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.

Recessionista Jewellery

Gold - always believe in your soul. A lesson to all bankers everywhere.

I like this necklace by Plot especially like the simplicity of design and variety of materials used. You can get it in lead, gold, silver, all the materials of the financial stock market rainbow.

Gold & Oil

They even have a little poem:

It tells stories
It creates patterns
It proves points
It backs up plans

But imprisoned by PowerPoint
Its beauty blemished by Excel
Data is overlooked by the stylish

PLOT aims to right this wrong
To unearth the beauty of perfect figures
To celebrate the stories of exact facts

Data is beautiful
PLOT is beautiful data

Lead is my favourite.

To be honest, I’ve never thought of data as particularly beautiful and I have short shrift for poetry on Fridays. I’m willing to put up with it this time though because the jewellery is very pleasant indeed. And I do like numbers.

A

Brooke Roberts

We have a lot of love for Brooke Roberts at DiscoNap and A has been sporting her sparkly spangly leggings for some time – my fellow Disconapper is at Bestival this weekend so gushing duties fall to me.

I love these necklaces from Brooke’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection, which are apparently inspired by brain scans – they also make me think of the cross-sections of plants and beetles. When I first looked at it I thought it was lots of weird people dancing. I do like jewellery that provides you with fun as well as beauty.

I particularly love big bold necklaces because they make my inability to wear anything except t-shirts and jeggings at the moment look like I’m doing it on purpose and not just mega lazy.

I am extremely loyal to rings and tend to wear one for years before suddenly taking it off and never touching it again. Between the ages of 15 and 22 it was a cool snake ring and after that a twisting flower on a vine. Both of these were great for fiddling with during long physics lessons/trips to the jobcentre etc. At the moment I have no ring, so maybe this spinning ring will be my next long-term digital relationship.

You can turn it and it makes new shapes. Excellent.

S

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.

S

Signposts

• Susie Bubble went to the Topshop press day and supplies oodles of photos of what to expect. It straddles that line between ” disgusting” and “wearable”. Some of my favourites are the cage skirt, satin bras and studded denim shorts.
• Apparently lowkey Paris label Isabel Marant is going down the luddite route and insisting people travel to actual shops to buy their wears. It’s stocked at Liberty if you are a fan but I often wish labels could run their own web shops where you could buy every single item from the collections and weren’t at the whims of the buyers. I know it’s not possible but it would be handy.
• Sparkling Whine has found the most amazing charms designer Miss Bibi, and runs down their top 5 favourites from her “boutique en ligne”. This is mine:S

Smocked necklace

Look at this cool textural necklace from Etsy designer Tinctory. I am really into plain but structured black blouses at the moment and I can just see a nice statement item like this resting on top being monochromatic.

Jacey Withers Jewellery

Waterfall range - One of my favourite necklaces from the range

A friend introduced me to her friend, Jacey Withers, jewellery collection. Jacey was exhibiting at London Fashion Week and here are a few pieces from the collection for your viewing pleasure. I particularly like the mixture of aggressive imagery with traditional materials and finishes.

A

The Sample Sale

I went to the Vivienne Westwood sale on Friday night – I arrived at 7 pm (I couldn’t get out of work much before 6.30) after hotfooting it down to Battersea. There was already a queue and, as I felt the first raindrops on my cold head, I wondered how long I could be bothered to wait. The only thing that kept me going was the sight of so many contented shoppers hurrying away with shopping bags. I finally got inside after 45 minutes and I think it was worth it. Don’t get me wrong, there was bargains galore especially on the shoes and jewellery – £40 for a necklace, £60 for shoes, £40 for a belt – but the rude sales assistant, who had obviously had enough of Westwood and life, definitely put me off. And the scrum was intense – I had to jostle for 20 minutes before I got to the jewellery counter. I walked away with a necklace, which I love, but I wonder if I’d put myself through it again. I definitely wonder how many of those smug early shoppers were heading home to put everything on Ebay!

 

Outside

 

 

In conlusion, my necklace was worth it but I think these events are made for tougher people than myself. Or perhaps I would feel differently if they’d had those heels in my size? Top tip – take the afternoon off work and queue if you want the decent stuff. I think I will be more selective about which designers I’m willing to do that for in the future; if there is a Marc Jacobs one there, I know I’ll be taking the day off work.

 

The Scrum

 

 

Purchases

 

And finally, a well deserved dinner.

A