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

Update on Super Macs

Last week I posted about the joys of rain and how, inspired by Holly Golightly, I had bought a new rain mac. I finally got to wear it yesterday on a shopping trip to Dundrum. I teamed it with a jumper dress, a leopard print scarf and my DIY embellished boots. I found two studded belts for £1.50 in Matalan, I got a friend to send them over to me. Huzzah.

It is the perfect coat for shopping actually because it is so lightweight and keeps the rain off if I have to dash across to Harvey Nichols (or Nandos).

More pics here on Her Apparel.

N:B: I bought some amazing skirts in AWear and a remembering my friend’s advice on accessorising with jewellery, a huge cocktail ring.

Jerry Hall is Going Off the Rails

RTÉ’s flagship fashion show, Off the Rails, is going live at the RDS this weekend with Total Experience. This year’s event is kicking off with an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of Irish fashion.The 8 award categories include: Best Fashion Stylist, Fashion Photographer, Hair Stylist, Make Up Artist and Best Dressed Male and Female Personalities. But it is the awards for Best Fashion Designer that is the most coveted. The 5 finalists are Irish based designers John Rocha and Joanne Hynes, Tipperary native and knitwear designer Tim Ryan, Donegal handbag designer, Pauric Sweeney and Northern Irish Sharon Wauchob. The winner will be presented with the awards by the timelessly glamorous Jerry Hall.

EDIT: Jerry hall will now not be attending the awards ceremony due to exhaustion from her stage performance of Calendar Girls. Jodie Kidd will now present the Best Designer Award.

Jerry Hall is a legendary model and the epitome of glamour; from her days of hanging out at Studio 54 with Warhol and Blondie to her lead singer lovers like Bryan Ferry and Sir Mick Jagger. Proving that she truly is a remarkable model, she became the face of Chanel accessories SS09 at the age of 52. The images are incredible… what 2.55 bag?

Now her daughter, Georgia May Jagger is hitting the same dizzying heights that Jerry attained. Her campaign for Hudson Jeans shows just what a beauty she is and she got her first UK Vogue cover for the October issue.

Tickets priced at €36.50 are available from Ticketmaster.ie

Images courtesy of Chanel, Hudson Jeans and Vogue UK. (Images from Studio 54 Unknown).

Super Macs and Rainy Days

… Or every cloud has a silver lining…

S’up November?

So far, so rainy but I don’t really care too much. Living in Ireland means that downpours are inevitable and being caught in one, shouldn’t really happen to any of us. If you don’t carry a brolly (I NEVER remember) then you will get drenched… (and yes I do).

The best thing about days like this:

Are looking for these:

And doing this:

I LOVE jumping in puddles.

And an excuse to dress like this:

Holly Golightly puts on her rain mac to search for her missing cat. Ah, I love a happy ending, somewhere in that clinch is a very soggy moggy too.

Every girl should have a mac and if you can’t afford a Burberry (€700 approx.) then try Tesco. I got this classic one for €35.

Accessorising 101

Or Diamond Psychology…

“Remember, you can never have enough hats, shoes or gloves. Cheers, ta, thanks very much…”

Patsy Stone, Absolutely Fabulous BBC1.

It’s true you can’t have enough accessories; I have numerous items that fit into each of the above categories as well as belts and scarves too. One thing I have very little of however, is Jewellery. I always say I’m a bit rubbish at accessorising, but what I actually mean is that I’m a bit rubbish at wearing jewellery. I put an outfit together and most of the time I don’t give jewellery a second thought. I have a ring on the middle finger of my left hand, that I can’t actually get off which is why I always wear it, but that’s about it.

I often look for bargain pieces on a charity shop trawl but I very rarely find anything that takes my fancy. I remember telling a friend of my accessory issue a few years ago, a friend incidentally, who always wears fab jewels, and she gave me the best advice ever. She told me that whenever she buys a new top or dress, she picks up a piece of jewellery that she thinks will go with it on her way to the counter to pay. Simple. Obv. I’m not talking about diamonds and rubies and precious metals, I mean the pieces that hang from little bits of card on rotating stands in the middle of high-street stores.

I still can’t get the hang of it, she knows this and, for which I am most grateful, empathises; to the extent that her and another pal of mine bought me the most fab necklace from Accessorize at the weekend. It is an absolutely gorgeous diamanté and pearl swan (see above). I adore it and when I think of it, I want to make a point of wearing it all the time. And herein may lie the problem, I’ve put jewellery on a pedestal instead of in a pretty velvet jewellery box on my dressing table. When I was little I would spend hours going through my Mums jewellery collection, trying on rings and necklaces and hearing the stories of how she came to own each piece. Maybe this is why I see all jewellery as something to be treated as special rather than merely decorative pieces. I am also afraid to death that I may lose something gorgeous that has been gifted to me or handed down etc…

I will say that when I go to something like a black-tie event, I have no problem choosing some silver, diamond or diamanté piece to dress up the posh-frock I’m wearing. I only seem to have trouble when it comes to everyday outfits or night-out outfits. There are hundreds of websites that offer info on how to wear jewellery, but they seem to be a bit overly concerned with thinking too much about it all. I would like to be able to know what necklace would work well with what top or dress without thinking about it. The way I know which shoes go with which trousers and what bag looks great with which coat. I decided than in order to see Jewellery as I do hats, shoes and gloves I am going to invest in a heap of rather delish, cheap and cheerful pieces. Things that I really like but that won’t break my heart if they happen to get lost.

NB: First stop this afternoon was Claire’s Accessories, where I got my mitts on these Alice in Wonderland, inspired earrings (€5.95), and this goth-inspired black rose ring (€6.95). If you know of any hot spots that do the cheap and cheerful kind of jewellery I’m after, please help.

Jimmy Choo for H&M Launches in Hollywood

With only 11 days to go before fashionable young things with one eye on their wallets, could be kicking each other out of the way so they can grab a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. If you haven’t already heard, (erm hello?!) H&M and Tamara Mellon’s famous shoe company joined forces to create a high street version of their amazing footwear. So excited were they by the prospect, the collaborators decided to expand the collection from shoes and accessories, to create their first full-on capsule collection of both men’s and womenswear. As of 9am on November 14th, you will be able to buy scarves, belts, purses, bags, shoes, necklaces as well as some mean party dresses and amazing leather pieces. All Jimmy Choo for H&M.

A collection that was debuted en masse in Hollywood last night at the launch of the collaboration collection. Attendees included Tamara Mellon herself, Hayden Panettiere, Whitney Port, Anthony Kiedis and M.I.A. the latter, performed at the glamorous bash. It was held in a private residence high in the Hollywood Hills, overlooking Sunset Boulevard. Many of the stars attending the do, chose to wear nearly all (see Hayden Panettiere) or some Jimmy Choo, (see Maggie Grace).

Hayden Panettiere wore the Jimmy Choo for H&M sequinned cardi (€99), leather trousers (€149) and zebra clutch (€79.95).

Maggie Grace, (Star of the upcoming Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland) wore the lust-have black patent Jimmy Choo for H&M sandals (€79.95 – Yes that is apparently the correct price).

M.I.A. wore thigh-high Jimmy Choo for H&M boots, (€199.

Paris Hilton wore the Jimmy Choo for H&M jumpsuit (€59.95) and Kase Oval Clutch (€49.95). Nicky Hilton wore the beaded batwing dress (€149.95) and Star croc clutch (€79.95) from the same collection.

At the after party Tamara Mellon, wearing the leather asymmetric dress from the Jimmy Choo for H&M collection (€189 approx) and the star croc clutch, mingled with guests including, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis.

… and Whitney Port.

M.I.A. performing at the launch.

October Round Up

This post is going to be a bit of a round up on all October goings-on that I have yet to blog about, my birthday is on Halloween so I have been a little busy over the last couple of days as you can imagine. A post to serve as a nod to all things missed.

Firstly, this time last week, I had just returned from celebrating the fact that a very good friend of mine had completed the Dublin marathon; his first ever. He completed it in 3hrs 50mins which I thought was amazing and he thought was a bit disappointing really. Anyway, the weather was just incredible on the day; before I left I pulled on my faux-fur gillet, a hoodie and some walking boots to walk up to the route. It was an absolute pleasure heading out at 10:45 to watch him going past and cheer him on. (More pics here)

I also wore a woolly hat that I bought when I was in Quicksilver the week before. I can’t actually remember the last time I wore a ‘bobble’ hat. I think I must have been about 6 and probably had mittens tied together with string through the arms of my coat as well. To tell you the truth I am in love with the hat, it is so comfy and warm, in the last 8 days I have worn nearly every day.

Secondly, I grabbed a bus into town after my friend had passed the 16 mile stage to catch him at the finish line. The city centre was alive with runners, supporters and people just passing by watching the marathon so the atmosphere was fantastic. There were not only supporters everywhere but also fallen leaves, I took a few snaps.

Lastly, the boots I bought from Schuh, that I have been wearing non-stop for the last two months very nearly broke my heart. They have two buckles on each foot that fasten two leather straps around the boot and over the laces. I was in a bit of a rush last Thursday and dashed out of the house without properly fastening the straps. Needless to say, I lost one. I was pretty upset, as I said I wear them all the time, but I had a cunning plan which would serve to appease my upset. I removed the remaining strap from the top of the other boot and replaced both straps with belts I had in the wardrobe. I really like the way they look like this; I thought that I would prefer it if the belts were the same but I kinda like their individuality like this.

Halloween Haute Couture

To celebrate Halloween, here is an ode to the king of all things spooky and weird, the incredible Tim Burton. Enlisting the talents of beautiful actors like Jonny Depp, Christina Ricci and Helena Bonham-Carter, Tim Burton’s screen magic celebrates the macabre and the beautiful. His creative genius makes him one of the most important director / producer / writers in the world and here’s why.

Plus if you need a bit of last minute inspiration for tonights Halloween costume…

Edward Scissohands

Beetlejuice

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Corpse Bride

Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Alice in Wonderland