Monday 26 September 2011

Mollie King Sexes Up Warehouse Masculine Tux....

Mollie King is arguably the most fashion conscious out of her other band mates in pop music phenomenon The Saturdays. In a recent issue of Look magazine, we saw her sporting one of the hottest looks of the season: Androgyny.

Molly King looks sophisticated in a male led trend for the upcoming season

The aim is to take inspiration from masculine style - think structured silhouettes, tailored trousers and sharp shirts in a palette of monochrome and poppy red. Dressed to kill in this beautifully tailored Warehouse tux, Molly incorporates her femininity into a look that could make or break her fashion social status.


Contrast lapels make this Warehouse tux an interesting take on Androgyny

Molly seems happy with her Warehouse piece - and so she should be!


If Molly King can nail the Masculine vs Feminine trend this Autumn/Winter 2011 then so can you! Take the Warehouse red tux as a starting point and style your ideal outfit around a key item - whether you're all about the male influence, feeling feminine or ready to party the night away, the tux is a staple piece to your new AW11 wardrobe!

Male Influence:
'Ware' it the Mod way with skinny black trousers and a tailored shirt buttoned up to the top. I love the tie detailing on the cigarette style trousers - with a pair of sky high heels and lace top the look can still be sexy.


The Key Piece
Warehouse
Tux £75
Lace Shirt
Warehouse
£45


Slim Fit Trouser
Warehouse
£45

Feeling Feminine:
Team the tux jacket with a knitted dress and spot-on trend black tights! Baring legs makes the styling sophisticated and pairing with a dress feminine.

The Key Piece
Warehouse
£75

Textured Dress
Warehouse
£46

Large Spot Tights
Warehouse
£8

Ready to party:
The party season is up and coming and to keep off that winter chill the tux is a perfect solution - stylish, sassy and sexy it oozes sophistication. Add a a metallic effect tee and clashing sparkling skirt for ultimate glamour!

The Key Piece
Warehouse
£75

Foil Blouse
Warehouse
£55

Metallic Skirt
Warehouse
£55



Image 1-3 taken from www.look.co.uk
Remaining Images taken from www.warehouse.co.uk
Shop Online at www.warehouse.co.uk

Saturday 24 September 2011

New Look Rocks the Boot Trend

What can you buy for £20 these days? A meal for two? Half a car tank of petrol? A couple days worth of food shopping? Now these are all worthy things to spend your £20 note on - but they don't last very long do they? So what if I told you that £20 could stretch you across a couple of fashion seasons at the very least?

That's right. Retail giant New Look have produced four pairs (yes four pairs!!) of lust worthy, purse friendly autumn boots just for you! Whether your channelling the animal print trend, androgyny or you're just a full on shoe lover, New Look has the perfect boot for you!

Was £29.99 Now £19.99 - Bargain!
 A classic black boot goes with anything and everything! A sensible yet highly fashion forward purchase!
Was £29.99 Now £19.99 - Must have!
 I already treat myself to these having had the summer version in an open toed kitten heel - I think the print is a more modern take on all the leopard print that can be seen on the high street lately!
Was £29.99 Now £19.99 - you need these in your life, right?!
 Feeling sexy? Loving the dominatrix trend that is coming through for the season? Then add these to your seduction list - with gorgeous lace detailing you would think they were about four times the price they are!
Was £34.99 Now £19.99 - Quick before New Look realise the huge discount they've put on!
Sssssssnake skin (sorry, couldn't resist!) is huge right now adding edge to any outfit day or night. Grab your skinny black denim and leather jacket for a rock and roll style!


PS > get yourselves a copy of the New Look new season magazine available instore where you will find a 20% off voucher to be used on full price or promotional stock (including these boots!!) which is valid instore from Tuesday 27th September!

Happy Shopping!
xoxo


All images taken from www.newlook.com
Shop online at www.newlook.com



Friday 23 September 2011

Biba Celebrates One Year Rebirth

Everyone remembers Biba as the iconic store of the 1960's influenced by feminine fashion forward pieces that became such a success they made their founder Barbara Hulanicki a household name. When House of Fraser relaunched the brand as one of their own "house brands" last year, I was dubious on viewing the collection as to whether it still captured the essence of the historic brand that Hulanicki had built up.

A year on from the launch of Biba at House of Fraser and my opinion has been totally turned around. Capturing the vintage heart of the brand, we are now seeing a collection full of the classic 'Biba' colours such as mulberries, blueberries, rust and plums. Think 60's high collared swing dresses, bejewelled collars, faux fur detailing and classic woollen knits. The HOF just stepped it up a notch...

Dress £85
 A monochrome pallette meets the era of the beatnik in this adorable striped swing dress. The high embellished collar screams high 60's fashion!
Cape £99
 I think this cape is beautiful. Ideal for a bit of evening glamour!
Shirt £125
 Intricate lace detail - check. High neckline - check. Ivory colour - check. Victorianna inspired trends consistently reappear each Winter season so another vintage looking shirt from Biba is a must have to instantly update your wardrobe for the upcoming season.
Jumper £85
 The print of this jumper is truly sensational. A mixture of contemporary Missoni meets the classic Biba girl - tuck into a high waisted midi skirt and pair with a faux fur coat to channel this season's 1970's trend.
Cardigan £125
 Chunky knits are at the forefront of the autumnal shoppers mind. In a mix of burnt orange and blueberry coloured wool, this cardigan would look amazing with knee high boots and a fedora!
Dress £125
 The intricate golden leaf detail along the neckline makes for a stunning vintage-inspired dress. The draping fabric and billowing sleeves are very flattering yet make a fashion statement that wouldn't go unnoticed.
Coat £295
Faux fur is everywhere this season but mixed with camel and a wrap over cinched waist makes this gorgeous coat very 1950's glam.


All images taken from www.houseoffraser.co.uk
Shop online at www.houseoffraser.co.uk

Thursday 22 September 2011

Is Westfield Stratford going for gold?



And there off - thousands of runners racing one another to the finishing line. Clad in sturdy stilletos, fierce kitten heels or sensible flats; but this is no Olympic sport - instead it is the female-friendly sport that we all know and love; it's about shopping!

Westfield Stratford opened it's doors all in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics with a massive bang last week including a performance from Nicole Scherzinger as thousands of shoppers queued to get their first purchases from their favourite high street brands from Forever 21 through to Primark. As shoppers easily frittered away a mere £20million in the first week of the mega-mall being open, I'm left wondering (like many others) whether Westfield Stratford will be affected by the 'recession' at all?

The odds are against my theory at the moment, with the centre taking £4million in its first day last Tuesday and repeating similar success in its following days. Westfield was filled to capacity at the weekend with security guards only letting people in when others came out!

Westfield has already given the unemployed around 2,000 job opportunities and the area of Stratford is hoping it will attract tourists and shoppers to other parts of the city too to explore the vintage boutiques, the food market and other historic sites to increase tourism and, above all, money for the area.

With the Olympics now less than a year away, the city will hopefully go from strength to strength with Christmas just around the corner and many eager shoppers already planning trips from outside of London to especially visit the new shopping phenomenom. And I for one am eager to see the new retail emporium! So that must mean the press attraction around the centre is working - and all us girls (and some guys!) know, once we're tempted into the forbidden territory that is retail, there is only one thing left to do: SHOP!

Image from: now-here-this.timeout.com

Monday 19 September 2011

Shop the High Street

As the season's change over from Summer to Autumn, there is nothing a girl loves to do more than update her wardrobe! But who am I kidding? It doesn't really matter whether its mid season or transitional season - we just love to shop! Here are my latest purchases to update my wardrobe and to satisfy my shopping craving!

New Look £17

I think this shirt is unusually quirky for New Look - the autumnal coloured stripes are what first caught my eye. I'm teaming it up with a midi skirt and maroon tights for autumn!

Warehouse Was £60 Now £20

This Warehouse dress first caught my eye in the Summer but at £60 I was reluctant to treat myself! Now in the sale at £20 it is such a bargain dress I just had to have it. The print is still in tune with the whole Navajo trend for Autumn so I'll be wearing my sale steal with a chunky knitted cargian and knee high boots!

Jane Norman Was £55 Now £27.50

Jane Norman is a store that I have never even stepped in never mind thought of shopping in. So I was slightly suprised when this jacket caught my eye on the sale rail in the door way of their store (ah the power of visual merchandising!) I adore the colour and the fit is very flattering too - it's my inbetweeny jacket for the mid season!

New Look £25

 I was so eager to try the shoe-boot! These are the most comfortable height-increasing shoes I have ever worn and they go with anything and everything - my best buy of the month!

Warehouse £45

Love at first sight can only happen with one thing - fashion! I love this faux fur bag from Warehouse, it is deffinately an edgier take on the faux fur trend with the zip detailing. My Warehouse bags always last for years so they are deffinately an investment piece ladies!



Happy Shopping!

Love Tatty xoxo

Thursday 15 September 2011

Shivani Chavda "In My Wildest Dreams"

Once upon a dream world, an aspiring fashion designer, Shivani Chavda, envisioned exotic animals and surreal art merging together to create a fashion collection that both celebrated the feminine form, yet took a walk on the wild side by experimenting with animalistic prints with a mythodical essence.

Conceptualizing mystical motifs on luxurious flowing fabrics was the initiality and collaborating with leading high street retailer Warehouse was just the start. Shivani created her fantasy "In My Wildest Dreams" in a reverie of water colour, absorbing vivd purples with bright oranges and oceanic blues to produce unusually beautiful items with a Warehouse edge.

An artists pallette of mixed primary colours shows off Shivani's creativity within this silk chiffon maxi skirt:
Top £55
Skirt £140

On trend for autumn/winter11 the side split skirt and deep cut front celebrates female sexuality whilst the fierce print injects a rawness rarely seen on the current high street:

Dress £160



Essences of the luxuriant ocean are reflected in the billowing maxi dress and waves of loose chiffon:

Dress £180
Necklace £50



Clash of the wild exudes ferociousness in a dream like world:

Top £65
Trousers £90


Now in its third year, Warehouse has worked in conjunction with the British Fashion Council's Colleges Council to mentor the fashion design competition winner on a sixth month placement with the brand, where this year's winner Shivani has followed the full journey of her collection from developing the initial design process, through to production, campaign creation and marketing launch.

The result is mesmerizingly beautiful and I predict that Shivani Chavda's wildest dreams really have come true...


All images from the Warehouse Press Team
The Shivani Chavda collection is currently being sold exclusively in selected Warehouse stores and online at www.warehouse.co.uk

Wednesday 14 September 2011

What Will You Wear Today, Tonight, Tomorrow?

What was the last fashion magazine you read? Grazia? Company? Vogue? Which page did you spend the longest amount of time on; Style Spy? Street Style? Style Hunter? If you fall into the majority of fashion obsessed stylistas then your answer to the latter is most probably yes. You like to have a nosey at what other fashionable folk are coveting; taking inspiration as you do so. But waiting a week or two or, in some cases, a full month to get your street style fix can sometimes be a drag. So introducing a new social networking site entitled What I Wore Today, founded by fashion blogger Poppy Dinsey, will ensure all your style prayers have been answered...


Poppy, founder of What I Wore Today looking crazily cool as usual on the site!

Forget flicking through the pages of a magazine, get clicking instead through thousands of stylistic images posted personally by style savvy individuals. And it is so easy and simple to get involved in yourself:Simply upload a snap of your outfit each day to the online community - which is a friendly, non bitchy and fashion focused crowd - and wait for the feedback and admiration to come flooding in! You can browse and rate other people's outfits, and looks can be tagged with brands, moods, situations and locations - meaning you can see how people wear your favourite brands, or find people local to you.


The_Style_PA uploads her vintage-inspired look on the networking site

Launching 15th September just in time for London Fashion Week, WIWT.com benefits fashion bloggers through promoting themselves and their blogs and also benefits retailers too as posted outfit snaps can be tagged into brand trends and then onwards to allow networkers to buy the garments from the relevent retailers - now that's fashion savvy, eh?!


Amelia shows us how her summer maxi skirt takes her through to autumn
with a structured shirt on the site WIWT.com

Poppy Dinsey, founder of WIWT (What I Wore Today) says “I started the blog as a bit of a personal challenge to make me wear more of the clothes I already owned, but within a few weeks of my first post I was being sent pictures of other people’s outfits and they were asking to be featured on the site. It wouldn’t have made sense to have the odd guest post, but I quickly realised there was a demand for other people to be able to join in the fun. The idea for the social network was born and now it’s finally ready to show the world.”


And if the style snaps, blog promotion and retailer advertisement doesn't convince you - why not try the free iphone app which allows you to download photos straight from your phone to the networking site - there really is no excuse to not get involved!


Let's encourage stylish guys like dpw83 to get involved too!


So whether you're a budding fashionista, a wannabe stylist, a fashion blogger or just plain nosey - get connecting on www.wiwt.com Poppy concludes the reason to get involved in the site perfectly:  "Everyone loves to people watch in the street but you don’t always have the confidence to ask strangers “where did you get that?” - I really think that WIWT can change the way we shop online and look for style inspiration.” So next time you see that stylish lady strutting her stuff in Leeds or jumping off the tube in London - take a look on WIWT, because I bet your bell bottom jeans that she'll be on there - so why aren't you?




All images taken from www.wiwt.com and have been uploaded by the inviduals
Quotes from Poppy Dinsey taken from the WIWT press release

Monday 12 September 2011

Mary Gets Sexy

Is Mary going to get sexy in the near future??!

Who knew that Mary Portas opening her own shop would be such a retail success? Er, well, everyone actually. She is the "retail guru" afterall with her recognisable shocking orange hair, her straight talking assertiveness and her dry wit. But was it wit that made her tweet this earlier on in the week:


"Doing research for my show. Would love response to this question. Would you buy a sex toy/ vibrator from my shop? Beautiful ones I must add"

Random? Yes. Truthful? Possibly. I reported a few blog posts back that rumours where in fact rife in the retail world that she was planning on designing her own sex toy range on this page here . But after seeing this tweet, it seems she is still pretty keen on the idea of becoming the next Ann Summers.

Will Mary bare all as an advertising aid for her new venture?
She promises they will be beautiful - so I'm intrigued about how she will make a sex toy look beautiful! This coming from the lady who has had several mannequins made for her shop that look like her with the same body shape and flame-bright hair - I wouldn't be suprised if she puts herself on her sexy new idea!

But with all the sizing issues that have been brought up in regards to the fittings on her first clothing collection - surely she wouldn't dare get this aspect wrong if she were to venture down the sex toy route....ahem...Time will only tell where the retail guru will end up next.


Image 2 taken from thatsnotmyage.blogspot.com

Saturday 10 September 2011

French Connection Trends on Twitter


The next high street store to be made a trending topic thanks to Twitter is French Connection. The brand hit the top after the airing of their new Autumn/Winter 2011 advertisement "I am the Suit" during the Xfactor commercial ad break.

Featuring a catchy tune from Chris Brown entitled Look At Me Now and guest starring Michael from The Teenagers, the commercial is as ever strange and intriguing as the advertisements for the Spring/Summer brand collection.

The starting scene reminds me of the Selfridges Alexander McQueen
 window display they were widely criticized for

My interpretation is French Connection is a brand that fits into the customers every day life style from the location you are in within the first few scenes, to the movements you make in the next and the detailing you require to make those clothes wearable ie the shirt buttons, the flowing skirt and the pockets in the suit jacket.

Are French Connection the key to this season's AW11 trends?


The collection is sexy and sophisticated...


As for the panda I am still making my mind up about that connotation! I love the sneaky references to gold meaning rich and luxurious clothing from the brand and the sexual connotations of the body parts that are referenced during the advertisement.

Any ideas what the Panda represents?

Again, French Connection are catching the imagination of the public and what a fantastic PR and marketing opportunity for them to be trending on the number one social site Twitter.

Check out the advertisement here

Tuesday 6 September 2011

In-Betweeny-Coat-Finds

So it's that in betweeny, it's too warm to wear a proper coat yet too cold not to wear anything time of year again! I don't if you've already made the same mistake I have and put on your snug winter-esque coat in a morning and then 10 minutes into your journey to work you're so hot you wish you hadn't bothered at all!

Regarding this as a major wardrobe necessity, I set out at the weekend to hunt down an in-betweeny coat (that's its official fashion name y'know!) Check out my high street findings below:

Karen Millen £395


 First up is the staple black leather jacket; a jacket so investment savvy you can hardly believe your own shopping luck! Throw it on over a day dress for instant edge or over a plain tee and jeans to immediately update your look - it is the ultimate wardrobe revival! I particularly like this one from Karen Millen with a quilted detailing that differentiates it from the norm, yet keeps the basic leather jacket principles in tact! Buy it here now.

Next £30
 Navajo is the BEST Autumn '11 trend (in my opinion!) I love the prints, the bohemian essence and the layering styling factors too. The cape has returned again for AW11 and is set to be bigger than last fall. I can't wait to get wrapped up in this banket cape from Next. Perfect over casual jeans or even over a LBD on an evening! Buy it here now.

River Island £50
 River Island are bringing out some beauties in the form of kimonos and capes this upcoming season - some of which have graced the pages of Vogue and Elle magazine; oo-er! I heart this gorgeous kimono which is available now online. I'm loving these oversized jackets styled with chunky boots and a pair of leather look (not wet-look by the way!) leggings, giving it a rock 'n' roll edge! Buy it here now.

Warehouse £70
 Blazers are everywhere this season thanks to the likes of Kate Moss and Fearne Cotton making them uber cool with almost, er, everything! Take the spin of Autumn and go for a longer silhouette like this Warehouse one. I'm wearing mine with a maxi dress/skirt or channel the boy-girl trend and team with peg leg trousers and a pussy bow blouse! Buy it here now.
Topshop £45
Adore this little jacket from Topshop. The texture is so soft and fleecey yet it has alot of potential in the layering up areas. I think this would look adorable with a roll neck jumper and midi skirt for a bit of that 1960's glamour. And the red colour is oh-so-now! Buy it here now.

Happy shopping! xoxo

Sunday 4 September 2011

The NEXT big thing



Finally a leading high street retailer making a difference to the future careers of our current and future generation! Retail giant Next have released details earlier on today that they are to launch an apprenticeship scheme that could employ upto 1,000 young career seekers into the ever changing world of retail.

Next chief executive Lord Wolfson said it will not be possible to judge the scheme's success for at least six months when the performance of those recruited can be measured. As many people who work in retail know, you don't have to start off with an academic background to succeed - just to have the passion and drive for the field is an initial requirement and the business sense can be learnt on the job.

Lord Wolfson is eager to support youngsters

Lord Wolfson then went on to say "You don't have to have an academic background to succeed in retail. This is about getting away from the idea that you need a degree to have a successful career. We hope to show that someone training from the age of 17 without a degree can succeed."

Not only does this offer a glimmer of hope for all of those eager to start jobs when they leave either school or college, it also gives the retail industry another chance to improve itself. Young people often have lots of brilliant ideas that would refresh brands and bring them back to life and for a huge fashion retail icon like Next to launch an apprenticeship scheme shows their willingness to support the younger generation and to push their own brand boundaries.

Apprenticeships will start off in the heart of retail - on the shop floor;
 then who knows where they will end up within the business?


I think its fantastic that the Next Chief Exectutive Lord Wolfson believes that you don't have to go to university to be a success in life. With the rise in tuition fees scheduled for next year, many youngsters are worrying they will never become 'something' without a degree. However, I have to disagree. Higher Education has become so easy to get into that the "eliteness" that once was someone possessing a degree is now non-existant.

Will there be opportunities for budding designers? Visual Merchandisers? Buyers?


To have the opportunity of training with a sought after fashion and homeware brand on your CV, imagine the possibilities and opportunities it would open up for the lucky candidates. I can't wait to read about the development of the program and see how it shapes the future of retail....


Image One Taken From: logoguru.co.uk
Image Two Taken From: retailgazette.co.uk
Image Three Taken From: bview.co.uk
Image Four Taken From: guardian.co.uk