Category: Clothes

The Perfect Spring Coat from Zara

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Channeling two of this season’s hottest trends is this delicious lemon yellow coat from Zara, which caught my eye today!

The perfect spring coat

 

The collarless coat is hot shape for this season, and it’s one that I’m just starting to warm to at the moment. It’s a classic shape that has yet to make its appearance in my wardrobe, but I’m more than happy to make the plunge now I’ve realise how flattering and feminine it can be. And in this beautiful colour, it’s even more on trend – check out the Pantone colour report for Spring 2014 here. I have to say I’ve never described a colour as being ‘freesia’, but I’m definitely going to start now!

So what do you think of the collarless coat trend? Is it a yay or a nay?

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Hush picks for A/W 2013

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Hush launched their new A/W 2013 collection today, and in order to celebrate, I thought I’d share my top picks from the new range!

Hush picks for A/W 2013

First of all, I love this Open-Knit Poncho in Cappuccino:

How gorgeous is the sloppy, cosy look of the knit? It’s great that you can throw it on over skinny jeans and still look fabulous and chic, despite putting in minimum effort…

The Dolman Sloppy Joe in Marine shows how great hush are at creating very loose fit styles that still look amazing and flattering on:

I also heartily recommend the Sloppy Joe dresses too – very simple yet so snug! I own one myself in dark grey and I wore the heck out of it last year!

I’ve had my eye on the Felted Wool Dress for a long time, but I suspect it wouldn’t do too well with my skin, which is very sensitive to wool fibres (even cashmere!). However, I adore this beautiful new colour in the style:

It just screams Christmas! It’s also available in black – how about that for a LBD with a difference?

Marine and Burgundy are both big colours for hush this season, and the Heart Stitch Jumper looks amazing in both colourways:

It’s very reminiscent of another one of my favourites last year, the Moss Stitch Jumper Dress, another hush staple that I barely stopped wearing all season.

Hush have also launched two beautiful new shirts for A/W (and I’m a massive fan of my chiffon shirt from the summer sale, so I’m sure I’ll be picking one of these beauties up at some point…). The first is the fairly pricey Classic Silk Shirt in Powder and Black:

They are also offering the collarless Freya Shirt in Powder or Pearl Blue:

This version is a much more affordable £45 (compared to £140 for the silk), and is made of viscose.

I also see some great potential for styling options in the new range of accessories, particularly the Cashmere Leopard Shawl (again, I own a similar, lighter version from a past season which I’ve worn many times), and the Jersey Snoods in Black, Cobalt, Grey Marl, Marine and Shadow (£29.50) – although I wish they did a burgundy too. High on the lust list is the Studded Wrap Bracelet in Pink (or Petrol, both gorgeous!), and of course, you can’t get through winter without a good hat – hush’s Cashmere Berets are classics.

The launch of this range also coincides with the 10th anniversary of hush – and a new look for the company, including a brand new website. All looking very slick, I must say! Happy anniversary hush – here’s to many more to come!

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Duchess Style: Peter Pan Collar Dress

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Today, the Duchess of Cambridge was spotted wearing a black dress with a white Peter Pan collar, which was said to come from Topshop. As always, the community at What Kate Wore were quick off the mark to identify the dress, and came out with a possible match: the contrast collar shift dress (now out of stock).

All of this went down while I was having new (faster) broadband installed. Yes, Kate decided to pop up literally at the exact moment I was disconnected! This left me frantically looking on my phone for updates and trying to load Topshop in order to check stock levels. Of course, my size was the only one unavailable when I initally checked, so I called my local Topshop, and managed to get through on the second attempt. Right when I finally got someone on the phone from the right department, I hear: “excuse me?” The engineer had finally finished and was waiting to show off his handiwork… Reluctantly, I say to the sales assistant “I’ll have to phone you back” and she replies “but this is TOPSHOP, it’s very hard to get hold of us!”. With my saddest little voice, I say “I’m sorry, I have to phone you back…” RAAAAAAH! (That bit was internal, don’t worry.)

After testing the broadband (exactly the same as far as I can tell), I managed to get someone on the phone from Topshop again (actually not as hard as the sales assistant would have you believe!) and asked them to reserve the dress in a 10. Then, I actually managed to get into town before they closed today (usually impossible for me as I don’t have a car!) to nab the last one. THE LAST ONE IN THE SHOP. Unfortunately, it has a bit of a makeup mark on the back of the collar, but I hope I can clean it off.

So, here you go – this dress hasn’t been identified as the exact one that Kate was wearing today, to be honest, the collar looks very slightly different to me, and the sleeves look a bit shorter on mine. But, what do you think? Same dress?

Collar 2

Dress

Back

That’s the back view – the zipper does go all the way up, but I unzipped it slightly for some reason…

See the dress Kate was wearing today at The Daily Mail and What Kate Wore.

EDIT!

Okay, so when I first heard about this dress, I typed ‘contrast collar’ into the Topshop search engine, and found two dresses, one in their regular range, and one ‘tall’. There was a tall left in size 10, so I ordered that immediately, and then tracked down the ‘regular’ in the shop itself. To be honest, I did wonder whether Kate would have ordered the tall, because, well, she is tall – but it did seem in photos that her dress was pretty short – hitting well above the knee. However, after seeing a couple of mentions of people saying that she was wearing the tall version, I decided to see whether I could find any proof one way or another – and I think I have!

Here is the length of the hem of the Goat Redgrave coat, from their site:
Coat length

Here is the length of the regular contrast collar dress from Topshop’s site:
Range version length

I just measured my own, and it comes to around 84cm from shoulder to hem, so that seems accurate. So if the Redgrave coat is a minimum of 127.5cm in length, that means that the dress would need to be approximately the same for it to appear the way it does in photos – if you click the links above you’ll see that the dress and coat seem to be the same length. But the regular version is just 85cm long, so we need to check the tall version…
Tall version length

Darn! No length listed! I’ll have to measure when it arrives… but, I think it’s safe to say the regular version of this dress is just too short to have the right effect under the Redgrave coat…

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Hush Big Sloppy Jumper Review

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I’ve waited patiently since last month for my Big Sloppy Jumper to arrive from Hush – but it finally got here on Monday!

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It’s super comfy, with lovely fabric, and is pretty flattering, and in a great, on-trend colour.

Sloppy Jumper from Hush

The down side is that you have to hand wash it, and it’s fairly pricey (£65, more than I’d usually pay for a jumper). However, I decided that it’s time to start investing in basics properly instead of dropping wads of cash on things I’ll only ever wear once or twice! It makes more sense to buy something comfy that I can lounge around in, considering I spend most of my time in my home working, rather than strutting around in fancy frocks! This definitely fits the bill, and the fabrics used (80% cotton, 10% cashmere, 10% silk) somewhat justify the tag. Hopefully I’ll be wearing this for years to come.

The Big Sloppy Jumper is available in bordeaux (pictured), grey marl, charcoal and navy, at Hush, for £65.

Lust List: Hush loungewear for Christmas!

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If there’s one thing I wish I had more of, it’s loungewear. I work from home, so being comfy is my top priority – most days, the only person I’d be likely to impress with my sartorial choices is the postman. My ‘uniform’ mostly consists of a pair of jogging bottoms, a slobby T-shirt, and a dressing gown. So when I saw Hush’s range of luxe loungewear, I fell in love! Well, who wouldn’t?

I already put my order in (whoops!), but while I wait for it to arrive, here are some other items from the range I’m lusting after! The beauty above is the Black Felted Wool Dress (£95), which looks incredibly stylish while promising much cosiness for the winter season. Comfort and style – I love it!

If there’s one thing that has to be on my Christmas gift list this year, it’s this Cardigown. A cardigan crossed with a dressing gown, this is actually exactly the sort of thing I’ve been looking for all these years, without ever really knowing what it was called, or if it even existed! The Cardigown is available here in ‘fog’ (as above) for £85, and is also available in dark navy here. I certainly wouldn’t be embarrassed to open the door to the postman wearing this!

Now, this one might be controversial – I know that before this year, I would have turned my nose up – but harem pants! Don’t turn off your computer in disgust just yet… Harem pants may seem a bit weird looking, but when it comes to loungewear, I promise there are very few styles of trousers that are more comfortable. I first tried some on when I started going to belly dancing classes, and I couldn’t believe I’d allowed myself to overlook them for so long. Forget yoga pants, forget jogging bottoms, these are just the most gloriously comfortable things you can wear on your bottom half, in my opinion at least! My ones are considerably less snazzy than these, as they came from Primark, but I’m sure you’ll agree that Hush’s version is pretty darn stylish. Some harem pants have a really low crotch, and I think that’s what puts people off, but this pair are styled in such a way that you can actually wear them outside the house without fear of ridicule – as the model above so aptly demonstrates! Hush harem pants are available in dark burgundy, as above, charcoal grey, and black, for £49.50.

Last on the Lust List (for today) are these gorgeous star pyjamas! I love the design of these, but I don’t think I’d be comfortable in white PJs (too many spilled tea incidents in my past to relax wearing white, I’m afraid), so I wish Hush would offer some with the reverse design – i.e. white stars on black. Hush have a range of pyjama sets, including the darker set below, priced at £49.50 per set, here.

Hush also offer bundles which give good discounts when you buy sets together, which is a nice touch (and what prompted me to empty my wallet – and I was being so good, too!). Check out the site here, and come back later in the week to find out what I thought of my (first?) delivery!

Becoming Effie Trinket

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If you’ve seen my recipe for Katniss’ alternative plum stew, you’ll know that I love the Hunger Games. So much so that I’m planning a party (well, it had to be done, right?!) with loads of food, and costumes! Who else to dress up as other than the style queen herself, Effie Trinket?!

Looking at photos of Effie, it seems as though two of her major style signatures are puffy sleeves, and contrasting colours. Looking around on ASOS, I found this great, puffed sleeve coat from Liquorish:

Looks just like the kind of thing that Effie would wear, right? Even more so when you check out the back view and those awesome sleeves!

The item is much pinker in real life (you can check it out here), so I reckon the best colour pairing for this is teal! Something like this, sitting on top of a curly blonde wig!:

People Tree: Marie Fleece Wrap Cardigans

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Ever love an item of clothing so much you’ll pay full price for it, twice? I’m not saying “no regrets”, but I definitely didn’t think twice purchasing both colour versions of this amazing fleece wrap cardi from People Tree. Not at the same time, I add – I’m not nuts (or wildly rich). But sometimes, when you get yourself a winner and you just know you’ll be wearing it for years, investing in another colour just makes sense!

People Tree
First of all, it’s fleece, so it’s warm, and not too formal looking. Secondly, I love the kimono style and the cinched waist because of the belt. Thirdly, the grey version especially is a win-win for me – no cat hair shows up! Ah, the glam life…
Anyway, good news is, this is currently on sale for half price at People Tree, for £32.50. I heartily recommend this very versatile jacket – every time I’ve worn it, I’ve been complimented on it! Now that’s how you can tell a good item of clothing…

Studded Slipper Shoes

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I’ve fallen in love with the slipper shoe trend! I’m a massive fan of ballet flats, and these are a great, updated version! Check out this little collection I made at Polyvore:

Studded Slipper Shoes

Creeper shoes, £25 / London Rebel kitten heels, £32 / River Island slipper shoes / Flat shoes, £35 / Slipper shoes

Whistles’ Biker Jackets

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My favourite trend this autumn has to be the biker jacket look. And Whistles is right on top of the trend, with a collection of four collared leather jackets, which retail at £295. Very pricey, but the point of jackets like these is that they are durable and last for years… At least, keep telling yourself that while you hand over your credit card. Which one would you pick?

Whistles Biker Jackets