Fur Real?

(Image via Harvey Nichols)

So it is that time of year again, when my thoughts turn to spending a lot of money on a dress that I might only wear once. Yup, it is Christmas time, and more specifically Christmas party time. I have two work Christmas dos this year. One is casual and starts with some ice skating so I will be going for cosy chic and the other I suspect will be a bit more dressy. It is at our offices in Lytham, near Blackpool so I'm guessing, and I might be way off mark, but I'm guessing that they might go all out. I think there might be some DRESSES, do you know what I mean? I think there might be more than the odd sequin in town. I mean we will be practically within spitting distance of the Tower Ballroom and if there is one thing that Blackpool loves more than a donkey ride and a drunken stag vomiting on the promenade it has got to be a sequin.

Of course I am a contrary beast. I always crave being out of kilter with the general flow, I like to swim against the current. So while I might tend to be over dressed most of the time when a dress code requests you go all out that is the point I tend to hang back,  to want to be a bit more nonchalant, a bit more, you know, Parisienne. I want to look as though I am not trying too hard.

So while I was looking at delightful black sequin dresses in All Saints

(Image via All Saints)

and LK Bennett,

(Image via LK Bennett)

with maybe a loose fitting tuxedo jacket thrown over the top, what I am actually more drawn to is a black trouser, flashing just the right amount of ankle, a short sleeved top of some kind (maybe white lace) and a really shit hot pair of shoes.

I was drawn to something similar to these

(Image via Telegraph Fashion)

 

which I think are awfully sexy. But I while looking for something similar I fear I have lost my heart to the Sophia Webster pair at the top. Aren't they to die? I truly would feel like the silliest and sexiest girl in all the land. Sequins be damned!

Green Giant

(Image via Go Fug Yourself)

Call me crazy but I kind of love Jennifer Lopez's cropped and voluminous suit. I don't love the shoes. Not keen in the slightest in fact. And I wish that the trousers didn't have the tight cuffing. But otherwise I think it is pretty interesting and boy does her midriff look good.

Oh My Stars!

I don't profess to be a beauty expert but I have a fair few products and I know it when I love one.

I don't ever remember loving something as much as I love the By Terry Ombre Blackstar cream eyeshadows.

A colleague of mine who is obsessed with beauty products waltzed into work with her eyelids bedecked with Misty Rock, a slightly pinky toned, sheeny delight, and I fell in love. Properly. In love. With eyelids. I know! It has never happened before. Eyelids I tell you.

So I treated myself to one with the equally whimsical name of Bronze Moon (having instigated a work trip to SpaceNK with a couple of pals in our lunch our we all ended up with the same colour), and the initial lust developed into a deep, abiding love which I can never imagine waning. Seriously, I am already worrying what will happen if they ever stop making them.

You swipe it over your lid and blend it in and it looks amazing. I don't think I will ever wear another product on my lids until they stop making them, and with about 20 colours to chose from the world is my pretty, sheeny oyster. Getting ready and making yourself pretty has never been so easy.

My advice would be - get well and truly stuck in. You'll thank me for it. Promise!

Tan Your Hide

 Balmain

I love a girl who can rock a black leather jacket. A colleague of mine looks fierce in one with black skinny jeans. I am quite envious because I fear it is a look I can't carry off. But this season there is way more colourful leather and the more femme-y look might be something I could play with. Toughening up midi skirts and pastel floral dresses. Yes please.

If I had a spare 3 grand knocking around I would be all over the blue Balmain beauty. But I don't.

Erdem

So the search is on to find the perfect leather jacket that won't blow the budget. I'm excited.

IRO

Karen Millen

Maje

Maje

Maje

 Rag and Bone

Sophie Hulme

(Images via Net a Porter, Karen Millen, Shopstyle)

You Ain't Got No Alibi

(Image via Farfetch)

You ugly!

And that is why we love you. For once fashion is embracing the practical and the unconventional in the form of the ugly sandal. It is the shoe trend of the season and I want in. I am entirely in love with the See by Chloe white chunky sandal above, but as a possible one-season-trend I might refrain from spending the big(ger) bucks and look to the high street instead.

I can't even remember the last time that I bought anything from Topshop but that might well change because the are hard at work on the ugly sandal trend.

Prada, Celine et al have been championing the pool slide/Teva style adventure sandal and the fashion elite have been going nuts for them. Who can blame them, quite frankly. The cost of being at the forefront of the fashion biz is surely the constant discomfort of dressing out of season and  sporting perilously high heels. So flat chunky sandals with wide straps must be an absolute delight in comparison.

Another great thing about an ugly trend is that you have to be quite brave to try it, so while the comfort might mark you out as being anti-fashion the ugliness (weirdly in this case) reels you back in to being right on the fashion money. Get in! Being fashionable by wearing just one item? It couldn't be easier.

A probably unnecessary  warning is that those not interested in fashion and particularly those with XY chromosome WILL. NOT. GET. THIS. TREND. It is basically a fashion prophylactic.

But fear not, ladies, if you are the type to dress for the fellas this is no doubt the furthest trend from your thoughts anyway. So as you were.

I wear trainers almost exclusively these days and as the weather is getting warmer I was getting concerned about how to maintain the levels of comfort I have recently become accustomed to. But I can breathe a deep sigh of relief because the ugly sandal is going to keep my feet blissfully happy while doing the same for my fashion sensibilities. I couldn't be more chuffed!

(Images via Topshop)

Turning my Back on Black

(Image via Hobbs)

I have been wearing far too much black, for what feels like forever. And enough is enough. I am putting a 100% ban on buying anything black and a 70% ban on buying anything white (my other go to shade). Number one item on my colour wish list is this divine Hobbs dress. The colour is oh so slightly Burberry Prorsum, no? I want.

Get Your Skates On

 Clarks

Certain trends seem to appear fully formed, then there are stealthy trends that creep up on you slowly, and finally there are trends that morph from one thing to another.

I would put the skate shoe trend in that last bracket. Now, 18 month or so ago, I would have put the skate trainer very much out of my field of interest. I would have put it in the field of interest, would you Adam and Eve it, of the average teenage skater girl. A group I most certainly don't fall into.

 Common Projects

Then there came the Celine take on the look and my interest was piqued but not so much for my purse to yield its hard earned.

As time has passed, as fashion is want to do, it has filtered down to the high street (and across to other designers), and I am getting increasingly intrigued by them. They feel decidedly more appropriate for adult types.

 Givenchy

I was about to dip into the trainer trend with a pair of Nike Air Max, but I might go skate shoe instead. Worn with a smart coat and tailored trousers it (ahem) skates the line of fashion and practicality and I like that.

 Mother of Pearl

Plus with the Clarks pair (not in the shops quite yet) going for 40 knicker they pretty much hit my financial sweet spot too.

 Mother of Pearl

What do you think? Are you tempted by the trend?

Whistles

(Images via Clarks, Matches, Net a Porter, Whistles)

Bombshell

 Anna Sui

I never thought I was a bomber jacket kind of girl. When I was at school an achingly cool friend used to have one emblazoned with the logo of a pirate radio station. I was in awe but I knew that I was never that cool.

 DKNY

But mostly the problem was that my style is quite femme and I felt that the bomber was not for me. I need my clothes to go in and out to prove that I too go in and out, although slightly less in and slightly more out these days.

 IRO

With Isabel Marant championing the look over the past few years I have decided to revisit. And this season seems to be the right time to do it. Unlikely style icon Mary Berry and her floral bombers seem to have encouraged a more feminine take on the look.

 J Crew

Admittedly some of the jackets might come under the label of baseball or varsity rather than bomber, but I'm not to be exclusive, as you can see above you can definitely glam the look up.

 Maison Martin Margiela

I would probably chose to wear it with a flippy little skirt, grey sweatshirt and trainers, but it looks pretty bitching with jeans and heels too for a sports luxe take.

 T by Alexander Wang

Plus, I think the added bonus is that they can be worked right now by adding a layer under your regular coat. Warm, stylish and up to the minute? Whodathunkit?!

T by Alexander Wang

(Images via Net a Porter)

Pale and Interesting

Pastel colours sing out a message of springtime for me. Of course we are somewhat far from the moment when spring will be sprung, and while the first brave flowers are starting to show their faces in my parents' garden it is due to get cold here from tomorrow. Again, relatively speaking, no polar vortex in the gentle hills of Bath, but still cold enough not to want to be something braving life outdoors.

And not to want to think about wearing baby pink lace. But I can't resist showing you the Burberry Prorsum spring summer collection.

These colours are just so delectable and the cuts so very femme.

As soon as I am brave enough to poke my head above the soil I know what I will be copying wearing.

Except, you know, with more than just big pants underneath…

(Images via Style.com)