Tuesday 26 March 2013

I've decided to start a new feature on this blog, which is pretty exciting to me. Normally I simply post the outfits that I have been wearing lately, but I've decided that now when I get a new item - or rediscover something I love - I'm going to show you guys three different ways of wearing it, or just three ways I'd wear it! With the English weather being so mixed at the moment, it can only help to discover new ways to warm up or cool down a favourite piece...


Three of a kind #1 - Floral Maxi Skirt (Charity Shop)






Outfit 1 - Slinky Dress




Sheer Shirt - H&M
Shoes - Topshop
Bangle - Topshop
Hat - Accessorize
Lips - Mac

It didn't occur to me earlier in the week that I could actually wear this skirt as a dress - luckily for me, the skirt fit very well over my chest and fitted nicely. If this doesn't work for you, you can always tighten it round the back with a handy safety pin - it's a great way to get more wear out of an item, and try some new things with it. Paired with a loose, sheer white shirt, I felt the outfit was simple but had a chic, sexy edge. The undone shirt adds a bit of casual-ness to the outfit, as does the hat, should you want it! Particularly for these chilly months where it's not quite warm enough to go bare armed in a flowery dress (: I absolutely love the heels I put with the number, I don't feel like they go with very much but maybe I just need to be more daring! I felt they gave the piece a bit more of modern edge, and brought the slinky floral number right back to fashion with the clashing/pairing (whatever works for you!) of different patterns.



Outfit 2 - Warmer Wear



Tshirt - New Look
Jacket - Topshop
Necklaces - Accessorize
Hat - Topshop

This is an outfit I wore earlier in the week, when it decided to snow on me. Luckily I had my warm winter hat with me, which once I put on I found actually looked quite cool with the skirt and jacket. This way of wearing the skirt is definitely a lot edgier, but the florals still give it a girly spin. The denim jacket is perfect for the mixed weather we've been having as well, just be careful to cover up that midriff if you get stuck in the snow like I did! Although you can't see the shoes very well, I just wore my mucky black boots. I actually thought this added to the edgy-ness of the outfit, but if you're a bit cleaner (and less paint-y) than I am, any black shoes will go well with the skirt to again, give it a bit more of a modern twist. I'm still definitely feeling chunky black boots and shoes as we move into SS13, and pairing them with a girly skirt makes for a very cooooool look.


Outfit 3 - Sweet Summer 






Lace Shirt - H&M
Lace Tshirt - Topshop
Floral Headband - Handmade using H&M hair accessories
Sunglasses - Accessorize
Shoes - Urban Outfitters


This is something I sort of wish I could wear all the time - it combines my favourites of lace, creams, flowers, and pastels (sort of). If you wanted to jazz it up a bit you could wear coloured lace, but I felt with the bright flowers on the skirt this may have been too much. Layering lace always has such a beautiful finish I find, and gives the simple tops the illusion of high end designer! (personally speaking!) I initially thought perhaps all the creams may have been a bit boring, but with printed sunglasses and shiny shoes it will be a hard one to miss this Summer! This is most certainly a very girly way to wear the outfit, but if you're anything like me you'll love showing off your girly side. As you all know of my new found love for Crown and Glory, I'd definitely recommend purchasing one of their cream/pale headbands or hair bows to go with it.




Would you like to see more "Three of a Kind"s? :)

Thursday 21 March 2013

As readers of my blog know, lately whenever I've been making something I've been obsessing over lace and flowers. Today's craft session was no exception! It might all seem a bit frilly, but when you're making things 24/7 for your degree it's nice to do something a little lighter..

I am an awful daughter and forgot it was my parents 25th anniversary yesterday so had to think of something pretty quickly, a few friends suggested I make something for them and with £2 left in my account, I had to make do with the bits I had. I decided to make them a pretty little '25th anniversary' pouch, to keep any silver things/gifts in (25th is silver, if you hadn't already guessed).

It was fairly simple, and involved sewing two sides of a piece of material and then turning it inside out to get the 'pouch' shape. After that, it was pretty much just adding lace around the top (straightforward running stitch all along the top edge) and adding little flowers (sewn the same as buttons). The trickiest part was adding the '25', but even that wasn't too hard. All you do is cut a piece of lace/ribbon and shape it into the numbers, pinning it to hold it in place. After that you simply sew along the piece of lace/ribbon, and voila

I've got a step by step photo set again, any questions please ask!

PS. Sorry the terrible photo quality, it's so dark here...












Wednesday 20 March 2013

One more day, is not enough

I had watched you taken in the Spring,
Through dusty sun-kissed bodies wondering
















I have been dying to crack out this outfit for a very long time, and with the lovely Spring (ish) sunshine I thought it would be the perfect afternoon to show it off. I feel like the outfit is quite daytime-fancy, and I haven't really had any occasion to wear it to, so I may just save it for the opening of my end of university degree show eeeek. So excited!

Normally my lookbook photos/outfit posts are what I have been wearing that day and I generally like to keep it that way, so that I can show what my actual style is like instead of dressing up especially for outfit photos, which I feel don't really convey a bloggers true style. I know today is an exception, but my Whole Lotta Rosie crown from Crown and Glory (see feature below!) had arrived and I didn't want to wear it for the first time with anything other than this gorgeous floaty pink dress. I love the crown so much, I really can't wait for it to be warmer so I can keep wearing it tons and tons aaahhhhh.

The dress I got a couple of years ago at London Fashion Week, by Antipodium. I loved it as soon as I saw it, it's a delicate pink silk with a high collar and pleated skirt, and little caterpillars printed are dotted all around. I am however quite busty so it cooooould look better, but it is too pretty for me to care all that much. The shoes aren't the ones I wanted to wear with this outfit but I left those at Sam's house, so the simple H&M black velvet wedges shall do for now :)

Hope you like it, let me know what you think! xo

Thursday 14 March 2013

Crown & Glory Interview

Something to keep your keen fashion eye on this Spring is definitely the up and coming head wear brand, Crown and Glory. Bursting with a huge range of styles, they offer the now must-have head candy of charming floral crowns, edgy glitter barrettes, quirky leather bows, and gorgeous printed head scarves - definitely the ones to watch as they begin to make an appearance in an increasing amount of online stores and fashion magazines, including Grazia, Teen Vogue, Company, More, and Cosmopolitan.
Being a lover of all things pretty and pastel, personal favourites of mine are the Not a Lotta Rosie and Whole Lotta Rosie floral crowns, displaying a beautiful row of delicately coloured roses on a subtle and easy to wear headband. Now with a new range for Spring, I haven't been able to stop myself ordering lilac, blush pink, and hopefully soon mixed Ice Cream and Cream colours too! Not only for pastel princesses, with darker wine, turquoise and deep black roses, these irresistible accessories are being sported by celebrities, fashion bloggers and models more and more and are becoming an essential must have for any Spring time fashionista.
Designer Sophie was able to spare a few minutes of her busy schedule for a few insider questions! See below for interview!












What first inspired you to start making the headwear?

Truthfully, I'm not ashamed to say that I have a large head. There, I said it. My name is Sophie and I have a big bonce! When I first started out, not only was there a distinct lack of pretty headwear available but everything seemed to come on a headband! I started making clips, bobby pins and crowns to compensate for the aforementioned affliction.




Are you influenced by any particular celebrities or styles?

I like to think that my designs are trend led but still retain the initial expression of whimsy, pretty and fun. Early Florence Welch and Pixie Lott are definite references, I also like to coin the phrase; 'What Would Lana Do?' if I worry that a piece is a bit big and show offy! 





Do you ever create a new look with a particular person in mind?

There are a handful of fashion bloggers I consider to be the typical 'Crown and Glory girl' and as such, I often to listen to their requests to tweak a size, a colour or a design in a particular way - they're a demanding bunch! ;)




What is your all time favourite piece?

Oh I'm not allowed favourites! I love to wear the butterflies as they always get compliments, but probably wear my glitter bows more




And finally, personal recommendations for Spring?

Pastels, pastels pastels and 50s sundresses and anything with a flamingo or unicorn on and freckles and sunkissed shoulders and oh my God I can't wait for it to get warm!












Keep an eye out for some lookbook & outfit photos of me styling my lovely Crown and Glory headwear :) x
photos c/o Crown and Glory

Monday 11 March 2013

Two times lucky..

What a lucky girl I was last week! Not only did I get to try lobster for the second time, but managed to wrangle myself a THIRD only a matter of days later - thats right! I went to London for the day with my dad to see the new Manet exhibition, then he treated us to a lunch at Burger Lobster. I had never heard of this place before but it is AMAZING. It's a chic taste on the classic diner, and basically there is no menu - they either sell a burger - with a choice of cheese/bacon/salad etc, or a grilled lobster or lobster in a toasted brioche sandwich. Everything is the same price so you'd be a darn food not to pick the lobster, which we did of course. My dad had been before and recommended I try the brioche roll, and I'm so so glad I did. 

It came on a tray with a can of delicious skinny fries and a nicely dressed little salad (which I'm sure I'd like if I liked to eat salad), and consisted of two slices of toasted brioche bread, absolutely crammed full of tender pieces of lobster and a decent amount of Japenese mayo. You definitely got what you paid for in terms of quantity and quality, it was the perfect sandwich! Taking the menu away from a restaurant and leaving you with only two choices is actually a great idea; there's no faffing about with what to have, whether you'll like the flavours, what will be healthy, what is too expensive or not. It's just good quality, well made, but fairly simple lobster (the best way to have it) or burger. The staff were lovely and very helpful, our food came ridiculously quickly (which normally I'd be skeptical about but was worth it this time) 100% definitely worth a visit :)


















Tuesday 5 March 2013

The one time I dress Wintery with enough layers, the sun decides to come out! Nevertheless I was quite pleased with my outfit, so have some snaps from the little private lookbook shoot I held for myself in the garden... I feel so embarassed and cheesy taking pics when people see, but managed to be ever so subtle and sneaky with this one. Yesss.

I wanted to wear my velvet devore print oxblood skater dress from Miss Selfridge, but so far hadn't been able to pair it with a jumper or cardi that seemed to go well with it. Fortunately, the weather was cold enough that I was forced to! I had a look around my wadrobe and decided to wear it with an old vintage jumper that I love, thinking that the burgundy in the jumper matched the dress well and the turquoise colours were nice and Autumnal (despite it nearly being Spring). I also liked the pairing of prints which I don't do very often as I always feel I'll get it wrong, so hopefully haven't this time!

To go with this whole Autumn thing I'd accidentally done, I wrapped up with a tan H&M coat I got for realllll cheap in the sale. I love this coat, it goes with nearly everything, isn't too heavy, and dare I say it - gives boring outfits a nice vintage twist. I'm not a hipster.. Naturally my little Accessorize tan bag matched very easily as well as my Urban Outfitters tan tassle pumps, and brought the whole outfit together. To bring out the reds in the outfit against the dreary green leafy background, I wore some of my new favourite lipstick - Mac in Dubonnet. I've never had the confidence to pull off red lipstick, and definitely think this shade is a bit Wintery but you can never really go wrong with red! (right?....)