Archive for the ‘Affordable Fashions’ Category
Affordable Fashions, designer pick of the week, Fashion Crush, Gallery
By Andrea Petrou on September 22nd, 2010
By Emily Borrett.
If you’re looking for a few classic staples that you can wear both to work and out on the town this A/W, you don’t need to look any further than R-T-W designer Yuki, whose clothes take direct inspiration from Tokyo’s Shibuya Street and Japanese street style.
The current collection, which is for sale on various online designer boutiques such as Bunnyhug.com, are mainly comprised of classic tailored shirts that could be worn to the office or to a club, depending on how they’re styled. It’s a palette of rust, camel, neutrals and classic whites that have been seen all over the catwalks this season – but instead of spending a bomb on a blouse from Chloe, Yuki retails at high-street prices. I’m currently lusting over the rust-coloured shirt with diamanté detailing on the pockets and the preppy “unbalanced” shirt in cream.
You may think that Yuki has been somewhat below the fashion radar but not so – the brand has been slowly and surely getting love from the media world and celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Peaches Geldof are fans. Check the gallery below for some of their sharp designs.
Cream Preppy Unbalanced Shirt
Tags: designer pick of the week, Japanese Fashion, street style, yuki
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Affordable Fashions, First Looks, Gallery, Handbags, Uncategorized, vintage
By Andrea Petrou on September 20th, 2010
By Emily Borrett.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a good look for some new talent on crafts site Etsy, and it’s high time that I did again. Though you’re pretty much spoilt for choice perusing the site, seller Jennifer Witte, “interior design and art graduate that is crazy for anything and everything vintage” has been a stand-out name to me. The Cali-girl’s speciality is hand-painted vintage leather accessories that she hand-paints herself at home, then sells on through the site. No charity shop tat here – Jennifer’s very picky about the quality of the vintage item that she’ll work onto, so you know that there’s a lot of love going into each piece – and they’re all one-offs.
The designs that get painted onto her accessories are all very fresh, simple, girly and sweet; birds are a recurring theme in her work, as are flowers, trees and other animals. (They’re the kind of accessories that I can image Bambi would carry, if Bambi had an interest in bags and shoes.) A personal favourite of mine is the vintage blue purse with the hand-painted whale, which is so adorable that my toes curl every time I think about it. For fans of the androgynous, leggy Brit-schoolgirl style that’s seen on the likes of Coco Sumner and Alexa Chung, who want satchels and leather shoes with a unique twist, Jennifer Witte’s Etsy shop is worth a look.
She’s also co-founder of an online Etsy store which sources beautiful vintage housewares and pretty little things. Have a peek at it here.
Brown Vintage Flats With Hand-Painted Cherry Blossoms
Tags: birds, customising, etsy.com, jennifer witte, leather, one to watch, painting, vintage bag
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Affordable Fashions, Fashion Crush, First Looks, Gallery
By Andrea Petrou on September 15th, 2010
By Emily Borrett.
Normally when somebody tries to recommend a “fashion on a serious budget” high street store, you think of Primark and its never-ending flow of churned-out fashion for a fiver; cheap, poorly made and never as nice once it’s home as when you saw it on the rail. Nah, we all say, I’ll stick to Topshop and H&M. But perhaps new online fashion store DressRail can teach us to shop out of our comfort zone, and save more than a few pennies too, with their wide range of extremely affordable and actually quite cool clothes.
The beauty of this site is that the clothes don’t look like budget fashion at all – some of the items, like the buttery-tan coloured leather miniskirt and the camel-coloured shorts wouldn’t be out of place on a Celine runway, whilst there was some serious Sarah Jessica Parker, Halston Heritage-loving going on in the designs of some of the party dresses with their fluttering folds of chiffon and batwing sleeves. Scrap your Net-a-porter wishlist and head on over here instead – I’m predicting big things for DressRail.
Tags: affordable fashion, budget, Fashion Crush, first look, high street, retail, shiny style loves
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Accessories, Affordable Fashions, Celebrity Style, Gallery, Trend Alert
By Andrea Petrou on September 10th, 2010
By Emily Borrett.
When I started secondary school, you could tell who was cool and who wasn’t by what kind of school bag they had. If you had a shoulder bag, you were cool. If you had a backpack, and wore both straps on your shoulders (as your mum instructed, so you didn’t get a bad back) you weren’t. And yes, I was stuck with the backpack – it was so heavy that I walked like one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I still, to this day, blame that backpack for being so terminally unpopular for the first three years of high school.
But suddenly, a new breed of backpack has appeared. It’s lightweight, chic and a bit of a wink to the 90s “Clueless era” when fresh, preppy schoolgirl style ruled. And when it’s being championed by the likes of Daisy Lowe, the Olsens and The City’s Whitney Port, you know you’re onto a good thing.
Even Chanel’s making them – in lush, buttery-looking quilted leather with the iconic double C emblem. Back to school chic has never been so good. Check the gallery below for some of the best back-candy around at the moment.
Mary Kate Olsen showing us how it's done
Tags: Accessories, backpacks, designer, high street, it bag, Olsens, preppy fashion, star style, Trend Alert, Whitney Port
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Affordable Fashions, Gallery, outerwear
By Elaine LaPersonerie on July 16th, 2010
I Love 2 Love is an up-and-coming boutique leather company that boasts a fashion-forward capsule of leather jackets that promise to stand the test of time. With generous reductions happening on the site at the moment, now is the time to check them out.
A favourite of mine out of the capsule is IL2L’s asymmetric leather biker jacket – an updated spin on a timeless style made iconic by heart-throbs such as James Dean and Marlon Brando, IL2L has stripped the biker jacket down to its’ bare bones and added in asymmetric angular detail to create a cleaner, more modern look. It’s a bargain for real leather and is an easy way to toughen up a girlie outfit in seconds. Another piece that caught my eye is their pleather hooded bomber jacket, which will be going on my wishlist come pay-day. It’s definitely a cool way to keep your hair dry when it’s raining (or disguise yourself from people you know when you’re doing the Walk of Shame in the morning).
IL2L not only sells their own designs, but also sells hand-picked products from other well-known and well-loved leather brands such as Bench, Fossil, Hooch, Kipling and Lee Cooper.
If you’re looking for a leather jacket at the moment, definitely take a minute to check out their site or check the gallery below for a few of my favourites.
Tags: boutique, il2l, leather, outerwear
Posted in Affordable Fashions, Gallery, outerwear | 2 Comments »
Affordable Fashions, Fashion Crush, First Looks, Gallery, jewelry
By emilyborrett on July 15th, 2010
I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge sucker for anything a bit kitsch – I’m the proud owner of a bizarre stuffed carrot with long eyelashes, and a technicolour piggy-bank in the shape of a kitten – but I find sometimes that it’s a very fine line between something being really cutesy or really tasteless. If you like cute, but don’t like tacky, I recommend you check out the new Autumn and Winter collection from Chelsea Doll.
The only way I can describe the Chelsea Doll brand is.. Claire’s Accessories for grown-ups. Bows, glitter, cute little animals are themes in their jewellery that are given a bit of a fashion edge. My ultimate favourite from the new collection is their gorgeous lace and metal deer brooch, which is an easy and cute addition to a blouse or cardigan, and is a snip at a mere six pounds. If you want to channel your inner little-girly side this season, check out the new Chelsea Doll collection in the gallery below.
Tags: a/w line, chelsea doll, Jewellery, kitsch
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Affordable Fashions, Fashion Crush, Features, Gallery
By emilyborrett on July 15th, 2010
If you’re looking for a few cool, collectable pieces to carry you from summer through to autumn this year, check out the work of James Anthony on the online crafts community, Etsy.
Miami-based James Anthony specialises in silk-screened t-shirts and dresses for both men and women. As all of their t-shirts are supplied wholesale by American Apparel and Alternative Apparel before being printed on, you know that you’ll be wearing an updated, edgier version of the clothes that the UK already knows and loves. The tanks and tees are perfect for making the most of what’s left of the summer weather and are a festival statement by themselves – we’d recommend you don’t go out wearing just the tank though, put some knickers on at least.
The brand lists its inspirations as “revenge; satin; Capri and Acapulco; men who wear flannel; champagne and caviar; mink; turbans; mink turbans; oil; torturing those of a lower social station; yelling; hissing; blackmail.” Fair enough. The prints are taken from antique and historical imagery such as 18th-century anatomical illustrations, engravings and paintings for the stark, bold prints that end up on the clothes. I came over all spooky coveting the skeleton-printed silk tanks (I’m planning to buy some and team them up with teeny-weeny daisy dukes and big old boots) and fell in love with the geisha-print scarf which is going to be keeping me warm come September, when the weather gets crap again.
If you want to get your mitts on a James Anthony print, you can find his clothes sold on Etsy.com here.
Tags: american apparel, etsy.com, handmade, james anthony, silk screen
Posted in Affordable Fashions, Fashion Crush, Features, Gallery | 1 Comment »
Accessories, Affordable Fashions, Fashion Crush, Gallery, jewelry, Trend Alert
By emilyborrett on July 14th, 2010
This summer, Allison Pearson published her second novel “I Think I Love You”, following the puppy-love lamentings of Petra, a teenage girl growing up in 1970s America and nursing a huge crush on the teen-idol of the time, David Cassidy. Though I can’t relate to being in love with David Cassidy (I really don’t get it – his smile frightens me), “I Think I Love You” made me feel all wistful and nostalgic for a time long lost, a time of kissing my Leonardo DiCaprio posters every night before I went to sleep, a time of writing love letters to all of the members of A1 (my favourite was Ben, the one with the big forehead and the curtains).
I suddenly found myself revisiting all of the extreme and occasionally ridiculous celebrity crushes that I’d suffered from in my early years; if I remember correctly my first love was when I was five, and the lucky fella was Mighty Max, that cartoon character with the back-to-front cap that was mates with an owl and had magic powers or something. I liked Thomas the Tank Engine too – he had nice eyes – but my last true freight-train sized crush was Kurt Cobain, whose sallow, stubbly face filled up every space of my bedroom walls for two years in my early teens and haunted my dreams every night. I wrote “Mrs Emily Cobain” all over my notebooks, wore T-shirts with his face emblazoned on them for days on end and drew endless sketches of him and me holding hands. In hindsight, all mortifyingly embarrassing, but I know that I was not alone – it seems every girl in the world has at least once suffered from the phenomena that is the Celebrity Crush.
It’s this nostalgia for the era of puppy-love and teen idolatry that makes me love the jewellery of Joy Hikade so much. A California-turned-London girl, Joy makes and sells her rock-and-roll themed earrings and bangles featuring the faces of such retro crushes as Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Richey Edwards from the Manic Street Preachers for six pounds a pop. Each piece is hand-made so that you can be sure no-one else will have the same one as you, and can also be bespoke on request. If you feel like channelling your inner fanatical teen and want to let the world know it with your jewellery, check out the gallery below to see examples of Joy’s work.
If you like Joy’s work and want to buy one of her pieces, she sells her stuff at:
The Runway Showroom
Arch 62/63
Camden
London
NW1 8AH
For those who don’t live in London, well.. now you’ve got an excuse to go, haven’t you?
Tags: camden market, hand made, Jewellery, joy hikade
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Affordable Fashions, Celebrity Style, Gallery, Spotted
By emilyborrett on July 14th, 2010
Last night the Saturdays performed a show at the O2 arena to celebrate the first birthday of charity The Transformation Trust, a foundation that focuses on providing extra-curricular activities and opportunities for children in secondary schools as a motivational tool. The concert was free for young people around the country (how jammy is that – maybe I should go back to secondary school and be as lazy as possible to see if I can get into free gigs) and featured other big names on the line-up such as Tinchy Strider, Eliza Doolittle and X-Factor’s Stacey Solomon, who led the crowd in a chorus of “Happy Birthday to you” in honour of the charity.
The Saturdays looked a bit like a girl-band rainbow yesterday, each sporting a super body-con skirt in a different colour teamed up with little white tops to show off their enviable tans. Their white heeled trainers they all sported gave the outfits a cool, sportswear edge on an otherwise hyper-girlie outfit. Check the gallery below to check out what the girls were wearing, and pieces you can find to copy their look.
Images courtesy of WENN.com.
Tags: charity, o2 arena, The Saturdays
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Affordable Fashions, Fashion News, First Looks
By emilyborrett on July 13th, 2010
If you just read my article on Autumn/Winter fashions for 2010, but are wondering how you’ll find affordable high-street versions of the catwalks’ latest trends, worry no more, because Topshop is about to launch its’ new collections for the next fashion season. There will be three key collections for you to lust over this autumn: High Performance, which continues on from the summer trend of Alexander Wang-inspired sportswear, comprised of tough layering and graphic prints, Out In The Wild, inspired by the great outdoors and comprised of cool tweeds, furs and patchworks that will keep you snuggly when the weather turns sour, and the Dark Nouveau collection that takes inspiration from the luxe styles of the Art Nouveau period – it’s going to be the place to go for a party dress come Christmas.
The Out in the Wild and Dark Nouveau aren’t up yet, but Topshop’s kindly given us girls a taster of what’s to come in a behind the scenes video of the Autumn/Winter shoot so that you can already start to plan what you’ll be buying when the collections hit stores. Looks like it’s time to start planning our wardrobes for autumn!
Tags: autumn/winter, new collections, TopShop
Posted in Affordable Fashions, Fashion News, First Looks | 2 Comments »
Affordable Fashions, Fashion Crush, Fashion News, Features, First Looks
By emilyborrett on July 12th, 2010
Those who love to have fun with their clothes will be happy to hear that the Danish fashion label RÜTME has arrived in the UK.
There’s a clear 1990s street-style inspiration behind the collection shown in the geometric prints, slouchy cuts and eye-popping colour. A bit like the outfits that Will Smith wore in The Fresh Prince (his clothes were the coolest) except updated, a bit like the “nu rave” craze we all went through in 2006 (remember the Klaxons?) except not lame. By using such bold print and colour, RÜTME could have so easily come off as trying a bit too hard, a bit too “Look at me! Look at me!”, but the casual practicality of its’ sportswear shapes make the collection effortless, not remotely contrived or try-hard at all. There’s a versatility to the clothes; you could wear them to the shop to buy milk, or wear them to a party – the founders of RÜTME, Rikke Charlotte Larsen and Nicole Rindsig, describe their line as a brand for “whole generation on the go”, and we see what they mean.
Best of all is that the brand will be retailed at high-street prices so us girls won’t have to save too much to get in on the action. There’s no online stockist for the line as of yet, but it is being sold in Selfridges already – get down there before everyone else cottons on. To find out more about RÜTME, visit their lookbook here.
Tags: danish fashion, new fashion, rutme, Selfridges
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Affordable Fashions, Celebrity Style, First Looks
By emilyborrett on July 12th, 2010
For cute, affordable nightwear this summer, one of the best places to go is Zadehome.com, an online mail-order company specialising in patterned night and lounge-wear. Celebrities have already cottoned on: the range is getting the thumbs-up from Jo Wood, who deemed it “fab”, whilst our favourite kooky British pin-up Paloma Faith is rumoured to love their taxi-print jammies. A little more bizarrely, Ricky Whittle, ex-Hollyoaks heart throb, is also a fan.. I can’t imagine he’s got quite the right frame for one of their camisoles.
It’ll be music to the ears of any girl on a budget that nothing costs over twenty-five quid, so a piece from the new range won’t take its toll on your paycheck. On my wishlist are the retro rocket-print pyjama bottoms – so that I can pretend that I’m in The Jetsons – and their dainty little ballet-slippers, perfect for padding around the house in. So if you want to get a little London style in your nightwear (or impress Ricky Whittle), check the gallery below for their best pieces.
Tags: "fashionable pyjamas. zadehome.com", Trend Alert
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Affordable Fashions, Gallery
By emilyborrett on July 8th, 2010
I’ve recently been introduced to the joyous world of Etsy.com, an online community for those with a knack for making and selling their own creations. Being an arts and crafts nut myself (I’m so old before my time) I was in heaven looking at what the site had to offer. You can buy almost anything on Etsy, from bespoke artwork to kitchenware to home-made dresses for your dogs – there’ll be a “how to dress your pets” feature soon if I get my way – but the one seller that really stood out to me today was Australian fashion graduate Alice Nightingale, who describes her work as “inspired by everything glamorous about yesteryear, from dames and dandies to mods and stars of the silver screen”.
Despite the clear vintage inspirations behind the clothes, they’re anything but old fashioned – the use of ice cream colours and sweet gingham prints are very similar to those seen on the Christopher Kane runways at the moment. Very much like the cute little sundresses that you see celebrities such as Fearne Cotton and Daisy Lowe stepping out in, they’re perfect for a British summer of cream teas, pub gardens and picnics in the sunshine. If you see something you like, get it quick as they tend be one-offs or made in very limited numbers. To snap up an Alice Nightingale original, visit her shop on Etsy here or her official website here.
Click below for some of my favourite Alice Nightingale pieces.
Tags: alice nightingale, bespoke, Etsy, home made, summer
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Affordable Fashions, guess where this is from, Handbags
By Andrea Petrou on December 4th, 2009
High street stores are becoming more style savvy, creating clothes and accessories, which almost mirror those designed by high end brands.
Yes the fabric may not be as plush, and they are probably more prone to wear and tear, but, unless they’re classic wardrobe must haves, do you really need anything more? After all fashion changes so quickly.
So we were really pleased when we spotted this Max C bag, which is similar to Chanel’s quilted bowling bag. We would be more than happy to have this stylish high street alternative on our shoulder especially when you consider the whopping price difference.
Max C comes in at a very reasonable £40 compared to Chanel’s £860. Leaving us more than enough left over to get matching shoes and outfits.
Tags: chanel, Handbags, Max C
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Affordable Fashions, Designer Fashions, Fashion News
By Andrea Petrou on November 30th, 2009
The economic climate may still be continuing to create problems for us and our wardrobes, but we’ve found something that may help, especially if you have designer clothes you want to sell.
Chic & Seek is a new website that helps those of us who don’t have the time to post items up on Ebay or set up car boot sales by offering a collection service and doing the photography, advert uploads and postage to the buyer for you. Contact sell@chicandseek.com or 020 7229 4308.
And those of us who want to spend some cash can also find some great designer bargains on the site. We’ve just had a scout around and fallen in love with a pair of flat Christian Louboutin’s, going for £85 and this cute casual Chloe top with rushed neck line for £70.
Tags: Chloe, designer clothes, ebay, Seek and Chic, sell your designer clothes
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From:Debenhams show us how to avoid tanning disasters this year