Very Belated Post Christmas Haul

So..After being really good in the run up to Christmas, I ended up going a bit mad in the shops during the sales; however as always half the stuff I bought wasn't even in the sales.

First off I ventured into Primark, normally lethal, but this time I was good, only picking up 2 Duvet sets, 1 is already on my bed (background) and the other is on its way to me this weekend, as I didn't have room for all my stuff travelling back after Christmas. Whoops. Living in student and other rented flats for the foreseeable future you need to get a bit creative, and one of the easiest ways I've found to do this is lovely printed Beds Sets. I'm always weak when it comes to florals so there was no question with the first, and this grey bike print was too cute to resit, and can easily be snuck onto the Boyfriends flat over summer without too many complaints.

Primark - £12 each

As a fashion design student I feel its my prerogative to have a fully stocked wardrobe, or that's what I keep telling myself at least. I've had a growing love for little t-bar shoes since last year, and these were the perfect addition to my collection. Flat in a lovely pinky suede, these will look adorable with my summer dresses, and for £6 it would of been rude not to.

New Look- £6

Now, the shoes would of won Christmas steal hands down if these bad boys didn't happen, completely by chance I popped into The Perfume Shop, I don't think I've ever been in before but after this I will be checking their deals a lot more frequently. I was bought Marc Jacobs Dot as a Christmas present last year and absolutely fell in love with it, it works as a fresh and fun everyday scent, and although its starting to run low I was holding out until my birthday due to the £50+ price tag. However, I discovered the perfume shop were selling off the Christmas gift boxes with Dot Priced at £27.50 and Daisy £25; To be honest I couldn't resist. I have restocked my favourite and introduced a new scent to mix things up. It's well worth keeping an eye on the offers in store as Marc Jacobs as a rule, never seems to be reduced and these were 50% off!

To ensure my shopping wasn't completely frivolous I treated myself to a organizer from Paperchase. I'm an absolute sucker for Paperchase products, and this floral collection is no excpetion. Now that I'm working a lot more independently at uni my normal weekly diary has become more of a place to schedule and plan work and tutorials, so I decided it would be nice to separate my work from my personal plans. That and my pages were getting so covered in odd notes it was becoming hard to read. Slim and compact it fits perfectly into my Zara Office City, whilst still being able to squeeze in my smaller everyday bags. So well worth it, the problem now is resisting buying everything else in the collection.

Paperchase - I can't seem to find it online, but it is still available in store

Hopefully you were all able to pick up some lovely bargains over the festive period.

fff

xox

Life Update- January 2014

So, as your probably aware I've been a little absent from the blogging world since November. I feel that I should be honest about the reasons for this, as it will hopefully help others in similar positions. As you may already know from previous posts & my twitter I suffer with anxiety and depression, just before Christmas things just became too much for me. I was signed off university & had my dosage of happy pills doubled; which as you can imagine wasn't much fun for me.

Sadly due to these issues I wasn't able to finish my Isabella Blow inspired garment, which I was, and still am, devastated about; as I felt it was my first piece where my design style was really beginning to show. I will however update you with my initial drapes from the project, and hopefully in my own time, I will be able to finish it. This period of time away also left me with a bit of a backlog workwise, so blogging took a backseat whilst I made sure I was on top of things again.

The good news is I'm back! and determined to face anything life throws at me. In the coming weeks I get to pop home for reading week, which will be lovely to see my loved ones, take a cheeky day trip to see my sister in Cambridge, and just enjoy the projects being thrown at me by uni.

Also a note I must add, unless I'm at Home(in Norwich) there will be a distinct lack of outfit posts :( Sorry! This is due to me living in a basement flat, which means the lighting is pretty rubbish most of the time, and its too grotty for me to be doing photos outside. I'm hoping to grow in confidence with the blog, and by summer be able to perhaps do some cheeky shots (with a flatmate playing photographer maybe) in the little courtyard we have.

Anyway, enough for now, as I'm currently writing some posts to queue up for you.
Hope you are all well and had wonderful Christmases and New Years

FFF
xox

Cheeky little Autumn Haul

I haven't had a huge amount of time to myself recently; but I managed to get myself to Bristol one afternoon for a cheeky little bit of shopping and to push my anxiety as part of my recovery. I almost get annoyed at myself for not going to Bristol more; Less than £5 return on the train and a wider variety of shops than Bath offers. Bath is brilliant for all the independent boutiques but Bristol is the king of the big high street names...A Primark that dreams are made of, a zara and all the stores I miss from Norwich. The anxiety part, well at the beginning of summer I felt to anxious to even walk down to my local shops on my own ( a 5 minute walk fyi), yet I managed to get the train and spend the afternoon mooching around Bristol on my own!

So here's what I picked up:

Pink angora Blend Jumper- £19.99 New Look

 I have been looking for a winter jumper for soooo long!! I'm quite fussy with my knitwear, have sensitive skin and hate cropped styles so shopping this season was a chore. I finally found this Pastel pink beauty in New Look and have lived in it since I bought it as it goes with everything!

 

Printed teadress - £8 Primark

Admittedly I went into Primark looking for silly Christmas presents and separates, I did achieve the silly presents but as always came out with dresses over tops and trousers. I couldn't resist the more autumnal print and the cute shape that shows off my figure whilst keeping me covered up. 

 

Teadress with cut out back - £5 Primark

I spotted this little beauty on the sale rail and for once they had it in my size! It's an empire line teadress with a cute little detail in the back, in a soft jersey fabric, and for a fiver it's an absolute bargin! I cannot wait to dress this up for winter date nights, and dress it down with cozy knits for days shopping & in the studio.

List book - £7.50 Paperchase

I can't find this online, but I'm absolutely in love with this current paperchase collection! I'm a little bit list obsessive so it satisfies my love of lists and florals, and technically it helps to keep me organised with my mountains of work!

Lula Magazine

Lula is by far one of my favourite high end fashion magazines; its so girly and whimsical, and one of the only fashion magazines that I really could connect with. Its kind of pricey, but its definitely worth a read if you ever have the money free.

Have any of you bought any cheeky things this autumn?

Keep warm lovelies

FFF

xox

Fashion is a cruel mistress

So despite my best intentions blogging has gone by the wayside a little :( It's not that I haven't had things I wanted to blog about, it purely became a time issue. As many of you will of read in previous posts my course is a little intense and I just haven't been able to take the time out to blog. Hopefully after christmas when the making side calms down, & my work is actually good enough to not need re-doing (whoops! Great start to the year!) I'll gradually be able to up the frequency that my posts go out.
But enough boring stuff; I'm really excited by my current project and just wanted to share little snippets about what I'm working on!

The Brief:
              We literally had to close our eyes and pick pieces of paper out of a hat; cue lots of dramatics when people discovered what they'd gotten. As a year group we don't tend to freak out about fabrics too much; but having the choice taken away from us, and having to use solely this fabric for our last make project before collections next year, made the fabrics mildly terrifying. I was lucky enough to get double faced; admittedly I didn't feel lucky at the time, I had no clue what it was other than it could be very pricey! I'll tell you later on when my opinion on the fabric changed.
     The aim was to use our selected fabrics to create experimental yet beautiful garments to couture standards; and this time we were expected to make more than one garment, a complete outfit was required. Most people are aiming for a top & trousers/skirt combination however I'm keen to try and get a jacket and a dress made in the time allowed. To help us think in couture and show terms a bit more we have also been asked to design the full 35 look collection, which can use a combination of fabrics, however the outfit we chose to make must be made entirely from the set fabric! Daunting!


So what is double faced?
Well, its basically any fabric that has 2 right sides....which sounds a million times less terrifying!! On my trips to London & local fabric shops I managed to collect such a variety of samples that I stopped freaking out about being limited by my fabrics, as double faced comes in all shapes and forms. I have to admit I 2 have to strong favourites fabric wise at the moment; a gorgeous double faced woven fabric from stock rolls at uni that's monochromatic and features herringbone on one side and houndstooth on the other, and weirdly enough neoprene style fabrics again monochromatic with white on one side and black on the other.

My Muse:
As its couture the aim is to have to specific client in mind, and I couldn't think of anyone more inspiring than the beautiful Isabella Blow. Despite her tragic death a few years ago she was an influential woman in fashion, and she fits the kind of pieces I wanted to make for this project.

Bit of a wordy post; but I'll try and keep you guys updated with how it all goes!

FFF

xox

OOTD- Little Tartan Dress

So I should really be sick of anything that even slightly resembles gingham due to my current uni projects; however whilst on a trip to Bristol to get fabrics I had a quick dash into Primark and spotted the cutest little Tartan dress and just had to treat myself. I was really worried about looking too school girly, as I dont really ever wear anything that's high necked or has a collar so I toughened it up with my ankle boots and leather jacket. I apologise for the photo quality, these were taken when it was getting dark and I live in a basement flat so not ideal for outfit photos!

Dress - Primark

Belt - Primark

Tights - Tesco (surprisingly good!!)

Jacket - Topshop

Boots - H&M

Hope you are all keeping warm and cosy during this spell of frankly quite horrid weather!! I got rained on before I took these photo's, hence the wet leather jacket :( 

FFF

xox