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

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

The Lady-like Look

Hello again chums, arn't you lucky, I'm getting rather frequent in my outfit posting - third one this week, wow! I have to admit, this was rather forward planning; I took the photos mid week, knowing I'd want to post this weekend but would probably be a slob and not want to show off my over-sized jumpers and leggings.

Dress - Vintage, Cardi - Roxy (Charity Shop), Bag - Vintage (My mums), Shoes - Primark, Earrings - Sportsgirl

This dress is one that sits nestled in my wardrobe, but is neglected for some reason. I think its because its so ladylike, and I don't often feel ladylike to be honest ;-) I kind of think of it as my 'librarian dress', but maybe thats a bit unfair, librarians I've met are rarely this well dressed. Haha.

It's incredibly hard to photograph, but this little vintage beautie is impecably cut, and has brilliant detailing. The wing tipped collar, single pearlescent button, puffed shoulders, perfect midi sleeve, a-line skirt, small peplum and tie up bow at waist <3 All made of slightly stretchy floral fabric, wowee. I really should start wearing it more! And it only cost £15, from my favourite vintage thrift store, almost two years ago now, oh goodness I'm getting old, I can't believe I'm graduating in 6 months, ahh!

Simply styling - classic black court shoes, and again my aran knit cardi. I wanted to wear grey longline cardi, but it was in the wash, and is maybe a little thin to wear just under my trench at the moment, as the last couple of days the cold snap seems to have returned! My friend at uni loved that my earrings almost look like they are made out of my dress fabric, I wish! I think next time I will be braver and wear red lipstick, my face looks a little plain. The bag was my mums, I assume from the 80's, but you can't fill it with anything too heavy or it pops open, how annoying.

Not much to say for once! Friday night TV is so boring, I guess its because most people are out having a life. The Boyf and I watched James Bond Golden Eye on DVD with some wine instead, he finally finished his exams and had an interview today, so its nice chill out time! Hot chocolate before snuggling up in bed, yes please.

I've just realised basically all my best shots are sans face, you're probably all sick of my ugly mug muscling in on the outfit posts anyway haha. I've also noticed I REALLY need to get my hair re-coloured, all these poses with my head down = really bad roots! I don't think I can get away with calling it 'ombre hair' do you?

Hope you all had a wonderful week!

Loves, VW x

Like a Kid in a Sweet Shop

This outfit was so thrown together, but I think it turned out pretty well, although the pictures didn't really come out like I'd hoped! 

It all started with pulling on my old faithful H&M treggings, even though they were lifted from the dirty clothes pile mounting up on the floor. The treggings had been consigned to this pile, even though I'd only worn them once this week, because they have little mud marks up the back - I kick horrible black muddy mulch up because I walk stupidly. Oh and I dropped a bit of my dinner on them near the top the night before... but like a true student I wasn't going to let this put me off. I had to wear the treggings because I've thrown all my tights out (growing my nails seemed like a great idea, but the damn things snag on all my tights and create great gaping holes and ladders), and its waaay to cold to go bare legged.

I hadn't a clue what I was going to wear with these treggings, and was feeling particularly uninspired by my wardrobe, I really wanted to wear and dress, and my head was being stubborn and wouldn't pick anything else out. But I did know I wanted to try out my new red lipstick. I've never worn red liptick before, except when I was about 5 and used to lick red smarties and wipe them over my lips, but I don't think that counts? Is just me that used to do that? Anyway, this is when I started to go a bit wild, like a kid in a sweet shop, I frantically rooted through my draws and jumper boxes.

I'm a H&M mannequin actually. Shirt, Jumper & Treggings, all H&M. Socks - Primark, Shoes - Kandee, Earrings - Sportsgirl, Lips - 'Kiss' No. 41 GOSH.

Suddenly I really wanted to wear my old mickey mouse jumper (I say old, I got it 2 years ago), it was like a beakon of light, all bright and colourful and crazily childlike. It would go perfectly with my red 'smartie' lips. But alas it has shrunk from too many 40 degree washes. If i wore the tiny shrunken jumper it would come up really short on the body and then you'd see the top of my treggings, and the dinner stain!! Plus it might just look really stupid?! 

I start grappling again... oh I want to wear these new earrings, they're so pretty, and have red on them, that would go nice with the lippy, but wait, focus, earrings arn't going to help with the naked top half dilemma. Now I want to wear a bow in my hair, a pink one, like Minnie is wearing on the jumper. But I don't have a pink scarf, poo. Ohhh you know what I reeeally want to wear, my NEW SHOES!! But I can't wear my new shoes, I'm going shopping in town for an afternoon, not going for a night on the town. The shoes are really not appropriate. But they're new... and soooo pretty... 

How could I wear all the pretty multicoloured things, and still be warm, and not show off my stains? None of them match, nothing works! Then I spy the shirt. Could it fit under the tiny jumper? It would be long enough to cover the dinner stain! And it has a collar, thats almost as fun as a bow... Oh hell, i'll just throw it all on and look like a whole tube of smarties, you only live once.

Ok, so unfortunatly I didn't actually wear the wedges, I put on my brogues for shopping, but look how pretty they are!!! And how fun and crazy is this outfit!? The shoes just make it! 

Yes that's a limited edition Barbie doll dressed as Elle Woods from Legally Blonde 2, yes it's mine. I think its cool.
I introduced it to the pictures for a childlike quality like the lolly, but then I didn't really know what to do with her.

The shoes in themselves are actually a lovely story, which fit perfectly with the post title, because they are 'Refresher Wedges' from Kandee and I got them for FREE! A brilliant old friend/collegue of mine knows the designer or something, and when he saw the range, in all their sweety coloured glory, thought of me :-) He asked which ones I liked, and what size I'd need and although my first though was 'get the orange ones, get the bright orange shoes!!', they were stilettos, and I just thought, when will I ever wear those neck brakers? Then I saw the wedges, and fell in love. They also come in pastel pink and yellow 'Dolly Mix', but the Refresher was for me, just look at that electric blue suede!! They're the kind of shoes I'd never buy myself, but always pick up and admire, maybe have a sneaky try on, but couldn't afford. They were £90 or something after all (though real leather suede and perfectly made, so worth every penny).

The good news for you is... if you check out the beautiful website there's a sale on, and you can get these babies for a tenner!! Plus some other brilliant bargains! Hurry, they only have limited sizes left! I freaking love their sweety related names, if only they had the 'bubble gum pump' or 'fruit salad peep toe' in my size!! And I'm loving the 'cherry bombs'!

What do you think of my 'Smartie Tube' outfit?!
VW x

PS. I LOVE red lips, but the colour rubs off everywhere :-( Is this me just being special? How do I get it to stay put and stop leaving red smudges on my hands etc!? I'm worried I'll accidently smear it all round my face!!

PPS. I bought 6 pairs of tights in town, so I can go back to wearing clean clothes. haha.

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

Once upon a time in a sunny suburb...

Heyy! No I'm not dead! I havn't even got a good excuse for not blogging in a silly amount of time, but I'm ok, and promise to get posting regularly soon.

I guess this blog was initially about writing about something I love (fashion, not myself) and about doing something creative, that was just for me, that wasn't for school or uni or anything like that, but just for myself, because I enjoyed it. But then somewhere along the way (I know its only been like 3 months and I've probably done less than 30 posts, but hey ho it feels like its been a while) it all sort of started to feel like a chore sometimes. I had convinced myself that this blog was doing something, making a difference somehow, like one day when I got off my lazy ass and posted some photos and had something witty and interesting to say, some big hotshot in the fashion world would just stumble across it and think, 'oh my god, I have to know this girl, I shall hire her immediatly to be a contributer to Vogue' or 'This girl is amazing, and clearly loves fashion, I'll just call my close personal friend the director of buying at Arcadia and set something up' etc etc (havn't we all had these dreams? please say I'm not the only one?!), so I got into this mentality, do another blog post Voni, keep it going, even if you're tired, or busy, you want to be like that girl with the 100/200/500/1000 followers who goes to fashion awards/gets sent Next products/is an Aussie haircare blogger, don't you? Don't you? Don't you?

Well no, actually, maybe I've realised I'm not that bothered, I enjoy this so much more when its just for me, when I sit down and write about a load of old crap, and showcase my bargain bag, or my marginally hidious blouse, or show off my free haircut, because I want to. I don't care whether you like it, or don't like it, whether its gona get me somewhere or not. Its pretty fun having a hobby. I've never had one before to be honest!


I can't be bothered chasing after a 1000 followers, or checking my stats, I'm quite happy in the knowledge that my mum is reading, and The Bestfriend, and I even get the odd page view from The Boyf, even though he's sitting right there in the room with me and took the photos etc (which I think is pretty sweet haha!). If you like my pictures, or my ramlings, or my very strange fashion sense, then please do feel free to visit again and have a read, but thats up to you really isn't it.

Saying all this, if you do actually happen to be the head honcho at Selfridges, please do just ignore everything I've just said, I'm a really friendly, optimistic and driven individual, who is desperate for would love some work experience :-) hahahaha


Well that was all very depressing wasn't it? I've tried to make it up to you with the photos (of course it's not really about making it up to you, because I'm not doing this for you remember :-p I made my bro take these photos after much grumbling, so I might aswell post them!)

Oops, the pool cleaning hose in the background kind if ruins them a bit huh?!

It's cold and wet and miserable here in Manchester, but looking at these pictures is going some way towards warming me up inside (the rest is left to the 4 layers I'm wearing plus blanket, as we can't afford to turn the heating on). It's strange to know my parents are on the otherside of the world, experiencing this beautiful sun right now, and I was right there with them only 2 and a half weeks ago, yet the warmth on my skin is a fleeting memory. These pictures were taken in the garden at about 6pm, after a day out in Subiaco and Harbourtown Shopping Mall, just as the sun was starting to fade.

The pretty theatre in Subi that matched my outift haha!



Don't know why but I quite like this picture, even though pool cleaning equipment is kind of ruining it again!

Vest & Bralet - Topshop, Skirt - American Apparel, Shoes - Zara, Bag & Sunnies - Primark, Earings - Accessorize

 

Despite wearing one of the simplest and most relaxed outfit combo's my wardrobe can muster I got quite a few compliments in the city that day, I can only put it down to the aussie's love of laid-back chic. I kind of love it, throw on your favourite summer skirt, a singlet and thongs (vest and flip-flops) and you're ready to go. Obviously me being me I had to jaz it up with some oversized sunnies, dangly earings and primarni bag. I actually wanted to wear just the bralet instead of vest (which is why I'm showing it off in most of these pictures), as the peach straps and stictching match my skirt perfectly, but I just wore it as a normal bra underneath as I was worried about the dreaded tan-lines from walking around outside all day - it has 2 strappy bits across the back which would have left very strange marks!

Barry M Orange Nails, to match my hair ;-) I love how quick this polish dried when I painted my nails outside, Australia is amazing, haha! Seriously though, warning, make sure you keep the bottle in the shade, it goes all sticky and disgusting in the heat!!

For some reason my little bag gets quite alot of attention in foreign countries, people always ooh & aah it, and I'm like, dude it was a cheapy from Primark!!

Anywho, I found lots of marvelous charity shop bargains whilst in Perth and recieved quite a few beautiful christmas pressies, which I have been wearing over the last couple of weeks in England, so fun outfit posts to come! Check back, or not. Please follow, or not. ;-) Seriously though, I do appreciate you reading, whoever you are (Hi Mum!).

Much love, or not
VW x