A retrospective

Today is my actual birthday (it seems as if I never shut up about it, doesn't it?) and I thought I'd share with you outfits and giggles from previous birthdays, back as far as digital cameras go anyway!

My 21st, you've already seen soem highlights but I thought me and Sea on a bathroom counter was worth seeing!
My 20th, note the similar hair accessory. Yup, we're vogueing.
Saving the best for last, this is my 19th. I weirdly still own everything I'm wearing there. My only wish is that I'd worn something under that vest because the visible bra is so tacky!
This serves not only as a fashion history, but also as a catalogue of my stupid poses!

Char x

Cocktail time

Hey!
Saturday night was spent celebrating a friend's 21st, I wore the pink dress thusly;
A few cocktails had been consumed by this point, if that's not already entirely obvious. The toilet photo is an homage to Sea, for some reason we always take bathroom shots. The dress I thrifted a while ago, generic black tights and ancient New Look wedges (I'll admit I chose these more for comfort than style, I was anticipating a long night!), the bangle is a gift but I happen to know it's from Dotti.

Char x

I have this little sister, Lola

Hey!
I had an exam on Thursday (it went pretty well, I think, especially considering that a flock of seagulls were squaking their diesease-filled lungs out right outside the exam hall!), so a pretty boring outfit. I always take really weird things into account when getting dressed for an exam...I never wear jeans becuase I usually leave early and once got the feeling I had flashed my ass to the entire third year Psychology, fourth year engineering and second year Biology who were in that hall, uncool. I also try and wear quiet shoes (unlike invigilators) and layers!

Shoes (quiet ones!) - Dorothy Perkins, tights - tightsplease, skirt - Oasis, tee - H&M. Note also the lack of accessories, nothing worse than a pile of bangles clanking together or hitting off the desk in an exam situation. I try not to be the person eveyrone hates (Coughy McBreathesloudly and Mr Fidget were present in this particular exam).

After the exam, retail therapy was required, to push out all that knowledge I know longer require, that is if I passed! I headed to H&M after a post on nitrolicious promising me new season gorgeous-ness, which was nowhere to be found, damn Edinburgh! I did however score some yummy grey over-the-knees and 100 denier tights (the holy grail of opaque-ness!). My back to school wardrobe is getting very full, especially my socks 'n' tights drawer.

After H&M disapointment (but not really because payday is 8 days away and a girl's gotta eat) I headed to Topshop in search of the perfect dress for my 21st (one month today!). Mission accomplished:

Since my camera is rubbish/I am a crap photographer, I'll also include the picture from their website, pretty no?

I had originally wanted the dress below, but I couldn't find it/didn't look properly and took the other one to try on instead. I think I actually made the right choice though, however accidentally it occured, becuase strapless dresses are usually less comfortable, cause muffin-topping of the underarm area (which I hate!) and leave you open to risk of exposure (don't mock, it actually happened to a friend of mine, and yes a friend and not me! On a packed dancefloor in front of all her colleagues). I think it'll also be easier to wear more casually after my birthday, which is essential becuase it was rather expensive! Also, does anyone else think that Lola (of Charlie and Lola a.k.a the best kids/not kids cartoon ever!) is really stylish? I mean check out this Miu Miu-esque number she's rocking in the opening credits...

And yes, I am turning 21, not 7. Speaking of which, my present (from myself, with love) should be:

Marc by Marc Jacobs at shopbop

Or

Vivienne Westwood bracelet

It probably is a bit odd to buy a birthday present for yourself, but it's a longstanding tradition of mine.

Char x

In which we meet a stripper

Hey!

This evening I'm seeing another ballet with my mum and her boyfriend, this is my outfit with the skirt I DIYed today (more on that later!).

Skirt - thrifted and shortened, lace shirt - vintage via ebay (I love it but it sometimes looks pirate-y because of the way it ties under the neck...), vest - Topshop, shoes - vintage via ebay.

Today's otufit; jeans. It's weird because as recent as a year ago I'd wear jeans everyday, but now I prefer skirts so it's unusual for me to don the denim. I realised this morning that I'd bought these jeans in Apirl and still hadn't worn them so I decided it was a jeans day. I suppose I'll probably be wearing jeans more when I go abck to uni and when it gets colder and windy...

The shoe are vintage, purchased via ebay and I seem to be wearing them a lot recently, they're really compfy. The jeans are Dorothy Perkins, the biege vest is from Topshop and the tee is etsy (comment/email if you want the seller!). The bracelet was a gift, it's from Dotti.

I threw this Primark jacket over the top as the weather wasn't looking too rosy...it was another unworn item, puchased months ago. Stop this madness! Why do I buy things then not wear them? Last time I counted, there were 11 unworn items in my wardrobe and since then I've been shopping/

Did a bit of DIY today, nothing to rival Nice and Shiny mind! I mentioned before that I had thrifted some long pleated granny skirts and this is the results of me attacking one of them with scissors! The others will have to wait as they are fraying kind of material and so require hemming *sigh*.

You can see here that the back is longer than the front (the whole bottom is actually a bit Lisa Simpson) but it doesn't bother me and I don't think it's noticeable with the pleats anyway.
I woke up with a great idea for a dress and headed to the fabric shop near my flat to check out supplies. Sadly there was no grey jersey to be had but there was a great deal of amusement! Firstly this young guy was in there, at the counter asking how much of this material he'd need for something or other. The women behind the counter innocently asks him "What're you making?" to which he replies "Rip-off pants". The guy was a stripper making his own costumes...I mean aren't there places you can buy "rip-off pants"? The really weird part is that wehn he said "rip-off pants" I immediatly thought "Ohhh a rip-off of who? Marc Jacobs?" and commenced eavesdropping, I suppose that's proof that I think about fashion more than sex! There was also a middle-aged hippy woman buying some floaty material to make trousers to go with her "Gandhi shirt"...

Char x

Hoisery whore

This is what A/W '08 looks like from the point of view of a hoisery-holic. I make no apologies for my addiction to legwear, if you are not familiar with said addiction, catch up here, here and here. You know I'm ordering a load of tights next payday. It's nearly Autumn so I'll be able to feel legit buying/wearing opague tights (not that I ever stopped for summer!).

Zan Posen

We Love ColoursZac Posen
We Love Colours
Zac Posen
Jonathan Aston at tightsplease
Betsey Johnson
American Apparel
Betsey Johnson
Jonathan Aston at mytights

Viktor and Rolf

We Love Colours

Zac Posen

Pamela Mann at mytights

Char x

Bows make life good

This is our 100th post!
This is today's outfit, just a lazy Sunday for me as we were out last night for Sea's 21st! More about that later...I had to blac the faces out on these pictures because I'm not wearing enough make-up and they were hideous! Really, I'm doing you guys a favour I promise.

I love this dress, I bought it when I was in New York at Christmas time, which was my birthday present from my Mum and the most amazing fun ever! I absolutly love New York, I knew that before I even got there. It's a really inspiring city and probably my second favourite place in the world (after Edinburgh becuase most of the people I love are here!). The dress is from H&M, I forgot to even mention that! The tights and black top are also H&M, shoes from Dorothy Perkins, the yellow top with bow is from ebay, one of those shops that sells things from Japan/North Korea which are really bad quality but really cute. I bought a bunch of stuff like that last year when I was fascinated my Japanese street fashion (I still am!) and all I ever searched on ebay was "kawaii" + dress/top/jacket. The red bag is vintage, I got it from ebay.
Close-up bow shot!
So, as I already mentioned, last yesterday was Sea's 21st birthday! The birthday girl looked awesome in the sweetest dress and pearls (you probably know how much I love pearls by now!) I leant my pearls to our friend F for the occasion, I hope I get them back soon! This was my outfit, you'll have to excuse the blacked-out face/awful photography - I took these at the end of the night!
Generic black tights, skirt - H&M, top/dress - DKNY Pure (another New York purchase! Thanks bloomingdale's sale! I was terrified of stainging this last night because it's pure silk and I'm rubbish with light colours so I was avoiding any coloured drinks!), studded belt - H&M. Apologies again for the rubbish pictures!

Below, I seem to be attempting the "dry shampoo", and I swear I only had three drinks!

You can't see my shoes in these pictures (they were off my feet by that point anyway!). These are the result of my feet hurting at work and me venturing out to buy "sensible" shoes to ease the pain. These are not sensible shoes. I swear they were trying to break my ankles last night, they don't even look that high but I have low tolerance for heels. It's really only this year I've started wearing heels with any frequency.
This was Friday's outfit, I didn't do anything that exciting - just dinner with my Mum -but I think it further demonstrates my unconditional love for bows right now.
Shoes - Dorothy Perkins, tights/skirt - primark, top/dress (with bow!) - ebay (another Japanese/Korean purchase where the shipping costs double what the item does). Cardigan - Topshop, bow bangle - asos.
So that was our 100th post, here's to 100 more!

Char x

Topshop strikes again

I posted before about Topshop "borrowing" fabric from another high street store, of course, that could've been pure coincidence.

This, however, is not a coincidence.

What bothers me about these items isn't the fact that they are almost direct copies of runway looks, if Topshop thinks that's what the British (and beyond) public want then they are totally entitled to provide it. Personally, I'd like to think that we could be credited with more imagination than that. The really irritating thing, for me, is that these are new-ish items, as in intended to be worn into Autumn/Winter and yet they've been ripped right from the Spring/Summer collections. Topshop, usually known as being fashion-forward, creating it's own designs which are often as covetable as any designer is copying what are effectively last season's desgins. Perhaps they are not able to copy these designs as quickly as, say Primark, but surely a whole season is excessive?

Another worrying part of this new facet to Topshop is the Forever 21 factor, as in you can push it so far before designers get irritated and the word "lawsuit" is mentioned. Yes, fashion is about borrowing from others. Taking elements of other designs and other times and putting your own spin on them but not blatent copy-catting! The irony being that Topshop itself has fallen prey to forever 21's "blatent copy" policy, when one of their Kate Moss dresses was copied:

Kate Moss for Topshop on the left and Forever 21's version on the right via nitrolicious

Other desingers famously copied by Forever 21 include; Diane von Furstenberg (a link to her lawsuit is here), Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui and Catherine Holstein. Do a google image search if you want!

Counterfeiting and copying is something I feel strongly about, I can't say that I approve of fake bags and other goods and these copies, for me, are one step down from that. It's one thing to be inspired by someone else's work but to straight off copy it is something else. Of course there is the argument, often used in defence of the high street, that they are bringing high fashion to those who otherwise couldn't afford it and I can't really argue with that since I am one of the many who can't afford it!

Thoughts?

Char x

Image credit - style.com, Topshop.com, nitrolicious.