Trend Watching: Animal Shape Clutch Bags

I've come across an interesting trend recently: Animal shape clutch bags! I know, amazing right? Firstly, I saw this post on Krisatomic's blog called Clutch Menagerie and just love love them. Check it out:

They are  by Tsurubride on Etsy and retail at $80. Check out Tsurubride's Orwell Clutch bags on Etsy here. She also does purses and other such wonderments.

Then yesterday I came across this amazing Dachsund Handbag via ArtatHeart:

Seriously cute. Click here for the original article about the Dachsund Handbag on ArtatHeart. It's made by Beetrootonline and is £85 - they also do a cute little birdy purse! Ah.

So what's sparked all this animal clutch-ness off then? Maybe it's that people are realising putting actual real dogs in your handbag is silly. And you get hairs all over your stuff. So a better option is to have your bag AS a dog. Excellent.

Or maybe it's this: These definitely wouldn't work as well if they had handles or straps. I think what makes these great is they could be mistaken for just holding a little stuffed animal. Which comes from the whole 'back to your childhood' trend going on right now. I am in favour of this.

The Domestic Sluts have just drawn my attention to this uh-mazing handbag:

Which, as they say in their Domestic Sluttery Bag Lust post, maybe only a child could pull off. Nay, I say to that, I would gladly pull this off and look crazy cool. If a little Gaga-esque. Which is never a bad thing in my books. Being a child has never looked so fun!

It's £65 from Lunacy Boutique and can be pre-ordered now for the end of June. I wannnnt one. *stamps feet*

Get on the wire and get your orders in! Aha. See what I did there.

Underwear as Outerwear: The trend continues...

...And I'm so happy about that. Let's not be hasty though, it's hard to pull off. And unfortunately, not for those who are a bit iffy about their bodies/tummies in particular.

In the not-so-real world of the fashion world, Marc Jacobs does it well. Here is the Gaga herself wearing the trend with no holds barred:

I believe she was at an award ceremony accepting an award for being great at accessorising, so there you go.
More Marc Jacobs S/S 2010 underwear awesomeness. From this post at designer directions.

It's definitely all about the frills, lace, pastel colours, mixed with a few darker colours and hard edged tailoring. That's the best way to do it IMO. Structure, with floaty materials and a bit of flesh showing. Ooh la la.

To be honest though, if you turn up to the office wearing your best bra over your blouse, you're going to get looks. And not the kind you want. You're going to look a wee bit crazy. So it's best to take influences from this trend, but don't be so obvious. An instant way of getting round this is wearing a bralet. This is a bra with an extra bit of material around the bottom, sort of like a corseted crop top thing. And it instantly starts to verge into acceptable outerwear material:

Stick that over a bodycon dress or high waisted skirt or vest top and you're on the right track, I reckon. This trend is definitely all about layering; if you've got a lace cardigan, that's the thing to wear with this.

Topshop, the life-savers as they are, are high up there on the bralet front IMO. High street-wise anyway. I can't find any better ones out there. Here are my favourites right now:


Here's the great thing. Find a bralet like this, with floral patterns, and you've got S/S 2010 trend no. 2 right there. Duh, it's spring, florals are back. Highly surprising. But for the second year running they're on the photo-realist track and this I approve of. I normally hate florals but this looks instantly vintage. I personally prefer floral patterns on beige or nude backgrounds, not a dark one like this. This kind of thing is perfect:

Again from Topshop, but it's gone. Gone gone gone :( If I ever find something similar to this then it's mine.

I bought an amazing floral dress from H&M actually, it was the last one and it was my size, must be fate. This is the sort of pattern I love:

Yep, I'm quite tipsy here. Not as much as the person taking the picture though, oh dear. Hence the strange angle. But you can see the dress better than any 'beginning of the night' pictures I have.

So my point is, if you can mix floral with lace underwear-esque clothing, that's a good look right there. It also avoids the problem of just wearing lace bodies and things like that, which is nipple show-age. I've got a cream lace body and avoided that by wearing a navy lace top over the top. Too much lace layerage to see anything really.

See, it's a good look, just not in actual real life. This picture was taken from this article by the Daily Mail, posted a few days ago, saying that this trend has sparked a 20% rise in nipple covers. I'm really not surprised. We sold them at La Senza as Nipple Daisies and they do stop this problem. You still know there's no bra though so this is defo for the body confident.

I think it's cool. Some people (including some of my friends) really don't... but they never push the boundaries of what they wear that much anyway so I forgive them. I like dressing differently. I like the idea of wearing a bra-style thing over your clothes and people going 'hmmm'. But then I've always been like that.

The best example of a 'Normal' (ie not a model or not Lady Gaga) doing this trend is Susie off of Style Bubble. Of course. Check it out:
See, she's got the bralet over a dress thing going on, AND suspenders and blue tights. And, probably due to the colours, I don't see it being slutty at all. It's kinda cute. And just way awesome. It's pretty much all Stella McCartney too, so a bit 'spensive. Damn. The best thing though, is definitely that clear mac. So good. It's the ultimate solution - you've got a great outfit but don't want to cover up just cos it's raining. Done. Get me a clear mac right now.

I think the key with this trend is less is more. If you're going to do the big pants over tights, make sure they're coloured or opaque. Same with the leotard. I way don't have the legs for that. But some do. If you're going to do the bralet, layer it over a dress/top and then layer a sheer/lace something over the top, then maybe a jacket too. If you're wearing just a lace body, invest in some nipple daisies, or wear a bright coloured bra under. Or layer layer layer.

I <3 underwear. It's true.