Beaded top

Hello all! I got back yesterday from a holiday to Mexico, hence the 2 week disappearance. I had a lovely time there - mainly lazing around on the beach and eating enormous amounts of food...what's not to love!? and we even went a bit cultural and visited Chichen Itza (the seventh wonder of the world... only 6 more to go now!), Coba temple (we were able to walk climb up this to see the view of the jungle) and swam in the Gran Cenote (a sort of underground cave with water). Unfortunately I never actually got around to taking any outfit posts while I was there (something which I regret) so have no Mexican/holiday outfits to post. However, I've missed blogging a lot so decided to jump right in with another outfit post today. 

I've worn this skirt a few times already on my blog (most recently here, or way back here and here) as it's definitely one of my favourites. I've made a lot of use out of it since I bought it last summer and I'm sure I'll use it a lot in the future as well. I paired it with just an old plain white t-shirt. I'd quite like to experiment with plain t-shirts a bit more as often I just opt for a buttoned up shirt, and I've already started coming up with a few ideas of ways to style it. I'm also wearing a vest/waistcoat/cardigan thing which has beaded flowers on it. I was given it by my Mum when she no longer wanted it. I saw it in my wardrobe the other day and decided it was time for it's blog debut!

How was your summer? What is your favourite thing about my outfit? 

 skirt - ebay

top - old

cardigan - old

shoes - Office

Purple

First of all, look at my fancy reflection skills! I keep seeing this everywhere so I thought I'd try it out myself. Onto the actual outfit...I made this dress on Saturday afternoon. This is actually the first thing I've properly made from scratch (apart from my Textiles final) since Christmas. I'm the biggest procrastinator ever so rather than wasting time attempting but not actually doing work, I decided this dress would be a better use of my time. After I made it, I actually felt an increased motivation to work harder for my schoolwork. Perhaps I've discovered the key to preventing procrastination: do something you've been wanting to do for a while and then focus on your work afterwards - it works, trust me!.

So, I  made the dress using some fabric I got as a present for my birthday. The print is so lovely and I really like how it contrasts with the sleeves (which were made from some white curtain netting). I'm actually really pleased with the dress (unusual for me). It reminds me of the ones you can get from Yayer or Choies (but instead I saved about £40 of my money by making it myself). 

How is your week going so far?

 dress - homemade

shoes - new look

Just a few outfits to inspire you...

Shirt - H&M, Skirt - Topshop, Necklace - gojane.com, Shoes - Pierre Hardy

Shirt - Marni, Shoes - Asos, Shorts - Topshop

Shirt - modaoperandi.com, Necklace - Kenneth Jay Lane, Skirt - J. Crew, shoes - Jil Sander

Shirt - Balmain, Skirt - Topshop, Shoes - Dorothy Perkins

You can follow me on Polyvore here

What have you all been up to recently?

Velvet

I'm here with an outfit post as promised even if it does have very few photos (my younger brother took them as quickly as he possibly could!).I bought this dress last week for £16 from a vintage shop. I've been wanting a velvet dress for ages and I'm happy with the one I've finally chosen. The dress was originally very long so I cut it and I'm going to use the extra fabric to make a skirt (watch this space!). I am aware I've been wearing this necklace a lot in my outfit posts but it goes with so so much and I don't actually have many necklaces (this length at least). I kept this look quite simple but I think this works well, especially since the velvet fabric stands out so much. I never really thought about silver velvet (I was planning on the typical red or blue) but I love how this looks. It has a really cool effect to it too.

 dress - vintage

necklace - River Island

Shoes - Office (see here)

Baby it's cold outside...

Hello again! It was freezing today (literally), but luckily I managed to venture outside (for as short a time as possible) to take a few photos of my outfit.  I'm wearing a shirt that my mum bought me for Christmas (from a charity shop). It's perfect for just throwing on and pretty much goes with anything so it's perfect. I'm also wearing a skirt from Primark which I managed to buy for only £8, which I think is pretty damn good considering there are plenty of similar skirts out there for loads more. I love the shape it has (again another item which you can mix and match with) and it has a slight metallic silver colour to it which is a bit more interesting than plain black. My tights are actually my only designer item I own. They're from Bora Aksu (pretty much my favourite designer) and I bought them in the sale last year for only £15. I've worn them loads so I'm surprised they haven't produced lots of holes yet!

 Shirt - Charity shop

Skirt - Primark

Tights - Bora Aksu

Shoes - New Look

Bracelet - bought on holiday

Checkered...

Here's my outfit today... I don't tend to wear trousers much (I haven't owned a proper pair of jeans in years) but about a month ago or so I bought these brilliant black skinny trousers from River Island (£35). They go with a lot of things so that's definitely an advantage and I really like the leather strips down the side (the photos don't do them justice). I'm also wearing my shirt I got as a Christmas present (from Topshop). I love the gold tips on the collar and the print is really lovely. I'm also wearing a necklace (another christmas present), my ring from New Look (on sale), my Topshop socks (3 for £7) and some snakeskin brogues I got in the sale (Office - £25). These are now my new favourite shoes. I justified the purchase since I had been spending the whole of the winter wearing a pair of shoes (also snakeskin - I know, there's just something about it!) that I bought for £5 from ebay (they were also falling apart). 

Sorry about the photo quality by the way, I seem to have got into the habit of taking these photos in the evening when it's dark and the lighting is rubbish, but next time I promise to take them during the day!

What do you think? What's your favourite piece?

Roses are Red

An outfit post for you today. I went to the sales at Westfield yesterday with some friends and managed to find a few good purchases. The two in this post are this really lovely red dress and some silver heels. The dress is from Urban Outfitters. I saw it about a month ago when it was full price, so was really happy to see it was reduced to £25. I just couldn't resist this dress. The fabric is amazing and I love the print as well. It's also very versatile and can be worn in a variety of different ways. This is actually the first thing I've bought from this shop but I've always loved their clothes (even though they're a tad overpriced). I've paired this dress with some shoes I bought from New Look. I didn't go out with the intention of buying another pair of heels but these were only £8! which I thought was a real bargain. I'm also wearing my spike necklace (see here). It's a very simplistic outfit (quite unusual for me) but I really love it! Sometimes wearing one simple garment can look the best.

What were your best sales purchases?

It's Christmas tomorrow!

Because it's Christmas Eve I felt I needed to celebrate this with a Christmas related post and some Christmas related outfits. Christmas is the best time to dress up and it gives you the excuse to wear sparkly tights or a really christmassy dress which you wouldn't normally wear for the other 364 days of the year. So here are a few mini collection/outfits I've created to inspire you....

 Jacket (Republic - £20), tights (Asos - £10), dress (Malene Birger - £54), earrings (Herve Van der Straeten - £390), bracelet (Asos - £12), shoes (Topshop - £15)

 

 Skirt and shoes (image from Pinterest), top (Diane Von Furstenburg - £518), tights (Asos - £10), necklace (Topshop - £22.50)

Jacket (Topshop - £50), top (Dorothy Perkins - £20), leggings (Topshop - £25), bag (Topshop - £20), shoes (Steve Madden)

Jacket (Topshop - £35), dress (Avenue 32 - £555), skirt (Acne - £280), shoes (Nicholas Kirkwood), top (Dorothy Perkins - £20) 

 

 Skirt (Fausto Puglisi - £1256), top (Peter Pilotto - £729), shoes (Miu Miu - £590), skirt (Topshop - £70)

Below: suit, shoes and tartan jacket (images from Pinterest), top (Topman - £25)