2008

So this is a more personal post. 2008 has so far been one of my favourite years (that I remember) and here are the many reasons why:

• I went to New York for the first time, with my boyfriend, and loved it!
• I also went to Paris for the first time (and shall be returning for a longer visit next year)
• I finally passed my driving test (4th time lucky)
• and got my first car! Polly the Punto :)
• I turned 18, and had an amazing joint party with my boy
• I got onto my Fashion Journalism course after many years of dreaming about it
• I moved out of Lincolnshire and into the best student flat in Epsom
• I made some amazing new friends
• I went to London Fashion Week for the first time and got into two shows, plus sighted a lot of influential people
• I celebrated a year long anniversary with my boy, (a year and 6months on boxing day :D)
• I left my crappy job as a waitress after working there for a year and a half! FREEDOM!
  
  

So that's all that I can think of off the top of my head! But here's to living life to the full and trying to top this year, every year.

Merrrrry Christmasss!

Hopefully I will get another post up between now and New Year's. If not, Happy New Year too!

A Few Beauty Essentials...

As opposed to doing another christmas wish list themed blog (way too many gift guides floating about now, and who is really still buying all their presents?) I thought I would share a few things that are, in my opinion, some essentials that you may want to treat yourself to.

A Mason Pearson boar bristle brush, (that's a lot of B's). This extra large brush is £75.25 on HQ Hair, but if that price is a bit steep for your budget then you can do as I did and buy the child sized brush for £29, which is still actually a decent size. These brushes are great for distributing the oils in your hair, and the natural bristles are much better for your hair than plastic.

Kerastase already has a fab reputation, but if you can only afford one thing from their hair care range be sure to invest in a deep conditioning hair mask. They have products to suit many a hair problem, and your hair will definitely thank you for it. This Nutritive Masquintense Fins is designed for very fine/dry hair and is £20.40, also from HQ Hair.

Just as I was about to give up on ever finding a concealer to lift my confidence and hide my incredibly dark circles, I decided to give trusty Benefit a go and spent £13 more than I already was on their Boi-ing concealer. Described as industrial strength, I can see how. Its thick creamy formula is a must, especially after sleepless nights. It's worth the £15.50 price tag (http://www.benefitcosmetics.co.uk/).

A good body brush is for life, not just for the summer. Combine this with a good body scrub and get your circulation going, keeping away those nasty lumps and bumps on your thighs and giving you super smooth skin all over. This nifty brush is only £4.31 from Boots.

I'm personally not one for painting my fingernails. It usually chips within two days and I'm too lazy to keep re-doing them, so I just keep them neat and short with a nice coating of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength. It's a base coat, top coat, gloss and strengthener in one. I also use it as a base coat for my toe nails, which are actually never, ever seen without colour. It lasts me forever, I usually get a new bottle every christmas. You can purchase it from Boots for £7.78.

There are many things I'm yet to discover - such as the miracle body lotion or the super exfoliator - but I still have a lot of time to stumble upon these. I have learnt the wonder of taking a good A-Z supplement, and Sea Kelp tablets are great if you want to speed up your hair growth (don't expect miracles though, you still need patience). In the mean time however, if someone would like to donate £200 to me for a permanent blow dry at Daniel Hersheson's then please don't hesitate!

Thank you for reading x

Fringe Benefits

I accidentally had a full fringe last summer (2007). Yes, accidentally. A side fringe cut disasterously short. But once I got used to it and shaped it a little I kinda liked it. I did grow it out however, but have been longing to have it done again properly ever since. And over the next couple of weeks I will be doing so! I have gathered a few images that have inspired me to just go for it. Despite the fact that I'm supposed to be giving up on the GHD's to save my poor hair. I suppose I could just straighten my fringe...

I do currently have dark brown hair like Camila Belle's, but would really like to eventually have it dyed a la Rachel Bilson. But only when my hair has grown longggg. It's damaged enough as it is from all the heat I apply to it...

Calling all Louboutin lovers!

Vogue.co.uk has wonderful news, for those that have the pennies anyway...

"Louboutin's Birthday Surprise
It doesn't come much more extravagant than receiving a pair of designer shoes on your birthday but for one lucky lady, it's about to become a whole lot more extravagant. To celebrate her 50th birthday next year, Christian Louboutin is designing a pair of pumps in the legendary Barbie Pantone 219 Pink. The shoes will make their debut at the special runway show (read about it here) planned during New York Fashion Week in February. "Barbie needs to wear great shoes because every girl needs to wear great shoes," Louboutin tells WWD. "I guess I always had a little 'girlie side' who liked Barbie."
- Jessica Bumpus"

Ahhh perfect - a pair of Loubou's to go with the doll-tastic Luella outfits!

Spot the Trend...

Since my post on Spring/Summer fashion, I've been thinking a lot about the pink Zac Posen outfit - one of my favourites. Today I have spent a lot of time collecting pictures from Style.com and noticed that this kind of ensemble was everywhere! It seems the crop-top is well and truly back. But don't fear ladies; The way to wear it is with high waisted shorts or a skirt, which not only makes the look a lot less trashy than the 90's version of the trend, but means you can conceal that winter belly, making the look a lot more accesible. No need for Britney style ab-crunches then.

Here are some of the oufits I found today...

Roberto Cavalli, Dolce and Gabbana & Zac Posen

Images: Style.com

Hmm..

So Coco Rocha now has red hair... I'm not so keen myself to be honest. Maybe it will grow on me. We all fancy a bit of change every now and then I guess...

Follow the link to her blog in the Inspirational list to see what she has to say about it.

Lusting After...

This DVF outfit from Fall '08

:)

Also just checked the LFW site and February's schedule is finally up! Eee excitement! Sucks that the schedules taken a shrinking though.

Also, if anyone fancies taking me to Paris Fashion Week then that's FINE by me...

Some warm thoughts..

Despite the fact that it is NEVER warm in Britain over the summer - unless I'm out of the country - I have been thinking a lot about next season and what I should invest in (high street versions of course) trend/colour wise. It's also a nice distraction from how FREEZING it is right now. I should be thinking about a new coat to invest in, but Spring/Summer is much more fun to look at.

So Luella is feeding my new obsession with all things insanely girly - think lilac/pink/orange/florals. Here is one of my favourite outfits from the show:

How cute are the shoes?! Orange also seems to be the colour to invest in. However, anyone seeing a bit of Chanel here?? There were a few outifits similar to this... I prefer the first part of the collection personally.

Oh yes, I am biased when it come to the wonderful Galliano, but how adorable is this hat? Completely unpractical (or inpractical? hmm) but I love it, and as always he wows me with his colour pallettes, chic coats and floaty florals. This outfit is from his John Galliano collection. It was very hard to pick a favourite but this hat just completes it for me.

Yes, more orange, but this floaty little number caught my eye, and if I had Jourdan's figure I would be wearing it all summer long. If Ilived in the south of France. Also a Galliano creation, this time for Dior.

At Lanvin, Alber Elbaz plays with volume whilst still keeping the collection elegant. The colours are more wintery, but when you live in the UK I guess it makes no difference anyway. I personally love this dress. The whole collection makes me wish I had the need to wear an evening dress every night of the week, inspiring the 'power-woman' in me.

Balmain have stunned once again with a collection of gorgeous dresses, and extremely lust-worthy jackets. Though the dresses are made for the skinny kind, it's not like I can afford them anyway so I'm allowed to dream, and share the dreaminess with you.

Zac Posen seemed to have a very glamazon theme, and reminded me a lot of Cavalli and Dolce & Gabanna - particularly with the floaty leopard print peices. Underwear as outwerwear will always win me over, especially when it's pastel pink and teamed with a blazer.

So basically, until I have the high earnings I dream of, this blog is purely going to be based on me fantasising about fantastic fashion (hence the name). So while were on the topic of Cavalli, why not throw this STUNNING dress into the post?

Would love to hear of everyone elses favourite S/S '09 moments or opinions on my opinions...

Thank you for visiting!

PS. Will try to keep the blogging more regular, but I kinda feel bad sitting on here for hours when my boyfriend's come down to see me! Oops.

All images from Style.com - If you haven't already been on this site I HIGHLY recommend it if you're the slightest bit interested in fashion, which if you've gotten this far I'm guessing you are!

A Wall of Inspiration...

I have wanted to do this forever, so when I came to uni I finally plastered the wall with some of my favourite magazine cuttings (those I didn't mind cutting up, that is, or had two copies of)

I like to think of it as a scrapbook on my wall. Were supposed to be doing something along those lines for my course but I want the prettiest pictures to decorate my room with.

Has anyone else done anything similar to this? I would like to see pictures!

The Art of Beauty

If you ever feel like your make-up routine is a bit mundane, then don't look at the following pictures.

Every now and then I like to admire the craft put into these looks, and kind of consider experimenting, then I think, 'Hmm I'll get laughed out of my lectures if i waltz in with feathers hanging off my eyelashes'. They're such beautiful works of art though! Like the face is a canvas and the make-up artist is wondering 'What can I create this time?'

It just encourages me to hang around the Boots make-up department - putting all sorts of wonderful colours on the back of my hand - probably resulting in me buying some wacky make-up from Barry M that I'll never dare to wear.

And ohh if only prolonged use of fake eyelashes didn't ruin my real lashes so much...

Here are some pictures for inspiration...

For more, go on Style.com and check out the Details/Backstage sections of your favourite designer's catwalk shows. A lot of the images featured are Dior/John Galliano and a bit of Viktor & Rolf.

All images: Style.com

All I Want for Christmas...

With less than one month to go, I thought I would share with you some of the things that are on my wish list. That is, if someone in my family were to inherit a lot of money within the next 26 days..

THE studded Gucci shoe boots! I'm having a thing for both studs and black shoe boots this season, so these would be perfect if anyone's offering?

If they happen to be sold out, which would be no surprise, I would hapily settle for this pair.

The more I blog, the more aware you will become of how OBSESSED I am with getting a Chanel bag.. and this is gorgeous... Nice shade of grey, I prefer these chains to the ones with leather intertwined (they tend to look fake) and I prefer the simple twist lock without the CC logo, as that tends to make them look fake too. AND, the more I admire Chanel bags, the more I prefer the larger sizes... definitely a jumbo for me, which unfortunately means an even less realistic price tag.

On the topic of Chanel, how cute are these tights? I've been lusting after them for months, thinking, 'they're only tights they'll be £50 max'. Nope. The kind lady at the Sloane Street boutique informed me of a price somewhere around £180. I snag tights too often to take that risk, but if someone else where to buy me them...

Insanely high Dior Couture shoes - combining my love of studs, bows and extreme height in one hot pair of shoes. Let's face it, I'd never be able to walk in them, and if I could I would resemble the BFG, and my boyfriend would not be best pleased once again as my love of sky high heels means I tower over him. But still, I'll make a shrine for them in my room... I just want to admire them on a daily basis if I'm honest. Worth every penny...

This whole Zac Posen outfit (or the whole Fall collection if youre feeling generous). The magpie inside me loves the sequined detail and on the whole it just appears to be such and adorable flattering dress. Even the pom poms all the models sported in their hair have been on my mind since I first saw this collection many months ago. I finally bought my black wool today, so expect a future blog on how DIY pom pom making goes. In the mean time, BUY ME THIS DRESS!

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So to conclude, I have discovered I seem to pay a lot more attention to accessories than I do actual clothes, unless particular things catch my eye - in which case it's most often couture. I seem to be a bit monochrome both with my own wardrobe and what I lust after, despite the fact that my favourite designer is my number one partly because of his use of vivid colour (John Galliano in case you were wondering). Maybe I need to step outside my comfort zone and experiment with colour some more, however 'classic' black and white is...

Images: Style.com, The Fashion Spot.

Style Icons

So the next four Style Icons blogs were for a uni assignment. We had to write 5 blogs, all related in some way for a specific online paper. I chose the NY Times, as the Telegraph and The Sun (the other 2 choices) didn't seem to suit what I wanted to do. My fifth was a half hearted last minute thing that I don't care too much for about Chloe Sevigny. We had to pick one of these to get marked. Rachel Bilson was my favourite but then I realised at 12 o'clock the night before deadline that the word count was 150-200 words, not 250... and this one was way over.

Enjoy!

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Rachel Bilson

More and more people are growing to appreciate the ex-OC star’s style; as opposed to her former co-star Mischa Barton, who was previously The OC’s number one column filler. She has the kind of style that girls and women of all ages want to document, tearing the pictures out of magazines and using them for everyday inspiration. She knows what suits her and - while she plays it safe compared to many other fashionistas – she still always manages to look interesting, securing her place on the best dressed list every time. Best known for her love of vintage, denim, scarves, dresses, Chanel and heels (being petite allows for this to be a regularity), she always manages to look feminine – even when working the blazer. She knows what shapes complement her figure, and what trends she can get away with - something that so many people get so wrong. My biggest envy is how she manages to achieve all this and still look so effortless.

Lucky teen fans of Rachel will be happy to hear that she is about to launch a line of clothing with DKNY Jeans. She named the collection ‘Edie Rose’ so that people who see it in store will buy it because they covet it; not because it has Rachel Bilson emblazoned on the tag. The collection is inspired by her dream closet, and I know plenty of people who dream of having her closet.

Bibliography:http://www.stylebakery.com/celebstyle/rachel_bilson_300x400.jpg
http://asosblog.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/19/rachel_bilson_2_2.jpg
http://www.dknyjeans.com/
www.style.com
www.askmen.com/.../rachel-bilson/picture-4.html
offtherack.peoplestylewatch.com/2006/11/01/