that is a beautiful cape

This velvet capelet was £1 from Chiswick car boot. It probably needs a steam and my outfit was a bit shit but £1, wow, yeah, impressive huh? #humblebrag

I've been wearing stars a lot lately. I actually had a full on mink velour party dress and sparkly reindeer antlers planned for the night but with various effing and geffing the night got downgraded and I didn't feel that a party dress was appropriate. I managed to cobble together this as a back-up outfit. Pretty similar to the one I wore out last week, woops. 

star print top, pleather bottoms, scary lipstick shade, draggy false eyelashes - check, check, check, check.

In other accessorising news, last night I used an old clutch bag of my grandmas and bearing in mind that we went on a Christmas night out to a 1980s theme night I though it was pretty spooky to find these inside...

We partied like it was 1988.

(re)vamp

For some reason I haven't blogged this black velour dress before. It was £1 from Sue Ryder in Worcester Park. I had someone take it up as it was an odd length but it came in handy the other week when I was at home and had nothing to wear out dancing. I don't suit strapless styles so I wore this Zara shirt over the top.

 

I don't have a very good picture of me in it, so here is my sister wearing it for some shots I did for my MA magazine in 2008, they show off the shape of it a bit better. And also highlight my utter lack of styling, make-up and photography skills!

who could ask for anything more?

On Friday night I had a special  night out with my lovely friend Sammi. We went for dinner at my favourite restaurant (Wahaca) and then went to the Novello theatre to see the Gershwin musical, 'Crazy For You'. It was one of the best things I have ever seen! I was sat there elated throughout the whole thing. I would thoroughly recommend it , and the theatre was lovely and small so it felt intimate and really good value for money. Of course I left wishing I could be a dancer in 1930s New York, but what I would ask for is for one of the velour majorette costumes that the chorus girls wore. I am in love with them! I think I want red, but purple would go better with my hair. Luckily they went straight from our performance to Chidren in Need so I can share the costumes with you, although this excerpt doesn't do the actual show any justice. GO SEE IT NOW!

whatever makes her happy, on a saturday night

Alriiiight, last night I went to see Suede perform their album 'Coming Up' (+ mammoth encore) at Brixton Academy. Before you judge me for going to see their most mainstream album, I did have tickets to all three nights but couldn't find anyone to go with so sold them, ha. Yes it was a shame that this album was sans Butler, but last nights gig wasn't so winwinwinwin. Now Suede are not my usual music tastes in so much as I guess they are Britpop/Indie, but aside from them and The Smiths (you can draw a direct link from The Smiths to Suede - poignant, gloomy lyrics, indeterminate sexuality... iconic hair...) I am not a fan of 'indie', which is a bullshit meaningless term now anyway but you get me bruv? I obviously like the thowmping electric-ness of Suede, but also, like The Smiths, they have some great lyrics. I thought the impressive and I'm so glad to have finally seen a band I've loved since I was too young to know what the song 'Animal Nitrate' was about. I watched the Butler/Anderson reincarnate band The Tears at Reading festival in 2005 and was touched by how lovely the fans were and what a great atmosphere there was in the tent, so it spurred me on even more to see Suede. They played the entire album last night but also played a juicy encore of besties from other albums and releases so you got more bang for your buck. This is by no means their best song and I could be here all night trying to play favourites, but for some reason this one really stood out for me from last nights set :



This is obvv not footage from last night, that would shit because a) it would be shit quality and b) I think its shit when people go to gigs and spend the entire time trying to film and photograph it on their camera phones, just enjoy it man, live in the now. I remember seeing a picture of Pink in concert and the whole crowd looked like they were trying to film it, it made me feel a bit sick.

Theeeeen today I went to New Cross to celebrate my sisters 21st birthday with the fam (minus Gregg but plus Furr). We went to the amaaazing New Cross House and ate so much food and it was great, I had such a nice time and hope everyone else did too.









I look like a crim with my hair up like this, but note the reduction in ridiculousness when we are sat down together, and I wanted to give this dogtooth check and with velour collar, jacket a mention as it was £3 from Sue Ryder charity shop in Woodley, it is 90s Miss Selfridge so a bit boxy, although, interestingly, winter just gone they had a more modern silhouette reworking of this jacket in there, must have revisited the archives. Wore it with a pleather mini skirt (copied from Amy, Asda bargains) so the overall look was hopefully less horsey.

crimson and clover

Another 'why charity shops are great post'... My face really isn't but unfortunately I'm kind of stuck with it. This burgundy velour top/shift/mini dress, not really sure what it is was £4 from a charity shop in Worcester Park, one of my favourite places to go for charity shops. It is Frank Usher so was probably really expensive in whatever decade it was 'new'. Its a size 14 so maybe it is a top but I liked the idea of wearing it as a sort of 60s style mini dress with suspender detail tights, and I love the pointy pizza slice collar, and it has the option to button up the neck, creating a cheeky clevage keyhole. Also like the flared wizard sleeves. It doesn't look very good on me but I was drawn to it for some inexplicable reason, probs def the fact its velour. The boots I am wearing are my absolute favourites and suprisingly comfortable. And they have leopard print on so win win win win win.

I went out dancing last night to The Bath House in Bishopsgate but all of my 'going out' gear, namely by shoes and nice handbags are in Reading so I had to make do with this not very exciting outfit. I love the mix of music they play at The Bath House on Saturday nights, went there over the summer and was pleased to find that they still mix Metallica, Aerosmith and AC/DC in a line-up with decent eighties like The Eurythmics and a generous helping of Motown and Soul. Will definitley be trying to drag people back there more often, and its only a five minute bus trip from where I live, even better.

go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

A wee while back a pesky Alice Temperley sample sale came to Vogue House to tempt us all. I bought a couple of things from the Alice by Temperley range; one was a black leather trench coat (for the days when a girl is feeling a bit Gestapo/Goff) and the other was this:

An electric blue velour biker jacket, meoowww.£55 down from £300ish. I wore it with a simple outfit of a big white shirt, black velour leggings (its nice to be able to stroke yourself from head to toe in velour, purrr) and a menagerie of jewellery. The snake ring is from a holiday to Cyprus, the lion ring is sterling silver but was only £3 from Oxford market, the horn again is sterling silver but for some amazing reason was only 75p from a charity shop and the buffalo skull is Topman.

we ain't never gonna be respectable

The boyf and I went to a wedding in December (he was the best man). I have just seen this picture of us and I'm sorry to say that I laughed because we do look utterly rubbish together. He is a total babe but he's wearing a three-piece suit and is clean shaven, which is not his usual look. And I am a big bird, which unfortunately is my usual look (although not as tall as the lady in the background, obvs).

It also turns out that I thought it would be a good idea to pull this array of faces for photos on the disposable cameras the married couple had put out on the tables. Please note that I did not know anyone at the wedding, including the couple getting married, and the two men I am photographed with below. Ever get the feeling you won't be invited back? Please note my attempts at dressing wedding-y, with hair clips and clutch bag which matched my dress. Now all I need to remember is: dignity, poise, sobriety, grace, weight loss.

Am I bovverd?

Duck face

Blowfish

Nahhh I'm just messing. Although I do worry that I'm not very good 'nice occassions' date material.

Everyone was lovely, and the wedding was beautiful, and I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the day and I look forward to seeing the new people I met again. And I still bloody love this dress. And am now a bit of a wedding-aholic it turns out.

santa baby

These are the kinds of things I imagine I would get for Christmas if I was a sexy, slinky model on a tv advert/in a film. Except for the check eye mask; when I wear one of these to sleep my boyfriend calls me Zorro, which I don't think is meant as a term of sexy endearement. It's only Topshop too, I imagine sexy, slinky models would be a bit disappointed to recieve high street. Oh well....




Basically, all Topshop's velvet undie sets, delicious. If only you could buy the body of an underwear model at Topshop too.

want want want want want

this is all I want and I can not get my hands on it! I know it's kind of mumsy and not rock 'n' roll but I think that it would be flattering and feel delish

Basically, I am going to a wedding in December and have decided this is a blatant good excuse to buy myself something. Agh, lovely consumerism. Expect more posts of slightly conservative, non-black dresses in the lead up, all futile, as I will probably look hideous in all the little treat dresses I want, panic about the money, and just end up wearing some sad old thing I already own that isn't very wedding-y, and feeling grumpy and frumpy.

want me to do your hair?

1975's Shampoo is a great fashion and music film, and sometimes that's all a film needs to be. Warren Beatty is a babe of a hairdresser on a bike who goes round shagging his clients; aaallll his clients. Goldie Hawn is a super cutie and I want her velour basketball top style mini dress and Julie Christie is beautiful and stick thin and I want her backless sequin cocktail dress and fur coat (but I'd like to look like her in it...)

she wore blue velvet

the day dress:

the day-to-night dress:


the party:
I wish these could all be mine but sadly I think the best I can manage at the moment on the new dress front are the two I bought from Primark last weekend (one has leopards on, one has zebras on) and maybe a cheapy little New Look crushed velour skater dress for a tenner although I am sans debit card so I have no way to buy online and I doubt there will be any left in the shop tomorrow. Sadly my flatmate Sam could not get me the previously blogged velvet wedge shoes with her juicy HOF 33% + two day 20% discount so a few of my dresses which needed these shoes to liberate them from the wardrobe are yet to have their dance. Not that I have a social occassion to wear them to anyway. "And I still can see blue velvet through my tears"...

Oh and just for lolz:

wear your heart on your sleeve / heart the sleeves you wear

I think this is basically my perfect dress. Now I am not the marrying type but I would go so far as to say this is the dress I would get married in. It will cover my arms and it has a bow tie, I am a sucker for those (see: blogger pic). I bet if I go and try it on I will be horribly disappointed though. Could I be about to break the habit of a lifetime and pay full price for something from Miss Selfridge?

velvet goldmine

Kurt Geiger