Luella, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Its a sad day kids...

As reported on Vogue today the wonderfully quirky yet commercial British designer Luella Bartley has announced that her Luella label has ceased to trade, after her licensee, Club21, has withdrawn their support.

In homage to the lovely lass, here's a selection of my favourite SS10 looks...
(All pictures taken from Style.com)

Me and these trousers want to make love. No, seriously. In all fairness anything taking so much inspiration from Minnie Mouse is going to get my vote, but these truly are incredible.

The colour of this T is literally perfect, makes me drool a bit and curse that a colour so special could never be found on the highstreet Also loving the styling of it against polka-dot and monochrome accessories - it summaries how I appreciate my colour, a subtle splash.

LOVE a bit of black in summer, its so unexpected. Also, who doesn't lust after a truly lady-like tea dress like this to 'lunch' in...?

Yay, its my colour again! I think the combination of it being set off against a neutral 'beige' (yukky word but occasionally fantastic colour) base with a contrasting pop of turquoise is stunning. Top marks. I must note this colour combo in the hope of one day replicating it.

Love the quirkiness of an unnamable nude offset against the spunky yellow head-bow, too too special.


Whilst this collection added nothing new to the Luella archive, to me it was arguably her strongest, most commercial and perfectly styled show to date. This came down to incredible colour combos, an absence of clutter, and fantastically fresh hair, make-up and styling. I think that the whole aesthetic of the show really will be replicated everywhere come next May - and I, for one, can't wait.

Fab Legs Florence

Ohhhhhhhh, Florence you know how I love you, you flame haired hippy singing machine.

Now you let the awesome Jackie Dixon shoot you with those amazing pins out?

Phroar.

What a pic.

I belong to your tribe.

x

p.s If I was a pervert I would put this on my bedroom wall. Good thing I'm not then eh?

p.p.s I'm not sure the same thing can be said for Paddington Bear - check him out stalking you subtly in the background...

An Unexpected Inspiration...

I blame the dark winter nights for my recent obsession de jour, which some would claim to be embarrassing, however I have no such qualms 'fessing up...

"I AM A BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER OBSESSIVE."

(For any Twilight geeks - give it up, your vampires are lame and you need an urgent upgrade to the Buffmeister.)

Yep, with my man out of the country, me and my flatmate are spending our evenings engrossed in Buffy DVD boxset action and cider. Back in the day (circa late 90's) I was as much of a fan as the next person. Skip on ten years and what was great has turned to pure gold. The irony! The iconicness! The angst! And most importantly - the outfits.

Any good fashionista who's done her homework knows that both this season and next are moving away from the 1980's trends and concentrating more on a 1990's spin on things. In particular, sugary sweet pastels will be making a comeback, which to be honest after such a Gothic season dominated by black lace and velvet will be quite a relief.

The show really is the epitome of the 90's and therefore demonstrates the up and coming trends in all their former glory. Let Evil Fighting Highschoolers of 1997 show us in 2009/10 their fashinable ways...


Case in point 1 - Buffy rocking satin pastels
Case in point 2 - Cordelia rocking leopard print
Case in point 3 - Willow rocking a bright and beautiful abstract floral print skirt


N.B: Whilst mini skirts are currently in fashion they still tend to veer towards the 80's shapes (namely bodycon, puffball etc) ... One of the 90's trends I'm most looking forward to hitting the stores are proper A-line minis - infinitely classier and so much fresher. The Buffy crew above are showing off what I consider to be perfect minis in terms of length and shape. These will soooooooo be hitting Topshop SS10, mark my words!


Eeeekk, I absolutely love this number which ticks a multitude of SS10 trends on terms of colour and pattern. Whilst we saw less maxi-dresses parading down the catwalk I would bet my bottom dollar that the shops will still be full of them come next summer and that they will continue to sell by the bucketload.

And although I have yet to convert to the idea, the shoes are also going to be making a reappearance... sensible, corky, cloggy and mid-wedge shoes in neutral shades were shown across a number catwalks including the holy grail - Chanel.

Check out Willows dungaree's and attempt not to laugh because believe me or not, these badboys are also going to be making a comeback. As this report over at Style.com illustrates a plethora of designers including the likes of Ralph Lauren, Roberto Cavalli, Chloe, Louise Grey, Jean Paul Gautlier, Charles Anastase and Nicole Fahri (and that's only a few of them!) are all in support and have shown them for SS10.

Buckle up and enjoy reliving your childhood - but get used to men questioning them - this is definitely a trend they will not understand!

My New Baby

I would post images of me floating around in my recent purchase, however I'm so in love with it, the only outing its yet had from my wardrobe is to be hung from my window when I noticed the similarities in colour, texture and pattern between my view of the park and the top. I think its supposed to be animal print but to me far more reflects the beauty of leaves and trees. For anyone interested its from Topshop Boutique and is available here.

I imagine slinking around in it in winter paired with black drainpipes, oversized charcoal super knits and tremendous black platform boots. In summer a bikini top and bleached out vintage 501's will be order of the day. Mmmmmmmm..

When I actually get round to doing either of these I guarantee you some photographic evidence

Crush of the Week

MAGDA BERLINER

I SALUTE YOU.

Grandma Knows Best (Installment 1)

I have the luck of being blessed with a fantastic Grandma who not only stays in touch via the modern form of email, but also ensures most of her emails contain some sort of fashion musing. In what will become a regular feature of my blog I will be sharing some of her wisdom and thoughts on the worlds of style and fashion.

This week the topic was Kitten Heels...

"What a relief to read the fashion pages of The Telegraph this morning! Kitten heels are back in fashion - thank goodness! I had the feeling that we were all expected to look like Puss in Boots, or principal boys in pantomime. Thigh high boots are only for the tall and slender, not for the average person. I believe that both articles were written by the same person - but one would never have guessed, or perhaps, have been expected to remember over a period of two weeks or more."

I must point out that I am aware that the above shoe image does not quite constitute a 'kitten' heel per say. However, it is the closest thing that I can find that makes me nod my head in agreement with my darling Grandma and think 'mmmmmmmmm, I like you, purrrrrr'. For the record the aforementioned shoe is a Topshop number with the rather unsexy name of 'Jonah' and can be found here.

I do agree with her however that Thigh High boots really aren't for the average soul - being 5'2" I look bloody ridiculous in any boot that goes above my knee and whimper with jealously at the leggy fashion queens who can pull them off.

Oh the injustice of being a midget.

All Hail Queen Stella (part duex)

(Hoodie by Stella McCartney for GapKids// Black silk vest (just seen underneath) by Gap// Snood by Zara // Leggings by TK Maxx// Boots by Poetic License)

Wahay, made it to Gap on time and snagged myself a size XL grey cashmere Stella hoodie as I had hoped. 66% cashmere and 34% silk for £65 - can't go wrong in my opinion. Have just realised that this picture doesn't really do the hoodie in question much justice... In reality the hood is as big as the black snood I've got over my head and the length is just perfect - it reaches the top of my thighs (just happens to have rolled up and under in this shot) so is spot-on for laying with shorter cropped jackets.

I can tell that we are going to have a long and happy life together.

All Hail Queen Stella

So, I am more than a wee bit excited by the launch of the Stella McCartney for GapKids collaboration tomorrow (UK this is, I believe the US have been blessed with it a day earlier).

Now, in order to grasp my excitement I have a couple of confessions:

a) I am openly unhealthy obsessed with Stella. Her brand, her ethos, her style, her wearable collections, her collaborations with artists, her runway music choices, her store designs... the whole entity to me is perfect.

b) I am pretty much the size of a child - 5'2" and size XS - and I haven't grown since I was eleven (not too sure what happened to my second growth spurt, it just never happened), resulting in me generally fitting the size XL Gap Kids collections.

The above two points explain why it is I'll be hitting Gap at the first opportunity tomorrow, praying that there are still XL items available. In particular I want the cashmere grey hoodie and leopard face jumper.(a blatent rip-off from the mainline AW09 collection)... mmmm, snuggly Stella goodness....



Additionally I would like to express my massive love of the use of blow-up dinosaurs in the lookbook images, and the cute fluffy animals in the campaign images. Again, I have an unhealthy obsession with both (dinosaurs and fluffy animals) - and also love oggling little kids (not in a perverted way I hope you understand!).



TOO CUTE! I'm getting warm fzzy butterflies just looking at these images.

Go Stella! x

Potential Perfection...

There can be nothing remotely new about loving girl of the moment Dree Hemingway, however I have succumbed. For me personally, it is her spot-on-zeitgeistness - an effortless casual elegance that only a mere few are blessed with.

Not to mention she possesses what I believe to be the ultimate head of hair... of which you can only get a sneaky-peak from my collaging skills (whilst chopping her head off was originally unintentional, I do believe to get a true idea of someones style, the fairest way is to ignore their face as beauty has unbelievable powers of persuasion when it comes to the judgement stakes).

Add into the equation that she is the great-granddaughter of the incredible Ernest Hemingway (one of my favourite ways of spending any lazy days that come my way) - and BANG (or bambam as I would have it) - near perfection is realised.