What Fashion Did in 2012

So this is my final little round up on 2012, it's good to look back before you steam ahead!!! I think it has been a great year of peplums and pastels that have complimented most women. I enjoyed getting involved with a lot of trends. Check out the images below, I hit all of these apart from the body chain and small bags (as I have to much crap that I like to carry around).

 



Pastels were a major part of SS2013, which I loved because it was so feminine and summery even if we didn't actually get any hot weather in England. The zatchel became key, as did the crazy eyewear. The more outrageous the better. Also dip-dye has never looked so good whether it was clothing or hair...

Finally the Ghetto-Fab-u-lous look; which has been rocked all over London, parts of New York and Asia. I think it was probably Rihanna who made this look popular with brands like Boy London helping people make it happen. I do love the Boy London iconography but as I have seen it everywhere now, I'm looking forward to the new brand invasion for 2013.

 

Can't wait for the new season, and getting involved in all sorts of possibilites.

 

 



My Fashion Icons from 2012

I think each year fashion continues to build momentum, I guess bloggers are the fuel for this. People have been looking at street style as well as checking out what celebrities are wearing. I am still a huge follower of celebrity style as they have infinite resources, it is interesting to see what they are wearing and how they put a look together.Below are three of my favourite celebrity style icons from 2012.

Up first is Chloe Moretz, I have been a big fan of hers since I saw her in Let Me In. I like the fact that she has quite a relaxed look during the day and then does quirky but glam for events. I am extremely jealous as she is only 15 years old and clearly has a spectacular wardrobe. Her key pieces seem to be a black leather jacket, skinny jeans and the perfect evening dress:

Okay so her sister shares my birthday and has always been in the spotlight. But this year Solange Knowles has become a major fashion inspiration. The woman rocks an afro with nonchalant elegance, and has mastered the pattern/colour clash trend in a way that has made it her signature look. It is not only the way she puts pieces together it's the attitude that goes with it...for 2013 I am going to channel my inner Solange. Beyonce may know music, but Solange got the fashion thing going on too.

Somethings never change, and Alexa Chung continues to be a  strong British fashion icon. I have always been envious of her sense of style as it is clearly instinct rather than something that has been taught. She juxtaposes masculine and feminine pieces together to create her trademark style. Having been appointed as an Ambassador for British Fashion her style may have become a bit more polished but nevertheless still quirky and eclectic. Here's to another year of Alexa's stylish outfits.

Colour for my Sole

I am still partly in a turkey induced coma, having eaten and drunk too much yesterday. Tis the season anyway! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am now looking forward to next year and what I am going to be wearing. I am going to do a mini review of last year in terms of fashion! What I loved  hated etc. For now I want to focus on a trend which has been emerging and I see it getting bigger...

Coloured soles, yes you heard right and now I have said it you will be seeing them everywhere. Although the most popular colour seems to be white and pink. I think Stella McCartney began the trend with some black pointy heeled boots with white soles. Here are some of my favourite shoes:

Black Canvas boots from Topshop

Black leather cut out boots from Topshop

Navy leather brouges by Esquivel

 

Black leather lace ups by Daniel Pallilo X Triple Major

Black patent mary jane shoes by Prada

 

The original Stella McCartney AW12 boot with white soles



My Christmas Wish List

So Christmas has sort of careered out of nowhere, like a snowball growing larger as it heads down hill. I am currently watching Love Actually one of my favourite Christmas films (other than Bridget Jones and The Holiday) and getting into the festive mood. I have decided to put together my hypothetic Christmas list; these are items that I know will definitely not be under my tree come the 25th December but I would still love to own one day! Or maybe, Santa if you're listening I would like...

A burgundy lizard effect Alexander Wang bag! No need to elaborate it's just a classic.

 A bejewelled bettle ring by Roberto Cavalli, so pretty

 

Blue velvet kitten heels, quite literally! The cat face makes the shoes a bit quirky.

Silver leather necklace from E.A. Burns

Red glitter Miu Miu sunglasses

 

Green leather Philip Lim bag, another classic but edgy bags

Black and White Prada mary janes

 

So there you have it, my christmas wish list its all about the fashion accessories and jewellery!!! Now i'm going back to Love Actually...it's the bit where Hugh Grant (the Priminister) dances to Girls Aloud's version of Jump (For my Love).











My Weekend; Somerset House

I had a great weekend and am feeling more & more Christmassy. I meet up with some of my gal pals and went for a walk along the South Bank and stopped off for a bit of lunch (including Christmas Pimms)!!! After lunch we headed to Somerset House as some of my friends are out of towners and haven't visited the museum-cum-gallery which happens to be one of my favourite places.

While there we had a look around the Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour exhibition, which I knew nothing about. It was really interesting to walk around and look at all of the bold imagery; the photographers featured in the collection captured some beautiful places.

After our bit of culture we went to see what else Somerset had to offer and it turned out they had a Pop up Christmas Shop. I headed straight for the fashiony bits (of course) and came across the Bengt's shop. Now I had heard of Bengt and knew it was an online blog and shop but haven't really explored the site. They mission statement is to bring an alternative perspective of fashion and cover new emerging design talent.

I love online shopping but it is always great to see the product in front of you! I was particularly taken by the jewellery designers and three in particular; Kirsty Ward, Moxham and E.A Burns. Each of the designers had there own signature styles but I loved the fact that their pieces were really bold and quite futuristic. I really want to buy some pieces in the new year, and start doing the whole all in black with bright jewellery look.

Below are some of my favourite pieces:

E.A. BURN - I mixture of leather and metal geometric shapes...soo dynamic and fashion forward.

 Aparently Alesha Dixon wore the necklace below, this is just over £100.

Moxham - Robotic glamour, by itself these pieces are quite ugly but together they are beautiful!!!

KIRSTY WARD - leather and metal strong statement jewellery. Yes please...

So unfortunately I have already got my Christmas present or else I would be adding these to my Christmas list!!

Finally me & my friend had our names down at MW nails in Spitalfield Market today...look how pretty!!!

River Island and Ri Ri

Today I had a very frustrating Christmas shopping session in Oxford Street, nightmare is the only way to describe it and my pre-christmas cheer was severely tried. Luckily I was wearing my extremely warm faux fur jacket and Ugg boots to keep me warm. Attempting to seek some small refuge from the heaving crowds I popped into River Island and was extremely confused because I felt like I had entered Rhianna's walk in wardrobe complete with  Rude Girl slogan belts, bedazzled/ leather base ball caps and cut out leather dresses like the one below.

I thought this was the look awaited collaboration which people have been talking about since July but I could see anything in store talking about it. Having done a bit of googling I found out the collaboration is actually happening in Spring 2013, and that Rihanna had been seen wearing a denim hooded onesie/jumpsuit from the collection. Genius, I love it!!! I need to know prices and what time in the morning I can start queueing up to get my hands on it...

Photos from the photoshoot for the campaign have recently been released as well, and it looks like brit model Jourdan Dunn is one of three models also in the campaign (and the rest: Bambi Northwood-Blyth on the left and the right is Ataui Deng). Check out the girls posing in the image below. I can't wait, really...can't wait!!!

Converse with Sneakers

At the moment I seem to spend all of my time running from one place to another. Case in point on Friday when I had to get to Notting Hill and back to East London in one hour to meet my friend. On arriving back in East London, I got off the tube at Old Street and was greeted with advertising overload in the form of Converse's AW12 campaign. I could do nothing but stare eyes agog as I travelled up the escalator with board after board of Converse slogans: "shoes are boring wearing wear sneakers" and such like.

I quite like their campaign as it is completely in your face and had great imagery. In East London the brand already has major kudos with at least 50% of the inhibitats in this area donning weather beaten sneakers. As an owner of a pair of Converse and a fashion marketer I applaud the global giant and can't wait to see what they do for next season. I also think that the Underground is an unestimated marketing platform!!!

Here are my very own un-boring sneakers below:

Check out my second blog, Shoe Stories at: http://shoe-stories.blogspot.co.uk

Red or...Dead

Red or Dead is one of those british brands who have a strong history, but seem to have been forgotten in today's fashion world. Back at the beginning of the noughties Red or Dead was very much on my fashion radar and everyone elses for that matter, I was completely obsessed with their rainbow slingbacks.

The brand recently produced a retrospective exhibition just of Brick Lane; which I happened to walk past. I went a bit crazy and took all of the photographs below so its almost like you were there:

My Top Three

On a recent trip to New York for work, I went on a mission to find a new Marc by Marc Jacobs bag. I already have two, and I guess I am one of those people who when they find something that works I stick with it. The price point of the bag is a substantial amount, but not enough to bankcrupt and the quality is equal to that of a Mulberry or Fendi. I quickly feel in love with the Maverick Blizzard bag, which is perfect for everyday wear and has a slight edge to it! The matt silver hardware was a major tick as well. The bag is now being readied to go under the Xmas tree!!!

Now to my wish list, this grafitti style War and Peace elephant t-shirt is amazing. I love the casual nature of the long sleeved t-shirt come dress. It would be perfect with a pair of tights or leggings and some gigantic wedge heels. I shall start saving my pennies now...

Finally these leopard print horse hair hi tops from Topshop are 'E-P-I-C', complete with a metallic foot strap and studded toe these shoes border on trashy but definitely a necessary purchase. Five days until pay day... 



FL Loves KTZ

I love finding new interesting designers; my latest discovery is KTZ. The label was founded by design trio Koji Maruyama, Sasko Bezovski and Marjan Pejoski. The brand is based in the UK and they are now in their sixth season of showing at London Fashion Week. It's difficult to describe their clothing it's somewhere between high fashion and street wear.

There current collection for AW12 errs more towards the street wear, with similarities to Boy London with its white on black iconography. See pictures below:



My favourite piece is this hooded dress that costs £175. Both comfortable and fashionable the ultimate winter dress. All you need is a belt to cinch the waist in and it would be perfect.

Check out their Spring/Summer 2013 collection in the video below:

 

The clothing is available to buy at their Kokon To Kai shops in Soho and West London or Opening Ceromony as well as online.



I did it myself; Jewelled knee pads

So I am usually very lazy, but I was prompted into action after seeing this some jewelled tights by
Elnaz Niknani on Not Just Another Label. The tights were really interesting because they had jewelled knee caps and other embellishments, however I never fair well with tights and they often ladder five minutes after I have put them on. At £150 the tights were also a bit out of my price range.

After seeing the tights I decided that jewelled knee caps would look a-maz-ing on skinny jeans/ jeggings. I was able to create the desired effect for £10.80. All you need are patches and sew on gems which you can buy from your local haberdashery. I got mine from John Lewis they had a selection of fabric, leather and velvet patches, I went for the latter. I also brought some sew on pewter colour gems on a ribbons.

First of all I detached all of the gem from the ribbon and placed them on the patches where I wanted them to be. Then I took them off and started sewing them while trying to recreate the pattern I made.

Once I had finished sewing them all on. I put my jeans on and then pinned the patches where they looked best; finally I sewed them on.

Hey presto some bedazzled jeans!!! I have actually had lots of compliments about them as well.