What I wore today.

Not, incidentally, a literal title - I was actually referring to the book, which a lot of you may well know.

I love flicking through this and getting some inspiration. Admittedly, some of the looks aren't exactly to my taste, but there are some really lovely and inspirational ones.
My particular favourite is this one:



I love the colours and that skirt paired with the vintage tee.
The book definitely makes me lust after some people's clothes, particularly the vintage things.

Other looks I love:





If you have the book, what are your favourites? Unless you happen to have pictures to hand, page references work!

To round off, I'll post an outfit - not what I wore today, but another day's outfit.

From the classy background to the... not so classy.


These shoes are the Rascal lace ups from Office - £60, but worth every penny.


The pretty background was, very strangely, in a staircase in Hamley's. We went in there for fun and discovered a "Narnia" staircase, complete with a painted castle and this flowery wall.
Top - Topshop; shorts - navy boxers, don't know where from; necklace - Topshop; grey jacket - Topshop (quite Topshop-heavy, unintentionally!); shoes - Office. I took a big squishy tan bag with me.

Black hearts in battersea.

Sorry for the lack of posts! I think there's always a dodgy moment at the beginning of something like this where you're thinking "no one really cares... should I carry on?" and I somehow never got my butt into gear to make another post.

Last night, on a quest to do something other than hanging out at the usual haunts, my friend and I went for a walk south of the river. South London, you see, is somewhat of a taboo for a North Londoner. It's not as cool, as fun, as nice or as pretty as North London, or so everyone likes to believe. But I'm sick of always going to the same old places - every time I meet up with people we ask "where should we go?" and the reply is "hmmm... Starbucks? Cinema? Shopping?". Starbucks at least gives you a variety of locations (wahey!), as does cinema, but I always seem to end up going to the same 4 or 5 places.

We went for dinner first (itsu - I LOVE that place. Look at this yummy menu), and then to this place called Snog which sells frozen yoghurt. The shop is so nicely decorated:

It has fake grass floors and toadstool seats!

We took pictures all along the south side of the river - we walked from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge, of Fergie fame. (She got it wrong - you know the song London Bridge? 'How come every time you come around, my London London Bridge be going down...'? Ah, how it amused Londoners when she confused Tower Bridge (the one that can actually 'go down') and London Bridge (bog standard bridge). By the time we got to Tower Bridge it was about 11.30pm, and some parts were a bit dodgy to walk through, but it was exhilarating! I'm sure I wouldn't say that if anything HAD actually happened, of course, but I've always felt fairly safe. Some parts, like Southwark where there's an old Victorian jail, felt so olde worlde and exciting.

I loved my outfit too:

The pink H&M cardigan came out again!
Brogues - a random shop in Camden Market; white lace skirt- H&M; grey crop top - American Apparel; necklace - from my auntie; teal bag - Lambertson Truex.

We were snapping away like tourists the whole time:

How moody do the Houses of Parliament look in black and white?!

What cool places are there to go where you live?

TGI Friday.

Even though this week has been pretty relaxed, work or not, I'm glad it's the weekend! As you can probably guess by the fact that I'm updating my blog (alongside lots of facebooking) while at work, I don't have all that much to do and they're not too strict, but it'll be nice to get out of the office a little.

I'm looking forward to a long sleep: I've been going to work at 8.30am, staying until 6.30pm, and then going out - on Monday and Tuesday there were parties, and Wednesday and Thursday I saw friends, so by the time I go home at 12.30 and sleep for 6 hours I'm exhausted! Unfortunately, I don't think this weekend is looking so good snoozetime-wise. Dance on Saturday mornings is great, but a killer, seeing as I have to wake up at 8.30am. And then, Saturday night, I'm going to a party - I don't think I'll be getting much sleep, or at least not NICE sleep. We're in a tent outside. There are about 20 of us. The tent(s?) will fit us and all of that I'm sure, but they're not exactly a memory foam four-posters.

The party's fancy dress, and the theme is 'fairy tales and superheroes gone bad'. I was stumped for ages, and then I settled on Sinderella - 's' intended! (Is it lame that my mum gives me better fancy dress ideas than anyone I know?!) I'm going to be a lustful Cinderella, head over heels for Prince Charming. I bought a dress at H&M yesterday which is perfect - it's light blue with a ruffled skirt, which has slightly darker blue layers. The back is low, and it's quite short - I think it's meant to be worn with the vest part loose and then the ruffles on the hips, but since it's a size 14 (yes, about 3 sizes too large, but I wanted it!) I can only really hitch the ruffle bit up to my waist and tie it so that the vest part hangs over, or else I look as wide as a truck. The overall look is something akin to this:

- the AA Drawstring Dress, which I love! I'm just glad to have found a slightly cheaper dress that doesn't scream American Apparel.
With the dress, I'm wearing some taupe heels which I'm going to put cellophane over (glass slippers - hope it works!), and for my hair I'm going to do a messy updo with a tiara... and of course, lots of subtly smudged makeup. I'm also going to fashion some kind of heart shaped badge with Prince Charming's face on it.
Hopefully I'll strike the right balance between looking good, 'bad' and not too trampy!
Let me know what you think of the idea! I'll probably post the pictures of it tomorrow or Sunday.

Eh, this is a pretty short blog, (it WAS before my edit!) but I wouldn't let you go without posting my outfit for today!


Pink cardigan - H&M; pink top - Primark; black belt - from one of my mum's dresses; Skirt - Urban Outfitters; Brogues - New Look; gold socks - Topshop.

I love this outfit. It's really comfortable and I LOVE the colours, espceially the raspberry of the cardigan with the grey skirt. The skirt is UO (more sale purchases!) but it's a dead ringer for the AA tri-blend which I love - and so, of course, it's super soft and so nice to wear.

I had major green eyes on the bus to work though - a girl was wearing THE best dress I've seen in a long while, and she'd accessorised it so well. It was a strapless dress, a little over the knee, and it had the most amazing print - sort of a jungle/leaves print on a green background with a tiger on it. I was ogling her the whole way, especially since she'd teamed it with a really cute little brown belt, very nice Topshop-esque cut out flats, and a salmon-orange cardigan. *sigh*. I wish I knew where the dress was from.

L.

And did those feet in ancient times...

wear gladiator sandals? It seems like the modern world does...
Now, I love gladiators, but it's a shame that they're so popular. You know that bitchy, 'i found it first so HANDS OFF!' kind of mentality that surrounds something you've always liked when it suddenly becomes popular? Yeah, that. Or maybe I'm just mean. Either way, I feel like such a follower if I wear gladiators these days!

But, nonetheless, it's hard to resist sometimes -
case in point:

Are they not beautiful? The colour is so pretty - it makes a good change from brown and black, which seems to be the status quo for gladiators. Maddeningly those shoes keep flashing up in advertisements on web pages, only reinforcing the fact that I LOVE THEM and I can't buy them! Damn you, Office, with your 40 quid shoes!

Much as I love gladiators, there's a fine line to tread between too much and too little warrior appeal. Too little is generally better - who doesn't love some delicate sandals? Too much is where it all goes wrong...

My rule is that if it looks like a Roman warrior could seriously have worn them into battle, then it's too much. Perhaps on someone dainty and sylph-like they could work, but on most people they just look chunky and a little hench.

I've decided now, due to their exponentially-increasing popularity (do you remember when the sandals section of a shop was mainly flip flops a few sandals?!) to search out some different shoes to wear for summer.


All shoes - Office (www.office.co.uk)

Ihe ones on the left would look great with almost anything - I think they're great holiday sandals. The colour is good as well - they're not brown/black/blah neutral, but because of the subtle beading they won't clash with too much either.
The ones in the middle are probably veering towards gladiator territory, but they stay just about independent! I love the embellishment. And the last ones - I love them! I think they'd look fabulous with jeans or harem pants, and they're much more unusual than the standard summer sandal fare. I like the name too - Abu Dhabi.

I'm not sure about Fearne Cotton's take on the Abu Dhabi though:

I'm not hugely keen on the jumpsuit, which looks a bit juvenile and bulky. Good choice of shoes though ;)

Other than sandals, there are a lot of cute fabric shoes in the shops at the moment - and let's face it, I for one need them, since sandals are so astoundingly good at cutting my feet to shreds with rubbing or scratchy straps.
I bought these from Topshop recently:

I love the colour (which is paler and less cutesy in person) and the lace isn't lined apart from the toe/heel so they're light, comfortable, and summery. The Mary Jane strap means you can do anything in them, and I find that since your feet aren't squeezed in or sliding around you get fewer blisters.

And just to round it off, I'm going to end with these two gorgeous pairs of sandals from UO - both sadly sold out.

What shoes are going to be getting you through summer?

No one's going to save us now.

I'm working at the moment in an office, earning money for two weeks. I THINK I'm loosely allowed to do what I want on the computer, but I've shifted the computer screen slightly... I don't want all the office staff to see my photobucket and wonder what the hell I'm doing.

As I said two posts ago, I went shopping on the weekend, mainly to Urban Outfitters. I LOVE UO, but I have very few things from there - it's pretty expensive. But the sale? Wow. There's a lot of stuff for £9.99 and £19.99: it's such bliss to actually be able to afford stuff from there!
So, the purchases!

First was this skirt - it's a teal tulip skirt, and it has a graduated split front.

Sorry about the odd photo - Photobucket's not letting me crop!
I'm wearing it with my black Urban Outfitters corset I got a few months ago. It's seldom worn, but not out of a lack of love! I don't know quite whether you'd call it a corset, actually. Corsetini? Corsetette? It's a cropped one, in any case.

And the harems, which I wore yesterday:

I look like I have a mermaid tail in the second picture!

They're SO COMFY! Much more comfortable than leggings, actually - they're baggy, but not too baggy, and really soft. You can wear them around the waist (you need a belt though - the waist is quite big), slung low, or on your hips. They DO make your hips look a little wider, but contrary to what you might expect bigger is better - if they're really baggy it makes it look like your legs are quite skinny underneath.

I teamed them yesterday with a white lacy vest, the pink belt I'm wearing in the picture, a green cashmere cardigan and white beaded sandals. They're really great for summer, actually. It was a boiling day yesterday - I think the hottest of the year - and everyone else at the party I went to was wearing skirts and wondering aloud how anyone could wear jeans/leggings (some people did!), but I was pretty cool because they're so loose and airy.

Opinions?

A very British summer.

If there's one thing we Brits are known for, it's talking about the weather. It seemed to me that it's one of those old clichés which turns out to be untrue - like the image that the French walk round in berets and striped tops saying "sacrebleu" all the time - but I've come to realise that the weather really is very commonly-discussed, partly because it's so changeable. What do Californians talk about with all that sunshine day in, day out? We may not have the hugely varying seasons, but you never know what's going to happen with English weather... as has been proved this summer!
Yesterday, it started off as a gorgeous day - really hot and sunny - but by 5pm it was PISSING it down, and I really do mean pissing it down.
Evidence:

(Not exactly a stylish outfit - I was in pyjamas at the time but I really wanted to soak myself in the rain, so I threw on some shorts (Primark) and added a ribbon belt to look at least a little respectable for my facebook friends).
Somehow, the storm failed to clear the humidity, so it's been horrible and muggy today. By 7pm, before going out to dinner, I was desperate to abandon clothes altogether and retire between the cool sheets of my bed entirely naked, but alas, social etiquette forbids this when you've got a dinner engagement, so I had to throw something together to keep me somewhat cool:
t-shirt - Polo Ralph Lauren (a cast-off from my dad); skirt - handmade from a vest top (it's got a navy blue underskirt) and a vintage scarf; clutch - Primark; flip flops - Accessorize.

It looks a little bit like a car crash, but I liked it. It made me feel carelessly chic, like I'd just bunged any old thing on and it had worked. The jury's probably out on that one, but I think it's how I'm going to play it this summer - baggy men's tee, belted at the waist, with a short short skirt and bare legs.
And a word about the flip flops - usually, I'm iffy about them unless on a beach somewhere in Italy or some similar hot place, but I think they worked. At least, they kept my feet cool (they were so swollen from shopping in not-very-comfortable shoes that I could barely get any other pair on!) and I like to think of them as "stylish" flip flops, if such a thing exists. The thong part is beaded! *hopeful smile*

Summer dressing and I have never really got along - luckily for me our summers are usually cool enough to get away with trousers if you want, but I hate the feeling that you're wearing tacky crap when you're away on holiday. All the bright colours and cheap prints make me a bit uneasy, and I feel much more comfortable in tights and scarves and layered cardigans in the winter. This year, though, I'm going to try and master summer dressing!
How are you all dressing for summer?
L.

Yours is the first face that I saw.

So, here I am, making my first ever blog! First anythings are usually always awkward in the beginning, but I'm really looking forward to this. The idea of making a blog came to me, quite suddenly, while I was on the bus today going (where else?) shopping. The blog is mainly going to be about fashion, as the name might suggest, but I'm planning to make it a jumbled compilation about my life and the things I'm interested in.

I suppose I should first give some background information about myself, as you do. I'm Lotte, I'm almost 16, and I live in London. I think living here has inspired my fashion sense a lot - I draw a lot of inspiration from girls (and guys!) I see on the street, and I love the diversity of both the people and the shops here. What else? Hmm, I am, as you might guess, very interested in fashion, although nowadays I place a lot more emphasis on my own personal style than designers'. I used to read a crapload of fashion magazines every month - InStyle, Elle, Vogue, Marie Claire, Glamour, Teen Vogue, Grazia - but I got so busy that I had a backlog of them to read, and now I mostly stay involved in fashion through blogs and shopping.

And as for the other things I'm interested in? It's a pretty wide scope - politics, religion (in my case, lack of it), history, literature... That's the intellectual list at least - I watch as much trash TV as anyone else! I'll probably intersperse my fashion talk with ramblings about anything that comes to mind.

Hopefully this blog will be good for me - although I've always enjoyed and done well in English, I don't often get the chance to write outside a school scenario. I feel envious of those people who write poetry (however cringeworthy I find some of it!) or write a journal or even stories in their free time - I've never really had the inclination, apart from when I was younger. Oh, for the days when I used to fill my time by making mock holiday brochures and writing short stories about children called Octavia and Hazel...

I think that's all for now, but I'll probably get all excited later on and end up posting a lot in the next few days.
Before I finish, though, here's what I wore today for my shopping:


(excuse the hideous photos - humidity does nothing for your hair or face)
Jacket - H&M; grey leotard - American Apparel; navy belt - vintage; khaki skirt - American Apparel (the circle scarf); white shoes - Office; striped bag; from a magazine.
Most of the shopping was for birthday presents, although I couldn't resist the temptation and bought myself a teal skirt and navy harem pants (!!), as well as a pink belt, all from Urban Outfitters. (Amazing sale on there - there's a lot of stuff under £20, which is a revelation where UO is concerned).

I'll probably post about the beloved harems next time!
L.