Wildfox Fall 2011

Wildfox have just released their Fall 2011 lookbook, inspired by 1970's rock groupies (think Almost Famous.. God, I used to love that film!) 

I adore the punky, fun and girly attitude Wildfox convey in all of their legendary lookbooks, which you can see here. This one shoot in particular makes me nostalgic for my own rock 'n' roll youth spent hanging out backstage at rock shows... Not for groupie reasons, I might add! My big brother is the ultimate fanboy and had a habit of befriending all of our favourite bands and get us AAA passes! Can't say I ever looked this glamorous, though...

How awesome?!

♥

Style spotting at the UCA Fashion Promotion Private View

A week ago, it was the private view of mine and my fellow Fashion Promotion graduates uni exhibition at the OXO gallery on the South Bank. Outfit wise, I went for the slutty dork look. Strapless mini dress and clodhoppers. What a combo.

(shrug - h&m, dress - c/o tesco ages ago, belt - primark, dm's c/o very)

Not sure why I'm doing a vaguely sexual hand gesture (a la House of Holland!)

I had a few pieces of work on show. My portfolio, my 'tuesday tips' book and the accompanying research book that I handed in with it. The last 2 even had their own plinth! Eep! 

Postcards of each student's work (with contact deets on the back).

(My portfolio... some of the mobile App I designed for my Topshop project!)

My shiz on a plinth! 

Anyway, I met some interesting people at the private view, but more importantly managed to grab some pics of some of my stylish uni pals! 

Laura and Emily (aka. my crew) fully representing Topshop!

Amber looking insanely glam! 

Kayleigh in an Urban Outfitters number. 

Jenna rocking a charity shop dress and some killer heels! 

Did any of you go along to check it out? I'm hoping to get a portfolio website up and running ASAP (any recommendations on portofolio site builders?) so I'll be able to share my work with you if anyone's interested! 

Hope you've all had a lovely week and have some nice weekend plans? 

I have work tomorrow and will be spending the rest of my weekend preparing/researching/outfit-planning for my work experience at a national newspaper beginning on Monday! Eep! Probably not supposed to name them, but for any regular readers, it may be obvious..! 

x

Tuesday Tip: Ella's marvellous penny jars!

Good morning all! <3

Seeing as I'm going home for a couple of days after work today, I'm going to try something a bit lazy new for a Tuesday Tip this week! I'm going to send you across to my favourite DIY of late, by the lovely Ella Masters! Hers is the kind of beautifully constructed blog that puts this lo-fi wreck to shame! I'm sharing this DIY on the condition you'll come back to corned beef once you've had a taste of fillet steak... Promise? Ok. 

So, Ella has started a new feature 'Thrifty Thursdays'. Here's what she created for the first Thrifty Thursday post, using an old jar, some paint and a couple of other bits. I love how she went the extra mile with the cute way she painted the words on the jar. What exc-Ella-nt work!! #Wordplayfail. 

Get your thrifty butts over to Ella's blog to see the full DIY!

Thanks for a fab DIY, Ella! Looking forward to seeing more of your thrifty ideas...

Have you seen/tried/created any radical DIY's lately? 

♥

A Cinderella story at The Contour Ball!

Whew, sorry to disappear slightly there! 

I've been busy finishing up my last university obligations. I've had my final exhibition which was great because I got a chance to share the hard copy of my Tuesday Tips book with people, and had a day at Graduate Fashion Week, where I was being considered (and later rejected...) for the Marketing award. 

I can finally share the goss from the Contour Fashion Ball which I attended a couple of weeks ago along with Jenny (The Style PA) as Wonderbra's 'special guests'! 

I had never heard of the Contour Fashion Ball before, but it is an annual event that brings together key figures from the lingerie and swimwear industry to raise money (with fun auctions etc) for The Retail Trust and The Fashion and Textiles Children's Trust. These charities help anyone working in (or with relatives working in) the retail/fashion/textiles industries in the event of a crisis. As many of us bloggers know too well, the average retail worker doesn't make much money, so it was great to learn about charities specifically recognising this plight and supporting workers when necessary. 

The Ball itself was swank personified! It was held at The Savoy Hotel, in the Lancaster Ballroom. Now I'm not the formalwear type, so after momentarily freaking out about what to wear and having a supermarket sweep round Topshop, I decided it defeated the object of being offered the opportunity to go to a £150-a-head event for free if I was going to spend a load of dough on an outfit! I rooted around my wardrobe and decided to take a 20's approach to my outfit, with a mint green flapper dress from H&M (about 4 years ago!) and some dainty St Michael flats (seen better here). 

I found this little leather handbag for £1 in my local charity shop on the morning of the event, and also added a H&M shrug cardigan.

Here are some snaps from the night. (Excuse my flat helmet hair, it got absolutely drenched on the walk to the hotel and didn't have time to wash it and revamp it!)

 

Eeee, my name on a posh place card! 

Look at the gorge table and buckets o' booze! Sure there must be a posher word for that...

The yummy Salmon main course (with veg arranged in a facial expression not unlike this :| )

The stunning decorative walls and purpley pink lighting:

Me and the gorgeous Martina from Wonderbra (who was wearing actual Louboutin's!) God, I look deathly when photographed next to bronzed babes! 

See? I look less pale photographed alone!

Jenny and I had some photo booth fun!! God I want pink hair.

Later in the evening, us and the marketing ladies from DB Apparel (the company that owns Wonderbra, Playtex and Shock Absorber among others) decided to sneak off for an explore around the hotel! 

[I yoinked the last two pics from Jenny's blog about the event! Check it out!]

We found a little museum area which had some err, famous heads in it (god knows whose), Marlene Dietrich's hotel room requests and a funny little notice...

After that it was back to the lovely hotel room Wonderbra provided for me. I decided against sleep because I wanted to make the most of my fab room, so I stayed up reading Company mag. :)

The next morning I was sooo sleepy. I still managed to take an outfit photo of sorts in the bathroom mirror. Also a good opportunity to reveal my strange and unearned flexible joints to y'all. It's almost hard to believe I sit on my arse most days eating doughnuts...

[top - H&M, jeggings - Topshop, shoes - charity shop, bow - H&M)

Then I remembered there was actually a full length mirror. Duh. Shouldn't have stayed up most of the night reading Company!

Oh yeah, I had minty green nails (Mint Choc Chip by 17) to match my dress. 

Then I decided it would be fun to walk (lugging my wheely bag along behind me) from the hotel back to my train station. I always think everywhere in London is only 15 minutes away. I was wrong. Very wrong.  Over an hour later, I arrived at Charing Cross a sweaty, wheezing wreck. Safe to say my Cinderella night at the ball was officially over! 

But what a fun night it was! More importantly, the event raised a fabulous £50,000 towards the charities (there's still time to donate if you fancy). 

Many thanks to Wonderbra for whisking me off for a night of luxury for such a good cause!

 

♥