It would seem that I’m way ahead of the curve and am already rocking a look which is set to be big for Autumn Winter 2012: the fringe. Marni’s AW12 show in Milan at the weekend saw each and every model who graced the catwalk rocking a heavy fringe.
Will you be going for a fringe later this year?
I’ve been living in my Converse trainers this summer (see here and here). But now apparently there is a new trainer to team with your floaty floral dress on the block, gently nudging the Converse out of its top spot in the hearts of fashionistas: the Superga.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, Italian tennis shoe brand, Superga has seen a revival in popularity since choosing Alexa Chung to front its new advertising campaign:
Proving that the trainers are just as versatile as the Converse, as Alexa Chung shows they can be teamed with chiffon dresses and skinny jeans alike. She told the Telegraph Fashion:
“They’re the best for beachside fun but also ace with skinny black jeans. My fave are the pale pink ones.”
If pink isn’t really your bag, no need to worry, they come in a whole rainbow of colours:
Are you loyal to your Converse – or any other brand – or do you fancy trying out Superga?
Remember to enter the Rachel Zoe and Marie Claire giveaway!
*Photos from the advertising campaign via Telegraph Fashion
As mentioned earlier this week, after two days spent running between shows at London Fashion Week, I had the pleasure of attending a talk – entitled, How to get into fashion - with Rachel Zoe and Marie Claire, at Selfridges.
At the event, we were given a goody bag to take away and I figured I’d pass the love on to you. So, this is your chance to win:
A copy of the first edition of The LFW Daily for the SS12 season, an exclusive Rachel Zoe make-up bag (with pretty velvet bows attached) and two Ciaté nail paint pots.
To win, you will need to answer one of the questions posed to Rachel during the discussion with Marie Claire:
What are your three rules for looking fabulous every day?
Leave a comment here to enter, with your email address please.
For an additional entry, you can tweet about this giveaway: “I just entered the Rachel Zoe GIVEAWAY over @sugarandspiceSG, you can too: ”
The giveaway will remain open for one week. Until midnight on Wednesday 5 October 2011.
Good luck!
Thank you to everyone who entered. This giveaway is now closed.
On Sunday, 18 September 2011, during our weekend at London Fashion Week, The Online Stylist (leather skirt and fierce DvF boots!), The It Girl (grey cardigan and perfect-for-autumn knee high boots and the Mulberry!!), her lovely friend (hidden), my super stylish sister (striped dress and wedges) and I (also hidden!) found ourselves joining a long long queue, stretching back through most of the thrid floor of the hallowed halls of Selfridges.
The scene was set in the room we were ushered into, nearly 20 minutes late, which after a weekend of late-running fashion shows seemed pretty prompt, for a very stylish chat:
As we arrived we were offered a bottle of champagne, which, of course, it would have been rude to turn down:
And then we sat down to “sip” our champers and wait for the main event:
The girls, enjoying their drinks, and getting a little giddy with excitement!!
And then, Ms Zoe appeared and the “show” began!
How? Zoe’s route into her career as a stylist was not “tradition”. A psychology and sociology major, she started out as editor of YN magazine before quitting in her early 20s “go it alone”.
Why? She told Marie Claire that her wish was to “create a prettier fashion story”. And believes that despite being told the contrary, “you don’t have to step on people to succeed”.
“I don’t have time [to relax] especially now I’m a mum.”
Who would Zoe most like to style? “The Duchess. Of course!”
In what? A winter white tuxedo. “But let’s face it, she looks good in everything.”
Style Icons? Inspiration drawn from styles of 60s and 70s.
“Diane Kruger always looks good.”
Biggest fashion faux pas? Blindly following catwalk trends. If animal print is in, “don’t dress head-to-toe cheetah!” Wear what flatters you.
Rules for looking fabulous every day?
Rachel Zoe debut’s collection, for Autumn Winter 2011, is available in Selfridge’s now. (She showed her SS12 collection at New York Fashion Week earlier this month.)
Of the debut collection, Zoe said it has been “really fun designing my own collection. I could design pieces I was looking for.”
Zoe claims she’s “not trying to set world know fire. I’m just trying to design beautiful clothes.”
Inspiration for the collection? Comes from her clients, from Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson and Anne Hatherway. From friends. And from women on street.
Favourite piece from the collection? “The white tuxedo is up there as a favourite. And any sequin pieces!”
Final words from the stylish stylist: Have confidence. Own what you’re wearing.
We were also lucky enough to get a wonderful goody bag, courtesy of Selfridges and Marie Claire, to take away with us. But, never fear, I plan to share mine with one lucky reader when I host a fabulous LFW giveaway very soon.
In case you missed my incessant ramblings, here and on twitter, last weekend I spent a few days running around Somerset House and central London, attending London Fashion Week. And generally having a rather fabulous time. In the spirit of my fellow bloggers, including one of my fabulous companions for my LFW experience, Amanda (aka The Online Stylist), here is my LFW photo diary:
Pre-LFW:
The boyf was more than a little disgruntled when I took over our bedroom and bed three days in a row, in an attempt to hone my Fashion Week wardrobe and fit it all into my teeny tiny suitcase!
By Thursday evening, time was up and with everything (but the kitchen sink!) packed, the boyf made sure I was safely stowed on the train and I sank back into my seat and set about making my nails LFW-ready. Sparkles anyone?
When I eventually arrived in London, late on Thursday night, I headed straight to My Old Dutch in Kensington to feast on pancakes and catch up with old friends.
LFW Day 1:
My first offiial London Fashion Week show on Friday morning at 10am was Corrie Nielsen at the Old Sorting House, off of New Oxford Street. A fabulous location and beautifully lit with thousands hundreds many single light bulbs hanging from the ceiling.
After Corrie Nielsen, I hot-footed it back to Somerset House for an appointment at Toni & Guy:
My new hair. Plus a rather fabulous fur and stud headband from Charlie May’s debut SS12 collection. En route to the Independent Fashion Blogger’s event at Swarvoski.
Somehow I managed not to take any photos at the IFB event (so this one comes c/o The ‘It’ Guide - thanks!) but it was wonderful to meet – albeit very briedly - Jennine, who works so hard for IFB and to hear the other bloggers discuss The Business of Blogging.
My afternoon on Friday was a little less manic, as I spent some time chilling out at Somerset House and making friends. And visiting the Orla Kiely SS12 presentation:
Friday evening was spent eating well and making more new friends at Automat where I dined with Amanda (The Online Stylist), Helen (The It Guide), Olivia (My New Favourite Thing), Briony (A Girl, A Style), Lucy (Helen’s partner in crime!), Lucy (The Luxe Life) and my super stylish sis! Great crowd and great food.
Sis and I headed home after dinner and fell into bed, happy and excited for the next day.
LFW Day 2:
London Fashion Week make-up was mainly Boots 17′s eyeshadow trio in Vengeance and Chanel’s nail polsih in Blue Boy.
After a lovely lazy morning spent mainly lying in bed and watching old episodes of Outnumbered on iPlayer, super stylish sis and I decided to drag ourselves out of the house just in time for brunch lunch at the lovely Blanche Eatery on the corner of her street:
When we got to Somerset House, Jasper Conran’s SS12 show was about to start and we managed to sneak in at the back to capture the gorgeous collection.
Later in the afternoon we met up with Amanda to attend the Jaeger London SS12 show. As rain began to fall over central London we sheltered under cover in the queue for the BFC space. Others weren’t so luck:
Whilst queuing Amanda kept getting tweets and texts that her style icon, Olivia Palermo, was on her way to the Jaeger show and as we went in, we could spot straight away where she was on the front row by the mass of paps surrounding her. As we left we decided to do a little style stalking. This was the best my pap skills managed though:
For further information on Olivia’s outfit, head over the The Online Stylist for her expert regular What Olivia Wore column!
After a little blogging on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1 (very kindly lent to me by Samsung for Fashion Week) in the Somerset House lobby, we headed home for dinner:
LFW Day 3:
A wander through Mayfair and the obligatory stop at Marc by Marc Jacobs on South Audley Street was the perfect antidote to the madness and whirlwind of Fashion Week and Somerset House, on Sunday morning.
I’ll show you what I purchased very soon!
At 12.30, stylish sis and I joined Helen, Amanda and Lucy at Selfridges on Oxford Street, for a conversation between Rachel Zoe and Marie Claire on How to get into fashion:
Whilst enjoying a bottle of bubbly:
And listening to the lady herself:
After a wonderful and exciting weekend, on Sunday afternoon I bade farewell to my fashion companions and boarded my train, headed home to Cardiff. Happy and just a little tired.
Being a Midland’s girl right up until I was 18 and regularly returning to visit family, I love nothing better than a trip to the shopping mecca that is, The Bullring in Birmingham. So, when I heard about The Show: Redefinition that’s taking place this weekend, I knew that it was one for the diary. Housing nearly 200 stores, including the iconic Selfridges‘ building, The Bullring is a shopaholic’s paradise. Have you been? My mum and I have, for the past five years, headed to the shopping mall for our post-Christmas sales fix.
From tomorrow (23 September) until Sunday (25 September) the Lower West Mall will be transformed into a truly unique catwalk experience. Real-life and holographic models will blur the boundaries between reality and illusion as they showcase eight trends for Autumn Winter 2011.
This season I’m most excited about the return of Kings Road 60s chic with the emerging Mod Squad trend, which will one of the trends appearing on the catwalk at The Show, alongside the gothic-influenced Dark Romance, the 40s Flair of Hollywood, the paisley prints of the Heritage trend,the return of the Mannish trend and finally, Feathers and fur and hybrid-inspired pieces.
Which trend are you most excited to see this season? Or wear? Alternatively, which do you dread?!
Appearing on the catwalk will be Britain’s Next Top Model 2010 winner, Tiffany Pisani (as well as another very special guest, who is yet to be announced!).
“The Show: Redefinition will use Musion 3D technology to create the illusion of a volumetric model on a holographic backdrop, whilst real-life models emerge onto the catwalk”
After all of the fashion fun had in the UK capital last weekend, it seems only fair that this weekend another city gets a bit of the fashion cherry with its own stylish event, don’t you think?
Tell me, will you be attending? Are you excited to see what it’s all about?
I always like to see inside other bloggers’ bags but rarely does the contents of my bag change or is it all that interesting, as it is usually just a pile of old screwed up receipts and chocolate bar wraps. But for Fashion Week, it does change a little, so it is a bit more fun to post about.
You might recognise the bag from this post?
Inside, I took:
My purse is an obvious must. This particular purse is a leather one from Topshop that I’ve had for years. I’d seen it in store and then when I couldn’t find it again, I hunted it down on eBay. It just seems to last and last and last. (Plus, it will go well with Holly Fulton’s Spring Summer 2012 collection, don’t you think?)
The plastic folder is a cheap-o buy from Asda the night before I went to London, to hold all of my show invites. Being see-through it was also good to hold the official LFW map and stop it getting wet in the rain as I found my way around the various locations!
My Oyster card is obviously a necessity for a weekend in London and the hairbrush is self-explanatory. The lollipops were for sugar-low emergencies! Of which there were a few – when I forgot to eat because I was too distracted by all the wonderful things going on around me!
The pink moo holder has all of my lovely mini business cards in. Isn’t it pretty? I’ll show you the cards soon too. I even remembered to hand some out. A first.
The Burt’s Bees lip balm is perfect for keeping lips soft and lipstick-ready. This particular one – the Beeswax lip balm - is mint scented and leaves my lips all tingly. Lovely.
And finally, two of the many lipsticks I took with me. I had already declared that this London Fashion Week was all about the lipstick and, so it was. Here is one of the Kate Moss for Rimmel London lipsticks and the other is a Boots No7 nude coloured lipstick – in Rumour – which goes with everything.
My Moleskine diary comes everywhere with me – I’d be seriously lost without it (it was a Christmas present from the boyf). The dark red notebook (just seen) is a bargain buy from Muji – I love their passport notebooks, the paper is really high quality and they are dirt cheap. Of course, pens are pretty useful too! A London A-Z (just seen) is also a must – obviously! Particularly if you’re not a Londoner and therefore prone to finding yourself in the wrong place – a lot!
Unseen is my camera (cos it was taking the photos!) and my phone (cos it is now surgically attached to me, after a weekend of near constant tweeting!) and my Samsung Tablet 10.1 which Samsung very very kindly leant me for Fashion Week (in-depth review to follow soon):
What did/do/would you carry in your bag for London Fashion Week?
Just a very quick look at the designs that hit the BFC Space catwalk at Somerset House for the Jaeger London Spring Summer 2012 show:
What are your initial thoughts?
Amanda, of The Online Stylist, and I agreed that it was very ’20s Riviera chic, with straw boaters and big “beach” bags with striped smock dresses being the order of the day on the Jaeger London catwalk.
*More in-depth report later tonight or tomorrow.
Today’s schedule after a chilled out morning didn’t look very promising until I managed to sneak into a standing spot at Jasper Conran’s Spring Summer 2012 show at the BFN Space at Somerset House. I couldn’t have been more thrilled to be there and capture the collection. These are just a few of the photos taken – the better ones that didn’t really need any tweaking. (I plan to post the others to Facebook as soon as I can.)
The collection features a monochrome palette with a good splash of hot pink and vibrant red thrown into the mix. What could be better? Wearable fabrics and shapes make this one of my favourite collections so far – sharp silhouettes and flowing lines create a wardrobe that is versatile and enduring.
What do you think of Jasper Conran’s SS12 collection?
Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure to take a walk through the Orla Kiely presentation at Somerset House. The collection was candy celebration which evoked images of summer holidays on the British Riviera in the ’50s and ’60s.
What do you think of the collection?
