It bags: then and now

August 28, 2013August 30, 20135 Comments

Stuck on deadline last week, I spent most of my spare seconds thinking about designer bags…

I daren’t speak for all women, but I think it’s fair to say that most fashionistas have at least a few dream bags in their sights that they’d kill to own one day – even if it’s a far off fantasy. For some reason, I started thinking about the bags I used to lust after when I was younger, versus the sort of bags I really love now. It’s not surprising that my taste has changed after all these years!

IT bags by foodfashfit featuring a designer bags from then and now!

Looking at my list of hallowed It Bags from my youth (well, if eight years ago can really be considered that long ago – I’ve certainly come a long way since!), it seems as though I only really started lusting after designer bags around 2006, which is when the Chloe Paddington reigned supreme and the Fendi B Bag was just launched. I actually ended up buying a Paddington which turned out to be a fake (I’m fairly sure it’s fake but I’ve never authenticated it – if something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t – although it wasn’t that cheap to start with!). I just absolutely loved the padlock closure and the thick chunky leather look of the bag, although I never could decide whether I liked the brown better than the black… The Dior Saddle bag is pretty timeless, although I couldn’t find a good picture of the sort I lusted after, which was the gaucho style distressed version, coated in charms. Designed by John Galliano, the bag certainly isn’t as timeless as it was thought to be at the height of its fame, around 2007, although I’d still make room for it in my collection! The same goes for the Fendi B Bag, which was pretty polarising when it debuted. But I still have a massive soft spot for it, with its huge oversized buckles! Some colourways, such as the one above, really don’t do it for me, as I think the design works better when it’s allowed to speak for itself. Subtle one colour designs really work for the B Bag. Since then, it’s been eclipsed somewhat by the Fendi Spy – not sure why, but I’ve never really fallen in love with that one!Compared to my mid-2000s style, my current style is a lot simpler. It’s certainly evolved into (I like to think, anyway) a more sophisticated and classic look – but I think that’s fairly indicative of the way high fashion is going. I absolutely love Mulberry’s now retired Polly Push Lock bag in midnight and brown leather – the combination of the two is refreshing yet classic, and I love the simple lines of the satchel style bag. I’ll always love a good satchel! My new found love of Mulberry also shows in my selection of the Lily – in particular, this beautiful emerald green colour in micrograin calf skin. The adjustable length of the strap, which can be doubled to make it sorter, or left longer, makes it a versatile bag, and there’s just something about the contrast between the gold furniture and the rich green that makes this combination lustworthy to me! And finally, that old classic, the Chanel 2.55. I used to be the type of girl who couldn’t understand all the fuss over this quilted beauty – to me it seemed old fashioned and a bit twee. But maybe it’s through repeat exposure, maybe it’s just my natural style evolution, but this is one designer bag I would certainly love to own one day – although it seems highly unlikely considering that they sell for £2.5k new at the moment, and not much less second-hand! I guess I’ll have to make do with my Jaeger Kate bag until then…

Do you have a wish-list of It Bags? Has your taste changed over the years? I’d love to know what bags you lust over now, and how you think your style has evolved!

Ascot Ladies Day 2013

August 19, 2013Leave a comment

It’s my much-delayed report on Ladies’ Day at Ascot 2013! I had a blast as usual – and we even won big in one race when we bet on the Queen’s horse to win, and also scooped the second and third place runners too – but somehow, the shine is wearing off of this event for me. Maybe it’s the fact that I had my foot crushed by a rather large middle-aged lady who was completely smashed out of her mind during the Bandstand Singalong (and it still hurts now, two months later) or maybe it’s the fact that the dress code standards have slipped again, but there’s just something about Ascot Ladies’ Day that is wearing a little thin on me now. But, this post is to concentrate on the positive!

The theme this year was floral (my friends and I try to match – last year’s theme was obvious and awesome at the same time!), so I spent a lot of time hunting out the perfect floral dress. It had to be flared and with a ’50s style vest-shaped top. I found the perfect dress in French Connection’s Maggie Lou. However, I had a massive crisis of confidence when my usual dress size didn’t fit me, which prompted me to go on an epic, short-term weight loss plan, which I’m pleased to say was successful. I am certainly not the size I’d like to be, but I did fit into a size 10 again!

Once I found my perfect dress, I needed a hat or fascinator to go with it. I had always planned to get something made, so I commissioned the fabulous Marissa Fleur from Etsy to create a bespoke headpiece based on the colours of the dress.

Floral Headpiece, commissioned from Marissa Fleur via Etsy / Disc Stud Earrings with Aqua Chalcedony Stones, Azuni / Maggie Lou Dress, French Connection / Wrap, Monsoon / Natalie Clutch, L.K. Bennett / Black Patent Maddox Wedges, L.K. Bennett

Here’s what the headpiece looks like flattened out, and below is the finished product on a headband, which is how I wore it on the day!

We booked afternoon tea at the event and wound up being incredibly late thanks to some atrocious traffic on the way. I think we were stuck for at least an hour and a half. It wasn’t the best of ways to begin, I have to say, although the tea was lovely enough to make it worth the wait:

At first I was slightly disappointed, as I thought the pork pie, tarts and fondant fancies were shop-bought, but upon thorough investigation, they seemed to have been made by hand – and they were certainly tastier than their supermarket counterparts!

The tearooms were a bit corporate feeling, but the mismatched china gave it a cool look – although, obviously, it’s much cheaper to fill a tearoom with mismatched china sets! At our table there was even a set that matched my colour scheme!

The afternoon tea cost £24pp and was honestly worth it for not having to go through the drama of fighting for a table at one of the kiosks or in the Bandstand restaurant. The food was very decent, and there was certainly enough! I think we were stuffed by the end! And anywhere with tea on tap is fine with me, of course.

For dinner, we went to Heston’s Hind’s Head in Bray again, but I think I’ll save that for another post. In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of the day…

Next year, I think I’m going to try out a few different race meets. I’m thinking Epsom and Goodwood for 2014!

Whiteley Hats

June 22, 20136 Comments

My visit to Ascot Ladies’ Day has renewed my love of hats – even though, quite blasphemously, I wasn’t wearing one on the day! (It was actually a floral headpiece, so there!). So when I spied a bunch of Whiteley hats on sale at John Lewis, I of course had to model a few in the interests of science. Whiteley has been made famous by the Duchess of Cambridge, of course, she of the many hats, and I have to say some of my favourite items of hers are either by Whiteley or Lock & Lock. Sadly, the latter is somewhat out of my price range – but trying on hats is free no matter where they’re from, right?

This looks to be a pink version of Kate’s famous swirl hat, which she has in brown, although this one is actually a slightly different shape. I LOVED this hat, and I plan to get the brown version as soon as it’s available (stalking it here).

A lot of people (including myself) get nervous about wearing hats with elastic, but if you match the elastic to your hair colour, it’s perfectly acceptable to have the band showing:

Or, if you want to wear your hair down, you can still do so with these hats – what I did was just put my hair up, place the hat, and then remove the band from my ponytail:

This side-view shows what’s happening with the band:

This hat I thought was rather unsuccessful…:

This one is very good for those that want to wear something a bit more subtle:

It’s a pretty versatile shape and colour, and I think was only about £40-45. Also, it sits on a comb, which some people are more comfortable with, although I really prefer headbands for my hats!

However, this one was my out-and-out favourite:

It looks very similar to the black one the Duchess of Cambridge has worn on a few occasions, but has a rounded top rather than a straight edge like hers (but I fully intend to make that one mine as well, so of course it wouldn’t do to have two the same style, would it?!).

As the hat was £42 in the sale (reduced from £85), I decided it would be rude not to buy it, and so I now have yet another hat to add to my collection of hats I have nowhere to wear. I am thinking of starting a hat club just to give people a reason to wear them… Who is in?!

Whiteley hats available in store and online from John Lewis and other retailers: see http://www.whiteley-hat.co.uk/ for more.

Duchess Style: jewellery

March 20, 20131 Comment

Another post in my continuing saga of replicating outfits by the Duchess of Cambridge! This time, it’s about her jewellery. To be honest, I’m not massive jewellery girl – I love studs and long pendants, but other than that, I’m fairly neutral about sparkly things. I wear glasses most of the time, and I just don’t think dangly earrings suit my face with them on, which vastly reduces my opportunity to wear them. But, like I always do, I’ve been sucked down the rabbit hole and have started lusting over some of Kate’s amazing pieces. I swear I am going to pick up the gorgeous Links of London Effervescence Bubble Stiletto earrings someday, but there are some other items that I like that I simply couldn’t afford. Step in, the replikate! Tatiana of Tatiana’s Delights (another great Facebook group for Kate fashion fans!) tipped me off about the amazing Kate collection from Cristalina Jewellery, and I emailed the company right away (sales@crystaline.co.uk) to see if they had the items I was after in stock. They did! So, with a £5.99 postage fee on the top, I got my items the day after I paid for them, on a Saturday, no less!

Kate Crystal Pear Drop Earrings, £9.99

Kate’s Button Pendant, £16.99.

I have to say, I love them both. I’m a massive fan of Kate’s Asprey pendant, but I’d never blow three grand on anything… literally, I cannot think of anything I’ve ever bought or would intend to buy that’s near that price. But this is a pretty similar item. The only bugbear I have is that there’s an engraving of the word ‘princess’ around the edge. As someone who, even as a child, never styled herself as a princess, nor actually wants to be one, having it around my neck is a little bit annoying – but hey, I guess I can live with that!

I also quite like Kate’s Hope Egg earrings, but again, the price is too high for me to spend on something that I merely ‘like’. The crystal pear drop earrings really are very similar, and of course, a much better price!

I’m not usually a fan of silver jewellery, but I do like these!

What do you think – any items Kate wears that take your fancy?

Duchess Style: Peter Pan Collar Dress

March 19, 2013March 20, 20136 Comments

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?

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:

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

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…

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…

Kate Middleton Wears A Topshop ‘Contrast Collar Dress’ And Crepe Goat ‘Redgrave’ Coat For A Charity Visit To Child Bereavement UK (graziadaily.co.uk)

Duchess Style: Great Plains Cezanne dress

March 15, 2013Leave a comment

I have a bit of a thing for the Duchess of Cambridge’s wardrobe. Who wouldn’t want to dress like a future queen, after all? I love finding out what she’s wearing and then tracking down the item myself! When Kate appeared in Grimsby wearing a new dress last week, I logged onto the amazing Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WhatKateWore, where the community had located the dress within minutes of her appearance. So, I had to bag one for myself (on sale at www.greatplains.co.uk). Here’s the result!

I decided to pair it with a couple of other Kate-related items, my L.K. Bennett Sliver sandals in taupe (bought from the outlet store in Portsmouth, now renamed as the Sandy) and my L.K. Bennett Natalie clutch (still available from the site).

I love these shoes – had them resoled as the leather soles are pretty delicate. It’s sooo cold here at the moment though that it’s impossible to wear them out anywhere, so for once I’m actually looking forward to the warmer months!

The Natalie clutch is an item I’ve been lusting after for a long time, so I decided to break down and treat myself last month. I’m glad I did, because it goes perfectly with my sandals, and my nude heels that I bought from M&S. I did try on a pair of Kate’s beloved Sledges, but sadly they are too dark a shade to really be ‘nude’ on me, so I bought the much cheaper pair from the Autograph range – practically identical in every way, expect a better match for me! (And comfy too!)

Do you follow Kate’s fashions? Ever bought anything she was seen wearing? Ever replicated one of her looks? I’d love to hear from you in the comments if so!

Christmas office party outfit

December 27, 2012December 27, 2012Leave a comment

Bit late with this one, but I thought I’d post it, if only to show off my new Miss L Fire Monaco shoes! Although, it’s a bit hard to show them when the cat keeps wandering into the shot…

We went to the Coriander Lounge in Southampton, which is a great Indian restaurant (so great that Matt Le Tissier was there at the same time as us) that does amazing buffets. It wasn’t my office party (I work from home and the company is based in Dorset), it was actually for my husband’s work, but I know a lot of his colleagues fairly well and get on really well with them so I always look forward to it. And, I don’t have many reasons to dress up, so I have to take my chances when I can!

I wore an L.K. Bennett Mimi Dress that I bought from eBay that has a shortened skirt (great LBD), Whistles Black Spot Tights (as worn by Kate Middleton – what do you think?), a red skinny waist belt from ASOS and a gold pendant from Peacocks. Oh, and those amazing Monaco shoes from Miss L Fire!

I seriously don’t think I’ve loved a pair of shoes this much in years. They are AMAZING, and another leopard print item for me! They’re black suede though, so I’ve been too scared to wear them out most of the time, thanks to the disgustingly rainy weather we’ve been having. I love rain, but not on my shoes…

I also wore the eyeshadow from my Clarins Odyssey set, which I’ve been using pretty much every day during the holidays – the gold colour is amazing, and you can layer up as much as you like – either a really heavy coating, or a light sparkle all over the lids.

Not pictured is a Christmas pudding hair clip I bought from Sainsbury’s that my husband requested I wear at the last minute – which everyone loved! Sadly, my shoes were under the table most of the evening, but I knew they were amazing, so that was enough for me…