a bit of writing and a bit of shopping…

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This week I’ve been extremely busy organising things for our university website, Silhouette. Take a look now for your dose  of fashion, beauty, health and fitness…

I’m writing various different articles for the site so am wanting some interviews to go with them. So, I’ve been contacting people trying to organise these interviews; which is more trouble than it seems as people tend to not respond or take a very long time too. I’ve also been out vox popping people about topics, which is also difficult as it’s very hard to find people willing to talk into a Marantz (a voice recording machine).

But, I did manage to do a spot of shopping too, which had to be done really. After all of that I just wanted to get home, sit down and have a cup of tea. Sound like an old woman!

I was really impressed with Primark. There was so much that I wanted to buy. I do find that with Primark; sometimes I don’t like anything, and other times I want absolutely everything. It’s a bit hit and miss for me. Course you can always rely on Primani for jewellery, underwear and shoes….all accessories really.

This is what I bought….

At £8 I could hardly go wrong with this pleated colour block skirt. Although I did get it home, try it on and it was minuscule on me, even though it was my normal size. Strange! I couldn’t even get it over my knees. So, I am traipsing back to Primark to get a bigger size. Think it will look nice as a high waisted skirt, plus it’s a bit different so wanted to give it a try.

 

This horse patterned  dress was only £5. I couldn’t believe it. It will make a nice summer dress, or to wear casually with some tights and a waist belt, or even on a night out with some heels. Three outfits in one!

This cute little floral heart shaped necklace was only £1.50 and these three rings were just £2.50. I didn’t really like the cream one as it looks a bit tacky with a diamante in the center of it, but that one broke anyway when I got it home, so it didn’t really matter.

Overall I was very pleased with my 4 purchases, only coming to a grand total of £17. I can’t justify spending that on one item,…but 4 items I can!

 

I had my first physio appointment this morning…..and I can drive again. wooohooo. I am so happy. I miss my little car. I have some exercises to do 20 times a day and probably won’t ever be able to straighten my arm again, but least it’s not vital in life!

I also went to buy 2 more Soap and Glory things today, I am slightly addicted. After getting absolutely loads for Christmas, I could open up my own shop.

and that’s not it all…

I’ve got this back at my uni house, plus some more things which I’ve got 2 of.

Think I’ve got enough to last me at least a year!

Look out for interviews on http://misssilhouette.wordpress.com/ with BBC’s ‘The Clothes Show’ presenter, Caryn Franklin, Plus size model, Katie Green and CH4’s Beauty and the Beast psychiatrist, Dr Laxmi Kathuria! Coming Soon…

London Fashion Week…Part 2

Obviously I wasn’t going to leave my recent post about LFW on it’s own. So, here’s my second installment of the shows I particularly liked.

Bora Aksu

Turkish-born Bora Aksu went for old movie posters and book covers of Jekyll and Hyde and Sweeny Todd for inspiration. He combined traditional men’s tailoring with a hint of his creative style with different textures, fabrics and embellishment. I love the dark grays and blacks he used which he brightened up with an occasional splash of green.

Sitting in the front row was Twiggy, Marina Diamandis from Marina and the Diamonds, Nicola from Girls Aloud and Paul Weller’s son.

 

Julien Macdonald

A glamorous, gothic, rock and roll inspired collection walked the runway as courteous of the welsh designer, Julien Macdonald. There was dark, moody make up, a backdrop of a former church in Mayfair and heavy metal music to entertain his guests. He also provided them with chocolates and cocktails as they sat back to enjoy the show.

He was always bound to add a touch of elegance and he did just that. With silk, embroidered mini dresses, silk shorts with knits, bomber jackets with the odd touch of fur, but the most eye catching was his gorgeous floor length gowns. They added a vintage feel to the collection made from silk with lace and pleated chiffon panels. Most of them were black but the odd few were dusty pink and lilac which were beautiful.

 

The LOOK Show

Obviously LFW is full of elaborate, expensive designs from the top designers, so it’s always good when you get a bit of high street fashion. The Look Show celebrated its third season at London Fashion Week this year, bringing S/S 11 high street style to the runway.

The hottest celebs sat in the front row…..Olivia Palermo, Jaime Winston, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Marina Diamandis to name a few, watching Petra Nemcova up the runway.

Here’s some of the celebs I thought looked great…

Keisha Buchanan (ex Sugarbabe) looked gorgeous in this chiffon coral shirt along with coral flower print shorts and coral heels. I’m loving this summer pastel colour at the moment!

Olivia Palermo stood out in this mustard silk dress with leopard print shoes.

Sophie Ellis Bexter wearing a gorgeous pattered dress with a cream cardigan, looking casual but in season.

Marina Diamandis in an outfit I wouldn’t wear myself, but she pulled it off. It was an oversized knit with little mice attached to the shoulders. Wacky. She also had a hot pink dress underneath.

And finally, my favourite outfit so far worn by TV presenter, Caroline Flack. A navy blue dress with cream embroidery around the rim and sleeves with some black suede heels.

Here’s a slideshow of some of the best looks from the best highstreet stores… (Hover over the image to see which store the outfit is from)

London Fashion Week…Part 1

It’s a key event in every fashionistas calender, so I was bound to blog about it. It’s just a big shame I couldn’t go to it, but there’s always the next one, and the one after that.

I have been catching up with all the catwalk videos on-line to get my fashion week fix, so here’s my little summary and thoughts about the event…

To officially open the event for Autumn/Winter 2011, Sam Cam, the PM’s wife and ambassador for the British Fashion Council was all dressed in black (at least it was all British). Wearing a Mulberry dress, a jacket by Sykes and some heels by LK Bennett, she declared London Fashion Week open at Somerset House. I personally think she looks like she’s going to a funeral myself and she could have added a slight hint of colour to her outfit. Don’t get me wrong I like Sam Cam but as far as this outfit goes, she could have made herself a bit brighter.

But she did do a great speech, making everybody proud to be British….

“I’m passionate about fashion, I love it, but it’s not just about how it makes people feel about themselves, it’s because of what it can do for our country.”

“We’ve got the talent and the expertise to take UK fashion even further.”

And of course LFW attracted the celebs too…

The T4 presenter, Jameela Jamil looked pretty in pink at the Betty Jackson show.

The Brit award winner, Jessie J was in the front row at Vivienne Westwood’s ‘Get a Life’ palladium.

Of course Alexa Chung had to be there, nominated British style icon…she was at the Love, Liberty & Alexander Wang party and Christopher Kane. (I love the gorgeous dress she’s wearing)

 

A show I particularly loved was Topshop Unique. Sat in the front row were the likes of Alexa Chung, Nick Grimshaw, Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud, Pixie Geldoff and Anna Wintour.

A 101 Dalmatian theme took to the catwalk. Fur, bags, shoes and dresses…monochrome and dalmatian print adorned everything. The models even had tiny black noses and their hair tied up each side like dog ears. I loved it.

Here’s some pics from the Cruella De Vil themed show…

Another show I particularly liked was Vivienne Westwood’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’ themed show. She is the Queen of the weird, wacky and wonderful….and that’s exactly what she gave us.

From messed up, over the top make up to perfectly done faces she wowed everyone with her eccentricity. There were over sized crown shaped hats, lots of stripes, lots of colour, animal print, tartan…the list goes on. When she does something, she most definitely does it well.

 

The cutest little thing…

After a busy weekend at home, I was kind of glad to get back to university for some chilled out time. Should be the other way round, I know.

My friend Lisa from home got a new puppy last week for her birthday and I went back home to meet him (and see my friends).  He is soooo cute, I just had to put a picture of him on here. He’s called Bailey, he’s only 8 weeks old and he has already learned ‘sit’ and ‘paw’ in a week.

As soon as I walked through the door he ran up to me, laid down and went straight to sleep.

the cutest little face.

But, after spending some much loved time with him at the weekend, I am now back at university to get my thinking head on.

and today certainly has been a real ‘thinking’ day. In our university seminar this morning our tutor brought in a 21 year old, 3rd year student studying PR to talk to us about publicizing our university blogs.

Turns out she had an inspirational life story to tell us! She has had such a difficult life, but is now doing extremely well as a high grade student and working for a PR company.

Her name is Hayley Toothill so follow her on Twitter…. here

and take a look at her blog….here

Not only did Hayley have an amazing story to tell about her life but she also taught us a lot about blogging and how to invite more readers to our sites. She even mentioned our university blog site in her own blog, which was great. 🙂

 

Silhouette…a new image

We have changed the image to our university blog site, so have a look and let us know what you think… We listened to your comments and have tried to make it look fresh and modern.

http://misssilhouette.wordpress.com/

All your feedback is appreciated!

She is totally Gaga…

The Grammys 2011 brought together another set of the world’s talented music stars for the 53rd time on Sunday night and guess who arrived in style… Lady Gaga…..in an egg.

Yup, that’s right, the 24 year-old singer was carried on the red carpet by four men as she ‘incubated’ herself in a gigantic egg.

Whatever possessed her to do this, I’ll never know, but she definitely got  the attention she wanted.

She later went on to perform her new single ‘Born this Way’ (which I love) and hatched out of the egg. She apparently spent three hours in it ‘getting into character’ for her performance. Luckily it was fitted with an oxygen tank and a fan! Oh, and she had her Blackberry to keep her occupied.

“It was time for me to really prepare and think about the meaning of the song and get prepared for the performance. I really wanted to be born on stage,” she added. “The creative vessel was helpful for me to stay focused. We had it backstage so that I was able to really stay in this sort of creative, embryonic incubation.”

She will never fail to amaze me….I thought the meat dress was enough when she turned up to last years MTV awards, but nope she’s done it again and she will continue to do so. Can’t wait to see what she comes out in next.

You just gotta love the Brits…

As most of you will know, Tuesday 15th February held an event all of us Brits are proud of…..The Brit Awards. The event attracts big stars, big performances and some big style and it’s a definite ‘must’ watch for me. James Corden did a great job of presenting the show too. He is such a love-able character he was bound to do us all proud. The performances of the night for me were by my two girl crushes….Adele and Rihanna.

Adele looked gorgeous in this black dress and VERY expensive earrings. Her make up and hair were done beautifully, as usual along with her absolutely beautiful performance of ‘Someone Like You’ which she sang along with a piano. Brought a tear to my eye.

 

Rihanna arrived on the red carpet in a colourful Christian Dior Couture prom dress worth £10, 000. She looked glamorous as ever in this dress, but this one wasn’t enough for her. She changed 3 more times that night.

She wowed everybody with her performance medley of ‘Any Girl in the World’, ‘What’s my name’ and ‘S & M’. I think many girls admitted her as being their girl crush last night, including Cheryl Cole. Well, we’re only human.

Speaking of the ‘nation’s sweetheart’, our Cheryl looked radiant and sparkling in a backless Stella McCartney dress with a McQueen clutch.

Another one of my fave celebs is Fearne Cotton and she impressed me at the Brits (more so than she did at the NMA’s) in an almost see-through studded Alice Temperley dress. Loving her hot red buckled heels too.

I absolutely love Ellie Goulding and am loving her hair with a pink tint to it. She looked lovely in the Vivienne Westwood frock and the sparkling shoes. I was gutted she didn’t win any awards, especially as I voted for her to win Best Breakthrough act. But ah well, I was happy Tinie won it.

Tinie was the best dressed male for me last night. He looked cute in his little white jacket suit with a bow tie and his geek chic glasses. He did amazing last night winning Best single and Best Breakthrough act. Gutted they didn’t show his performance of Wonderman with Ellie Goulding though. Although,you can see it on-line so click here if you want to see it.

One outfit I wasn’t overly impressed with was Eliza Doo-little’s. She is a quirky girl, so you kind of expect a quirky dress sense, but I really don’t like the feathers attached to the back of her dress or the blue wedges.

Trend No. 4 for S/S 11

The 70s style is back and I’m loving it. You can’t beat the ultimate 70s hot pants or the legendary disco flares. 2011 is welcoming it all back but obviously with a modern twist. You can go for 70s glamour or a 70s boho look….whichever you choose it’s definitely the way forward.

Picture taken from Vogue

 

And here’s some of my own 70s fever inspired clothing…

 

Chunky Weave Jumper at £24.99 from New Look

70s Kaftan Playsuit at £35 from ASOS

Camel Pleat Front Shorts at £34 from Topshop

Zig-Zag Knit Pencil Skirt at £42 from American Apparel

White Lace Leaf Embellished Swing Top at £36 from Topshop

Honor 70’s style Kick Flare Cord Trousers at £22 from Boohoo

Miu Miu Oversize 70s Opaque Frame Sunglasses at £115 from ASOS

Paprika Fluted Sleeve Dress at £28 from Rare

Shorts by Miss Selfridge
Platforms by Dorothy Perkins

 

70s Bowler Bag at £35 from ASOS

70s High Waisted Shorts at £35 from Miss Selfridge

Multi Floral 70s Bikini Top at £12 from Dorothy Perkins

Jersey Pocket Skirt at £24 from American Apparel

Tan 70s Cork Platform Shoes at £42 from Dorothy Perkins

Burnout Heart Tie Top at £12.99 from New Look

Oversized 70s Sunglasses at £12 from ASOS

Paprika 70s style Fluted Sleeve Dress at £28 from ASOS

 

If you like any of the items above, just click on the picture to take a closer look.

 

Junk Jewels…

This gorgeous little company was created by a young woman called Zoe Jones, an independent London based jewelery designer. Her and her team have been creating beautiful vintage jewelery since 2007 and it has now grown so big it appears in fashion magazines.

Not only is it unique, but it’s affordable and fashionable too.

Visit them at Portobello Market or Notting Hill if you pop down to London…if not you can have a look and buy on-line for just £1 postage and packaging. You can also choose whether you want a long or short chain.

Click here to take you to the website.

Here’s a few of my favourite pieces …

This cute ‘I love you’ letter/envelope necklace is on a long gold chain for £12. You can also buy it for £10 on a short chain.

 

This gold fan and peach rose necklace on a gold chain is £8 n a short chain and £10 on a long chain.

I really love this necklace. It’s a little bottle with a cork lid with a red rose inside. You can buy it on a short silver chain for £10 or a long one for £12. Bargain!

This gold swallow bracelet is just £6 and you can buy it for a smaller or wider wrist. You can also buy a necklace to match.

This pink enamel heart bracelet is also £6 and available in blue and red too, with necklaces to match.

 

Maybe the £1 delivery charge is a bad thing as I just want to order all of these right now but sadly I just can’t afford it.

a bit of good news…

This week I also found out the mark I got for my Applied Project, (the equivalent to a dissertation) which I spent the whole of last semester working on.

My project was on fashion journalism and I absolutely loved doing it.

As part of my project I created a weekly blog: shufashion.wordpress.com

Please have a look if you want to find out about the work I did on my project or if you’re interested in some more general fashion blogging.

Anyway, the grade I got for my fashion project was a……

which I’m extremely happy about.

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for me in the fashion journalism world.