how i'd redo my prom look

The other day I found myself looking through some old photos and I came across the pictures from my year eleven prom. I cannot believe that it was over five years ago now. I remember being at secondary school and somewhat counting down the years to my prom after seeing my big sister go to hers. It's crazy how quickly time goes.

It then got me thinking though, what would I wear to my prom now? When I look back at the pictures, I still love my dress but it is completely different to what I'd choose now. Both long prom dresses and short prom dresses have positives. For me, I always loved the elegance of a longer dress and really, how many times does the average girl get to wear a full gown? On the other hand, I love the edge of shorter dresses and think they can look really cute and young. Below are some looks I love.

I really love the vampyness of this look. The dark purple teemed with the off metallic gold seems young but also chic. I think that when I was younger, I was a little scared of overly bright colours that weren't green or blue. Having ginger hair, it's been drilled into me that I can only wear those two colours but as I've got older I wear every colour there is (apart from beige because beige is ugly)

Out of all the dresses I've picked, this is my favourite. I love the detail on it and the possibility of all the different ways you could accessorise it. I also think it's great for an outfit to be quite textured so adding this hologram style bag would make it seem somewhat more youthful. Like the look above, it has a real vampy look. In reality, I would definitely wear this look with tights unless it was a little longer. But for someone with lovely legs this dress would look great with bare legs!

This look has more of a spring/ summer vibe than the previous but that's mainly because I love dark colours throughout the year. They seem more chic to me. However it's great to mix things up and I think this look would seem quite elegant. Much like black, white and all the wonderful shades in between do not date so there is no chance you could look back and regret wearing one of them. Either way, all these looks seem to make some kind of statement! I think that's important when dressing for big events like proms or balls (do people still go to balls...)

Which is your favourite look?
What would you wear if you could redo your prom look?*

the parka

After much deliberation and online orders, I finally found myself a coat. Originally I wanted a boxy boyfriend style coat or a nice on trend long pastel coat but every one I tried on didn't suit me. In fact, they all looked dreadful. Some were too big on my shoulders, some too small on my chest and the rest were just underwhelming. On the models they look so stylish but on me they just looked baggy and meh. Eventually I decided that I would have to go into actual physical shops and try on real life coats in the flesh which is what I did when I tried on the parka above. I'm pretty sure I said to my mum, as I tried it on, this is gonna look crap on me. Well the end of my fascinating story is that I bought this parka (see here) and am actually surprisingly happy with it! I'm even more happy with the fact that my student discount and the offer New Look were running, brought the price of the coat down from £55 to £36!

 It's funny though, cause I always have such grand ideas of mixing up my style and being a little more sophisticated and put together.  You know when you see those girls, the ones who's hair stays in place, their make up lasts all day, their clothes sit perfectly and they just look so effortless sophisticated? Well I'm not that girl. I'm the scruffy type with messy hair, chipped nails and simple make up. It doesn't matter what I do I can never seem to look just right, but maybe those girls feel the same. Who knows! Anyway, I think at the end of the day, you can't change what comes naturally to you. I'd certainly rather have my own style and be myself than just another carbon copy, so I've given up trying to do the whole 'perfect' thing and I'm just embracing being a mess.

Parka & leggings & boots New Look
Dress Dorothy Perkins
Necklace Accessorize

Happy Autumn!

autumn colour blocking

Autumn colour blocking. Yeah it's a thing. I don't care that colour blocking's an old spring summer trend cause I think I prefer it for this time of year. Also, I like the way these shades (mustard, burnt orange, winter red and navy) somehow seem to clash but also compliment each other more. I'm not a fan of neon or overly bright colouring blocking, it just seems garish and a little indecisive to me.  But yeah, I love autumn hues and will find any excuse to wear all my favourite colours in one outfit! I also love the preppy vibe this look has. I think the buttoned up cardigan, tartan skirt and satchel really create it. It seems to be the kind of style I'm channelling at the moment but that probably has something to do with being at uni and trying to make the most out of being a student. In six months time, I will be free from education. No more essays or assignments or dissertations to write. But leaving the student world also means I'm forced out into the scary big wide world. I guess at that point I might drop the preppy college student look and try something a bit different. Maybe I'll start dressing like an adult instead (whatever dressing like an adult means...)

On side note: I've also returned back home for a few days (hence the outfit post!) and I decided not to bring my DSLR but just make do with my iPhone's camera. The effort of carrying a weeks worth of clothes, a laptop (and charger), books, notebooks and then a big fancy camera was way too much. I chose to leave it safely at home and travel a little lighter :) So what I'm trying to say is, please excuse the naff quality of these photos!

Tartan skirt & leggings & boots New Look

Vest Next

Bag & cardigan Dorothy Perkins

Scarf Accessorize

Oh and Happy Autumn!

tartan {autumn wishlist}

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For me, one of the very best things about autumn and winter is tartan. It always looks so festive and cosy. Above are a few tartany things I'm after. All of them are wonderfully casual and perfect for wrapping up warm in this chilly weather. I also thought it'd be fun to include a few pics from previous outfit posts where I'm wearing tartan. All of these were taken in the last year and are things I wear a lot. In fact, I'm                                            currently wearing the red tartan skirt pictured below!

Anyway I'd love to know what you think of my picks and also what you guys are lusting after for autumn and winter?

Happy Friday!

autumn inspiration

(I do not own any of these images. All images have been sourced from Pinterest)

What was life like before Pinterest because I cannot remember...I guess it must've been okay. It's just crazy when I try to imagine not having it there at my finger tips. I probably got all of my fashion and beauty inspiration from magazines and strangers. I mean, I still get inspired by people I pass in the street and flicking through a magazine will leave me with the biggest want list but Pinterest is just one step up. It's real. It's everyday people being creative and sharing it. It isn't just full of expert artists and models and photographers and bakers, it's just people and I think that makes it so much more amazing. 

The images above make me feel all warm and happy inside. It's the equivalent of drinking tea in bed. The colours and textures and patterns. The lighting. It's all so perfect that when I'm running low on inspiration or things to do (I'm in my last year of uni so technically there is always something to do!), I go on Pinterest and google random phrases. Most of the time it's fashion and beauty and hair but sometimes it's travel and food and home wear. It just depends on my mood! Really though, I just wanted to share with you the loveliness of these images and have a good excuse to revel in my love for this time of year. 

the brogues

On Saturday, my parents came up to visit for the day despite the fact that it takes three and a half hours to drive the distance. They must've been shattered by the end of it, but we had such a lovely day that I reckon it was worth it. First we went to this wonderful shop called Whole Foods. I'm sure you might of heard of it. It's like a posh marche with everything you could want. Beautiful fruit and vegetables, a station where you can make you own nut butter (or just buy nuts and seeds and grains and oats and dried fruit etc), spices, a butchers and fishmongers, a cheese section (Double Gloucester anyone?) and besides all the dried foods they sell they also have a big section devoted to fresh ready-to-eat food. We had mushroom and ricotta pizza.

After lunch we headed to a small town called Tewekesbury where we looked around the abbey, had a hot chocolate (cause it's really starting to get cold here) and I got some pictures of my outfit (above). It's been so nice the last couple of weeks being able to post a couple of outfits! I hate not being able to post the content I want to post. Any photographers in the Cheltenham area want a job? 

Anyway, I love this outfit. It's exactly the kind of the thing I dream about wearing throughout the summer. Layers and pretty colours and feeling all snuggled up. Also (and hence the title of  this post) I decided to wear my new brogues that I bought from New Look a couple of weeks ago. You may have heard me rant about footwear in the past but I find it such a difficult thing. In the summer I wear pumps and flipflops and sandals and occasionally trainers but when it comes to autumn and winter, I feel a little lost. When it rains and is really cold, I wear my ankle boots but unless it's freezing I don't want to wear boots but it's too cold to wear pumps. I decided to buy some brogues that were somewhere in between. Saturday was dry and a little chilly and my feet were nicely warm so at the moment they seem to be a good solution but only time will tell! My dress is also new. I bought it from Dorothy Perkins before I came back to uni as I thought it would be a nice going out dress during autumn and winter. Besides all this, I LOVE the colour.

Dress Dorothy Perkins

Denim Jacket Joe Browns

Scarf Accessorize

Bag Cambridge Satchel Company

Tights Primark

Brogues New Look

six coats you need this a/w

No, you're right. It's a silly title. No one needs six coats. Let's pretend it says six coats that would be extremely lovely to own for autumn and winter and maybe spring if it's particularly cold. Yes that makes more sense...

I have a real love hate relationship with coats. Every year, around this time, I find myself building up an online and real life wishlist of coats I want to own. I plan what I would wear with each of them in my head (am I the only person that does this?) and I just love all the different shapes, styles, colours and brands. I also think that I suit coats quite well. Some people can look swamped but as long as I find the right length and don't have to compromise on size, I can really suit a lot of different styles. 

So onto the hate part of my relationship...

Firstly I rarely have the money to buy myself a nice coat cause the majority of lovely ones range between £50-100. Secondly, if I can afford it I am stuck between a beautiful fashion forward on trend coat that I am dying to wear or a nice simple coat that will go with a lot of my stuff. Problem is, I hate this decision. I don't get why I get to pick between twenty different cardigans and why I get to own every shade of blue in my jeans but when it comes to coats I have to make this big coatmmitment (get it?). But seriously, I get that coats are expensive and that really, in terms of practicalities, I only need one but this makes for such a hard decision. I think it's probably why I just give up on buying one. This year though, I'm determined to buy a coat and not have to make a sacrifice. Instead I will find the ultimate coat that ticks all of the boxes. Such a thing must exist...

Newlook Navy Checked Coat & Blue Collarless Coat

M&S Green Double Breasted Coat & Cream Checked Coat

ASOS Black Trench Coat & Lilac Oversized Coat

If you missed my last outfit post on what I wore on my day out to London, click here!

autumn berries in hyde park

A outfit post has been way overdue. Since coming back to uni I haven't done one properly (I don't count a mirror snap of my pyjamas as an outfit post). This is mostly due to the fact that I have no photographer which makes things a little more complicated! Anyway, on Saturday I caught the train to London to meet my parents and my little brother and we spent the day exploring Hyde Park and seeing the sights of the city. Growing up living reasonably close to London, I've seen them all so many times but for some reason they never get less exciting. Had I not been with my family and I probably would've headed down Oxford Street to check out all the updates that have been going on. I keep hearing of new stores and places being done up and, yeah, I really don't need an excuse to go shopping anyway but what a great reason, right? So, on Saturday, when we merely drove past Marble Arch, I had to avert my eyes.

I don't usualy write about my outfit in outfit posts but I really loved this outfit. It was so comfortable for travelling to and exploring a city but I also felt that it was a little unusual for me. Recently I've been dying to get a long cardigan and after a lot of searching I finally found this one in New Look. I love the length and how cosy it feels when layered up. The bag and scarf were a really impromptu buy. I was browsing around the bag section looking for a purple tote and then I saw the bag. Its quite an unusual bag for me to buy. For starters it is very colourful, it's a rucksack and it's a little boxy but I just fell in love with it. Then I saw the scarf and god, I don't know if they were designed to be worn together but I couldn't buy one without the other.

But besides all of that, this outfit felt so wonderfully autumny. The big scarf. Knitwear. Berry colours, Dark lipstick. Crunchy leaves at my feet. It's just my heaven.

Cardigan & jeans & shoes & bag & scarf New Look

Black t-shirt George

Circle necklace Accessorize

Lipstick Black Cherry Revlon

How're you guys enjoy the new season? What are you loving or looking forward to wearing this autumn?

Happy Monday!

little autumn buys

Fashion bloggers love autumn.

I am no exception.

I love the berry pinks and reds and purples. The burnt oranges and golds and coppers.

I love the big scarves. Fluffy socks. Ankle boots.

Crunchy leaves and naked trees.

Today I went shopping and found some amazing little autumn buys. I was gonna take actual photos of them but the lighting in my room was crap so I decide to look them up online and share it on here with y'all!

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What've you been buying for your new autumn wardrobe?

Anyone else in love with the berry colours that seem to be everywhere at the moment?

goodbye summer

Summer has really gone. Despite the sunny weather it's suddenly got cold and I have no ideas as to how we are already nearly at the end of September?

I feel a little sad when I think back to my summer this year. Sad in an overly nostalgic kind of way. I think about my new summer dresses, the smell of sun cream in the streets, eating ice cream and drinking cocktails and going swimming. But all good things come to an end and I thought I'd quite like to look back at some of my favourite outfits from the last few months. I thought that'd be a nice little send off. Farewell summer! It's all autumn from here on...