Show Me Your Rock Tee's

As a teenager I amassed a wide range of rock t-shirts,  unfortunately most of them were so worn out you couldn't see the band names on them any more.  I have tried to replace some of them over the years but I must confess I have not done so well of late.

Back in February, I showed off these three tees that I currently have in my wardrobe.  We have Sisters Of Mercy, Rage Against The Machine and the trusty old Led Zeppelin.  When it comes to styling these items, I probably have a bit of a uniform - skinny jeans, skinny jeans and skinny jeans.

 

 

The SOM tee is pictured here with some simple back skinny jeans, my studded loafers from Zara and my mini backpack from TopShop.  For cooler evenings I would slip on my black leather jacket with the fake fur collar.

 

 

This time, the RATM tee is picktured with grey skinnies from Primark, trainers from Zara and the mini backpack again.

 

My vintage thigh high boots had the RATM tee in the background, as well as my Leeds Festival tee and the Led Zeppelin number.

And finally, my most recent Instragram posting.  The SOM shirt is pictured with my River Island Print jacket, skinny jeans, the Zara studded loafers and a vintage Mikey Necklace with crosses - I've had this for almost 20 years and it's still a faithful item of mine!

 

In the photo below, I look back on some items of my past that I think have helped shape my current style.  I always enjoyed being a bit quirky and edgy; I hope it shows somehow in most of my outfits.

 

Ta ta for now.

Manchester Haul Details

When working in Manchester city centre, one must occasionally take a break and visit the shops!  Here's a brief of my purchases from my visit of 19th November.  Enjoy!

As usual, there is the customary trip to Primark, where I've picked up a good mix of neutrals that will go with anything.  I've also managed to incorporate my favourite texture of fake fur, as well as picking up something with animal print.  I've already styled up some ideas for these items and you will see them on Instagram over the coming weeks.

Accessories from Primark: Necklace £4, Bangle £3,Hair Clip £1.50

Accessories from Primark; Bag £3.50, Snood £4, Hat £1.50

Cardigan/Throw from Primark £14

Jumper with sparkles from Primark £14

Being in my 40's, sometimes Top Shop makes me feel old.  But this time I was in love with the place.  I think it is the time of year, all the beautiful sparkly christmas items are out now and the store just draws me in.  More animal print in here, plus I adore their jeans as they're so comfortable for my shape right now.

Top Shop; Jumper £35 Jeans £42

Finally I had been umming and ahhing about getting another pair of boots as I have 2 pairs already; my slouchy effect heels and my suede slouchy flats (see other photos).  But these had a bit of a biker edge to them, plus they were on offer.  I've worn them every day since I bought them, so they were clearly the best buy of the bunch.

Knee High Boots from New Look £26

Until next time.

Shoes, Glorious Animal Print Shoes

Back in February I purchased these cuties from H&M, priced at £34.99.  Here's some ways that I've worn them over the year (so far)

Brand new H&M Shoes at £34.99

 

Jeans from Gap, Top & Necklace from H&M

 

Top Primark, Jeans & Bag River Island, Necklace Mikey

 

Dress Zara, Belt La Redoute, Bag H&M, Necklace Top Shop, Bangle Next

Jacket River Island, Acid Top & Bag H&M, Skirt Next, Necklace Top Shop

Jacket H&M, Dress French Connection, Belt LaRedoute, Necklace Phantom Jewels

Different Views Of The H&M Shoes

There's no animal print problem in my shoe collection, what are you going on about?

 

 

Buy Phantom Jewel necklaces & accessories HERE

The Blush Biker Jacket

This time, I am featuring my blush coloured biker jacket that was purchased from the Julien McDonald franchise in Debenhams (originally priced at £75).  I purchased this towards the start of 2014 as I was looking for a jacket to cover Spring and Autumn, rather than just the Winter period.  This jacket seems to be very popular every time I post it on Instagram, so I thought it was about time I wrote a little bit about it.

With Scarf, Kookai Skirt & M&S Shoes

My first style up with this jacket was quite formal.  Underneath the jacket is a lovely cream scarf that I picked up in Menorca.  The skirt is from Kookai and is a number of years old now.  The shoes are from Marks & Spencer; I liked them because they look like dancing shoes.  The photo doesn't give this look the best justice, as all the pictures were taken in my bedroom at night and the lighting was never the best.

With River Island jeans, H&M top, M&S shoes and a scarf from Spain

This time, the jacket is given a smart casual twist.  It's teamed with the same M&S shoes, but is also tallied with a simple white tee from H&M and a pair of River Island skinny jeans.  The scarf was a present from Nerja, Spain.

 

With River Island jeans again, but with a Primark top and Miss Selfridge boots.

As the nights started to draw in, it was time to style up this jacket again.  The picture above shows it with black skinny jeans again, but this time I was able to match it up with a blush effect print top from Primark and my ankle boots from Miss Selfridge.  It makes a lovely smart casual look for work.



 

Dorothy Perkins jumper, La Redoute Jeans & Kurt Geiger boots



The final look shows the jacket taking advantage of the berry colours that are currently in vogue this autumn.  I've teamed it with a jumper I purchased from Dorothy Perkins, black skinnies again and my Kurt Geiger buckled boots.  I think it would also go well with berry coloured jeans, they would be very complimentary together.

Until next time.





My Super Snakeprint Effect Jacket

For those of you that follow me on instagram, there is an underlying animal print theme to a lot of my outfits.  I bought this jacket from River Island a couple of years ago and absolutely adore it.  It was the best £50 I ever spent - or one of the best, anyway.

I've created some style ideas over the weeks to showcase my ideas for wearing it.  Enjoy!

The first look shows it teamed up with black River Island jeans and a simple top from H&M.  There have been some great accessory finds to match with the jacket, too.  These H&M hi-tops have a very similar print.  I've teamed simple silver and gold bangles with the look.

Back in March I went to Media City in Salford, on the outskirts of Manchester (UK).  You can see I am wearing the outfit from the earlier style spread, but added an animal print scarf and my Top Shop dark denim backpack.

 

I've styled it with the same jeans as above in this photo, but added my pretty boho effect River Island blouse underneath and a pair of heels from H&M.  It has made the outfit look really smart for the office.  There's a vintage River Island bag in the photo - it is certainly from the early 1990's.

 

 

Finally, I have given it an alternative edge by teaming it with a snake print scarf from Primark, H&M bag and some fake pearls from Marks & Spencer. 

 

I am pretty certain that this jacket will feature again on Instagram, so look out for it coming to a mobile device near you!

 

 

Back To The 80's

They say change and opportunity also brings chance for reflection.  As I'll be moving house soon, my husband and I have been clearing out old cupboards and emptying all the junk from the loft that has been collected over the years.  I found a load of photos of me from times gone by and thought I would share them with you!

Growing up in the 80's was interesting and it's fun to see much of the fashion come back around. 

I'm pictured here with my Dad and my sister.  It's probably around 1989/1990.  What I love about this photo is that I could probably wear most of this now and look in fashion!  I have a ton of skinny jeans and anyone who follows my Instagram will know I have a pair of slouchy boots in my current collection.  My leather jacket has a fur collar rather than fringe effects this time around.

Top left sees me in 1987 with my suede fringed jacket and dressed head to toe in black - I was in my goth phase.  I loved the ballet pumps I had so much that I bought a second pair.  Everything back then was black tees, long floaty skirts and skinny black jeans.  The only time you saw white in my wardrobe was if I needed to wear a shirt for work.

Top right I must have been off on a walk somewhere and I am wearing my Dr Martens with fluorescent laces.  Funnily enough, these types of boots are all the rage now.  I have on one of the biggest and snuggliest jumpers on the planet.  It's actually from Burton, a menswear shop, but that was OK because I needed slouchy jumpers back then to suit the goth come grunge look.

Bottom right I've been crimping my hair again.  I used to do this a lot and it took ages.  I would probably have been heading off to one of the large rock nightclubs, usually Jilly's Rockworld in Manchester or Nottingham Rock City; a friend used to organise trips once a month and the bus picked up from a pub close to my house.  I've probably got my finest spandex pants on with my thigh high boots.  We'll come to them in a moment.

Bottom left I am on a bus to nowhere; the khaki shirt was picked up in the Corn Exchange in Manchester.  The Corn Exchange was badly damaged by the IRA bomb in Manchester in the early '90s and all the shops had to be relocated until the building was restored.  Top Shop had to rent space on the lower ground floor of Debenhams and John Lewis (now Primark) gave up some space for Marks & Spencer, until they could have a replacement building completed.  These days kids seem to think that terrorism originates from the Middle East, but back then it was much closer to home.

These boots were also in the loft.  They were purchased from Faith Shoes in the early '90s and I always wore them on nights out, usually to the local rock night (anyone ever heard of the Cheshire Cat in Nantwich?).  These will certainly be recycled and will look great with some of the skirts I purchased recently - unfortunately now I am much older, I have to tone the look down or suffer the consequences of looking MDL (mutton dressed as lamb).

And finally, I found these babies.  I think these were my most proudest fashion moment of my early twenties - the purple suede thigh high boots.  They were purchased in Birmingham; there were a bunch of alternative shops under one of the older shopping centres and I found these just waiting to be purchased.  I immediately put them on and went straight to the Sisters of Mercy concert at Birmingham NEC (1992).  They would have been worn with my favourite spandex; today you can buy shiny leggings from places like Primark and you'd have a similar effect.  I used to buy night dresses from British Home Stores; no, not the flannelette things, but the short strappy silk numbers!  I had one in purple and one in black, then I used to wear one over the other, sometimes purple over black or back over purple.  The following year, similar items were sold as dresses in the mainstream shops.

 

If you haven't already fathomed by now, I am currently in my 40's.  Heavy metal, rock, goth and the likes are my music of choice; early clothing choices might have given that away.  I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane.

 

Please comment and let me know what influenced you when you grew up; fashion and music choices please.  I'd love to hear from you.

October Haul At Next

Every once in a while I like to visit my local retail park and browse the shops.  Tonight I have been to Next and purchased a range of super shiny and super furry items!

I purchased a new fake fur jacket, three skirts of varying textures and pleats, a pair of new boots and some fabulous accessories.  I must apologise for the poor quality of pictures, but I am relying on house lighting at the moment.

First up is this lovely bolero style fake fur jacket in silver grey.  It feels absolutely gorgeous!  This is going to look great with skinny jeans and heeled boots, I reckon.

Next is a beautiful and lightly pleated shiny silver grey skirt.  It is absolutely gorgeous and the pleats give it a wonderful movement.

I love the effect on this skirt.  It has a golden bronzed look to it and if you look closely, the pattern is a crocodile effect.  There are sequins in the pattern which gives it that extra shimmer.  This will look fabulous as an alternative to just black.

 



This black skirt has even finer pleats than the silver number, making it swish when I move around.  It beats a boring plain straight skirt any day!

I then saw these burgundy (or wine) coloured suede effect boots, which I think will look awesome with some of the purchases above, or with skinny jeans again.  I'm even thinking how cool this might look with a similar coloured jumper and my white lacey skirt - watch out for a style up on that soon!

Don't you just adore these wonderful rose-gold effect accessories?  I think they're going to look amazing with a range of looks, not just what I purchased today.

 

Just in case you're wondering, this is what I went shopping in today.  The jumper is from Primark and it has spangly sequins knitted into it.  It was only £12 and comes in a range of colours from mint (shown) to pink and lilac.  It's teamed here with skinny jeans from River Island, boots from Miss Selfridge and a Primark scarf.


I also purchased some new sports socks for running, but you don't really want to see a picture of those, do you?


Shopping Details - try www.next.co.uk for online purchases.

Sequined Pencil Skirt - 887 247 145 007618 - £35.00
Foil Pleat Skirt - 949 193 131 000690 - £45.00
Black Pleat Skirt - 675 152 213 00253 - £35.00
Animal Faux Fur Jacket - 694 311 141 000911 - £35.00
Berry Pointed Boots - 946 189 683 000310 - £32.00
Sandblast Disc Necklace - 808 600 017 003650 - £14.00
Sparkle Disc Str Bracelet - 930 967 013 000133 - £14.00

If you're interested, I have added some photos below, showing the items being tried on.  Please excuse my socks!!!

 

 

 

Big Kitty Top - Sportluxe Style

I've had this cat top from Zara for a couple of summers now and I still love it.  When sportsluxe started to hit the shopts, everything was very grey and very yellow, but this top was a subtle combination and hit the spot for me.

 

It is styled above with grey Primark jeans, Kurt Geiger boots and River Island boyfriend jacket.

This time, I am in Ironbridge in Shropshire.  It was a lovely warm day with no jacket required, jeans from River Island and shoes from Primark.  I wore those trainers so often that the bottoms collapsed and they no longer exist (boo)

This is an alternative look I created, with blue River Island jeans and my super duper heels from H&M