Wednesday 23 March 2011

'Vintage' Clothing Survey

Hi everyone, its been a long time coming, but you may recall me mentioning my dissertation on a few occasions (it is an every constant pain in my arse - which I'm sure all you final years will understand haha) and now I need your help!

It's on 'vintage' clothing, and basically how popular it becoming! 'The evolving and current perceptions and consumption of pre-owned apparel.' Haha that sounds so pretentious doesn't it?! Of course it's an interesting topic, and one I was initially passionate about, but really dissertations destroy your soul, I swear, and I'm starting to regret choosing a topic which involves such a recent phenomenon!


Please fill in my very short and simple survey, its only 10 questions, so won't take 5 minutes or your time! :-)
Its women only, please please please pass it on to any and all women you know, your friends, sisters, cousins, aunties, mum, gran, etc. I need as many responses as possible!


You don't have to be a lover of 'vintage' fashion or thrifting or anything like that, in fact its absolutely perfect to get a range of different opinions, so don't feel put off at all or anything! Feel free to write as much or as little as you like in the 'please explain' boxes etc. It's all anonymous too, so don't worry about feeling silly!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I'm sorry if I constantly pester you with this, its all over facebook and twitter too! I'll be posting it as part of any comments I make on blogs this week etc, and emailling it out to people, so just ignore it if you've already filled it in!


Proper spamming you, haha, I know you all love it really ;-)
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Major loves, VW x
Here's a pretty picture of the little bit of spring time in Manchester that I've seen to keep things beautiful... ;-)

Ode to Orange

I made the best purchase ever last week... ORANGE TROUSERS. You do not understand the excitement, I can tell. But I'm going to attempt to explain...

This was just going to be a small paragraph tacked on to my last post, with 1 measly picture, but then the excitement took hold, and I rambled & rambled and realised my new love deserve a post of their own, because yes, I am that obsessed!
Here's a lovely little collage I made on a weird bit of trial software that came with my new laptop... all I had to do was put the pics I wanted in a folder anf click a button, voila. Ok it has a cappy little watermark thing across it, but you get the idea.
It basically shows what my mind has been thinking, all day, every day... orange, orange, orange. colour-blocking, colour-blocking, colour-blocking. bright, bright, bright. Jil Sanders, Jil Sanders, Jil Sanders. haha.

I am actually in love. I've mentioned before my obsession with the colour orange. It is literally the best. But even though my bedroom was orange, and my phone was orange, and my hair is orange... I generally I stay away from wearing my favourite shade... until now (well apart from my prom dress, and my reeboks, and one of my coats, oh ok, I've prob worn it more than most)! Hello colour blocking, the best trend to ever cross the face of the earth. I will be wearing my new babies ALOT. I'm thinking teamed with purple, hot pink or electric blue will be beautiful. But at the mo I've only trialed them with a light grey jumper and black leather jacket, kinda like the lovely lass below, who's photo I stole off the Topshop website ;-)
I'd been dreaming of THIS pair from Zara for weeks and weeks, I literally couldn't get them off my mind, and was determined to buy them as soon as I could get my ass into town and try them on (you never know with Zara sizes ... xs, s, m or 34, 36, 38, bla blah, they can't keep it straight forward). Well, I was right as it turned out. They didnt even have the orange ones in the Manc store, but I took the 6 and 8 in blue to the changing room, thinking I'd just order off la tinternet, alas I have apparently lost a lot of weight and the 8 literally fell off me. There was me thinking the 6 would probably just be too tight round my bum and show a horrible VPL etc, but they too were also too big, like bloody paper bag trousers on me (after using a belt to secure them on my waist). Harumphh, I was devastated.. I know that sounds sad, but seriously, you have no idea how much I loved them. I'd planned out all thses outfits in my head, and trawled the internet for new bargain tops to go with them, etc. I wanted to wear them for work experience at Easter (2 weeks in the Tesco boyswear buying department woo!), and be the cool intern girl with the amazing orange tailored trews...
So... after a few minutes of sulking I charged up the elscalators to the kiddy's section. Zara - If you're not gona make big girl trousers that fit me, you leave me no choice. I'm going to buy your 13-14 year old 'basics' coloured jeans (in the exact same colour and fabric as the slacks downstairs) for half the price! Mwahaha. Gotta love the fact theres no horrible increased VAT on childrenswear. I got them for only £14.99 (instead of the womens £34.99) and they fit perfectly, YAY. Ok so they're cut like skinny jeans instead of tailored trousers, but are made of a nice slightly stretchy woven cotton and if I turn them up a bit at the ankle and add a belt I get the desired effect.

So there you have it, beautiful orange trousers, that fit me. And I promise to wear them to death. I don't even care if 'colour-blocking' goes out of fashion, or people think I look too bright, or crazy, or 'like an american convict'. Because orange, oh orange I love you.

Are you guys OBSESSED with any colours or trends right now? Please say you like orange too? You'll be my bezzie for ever haha.

VW x

PS. I don't even like Rihanna - I know that comment alone will make me a social pariah, because apparently she's like everyone in the worlds fave
But, I want to look like this, her whole outift is beaut.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Charity Case

I'M ALIVE!
Sorry I've been completely M.I.A these last few weeks... well almost a month out really! I have been thinking of you all, and have occasionally had a little read, but I just havn't had the time or energy to post myself!
NB: These plimsoles actually have a cute floral print all over them, but came out like fluorescent white in the pics :-S hmm
To catch you up, I had a few big deadlines at uni, including a presentation, urgh, and a stupid logistics assignment which I really struggled with :-( That coupled with writing my weekly College Fashionista articles (have you been keeping up? sign up to site for free and comment on you're favourite outfits/articles *mine* haha) and generally just trying to keep up with life -  nothing particularly interesting to be honest!
eek should have put some more lippy on! Oh and my fringe is so long and crazy in my eyes now, as you can see its sitting very strange against my raybans! Have had to start wearing it sweeped to the side instead of full fringe :-(
Oh of course, major stress last week was my laptop dieing! My beautfiul HP, it served me well, but alas it is dead. I was in such a tizz because i had so much work to get done, thankfully after a frantic phone call to Oz my wonderful parents transferred the money for me to buy a whole new laptop :-) I just got the cheapest full sized one they had in the shop at the time (couldn't handle one of those crazy little notebook things *technophobe*)! Lucky I havn't lost any of my files, and I got all my work handed in on time!
Hat - Miss Selfridge, Sunnies - Ray Ban Wayfarers (Chrissie pressie from Oz only £30 from an outlet mall), Shirt - Charity Shop, Leather Jacket - Miss Selfrideg, Denim Cut-offs - Vintage Levi's, Belt - Primark, Plimsoles - Australia (5 dollars)
I went for a little wonder the other week to discover some new charity shops, the kind that are down little side roads and are tiny and a bit 'scummy' with rails crammed with crap, but in amongst it all you can find some truly wonderful things at bargain prices! You know, the best kind of charity shop. I hate ones like the Oxfams on the highstreet, all newly fitted out with colour coded rails of completely overpriced stuff... the moneys going to charity for goodness sake, just take what you can get for it, don't charge us a tenner for a 2 seasons old dress from Primark that probably only cost 8 quid to start with!! haha. Found the floral shirt pictured for £4, I love that it has poppers instead of buttons, and it's little breast pockets. Buttoned all the way to the top, naturally.
Also got this blouse, I have no idea whats going on with the print but I was immediately drawn to it. The little doodles remind me of the margins of an old maths book or something. The inner workings of someones random imagination. I'm not crazy about the colour, but I couldn't resist for £2!

Got the navy heels for £2 aswell, they're real leather, fit perfectly and are in great condition, there's like barely any wear on the soles apart from a few little scuffs. No idea when I'm ever gona wear them, but what the heck!

I was gona add another photo here of my favourite purchase of the last few weeks (not from the charity shops though so didnt fit really anyway) but I am literally so obsessed I wrote like 3 paragraphs and have now decided that their own post is well deserved.. so I'll schedule that now.. love to keep you hanging ;-) haha you'll probably think I'm crazy actually...



Anyway... I'd love to be able to tell you I'm back on form, and you'll be seeing a load of beautiful outfit posts in the next couple of weeks, but.. that'd be a lie. My 9,000 word dissertation is due in 3 weeks...and we have our two amazing bestest friends Michael and Francesca coming to stay for a few days next weekend (Hi guys, I'm literally so excited, eeeee!!!), so... we'll see what happens!

Love love, VW x

Ps. Look at my yummy FREE Graze nibble box... someone on my facebook had a code, to get you're first box free and a second box for £1.75, so naturally, student, free food, ordered. So exciting getting yummo, free food posted through your letterbox and bonus its all healthy too! I recommend the 'chanachur panch phoron' which is kind of like bombay mix with a rew raisins and goji berreis thrown in and was literally polished off in 2 mins!! So my favourite thing.
So my gift to you lovely readers, go to http://www.graze.com/ and sign up using my code - W8Z2TJ63 and you can get a free box too! You rate the things you like, and then they'll send you a 'balanced mix'.