More Fashion Week Highlights

During Fashion Week I was lucky enough to help out the lovely Kim Howells covering the shows for her blog while she was behind the scenes styling them. I got to see some truly incredible ones, and basically had the time of my life despite being flat out busy the entire time. As I had two pretty major projects for uni to work on simultaneously, it was an intense 10 days or so during which I went to shows every day, wrote up blogs, spent hours editing and uploading photos, wrote my dissertation research proposal and organised and styled my own photo shoot (the results of which I'm looking forward to putting up soon). I've blogged in more detail about the individual shows on Kim's blog,  so here's a few of my favourite shots.

Getting dressed at Phoebe English After the show at Phoebe English   Cute pops of bubblegum pink at Phoebe English Louise Gray Grungy at Marques Almeida - glad backpacks aren't going away anytime soon... Front row at Michael Van Der Ham

Acne AW12 at London Fashion Week

London Fashion Week was a pretty crazy time for me, which I will talk about more in another post coming soon, and I've only just recovered from the madness enough to bring myself to write about it again. In between my main duties covering shows for the lovely stylist Kim Howells (more on that later), I suddenly, thanks to my good friend Francesca Mullin, found myself with the dream ticket - an invite to the Acne A/W12 show at the old sorting office on New Oxford street. I saw pretty much every single fashion journalist and blogger whose faces I would recognise, and I'm not going to lie, it was a stylish affair. After the show had finished, suddenly waiters appeared with drinks and food and the whole place, including backstage area, turned into a massive party. 

 I'm not going to write a review of the show - there's already way too much coverage of shows out there - but one thing that always strikes me about Acne is how they know exactly what I'm going to want to wear way before I know it. I loved loved loved the flashes of neon and the shiny coats and jackets, and that green coat pictured below is also on my wishlist. I won't say anything else, but perhaps this year is the one to start saving up for A/w now, and one of those babies will be mine come September.

Piers Atkinson A/W12.

A picture of me backstage at Piers Atkinson's new A/W12 lookbook shoot. Yeah, this is a sneak peak at one of the new pieces! So much fun and SO MANY good hats! Not sure why it looks like I have bleached my eyebrows/shaved them off as I most certainly have not done this.

Be still my beating heart...

Just a quick one - the Weekday SS12 lookbook has been revealed, and although I'm sure this will have gone viral on the Scandi blogs within about 2 hours, I had to show it because I love nearly every single piece in it. The colours and shapes perfectly match what I want to be wearing this spring, and I'm even feeling the baseball caps, which shows how easily my mind can be changed about things. The concession in Selfridges is, as far as I know, due soon, but when, WHEN?

Here's a selection of my favourite looks. I am of course using the word 'selection' loosely, as it's pretty much the whole collection.

Too much dark.

I've decided that I wear too much black. I practically live in my high waisted, black, skinny jeans which I always seem to wear with a pair of black leather shoes or boots (if it's black, leather, within my price range and goes on your feet then I am pretty much guaranteed to have it). Then I usually throw on a plain t-shirt and a dark jumper followed by a dark coat. Pretty uninspiring for the warmer weather (if we ever get any); so, even though right now it is -1 outside and I am sitting on the sofa with a blanket round my knees and tonsillitis in my throat I am planning to take drastic action with regards to my S/S wardrobe. What could be further from my plain black obsession than a Hawaiian shirt?! I've found an amazing brand called Karmakula (also just started selling on ASOS) which has every colour/print of Hawaiian shirt available to buy and for the very reasonable price of £26.95 too.

As this is my first foray into Hawaiian shirts I thought it would be advisable to attempt one with a slightly more muted colour scheme so narrowed down the choices to these three...



But then I realised that if I was planning on wearing a Hawaiian shirt, then this wasn't the time to be shy and that actually I preferred the brighter ones. So I ended up ordering the blue one on the left. I'll post a picture as soon as it arrives.

London College of Fashion MA showcase

Last week I got to attend the London College of Fashion MA showcase. I've written a longer piece on it that will go up on another site soon (special secret project that I'll be doing bits and pieces for) but in the meantime, here are a few things that I got excited about:

Embossed latex - unfortunately I can't remember who by...
AMAZING pieces from Ana Rajcevic. This was pretty weird - it's basically a garment bag but with, added erm, anatomy? MA Fashion Artefact Ruth Holland, MA Fashion Artefact Recognise this model?

The perfect camera bag

From Urban Outfitters. Been looking for one like this for ages.

Winter Whites

I can't ever think of wearing white before Christmas; possibly because all the feasting and making merry render such a pale colour wildly impractical. Come January however, and there's something so appealing about chillier hues, despite the lingering cold and dark evenings. They feel generally detoxy, virtuous and, to utilise some over-used fashion-speak, 'fresh'.

After getting my nails done (for the first time ever) last week I soon realised that the black with gold glitter I had chosen for them was hopelessly 'Xmas 2k11', and was seized by an urge to strip the colour off and replace it with a more serene shade (I went with a pale blue). Ever since I've been searching hungrily for garments in the white/cream/very pale blue spectrum, in particular a white mid-length (I'm also tired of the word 'midi') skirt, which Topshop have managed to successfully nail, combining calming pale blue with a thick fabric that lends a bit of structure. COS have also always been good at minimalist whites, and while there's not much to choose from at the moment, no doubt once the sales are finally over there'll be a fine selection to choose from.


Meanwhile, a couple of editorials kind of capture the vibe I'm thinking of at the moment - both of these 'white' stories have a chilliness added to them by the black and white (Vogue Germany) and the low wintry sun of the second (Fashion Gone Rogue). For now I'll have to be content with my own array of whites - a crisp white shirt and fisherman style knit. k

Shirt - The White Company

Clutch - H&M

Knit - AA

Nail Polish - Barry M

Sunglasses - Retrosuperfuture 

Eye glasses.

A few years ago, when I got the frames I currently wear, I was pretty daring and chose a big, thick rimmed, black pair. My Mum hated them, I hated them for a while, then I grew to love them. I am getting a little bored of them now though and need a change. I was thinking of trying to channel a slightly subtler "library look" this time round a bit like these sexy ladies.




I discovered an amazing company called Massada who do some really interesting shapes and colours. These are my main contenders...



But wouldn't these be FUN?



What with taking a risk last time round and it eventually paying off, I may just try out a pair of owl frames.

Spots and dots.

I know that dalmatian print has been a big hit this winter, but I just can't get excited about it. There are some really nice items out there and I think it looks good, but I'm at a bit of a loss with what to do with it. Maybe it's because the pattern is just a little bit to irregular for me. I don't wear much pattern, and when I do I tend to stick with pretty bold, evenly spaced things. I love a dot. But regular polka dots are too tiny and fussy for me. I like a big, bold spot (but please, not on my face). There's something so satisfying about big, regular patterns.

I love this asos skirt and I wish more than anything that they would do a pair of trousers in the same material and pattern; I think I would faint with joy if they did a jacket and trouser combo! These Topshop trousers come close enough and I am seriously considering getting these asos shorts for summer even though they are for men. I have been using these tights to jazz up black silk dresses over the Christmas/New Year period. These socks are next on my list. Cool pop socks- who would've thought it?!



This image looks so horrible- I really do apologise. I guess all those different spots should never have featured on the same page next to one another. Trousers Topshop, socks, shorts and tights all Asos.



Ps. Us on New Year's eve dancing to Le Tigre trying to copy all the dance moves off a tiny laptop screen. Me in said spotty tights! Just turn the sound right down because we are drunk and we shout the words and just sound awful in general.