Ugg-ly Weather

For several years I refused to give into the fashion for Ugg and Ugg type boots. I always thought of them as ugly and I never understood why anyone would choose to wear them over other types of footwear. I also never understood why you would spent over £100 quid on a pair of ugly shoes when you could get some really gorgeous ones instead. However I have caved and bought a pair, not Uggs but a pair of rip-off ones. I still refuse to pay that much money for ugly shoes. I bought them for one reason and one reason only, my feet were freezing. I have a weakness for sandals, big chunky ones with straps but not much else. These do not keep my feet warm and are all but useless when it's minus 2 outside. So I gave in and bought a pair of fuzzy warm boots with the intention of wearing them on the coldest days and under trousers. They are unflattering, not very nice to look at and they fell clumpy to wear but my god are they warm. My toes are toasty when I wear them. I do feel like a bit of a sell-out for buying them and I will not be wearing them unless I absolutely have to. As soon as it starts to thaw a bit outside (which doesn't look like it's happening any time soon) I will be returning to other shoes, prettier shoes. I will certainly not be doing what a lot of girls seem to do and keep wearing them all year round. I don't think my feet would ever forgive me.

Selling your soul.

The January sales, most of which actually now start on Boxing Day, may be great for buying things like t.v's and sofas, but fashion wise they are usually a bit hit or miss. Sometimes you get lucky and find a spectacular bargain that you can't wait to brag about, but most of the time you'll end up with something you never wear, nothing more then a spectacular waste of money. From my experience the best fashion sales seem to be in department stores. This is probably because they have so many different brands in them, and a more seasonal turnover then high street fashions. A brand like Armani Jeans, DKNY or Ralph Lauren tend to have less of a turnover then somewhere like Topshop and the items are often a bit more classic then hugely fashion forward. Buying a pair of reduced sequined leggings might seem like a great idea now but in a few months there is every chance you won't want to be seen dead in them. However something a bit simpler and classic, that is of high quality will last you for ages and if you got it for a bargain then it seems like the best purchase you ever made. Also getting something that cost £100 for £40 is always going to seem like a much better bargain then something that cost £45 going for £25. Plus I went into my local Topshop today to look at the sales and it had all gone a bit Primark in there, with clothes all over the floor and a huge queue. Although this is a bit of a generalisation it tends to be a bit more civilised in a department store and people do tend to be a bit more spread out. But don't take my word for it.

Pyjama Wonderland

I seem to have lost the ability to dress myself. Obviously not in the most basic sense of putting clothes on my body and covering myself, more in the sense of doing it in a stylish way and putting together an outfit that actually looks good and works. Between the misery of the cold, dark mornings, the stressfulness of work and the urge to hibernate I just don't have the energy to do anything other then sleep. As soon as I get in from work I'm straight out of my clothes and into my pyjamas and if I had the choice I reckon I would stay in them all the time. Unfortunately I don't have this choice as I have to go to work and they have rules about what I can wear, and my pyjamas do no count as a choice. When it's cold all you want to do is be as warm as possible, when you're sat at a desk all day all you want is to be as comfortable as possible. Warm and comfy does not equal stylish, or at least I can't seem to make it add up. I either end up shivering in dresses and tights or looking slightly odd in far too many layers of knitwear. I don't seem to have the energy for high heels and seem to alternate between two pairs of shoes, a pair of biker boots and a pair of trainers that I swap out for ballet pumps once inside. Plus why do all the stylish shoes this season seem to come without toes?
What I need is some super stylish pyjamas, maybe something that resembles a Le smoking tux, then I could just wear it all the time. I may need more then one set though.

Strike a Pose

There is no denying it, we live in a celebrity obsessed world. They look out at you from the T.V when you turn it on, down on you from the shelves of your local newsagents and their names pop out at you every time you go online. And they know how you feel about them because they are totally cashing in on it. If your a fan of Victoria Beckham, you can wear shades from her sunglasses line, jeans from her denim range, a dress from her new line of those, you can read her biography as well as her book about style, and spray yourself in one of her perfumes as well. And those are just the things that have her name on them, never mind all the things she's endorsed and all the fashion labels she's known to wear. She's even had a guest appearance on Ugly Betty. In short, she may well be a person but she's also a brand and mostly a fashion brand. I have to admit that I have a sort of admiration for Mrs Beckham, she has previously stated that she was never the greatest singer but that she loves fashion and now has the opportunity to turn her hand to that. I'm not a fan as such and don't own any of the above things that's she's put on the market, I just admire her for being honest about who she is and what she does. She seems to genuinely love fashion and although her style might not be to every one's taste, she's doing her own thing and I'll always respect that. Plus I'll always admire a woman who takes the rubbish out in 5 inch stilettos and if she ever actually takes out the rubbish I'm sure she does it in heels.
However I think fashion's love affair with celebrity has gone a bit far and in the last week there were a few examples that proved this to me. One: Cheryl Cole will be on the cover of Vogue in the new year, Two Madonna will be featured in the new Louis Vuitton campaign, and Three Pamela Anderson will be in the new Vivienne Westwood advertising campaign. All of these facts left me baffled. The first two are pure, unadulterated and disappointing attempts to make more money. These two woman have been featured in the press a huge amount in 2008, both for their marital problems. Madonna's divorce is one of the biggest celeb stories of the year and it's disappointing to me that two well-respected names in fashion would sink this low to sell a few more mags and bags. The third thing, well that's just completely random and I will reserve judgement until I see the ad's because usually Queen Westwood gets it right. All in all I just think that it's all a bit excessive and that far too many talented 'normal' folk in the fashion industry are losing work to these famous people who already have enough money.

Westside to Westfield

Given my experiences of shopping as described in the previous post it would seem weird that so soon after that wild, wet and windy day on Oxford Street I would be back to battling with any kind of retail experience. However with my mum still visiting it seemed like a good idea last Monday to check out the new Westfield centre in Shepherd's Bush. Given that it was a Monday I figured it wouldn't be as busy as it would have been that Saturday and given that it was all indoors I figured we would be safe from the elements. I was right on both accounts. It's an absolute giant of a place and at first I thought I would never find my way around never mind back out again but with the aid of one of there maps I was soon sure of where I was and where I wanted to go. Its well laid out with the four large department stores each having a corner. The thing about it that is so great is that everything is there. In central London you would find yourself having to go from one end of Oxford Street to the other to get to the shops you wanted to go to. Westfield makes it all a little more pleasurable. One thing that was a little disappointing was that the majority of the designer stores hadn't opened yet, although they all seem to be moving in before Christmas. Those are the stores that will lift Westfield above the other big shopping centres, like Bluewater, and give it something worth going for, even if it's just to leave dirty hand prints on the windows of Prada.
I plan to return there soon to do my Christmas shopping, safe and warm and dry and with a Yo Sushi to reward myself at after I'm done.

Shop til you drop dead.

As I get older, which is a depressing enough thing to be dealing with as it is, I have also discovered another depressing thing: I am starting to dislike shopping. Not the actual spending of money, that bit is still far too fun for my bank accounts liking, but the actual act of shopping. Attempting to deal with Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon in a downpour that was accompanied by a gail, I realised that I'd rather be tucked up in a bed with a good book or at least in a warm coffee shop with a muffin and a mocha. I was with my mum who was visiting and I was attempting to find her Christmas present for me. It was a bit of a nightmare. Between the horrendous weather, the umbrellas getting blown inside out and then dripping all over slidy shop floors it was just all a bit too much to be bothered with. It's a bit sad really. As a teenager I loved to go shopping and found it wonderful fun no matter what the weather. Sometimes I'd only come back with a Rimmel nail polish but my god I'd had some fun.
Now it just feels too much like a chore and the fact that pretty much everything you could ever need or want can be bought from the comfort of your sofa and then delivered to your house makes shopping seem even more pointless. I used to say that no matter how great the Internet got I would still love to see the clothes hanging from rails and be able to try them on before handing over any of my hard earned cash. Now I'm not so sure. It feels too much of a battle.
Having said that I did get the most beautiful Diesel leather jacket, made of wonderfully buttery soft leather. I saw it in Selfridges and feel madly in love with it, fortunately my mum did too and it now hangs in the second wardrobe of my flat, next to my favourite vintage dress. I did a quick online search and after about 10 minutes of getting a bit lost on the Diesel website, I discovered it on the ASOS site. So in theory I didn't need to be subjected to the madness in order to have it. However I do have to wonder if I would have got the same buzz from trying it on for the first time.

Pink Ladies

Today marks amongst other things the final day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The final day is known as 'Dare to wear it pink', which means donating £2 to the charity and wearing an item of pink for the day. My office, being in the world of healthcare as it is, decided to embrace this idea and get us in pink. Now I am not a fan of this shade, not in any sense. The only place I wear it is on my face, in blusher or eyeshadow. I'm more of a black and grey kind of girl and I am just not into pink at all, purple yes, pink no. In fact I only have one pink item of clothing in my wardrobe and before today I'd never actually worn it. It just kind of hung there next to all the black, waiting for a day when I might feel like wearing it. That day has yet to arrive but for today I am wearing it. I feel and no doubt look a bit daft but since everyone else, including most of the boys, is wearing pink at least I'm not the only one who looks a bit silly.
The thing that I dislike so much about pink is what is represents. I recently read an interesting article by Germaine Greer about pink and although her opinion was pretty extreme I do kind of agree with her. Pink is the colour of Barbie, it's the defining colour of girlieness and when I meet a blonde-haired girl (they always seem to be blonde, I don't think I've ever met a brunette who was heavily in to pink) who loves pink I can't help but take a bit of an instant dislike to her. It just seems so silly and well annoyingly girlie to like pink. When we were told about wearing pink for today I was so very relieved when the girls I work beside had no idea what they were going to wear, they were like me!!! The only reason I had any idea of what to wear is because it's the only pink piece of clothing I own.
Pink hasn't really been in fashion for a while either, it occasionally pops up on the catwalk but usually alongside something else and usually with a heavy dose of irony. Very rarely will you see a fashion show that is just a massive overload of pink. It's just not really the colour of a modern woman. It is the colour of Barbie, who maybe a popstar/moviestar/politican/cowgirl/businesswoman and who knows however many jobs she's had but she's most definitely not the definition of a modern woman. Although I am more than willing to put my two quid in the pot and wear pink for a good cause, I get the feeling that my pink jumper will be returning to it's rightful place on the bottom of my wardrobe at the end of the day.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/artblog/2007/nov/05/whyhastheworldgonepinkma