Finally, An Actual Outfit!

For a 'fashion' blog, outfit posts sure seem to be rare around here. I blame my school uniform and my laziness, as most of the time when I get home from school I just can't be bothered to get changed. This particular outfit is from saturday, when I didn't want to wear my work uniform on the bus home so I got changed. It was absolutely freezing, but I wanted to wear something which didn't involve changing out of my tights.

top- Zara, shorts- H&M, socks- White Stuff (christmas present from parents), brogues- New Look

This ring was a Christmas present from one of my mum's friends who lives in Scarborough, so it only arrived in the post the other day. I love it! Generally i'm not a fan of rings made from beads because they're uncomfortable to wear and well, kind of cheap looking. But I love how this one looks like a fluffy pom pom from a distance, and that blue colour is gorgeous too! I don't really have any clothes in this colour but I would love a floaty skirt or dress for summer.

Ohh and guess what- me and mum are going to London Fashion Weekend! :D

The Third Step!

This is the third and final photoshoot for my AS art coursework outcome. I'm using three images from each shoot and printing them onto fabric (white cotton, which is a detachable 'lining' I made for this dress), and then decorating on and around them with thread and pen. I'll take photos when it's done- it's too hard to explain! I think I almost collapsed yesterday because of a lack of sleep combined with me spending literally all of my time outside lessons in art doing my final. I was meant to be going away to visit relatives this weekend but luckily now i'm staying at home to do my art, so i'm much less stressed today!

By the way, this blog design probably isn't permenant but I just wanted rid of that dark background

The Second Step

You remember the previous photo post for my A-level art final? Well, this is the second photoshoot with that dress. It was set in and around the local church (we know the vicar and asked for permission, don't worry) and was more of a sombre mood than the first. There is one more of these shoots still to come. My deadline is on monday; i'm not sure if i'll be able to finish by then because i'm away this weekend visiting relatives. I'm just going to have to work lots in my free time at school!

Tshirt Desires

As I may well have mentioned before, if there's one section of my wardrobe which is lacking excitement then it's the top department. I have shirts which I wear often but they aren't the smartest, and plenty of tshirts which again are ok but a bit plain. So when I looked on Froken_Fashionista and saw that she had bought a tshirt I thought I'd check the store out, because it must be pretty cool if a girl who ususally wear dresses buys something from there!

click on the image for a larger view of everything in the store

The store in question is the Tshirt store, and the top below is the one which Amanda bought. I think it's probably my favourite from the store- the combination of red+Coca Cola+Chanel is just awesome! All tshirts are the same price (£28 plus p&p) which is pretty good, but I can't decide if it's a bit too much to pay for what is essentially a very basic item of clothing, or whether it's a staple which is worth investing in! It would definitely be an item to get people talking, that's for sure.

As a slightly plainer and probably easier to wear option, this top would be good I reckon (although possibly more suited for autumn/winter because of the colours). I do really like this tshirt but i'm not sure that i'd pay £28 for it- it's even more basic than the one above!

As soon as I decide on what to have as a header, the look of this blog will be changing! Also, I just booked myself onto a four day illustration course at Central Saint Martins in easter- so excited!!

And also thank you to all of you for actually taking the time to read my blog :)

Cat That Got The (Chanel) Cream!

Admittedly the title of this post gives the impression that I've won the lottery and have gone on a massive shopping spree in Chanel- I'll tell you now that (unfortunately!) I haven't. I have, on the other hand, invested in a decent quality lipstick. I recently got my staff discount which means that I get discount in a certain large department store, including on the makeup counters!

I realised once I got on the bus that if the students from the secondary school near my house were walking home as I walked to my house, I would be wearing my school uniform (somehow my school has a reputation for being very posh and religious, so many schools dislike us haha) and carrying a Chanel shopping bag, so I would be a bit of a target! Luckily, I didn't see anyone.

The lady behind the counter was really nice and helped me to decide on a shade, and packaged it nicely as well in this Chanel tissue paper. I wanted a lipstick which was neutral enough that I can wear it everyday, but still colourful enough so that you can tell it's there, and I think I've found it with this shade. I was a little worried when I first got it home that it was too neutral, and so wouldn't even be noticeable, but dad could tell that I had it on so i'm convinced, haha!

Excuse the shiny-ness of my face and weird greenish tint (?!), but I hope you can get a sense of the lipstick colour here. It really isn't much different from my natural lip colour to be honest, but just enough so that you can see it's there.

The First Step

Yesterday afternoon I had a shoot with two of my friends, with one of them being the model for the two of us. She is a ballet dancer so that was great, not to mention the fact that she's very pretty! This is the first photoshoot of three (maybe four) which I have to do for my a-level art final piece- it's actually an installation piece but I need photos for it using this dress with various models in different settings. I did another photoshoot today with a different friend which I will show you sometime soon! All of these photos are unedited, and the dress is vintage Laura Ashley from a charity shop in Cambridge- the sleeves aren't part of the dress, but she put this over the dress she was wearing anyway. It was really windy but thankfully there was no rain, which was our main concern!

Those last two are my favourites- pretty ballet dancer friends are the best, haha!

I hope I can get that dress back before summer, because with a skinny belt and my clogs it looks actually quite nice (the dress is a main part of the installation, so I don't know if they'll let me have it until October).

Oh and also I am planning to create a new header for the blog soon, so if it doesn't happen within the next week feel free to leave me a shouty comment to remind me because I may forget!

Books Galore

Normally at Christmas I will get one main present, generally something electronic i.e. 2009 I got an ipod touch, 2007 I got my laptop. But last year there wasn't really anything major that I wanted, so I mentioned to mum that I wanted to build up a sort of mini library of fashion and art books in order to learn more about the historical side of fashion and use them as references. In the end they bought me six, which is definitely more than I had expected! Shopping for Vintage is a great book; the first half gives you some info about style through the decades and the designers associated with them, accompanied by some beautiful illustrations, and the second half is basically a directory of loads of vintage stores and fairs throughout the UK, Europe and the US. In other words, if you're going anywhere at all then you can look in this book and you're likely to find a list of all the vintage places in the area. Super useful!

Vogue Fashion is another one which is really interesting, this one goes into more detail about the fashion from each decade since 1900 so it's really useful to get some background info.

Alexander McQueen- Genuis of a Generation is full of beautiful images from his collections, though not of every garment (shame!). There are also little bits explaining his inspirations for each collection, and a bit at the beginning about his life and his relationship with Isabella Blow. Definitely one of my favourite books- I've spent hours just looking at the pictures already.

Vivienne Westwood has the most beautiful cover out of all the books, not just because of the awesome colourful photo but because it's so smooth and shiny- just everything about it is appealing! The content it quite similar to the Alexander McQueen book in that it's full of photos of her collections and inspirations, and is equally interesting.

British Textiles isn't about fashion as such, but is full of photos of various different fabrics from a collection at the V&A (I think). Lots of pretty prints and patterns, and though I haven't looked through it properly yet it definitely looks like it'll be a great reference book!

Morris by himself is another which I haven't looked through properly yet, but this one is less of a picture book and there's more writing actually explaining the patterns, his life, and his inspirations.

The Alexander McQueen book is full of beautiful photos from his collections, and this is definitely amongst my favourites- I would love to get married wearing this dress, headpiece and all! I stumbled across a photo of Mary- Kate Olsen (I think?) wearing this dress with dark lipstick in a really old magazine the other day, but I think it looks better in the book because she was quite hunched over and sort of looked more old and vampire-y (not in a hot way) than it did elegant.

On another note, do you think the dark background of my blog is a bit too.....dark?! I don't mind it too much but I was thinking that it might look more appealing if I changed it to a white background and did some sort of illustration to use as a new header. What do you guys think?

Some New Resolutions

• actually comment on people's blog posts, rather than just reading them. Because I began reading blogs long before creating my own I was never able to comment, so now it rarely even enters my mind even though I often see posts I love!


• do not eat too much before march, so that I still fit in my dress for the school ball. It's 80's vintage and only just fits really because of my massive hips so I can't afford to put on any weight, haha.


• save up money for uni, or to invest in a designer handbag or small accessory. By the way, I read something on tumblr today where someone said she only owned four designer items, then listed them as being from Hollister, Abercombie and Fitch, and Joules. I had considered these to all be high street shops- albeit more expensive ones?!


• do more photoshoots on film, including ones in a garden centre and in a car park.


• don't fail my AS levels!

Have a great year everyone :)