I Wore it Twice This Week...

Bonjourno! I am having major technical issues today! My laptop is kind of broken, its doing this annoying thing where even though its plugged into charge its not charging, and you have to wiggle the power bit around for ages and then hold it in the exact right posistion and it charges for about 5 seconds, and then you have to start over, grr. The worse thing is that its one of those problems which is quite tiny (if really frustrating) but I'm sure will be damn expensive to fix, as my laptop is no longer under wararnty and it'll probable mean replacing the port to plug the charger cable thingy into, if it can even be replaced?! Anyway, I'm trying to type super speedy and upload pictures really fast etc before it all shuts down!

This is basicly a whole new outfit, and I LOVE everything about it, I've actually worn it twice this week, once for a lovely meal to a tiny korean restaurant round the corner with The Boyf (it was soooo yummy, and cheap, like £20 for 2 mains, side dish, drinks and miso soup each hehe, so going there more often!), and then once to lectures.

I picked up this dress in a Salvo's at Christmas on my last day in Perth. My mum took me around all the charity shops and it was quite an adventure, as she hadn't driven to a lot of the places yet. Kylie the aussie satnav took us to some wonderful places and I got a few bargain treasures. This dress was really long, almost ankle length and when I picked it up my mum made one of those faces... 'its..a, uh, nice.. pattern' haha, well I defiantly tried it on, hitched up the botton threw my belt round it and walked out, ta dah! Well she thought it was pretty cute then didn't she, but alas, who was going to take it up for me, the only sewing machine I've got is a 100 year old singer, which probably wouldn't do the job... But I took it to the till anyway, $13 dollars isn't bad I thought, bam it was half-price, so I basically like £4 in the end, yay!

Stupidly I didn't take any pictures of the original product before my day of handywork (yes it took all day, turns out I'm not so handy - the old wind up singer might have been faster in hindsight haha) but it has come out all right huh? Its pretty straight if I do say so myself, luckily it has those nice lines to follow. I ended up wonder-webbing it, or whatever its called, and then just did some simple tacking stiches, the problem is, I didn't take it up enough the first time I used the iron on stuff, as I didn't try it on before hand because I was all wrapped up in a million layers as its so bloody freezing in bloody Manchester! Cue doing the cutting, folding & iron on bit all over again, practice makes perfect ay?!

I know, I know, it buttons up all the way again, tehe, obsessed! The dress is teamed with my other aussie charity shop purchase, a lovely Roxy cardi, $7.99, I've wanted one like this all autumn/winter, but refused to pay £50 for one in Topshop or something, so I'm glad I found this, its not got the chunky aran knit on the back panel though, but who cares! When I find some I want to replace the buttons with some cute leather knot ones.

Also being debuted is my lovely little navy leather bag, which ma & pa got me for Christmas (I found it in a charity shop for about $12 a couple of days before) so many bloggers etc have been showing off those little chiltern-esque satchels, which I do love, but are just getting a bit popular for my liking haha, so I think this baby is just right for me. It's so boxy and square with enough room for all the essentials (purse, keys, phone etc), is real leather (made in India) and has a brilliant tartan lining, love it!

Brogues/oxfords also new for Christmas, they were $10 dollars and are quite similar to ones they had in Primark, with elasticated lace bits, so they just slip on. I got a pair the same in a cute white floral pattern which were only $5 too, but I'm keeping those clean and dry ready for warmer weather.

Oh, I'm also wearing my pink GOSH soft 'n' shine lip balm, its bloody brilliant and I am wearing it everyday at the moment, even if bright shiny pink doesn't really go with my outfit, so I popped into Superdrug to see if there was another shade I fancied and lo and behold they're half-priced until tuesday, yipee! I would have bought 2 there and then, but typically because of the offer they were kind of wiped out, so I'm going to town on Monday, where hopefully the bigger store will have more!

Dress, Cardigan , Bag - Vintage (Various Salvos), Shoes - Rubi, Coat - Zara, Necklace - Vintage (My Grandma's), Belt - Vintage (My Mum's) 

Let me know what you think? Hope everyone has had a good week? I've got a group presentation at uni coming up, so we've been meeting a lot to sort out ideas, and I really need to be getting on with my dissertation! On the plus side I got my grade back for my Creative Communications 'fact file' which I stayed up for 19 hours doing last term and got 68% woohoo! Nearly a 1st! I'm so chuffed!


VW x

It Was Acceptable in The Eighties...

Hey lovers! I know I said I wouldn't be posting for a while due to the huge mountain of work I have due this week but.. I just couldn't resist showing you this little outfit I put together yesterday!

Blouse - Label says 'Notto' by way of Ebay, Skirt - H&M, Belt - Primark, Socks - Primark, Trainers - Reebok from Office, Cardi - Topshop, Necklace - DIY (see how here)

I got this blouse off ebay a couple of weeks ago for just £3 (including p&p), and whilst I know that most people would think its boarder-line hideous, I am in love. I have had that 'I just don't know what to wear with my new hair colour' thing since Tuesday, seriously you've got to re-think your whole wardrobe, I put on my purple Uniqlo heat-tech roll neck on the weekend and boy did it look baaaadd with the aubergine neck right there near my tangerine hair, the foods don't go, and neither do the colours! But anyway, I'm happy to have found that this shirt, although kind of clashy and very eighties, looks pretty good. It has shoulder pads in, which I wasn't sure about, but the sleeves wouldn't sit right if I took them out and looking at these pictures quite like the weird contrast the wide shoulders provide with my tight skirt. I have an obsession with buttoning up my blouses all the way, as you may have noticed...

Yes, I went with the 80's theme and added my freestyles, which match my hair <3 haha. Oh, and the picture in my flat at the bottom is where I'm laughing my head off because we were taking shots on the landing at like midnight and then we heard voices get close to the neighbours door and we were like 'shit they're coming out, this is so embarassing' and ran inside giggling - I just thought it was a cute 'outake'!

Anyone reading this fancy doing me a HUGE favour? To help with my copious amounts of work please leave me 3 little words as a comment? I have to do a chapter of my project on 'My Personal Style', which I mentioned here, I'd like to include some 'primary research', so I thought hearing other people's opinions would be good. Have a little look at my previous posts etc and let me know 3 words that you think describe my personal style - they can be anything from adjectives, to celebrities you think I dress similar to, or colours, patterns, fabrics and eras.

Some responses I've had from friends etc include:
Unique, Fun & Individual,
Experimental Retro & Stylised,
Quirky, Elfin & Retro,
Sixties, Care-free & Viv Westwood

And my personal favourites:
Perky, Fussy and Particular - from my Mum! Haha, she hates shopping with me, and gets upset when she buys me something and I don't like it, even when I tell her not to or she says its ok not to like it. I guess I am pretty choosey, but I like what I like!
Mismatched, Comfortable & Confused - is it weird that I love my fashion being described as confused?!

 

Thanks dolls,
VW x

PS. Hi & Welcome to you new followers, you rock, I suspect you may have found your way here from Dotties wonderful 'Stalker Report', so chuffed that she featured me right there with so many beautiful and accomplished bloggers <3 Colourless Colour is still a baby compared with these, so I totally appreciate the 'publicity' a such.

OOTW - An Autumnal All-Round Experiment

Hi guys, I still can’t believe there’s a whole 5 of you following me that I don’t know in real life (9 total)! Thanks for reading my lovers, sorry for the HUGE post.

Today’s OOTW is what I’d call an experiment, all in the name of self improvement I might add, so please comment on what you like and don’t like etc! In an effort to improve my blog I’ve been scouring your fashion blogs (yes you!) and sussing out what I like and don’t like, and well there’s not much I don’t like and a whole lot I do! So taking ‘inspiration’ from you lovely ladies I present my very autumnal OOTW.

Scarf - Vintage, Coat - Zara, Shirt - Vintage, Jumper - Topman, Necklace - DIY (see Eagerly Awaiting the Postman), Shorts - New Look?, Socks - Marks and Spencer?, Brogues -Urban Outfitters.

1. You will notice this post is very picture heavy compared with my previous endeavours, this is mainly because I couldn’t choose which pictures to show you from my ‘shoot’ and after spending hours ‘researching’ I decided it’s nice to have a lot to look at to go along with my constant ramblings!



2. Yes you clever little thing, it’s outside. You’re all doing it, and the out doorsy pictures look so much prettier than my dreary blank wall/door backdrops, so I gathered up the courage to venture into the ‘garden’ of our flat block on the way home from lunch yesterday and tried not to think about all the residents looking out their kitchen windows with puzzled/bemused looks.

3. This coat was screaming to be pictured amongst the autumn foliage don’t you think? That was a bit of an experiment too, wearing the coat itself, it’s from the Zara sale in January 2006. I bought it way back in the day because I was obsessed with orange (ok so I still do love it as a colour, just not generally to wear), my room was orange, my mobile was orange, any present anyone ever bought me was a little orange, I think for a while there my hair was even orange, ok you get the picture?! So when I saw it for £40 I begged my mother, ‘but its ORANGE mum, pleeeaasse, it’ll be really warm tooooo!!’ I lovingly wore this coat almost every blustery day that year (I even wore it on my very first date with The Boyf), well until October that is, when I traded it in for a blue one from Next, hey every girl gets a new winter coat for school don’t they? And they’ve been vying for attention ever since...

Actually that’s a lie because this year I’ve lived in my trench and last year I wore my oversized hounds-tooth blazer almost day in day out, so I probably haven’t worn this coat for 2 years! So why did it get relegated to the back of my closet if I loved it so much? Boredom I guess, and maybe for a while there I was quite afraid to wear winter brights, thought I might stand out like a lit up Christmas tree; but you know what...? This A/W if there’s one thing I love more than the neutrals, camel, brown, grey, black: it’s bright, bright, bright! What better way to clear up a tad of ‘Seasonal Affected Depression’ than by injecting a splash of summer colour into your snugly warm wardrobe! Dear Orange Coat, Welcome back old friend.



4. Outfit experiment in general. More than just rediscovering the coat, I put the whole look together yesterday morning as a bit of a trial run. The blouse/shirt is new to me, I picked it up last week for £6 and this is the first time I’ve had a chance to wear it, but it was so chilly looking outside that I layered the jumper for extra warmth, which was great as it allowed me to still show off the funky collar. Then I’ve noticed everyone’s been rocking the winter shorts recently and thought they’d look great with my long grey socks, but I hadn’t worn these yet this year because I kind of hate my legs/knees and realised the socks might emphasise and further my body-part hatred. After seeing these photo though I’m quite happy; I’m usually looking down on my legs you see, and have over analysed the bowing of my calves and swell of my knee on many occasions, but you guys never see me from that rather strange angle so I don’t know why I worried?

The whole outfit pulled together quite well in the end didn’t it?

5. A’la naturelle. I didn’t edit any of these photos. The Mr took them as always, and we are only working with a ‘point and shoot’ digital camera (Casio Exilim to be exact), so normally a few tweaks are a must but I don’t have photoshop etc on my laptop so the quality isn’t great anyway. This week shooting outside was fab, the natural light really worked it’s magic and for the pictures with a greater colour intensity we actually let the camera do all the work and put it on ‘Autumn leaves’ mode, quite apt don’t you think? Anyway, I’m a bit of a technophobe at heart and can’t get to grips with all the free photo editing software I’ve seen recommended, so from now on I’ll stick to a bit of natural light and the camera’s built in genius, and if all else fails hello Windows Photo Gallery ‘Fix’ to hoik up the brightness and contrast! I suppose I could drag my lazy ass off to uni and use Corel Photopaint etc... one day, maybe.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

Loves VW x