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!