Friday 25 February 2011

I'm Gonna be a Supermodel, and Everyone is Gonna Dress Like Me...

Ok guys, so I'm really sorry I've been kind of off the grid recently! I spent was on my lovely friend Hannah's hen weekend (for whom I am one of the bridesmaids) from Friday til Monday in Bournemouth (but the pictures are too drunken and embarassing to put on here haha) and returned to Manchester feeling incredibly ill. I fought through it to participate in The Retro Show presented by La Mode, which I mentioned a few posts ago, and then came straight home to curl up in bed and die from the flu/tonsilitus :-(
Here are a selection of photos that have cropped up on facebook from the show, there are rather a lot, enjoy!

'Backstage' with some of the other beautiful models....

On the catwalk...
(Modelling clothes from Pop Boutique, Loving Vintage and Junk Shop - all located in Manchester's Northern Quarter)
It was such a great night, I only wish I hadn't felt so ill so I could have stayed for proper drinks and partying! I'm hoping to make a quick recovery from this horrific illness as I have a train ticket all booked to go to Cambridge tomorrow to see my bestest friend Francesca for belated 21st birthday fun, and then a bridesmaid dress fitting in London on Monday morning on my way back!

In other news, my first proper article for CollegeFashionista went up on Monday, so check it out here and 'like' and 'tweet' away if you havn't seen it already :-)

I hope you've all had a fab week, I havn't even had a chance to catch up on all your posts, or get back to people on comments - I'm really sorry about this!! I'll get back on it all next week with outfit posts and such between the mountains of uni work I have to catch up on.

Loves, VW x

(NB. All photos by Thom)

Monday 14 February 2011

Be My, Be My,.... Be My Little Rock and Roll Queen

I don't want you to 'Be My Valentine', I think it's lame. You may have already seen this on my Twitter (yes I got Twitter last week, follow me people)!
I just don't see the point - *enter cynical comments about commercial holiday invented by clintons cards, florists and chocolatiers (is that even a word/profession?)*. Anyway, I just think, as a person in a happy long-term relationship, that you shouldn't need a day on the calender to express your love for one another, 1 - you should be saying 'I love you' everyday, 2 - I think its much more romantic to be surprised with flowers or something on any random given day. I don't even like red roses, they're so, blah. I'd much rather get a single pink or orange gerbera[daisy], my favourite kind of flower, when I've had a bad day at Uni or to congratulate me on something than others might find really trival (like a good grade or something), than a dozen roses today.

Ok so that rant's over and done with! I hope you all enjoy your Valentines Day whatever you're doing and however you feel about the 'Holiday'!!
Skirt - Miss Selfridge (in the sale down to £12), Leather Jacket - Miss Selfridge, Cropped Jumper - H&M, Red Leotard (underneath) - Topshop, Boots - Ebay, Socks - Primark, Bag - Vintage. Hair - T&G Academy.
Do you like my outfit? The photos are kind of sucky, we took them really quickly when I got home for the hairdressers the other day, as I needed photo for my CollegeFashionista bio, and didn't have any recent outdoor ones! But, I LOVE THIS SKIRT. Ok ok so we're [supposed to be] heading in to spring, so a long black skirt is probably not the most fashion forward piece to buy right now, and maybe I'm a bit behind the curve, it was in the end of season sale after all. But then I just don't care. I like it.
I'm loving embracing the whole 'new lengths' thing with skirts and dresses. It's funny how feminine I feel wearing this long black swishy skirt, and it's so comfy in a lovely light pleated jersey. I like the juxtaposition of the length and all the hard black leather, but then wearing heels and a soft light jumper (which is also new). I'm wearing my red floral leotard underneath, which you can't really see in the pictures, but looked so cute and went well with my new red hair.

Speaking of the hair, what do you think? The brightness has kind of washed out a bit now (as they used a bright colour wash for the presentation - I had it done as demo model at T&G again) and its actually way more red/auburn than I wanted, it looks kind of natural :-( haha, whereas I would have liked it bright orange again. But hey-ho, it was free,and its sorted out the darks roots/light hair fiasco!
The lighting was a bit weird and crap on this side of the street, but I like the picture for some reason, so have included it!
T.T.F.N
VW x

Saturday 12 February 2011

90s Grunge Girl

It feels like forever since I last blogged!! I've missed it so much, but I've been crazy busy and with my laptop in for repair it was really awkward trying to upload photos etc! I have so much to tell you, so I'll try not to ramble on tooo much! My laptop is now fixed! YAY!
The really big exciting news is - I will be writing for CollegeFashionista this term as the first 'Style Guru' for Manchester Met Uni! My bestest friend Michael suggested I send in my CV a few weeks ago as he knows one of the 'gurus' at his uni, et voila, they wanted me! I will be writing a 'Style Advice of The Week' article every Monday, with a picture of some lucky fashionista/fashionisto from around MMU/Hollings/On their way to lectures etc. If you havn't heard of the site head over there now and check it out. It's all about street style at your campus (but of course you can look at others for inspiration!) and is totally awsome.
These photos were taken on Wednesday and basically I'm wearing my new stuff from shopping on Saturday! I went for a much overdue catch up with my lovely friend Charlotte, had a look round the shops and Nandos for tea, yum yum. I've been desperate for the elusive 'black leather biker jacket' but couldn't find a suitably cheap and beautiful one anywhere, since the aviator took over in Autumn. If found this baby in Miss Selfridge for £47 not bad, even if its only P.U. but as a bonus they have been running a 20% off for students recently, yipeee! I know I'm going to get so much wear out of it, in fact, I've worn it 4 times already. Saturdays in Manchester city centre are mad, now I remember why I never do it normally! They didn't have the jacket in my size in the normal store, so we went to top floor of Selfridges, which was blissful. So quiet and we could really have a look and not feel hot and bothered, ok so the concessions have reduced stock, but the selection was still good.

I bought the black peter-pan collar tunic dress in the sale at Topshop (in Selfridges too), it was down to £10.80 by the time I used my student discount, bargain. I always see you girls in beautiful peter-pan collars and am really jelous that my wardrobe was sadly lacking, so now I've caught up with the game!
I felt like I was wearing too much black already so desperately raided my draws for some bright tights and found these plaid babies. I've had them for a few years now and kept seeing them in my drawer and thought they had a hole or ladder in so havn't worn them in ages, they don't so I'm really happy and will be wearing them more! All of a sudden I was aware that I look pretty grunge and so tried to girly up the outfit with some dangly earrings and my light crochet boots (which my parents got me for Christmas, but maybe you havn't actually seen yet? I've scuffed the toes up so much already, oh dear. I might retire them for a while until there is less rain and mud to contend with). It didn't really work though did it? In fact the jewellery made it more early 90s grunge chick I think.
Anyway, this is what I was wearing for a very bizarre day, in which I met up with one of my oldest family friends Simon. He lives on the Isle of Man at the moment, and I hadn't seen him over 2 years, so it was a real treat, and such a good day catching up - even if he was horribly hungover and we spent 3 hours as the only white people in a cramped waiting room at the Pakistani Embassy! (Yes dressed like this, I got some looks!) Haha, I told you it was a weird day!

After dropping Simon at the train station in town at about 5.30 we made our way to the cinema to see Black Swan - which I thought was really good as a film, and I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not really into ballet AT ALL and don't really think it lived up to the rave reviews of 'visually stunning' bla bla, the dialogue was a bit stale, I giggled my way through every sex scene, and the ending was a bit implausible if you ask me (I don't want to give too much away in case you havn't seen it and don't know what I'm on about). What a review eh?!
You will notice a little outfit change in these pictures - suddenly some huge heavy black biker boots appear out of thin air! I bought these from a Barnardo's charity shop near the station on the way to the cinema for £6.99. They're brand new, never been worn, and still had the paper stuffing in etc. They make my feet look huge I think, but I love them for that price, and they went so well with what I was already wearing I couldn't leave them. So I put them on for a few pics when we got home too. I bought the hat for £4 (down from £15) in the Miss Selfridge sale also on the way to the cinema just as the shops were all closing, so wore it home. I was totally inspired by a similar hat Charlotte bought when we were shopping on Saturday - although hers was a bargain £2 from Claires!

Ok I've talked and talked, so that's definately enough for now, I'll post again soon. Let me know what you think of Grunge Girl Voni?! Did you guys find any bargains this week?

Hat & Leather Jacket - Miss Selfridge, Tunic Dress - Topshop, Tights - H&M, Crochet Boots - ?? (Shoe Shop in Australia), Biker Boots - Charity Shop, Earrings - Marrakesh Souk, Necklace - Vintage (my Grandma's), Bag - Charity Shop (Australia)
Happy Saturday!
VW x

Wednesday 2 February 2011

The Retro Show

Hi all! I finally gave in and took my laptop to a repair place today, after much nagging from my parents, and I will be gone for up to 7 working days, boohoo. It really did need fixing, but I just don't know how I'm going to cope for that long without my baby, I miss her (I affectionately named her Beatrice) already. Not to mention how completely awkward its going to be trying to write my dissertation, or do any kind of uni work, I hate working in the library. How annoying.


Anyway, The Boyf is at an interview in London today, and one tomorrow, so is staying at his parents tonight. I'm all alone, but, I have his laptop, mwahaha! So no outfit post, but feast your eyes on this instead -




Now I doubt anybody reading this is located in or near Manchester, but incase you are, you should all come to this beautiful vintage fashion show!


I'm going to be super busy in the coming weeks because I'm actually one of the catwalk models! Wowee! Some lovely clever people on my course are putting on all sorts of events for their final year business project, and this one is not to be missed. The Retro Show will be showcasing outfits from some of the best vintage shops in Manchester's famous Northern Quarter, where quite a lot of the vintage clothes on my blog are bought from. Isn't the art work for the poster so beautiful too?


I'm so excited to be part of it, but pretty nervous too, I don't want to do a Naomi Campbell and fall flat on my ass in front of 300 people haha! I have a few fittings to go to at the various shops in the coming weeks, lets see if I manage to walk out without buying anything? I promise if I do, you'll be the first to see it!


VW x