Kitten fetish

When it transpired that kitten heels were making a come back I honestly winced. They remind me of my first year at university, clip clopping around campus in kitten heels - before I got a clue and realised Exeter didnt have paths to lectures called Cardiac Hill for no reason. So I threw out all kitten heels, vowed to never say hello again, and invested in ballet pumps and flats like the rest of the sane student population.

As usual, fashion always comes around again to bite you in the ass and kick yourself for throwing out all your old investments. Following the ladylike trend takeover in SS11 and the return of a feminine touch, the catwalks twisted my arm and I decided it was time to make peace with the mini heel. With the right outfit and the appropriate situation they can work.. Besides, sometimes you need a bit of clip clop in your life, to release your inner sex kitten. Miaow.

D.I.Y

Considering All Saints is a brand I absolutely adore, it is also one of which I have very little of. 

These jeans were in the sale, and I bought them solely for the colour of the denim. However, left as they were, they were actually verging on boring, despite the drop crotch. With Neil Buchanan being a childhood hero of mine: tippex, gold leaf and superglue later and 'boring' no longer features in their list of ingredients.

They definitely do not receive a thumbs up from the opposite sex, in fact I had a friend who insisted I looked like I was about to choreograph a routine for So You Think You Can Dance whenever I wore them. 

Regardless, perhaps they are tomboy-esque; have the potential to make you look like a painter/decorator minus the white van; make munchkin legs look even shorter. They still get the thumbs up from me - and as an added bonus, you don't have to worry if you ever sit on wet paint.

Now there's majesty, in a burnt out caravan

Festival season is fast approaching. Never short of a flower or two, the collection of hair flowers continues to grow. Reckon I've got enough stocked up for the season.

 Midsummer nights dream meets Navaho Fairytale will be the general idea. Any excuse to wear a garden on my head. Please excuse the cheesy grin.

You came in with the breeze, on Sunday morning

If Sundays and picnics in the park had a uniform - this would be my chosen set of threads. 

HOW.

Style Crush

My style crushes flick back and forth between the Olsen twins, Alexa Chung, Rumi Neely (aka Fashiontoast) and Emmanuelle Alt. All posess that thrown together, slightly imperfect, tousled quality that makes them so achingly fascinating to Google, but each with their style niches. The Olsen twins seem to have the bag lady chic down to a T, ideal for when you want inspiration for layering up to the max so it verges on the riduculous. Alexa Chung for vinatage old lady-come-librarian style, Rumi Neely for oversize tops, tiny bottoms and slouchy heaven, and Emmanuelle Alt for uber simplistic punchy ensembles.

Lately though, I seem to be hitting the search engine more often than not for pics of Ms Alt. With her Balmain addiction and Isabel Marant Fall AW10 pumps, everything she throws together is so simple yet so effective. It's as though she has drafted a fashion mathematics formula to abide by : keep silhouette simple and streamlined, make the most of gazelle like limbs (skinny leather trousers/opaques and tiny shorts) plain slouch Tshirt, shoulder enhanced jacket. Mantra : never stray from the path of the black and white spectrum, (grey and zebra print is therefore allowed) colour is not an option - apart from blue, and perhaps a spattering of embellishment to spice things up a bit.

Side step into the shade

I'm not a big fan of sunglasses. On other people yes. On me, not so much. Having always been of the school of thought that I am NOT a hat person, I also dont really think I'm a 'sunglasses' person either. The inability to ever really be able to see what you look like in a pair of shades, (the tinted lens will always distort your reflection in the mirror, and to peak over the lens defeats the object of trying to see what they look like on) frustrates me. Maybe that doesn't make sense. I guess you could overcome the dilemma by taking a photo, but those have only ever certified my belief that on me, sunglasses just dont work.
However, the same way that my affection for hats grew over the last year, im determined to find a pair that suit. Sunglasses offer the option of hiding a multitude of sins the morning-after-the-night-before, for which YSL's Touche Eclat would never cut the mustard. They can also rev up an outfit and take a plain 'so so' look to 'bite me.' And who better to demonstrate this than the Olsens, queens of the super-sized saucer shades. They make me want to BE a sunglasses person.

Laughing in the open air, have yourself another dream

Peachy keen nails and mink coloured sequins. The cardigan was actually on sale, so as I'd wanted it ever since it hit the shop floor, the fact that the only size left was an 18 wasnt going to stop me investing my penies. It manages to pass as a gently oversized option - with the help of some cleverly placed safety pins to minimize the sheer width of the shoulders. To be honest, I whole heartedly prefer this offering, rather than the snug little cardigan it must have been designed to be. There are some things in life that need to be bought in the correct size - bras, trousers, shorts... However, something I started doing a long time ago, on realising sales are predominantly made up of plus sized product - was to buy and then alter their wardrobe destiny. XL camisoles become floaty slouchy slips, plus size tops become dresses, little cardigans become oversized versions. Sometimes it works, sometimes it really doesnt and you just look like a tramp. No harm in testing them out though. The worst that can happen is, you'll find yourself walking away with a very nice little bargain!