Coveting: Hybrid love-child trainers AKA Topshop's Triple Cut Out Peep Toes

Not quite sandals, not quite canvas pumps... these seem to be the strange twisted love child of both of them. Maybe they had an illicit affair and these were the result.

 I love them. And at £20, I'm pretty sure my budget can stretch to that. Check them out on Topshop online here - they also do black but I much prefer white. I'd quite like to get the ol' markers out as well and do a bit of colouring in on them as well actually.

I imagine they're great as transitional shoes (which I'm needing today - massive rain storms then bright sunshine? An outfit's worst nightmare!) because I live in flip flops most of the summer but sometimes need something a bit more sturdy. Like yesterday, I slipped down a couple of stairs in my shiny flipflops. Never good.

I'm going into the West End on thursday after work I think, so I'll hunt them down then. I hope they don't sell out (they are rather cheap...) and size 5 is pretty much the most common size! Damn me for having mainstream feet. I'm sure they have lots though.

Sorry for the lack of insightful, thought-provoking and riveting posts recently; I've discovered continuous blogging and a full time job don't mix. Not like Sandals and converse, oh no.

Coveting: Topshop Makeup

I heard about Topshop Makeup a while back but it's getting quite a bit of press now, and some images have been released too. Initially I wasn't majorly excited but now I'm getting a lot more intrigued: firstly the packaging is quite cute:

Monochrome stripes and spots, quite nice. Now I'm assuming it's all cruelty-free, it would be disastrous not to be. I'm hoping the packaging is minimal like this; and that none of it comes in additional cardboard boxes: that really annoys me. Like when nail varnishes come in cardboard tubes. It's made of glass, it's ok, it doesn't need extra cardboard. Foundations and moisturisers do this too: it bugs the hell out of me. I bough L'oreal's new youth code moisturiser (which is great btw, really like it) but it's in a glass tub, and then with a cardboard box. So not needed.

The main thing that got my attention is that the makeup is seasonal; the first being aimed at the festival season. So lots of bright summery colours and crazy glitters to go raving in. Personally, when I go to festivals, I wear nowt but eyeliner. You can't really be doing with anything more than that when all you have to wash yourself for 4 days are babywipes. 4 days of built up mascara and foundation is pretty... gross. But then there are those who do the hotel/VIP thing and who treat festivals like a fashion show, and would go crazy over this stuff, and there are those who like me, wear the same denim shorts all weekend. What I'm more interested in is that this stuff will be great for colourful nights out. I love to experiment with eye makeup, at uni I always had people saying 'you're that girl with the mental eyeshadow/eyelashes' (usually while spilling drinks on me):

And so on. These were all taken on nights out/varying stages of drunkenness so not exactly model shots. Ha. But anyway, I like to do crazy eye stuff, and hopefully this topshop makeup will be good for that, as I can't always afford to buy Illamasqua and Barry M. As the images I'm about to scan from this week's Grazia will show, they've thought about this range in terms of what crazy looks you can pull off. But the main thing I'm excited for is the nailvarnishes, in particular this one:

 This shade is called The Big Easy, £5. It hasn't scanned brilliantly but I LOVE it. I'm suddenly reliving my 14 year old obsession with nail varnish these days and this is an amazing colour. If I just buy one thing from this Topshop Makeup range, this will be it. I just hope it's fairly long-lasting and doesn't chip after the first day: as so often happens with cheap nail varnish that clothes brands bring out. However we are assured that this will be far from tacky, cheap teeny-y stuff:

"Designed by Topshop designer, Lizzie Dawson, whose day job is whipping up to-die-for blouses and lingerie, the range plays on the experimental nature of the Topshop customer, who’ll think nothing of throwing hair up into a grungy bun and sticking a giant flower in it, wearing a belt as a headband, a scarf around a handbag, and so on.

Expect the unexpected, especially when it comes to colour. Shades like The Big Smoke – a putty-coloured nail polish, not dissimilar to Chanel’s sell-out Particuliere, and Thistle – a pretty purple kohl pencil, are inspired by fashion, not makeup trends. And whilst the makeup finish on all products is professional standard, there’s not a huge focus on foundations.  Skin Tint, a second-skin tinted moisturiser and Skin Glow, a face brightener (amazing under Skin Tint) are the only bases in the range. ‘We want girls to look real and their makeup to look lived-in,’ says makeup artist Hannah Murray." From this Grazia article.

I love that look with the feathers, I so want to try that. These pages are both scans from this week's Grazia btw, images belong to them.

The range hits stores in May: I foresee a big rush personally. I'm just going to hunt down that nail varnish. Mine mine mine.

Fifi Lapin - That's one stylish bunny.

I recently bought a set of this year's Topshop Charity Christmas Cards.

I usually buy them every year anyway, but this year, they're extra special. I just thought the bunny was ridiculously cute, but on reading the packaging properly, Fifi Lapin is alive and real and pretty special.

You get 2 of each design, 8 in total. Each one has a little diary entry style bit on the back, and Fifi is wearing some of Topshop's Christmas Collection in each one. So cute. And it's for charity of course, so £2.25 of your measly £4 goes to some great charities. Read what Fifi has to say herself.

I have completely fallen in love with Fifi (in a non bestiality way) and can't believe I didn't know about her before! She is illustrated wearing high fashion/designer/couture outfits and has a shop where you can buy prints, drawings, cards, all with Fifi rocking some kind of awesome attire.
This was her Halloween outfit, sporting a bit of Gareth Pugh. Noice.

Fifi when she visited Paris!

It also reminds me a lot of the 'What I wore today' Flickr group that I never properly got involved with, having only doing it once. This is because of a) busy-ness and b) my hatred of drawing myself and to a lesser extent c) my weakness at not being that great at drawing human people. Must must start doing it again though. Outfit pictures are of course a staple of fashion blogs, and while I'm not a fashion blogger, some of my outfits really do deserve to be immortalised in pencil more often. Some don't.

So toddle on over and check out Fifi's blog; it'll have you hooked.

London Times: Liberty, Beyond The Valley, and other adventures...

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I had a little trip to London on thursday :) Packed quite a lot in, did I.

First up, Liberty's. I can never get over the beauty of that store. I don't think I've ever bought a thing from there but I love wandering around the rooms, with all the low ceilings, tudor beams, perfectly curated designer collections and mountains of beautiful stationary, home and bath ware, just lovely, lovely things. That place always makes me feel very calm and serene and a tad aspirational... i.e I want to live like this.

And they always have very dramatic, yet somehow subtle and understated decorations in the centre sections. Like this fabric/textile pattern style chandelier sort of installation. Huge. But not imposing.

Next I steadied myself for possible bankruptcy as I headed down Carnaby Street. That place is like a Rachel trap. Unlike Liberty's, I don't think I've ever been down that street without buying anything. This time was no exception.

Beyond The Valley is a shop I heard about through the mintynet and was dying to check out. It's more than a shop though really, they describe themselves as 'a creative community in the centre of London that supports and promotes emerging new talent across the fashion, art & design industries.' But basically it's a little boutique that sells prints, clothes, furniture, objects, jewellry, all very very covetable and cool, and all by up and coming young designers.

For example, a set of giant post-its. This had me quite excited - anything that is a mini or giant version of an ordinary object usually does. Even more so when it's some kind of organisational stationery object. Think of the lists you could write! And stick everywhere! Or when you need to have a brainstorm, bam, whack it on a giant post it and stick it to your face. (or wall). Ah, such organisational joy could be had!

However, I then had a bit of 'wait, £10 for a stack of slightly sticky paper' and thought 'I'll get it when I get paid'. Haha.

But the whole shop is very well set out, with shelves full of lovely designed objects and prints and things that I want.

What's this? The Crispin Finn 2010 wall planner I've been harping on about? In it's lovely brown paper bag? Yes, yes it is. Again, I so nearly bought it, but the angel on my shoulder whispered 'massive overdraft' and I scampered away.

But definitely go check out Beyond The Valley's site and all they have on there. They also, interestingly, have an Insight section too, which is cleverly www.beyondthevalleyinsight.com See what they did there?

"When Beyond the Valley was launched in 2005, the aim of its founders was to act as a springboard for new designers, offering unique, affordable products from breakthrough talent. But after three years of increasing demand for their skills in trend perception and brand consultancy, the concept store has grown from its roots on Soho’s Newburgh Street, joining forces with the brand experience people,‘i-am’ to create a new offer - ‘Beyond the Valley Insight’. As a result, this new union is able to offer a unique one-stop package for companies that need access to current trends and markets. Through creating full marketing strategies and bespoke brand events, Beyond the Valley Insight acts as a bridge between the next generation of designers, consumers, and those businesses that want to stay connected.."

So there. Worth bookmarking and checking out every so often.

The Diesel store's looking a bit weather-beaten, somebody really should like, paint that thing.

Yeah so this is Diesel's A/W thing, 'extreme weather washes', so everything is destroyed by storms and rain and such. I think it's just an excuse to smash stuff, and to bring ripped jeans back. I like the smashy smashy, but oh, the travesty. I used to wear ripped jeans when I was... well, a massive skater/rock/lame/goth-like creature, and so I now sort of abhor ripped jeans a bit, on girls anyway. But you know, when it comes to fashion, I can be a tiny bit hypocritical (i.e. "I can't believe they're bringing big shoulders back again, it looks awful, I mean.. oh, wait, actually, look at me go.") So you never know, I might chuck myself in front of a tornado yet.

So what did I buy? This sex-tastic bag. And bracelet style watch. The watch is from a shop in Carnaby Street, called Octopus, (no proper website yet) which is teeeny but packed with all manner of cutesy, kawaii, brightly coloured, STUFF. And everyone knows how much I like stuff. They had about 7 different colours of this watch and I very nearly went for bright pink (of course) but then got drawn to the lovely purity of the white one, for no explainable reason. So I now have a white, chunky, plastic watch and it rawwwks dude.

The sex-tastic bag is of course Paul's Boutique and there's a bit of a story here. I originally bought the blue one of these in Selfridges in Birmingham a few months ago, but it was the larger version and it was just a bit tooo big, more weekendy, so I took it back. They didn't have the same pattern in this size so I left a bit sad and minus one bag. I then found it on ASOS, but on there you have to pay for postage as well, and then I got poor so just didn't.

Anyway, fast forward, wandering around Topshop on Oxford Street in what I can only describe as an overwhelming-lust-for-everything-I-can-lay-my-eyes-on haze (dangereux), which usually happens to me in there, and I spot the bag. I THEN spot it in pink as well. I had a tiny brain explosion, gagged the angel on my shoulder, grabbed the bag and never ever let go.

Now I'm pretty much the coolest, poorest girl in the world.

After all this I went to visit the SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution exhibition, which I'm just writing up a review so will be posted later. Good times.