Working with what you've got.

Vintage is everywhere and it’s probably the most sort after fashion item for a fashionista and fashion blogger. But I wanted to show that its not just us lot trying to be cool, whapping out blasts from the pasts, its actually quite cheap if you can find some retro pieces that have come back into fashion lying around the house, and to be honest as a student I need cheap. Going through your nans get ups from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s can be quite amazing to say the least. I got my love of fashion from my Nonna (nan) she is very inspirational to me. Her love of fashion has always shined through and I feel very lucky to be able to wear her things as it means a lot to me. Also as my family owns a fashion business (started by my Nonna) when my mum and auntie were young they got to go to London when buying for the shop, they would always came back with the most amazing shoes and crazy tops. And as we have all always been interested in fashion they didn’t really throw anything away, so when I get the chance to have a rummage through the archives almost, I go without hesitation. What I wanted to explore in this blog post was how to use vintage pieces to your advantage, as we all have different tastes I will be doing a few different looks that you can incorporate and change with your wardrobe. It’s about using what you’ve already got if your in a after Christmas money slump like me. I’ve use some similar base pieces with just one or two vintage pieces to show how much you can change an outfit by small changes, without having to buy new things all the time.

The first outfit uses an oversized vintage shirt of my aunties, I put it with my black wet look leggings and leather jacket for a more modern look and added silver docs and accessories. I wanted to go for a 80's feel with this outfit and taking elements from that era, the oversized shirt, the leather and the red lipstick. Ive kept the wet look leggings the same in each to show how much an outfit can be changed. 

My second outfit is again using a vintage piece, a jumper of my Nonna's. I went for quite a quirky laid back look with this outfit.

Vintage is always in fashion but has been more so in the last couple years, the 90’s trend has come back and mama jeans and scrunchies are storming the uk. There are many vintage shops in Cardiff and all over the country, vintage is considered as quirky and unique in our world of fashion and its fun to make your own as blasts from the pasts are always fun, either cringey or cool, you decide.

xoxo

Flash Mob, Cardiff #sooverit

Flash mob experience.

It was nearly two months ago now that we were given the brief to take part in a flash mob, at first my heart sank as I really don’t like drama. It scares me to death, I dropped that subject way back in year 9, as soon as I didn’t have to do it anymore. So we were put into groups with some third year drama students and shared some ideas on what we could do for our flash mob and where we could do it. At first we came up with the idea to go with identity and how everyone dresses the same, following a celebrity influence, but trying to break out of this mould. After a little while together we had to all go our separate ways for the rest of the day, we made a group on facebook so we could all talk when we weren’t together.

The next time we met only half of our group turned up, a day before the actual flash mob was suppose to happen, so we talked and talked and talked and worked around it. We spent all that day deciding, changing and practicing as our whole idea from the first time we talked had changed, we were now doing social media and how everyone follows each other like sheep. So we all decided we would all wear black and have a sheep mask on. We practised and then there was no more that could be done the flab mob was tomorrow and I was quite nervous.

Of course we were last so we watched everyone do there’s and then it was our turn. We chose to locate it in St.davids centre by Starbucks and Debenhams, we all came from different directions and soon it had begun, we started by getting into a circle and taking selfies then started moving around the space, we then got into a circle and took photo’s of one of our group members inside, showing her as the centre of attention, we then moved onto a tweeting noise (tweeting those photos) which is the sound of the twitter bird, after that we moved onto hashtags and ended with a group photo saying #picoftheday, we then dispersed and then it was over as quick as it had begun.

I think my experience of being apart of a flash mob was a lot better than I thought. I was glad to have the mask on though other wise I couldn’t have done it, because I cant keep a straight face to save my life. I enjoyed it when we were performing, I enjoyed meeting new people from the drama group and I enjoyed understanding a different way to promote fashion, a gurrella marketing scheme almost. I also laughed so much and it was a nice way to blow off steam, from all the work we had been doing in the previous weeks and weeks to come. It was nice to be apart of something completely different. 

 

 

Mixing in Vintage

I have quite a lot of vintage pieces in my wardrobe these include items from my family and cute things I've picked up from vintage shops. Here is an my OOTD today, including my aunties vintage jumper  and a fur bandana. I love this outfit as its simple and really easy to chuck on if I'm having a rushed day.

Bandana - Vintage

Jumper - Vintage 

Wet looks leggings - £5 shop Cardiff (bit of a bargain)

Shoes - Office 

Lipstick - Channel, Black Noir

Watch - Topshop, Letter L (other letters available)

Necklace - shop in Narbeth, Pembrokeshire

Ring - Vintage

An oversized jumper with tight leggings gives a nice contrast and balances out the big jumper. Pair with some of these cut out boots, doc martens or chunky shoes and a cute hat or bandana for a warm winter look. 

xoxo

Really handy! Nails inc review.

Doing your nails, its something that I normally do on a girls night in or when I have some time to myself. I always have to give about half an hour of my time up to get them decent, and if they look crap before a night out or a day of uni I've had it. I do love my nails looking neat, I'm not a fan of having them long, pointy or square or over the top, just natural and a nice bold colour or a cool pattern. I never normally get excited by nail stuff as I see it as a burden sometimes because they never look as good as when you get them done professionally, and being a student thats never.

But for Christmas but mum found this amazing duo from Nails inc, an express nail polish remover and a corrector pen, I loved the idea before I even tried it. Despite not loving doing my nails THAT much I do love nails inc they always have fab colours, interesting shades and a different way of doing things. 

http://www.nailsinc.com

 

The express nail polish remover is really amazing, just a quick swipe around the inside of the bottle (depending of what nail varnish your wearing) and its gone! So fast and so easy!! The corrector pen is also amazing, as it gets at the sides of your nails without the hassle of a cotton bud.

I had these two colours for christmas, the nails inc magnetic effect polish I have yet to try, (will post results at a later date) but my mum gave it a go and it worked really well. I chose to try the Barry M one as I was intrigued to see how the metallic look would come out on my nails and I was pleasantly surprised. 

My last little gem in my newly accired MUST HAVE nail kit is this, rapid dry for nails. I've had this for a while and it comes out in a spray and it actually works, okay...not 100% dry in 60 seconds but it speeds up the process, such a handy little gem for last minute night out outfit changes ;) 

xoxo

Hatts Vintage Emporium

More work from last term's fashion photography module.

We were lucky enough to get the chance to work with Hatts Vintage Emporium in Cardiff market. An amazing little vintage menswear shop with even more amazing owners. It was a pleasure to work with Levi and his farther. 
We had to style a model for the brief "Objects of desire" and styling our guys how we wanted, everyone took the brief a different way and we got some really varied and interesting looks.
Me and my partner April wanted to go for a very slick, tailored style, but also looking quite sharp. With the help in the shop when we were choosing what our model would wear and Levis help on the day, we created a really good look. Here is our mood board below to show what we were going for. Our model was great and worked really well with the way we wanted the shoot to go.

These are my favourite shots from the day, we improvised and changed what we were doing throughout the shoot but overall I am happy with how the images turned out.

       

Follow Hatt's on 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HattsVintageEmporium?fref=ts

Twitter - https://twitter.com/TheHatts

Model - Jason Little 
Photographers - Me and April Holcombe 

Ruby+Ed

My nan is a gem, she surprised me and my sister today with the most amazing slippers! A late Christmas present as they didn't arrive on time. They are by Ruby and Ed, an amazing brand that creates beautifully made slippers, for ladies, men and children.
Have a look at their blog and see which styles take you fancy.
http://rubyanded.blogspot.co.uk

Chic for your feet

This is my favourite colour but there are more beautiful colours, in the same style as these beauties above. (Taken by me) 

The velvet collection also come in Ruby, Dusty plum and Charcoal. Pictures from - http://www.rubyanded.co.uk/Womens/Slipper-Ballerinas 

My sister then went running upstairs and dug these out from the back of her wardrobe, some older Ruby+Ed slippers that are just as cool.

Just wanted to share this fabulous brand with you, treat your feet. AND they are now on Sale after christmas, its safe to say I won't be taking these to uni they will be keep in a glass cabinet, so beaut.

xoxo

 

Cardiff Street Style

So it's the New Year, and last term, my first term of my second year id just completed quite frankly a ridiculous amount of work. (Thats what it felt like) It was crazy. Now I've had time out to chill over christmas I think its time to put it out there. 

Just a quick post...

One of the modules we did was fashion photography, and a section within this was to do street style. 

Here are my favourites from the many times we went out to hunt down the stylish on the streets of Cardiff. We went out in groups of two and three and collected some really varied images and interesting styles.

 

Pictures 1 and 2 were taken by Me. 

Pictures 3, 4, and 5 were taken by Elly Gann.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year guys and gals! :D 

I had a successful night I must say, and spent it with my favourite people <3 I also managed to do a hungover New Year swim to kick off 2014! 

Back to the fashion side of things, I had such a good christmas and I thought I would dig into my new things and show you my favourites. :)
Starting with this hat and scarf I received. I was especially pleased as they matched pretty much perfectly. Also baby pink is my colour at the moment, and Im finding myself wanting all accessories pastel as the colder side of the winter hits (possibly), so I can go with the snow...I wish it would snow as everything is better when its white.
Mainly I wanted to show you this fab hat, its in four different colours, purple, baby pink, navy blue and green, I picked the pink as I thought generally it will go with more in my wardrobe, plus I don't tend to go out and buy myself a hat that often and I really loved this one. PLUS its insanely warm and sits comfortably on your head, you can't go wrong ;)
http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay

My sister also did my nails yesterday for the NYE celebrations as she had some new gel stuff for christmas.If I'm honest I'm not really one for long fancy nails, (they get on my nervous) I like them short and a colour that will go with everything. I went for a dark grey and they haven't chipped yet!! So pleased. 

I also LOVE rings and before I came home for christmas I bought two packs of layering rings from H&M only £3.99 each and layered them up to make a statement on my hands, and they go with everything. I nicked this idea of my partner in crime April. LOVE IT <3

Styling for the photo - I put my baby pink hat and scarf with my purple MAC lipstick and a plain white stripy top. I wanted to show off the colour of the hat and scarf so I chose a white background and a white t-shirt. I added the purple lipstick to add a pop of colour and a different shade into the picture. 

Hat - Topshop

Scarf - Dorina by Dents 

Rings - H&M 

Lipstick - MAC, up the amp

Thanks to my sister for taking these cheeky snaps of me and for letting me prance around her room. <3 much love! 

Have a fab 2014, its HERE! Wooo :)