#Destination Denim

So today I want to talk plain old denim minus any fancy pants prints, you probably already know that I’m slightly denim phobic, seeing as I’m on a good day I’ll just say I have a curvaceous Beyonce type lower half and I have struggled in the past to find jeans that I can honestly say work better than a pair of trousers or a dress, my wardrobe/floor, cough, is over flowing with my alternatives simple jumpsuits, track pants, pj and Capri trousers.

My Passport To Style | Why I Don't Do Denim



Believe it or not saying you don't do jeans is a taboo subject in Britain it's like saying you don't put salt and vinegar on your chips. How do I know this because I am one of a growing minority or women that realise that as much as they love denim jeans, they don't do much for their hourglass figure, the sometimes thick stiff fabric bunches up in the wrong places. I think perhaps Europeans have a slightly different attitude they don't feel that their sense of style and youth are so deeply imbedded in the denim culture, they enjoy tailored clothing. British women wear more denim than any other country and whilst I have no wish to outlaw denim in the UK, it has become a bit of a uniform, to the point that if I wear a simple A-line dress, my friends think  I have dressed up! Hooray for camel flares and A-line pinafore dresses! 

Why I Like Being Fashionably Late

 

 

 

 

I have been sucked into a bit of a non fashion vortex recently, which is not really the type of thing you admit to if you’re a Fashion blogger, but as my official title is Fashion and Lifestyle blogger, I think I can allow myself the occasional slip up. So how did I find my way out of it? Simple really, a chance encounter with a lilac leather slipper with an elegant studded toe after a bit of a lame search for some sensible, go with everything type of flats on eBay. My heart started to beat a little faster and my palms got slightly sweaty when a pair of lovely lilac leather slippers by a designer I had never heard of, Olivia Rubin ( I did say vortex!) popped up, one click later, they were sold to the lady in the fluffy dressing gown and Harry Potter mug, it was Sunday!

 

 I hear that apart from many other colours pale pink is big this winter 2013. Last winter I bought an A-line skirt in sugar almond pink, but struggled to find some shoes that worked with it, I personally like to toughen up pastel shades with navy, black and slate grey but nothing seemed to quite work, until I found the perfect compromise in these pretty flats the black toe caps have been generously sprinkled with tiny gold baubles and a few larger gold studs for good measure.

 

 

 Metallic toe caps seem to be popping up a lot lately and these feel luxe but still casual enough to wear with my pink skirt during the day, even better, through my chance shopping encounter on eBay I discovered the rest of Olivia Rubin’s collection of wacky and fun S/S13 architectural prints in the Asos sales. I guess being the last to know about a designer label does have its perks! I heart the dress with the eye wateringly pretty pansy design, Olivia Rubin’s big gutsy pastel leopard print with a sporty zipper and her purple slightly slouchy long sleeved brick T, the last time I felt this pleased to discover a new designer range was after discovering Henry Holland’s granny inspired winter prints and Tatty Devine’s fish bone necklace.         

 

 

 *images courtesy of asos *

What Things I Bought In Venice

 

 

 

Before I went on my recent trip to Venice, I read post after slightly bitter post about how impossible it is to find a bargain souvenir or gift in Venice, so I was determined to use my stealth and blogger cunning to help me seek some out and I think I succeeded. I came home with an elegant bottle of Limoni di Sicilia, which is basically a really nice lemon licqueur similar to Limoncello, that can be used to make cocktails or to pour over ice-cream and yes I know its typical to Italy not Venice, but as pretty much over half the things we buy in the UK are made in China, I'm happy to not be too picky and think out of the box a little.

 

 

The local Venetian Co-op may not be oozing style, but it's a good place to find some well priced goodies that the locals consume. Using my highly tuned blogger stealth I bypassed the bland looking cereals section, dodged some very dangerous shopping trolley manoeuvres and landed slap bang in the middle of the drinks section right next to glowing yellow bottles of Limoni di Sicilia priced at just 8, score!

 

 

 I pounced on a few boxes of the local hot chocolate, which I have tasted before, it's like drinking a thick chocolate soup and at a couple of euro's a box it was a no brainer, but my ultimate super ninja gift seeking stroke, was spotting some beautiful triple distilled genuine Venetian rose water in apothecary style, deep blue bottles, made from plastic they were nice and light for packing in my suitcase and at just 3.50 euros a bottle I greedily took the last 4 of the shelf, rose water makes a lovely natural toner and is great to soothe any sunburn too.

 

 

 

Next I picked up a  black lace fan for 7 euros to help me waft myself elegantly, if your going to buy one, get one from Torcello, a serene little island which is supposedly where Venice first began and worth visiting, then it was off to my favourite place the glass blowing island of Murano, after swooning over a zillion glass chandeliers I finally treated myself to a beautiful soft aqua rose shaped glass ring, with silver leaf inside, it cost me 14 euros, but I would happily have paid much more for it.

 

 

 

 Back in Venice and down town, towards Cannaregio I found a glass seconds shop if you know Italy or Venice you will know that Murano glass is very expensive as well as stunning, for about another 12 euros I picked up a small red glass love bird and a handbag holder inlaid with a pretty glass mosaic tree, in the same area I forced myself into a t-shirt shop expecting very expensive and tacky and was chuffed to discover some cool contemporary interpretations of the symbol of Venice the lion and some kitsch Venetian t-shirt designs for about 12 euros each.

 

Don't forget to pack your hotel toiletries, after lovingly capturing them on film, mine are still at our hotel! We also accidentally left with one souvenir to many our very heavy brass hotel key fob. The MR was not super happy to cover the £8.00 p&p for 2nd class return postage! Do you have a favourite thing you picked up on your travels? I had fun taking photographs of my Venetian haul after my stealth shopping trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evocha Make Buying Luxury British Fashion Easy

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was recently sent a cashmere scarf to review from newly launched online company Evocha, so this is probably going to be the quickest review ever featured here. It’s black so goes with every conceivable outfit I own, check, it’s very soft and breathable so won’t irritate my sensitive skin, check, it barely creases so no iron necessary, check! It was made in Britain, check, shall I rewind just in case you fell into a puddle while reading that on your iphone and walking down the street, yep it's actually made in Britain I was impressed too.

This little black number comes in two other very wearable shades a soft blush tone and a deep red and the goats that went into it, well their silky soft hairs to be exact, come from Scotland where the cashmere scarf was made, absolutely no animals or people were harmed along the way I promise.

Evocha are part of a brave new movement to encourage us to buy British, major on style, help support industry and create more jobs in the UK and the best bit is they are cutting out the middle man and hand picking timeless luxury pieces that can be bought at much lower prices than you would expect. Don’t expect a heaving online boutique overflowing with the latest trends; in fact they currently offer just two classic pieces for men and women. I like this daring new minimalistic approach, it makes shopping for forever pieces feel easy, very couture and guilt free.

 Evocha is all about luxury classics that you can really make your own such as a simple but beautifully cut black dress or white shirt. Oh one more thing for all those without a pet, Evocha cashmere scarves were made to be stroked, mines called Lossie. You can find them here and if you use the code MY - PASSPORT-TO - STYLE before October 1st you can get a 20% discount.           

 



 

 

 

To Venice With Love

 I'm back from my short (five day's) but very sweet trip to Venice, it's my second visit to the city of luurve and being a non car driver, it's actually nice not to feel in the minority for once, as all of life pretty much happens on the water. Being a bit of dreamy person its very easy for me to get lost in the pages of Venice's fairy tale setting, twinkling blue water, bobbing boats and many palaces. If you read my previous post here, you might know I was fortunate enough to book a stay in a small but perfectly formed boutique hotel that is actually an old palace, the Palazzetto Pisani.

It was an amazing experience, I'm a bit geeky when it comes to loving opulent historical buildings and there have been more than a few moments in my life when I have wondered what it must be like to sleep in a four poster bed or to strum the harp in the music room of some VIPs stately home and now I found I really had chance to eat, sleep, bathe and dress in the rooms previously lived in by the seventeenth century 'royalty' of Venice. If I'm honest  I was a little dubious if the hotel would live up to what I had read on the website, happily for us it did.

Destination Handbags

 

 

 

Since planning to go to Venice this August, I have had a few marketing emails that relate to Venice catch my interest, one of them was from a company called Cutey, sadly my wardrobe lacks anything pink, fluffy or Cute, although I do love me a bit of cartoon kitsch I can be a bit of Tom boy and as sad as it sounds I feel a bit lost without a pair of my ankle boots on. Despite the lack of sweet outfits I seem to gravitate towards hearts and now have a variety of them punctuating my walls at home.

 Cutey have just launched a leather handbag collection, each bag is named after a city from around the globe and they all come with mark of a Cutey bag, a smooth shiny heart shaped lock in silver or gold, another nice thing is the design of their handbags, simple clean designs that are easy to wear and the colour palette includes both neutrals and more sunny tones like the red which is a tomato shade and a yellow that reminds of home made lemon curd.

 

 

 I have been on the look out for a good black handbag for ages and oddly enough I like style of Cuteys small black shoulder bag the Venice, which has a wrist strap also, which I would probably use more. I like to walk and swing my handbag's brief case styley rather than wear them hooked over my arm or on my shoulder.

 So the question is which destination handbag would be next on my list, not sure if this is all becoming about the power of suggestion, since New York is the next city I hope to visit but I do really like the lines of the New York bag which has a sweeping v shaped design that I can imagine Joan from Mad Men reaching in to, to pull out her favourite red lipstick for a quick touch up.

 Oh I nearly forgot to mention that 10% of Cutey profits in their first year will go to Breast Cancer Research, if you want to take a look at their newly launched collection you can find it here.        

  

Step Into A Blue Suede Shoe

Fair Trade dress - Topshop

 

 

Thanks to the birth of the royal baby boy, the colour navy blue is back on our fashion radar for A/W 13, as you know I have a bit of thing for wearing this colour a lick of it changes me from care free to blue blooded siren in minutes and works to whiten up my eye balls and perk up my skin if I OD on pizza the night before or miss out on a few hours sleep and although blue is soon to be in again, as a classic it’s never really out, like some hybrid colours I could mention, like Tango orange, I’m just saying.

 My favourite look I have spotted for winter is wearing a dark slick of petrol tones, using a combo of shiny textures in dark green, navy and black worn with a crisp white shirt. Right now I’m on the lookout for a navy pair of silk shorts and matching PJ top and a blue print Kimono to wear as a dress so if you spot either of these on your travels I would love to know, are you a navy addict like me or is the only blue worth having your denim collection?     

 



Shade Attack | Tame Those Shades

 

 

 



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www.sierrachantal.com

 

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  I never thought I would complain about a lack of rain, but man it's hot!! I'm hooked up to a permanent drip of ice cold ginger beer, the backs of my legs are sweating so much that I keep getting suctioned to my chair. My mantle piece is littered with sunglasses of various shades and prints rather than my usual nick nac's which have now been tossed into the nearest draw, they look like shiny over sized exotic beetles some on their backs with their legs splayed out helplessly in all directions, not neatly put away in leather cases like they should be, cleverly resisting scratches and smudges.
 
 Oh well, I do have some thoughts on how to generate that mysterious, expensive aloof style that happens when you bring together the right sunglasses with the right look even if I am pretty careless with my own. Believe it or not, I think even expensive shades/sunglasses can look cheap and usually this happens when you choose a pair that totally over powers your look a bit like a bling ring. Even if you couldn't give flying frog about co-ordination think back to classic looks they become classic for a reason, they work with you. I've fallen happily in love with the classics over at shadestation.co.uk . 
 By now you probably know which shades work for your face shape, I wrote a guide here if not, the most important thing to remember when choosing and wearing sunglasses is the context needs to be right too, take the first image I chose, the models high blonde hair and bleached out features are the perfect back drop for these winged encrusted beauties she's wearing, because if she was minus these shades we all know that she would be wearing huge faux eyelashes to amp up her eyes.

Bling Slippers And Venetion Palaces

 

 

 

 

So I have snuck back onto your screen, hoping you have not noticed that I vanished for a short time, I'm in the middle of some life changing stuff and it's been hard juggling everything so I decided to just focus on a couple of things, rather than do lots badly. I'm planning a trip to Venice on the 10th of August for five days with A, we have decided to be a bit posh and spend more on a shorter holiday, so we are staying at Palazzetto Pisani Boutique Resort an old small palace, there are quite a few palaces that have been converted to hotels in Venice. The hotel has a water door into the building which means if we want to arrive at our hotel entrance via the canal we can, I love the idea of stepping onto a boat and gliding up to the hotel door. 

 

 

 

 The first time I went to Venice was as part of our Honeymoon and even though we only stayed for three days, It really felt like more than just romantic, I liked the mix of tranquil canals and the bustle and mystery of Venice. I wore my bargain pair of silk ivory wedding slippers I picked up to go with my wedding dress, heavily embellished with beads and sequins.

 

 In Venice the concept of being over dressed doesn't really exist so me and my bling slippers blended right in and when a super stylish local Venetian women told me she loved my slippers and then wanted to know where I bought them, it made my day. I've changed my attitude to shorter holidays since my first trip to Venice, I decided I hate the whole packed itinerary of must see tourist destinations. So although I still make sure I know where the good stuff is now, I prefer to let the place I'm visiting reveal its secrets to me and then just wander aimlessly through the city streets, up and down alleys, pressing my nose against shop windows until something catches my eye.
 

 

 

 

One thing I'm not leaving to chance is where to eat, lots of visitors to Venice complain about the cost and bland nature of food, I had a laugh when when I came across a blogger that had dedicated a whole blog to her experience of breakfast in Venice, to help others avoid dodgy brioche and watery coffee, but thanks to her I can save myself hours hunting down a good coffee shop.
 

 

 I have done a little bit of research into favourite restaurant's and cafes where the locals go to eat and have discovered where you can get the best meatballs, pizza gelato (ice- cream) and Jewish pastries shaped like horns filled with a creamy almond paste. Are you off on a adventure this summer?     

 

 

 * Images courtesy of Palazzetto Pisani Boutique Resort *