More Purple Deliciousness.

Purple is my colour of the moment. It was all over the AW09 fashion shows and I went a bit of a mission looking for some purple pieces earlier in the week. I came across this purple floral number in AWear. I actually think it has about 3 shades of purple in total and I love that it is in-between the tulip and lantern shapes. At 20 yoyo’s it’s also a bit if a bargain.

After my last 2 what I wear posts being pretty and feminine and this skirt reflecting the same style I decided to create a look that was a bit more edgy. I wore it with these Henry Holland Mock-Stockings, some driving gloves and a high-neck short-sleeved jumper.

(Yeah them boots again, you’d think I only had one pair of footwear…) Next post they will be no-where to be seen.  More pics here at Her Apparel.

Alexa in Navy Satin at New Moon Premiere

You know how it is, you dream of the perfect dress, you search for the perfect dress, you find the perfect dress. You dream of the next perfect dress… repeat to fade. Mere hours after I thought I was to be dress-satisfied for this season, pictures emerged today of the inimitable Alexa Chung in a perfect blue satin dress. She wore it at the New Moon Premier in NYC last night.

As always her laid back style makes the look; the scruffy hair and leopard print bag work perfectly against the classic femininity of the dress. (I am yet to find out who is responsible for such sartorial perfection). I am, however un-enamoured with the footwear choice, though in saying that, am delighted that she is not wearing not ankle boots, which have been stomping all over red carpets everywhere. These shoes just look a bit cheap or something? Anyway who cares when the dress is so fab? Love it.

Her necklace on the other hand is drool inducing, I have been searching for a skull ring for the last month or so, only to discover that when I do find one, it is big enough to wear as  a bangle. Obv. skull rings are only intended to be worn by hairy bikers with giant hands… *sad face*. Alexa Chung may have inspired me to think outside the box with this skull pendant. Cute and spooky. Perfect!

Images courtesy of Fabsugar.co.uk and Google.

Coveted by Many, Owned by You… Now

There are loads of reasons why most of us don’t by a designer gown for every special occasion… Ah who am I kidding, we all would if only we could afford it. That’s why when the Covet boutique opened in The Powerscourt Centre this august it gave us all a more realistic chance of wearing a designer gown for any special occasion. Covet basically allows you to hire a designer dress or accessories for 3 days. With prices ranging from €30 to €300, that is a relatively small amount compared to buying the same.

This weekend however Covet are hosting a sample sale of these same dresses. I.e. for this weekend only, dresses that have previously been hired out can be bought to keep. With a 95% discount, I reckon you could overlook the fact that other people have ‘enjoyed’ them. Designer dresses in the sample sale include, John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Diane Von Furstenberg and Marc Jacobs as well as a huge collection of vintage pieces. Opening times Sat: 10-6pm and Sun 12-6pm. Not long after Covet opened photographer Barry McCall and styllist Niamh O’Rourke created this gorgeous shoot. More pics after the jump.

Plum Stuff. AW09 Colour Trend

Since seeing the D&G AW09 collection earlier in the year, the colour purple has been playing on my mind. Rich jewel colours are in practically every shop on the high street in some form or another; from ruby reds to deep navy blue and emerald greens. But is the rich purples that are screaming festive season at me. I have a DIT graduation to go to on Saturday and a winter wedding the week before Christmas, I was determined to pick up a purple dress to wear to both. Imagine my utter delight then, when in the window of River Island I saw this divoon dress. (pic doesn’t do it too much justice)

I dashed inside, fingers crossed that the dress wouldn’t be as expensive as I had a sinking feeling it would be. My hopes were dashed, it was €84, I was bit gutted really, I had found a dress that matched exactly what I was looking for. I mean even the shapes are similar to the D&G one, and check out the curtain tie-back belt. Anyway, I guess the sales assistant saw my down-trodden mush and told me that there was another dress nearly the exact same for €30 and did I want to see it? Let me hear a hell yeah.

Apparently, she told me, River Island do this thing call a “Star Buy” where a particular item of clothing is reduced down (in this case by about €47) for a short period of time. So providing that they had my size, lady luck was at least looking in my direction. The cheapo version was only very slightly different from is pricey sister; no spider brooch, no tie-back belt (yay) and no frilly neckline. I grabbed my size and I now have a super duper dress for graduation on sat and chilly nuptials in December! I tried it on with a vintage hat and some leopard print tights.

I’ll wear shoes at the wedding, not my old faithfuls! I also attached a tiny gold leopard brooch to a faux fur stole to give the look a bit more vintage glam. More pics here on Her Apparel.

D&G runway images courtesy of Style.com

Stellar Mag Pics

A few weeks ago I posted about a shoot me and some other fashion bloggers had the privilege to take part in, for Stellar mag. The issue came out last week and here are the final pics!

Regretsy. You really Won’t

This morning as I was deciding what to write about, I was drawn into a world of scathing humour and the creepiest, weirdest stuff that has ever been offered for sale. We all know Etsy.com, the site where you can buy some gorgeous hand-made, one-off creative pieces right? Well, www.regretsy.com, started at the beginning of October and basically lists all the most revolting, horrifying pieces that are up for sale on Etsy, underneath the slogan; “Handmade? It looks like you made it with your feet”. Leaving us free to comment and deride at will.

This charming rag necklace is $80 and rag lops on hessian. Posters comment: Boy, doesn’t that look comfortable. I don’t think anything feels better against your bare skin than burlap. It’s so sensual, the way it rubs away the first three layers of dermis and leaves you looking like you’ve been in a motorcycle accident.

Best Designer Award Went to John Rocha

I dropped in to Off The Rails Live at the RDS amid a biblical rain storm on Friday night. Mock ye not dear stoppers-by because, from humble bloggers to big name designers, it was a darn high-fashion event. I absolutely would not give up the chance to sit at the same catwalk as Mr. John Rocha, and it was a pleasure to see him accept the award for Best Designer from Jodie Kidd. Who incidentally was wearing possibly the flattest shoes in the world and was still taller than everyone else, including the models in heels who wore some of Rochas designs. (pictured).

It was the following fashion show, however, that blew us all away, produced by the insanely talented Lee Lapthorne, the show was a visually vibrant affair. Themed around the 6 senses, the show was presented against a backdrop of light displays and each ’sense’ was interspersed with dancers. It was one of the most impressive fashion shows I have seen in Dublin; to be honest I was expecting the usual array of House of Fraser pieces and maybe a touch of high street. Although this was the case in part, the rest was so much more than that.

From independent Irish boutiques like Liberty Blue Boutique and NC Kilkenny to on-line boutiques like mytights.com and Bitching and Junkfood; From well-known Irish designers like Tim Ryan, Kate & Ava, Joanne Hynes and Aideen Bodkin to international designers like, Bora Asku, Rachel Freire, Avsh Alom Gur and Manish Arora. All the elements came together to create looks that were fiercely fashion-forward.

What really made the show for me was the inclusion of pieces from this year’s collage  graduates; Katriona Flynn, Gerard Hancock, Joanne Power, Suzanne Acton, Clare Geraghty, Demelza Buckley, Tammy Larkin, Lynn Allen and Heather Finn. Including incredible, pieces from Ireland’s fashion future made the show the stand-out event that it needed to be. With fashion hierarchy present, it would nothing short of shameful had the show not included such vibrant, thought-provoking creativity. I loved it oh, and if anyone knows where I can buy a pair of Lion King leggings please, do holla.

Don’t mess with my Tutu

I went to Dundrum on Tuesday and attacked A|wear with fervour previously unseen on a damp Tuesday in D16. The whole place was full of screaming children and harassed mums (and nannies obv.), the last thing these ladies were able to do was shop for new clothes. So I had all the choice and all the changing room space I needed to try on as much as possible. Trés bien!

I’ve never understand why women go shopping in twos; When I say shopping I mean the ’sport’ of shopping. The trawling of shops for amazing pieces and utter bargains without a clue what you want, especially when you don’t even need anything in the first place. Plus, in my case anyway, I always take as many pieces as possible into the changing room. Most of the time I have to give the changing-room assistant 6 pieces and bring 6 more in with me. Then spend the whole time running in and out of the changing room in my socks at intervals to swap pieces with her that I want to try. It’s incredibly annoying, and is it really anything to do with thievery? I mean most stores have the little plastic alarm tags on them. It must just be because they don’t want half the stock in the changing rooms rather than out on the shop floor.

Anyway I digress, I always shop alone, I never know what it is I’m going to buy and the thought of dragging someone along from shop to shop while I decide is just awful. I understand the fun of group shopping for a special occasion; like why a bride-to-be would want someone there to help her choose her dress, or going out in a gang to pick a Debs dress but shopping is a solitary pastime for me. Like reading. There are just too many things in too many shops waiting for me to find them and I don’t want to miss out on something just because the person I’m shopping with wants to have a coffee break. Plus it’s always an hour before the shops close and the opportunity to buy an amazing pair of shoes, or a jacket that will suit me forever, is gone for good. Plus I’d sooner grab a glass of vino après shopping surrounded by bags of lovely goodies!

So with myself for company I went off to Dundrum, I hadn’t been there for ages and I love the LUAS journey, so I was looking forward to it. I tried on a few pieces in Penney’s (Primark) from the Limited Collection … oh dear no. It all looked dreadful on me and N.B. the sizes are way off compared to the rest of the stuff in there. If you do decide to try some of it on, grab some bigger sizes when you do. I went to H&M, but all I kept thinking about was the amount of cash I was hoping to spend in there tomorrow on Jimmy Choos so that was a complete distraction. I skipped River Island and Harvey Nics; had a look through Urban Outfitters but as I said it was in A|wear that I spent my dough. I bought two skirts, a lace dress and a huge black-stone cocktail ring. I fell instantly in love with this mink-coloured tiered net skirt with satin waistband. It kind of reminds me of a mini version of the dress that Carrie wore in SATC and American Girl in Paris.

This version is way more wearable though, I teamed it with a lamé top Dorothy Perkins, a multi-chain necklace, Penney’s / Primark and tied up one side of the skirt with a Grosgrain ribbon. More pics here on Her Apparel.

Gaga, oooh Lala

This morning I’ve been mostly drooling over the get-up’s Lady Gaga’s wearing in her latst video. Alexander McQueen SS10, check out those heels, and Agent Provocateur. She’s amazing.

Blogging Marvellous

I love blogging, as is probably apparent. One thing I love about it, (among many) are the peaks and troughs of inspiration. People often ask me if I ever have trouble finding things to write about, but it’s on a very rare occasion that I get writer’s block. Fashion is so changeable and subjective that not only do I have dozens of opinions on it but there are thousands of other people writing about it too. There are dozens in Dublin alone; I was asked to have a look at this blog this morning and I was blown away by a post about a creative event at Filmbase last week. The event was called For the Love of Live (FTLO), where 9 ‘creatives’ were invited to create a one-off piece live at Filmbase on November 4th, turning the venue into a studio for the evening.

It was fashion designer Aimee O’Beirne’s work that was featured on said blog and caught my eye. She started with a pretty ivory-coloured, embellished shift dress and covered it in black paint as an audience watched on. The result was fantastic.

Aimee O’Beirne has been causing a stir over the last two years or so having been a finalist at the Nokia Young Fashion Designer of the Year 2007. She graduated from LCAD having won Bulmers Light Most Cutting Edge Award, at the LCAD fashion show in the same year.

I’m not sure what to look at here, the amazing sartorial-art or the uber stylishness of the designer herself. Loving those oversized specs and undercut.

I love the way the paint has run down the model’s arm, when I first saw it I thought it looked like ribbons that were part of the dress itself.

To see the original dress see whatwilliweartoday.wordpress.com All images courtesy of www.krop.com