What I'm Wearing

I've decided recently that I do actually have enough faith in my wardrobe and the ability to put an outfit together (!!! We'll see) to share with you what I'm wearing and possibly in the new year revive my long neglected lookbook account....
I'm not really one of these people that stays "on trend", even though I wish I could. I might buy one or two key pieces each season (my budget only ever stretching to Topshop, Zara or Asos) but primarily I stick with simple pieces that I know work for me, and charity shops!!
Some of my most important wardrobe staples have been purchased from a charity shop and rarely cost me more than £10. Take, for example, my Joop! handbag. It's a circular box shape which is why it caught my eye- really different from anything I'd seen on the high street, with 2 gold clasps and long shoulder straps. And it cost me £5! Granted, the clasps come undone rather a lot and I have to clip them back in, but it's a small price to pay to have such a unique, beautiful and cheap (yes! I said it!) bag.
The other thing I love about charity shops is the sporadity of them. Sometimes you can come away with whole new outfits, and other times nothing at all. I also find this nice in the sense that if something doesn't fit, it doesn't fit- there's no carrying on with sizes and fretting that in the last 15 minutes, you've suddenly grown 2 dress sizes since the last shop you tried on a pair on jeans in, resulting in you sobbing in a heap in the changing room floor of Topshop with a pair of size 8's around your ankles. I've got a weird body shape anyway (broad shoulders, small boobs, teeny waist, big hips, long legs) so often find myself of an evening sat with my mums sewing box making alterations.... And if it goes wrong, who cares?! I only spent £3! 
So I'm hoping that even though my outfit choices aren't necessarily what you will find in the shops, that they will inspire you to try new combinations, dig through your wardrobe to reinvent long forgotten pieces, and look upon the weird granny shirt in your local charity shop with a new set of eyes. Enjoy! 

This is the outfit I wore yesterday- I finished off my Christmas shopping in my local town, sat and had a coffee and begun reading David Mitchell's "Back Story", and then went to the pub for dinner and bingo with my girls Amy and Emily (I won a fiver!)

For all I've just been harping on about charity shops, it has just occurred to me that this isn't actually the best outfit to reflect that!! However, it was still put together on a shoestring budget, and I had a really good charity shop haul yesterday so I will soon make another outfit post about the items I purchased. 

The skirt I am wearing I actually got from Topshop in the January sales at the beginning of the year. It only cost me £10 and I was so lucky, there was only 1 left and it was a size 10! The weird fluoro-mustard colour got a bit of getting used to at first, but it teams so well with neutrals, and the lace panel detail is so lovely and really makes it stand out. 

I couldn't wear this with anything too busy so I popped into my brothers wardrobe and "borrowed" his denim shirt, which tucks in nicely to prove that I do actually have a waist, whilst also being satisfactorily oversized and androgynous at the same time. So with that in mind- and inspired by my recent Kiss Like Daisy post- I dug out a very old bow from my mums sewing kit and attached it to the collar, and for the sheer cheek of contrast teamed it with my beautiful DKNY watch that I got for my 21st birthday, and my battered old Dr Martens that I bought for £7 on eBay when I was 16. Done!

City Girl

This week, I started interning at More! Magazine for two weeks. I'm absolutely loving every aspect of it- even the early mornings, it's such a nice feeling to wake up and look forward to the day ahead. Each day when I travel to Tottenham Court Road, I find myself fantasising about finding my own flat here- even in one of the high rise blocks which have always terrified me! I was kind of thrown in at the deep end on my first day when Maaike from the fashion team told me about the "what we're wearing" feature on the website, and that I'd be the featured outfit for Monday..! You can see the full post here... But please bear in mind I was very much caught off guard, so excuse my weird fringe and awkward posture....



Monday continued with a somewhat expensive lunch after I ended up wandering into MAC (resulting in a self-imposed ban on leaving the office at lunch time) and putting together trends, which aside from being really fun, gave me a massive confidence boost when it came to my own sense of style... Something which I've never really thought much to write home about before now! So with this in mind, along with the apparent success of Monday's outfit, I decided to document my outfits daily!

Tuesday's was a personal favorite:



This beautiful outfit has become affectionately known as "the power dress" by my wonderful housemates back in Bournemouth. I'm totally in love with it- I found it in "the conscious collection" at H&M, the bright orange having really caught my eye. I've got quite an odd figure- wide shoulders, small waist, and because of this I normally find it really hard to find a nice fitted dress that looks right on me. But this one is just perfect! The skirt really pops from the waist, accentuated by a couple of underskirts, and the material has this gorgeously subtle rose pattern. However, my absolute favorite detail is THIS:



cutest buttons ever?




On Wednesday, I took some inspiration from one of my main style muse's, Florence Welch:



This dress is as subtle as Tuesday's was bold, and for all the right reasons. The mid length skirt is perfectly on trend, and the split sleeves add just the right amount of detail without being too obvious. I also really like the colour, a very delicate pink blush which was very easy to accessorise with my favorite item of clothing ever- a navy blue chunky suede belt with a huge gold buckle, which belonged to my nan in the 60s. I also wore, as I have done every day this week so far, a pair of slipper-loafers with a gold buckle from River Island.
On Wednesday evening, after conquering THE worst rush hour I have ever experienced, I met up with my lovely best friend Caz at Westfield Stratford. I don't see her often as we study at opposite ends of the country, but we always have the best time no matter how long we go without seeing each other (although luckily I got to see her lots at Christmas). We had such a lovely City Girl evening getting our nails done and going out for dinner and drinks!! I think the people at the nail bar weren't used to people rocking up and asking for a different colour and design on every nail, but I was chuffed with the results :)





On Thursday, I not only had a great time at the office blogging for the intern blog (more on this later) and sourcing props for a shoot, but I met up with my friend Nil who works at Illamasqua once I'd finished for a few cheeky drinks. We started off in a bar just round the corner from my office called The Intrepid Fox, which had been recommended to me by my dad because it is "steeped in rock and roll history"- when I asked what he meant by that, he told me Slash once knocked out one of the New York Dolls there.
I was wearing a black satin long-sleeved mini dress with patent coffin shoes. How cool was this location for a photo!




After a large glass of vino we headed off to my favorite cocktail bar in London, Navajo Joe's in Covent Garden for a few more drinks before heading home for an early (ish) night because we both had early starts the next morning. But I'm looking forward to seeing Nilly again next week :)

Friday was a really exciting day. I was assisting a photoshoot with Tijan for the Valentines issue of the mag... I will write about this in more detail later on, but it was so exciting! Here is my outfit for Friday along with a sneak peek of what we got up to on set...



I really liked the basic white dress because I thought it could be adapted to work into lots of different looks! I teamed it with a Coco Chanel- esque blue and cream jumper and a lovely winter hat that my lovely nan surprised me with in the post! Again I wore my coffin shoes and rocked a huge pair of gold rose earrings along with my super long chained sugar skull necklace from Brick Lane.

So that's my week of outfits! I hope you all had as great a week as I did. See you soon x