Postcards From London

Black and white 3d cartoon window at Selfridges, polka dots have been used to great effect methinks! Loving the beatle esqe hair.

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Postcards From London

I fell in love with this frothy colour explosion of mangled wool at Anthropologies Regent street store in London stealthy creeping up their wall! Random, joyful and organic accents peppered the four corners of Anthropologies lifestyle store with stylish abandon! More on this style story from my recent visit to London to follow soon.

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The Alternative Guide To Valentines Day



Vanilla Hearts



Valentine's day is here again and whether you fond of this tradition, find it annoying or look forward to it with anticipation we all seem to have an opinion on it. I'm not single currently but when I was, I still wanted to mark Valentine's day, because to be honest I'm a huge romantic and I think it is important to care for ourselves as much as we care for others. I find it thrilling getting flowers and hearts and chocolates and all the stuff the films say make up romance.  I don't know why I'm a big romantic, I wasn't force fed a diet of sugar plums and fairy tales where prince charming always was charming honestly!  If anything the opposite, I think the reason I love valentines day is more about what it stands for in its very broadest sense, love, sharing moments with significant others, passion for life and at times the element of surprise and oh yes I love the colour red which is an added bonus for me, but I would rather receive yellow roses than red and I have always cherished the tradition of giving and receiving cards.

I believe we should tell the friends and family who are important to us how we feel about them not wait for the right moment, however I understand that some people feel they need a  reason to be able to do that, Valentines can be that.So I have come up with a little list of alternative ways to celebrate valentines for any of you lovely gals out there that want to enjoy it either with friends or alone. we all need to take opportunities to douse ourselves in a little love every now and again or show our friends how much we love them too.

Secret Santa Plays Cupid-  If you took part in a secret santa at work last Christmas another season or red! This is a similar idea but played with your gal pals instead of work mates, (I'm loving these stylish bot slippers that are sweet without being too sickly from Etsy ) agree a budget between you to buy each other a beautiful, fun or sweet gift to give to each other, if you can get it gift wrapped beautifully and then meet for lunch and gift giving!

Homemade champagne truffles are so decadent and can be packaged prettily, organise a truffle making session at one of your gal pals houses with a big enough kitchen, charge enough to cover ingredients, the beauty of this is buying champagne to go in truffles goes a lot further then drinking it!! Tip- edible gold glitter is great for sprinkling on top of each truffle, here's the best ever recipe for those champagne truffles.

Supply some pretty pink and red boxes and ribbons so you can decorate a box to give to each other full of truffles, that's if you manage to get them home without scoffing them!  Do full on glamour with a group of friends, pool your most dazzling outfits clothes and makeup and invite gal pals that are good at photography to take pictures to frame later to mark your day.

 Mark the day by doing sweet things for yourself, swap the basic buttons on your red cardigan for some hearts shapes, order your favourite flowers to be sent to your home, M&S are great value in the UK, dress head to foot in shades of red, watch old romantic movies or funny new ones , find your perfect red lipstick, book yourself in for a pamper session. 

Emily Blunt

photo credits Etsy  & Folksy

Happy Valentines Day however you choose to spend it! xx

Silken Favours | Animal Fantasy Collection Launches S/S Feb 2012

Five Minutes With Natures Own Poster Girl Victoria Murdoch

Having been pointed in the direction of dreamy new scarf label Silken Favours and its designer Vicki Murdoch I have been bursting at the seams with jumping jelly beans of excitement to share the labels new spring 2012 Animal Fantasy collection. You will understand shortly why that sentence flowed unprompted from my keyboard and out of my head. You see Silken Favours are not the type of scarves you tie on your handbag, rather like tying your pooche to a lamp post, while you go of and buy some cheese. These are the delicately captured blooms of a true daydreamer penned by an artist with great skill and a sense of humour that have a way of transporting you back to a time when the only thing that was important was revelling in your imagination. 

I was thrilled to discover that Vicki's whimsical scarves produced in the UK, are accompanied by poems that tell tales of far flung fantastical adventures penned by Gail Murdoch, Vickies mum, hence my excited ramblings above. Before I share my interview with Vicki and a sneak preview from Silken Favours Spring 2012 collection, here's a scarf from Vicki Murdochs current collection together with its poem.

BUTTERFLIES AND BEASTICLES

HOW CAN SOMETHING CATERPILLARY

METAMORPHOSE TO FRITILLARY?

IT'S JUST NOT BELIEVABLE THAT IT'S ACHIEVABLE THAT SOMETHING SO HAIRY TURNS INTO A FAIRY AND GLADDENS OUR HEARTS AS IT FLUTTERS AND DARTS LIKE THE ANGEL'S SHARE THAT JOINS THE AIR IN THE DISTILLERY

by Gail Murdoch

   

 Here's the preview of Vicki Murdochs spring 2012 collection which will see the launch of six of her exciting designs and can be found exclusively at Liberty at the end of February 2012, minus their poems as I don't want to completely spoil the surprise for you! 



Trippy Kitty






Flights Of The Imagination

 

Hope you had fun getting to know Vicki and her label Silken Favours, sign up to My Passport To Style by email top right of this blog to meet more new exciting accessory and fashion labels!

Me-Vicki, the images you create for your silk scarves are steeped in fantasy, do your designs relate to your childhood?Vicki I was a daydreamer when I was wee and still like to dabble , my designs are playful and I hope they make those that wear them think back to their childhood and their dreams.

Me-How did you come up with the label Silken Favours?Vicki-It started a year ago when I designed a surprise bespoke scarf as a gift for my parents. It had all the birds that came into their garden up in Scotland on it. They loved the design so much, it inspired me to create a collection with much loved British animals on them.

Me-Where did you gather inspiration for your spring 2012 collection?VickiI love day dreaming, and what's better to dream about than kittens riding unicorns in a tie-dye sky? The rest of the collection stemmed from that dream.

Me-How do choose your colour palette for each season?Vicki- tie dye dreams are mainly made up of pastel colours, so my choice was made for me.

Me-How important are the latest trends in fashion to your designs? Vicki- It is important to some extent, but I like to design prints that can be treasured forever not just for a season. Something that reminds one of their childhood or has a much loved creature on it.

Me-Your designs can be bought at Liberty, what advice would you offer to new designers wanting to get their fashion/accessory label out there?Vicki- You have to be passionate about your work and believe in it, This can be hard if there is no one else telling you it's great!  I would also say when going to show buyers you should have your product finished to a very high standard along with lookbook and packaging so they can imagine it going straight to the shop floor.

Me-What three words best describe you as a person? Vicki- imaginative, goofy, fun.

Me-I love the evocative poems that accompany your silken scarves in your press release, I believe your mum came up with the words, which are in my opinion a perfect fit for your flamboyant and charming pieces, do you plan to collaborate creatively with your mum on any other projects in the future?Vicki-  Yes she has a wonderful way with words. I have already made her my in-house Silken Favours poet, each scarf is accompanied by a wee poem written by her. The pressure is on Mum!

'Real Women'

For those of you who have not yet heard of All Walks, it is a foundation supported by the model Erin O'connor and others  to push the boundaries of diversity in the fashion industry. A recent tweet on twitter from a fashion blogger stated "I hate the term real women" and whilst I understand where this blogger was coming from i.e, the use of a term like this supposes that some women are real and some are not, the term which I admit to using myself (in the context of my about me page on My Passport To Style) has come into use simply because many women out there feel pressured to live up to stereotypical images of beauty in magazines and films so it has now become necessary to make it clear to women that struggle with these sometimes unrealistic versions of what equals great style that there is a place for them also to own their own sense of style that fits with their personal body image.

 I am at a place in my life where I can  appreciate the fantasy and the glamour of fashion related images and what they stand for in their own right, that is advertising for fashion brands and beauty products, without feeling the sense of pressure that many young women and older women and women of colour and larger women feel from seeing heavily air brushed models. Part of my process has been working with body image issues as a personal stylist and as a mentor to young teen girls around body image, which has given me insight into the kind of issues women of all back grounds face on a daily basis. In my work as a stylist I encourage women to have fun with fashion and have their own sense of personal style and to be aware of what lies beneath glossy fashion images is often a performance, hair, makeup a great model and airbrushing!

 I  think the debate as to whether or not fashion industry should represent more diversity is very much like the whole debate of changing the fast food culture in that we are led to believe as women we have freedom of choice to buy all those big macs and gain a ton of weight or not.  We do have a choice,  but choices are influenced by the culture we are surrounded by, I believe that once a particular culture saturates the landscape we live in, to a point that there are no comparisons, then it no longer becomes a choice but a vacuum of pressure to conform to stereotypes. The great thing about All Walks is ultimately if the message gets through to the fashion industry, it will impact positively on consumers and employees of the fashion industry too. So as a Woman who loves the expression and creativity that great fashion allows and is of dual heritage and a very healthy size 14 I applaud All Walks in its pioneering efforts towards a diverse fashion industry. 

What do you think do we need to represent women of all shapes and sizes and skin tones in a more realistic way? Find out more at http://www.allwalks.org/

photo credits Rankin at All Walks

Why Taking Risks Is Good For Your Blog

When we first begin blogging we are open to taking risks as everything is still new and let's face it, starting up a blog is a personal risk. As we develop our hard won following we worry about how taking risks might mean we lose some of our following or alienate potential sponsors, blog posting routines can lighten our load but we can forget that readers actually enjoy reading our blogs because of variety and personality.
 

 What Happens If We Avoid Ever Taking Risks With Our Blog?

 
The short and sweet answer is - in my personal opinion playing it safe can lead to boring content, lack of motivation and maybe the dreaded bloggers block.
 
 

 

How To Stop Playing Safe With Your Blog

 
 When you're in a one man band, with no one else to bounce ideas around, you need to create a stimulating environment for yourself and the best way to do that, in my experience, is to step out of your blogs comfort zone once a week till you feel more at ease with taking what seems like a risk . If this seems a tall order at first, make a list of all the thing you want to try and have been teetering on the brink of but never yet done, score your ideas from what feels like the lowest risk for you to the highest risk, out of 5, starting with the lowest risk factor and building up and try taking one risk every couple of weeks.
 
It helps me to look at it from an acting perspective, if you think of yourself like a well known soap actress, who has got in a rut with her role, your agent suggests breaking out and playing a small part in an indie film with a relatively unknown director. Whilst acting in your new role, you overcome your fear of change, learn new techniques , feel more empowered, develop a new fan base, attract new directors to the character you play in the film and on top of that you come back to the soap and act your pop socks off and get a pay rise!
 

Manage Risks Still Give Us A Sense Of Control

 

 I admit, the larger the following the more difficult taking risks may potentially be, particularly if your very dependent on the revenue that your blog brings in, however managed risks are fine - why not include your readers in your new direction or thoughts behind a new project or post and ask them for their feedback on your new addition to your posts. It could be a good opportunity to ask readers to score your post topics including your latest inspiration for a different style of post. In my opinion even taking a risk with one post or one area of my blog, that perhaps does not do as well as I had hoped, is still worth it, as from that one change in direction I make I might then generate ten new angles for writing interesting posts that get a good response or start thinking more creatively. Bottom line if you get bored with your blog posts, your readers probably will and if you hit a wall well enough said!
 
 

 

 Try Something New, Loosen Up, Leap before you look! -

 
 Don't think too much about what you're about to do, the greater the risk your about to take with your blog, the more likely you are to talk yourself out of taking the risk and then you end up right back where your started!Why not write a review for a brand, enter a blogging competition, create a new character for your blog, collaborate on a photo shoot, experiment with your blog voice, be more humorous, irreverent, warm etc or join a writing workshop or group and experiment on the group first, before you take your new writing style to your blog. Most importantly don't compare your risk taking efforts to other fashion boggers, they are relative to only one person, you! I believe we can develop our blogging style alongside our regular readers.
 

The Risks/Adventures I'm Taking This Year!

 

My own blog My Passport To Style, is in a process of major risk taking, next stop, change of blog platform eek! Blog overhaul to make My Passport To Style more hospitable for guest posters and just generally more user friendly, a photography course and planning a blog meet in the North UK!

A Right Royal Handbag Giveaway| And The Winner Is...

A big congratulations to Laura Buckley of Preston in the UK who won the Right Royal Handbag giveaway here on My Passport To Style fashion blog. 

5 Tips For Taking Great Fashion shots | Guest Post - Katie Soze



credits wedding B



If your a fashion blogger or just get a thrill from photographing people but have made the kind of mistakes, like this big head shot that leave you frustrated and nashing your teeth or sobbing all over your lense this post is for you. I recently bumped into talented photographer and illustrater Katie Soze who is guest posting today and offering her top tips from behind the camera on how to to strike the right pose to create a flattering photo.



Here's Katie modelling a great look!





'I have a good relationship with my mirror and like to take the odd self snap now and again.'




'There are some key things to remember when taking a picture of yourself, these are some bad habits I see a lot that you can avoid';

1. Camera lenses can distort a picture. To avoid this stand a good distance away from your camera - use a tripod (or a friend) if possible.


2. Don't clench your Jaw. When you take your picture, make sure your mouth is relaxed and slightly parted. It softens your face a lot and makes you look more relaxed.


3. It's tempting to tilt your head back when you're having your picture taken and give it a big grin, grinning is cool but try and keep your chin down (it won't give you a double chin- and it's immediately more flattering).


4. Make sure the lighting is great to show your clothes at their best. Artificial light can look yellow on camera and if you don't get enough light it will make the colours in the picture look dull. The best thing to do is photograph your clothes near a window or outside to get sunlight. Using on camera flash can sometimes be unflattering, so where possible - use natural light.


5. First and foremost a simple way to flatter your outfit is to tuck your hips and belly in, push your boobs out and stand with one hand on your hip - it accentuates your waist to hip ratio. Standing slightly side on, instead of straight ahead can make you look more slender.


Good luck and remember to relax, there is no need to be critical of yourself - other people won't be looking at the spot on your chin or your messy hair, they'll be too busy being blown away by your new style!




credits- Man Repeller



Look at the pose far right of Man Repeller, it's the most pleasing to the eye and possibly the least Man Repellant of the 3 and yep she's got her chin slightly down as Katie advises and her hip pushed out, she has been clever to not make her pose look too contrived, but notice she has her elbow bent at the hip as she shows of her ring, bingo she's emphasising her waist and conjuring curves out of thin air!

Here are my favourite fashion shots by Katie to view more of her work please visit her website at http://www.katiesoze.com/ 

Is Our Wardrobe Just An Extension Of Our Home?



2) Princess and The Pea /minimalist style



Fashion week looming does strange things to a bloggers brain, this post is a case in point, it got me thinking for some bizarre reason about how often times our personal sense of style is an extension of our home, or for some of us living communally our bedrooms.

So I thought I would have a little fun and come up with 3 types of home owner/room dweller and their parallel style personality.


1) Ok so if your fill your home with the following items, mismatched furniture and china, you like the retro feel of a colourful knitted tea cosy on your teapot, cushions that you have made sit pertly in rows on your sofa and your bed, you can't throw anything away unless it has been subjected to a rigorous series of questions regarding its usefulness in your home. Then you are quite possibly someone who owns a pair of clogs, likes to layer, layer and the layer some more for good measure, nylon stretch tops leave you cold you would much prefer a scratchy wool kilt and a woven silk vest, basically you live for texture, so your sense of fashion is reflected in your homely cluttered style. It's either eco friendly or vintage for you all the way, as these are the options that give your home and your closet the texture hit you hanker after. You're a Material girl!

1) Material Girl/layering is your thing 

2) If on the other hand your home is furnished with chrome and granite and you favour sliding doors and blinds. You dislike plants or pets in your home and you have a cupboard to house your keys, well my guess is, sorry to be predictable! Your wardrobe is very stripped back too. You favour classic cuts over fast moving trends, a large flat clutch over a handbag, lace, frills, pattern and frou, frou bring you out in spots. Tailored pants, a bun with a side part and a good watches are your best friends. Function and form are the buzz words for your cool uncluttered style, but luxury fabrics and materials matter to you to. I'm calling you The princess and the pea, as if you know the fairy tale, the princess can feel the little tiny pea beneath a huge pile of mattresses, the pea is a metaphor for you having a high intolerance to anything surplus to your own personal style. the great thing about your kind of style is your minimalist for a good reason to show off your ability to pick out the perfect detail to make that look shine.



3) Showgirl /Accesorise To The Max



3) Moving onto home loving number 3, you love your white walls, they make a great back drop for colourful works of art and photography you like to showcase on all your walls. You don't do kitchen cupboards, a big Danish dresser and sideboard is more to your liking, where you can display all your best china. You are an expert in choosing striking picture frames and mirrors. Your curtains are either brightly patterned or a hothouse of coloured silks and you like a little bit of sparkle so a chandelier might feature in your loo! All this adds up to a Showgirl, you are all about accessorise, if you can snare it, you will wear it, is your motto. Your style is larger than life think Dita Von Teese and Betty Boop.

Have you worked out which one is you,? Me to! If you would like to have access to more silly style advice and some very useful style advice hopefully! Then sign up to My Passport To Style  fashion posts by email  top right of this blog now!


Photo credits- thehollywoodstory.com, glamcheck.com and fashioninyear.com 

 

Karl Largefeld | Shares His Bleu Sky Thinking At Paris S/S 12

I have a confession to make, I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to colour, perhaps my image above will give you a clue to my type 1 colour personality, for as long as I can remember I have had a fetish for blues of all hues and its never really diminished. I have sadly noted that the colour blue has never really been taken seriously in high fashion circles and in main stream fashion in the UK, it's been type cast as a neutral for office wear in effect a uniform. Luckily for me, my type 2 colour personality demands I wear a clashing candy store of bright colours, whew, at least I won't be cast out completely by the fashionable set just yet! 

Is It A Plane? No It's a Runway!

So I don't mind telling you that Karl Largefeld recent triumph at Paris fashion week, left me feeling that my fondness of blue was quite correct and highly fashionable! Seriously though, this man is like the ring master in a big top, each show has to be bigger and better each time, lucky us! To hold a runway show in an aeroplane, was in my opinion the perfect setting to showcase his stunning blue and purple collection; against the backdrop of the silver of the plane, the purple strip of carpet that became the runway for his models and the uniform clean lines we have come to associate with Chanel.

 Karl Largefeld Shares His Bleu Bliss With His Passengers

 Heavy bead work and scuptural detailing on the sleeves, became seamles caplets and the rouleau necklines combined with his treatment of blue on pieces from his collection created a sense of functional feminine whimsy, hot summer days beckoned. In other words serious chic! What are your thoughts on the subject of blue and Karl Largerfelds latest collection for Chanel? I would love to know!

photo credits -Fashion Gone Rogue, Real Style Network and Harper's Bazaar

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