Vintage Inspired

Just read an article (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/vintage-clothing-when-i-was-14-i-swore-id-never-wear-high-street-clothes-again-6534499.html)  all about vintage clothing by Harriet Walker talking to, William Banks-Blaney (a globe trotting vintage shopper), Claire Stansfield (co-founder of Relik) and Sarah Kennedy (author and vintage expert).  Everything they said was good advice for when buying vintage and I'll definitely remember it for the future, and make sure I pick up a copy of Sarah Kennedy's book!  Claire Stansfield quote: 'Vintage doesn't follow trends, it creates and inspires them. Trends will always be influenced by what you see on the big screen or on the latest catwalks'.  This is so true!!! Everything now is vintage inspired and that label helps products sell.  It got me thinking about my vintage purchases and why I love them!  I never realised how much vintage I had until I decided to write this so I tried to narrow it down to a few of my fave finds!

These were my auntie's back in the day CAT shorts which are gorgeous! She saw me wearing shorts similar and gave me these.  Perfect vintage.

Levi cropped jeans from Rokit! Great find, hard to get the right size so was so happy with these.

I remember spending my last £35 on this jacket on a market in Brick Lane (I had to haggle) and it's still fashionable today.  Win for me!

I found these trousers I saw on a mannequin outside a vintage shop in camden and asked the to bring them down for me.  And although they are about 3 sizes too big with a belt I made it work!

Found this cute cardy at a vintage shop called COW near my friends university in Sheffield! I have to look round the vintage shops every time I am down visiting and make sure there is extra room in my bag to carry everything I find on the way back!

SO basically I love vintage!!! Who doesn't want to own something they know no one else has, makes it truly precious!

Pure London

On Monday 13th I went down to Pure London, the leading trade fashion event for sourcing womenswear, young creative fashion for women, accessory and footwear brands.  I was able to catch the womenswear catwalk and the young fashion half scene catwalk, and was fun to see what autumn/winter has in store.  The three looks they spoke about before the womenswear catwalk were Eco Hedonism, Hyperculture and Radical Neutrality.  Radical Neutrality struck me the most, I loved the nature aspect to the clothes.  I am very into patterns and this look incorporated that well.  What I heard a lot during the talks was NEUTRAL! It's all about neutral colours for the 2012/2013 winter just like its all about pastel colours this summer.  It's good to have a heads up on whats to come this winter.

I got some snaps of my favourite looks from the womenswear catwalk, the first three are all about the shoes (as this is my weakness!)

Love the biker girl look!  They will be so good, comfy and warm for the winter this year.

What amazed me about these are how did she walk in them?!? Gorgeous but dangerous!!!

These welly boots look so cute and will be perfect in the mucky English winter.  They are practical as well as a fashion statement.

My last snap is all about the pattern!

This is a simple cardigan but when you look at the back it has such a beautiful design, making any simple outfit stand out.

What I loved most about this was looking round and finding some amazing new boutiques:

http://shop.shopheartboutique.com/

http://www.lovestruckclothing.co.uk/

http://www.rubyrocks.com/

http://www.minauk.com/

http://www.arkclothing.com/Ark_Female/Shop_by_brand/Danity.html

Which give you something different to look at when you always shop high street!

Cheer Up Shoes

I had this idea for my blog about 2 days ago when I was feeling blue and bought myself a new pair of shoes to cheer me up! When I'm sad shoes seem to be the first place I look for comfort, so here I am going to give my top five cheer up shoes (which trust me was hard to narrow down).

#5 I can't afford it so someone else buys it for me as a present shoes:  Office shoes that were £70 which I could not afford, but wouldn't stop going on about for weeks.  After dragging my boyfriend in to see them a few times he got the hint and bought them for me!

#4 I want brown heels shoes:  I spent forever looking for the perfect brown heels that I could actually walk in, when I stumbled across these in New Look.  These were a great little pick me up!

#3 25% off Office shoes with O2 priority:  Got to love being with O2 when they bless you with these little gems! Cheered me up a great deal when I saw this offer, went straight to office and then fell in love with these shoes.

#2 See shoes in a magazine, go to Sheffield, walk past an Office, go in and buy instantly:  As you can see there is a pattern with my love for Office shoes! I saw these shoes in a magazine and fell in love! That same weekend I was going to Sheffield to visit my friend and of course I needed a souvenir...

#1 Wanting doc martins for years and years and finally found the perfect pair: These are my number 1 as I have wanted doc martins since I can remember.  Buying those fake ones on camden market is just not the same (and I know for a fact).  Definitely worth the £95 I spent on them and so worth the wait.

FEAL THE LOVE

Just saw this on Melanie Rickey blog and had to share they are so adorable. On top of this a 1/3 of the proceeds go to the British Heart Foundation, they can be found at any Beyond Retro.

FEAL THE LOVE