Catwalk Review - Vivienne Westwood Red Label AW 2011

I have a long standing obsession with Vivienne Westwood. Her designs may be wacky, at times to the point of being unwearable, but then I've always been drawn towards costume. The themes of traditional British heritage mixed with punk styling just work so effortlessly and she cuts her clothes with such skill and cleverness. Since I've been interested in dressmaking I can usually reduce an item of clothing to it's component pattern pieces in my mind, even if I can rarely if ever reproduce these pieces in fabric, but Westwood designs often baffle me!

So of the few fashion week collections I make a habbit of perusing each year, Westwood is almost always the first. I may not have a hope of affording any of the pieces, let along fitting in to them if I could, but there are always a couple of themes and unexpected juxtapositions that a mere mortal of average build can reproduce from the highstreet. This year's Autumn/Winter Red Label collection is no exception.

I'm an absolute sucker for a pencil skirt at the best of times, it's the most common shape in my wardrobe, so I'm sure I could whip together something like this. I love the mix of smart, boyish shirt with vampy skirt and the accessories are perfectly understated. Statement belts are everywhere this season, this red suade hinge belt from River Island for £15 is a cute mix of smart and glitz for £18.

For a shirt, though I have always wanted the perfect oxford from a proper tailor, a man's shirt will work just as well. Wearing it tucket tight into something high-waisted will avoid that shapeless blocky look that can come from wearing mens un-darted clothing. Primark have a surprisingly tasteful range of shirts for around £8 or sometimes even less. I already want the fine red and blue stripe slim fit I bought for fiance a while back. Might nick it out of his wardrobe when I get home! Though a blue and white stripe is even more classic.

Layering is my new best friend now the weather's getting cooler. I still want to get the best use out of my chiffon blouses and satin pussy-bows but don't feel like shivering the day away. There are a lot of chunky patterned knits around this season but for me a skinny knit long line cardi is the perfect throw over item when teamed with a skinny belt. This one in rust red from H&M is adorable for £24.99

There's a mustard yellow one in New Look which is equally versatile and would tie in with the mauve and tan thing I already have gonig on from summer. According to the above I wouldn't be out of season with this combo. I'm also loving the print dress/long socks/cardi combo in the second picture. I'm tempted now to nip back to the boutique sale at Awear which still has some amazing reductions and some dresses that would translate well into autumn. This print tie waist dress is only £19 and though the print is quite bold it would look fab with a pale, well draped cardi. Even the shape is slightly Westwood! I may have to swap the knee highs for a pair of opaque grey tights (also popular on this year's runways) to save that inch of inch of chilly flesh.

Colour and shape are always very important in Vivienne Westwood collections and this season's colours are right up my street.

From this skirt it looks like I need to be digging out and stocking up on turquoise, rust, navy and tan. Easier said then done when I found the Clarissa Jersey Midi dress at Boohoo.com for only £20 available in both colours (as well as black) and I can't decide! I think this may be the most versatile shape of the season (and look, another sexy big belt) so if I don't decide on a colour soon I may be forced to buy both!

And finally one more amazing dress from the collection. When Westwood does a LBD she does it with some real pazazz,. Look at that draping! I'm going to have to figure out how she does it as I'm now set on having this kind of cowl neckline for my bridesmaids. Mix it with the circle skirt from the dress above and a big sash belt and they should be wonderfully flattering.

Hooray for Vivienne Westwood! She may be crazy, but she's my kind of crazy!

Piwiwiwi and Campervan Dreams

Q. What do you call a Pommy (Kiwi slang for English person) that moves to New Zealand

A. A Piwi.

Q. What do you call a Welsh man that moves to New Zealand

A. A Wiwi?

So when an English girl and a Welsh man move to New Zealand, it makes perfect sense for them to start up a company calling themselves PiwiWiwi… right?

Well it makes perfect sense to me but perhaps that's because I share my sister's sense of logic.

Anna and Niall emigrated to New Zealand earlier this year to set up PiwiWiwi.com, a campervan rental service aimed a the surf tourists who head to NZ for the waves and the landscape. It's quite a scary dream to chase and I'm so proud of them for making the leap. Check out the site for some gorgeous scenic pics!

I caught up with sis on Skype a few evenings ago to hear more of their adventures. Amongst the busy practicalities of starting a new business she's still managing to be shame-makingly healthy, active and eco. Whilst I lounge on the sofa most evenings drinking wine and internet shopping or fiddling with ribbons and frippery in my sewing room, she's been surfing, running, hiking, eating poridge and lentils and other such stuff that us ordinary folk promise ourselves we'll do but never quite get round to. A large part of last night's conversation centered around sustainable energy, composting toilets and worm farming! I tease her about it mercilessly but secretly I'm rather jealous of her drive and ambition, as well as her ever shrinking waistline!

4 wheel adventures are rather on my mind at the moment. Future Mother-In-Law has recently bought a snazzily compact and rather bijou caravan and I just re-visited the amazing website of Roulotte Retreats who rent amazingly decorated static gypsy caravans full of sumptuous fabrics and dripping with chic and it all has me dreaming of hitting the open road. The fiance and I had a vague plan to buy a camper and travel around Europe for a month or so for our honeymoon, before we both realised that taking a month off was utterly impractical and campers are darned expensive!

Still, a girl can dream and me being me I'm dreaming of all the little extras I could take with me to make my compact life a little more swanky whilst remaining practical:

Melamine
I was never much inspired by melamine. It always seemed like the maiden aunt of crockery, slightly dull and utterly unbreakable. I think I was prejudiced at an early age, our family camping set was a couple of shockingly plain seventies brown plates, a few "cheery" coloured beakers and the obligatory thermos. It looks like I judged too early, a quick etsy search and uncovered a host of beautiful pastel shades and iconic shapes like this lovely set for $85:

and this one for $57

Unfortunately most seem to be from the US and I can imagine shipping being astronomical, otherwise one of these sets may already have been on it's way to NZ for use in the PiwiWiwi vans.

Luckily for the more local the trend for vintage-styling has extended to picnic ware. John Lewis has a couple of very cute ranges that I could see gracing the cubby-holes of my dream camper.

Whilst the Brights range is adorable I'm not sure the fiance would be happy travelling in a haven to pastel, plus it being the end of the BBQ season (Boo) it's almost sold out (the set of 4 beakers is reduced to £5) so I think I'd plump for the Summer Folk range (priced between £2 and £11 oer item). OK, it's only marginally less girly, but just about enough to get away with I think and it would certainly brighten up dining alfresco

Bedding

I've never been much of an admirer of the sleeping bag. Clustraphobic little cocoons made of slippery polyester that take ages to warm up then instantly get sweaty and tangled. On recent camping trips I've abandoned the idea completely and just taken a duvet instead, seriously it's the way forward! I think for the camper I'd choose the Twister double duvet cover (available from numerous stockists including Amazon) cause it would tone in with the crockery and... well it's Twister!

Also essential is a snuggly throw for picnics and campfire moments and I can't think of a better one than  this Fleece Map Throw from the lovely Indigo and Bloom (a site I fully intend to preuse further in future). It may be £95 but it would make route planning our European odyssey a lot more exciting.

Food and drink

I love campfire cooking, so lazy but so satisfying. Chuck a can of chunky veg soup and a packet of instant rice into a cook pot, add some chopped hotdog sausages and in a very few minutes (or an eternity depending on the age of your gas burner and how hungry you are at the time) and you have a hot meal. Our cook set is this one from Go Ourdoors (RRP £20 but much cheaper with a members card). It's the perfect size for two, packs down to nothing and is impressively non-stick. Clever fiance even managed to whip up some impressive poached eggs for us in one of the lids.

Tea is another travelling essential. Whilst the fiance is an absolute tea addict I can pretty much take or leave the humble British brew, but when you're out on the road (especially in the wilds of the British countryside when you're likely to be rather chilly) there's nothing more comforting than a cup of tea to warm your hands and your insides. Whilst heating water in a cookpot is fine for camping, in the dream camper van I'm thinking of something a bit more civilised. A proper stove top whistling kettle is just the ticket, and you can never go wrong with Le Creuset in the classic Volcanic colourway. Rrp £65 but £44.83 from amazon

A china teapot is also one of life's greatest luxuries, but for practicalities sake enamel wins when travelling as it's likely to take a few knocks and this Folklore Teapot is utterly gorgeous and only £16.95 from notonthehighstreet.com.

 Finally, a decent tea towel may seem a mundane thing to get excited over but this one by Betsy Benn also at notonthehighstreet.com is such a classic. I'm a sucker for a union jack at the best of times, and when the design is made up of quintissentially British people, places and things you can't go wrong. Even better the diagonal red cross lists the ingredients and (the website tells me reliable) recipe for Victoria Sponge! £10 may seem a lot for a tea towel, but if it makes the drying up a less onerous task then it may just be worth it.

 

 Well, that's the dream camper mostly kitted out, now all that's left to do is win the lottery, find the perfect one and set off into the sunset. Or at the very least start saving my pennies for a trip to NZ to stay in a Piwiwiwi van.

Autumn Style Guide - Teal, Burgundy & Spice

I've always maintained that I'm only ever fashionable by accident, that is to say when fashion happens to coincide with my own personal style. So it is with great joy that I'm watching the Autumn trends come out with a wash of jewel tone colours like Teal, Emerald, Burgundy and Plum. They're flattering on alost every skin tone and hair colour and it's so nice to wear richer colours as the light starts to fade from the mornings and evenings.

But the real trend to watch, and a bit of a new one on me, are spice colours. Mustard yellow, Saffron orange, Cinnamon red and Nutmeg brown are all out in force. I've been swishing around an awful lot lately in my new *coughPrimarkcough* Saffron coloured safari-style skirt and rejoicing that it doesn't completely wash out my English-rose skin and clash with my bottle-red hair but actually compliments both.

So here's a little Etsy trend watch of a few Summer to Autumn crossover pieces that I'm loving right now.



Hope you like it!

Back it up

Dress shopping. It's a minefield.

I've been browsing the inter webs for most of the day today looking for the perfect dress for a tricky wedding situation. It's a pretty posh affair in a swanky London hotel so must be relatively smart, must be figure flattering as dearest Daddy will be there and he always manages to sneak some comment in about my waistline, and must be on a budget as all my spare pennies are going towards my own wedding. The sales are all down to tiny girl sizes, (Closet at Dorothy Perkins has some stonking dresses in their sale if you're a size 14 or below) my usual resources for more affordable fashion (namely Boohoo.com) all seem to be either too casual or cut way too far above the knee and I just can't justify shelling out over £50 at Fever no matter how perfectly cut their dresses are. It's all highly frustrating!

But I have found a little something to lift my mood as I continue to search. Seller LEKGALENG on Etsy has some really novel tops and dresses that I just had to share.

Pretty standard vest top from the front...

Party in the back!

Some of the designs are a little bright for my taste, especially the ones where te vest part is coloured rather than black, but I like the boldness and simplicity of the tattoo-inspired designs

These two will cost you will cost you around £21 a piece including delivery (from Thailand)

This one is more like £25 and they do dresses too...

Perhaps slightly risque on the bum clevage front this one, but I'm totally drawn to it. If I were a touch more rock, had a spare £27, and had boobies small enough to go without a bra I would totally buy this dress.

Then I'd probably immediately wonder where on earth I'd wear it. Certainly not to a swanky London wedding. *sigh*

Post (and) Script - Mini Obsession

Mini obsessions come and go in my life. I'm a great one for finding a beautiful item, style or genre, then obsessing over it untill I own at least one item falling in to that category (usually more than one).

One of the recent obsessions that seems to be having a resurgance in my conscious today is vitage postal ephemera, possibly sparked off by the Disaster Designs Dandy items I mentioned in a previous post. Despite the fact I've never been a good letter writer myself I'm compulsively drawn to images of vintage letters, postcards, stamps and postmarks as well as old-looking cursive handwriting. There's something so intriguing about old letters, the secrets and words of love they might contain.

So I'm going to vent my obsession here today in the hopes reliving a few loves, wants and makes will stop me buying anything new! There's the most amazing host of paper items out there with vintage postal prints, from notecards to swing tags to journal covers, but I think the items that work best in this theme are the non paper ones.
Printed fabrics are constantly top of my list of wants, for use with my hatmaking. The quality of fabric and print and the depth of detail in the designs, mostly seeming to come out of Korea and Japan, at the moment is astonishing. Most of my current collection comes from Etsy sellers RetroNaNa and Minnafabric, though given some extra pennies I'd definately snap up some pieces from Renees Fabrics. I could fill a whole post with amazing fabric prints (in fact, maybe I will at some point soon) but for now here's a little treasury of scripty style prints for you crafters:



Actually, that was a really bad idea as now I've found a bunch more fabrics and sellers to keep an eye on! Here's a couple of recent Chapeau Carmine creations vibing off the postal theme

This one's called Write me a Love Letter

and I called this one Meet me in Paris. Old romantic much? This one recently sold, but I have a new one made from the same fabric to be listed soon!

Searching around the subject on Etsy today (this is how all of my obsessions gain ground in my head) I found this amazing Postcards From Europe Corset Cincher by MidnightAgenda which I'm totally in want of (she has a vintage newspaper style one which is eaqually if nore more gorgeous):

There's also about a million really adorable pieces of jewellery around this theme, mostly of the scrabble tile or silver charm kind but this one by kvossdesigns has really caught my eye:

Now, I know I'm totally Etsy-centric and find most of my pretties through there (how cute is this airmail T-shirt, £35.90 with postage from Milatree)

 But it's not only the amazing crafters on Etsy who are feeding my postal frenzy (surruptitious drinking would feel so much more stylish with the Wanderlust flask, £15.10 from the gloriously named WhimsyandInk)    

OK, OK, enough Etsy.

I found these adorable business card holders on Not on the High Street (which I may well have to investigate more. A friend gets a lot of real bargains from there). 4 designs to choose from for £8.07 each

Or you can get the matching compact mirror for £9.50

This Silver Postcard charm is gorgeous too, and personalizable (is that a word?) with your own message for £55

 And finally one for the men: The Postcard Mighty Wallet for £11.99.

There are a lot of really cute zippy purses and pouches out there (made from some of the fabrics I listed above no less) but the Mighty Wallet has Mighty in the name, so it wins automatically.

Well, whaddayaknow. I may have managed to distract myself long enough by the finding of these things that I have no more time today in which to buy them. My bank balance can sleep safe for another night. One day closer to payday...

Keep Calm and... Whatever

It's Friday, and I can't be bothered. No, more than that, I both can't be bothered and I'm really very irritated. Honestly, everything is an effort, the smallest job becomes the most onerous task and pretty much everythiong is prompts vast eye rolling and huffiness. I need a big sign to stick behind my desk, something that will inform anyone who approaches exactly the mix of lack-lustre/hair-trigger I'm feeling today so they can modulate their tone appropriately.

This poster is adorable, I love the colour and vintage typography as much as the message, £16.66 with delivery from Bear & Robot

I know the Keep Calm and... poster format has been done to death in recent months, but the above is just a little different and I appreciate the sentiment. On a day like this, I think a huge blast of fuschia may just make things a little bit better, though if that's a little too happy for your sad days, it's available in a range of other colours. Only £8.18 from tallistreasures

There's nothing like an insult couched in beautiful print to make you feel better about your bad mood. This Douglas Adams quote print by Chatty Nora is only £8 including free delivery!
But i think the winner of the prints has to be Oh, Dear Molly with the following wonderful bits of wisdom

The Lion King "Dress In Drag & Do The Hula" A3 Poster for £10.62

Tarzan "Okay It's All Fun And Games Til Someone Loses An Eye" A3 Poster also £10.62

Nintendo Mario Kart "Choose Your Weapon" A3 Poster for $14.40

There's a rumour going round the office about free ice cream. I must go and investigate immediately!

Summer Style Guide - Mauve & Tan

I bought myself some amazing pale tan wide leg trousers from the Zara sale the other week. I didn't hold out much hope, as Zara is classically cut for women with no hips and ridiculously long legs but these just so happened to fit like a dream when they arrived. I think it's the wide leg cut, which my not-quite-svelte bottom fills out a touch more than it would on those elegant European types they have modelling on the site... But no matter, fit they do and they're incredably flattering and comfortable, the brushed cotton feels almost like silk, and people keep asking me if I've lost weight when I wear them. Lovely people...

I'm not 100% sure these are the same ones I bought, but they're very similar sohere's a pic for you anyway

And if you happen to be a size XS then they're now down to only £12.99

So now I have an absolute obsession with tan paired with pale, summers colours and light, floaty fabrics. I've been teaming these trousers with my *coughPrimarkcough* mauve chiffon ruffled sleeveless shirt and a taupe cropped cardigan, and killer pair of slingbacks also from the Zara sale.

So with a view to more such summery outfits I put together a little summer style guide treasury on Etsy.


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Hope you like it. I wish I hadn't chosen quite so many higher budget pieces though. Now I want them all!

Feel Better

It strikes me that hangovers just aren't getting any easier as I get older. Gone are the days when I could pickle myself on sugary spirit and mixers (remember Taboo?) and still bounce out of bed the next morning. These new hangovers also seem to be dividing themselves into more distinct categories, you'd expect different levels of consumption to affect the evilness and logevity of a hangover, even the kind of alcohol consumed, but at the moment even the day of the week on which the hangover falls seems to have a marked effect on how godawful I feel.

The worst of these new kind of hangovers? The All-Day-Friday-As-A-Result-Of-Thursday-Wine-Consumption hangover. Weeknight drinking always seems ever so ritzy and blase at the time, but hangovers on a Friday are dreadful, and wine is the most dreadful of them all. You're up early when you really need to lie in, you're at a desk and concentrating when your brain is made of mush and you're restricted to an hours lunch break when all you want to do is stuff your face with stodge continuously untill the about-to-explode feeling overtakes the about-to-keel-over feeling and the shakes begin to subside. The Inycon Selezione Sangiovese Shiraz of last night was very lovely (and half price in Sainsburys at the moment from £9.99 down to £4.99) but was it really worth all this?

So today's lunch break blog is dedicated to all those things that would really make me feel better right about now, and perhaps if I concentrate hard enough I can absorb some of their healing powers through my monitor, like comfort osmosis.

Food:
Luckily I have half of yesterday's 3 meat pie with stuffing crust to chow down on, a very sucessful experiment made by a good friend of mine. Pastry is the king of all hangover foods, closely followed by anything that goes straight from your freeser to your oven, is brown in colour and usually either battered of breadcrumbed. Today is not the day to have food guilt.
But whilst the pull of cheap and nasty carbs is strong, a real treat can also lift the flagging spirits so my real food craving today is Rococo Chocolates Artisan Chocolate Bars. My wonderful sister buys me a couple each year for my Birthday and they're always a joy to be savoured. This years offerings were White chocolate with Cardamon, Milk with Sea Salt and Dark with Chrystaline Ginger. Each one scrummily rich and melty with a hint of something different. Totally worth the slightly treaty price of £4.25 per 70g bar. My all time favourite is their Rose Otto milk chocolate. How could such a pretty pink bar of gorgeous fail to make you feel better?

Film:
I want to be on my sofa, under a blanket, escaping from the thrumming in my head and into some other, better, prettier world where hangovers haven't been invented. Musicals are perfect feel-better-fodder but equally I'm dying to rewatch my box set of Amelie and A Very Long Engagement. I bet Audrey Tatou never gets hangovers!

Fashion:
It being dress-down Friday I totally could have erred on the side of comfort and worn my jeans and trainers, but my vanity got in the way as well as a desire to overcompensate for how bad I feel on the inside with how fab I look on the outside. It was good in theory, but now my feet hurt in knee high green boots and I'm constantly tweaking at the troublesome muffin top area where my skinny jeans are falling down and my vest is riding up and I've totally abandoned the gorgeous bottle green sweater with drapey shoulders because I'm roasting hot! All I really want is some comfy cosy loungewear and maybe a big white bed to sprawl on

Face:
On bad face mornings I'm usually tempted to go one of two ways: Have a misguided "more is more" moment and throw the lot on in an attempt to mask the problem, or give it all up as a bad job and wear no (well, barely any) makeup with the argument that I might as well look as dodgy as I feel. Today though I saved myself from either course and instead fell back on those few reliable products that really do help. Decently defined eyebrows (I've been using the same Body Shop eyebrow palette for yonks), a nice rosy blush to put a bit of colour back in (Mac's are fabulously sheer and worth the few pennies more than high street brands), concealer for the undereyes (the link is the classic Touche Eclat, find it cheaper on Ebay, but honestly Aldi's concealer pen is nearly as good for only £3.59) and, saviour of all saviours, Palladio Rice Powder which is brightening and anti-shine without being heavy or drying.

You know, it might be the litre and a half of water I've already poured into myself, but I really am starting to feel better. It might be worth some hair of the dog tonight just so I can indulge myself in all of the above tomorrow. Saturday hangovers are so much more obliging!

Blazer Love

Canary yellow blazer, you are the perfect colour and even though I may not be as slim as this pretty lady, I'm betting you will flatter my curves very nicely indeed. Canary yellow blazer, come payday you will be mine!

What's in a Bag?

An awful lot if you're me! Try as I might I can't seem to cut down on the baggage I carry around with me on a daily basis (I'm talking literally not emotionally here by the way). I think it's the fact that I'm an acumulator. The lipstick I wore yesterday for example, won't be removed from my bag in favour of the gloss of today, I'll keep them both in. That piece of paperwork/shopping list/receipt won't be cleared out once used, it will langour at the bottom of the bag until constantly having my keys thrown on top of it will render it to dust. There's whole strata of unused items in the bottom of my bag that have lain undisturbed for weeks if not months until that "I'm sure I have a safety pin in here somewhere" moment stirrs everything up into a slurry of chaos.

The upshot of this is that handbags only seem to last me a year or so, and need to be rather large. I'm also of the opinion that handbags and jackets are two of the most important pieces of your wardrobe in terms of personal expression and therefore buying them is a minefield of self-analysis. What me do I want to project through my choice of bag? All this makes handbag shopping a bit of a stressful and introspective experience.

So it is with great sadness that I prepare to retire my gorgeous and perfect Disaster Designs Dandy Handbag. Last year's birthday present from lovely fiance, this bag has served me well with exactly the right balance of pretty and practical: whimsical yet capacious, ever so very me and goes with almost every outfit. I even have the wallet from the same range and make up bag from the Paper Plane range.

Sigh, I'll be sad to see it go but as with all not quite leather items the seams are going and it's become tired looking. And though Disaster Designs have a number of other utterly gorgeous ranges, none of the handbags are quite right. These ones are GORGEOUS but for me...:

 Too Big

Too Small

Too... Brown

This is the closest bet but something tells me I just wouldn't feel like polkadots every day.

So I turned to that British bastion of cheap yet surprisingly tasteful accessories New Look, and there really is quite a range. Should I stick to vintage florals or have I been there done that? Multi-tonal neutrals are bang on trend but I'm a colourful person so I want a colourful handbag. Colour block structurals are fun and surprisingly forgiving, though I do despair that so many shops have taken on the padlock theme *cough-designer-rip-off-cough*.

Then I found this:

In the sale of all places! It's a great colour, has shoulder friendly handles and a removable cross body strap (because you can't carry something the weight of one on my handbags on the crook of your arm!) and a plethora of pockets, enough for even me to keep vaguely organised. Think of it, a whole pocket specifically for lipsticks and balms. Luxury! I was sold!

But then I popped into a New Look to have a closer inspection, and was completely put off by the proportions. What should be a generous, slochy, statement of a bag is actually mean and boxy-looking. Such a shame! So it's back to browsing and hope my current carry-all doesn't completely unravel before I've found a suitable replacement.

What's in a bag? Everything!