Tartan

 

 

 

 I'm not sure if it's because I'm half Scottish that I get so sentimental about tartan, but I like that this fabric always manages to be edgy but reassuring homespun at the same time, and as long as you have plenty of black in your wardrobe, you can never go wrong with tartan pants or a skirt.

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 *

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.        

  

Shade Attack | Tame Those Shades

 

 

 



runway-behavior.tumblr.com

 

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.

Antidote To Bloggers Block - Refinery29

 

The jig is up I have been suffering from the dreaded bloggers block, but holy Krispy Kreme doughnuts Refinery29 has bust me out of the block and all it took was tangling with some of their souped up accessories and in particular a bright purple scuba shoulder bag, although I would probably go for apricot, the apricot tone works so well in this dusky squishy funky fabric. It's very satisfying when one happy story leads to another and as I skipped merrily down the path to the perfect underwater handbag, I ran into the label & Other Stories, it's rare I find a handbag shop where I could quite happily stage a love in with every handbag on offer, so thanks Refinery29 I owe you!

Wardrobe Mistress For Game Of Thrones?

 

 

 

Ever since I wangled my way out of being in the school play by offering to help put together the costumes for it, among my ideas using shower caps turned inside out for the women munitions workers caps in a shell factory. I have had fun with the idea of wearing things that remind me of iconic films and television dramas. Game Of Thrones is the perfect time and place to dwell if you love the fantasy of beautiful costumes and every time I come across a piece that I can imagine being on the set I get a tingle of excitement. Recently I came across an email from new accessory company Charm Nest I was smitten when I discovered the tiny prices and exotic fantasy led pieces that would make nice additions to the Game Of Thrones accessory wardrobe.   

 

 

 

 

Swatch UK Mothers Day Special

Image copyright Swatch

 

Today’s post is an ode to three of my greatest passions, watches, Russia and beautiful packaging, the clever designers at Swatch have launched a set of five Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls for Mothers day 2013. In a high shine finish using an extravagant palette of colors and best of all, three of the five dolls have a matching floral Swatch strapped to their bellies, are you smitten yet? I like that each of the three watches could potentially reflect a new season; green would work for spring, blue for summer and the red for autumn. Given that these dolls traditionally represent mother daughter and grandmother though, it seems only proper that if you were to buy this as a gift for your mum that you and gran get a slice of the pie too!      

Outfit Post - Statement Greens

Olive shirt

Statement knit

I'm really enjoying all the shades of olive green around at the moment so I was pretty chuffed when I bagged two green trends with out even trying at my local charity shop last weekend. The first is this beautiful pure wool olive green italian shirt, I love the fact it is somewhere between a trench coat and a big shirt and does up just at the collar which creates a dramatic neckline. I've gone a little rock chic wearing it with a pair of M&S leopard jeans I dyed green, black patent Kirk Geiger cone heels, a utility belt, big Topshop earrings and stacked up some Jon Richard sparkly crystal bracelets in red, black and purple that I was kindly gifted.

My Passport To Style | Owly Times

Owl Ring Vivienne Westwood 

Owl print top -Lagom

owl brooch Avalaya

I have been musing lately on the trend for owls and our obsession with them, first it was cats, then pandas and now owls. I get that we are a nation of animal lovers, but I feel our love of woodland creatures like the fox, has for most of us urban dwellers anyway, been nurtured more by visiting previous beautiful glossy Mulberry campaigns rather than perhaps bumping into these creatures on woodland walks with a crisp bite to the air and a bright blue sky overhead. Can you tell, I'm longing to escape the clutches of our very British soggy summer and return to our crisp autumn days again?

 Seeing as I like most of us have been suffering from the rather embarrassing symptoms of Harry Potter withdrawal since the last film was shown and all things magical came to an abrupt end, could this be a clue to owl mania?The  images of Harry Potter and Hedwig and the owlery was enough to have me planning a trip to mystical Moncaster castle in the hopes that I might be able to befriend an owl that looked vaguely like Hedwig! 

Then there is also the fact that baby owls look well, pretty cute with there huge round eyes and fluffy heads, anything with big eyes pandas our own species even and we're sold. So we have the mystical, the cute but the third point has to be my favourite and really fits with this A/W 2012 leaning towards gothic and punk. Owls are actually pretty fierce looking birds an aspect that silk scarf extraordinaire and Grazia award winner Ali Mapletoft of Age Of Reason (whose signature is a punk edge to her work) has illustrated to perfection in my opinion, she has created a very real looking owl, not a smudge of cuteness in sight and applied of the moment detailing such as the studs on the owls shoulder to create a sense of regal military fierceness which I adore. In fact I'm jumping on the Owl bandwagon right now! I am off to create a diy owl head band! Have you fallen under the spell of Owls yet and are you in camp cute or camp fierce?    

The Tale Of DIY Christmas Fashion Makeovers Using The Humble Zipper !

 I got very excited when I stumbled across unique blog outsapop.com which was showcasing these fabulous zipper cuffs!! Heres why, I love the way the humble gold zipper stacked in this way creates such a high glamour feel, I could wear a stack of these with a flapper girl dress for this party season, to complete the opulent off the wall glamour of the roaring 20's.

However I thought to myself why not buy a whole set and use them as contempory napkin rings for your Christmas table, then I thought, hang on after using to add contempory zing to red, white or purple napkins (this adorable napkin set is from dawnmcvey.typepad.com) Why not wear them over the ankles of a black harem style trouser suit, to add a little quirk of style to your New Years Eve party look? Wear these versatile zipper cuffs,  with plain linen or silk stiletos to trick the eye into thinking your wearing designer style shoes with a sophisticated fastening!

 What do you think gals, are these ideas a little too eccentric for a Christmas Style fest?? Or do you have some better uses for them? I would love to know x 

                             

Missoni A Ray Of Sunshine

A while ago I blogged about my extreme brolly fetish, but I have to say even I am weary of having far too many opportunities to show off my brolly collection. I have almost given up all hope of ever seeing the sun again. So until my holiday (I promised I wouldn't ever say the F word again,  I know how tedious it can get when bloggers keep mentioning their intended holiday destination) I decided to go on a little virtual handbag shop to brighten up my day. Methinks with all the money saved on not buying a full summer wardrobe, splurging on one of these Missoni beauties might not feel that bad.

 My favourite designs are the bag with the zig zag pattern that looks like it was done with a wax crayon really quickly, what I have now lovingly dubbed the pineapple design, in yellow and the shoe lace small evening bag, which reminds me of those sewing cards you could get as a child with punched out holes that you threaded a long colourful lace through to create a shape. How about you, are you a Missoni fan? Do brightly coloured bags work to change your mood on a miserable day?  

My Passport To Style | New Meaning For The Term Bromance

Umbrella Stuffed With Flowers

  

Mary Poppins Not Mary Portas Is Responsible For A Nation Of Brolly Lovers

I have always loved brollies, umbrellas and since I live in a pretty wet country it's perhaps just as well. My bromance (the word I have adopted to mean brolly love) with brollies started when I first watched Mary Poppins and it has stuck through thick and thin, like the time I made the mistake of going telescopic and buying a cheap mini brolly, that blew inside out after one use while the rain blatted down on me and the broken spokes from my sad little umbrella rattled across my skin, one by one as I simultaneously spat clumps of wet hair out from my mouth in a gollum like fashion and my waterproof mascara did a runner down my cheeks. I was not a pretty sight and vowed to get myself a brolly with a proper handle.

Why Your Brolly Can Be Your New BF

My latest umbrella is vintage, maroon with a Japanese print running along the edge in black and gold trim around the top of the curved wooden handle. Midsized it shields me perfectly and looks pretty stylish with my navy mac, shrimp pink jeans and gold pumps; the frustrated actress in me likes the bonus of an accessory that can take you from demure, peeping from behind your brolly as you twirl the handle, to spy in one swift move, as you use your brolly like a magic illusion, jamming it down over your eyes like the extra large brim of a hat, so others can't see you, but you can still see them perfectly, when invisibilty is required. If you can, I advise getting a large brolly with a strap that you sling across your shoulder, it will become your new bf I promise. If your looking for inspiration I have quite a collection on pinterest take your pick!  

You can sign up to more of my fashion capers via email top right of My Passport To Style

Smudgy Lady Twirls pretty Pink Umbrella

Stealing A Kiss By The Light Of The Moon

        

Havaianas Celebrate Fifty Flipping Brilliant Years On June 15th !

 

Did you know that June 15th is National Flip- Flop Day? Me neither till just recently! This slightly off the wall calendar date made me smile, how many shoes are named after the sound they make?!! Flip- flop royalty Havaianas is launching a limited edition pair of flip-flop on the 15th of June to celebrate its 50th aniversary, 100% of net sales will be going to the charity UNICEF in Brazil, the birth place of the rubber soled beauty.

Limited Edition Havaianas to celebrate their 50th Birthday

 It's hard to believe that such a simply designed shoe has been seen at New York fashion week and is wearing one of its most exciting designs to date, a Missoni print, from  Missonis mini collection made from colourful rubber remnants.  I would love to get my feet on a pair pronto! The next best thing is watching the clip at the bottom of this post, featuring a fun mash up of colour Havaiana style!  I'm loving the Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band vibe. Check out some of the striking advertising campaigns from their archives.