17th September, 2014 
LFW Instagram Diary
            
Instagram
Well, that’s it! London Fashion Week is over for another season and I am finally able to take a minute to catch my breath. Whew, was it a whirlwind! This season I really wanted to get fully into the swing of things as I didn’t make February’s fashion week earlier this year because of book deadlines, so I was determined to make the most of it. And, judging by the amount of clothes and bags strewn across my flat, my aching feet and the happy glow that comes from catching up with so many of my favourite blogger babes, I did!
On Friday I had so much fun taking over Warehouse’s Instagram for their #TalesofmyLFW campaign. I’m really impressed by Warehouse this season. I got to preview their latest AW pieces and pick an outfit to wear to fashion week, and was so spoilt for choice – think luxe fabrics, sleek cuts, graphic shapes and beautiful muted tones. Your winter wardrobe is going to be so happy! For my look I went with a 60s inspired style in this leather-look pinafore, printed tee and sandals-and-socks combo. I also chose this incredible pink coat (I like to call it my giant pink marshmallow) but we were blessed with unusually warm weather for fashion week, so I didn’t get round to wearing it. To get more style inspiration and ideas on how to wear your Warehouse pieces, check out their super cool new blog, Tales of the City! Its had a sleek new make-over and is packed full of great fashion content. Think of it as an online magazine and shopping destination!
While fashion is of course the focus of the week (otherwise that would be quite the misnomer), one of the best things about it is that so many bloggers are around, and it was great to hang out at exclusive fashion-week destination The Apartment for post-show chills and chats with the gang. Whether it was bedtime stories with Abi and Carrie, GBK trips with Van and Reem, or street-style snapping with Tony and Julia, I giggled my way through the last five days with these lot, and am genuinely at a loss now that it’s over and we’re no longer all practically under the same roof 24/7.
If my blogger babes were one of my fashion week essentials, then my new beauty heroes were another. I was lucky enough to be treated to a make-over and personalised beauty-kit by Max Factor to get me through fashion week looking primped and photo-ready! Because of my troublesome skin, I’m not actually a big wearer of foundation. I prefer to let my skin breathe. But their new Skin Luminizer foundation is so light and gentle – perfect if you’re like me and prefer a super natural look. I also got some amazing tips from make-up artist Caroline. For example, she recommends buying two shades of foundation, one lighter than your natural colour, which you can then use to highlight your forehead, nose and cheeks for that beautiful contoured effect. It’s such an easy trick to recreate at home and makes your skin super glowy!
Finally, my last fashion week necessity I want to share with you is of course a camera to capture all the action! I was recently gifted the Olympus Pen E-PL7, and to be honest, I didn’t have the highest hopes. Callum just has photo-ing down with his Canon 5D, and I was dubious that a camera so small, light and inexpensive could compete. Well, isn’t it just the best feeling when something proves you so totally wrong? Because it turns out the Pen is ah-mazing. Like, super-duper amazing. I am now so in love with it all my friends are sick of hearing about it – or have ended up being so jealous they’ve bought their own! Honestly, I can’t sing its praises enough. It’s a blogger’s dream camera – so lightweight that you won’t notice carrying it all day, but packing serious punch when it comes to the shots. All my LFW Instagram snaps were taken with the Pen, and even Callum was so impressed by how beautifully they’ve turned out he’s let them onto the blog!
Phew, that’s finally it for my LFW round up! Hope you all had a great week whatever you were up to and have a very happy weekend 🙂 come back soon for out next posts, including another flash-back to our time in Ibiza, a hotel review, and a very exciting project with a bag brand I’ve been dying to share with you all for the best part of a year! x
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*This is a brand collaboration post*
9th September, 2014 
METAMORPHOSIS
 
dress: ASOS
I usually keep this blog fairly light on personal thoughts and feelings. I prefer to let Callum’s beautiful photos take centre stage, and am genuinely surprised (and pleased!) when some of you make references to what I wrote in the post in your comments – thank you for reading my silly waffling! I think a part of it is also wanting to create a space for you all to enjoy which is a little abstracted from the daily grind of life and just let you dream away whilst looking at the photos. But from your comments and the conversations I have with you guys on Twitter and Instagram, I realise that you do like to hear little details about my life. That you’re interested in my thoughts on everything from fashion to work to love, and it’s something so special that I get to share my world with you all, why wouldn’t I allow a more personal insight?
So today’s post is something a little different to celebrate that. It’s on a topic I think all of us females can relate to, that we all have our own intimate ideas and thoughts on – femininity. I was challenged by Thierry Mugler to embrace the ethos of the designer’s iconic blue-bottled fragrance Angel and their #BewareofAngels campaign to explore the concept of femininity and reveal what gives me the strength and confidence to be the woman I am today. These are just my own personal thoughts, but I hope there’s something in them that each of you can relate to – even my lovely male readers! – because ultimately for me, being feminine is more about just owning who you are, and making up your own rules for living and happiness. What ‘being a woman’ means has changed so much over the years. I am so, so grateful to be living in an age (and location) where there is a much broader definition of the term than ever before. In fact, should there even be a definition anymore? Today, we as women are lucky to mostly be able to take charge of our own lives, to really choose how we see ourselves and live our lives, and if there is a definition of femininity – it is our own to create individually.
Recently I underwent a metamorphosis of my own. I got over thirteen inches of my hair cut off to donate to the Little Princess Trust, a wonderful British charity who make custom wigs for children suffering from hair-loss due through cancer treatment. When I think about what makes me feel feminine and full of confidence, my hair has always played a big part, especially when it was long. It’s been a booster for me to let my hair flow long and loose. But when I heard about the Little Princess Trust, and thought more about how there were young girls and boys out there who don’t have hair of their own to enjoy the simple pleasure of the feeling of wind in their hair, or are losing confidence because of how they look, I knew I had to cut off my hair – the source of so much of my own confidence – and donate it to the much better cause of making an amazing little girl of boy out there smile.
Of course it wasn’t entirely selfless – I did need a cut, and wanted to try a shorter look – but I asked my hairdresser Vicky at Myla and Davis (more on those lovely lot another time) to take far more off than I had initially planned, just to be sure to meet the Little Princess Trust’s donation requirements. And as soon as the cut was made – you can see the exact moment here on my Instagram! – it was as though this amazing weight was lifted. A weight I didn’t even know I was carrying. It was a true moment of metamorphosis, where I fully comprehended that the confidence and happiness I feel as a woman, a big part of which I thought was my long hair, was actually something smaller, and more infinite, and will always be inside me no matter what my outer self looks like.
Because to me, that’s what it means to be feminine: a security, a happiness in our cores that enables us to go out and face the world with a smile. It’s whatever you draw your own confidence from – the attributes and personal memories that make you you – and allow you to embrace all the individual little aspects of yourself and say this is who I am, world, and I’m ready to conquer you in my own way. The #BewareofAngels campaign is all about celebrating these differences and building a new, expanded definition of femininity. To be a part of it, visit the Thierry Mugler Facebook and Twitter pages to get sharing the things that make you feel feminine. Let’s spread some positive messages about the individual beauty of what ‘being a woman’ means to each of us! x
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26th August, 2014 
TOP OF THE CROPS
            
jumper: Monki | shorts: ASOS | shoes: c/o New Look | necklace: c/o Project J
There’s that lovely quote from Betsey Johnson that goes a little something like this: “Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves and, of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys they’d just walk around naked at all times.” So it’s generalising a tad, but there’s definitely some truth in it – I’m not sure how much of our fashion boys get. For instance, Callum can’t stand anything cropped on top or high waisted below, and here I am prancing around in both a crop jumper and high-waisted shorts. Oh well! I’ll just have to keep on bugging him because it’s definitely one of my favourite styles (and I think he’ll take it over me walking around naked everywhere, that *might* just raise a few eyebrows …).
To update you on the blog design (I know, remember that little thing, which we promised you over a year ago?!) it’s very near completion. We’ve been working with the lovely web fairy Kim, and I have to applaud her for how patient she’s been with us. This blog is so very personal and important to both Callum and I. After all, we’ve been working on it together for almost three years now, and with each post we aim to get bigger and better, all to bring the best content we can to you, our lovely readers. So of course the blog redesign process has been something we’ve taken very seriously, and we hope you’ll forgive us for taking much longer with it than expected. We’re just making sure it’s the best it can be, and – pinky promise this time! – it will be ready very soon!
Have a great week guys! A big thanks to each and every one of you for being so amazing and sticking with us these past three years. It means the world to us x
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15th August, 2014 
WALLFLOWER
      
dress: c/o Motel | bag: H&M | shoes: Converse | sunglasses: c/o Chicwish
It is a truth universally acknowledged that getting lost in normal life is just a big old pain in the butt, but on holiday it’s a genuine pleasure. Not if you’re properly lost of course, stuck in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal – and worse, no wifi – and you don’t understand the language and you haven’t eaten for hours and you totally wore the wrong shoes for a long walk. I’m talking about the nice kind of holiday-lost, where you put away the guidebook, get your water bottle at the ready and just wander. The old walled part of Ibiza Town is perfect for this kind of exploring. There are so many beautiful little streets and secret walkways, steps that seem to lead nowhere, pretty courtyards and alcoves and views for miles across hidden rooftop gardens, the streets below all cracked cobbles and crumbling brick.
Thankfully I wore the right shoes for getting lost. Converse are my number one holiday (and just general life) essential – comfy, go with everything, and last for years. Don’t ya agree? The white high-tops are definitely my most worn pair. I always seem to wear them with dresses and skirts, especially on holiday (in the heat, it’s so good to have a cool breeze around your, um … nether-regions). My dress here is from Motel, who really do have the best little dresses to just throw on and go – I’m currently lusting after this perfect LBD – and I finished the look with these super cute heart sunnies. They’re very much a marmite piece, but I just love them and think they’re so fun for summer.
Happy Friday sweeties! Hope this post has inspired you to get happily lost somewhere this weekend too x
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