Clothes Show London: Celeb Watch

Sorry it's been a bit longer than anticipated in updating, I've had a crazy busy weekend! Anyway, this entry shall be dedicated to the people I met at Clothes Show London. Usually the celebrities are a bit harder to spot at Clothes Show, however this time myself and my friend Imogen managed to get lucky and met several of the celebrities scheduled for the Friday event. First of all we managed to get a photo with Michelle Keegan after she presented on More!'s "What I Bought" show at the style stage. She was lovely and friendly and more than happy to pose for a photo:

Then we ambled around for a bit (picking up some freebies along the way) and at the Corona beach stage/bar section spotted Dave Berry posing for pictures and signing autographs. I quite like Dave Berry, I think he's funny so I jumped in the queue and was rewarded with both a picture and an autograph:

Then at a face mask stall the cast of Legally Blonde: The Musical were posing for photos briefly in the afternoon and we managed to get one with them. I'll be honest I saw the ad for it and thought "DUNCAN JAMES!". He's been replaced with Richard Fleeshman, who is just as good and was more than happy to give me an autograph. (The girl next to me is Imogen, the aforementioned friend who I got to spend a fun day with)

Finally we headed to More! magazine's stall and had our picture taken with two of their male models. While they're not celebrities as such they had as long a queue for pictures than any of the celebrities. So here they are:

Clothes Show London style spots

Hello my lovelies. So this Friday my friend Imogen and I attended the opening day of Clothes Show London. I have many pictures to show you all (I took over 400 but don't worry I'll select a chosen few to share) but I'll trail them out over the weekend.

First though I wish to show you some of the well-dressed girls I ran into during the course of the day. As well as Corination Street's Michelle Keegan, who was sporting a pretty bright jumpsuit, I also photog'd Alison in this very pretty playsuit with some awesome boots and a beaut of a bag:

I think that the best bit of the playsuit is the beading on the neckline. But I really love the bag and those boots are amazing!

I also photog'd one of the stall workers at the Carnaby Street section:

Pretty and practical, this combo of a floral crop top, mustard yellow shorts and white pumps go amazingly well together. My favourite bit of this outfit is definitely the shorts, I want some like this!

Finally, here is a couple of pictures of Michelle Keegan sporting her graphic jumpsuit:

I couldn't really see very well from the back row of the More! stage but up close when I got a picture with her (she was so friendly!) it's beautiful and the colours work together really well.

And so I leave you until the next instalment of Clothes Show London related posts. Do you want the fashion show or to see some of my haul first?

I heart you tights!

Check out these beauties! (The tights, not my legs)

This is the best way I could think of to put these tights up on here and show the detailing decently. These are from my new purchases this afternoon courtesy of Primark. After a reccomendation from my friend Michelle (on here as Daisybutter) I checked out their tights today and was impressed. I picked up a couple of pairs for only £2 which is a good price for tights like this given you can get a similar pair from Topshop for £8. Gimme Primark anyday ;)

Vogue young writer's competition entry - current trend piece

So ages upon ages ago (well,several months ago) I entered Vogue's annual young writer's competition. I just heard back from them in the form of a short letter and I didn't get shortlisted so no potential month of work experience there for me. Boo. However it means I can post the piece I'm most proud of out of the three I did for the competition on here. So here's my current trend piece, which focuses on the trend of online shopping. Enjoy!


21st Century Window Shopping

As a student with a hectic schedule I’ve done it and I’m sure you’ve done it. At the very least you’ll know someone who does. Be it in our lunch hour or after a stressful day. I’m talking about online shopping. As we’ve become more tech-savvy many shops have realised they could sell to a whole new range of women who love fashion but have no access to one of their store branches. Step forward the online shop.

Now most shops you find on the high street have an online presence too, with the majority of their shop stock available for purchase online as well as several online exclusives. Not only that but, for a small fee, you can have your desired outfit delivered to your house, meaning you could buy next season’s wardrobe without leaving your home.

With online shopping you can search for the items you want, and check if your size is in stock, without having to endure the weather, crowds of people and haphazardly organised clothing racks only to discover that the top you wanted is sold out in your size and no, they won’t be getting another delivery for at least three days. Given that as an alternative it’s no surprise that we are turning in droves to the online shops, with many websites reporting an increase in visitors over the past five years.

Jacqueline Currie, designer and founder of online jewellery store This Charming Girl, testifies to this. “Traffic has increased considerably since 2006,” she says. Carly Walker, owner of Era Vintage, says the same is true for her, “The number of visitors to the website has increased and, the orders have too!”

So how do online shops attract visitors on the Internet when there are millions of websites? Aside from the obvious answers, such as Google and word of mouth, both Jacqueline and Carly give credit to the same free source of advertising: social networking.

“There are many free marketing tools available that drive traffic directly to your site such as social networking sites and that makes it easier to find customers,” Jacqueline says.

But why exactly are online stores so popular, when many of the brands have high-street stores? “I think people like the choice that online shopping has to offer,” says Rachel Cowey, fashion editor for Small Change Publishing, “especially with sites like Asos, which don't exist in shop form.”

But is there a downside to online window shopping? Yes it’s easy and can protect you from the busy shopping centre crowds but there is a dangerous side too. Rachel admits that it “often feels like I'm not spending any real money” when she shops online.

So our high street isn’t in danger of becoming online only. For at heart we still prefer to try before we buy, and get our friends’ opinions as we do so. Somehow posting a link onto their Facebook page saying: “what do you think of this top?” isn’t quite the same.

Style Crush: Rachel Bilson

She regularly tops best dressed lists, and long since the O.C. have I lusted after one Rachel Bilson's wardrobe. Both on and off camera she always manages to look flawless even in jeans, scarf and sunnies, as demonstrated below. She accessorises brilliantly and teams different colour and style together while managing to appear as if she just threw on the nearest thing.My particular favourite pieces of hers are the jumper she's wearing in the above photo with Adam Brody (they were so cute together in real and O.C. life) and the skirt she's wearing in the middle of the three looks below:

Skirt mania

Maybe it's summer, or maybe it's just something I'm into at the moment but a lot of my wardrobe now consists of skirts. From floral to polka dot, knee length to mini, cream to multi-coloured I have a pretty good selection. My main skirt-buying takes place in Primark where their skirts are cheap but still ultra pretty, although New Look and Peacocks also get a look in every now and then.

My favourite recent skirt purchase is this one:

Skirt, £9, Primark.

The 50s vibe of this skirt makes me very happy and thanks to the cream colour I can team it with most of my tops. It is a bit tights around the waist thanks to the side-zip and button combo so if possible I'd recommend going a size up for comfort (unless you're lucky enough to be/know a great seamstress in which case I'm sure you can get something about that done).

Supermarket finds: Asda

Apologies for the 'wonderful' mess you can see in the first photo, having just moved back from uni there's boxes everywhere so tidiness is a bit low right now. However I love my wardrobe for the fairylights and cardigan belt you can see adorning it. But onto the dress...

Dress, £8, Asda

Although this beauty of a dress isn't online anymore I think you're still in with a chance of getting it, they sell a similar one in orange online so perhaps just a colour change if you can't find it? Anyway on one of my many late-night paroozle's around Asda back at uni (there were many) my happy little peppers spotted this dress hiding in a corner.

Now, purple is one of my favourite colours and this shade is gorgeous! The clinging waist and the scoop neck give an amazing figure in their usual ultra-flattering ways. Throw in the cute back detail and I was sold!

What about you; have you made any surprising (and amazing) supermarket finds recently?

A little bit of flower power...

...for a little bit of money. In one of my many trips to Primark back at uni (I'm a student, frequent trips to Primark are allowed, if not required for a student wanting/needing new wardrobe pieces) when this ring caught my eye. Being a sucker for rings, and particularly big rings, I scooped it up with the rest of my purchase and it has since adorned my right hand many a time.

Ring, £2 Primark

Matalan's beautiful dress

Matalan - tie shoulder printed jersey dress


This dress, acquired literally days before I came home for summer, is not only a bargain at £8 but looks great with tights (I opt for grey at the moment), leggings or (for the daring) bare legs. The tie-shoulders have to be tied pretty tightly or you risk the dress shoulders loosening through the day's activities (and re-tying shoulder straps discretely is never an easy task) but otherwise this dress is fabulous. Coral may not seem like the best colour in the world but go for it, and be pleasantly surprised!