If it aint broke....sell it at a vintage fair for £100

Cute Ballet Style Jumper
(£14)

Audrey Hepburn Necklace - not vintage
but obvi cute (£6)

I am a terrible friend. The worst. You must just hate me. I completely forgot to tell you that there was a vintage fair in Cheltenham Town Hall today. Now, before you all shut your laptops and dismiss me out of hand I want you to know I went on your behalf and am willing to report!! This was the first vintage fair I have been to in this country and it was good - if not a little expensive. Apparently in previous years there have been £10 bins etc but there was not much of that this year. Loads of gorgeous floral 50s housewife dresses, big fur coats and the odd quilted silk smoking jacket for the gents (or ambitious female). In general a lot of great stuff, but very highly priced - most things were priced between £50 and £100 with a great portion of the dresses up to £200. It would make you think vintage is becoming more fashionable (which in some circles it is) and therefore a rise in demand causes a rise in prices - but the fair was not very busy and there was A LOT of stock left at the end of the day. I did purchase a couple of things... Also pre-vintage fair, due to it being such a nice day I had lunch with a friend in Tewkesbury and found this little album gem in an antique fair - have become obsessed with Billie Holiday thanks to my old room-mate being her number one fan - thanks Alex!

Bought from an antiques shop in Tewkesbury today
(£3)

Unfortunately we cannot always live in the past and therefore I bring you trends for the future!!

N

J W Anderson S/S12

Fashion Trend: Nightwear in the day - ok I know I told you I wasn't liking this trend, but being the fickle fashion mistress that I am, I have changed my mind. Every since Stella McCartney brought out her pyjama pant suit as daywear I have been seeing more and more people rocking this look. It is more the case of wearing a patterned, flexible matching shirt and trousers in a canvas or silk fabric. It is all about wearing prints that you love from head to toe. If you don't like huge floral print or scary stripes then just go for tiny polka dots or even just a block colour. It is better to tuck the top in to create the silhouette you are looking for. Put with HUGE heels, HUGE cat eye sunnies and your Bayswater and strut right into the office - a total different meaning to dress down Friday heh? J.W Anderson knows how to work it showing the pyjama suit in paisley - 2 of the HOTTEST trends for this summer. Catch more of J.W at http://www.youngbritishdesigners.com/designers/newgen/j.w.anderson&site=Google&src=Ad&match=j.w.anderson/?gclid=CMCCrtGIuq4CFcENfAodbxQp4A

Nail Rock -Tribal Print £6.70

Fashion Item: Nail Varnish. I like to paint my nails - my toes are NEVER without colour. Now usually I am a black varnish girl and rarely stray from this. But I have found something magical!! Now there is a bit of a crazy trend at the moment to have crazy things on your nails - faces, animals, prints etc. So I  have found tribal nails!!! They are tribal prints that literally just stick onto your nails!! All the fun without the lovely not-so-English nail technician saying "oh hunni why you no got boyfriend, you so preddy". Buy from http://www.asos.com/Nail-Rock/Nail-Rock-Tribal-Print-Nail-Wraps/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2068988&cid=5607&sh=0&pge=0&pgesize=20&sort=-1&clr=Tribal

Christopher Kane Mirror
Disk Tee £30
Newgen - Topshop

Store or Label: Newgen at Topshop - This is a talent scheme created by BFC and sponsored by Topshop for 10 years this year. The scheme gives mentoring, financial help and offers space for fashion shows to get the new talent started. Some now HUGE names such as Mary Katrantzou, Matthew Williamson and Christopher Kane have been supported by the NEWGEN project (read more at http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/newgen). Topshop has teamed up with 20 of the past designers this year to bring out some limited edition t-shirts. My favourite is the Christopher Kane Mirror Disk Tee, but there are heavily printed ones, one with a doll face and a crazy Donatella one!! Check them out!


Celebrity or Designer: Nicki Minaj - everyone is supposedly asking if she is a sell out because she did that pop song with Madonna now her new single sounds less hip hop and more hip hip hooray!!  To be honest I think we should be worrying less about that and more about the fact she thinks she is Lady Gaga. She has been wearing a few too many similar outfits to the Gaga lately and I don't like it. I thought the stunt of bringing a pope look-a-like to the Grammy's was just too Gaga to accept. I think she is a great entertainer and I quite like her quirky music - so don't go all Kanye West and try to steal a blonde girl's limelight. Work it out gf.


Nicki Minaj at the Grammy's

Lady Gaga at the Brits (specifically notice dress shape)

Now it's Saturday night, do you not have someone to show your pyjama suit off to??
Becky xx

Get your ballgowns on kids, we're going to Tesco

Good Afternoon,

Today I had a great conversation with a friend of mine about (surprise surprise) fashion. As two people who have spent some points in our lives living in London we were musing about how much freer you feel - fashion-wise - when you are there. For those of you afraid of fashion, of which there are many, you may think I am being ridiculous. The truth is though, in London confidence is the only fashion that people should follow. The conversation was started by the fact that my friend was wearing a beautiful sheer beaded top which when I asked where she purchased it from she replied with "New Look...in Oxford Street obviously". Why obviously? Perhaps we put too much emphasis on the 'London Look'.

London is no doubt the fashion capital of England and therefore you go into any store and will find a fuller, more comprehensive and often edgier range than you will anywhere else in the country. Is this because London people are naturally more fashionable than the rest of us or is it because we perceive them to be as such? I commented to my friend this morning that some of the outfits I bought whilst living in America I feel too self conscious to wear in Gloucester because I think them too 'trendy' or 'fashion forward'. The point with London is, you could wear a black bag as a dress, belt it and someone else in your office is bound to come in wearing the same thing the next day. And therein lies the freedom.

Being a fashion follower is obviously very different to a fashion leader. If you put a table filled with healthy foods in front of a person, she would eat these and lose weight. If you put a store filled with fashion forward looks in front of a person, she would choose an outfit people see as on-trend. In London the real fashion followers go into Topshop and buy a black dress but then pair it with their grandfather's belt, a watch they bought at a vintage store and a pair of shoes from a charity shop. They customize their looks; tie a belt instead of putting it on the traditional way, carry their huge bag as though it was a clutch, wear a pair of Tesco sunglasses with a Nanette Lepore dress. Then they walk out their house and people, including myself stare in awe. Knowing how to work it is the real 'London Look'.

Now I do believe you should all go out and look confident in whatever you decide to wear, but I must make a small comment.... If you have to question whether what you are wearing is appropriate for Tesco...it is not appropriate. I saw an ENTIRE family in Tesco at 8pm last week dressed in pyjamas. We are not talking the Stella McCartney pyjama pant suit either. The mother was wearing a fuchsia coloured La Senza dressing gown with slippers....In. Tesco. HAVE SOME PRIDE LADIES!!!! What I tend to do if I am concerned about what I am wearing is think 'where have I worn this before?' and then assess the current situation. If the answer is 'in bed', 'to the young farmer's ball' or 'that time I walked through London during Gay Pride and got glitter in places no human should have glitter' then I know it is not suitable to pop to Lidl.

Confidence is always the new black. Like Tim Gunn says "make it work".
Becky xx

Every Morning I Wake Up, Before I Put On My Pyjamas...

Morning Bloggers,

It has already been a very stressful morning as there was some kind of kitten fight club outside my window that woke me up in the wee hours. If they were wanting to re-enact a film couldnt they have chosen a quieter choice? Perhaps SATC? As my friend once said, the musical, Cats and the SATC gang are not so different; they are all just old moggies eating breakfast together and bitching because one of the group has gotten older.

Anyway. I was upset at being woken so early because I tend to go to bed quite late. Since blogging, it seems the idea for the next day's blog comes to me, fully formed in bed. The only problem is that this process refuses to start until somewhere around midnight. Last night I was thinking I have blogged about unemployment, fashion, movies and, well, chocolate. This made me think of the part in The Social Network where Eduardo asks Mark if they can put advertisements on The Facebook and Mark replies no because "we don't even know what it is yet". This is how I feel about my blog. Im not sure how far it will take me or if people will like it - although I must say I have had some really great comments from those reading it - but I also dont know what it is yet. It may end up being just fashion, because hopefully one day I will be employed....but at the moment I am enjoying writing my musings to you and I hope you are enjoying reading them!

So I thought I would some days put an upcoming trend that I am obsessed with vs one I am not. So first things first: prints have been MASSIVE  for a long time now and everyone from designer to highstreet have jumped on the bandwagon. Birds, fish, tribal and polka dots have all been big and will be going into S/S 12, but the best one I have seen so far is the collection by Prada - dresses, shirts, skirts all in pastel colours with gorgeous car motifs. I. DIE. (http://www.prada.com/en#!/advertising-campaign-ss12/woman-print-campaign) I am especially loving...although still building up my bravery...to try mixing different prints. You have to be VERY careful when you do this otherwise you will end up looking like a cracked out Barbie. Leighton Meester is the QUEEN of mixing prints, so look to her for inspiration.

And the faux pas? The Pyjama Suit. Now, dont get me wrong I am not stifling creativity here. I just think this has gone a bit far. Us normal women - not a size 0, not 5'10" will look like we are late for a meeting and therefore thought clothes were less important than punctuality. Obviously never true...kidding. Probably. The girl in the link next to this statement however looks like we all wish we did when we got up in the morning. I dont think we need another reminder that we look less Heidi Klum and more The Gruffalo when the alarm goes off. http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2012/ready-to-wear/stella-mccartney/full-length-photos/page/2#/image/20 (for all of you that want to look at this ready-to-sleep-wear). I am in no way saying that Stella McCartney is not the best thing since Alli, im just saying that sometimes even I think things need to be reeled in a little...

Anyway gang, as always it has been a pleasure. My tip today is to email companies even if you dont think they have any vacancies as I did this and have been told to send my CV to one of them. Good luck and happy hunting!

Becky xx