Back by Overwhelming Demand

There wasn't really any overwhelming demand, just The Boyf and my mum actually.. haha. So anyway, I'm back. I took a nice long break from the blog to sort out dissertation, then work experience, then revision and exams, but now all that has passed...

Here are a few snaps from way back when (the Easter holidays actually, so not that long ago), of the famously brilliant orange trousers. I hope they don't let you down... to me they really are the most amaing trousers I own. I even bought a pair in red 2 weeks ago because, well, who doesn't want red trousers? And they are so darn comfy and fit perfectly. Yes I'm going to get them in green too when they're back in stock in my size. Obsessed much.

Leather Jacket - Miss Selfridge
S/S knit jumper - H&M
Orange Trousers - Zara Kids
Heels - Vintage (BCBGirl)

My hair looks gross, really long and grown out. I didn't mind that much, as it was grown out for my friends wedding, and looked fab on the day. But then of course once the wedding was over I didn't have a woman to blow dry and style it for me, so it just looked far too plain and sensible for me, despite the compliments I had receieved. Naturally, I popped into Toni & Guy for a little demo modelling on Tuesday and had it all cut off, hurrah! I'll post pictures when I get round to it... but its quite simliar to this, same cut but no pink this time, more yellow with the orange.

 

Yea, I'm hiding my face in all these pictures, I wasn't wearing any makeup so just used my long blonde mop to block out my blotchy face, at least it was good for something ;-)

I'd like to introduce you my beautiful new shoes - they're orangey and metallic and made of soft worn in buttery leather, with a little platform and decent height heel. All things I am attracted to in a shoe to be honest, so when I saw them in the 'vintage' YMCA at home I couldn't resist trying them on. They didn't have a price on though, I didn't want or need them enough to pay £10-£20 (as the other shoes were labelled).

I went and asked the guy and he didn't really know and the manager was at lunch, so he just randomly said £5! When I got home I realised they said BCBGirl inside, turns out they're the old version of BCBGeneration, part of the BCBG Max Azaria company, the range retails for like $90 - $150 as a sort of youth diffusion line.

They're really comfy, and look perfect with my orange trews :-) I wore this outfit to the dentist to get a filling actually (ewww & ouchhyy) because it made me feel happy and confident. Then we spent the morning charity shopping to cheer me up and distract me until my mouth de-numbed and I was allowed to eat lunch. I bought another pair if shoes (£4) and a few bits and pieces that my mum collects, for mothers day - vintage war comics and buttons.

Since I'm finished uni now (FOREVER!!), I'm just sitting at home searching for jobs, so I'll try to get posting regularly, I do have rather alot of new bits and pieces to show you! 

Ciao bellas,
VW x

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'.

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

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