented (which is not a given in Hollywood these days,) but what is so fun watching a bunch of kids sing on tv? I suppose musical is only cool to me if it's live.

Since I really have no interest in men's fashion, Zac Efron (who won male hottie) is obviously here for eyecandy. He always looks a bit too photoshopped (or madeup?) for my taste, but hey, eyecandy is eyecandy. Enjoy!

What did you think of everybody's dresses?

Colour Up Your Wardrobe

As an over-cautious young shopper, I buy way too much classic/ black and white clothes. Not that there's anything wrong with having a simple, classic style, it's just that we're only young once and this is THE time to experiment with pretty, colourful clothes. Sometimes it's just fun to liven up our wardrobe a bit. With everything on their final final final sale, why not take the oppurtunity to liven up your wardrobe? (See, this is how I have been justifying my friend's and my shopping purchases in the past two weeks. Makes sense doesn't it?)

After lowering my standards and making myself think 'colour', I ended up buying this super bright top from FCUK. It doesn't look great in the photo, but it flows well with body movement, the V-neck is great and it's length is perfect to go with skinny jeans or short-shorts. Believe me, it definitely looks better in real life than in this photo.

The brand that came up first when I thought about colourful tops was T-Bags. This is mostly because I spend way too much time on shopbop.com, but it's also one of those brands some people look nice in though I know I'll never buy. (The brand name is now also unfortunately associated with that ugly dude from Prison Break in my brain.) Oops, too much rambling about T-Bags. My point is, these two tops aren't really the simple tops I'm into these days, but they do look pretty and machine-washable for clubbing nights or summer days out, don't they?

The other brand that came to mind was Diane von Furstenburg. Unfortunately, almost all of the summer collection has been sold so I can't really find photos to show for, but I'm sure we all remember DvF as the brand to get colourful wrapdresses. They're always great for livening up one's wardrobe while keeping things classy.

OK so I'm not sure you get my point, but my point is, you're young and it's summer so liven up your closet with colourful clothes while everything is on sale!

A little bit of vintage

I'm really happy right now, I ticked couple of items off my wish list recently.

First up was a pair of tan ankle boots, I had been waiting impatiently for a pair from Office after seeing them in Elle nearly 3 months ago, I did however find this vintage pair on Ebay. The leather is beautiful and I'm so pleased, they were only £21.

Second was a pair of loafers, I hadn't found 'The' pair yet but a pair of black patent Miss KG ones came close. Again ebay worked its magic and I found these very sensible yet perfect pair. I actually prefer this pair and love the buckle detail all for a purse friendly £4.20. 

 

Have you had any great finds on ebay recently or in a charity shop?

Long Skirt Sightings

With this season's craze of the mini skirts and dresses, it's weird and refreshing to see bottom pieces that are not skinny jeans nor leggings, but long skirts.

Kate Moss was seen last week with her daughter in a beachy place in a boring grey shirt and a long, black skirt. The skirt is the type that is tight around the legs and flares out a bit at the bottom, (thus the 'flying' bottom bit when the wind blew in the picture.)

Another picture of Kate, but this time in a grey long skirt. It looks a bit like a sarong in a cool, grunge way, thanks to the black sneakers (or boots?) and belt. Even though both of Kate's skirts look super casual, (which they are,) they are actually hard to wear if you think about it because they are quite body-hugging.

I love this outfit by Ashley Olsen. It's got that grunge, rock chick thing going. The leather jacket, boots and let's not forget, that gigantic cup of coffee makes her outfit much more citygirl-cool. As a tip for all you short/ petite people (including myself), an A-line or flared out skirt like Ashley's is the way to go, if you decide to try this style out.

Buberry Scarves

Burberry seems to be getting that we're all a bit over the classic plaid scarf. One can only have so many plaid scarves in multiples colors after all. And who wants to risk clashing with everyone other person on the street anyway? This season, they've come up with some pretty ingenious scarves.

So much so in fact, that I've made this sparkly Burberry scarf my first FW06-07 purchase. I figured it wouldn't go on sale anyway, and I was right, it was the last one in the store. The thing I love most about it is that when worn, it doesn't immediately shout Burberry because of the underlying criss cross pattern. Then there is the subtle but still very visible silver threads embedded all over the scarf, making it oh-so-pretty and sparkly! (I'm not sure if you can see it here, but its there!) A trendy twist to an otherwise classic scarf. And of course, the fact that it is black and white makes it very sharp and easy to match with everything. The only thing I find lacking with this scarf is that it is not 100% cashmere and therefore not as soft and warm as I'd like. But I guess in this case, its style before warmth!

Another clever design is this abstract check scarf (right), which I also quite like. Especially the color, which is also very versatile. And then there is this chunky scarf. I've always wanted one of these. Actually I think I have one that my friend knitted for me. Except they're sooo big and chunky I never know how to wear them properly, without fearing that I'd choke myself when I leave half of it stuck to the bus door and it moves...I know, I have an overactive imagination. But maybe I'll find inspiration this season and figure it out.

Then there are these very simple plain scarves with the Burberry signature casually scrawled across. As logo branded as the concept is though, I actually quite like this signature. It looks very casual and pretty. Like someone just absentmindedly scribbled their signature on the scarf. Plus, the rest of the scarf is plain and as fun as the prints are, at the end of the day, it is always the plain ones that I wear most. For this design, I think white or grey is best. Although if you want to be very feminine they also have a pretty purple- though not online but in the shops.

But anyways, the scarf designs in Burberry this season are definitely worth checking out- so go before they run out!

Сollection of shoes from Alejandro Ingelmo

New York designer Alejandro Ingelmo is a shoemaker in the fourth generation. In his new collection of fantastic models of shoes, boots and platform boots heelless.

Fans of Alejandro Ingelmo (Alejandro Ingelmo) are many celebrities, such as Madonna (Madonna) and Guy Ritchie (Guy Ritchie). Model designer shoes are sold in department stores such as the famous «Neiman Marcus», «Bergdorf Goodman» and others.

Forever 21 Birmingham opening day Bullring Birmingham

I decided I'd brave the opening morning for the Forever 21 store in the Bullring, when I arrived there was a very civilised queue which started to snake around the top level and when it came to opening the store you couldn't even see Amber Le Bon, I could only hear a series of cheers! As we entered we were handed a goody bag and I headed straight up to the shoes and accesories area on the top floor, it was nice and empy for about 10 minutes before the store was swarmed.

It really is a huge store and you need a good hour or two to browse it properly, The shoes I wanted weren't there so I wandered around slowly picking up a few items to try. I honestly didn't see that much I loved and a couple of the pieces I did like were litterally starting to fall apart before i'd even tried them on - buttons popping off whilst hanging a skirt up, unravelling fringe whilst walking around the store and the fit on the majority of items I tried wasn't the best......

I did feel slightly disapointed in the clothing there but I guess im not really the target audience, the accessories are great value and there is a huge range dotted throughout the store. Im not rushing to head back but im sure i'll pop in when im in the mood for it. 

The best thing about the store is the merchandising - it is fabulous! Tea parties, rule britannia and into the wild were a few of the themes I spotted and shown on my photos.

So although I didn't buy nearly as much as i'd hoped, I did take home a pair of khaki slim leg cords and a felt hat and im sure i'll pick up a few great buys in the future.