Always Winter

Fashion blogging in the winter is tricky, especially when you have to take your outfit photos outside. We're right at the end of March and it's still snowing and sodding freezing. Do I want to remove my coat, hat, gloves and several layers of scarves to stand still in a floaty frock when it's minus 2 outside? No, I do not. And I don't understand all the bloggers that are doing outdoor photos with ballet pumps, bare legs and spring dresses. Are they immune to the cold? Do they actually wear those clothes for the rest of the day? I don't know about you lot but my office is nowhere near warm enough for spring clothes, even with the heater on. Part of the reason I love Vix so much is that yes, she dons the chiffon in sub-zero temperatures (and looks amazing in it) but she certainly doesn't pretend it's a balmy March day out there.




I'm not into pretending either. I couldn't even bring myself to remove my gloves until halfway through taking the photos. Luckily the cape has a muff. Fnar.

Oh yes. THE CAPE. Found in an Ashbourne charity shop on the last day of the Norbury Manor holiday and immediately pounced upon by me with great glee and much squawking of "Welsh tweed?  CAPE?! BUYBUYBUY."  It came with a matching skirt which I didn't wear today partly because it needs altering but mostly because, much as I love Welsh tweed, I don't think I can wear it top to toe without looking like a bit of a maddo.

It's made by Trefriw Woollen Mills, so I did a spot of googling and discovered that they're still in existence and still making beautiful textiles.  Also their customer service is ace, cos I emailed them to ask if they knew anything about the pattern and age of the cape and got a reply within about half an hour, telling me that it's a St David's cape in R62R from the early 80s.  Must have been pricey back then because the ones they make now cost £250!  I got mine, plus the skirt, for £15 and they're in perfect condition. Hurrah!





I love how it fastens up the shoulder.






Cape - Trefriw Woollen Mills via charity shop
Dress - Closet @ Dorothy Perkins
Heels - Office Vintage range, via ebay
Pebble necklace - charity shop
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Gloves - no idea!

Hideous Frocks

Lots of shops sell frocks. Lots of shops sell really nice frocks.  But almost all of them will have one or two absolute horrors lurking around as well and it's time we all pointed and laughed at them.  I did this with ugly shoes back in the day and it seems time to reprise the feature for another wardrobe item. Why should shoes have all the fun?

Now I'm not slagging off the shops or anything.  On my infrequent recent shopping trips I've seen an awful lot of nice dresses around. It's just too cold to start buying spring/summer stuff at the mo but when it warms up you can be sure I'll purchase a frock or three.  H&M have got one or two beauties, once all the stuff made from nasty fabric has been ruled out. You can almost guarantee I'll always find something I like in the Closet and Billie & Blossom ranges at Dorothy Perkins. I like the simplicity of Vero Moda. I'm even finding myself lusting after a lot of the Primark spring range.

It would be easy to do a wishlist full of pretty things, wouldn't it? I'm gonna make you look at hideous things instead.  Muahahahahaha. It's much more fun to mock them than it is to coo over nice stuff.

It all started when I was browsing the Boohoo website (I bought an awesome jumper which I will feature soon) and came across this:

 I christen it the Slutty Flintstone

And this is kinda normal I suppose but a) PEPLUM and b) BEIGE PEPLUM. Madly unflattering, even on a teeny tiny model, plus ewwww peplum.

Missguided are very fond of a cutout, aren't they?

As if this wasn't nasty enough, it's also got a socking great exposed zip down the back.

More sensible to just go out in your bra, surely? You can't possibly call that a bodice.

ASOS sells so many things that you're never too far away from something great, or something utterly vile:

For just £338 pounds you too could dazzle in a fricking AWFUL drop waist swanhead lady dress.

This reminds me strongly of that dress Julia Roberts wore in Pretty Woman. No, not the posh polka dot one. The hooker one.

I want to like this frock, at least from afar. But when you get closer it is essentially an apron and a collar attached to some see through mesh and frankly I'm not that fashion forward.

Even Dorothy Perkins, usually fairly tame and inoffensive when it comes to frocks, has some weird choices in at the moment.

Snot green neoprene? Really??

What's this all about please?  A minging zip AND drawstrings AND a deeply odd skirt. I am baffled.

Unsurprisingly, Topshop wasn't short of options either:

Take one tablecloth, form it into a shapeless sack, et voila!

I'm all for a bit of #wardrobezoo action but I can honestly say that I've never thought "You know what my wardrobe is lacking? A dress with a shark eating my tit."

Erm, shameful confession. I was in full mock mode for this one, just because it is so in-your-face and stripy and PINK (I loathe pink), but I would totally wear it. I can't help myself.

I would also buy this from Glamorous in a heartbeat if it weren't for one thing.

WHERE DO YOUR BOOBS GO??? The bodice is practically a set of braces.

Answers on a postcard please.

A Sunday Jaunt

"What? No brick wall?" I hear you cry.

That's right.  I actually took photos in public for once.  Hark at me.

I don't know how the rest of you do it.  The shame!  This was a nice quiet road but I was still mortified when someone appeared out of his front door a few houses down.  Well, it's his own fault for living in such a lovely house.

Dress - Closet @ Dorothy Perkins

Jacket - c/o French Connection

Shoes - ASOS

Rings - Matalan sale (black) & Dorothy Perkins sale (silver)

Clutch - H&M

When I grew too mortified to have my photo taken any more, I wrestled back control of the camera and we went a-wandering around the Georgian Quarter.  It's by far my favourite part of Liverpool city centre.  Let's face it, all of it is pretty fantastic - Liverpool One has all the big shops and restaurants, Bold Street has all the interesting shops and restaurants, the waterfront is rather spectacular and everywhere and everything else you discover has something to recommend it.

I adore Georgian buildings though and we have an awful lot of them.  Not as many as we had 30 or 40 years ago due to some extremely dodgy planning decisions, but enough to mean that the streets feature quite often in films and tv programmes.  Definitely worth taking a detour through when on the way to Sunday lunch!

And it was a damn good lunch.  We went to Host, which I've walked past about a million times but have never been to before.  I was super impressed - they've actually taken the effort to create gluten and dairy free menus which made life a lot easier for us!  Eating out for me is usually accompanied by involved and lengthy discussions with waiters about ingredients and substitutions and frankly, it's a pain in the arse.  This wasn't.  And it tasted amazing: the biggest and best onion bhajis I've ever had, followed by duck and lychee red curry.

So yes, come and visit Liverpool.  It's ace.  Full of beautiful buildings and fun things to do.  Although often quite windy...

God, I'm such a nerd. You'd never find the cool bloggers hitting publish on a post that included a daft photo like that one.

Here, having a soothing, arty shot of one of Liverpool's two cathedrals instead. Biggest Anglican cathedral in the world don't you know?

Day Six

Hark at me (almost) smiling in a blog photo.  I am happy because I discovered something a) unworn and b) amazing during a bit of a tidying session over the weekend.  House tights!  I do love Henry Holland tights but I'm buggered if I'm paying upwards of £12 for them.  I stalk the River Island sales instead - this pair were £3. Bargain.

I have no idea why they lurked in the depths of my tights suitcase for so long but it may just be that they blended into the background.  There's so much colour going on in there that anything mostly flesh coloured just disappears.  I think that's them in the top right, next to the green pair.  They certainly don't jump out at you in the same way as some of the others.

Anyway, consider them well and truly worn today!

Dress - Closet @ Dorothy Perkins

Shoes & ring - Dorothy Perkins

Tights - H by Henry Holland via River Island sale

What I Wore...To The Races

Ah.  It's Aintree time again and that means it's time for tons of patronising Southern bile in the media mocking Scouse women for daring to make an effort when they go to the races.  I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the tone of the Daily Mail's article yesterday though.  It's much less vitriolic than in previous years (note - I haven't read the comments because they'll make me want to punch things) although I can't help but feel that they've picked some peculiar photos to go along with it.  There were so many beautifully dressed, chic women there yesterday.  Lots of peplums and really smart fitted dresses and fab platform shoes.  That wasn't even the day when people get really dressed up! We shall wait and see what the coverage of Ladies Day (today) brings...

So, what did I wear?  This:

Ah, so chic to accessorise with a pint of Bulmers, isn't it?

 

Much more soberly dressed than most people there, but here is the basis of my thinking when it comes to an outfit for the races. 

• Something smart. 
• Something I won't freeze in.  
• Preferably something I already own, because I can't countenance doing what some girls do and spending £500 on getting ready and buying the outfit.  That is just madness. 
• Oh, and flat shoes.  My back hurts after spending over six hours standing up and I just can't wear heels for that long without ruining my day with pain and moaning. 

So, as I said on Twitter yesterday, I may have been by far in the minority with my flats on, but at least I wasn't teetering along and moaning about how much my feet were killing me after an hour.  Or worse, walking round barefoot holding my shoes.  *shudder*

Instead I was having a wonderfully fun day out in the sunshine.  And being assaulted by my brother when trying to study the form in the Racing Post.  He didn't stop me picking a couple of winners though, muahaha.

Dress - Closet @ Dorothy Perkins
Jacket - Warehouse via charity shop
Flats - New Look
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Bag - H & M