Hot pink

The last thing I really need is a new dress but I haven’t yet fully embraced the new neon/sheer/pastel thing and so a part of me thinks that this strange but cool dress from Asos (£60) if what my already overstuffed room is looking for. I particularly love the hotness of the pink; I’ve been into this concept since Carrie’s Oscar de la Renta in Season 6 of that show I still love:

Don’t even talk to me about The Carrie Diaries until I’ve seen the first episode. I don’t think anyone coming to SATC in a post SATC: The Movie world could possibly understand my relationship with it. Who is doing the styling? How will they find someone with SJP’s perfect combination of haughtiness, charisma and unusual beauty (SHUT UP MEN) to play her? Okay we’ll address this after I see the first episode, which will be a while. In the meantime I will soothe myself by reading the first four Gossip Girl books.

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Trousers

Buying trousers online is a minefield. One sees a pair of nice salmon-pink trousers and despite one’s dedication to skinnies, one thinks “those would look amaze on me, I will buy them”.

Then you check out the other colours and views and the trousers turn out to have a strange ballooning front:

Far from the fitted, Chloe-style garment promised by the pink view, these basically look like 90s work trousers from Next.

I hate buying trousers. I tend to just buy the same jeans over and over again – when Gap changed the shape of their skinny jeans and I couldn’t fit into them anymore I was outraged (they changed the shape. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.) Tricky items like trousers and swimsuits are why internet shopping cannot supply everything you need, especially for cheap clothes like those on Asos, where fit and size vary so much even between individual items of the same design. I also don’t like not being able to feel the fabric – these trousers are 100% polyester, which can go either way. And who has the energy to send things back endlessly trying to get the right thing?

On a final note, I once bought a pair of peg trousers and this view summarises why they are a bad idea: weird empty back-of-leg pouch.

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Impeccable

I need this skirt from Asos – in fact I love the whole look. Midis might well get me back into heels and out of my pyjamas. Brrr!

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Pinky nude and see-through

I have always been a total sucker for the vintage-y, nude tones look in chiffon and silk. I spend a lot of time at home due to the nature of my work/study life and I aspire to spend this time wafting around in gothic white lace dresses and other romantic things (in reality I wear pyjama-bottoms and t-shirts, like everyone else – my current favourites are purple with sheep on). Asos’ “new in” selection is going more Grecian than bridal, and I like the Sophia Kokosalaki feel of this dress.

A compromise between my desire to wear nightwear, lace and the need to actually be in public sometimes might be fed by this skirt:

There is something mildy annoying about clothes that require another whole investment buy though – my Topshop maxi skirt didn’t get worn much last year because it really needed a slip to avoid cling and I never wanted to spend the money on it.

I bought a beautiful nude vest from Cos that is literally completely transparent – it wouldn’t even photograph for the blog. So this required the further purchase of a crop top to wear underneath and after spending around 40 seconds in Topshop I went for this dodgy-looking but surprisingly comfortable leopard-print version:

I recommend this because it’s boned and stretchy. I now wear it under anything a bit see-through because vests can thicken you up but I often find I need something opaque between me and the world.

A more clothing-like option, from Asos again:

I think we’re, as a nation, past the situation that happened in 2009 where trousers were practically abolished and that of the year 2000 where a nightie was an acceptable outfit. I’m definitely a lot less literal about the trends now and as a grown-up lady, prefer to channel high fashion via the magic filter of Cos and Asos, which turn bad ideas into good ideas.

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Coldbusters

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I’m freezing and it is only September.

These should help.

Coat from Asos, Shawl from H&M and gloves Bamford from TheOutnet.

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Asos preview – velvet!

I realise it is technically still summer but I am already thinking about the new school year – my mind turns to pencil cases and what is in my mind party season. Soon we will all start getting invites to house parties as everyone comes back from late summer holidays and wants to spend time in rooms together again.

I find Asos a bit Primarky for summer clothes because the sunny season is much more about showing skin in some sort of LA-esque fashion than anything more interesting. But autumn, and especially this autumn, is about glowing colours, layers and depth. I am especially keen to try out some velvet and probably the camel colours that are popping up everywhere (yay! I love the fabulous grandma look).

Asos’ preview of this month’s drop covers a lot of what I am looking for as the nights get longer: long witchy lace dresses and squishy velvet on the one hand; chic beige 70s style pieces on the other.

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Advent Calendar: 1

There are no chocolates in our advent calendar, just little fabulous things that catch our eye. What better excuse than Christmas to enjoy total frivolous lust?

Today, in honour of the surprisingly good read that is the Asos magazine, endorsed by both A and I, I present you with these gorgeous woodland rings. I am particularly taken by the fox one.

Frou frou and fabric and frills oh my

This frills trend is fabulous and I am so tremendously bored of everything I own I want to tear everything into rags, sell the rags and buy a sequinned zip-frill dress from Primark with the resulting £4. I will have to wear it every day because I’ll own no other clothes but as long as I retain some woollen tights and my duffle coat I won’t die of exposure.

 A better option for my party-season pennies might be this good look-alike of the Lanvin dress, above, from Asos., whose magazine I have started receiving in the post against my will but which I find strangely good reading. I do wonder how it is that Asos can get their magazine to me but Elle, which I actually want, has still failed to turn up.

I’m in the mood to look more glamorous than my duffle coat allows me to and as soon as I have clothes funds, I am going to go and buy a feel-good dress. I have been fantasising about something like the Oscar de la Renta dress Carrie wears in season 6 of Sex and the City. Hopefully you remember that big shiny box because this picture really doesn’t do the feeling justice. I would like my dress to come in big black shiny box too.

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Nothing rhymes with purple

But I love it anyway. These are the trousers I am now thinking I will bag from Cos after work. I am envisaging so many purple and pink themed outfits. After a period of desiring only to wear black, grey and navy it seems I am emerging from my cocoon.

And clearly these fine trousers need to be worn with such items as these:

Yellow top from ASOS, pink top from COS. Acronymtastic.

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Asos outlet

How did I not hear about this? I’m not a dedicated Asos shopper but recently I have been hearing more and more about it and I eventually cottoned on the fact that it is BRILLIANT – the whole concept of slavishly copying celebrity fashion appeals to the stylistically lazy part of me that just wants to be able to copy a beautiful person’s look and therefore somehow paste some of their beauty onto myself.

It has also been made clear to me that they have a designer section, but I didn’t know they had an outlet – essentially a sale section, where 70% knockdowns on their designers, for example Twenty8Twelve, Splendid, April 77 etc, can be found.

On a tangent, I was snooping around this new Outlet when I accidentally tripped and fell into the jewellery section and was overjoyed to discover they have the necklace I have been thinking about for weeks after an “I saw you” moment – it was around the neck of a mannequin in Oasis of all places. I have ordered it, despite serious lack of funds, because when you have been thinking about something for weeks and then it suddenly comes back into your life and only costs £16, this is an OMEN.

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