If there’s one thing I’m adverse to neglecting, it’s a bargain. Both of these beauties were bargains, and looking at my collection I realised I actually rarely pay full price for anything – unless it’s an item I think will sell out and then get listed on eBay for twice the price!
Tag: Mulberry
Restaurant Review: Boulangerie Victor Hugo Southampton
When my friend told me a new French cafe had opened in town, I had to rush down there as soon as possible to test it out! Boulangerie Victor Hugo (or BVH, if you’re going to be cool about it) is located down town, past the Bargate and just past Zen and La Lupa.
Styling Summer Wedges
This summer season (for me, anyway) is going to be all about replikating Kate Middleton’s staple wedges. I know plenty of people scoff at her Corkswoons, Minx and Imperias, but I’m not one of them! I certainly haven’t grown tired of seeing these shoes, and I can’t wait to wear them out and about!
When Dune, the company that now owns Pied A Terre, re-released the Imperia D wedges in natural under the new Dune Black label, I was thrilled – I already had a pair in black, but the natural had been unavailable for a long time. As soon as I saw they were on sale again, I snapped them up! Despite them being under a different brand name, I can confirm they are the same shoe – although why Pied A Terre also has a range of Imperias as well, albeit without the natural colour, I couldn’t tell you.
Once they arrived, I started to wonder – how to accessorize them? So, I put together this Polyvore set with some basic ideas to get my creative juices flowing! (And I resisted the temptation to add my beloved Mulberry Lily in tweed – all of these bags are still available, if you fancy a purchase!)
I noticed this awesome Modalu St Ives grab bag (£69) in John Lewis the other day and fell in love with the quirky front pocket lock – although the version I saw was in taupe. The orange is a lovely bright way to bring a little summer into your life – and the natural colour of the fabric matches the Dune wedges almost perfectly! The Next striped shopper was on my radar after the Nautical and Nice post I did recently – and it’s a great little bag for just £20, especially with the stylish little rope handles. Find it here. Finally, in one of this season’s hottest colours, this Dorset tote from Mulberry is crazy expensive at £595, but as I’m a Mulberry girl, I had to include something! The tote comes in a variety of colours – this one is called Bluebell, and is available here. (Modalu do a similar bag called the Artemis Shopper in azure blue for £199 here.) Finally, I had to throw in a pair of sunglasses – and I do love the classic Wayfarer style from Rayban! These are really unusual – they’re actually coated with black leather, hence the £250 price tag. Of course, you can get authentic Raybans for cheaper than this, and ‘replicas’ for even less on eBay! What do you think – how would you style a natural wedge espadrille? Do you think wedges are outdated (again), or are they a timeless classic? And, did you manage to bag a pair before they sold out?!
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Bag ‘n’ Shoes: Mulberry Exotic Tweed Lily and French Sole King Bulldog Opera Slippers
Ever get so obsessed with a pair of shoes that you memorise the item code? Meet French Sole’s AN52 – the King Bulldog Opera Slipper:
These were specially made for London Fashion Week, and as soon as I saw them I fell in love. I love dogs and I love black suede slipper shoes – I practically lived in a pair of studded ones from Topshop two summers ago! However, at £190 I wasn’t in a rush to purchase them, thinking I could wait for a discount code or something similar… Until I realised they were sold out in my size online. So I contacted FS to ask about restocking and was told… NO RESTOCKING!
I was confused – hurt, despondent, depressed… Obsessed. I stalked the page hoping for a return in my size, until eventually I gave up. For about a day. After that, I called customer services to check – one more time – and although they had none in the warehouse, the wonderful person on the other end of the line offered to ring around for me and eventually tracked them down on King’s Road!
From there, they offered to post them out, and the rest, as they say, is history. Personally, I think these are a great alternative to the much-loved Charlotte Olympia kitty flats – which are adorable, but I’ve always been more of a dog person!
As these are my current favourite shoes, I had to pair them with my current favourite bag – the exotic flame tweed large Lily from Mulberry.
Can’t get enough of this bag, it’s truly my favourite and gets a lot of use!I thought the orange and black would be limiting at first, but it actually fits in pretty well with the rest of my wardrobe.
You can find the Bulldog slippers online in limited sizes at French Sole’s site here. The tweed Lily may still be in stock in some of Mulberry’s outlet stores – you can find a list here.
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Sunshine at the Beach
Since I bought my lovely yellow Zara coat, I’ve been thinking of ways to style it for spring. As I’m also slightly obsessed with nautical stripes at the moment, I put together this outfit featuring a striped navy and ecru jumper from Next (£18), striped, pointed Dale flats from L.K. Bennett (and also available from Next… Although I’ve been waiting for mine to dispatch for a month: £150), inky denim leggings from Next (£24), the aforementioned yellow Zara coat (£99.99) and the Mulberry Lily in Emerald (£750).
Bright colours, nautical influences, and a mix of green, yellow, blue and white – what do you think? I have to confess, I’m struggling to come up with bag matches for this coat that go with the rest of an outfit!
EDIT: Grazia magazine UK is currently offering 25% off L.K. Bennett between 1-14 April. Pick up the 7 April edition with Gwyneth Paltrow on the front for your code, which can be used online or in a store!
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Bag ‘n’ Shoes: St Patrick’s Day edition – French Sole and Mulberry
Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone! I don’t usually get into the swing of this celebration (my Irish heritage is non-existent, sadly!), but it was the perfect opportunity to break out two of my favourite items!
You all know I have an obsession with Mulberry and French Sole, so it seems pretty fitting that I have a pair of shoes and bag from these two companies that match pretty well, and are perfect for the celebrations!
I absolutely adore the velvet ostrich finish on these French Sole flats that I bought on my factory store visit last year. So far it’s been too cold to wear them out, but I did manage to bust them out for a relaxed New Year’s Eve party! They’re so comfy, and they look very plush indeed.
And here’s my beautiful emerald green Lily in micrograin calf – absolutely lusted after for over a year and bought in the Harrods’ cardholder sale late 2013. I just love the simple shape of the Lily, and the adjustable strap. (This Lily is still available at Mulberry for £750 here)
It’s a classic shape which means it’ll never go out of fashion – and it can be dressed up or down for any occasion! Did I mention the adjustable strap is awesome? Because it is! I have a massive thing for chain and leather straps at the moment.
Happy St Patrick’s day everyone! Are you dressing up or wearing green today?
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Bag ‘n’ Shoes: Mulberry Exotic Tweed Lily and Mulberry Signature Pumps
I’m totally in love with my new Mulberry Lily in exotic tweed! I first saw it on a couple of blogs last year and was completely intrigued by its gorgeous orange and black stripes and tweed fabric. So when it appeared in the outlets, I snapped one up!
At the same time, I also couldn’t resist these gorgeous pointed Mulberry signature pumps in the sale!
They came in a hot pink box (my other shoes from previous seasons came in a dark maroon box) and have matching hot pink interiors too!
They also have pretty little gold Mulberry logo studs at the back.
And they also have a fair amount of toe cleavage too…
And I love the gorgeous profile!
One last look at that gorgeous postman’s lock:
Check out Mulberry’s range online at mulberry.com. You can find lists of current outlet stock on the Mulberry subforum at Purse Blog here. If you see anything that takes your fancy, you can phone the factory stores and they can post items to you for £8! (Bicester: 01869 322 822, Shepton Mallet: 01749 340 583, Cheshire Oaks: 0151 356 8904, York: 01904 611 055). Happy shopping!
#SNAPPYFEET competition
Just a quick update – I’ve been selected as a nominee for the #SNAPPYFEET competition being run by Vestiaire Co on Facebook. If you’d like to vote for me, you can do so by clicking on this link: Vote for FFF. Here is my entry:
You might recognise it from this post back in Halloween!
I’ve also posted this at https://www.facebook.com/WhatKateWore, and in honour of my love for the community, I will be donating £50 to one of the Duchess of Cambridge’s charities, Place2Be (http://www.place2be.org.uk/) whether I win or not! So get clicking on this link to give me a boost, if you’d like! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151816367356073&set=a.10151816367026073.1073741832.115867246072&type=1 Of course, if you don’t like, there’s no need to do anything – I will literally NEVER KNOW. But if you do, many thanks!
Shop the Sales 2013
What with work, socialising and shopping, I’ve barely had time to blog recently – but don’t worry, because that is set to change! Back to regular posting, and back to my weekly bag ‘n’ shoes posts, too!
Meanwhile, here’s a taster of the sales goodies I’ve been hauling in over the past month – some of them are much coveted items whilst others are ‘I-can’t-resist-a-bargain’ impulse purchases…
I have a weakness for glitter, gold and French Sole, so when these Henriettas went in the sale for half price (£60) I couldn’t resist. The navy ones were also on sale for the same price, and I told myself that I was being restrained by not buying both… Then at the weekend, my husband and I happened to go into a French Sole store where they had the navy (bottom left) in my size, so I claimed another pair as a Valentine’s Day present! Just have to wait until February to wear them, but I’ve been taking them out of the box to admire them every so often…
The Mulberry gold dress in the centre was down from £495 to £75 in Bicester Village, and I couldn’t believe the price tag at first. It’s a beautiful shimmery soft gold, very pretty indeed.
Another Bicester bargain, this Alice Temperley scarf was just £22 and has a lovely neutral shade to it.
The dress on the far left is a green wool dress from Cos, which I first saw at the lovely Lilac Pages blog. I love the shape and so I stalked it until it went on sale on Christmas eve. It actually didn’t arrive until early January though!
Another ‘patience is a virtue’ purchase is the Great Plains Palace Wrap coat. I have a picture of this pinned to my noticeboard by my desk and was eagerly awaiting the sale. When it was reduced from £140 to £110, I gave up a little bit, but then it was reduced to half price and I snapped it up immediately!
These Mulberry signature heels are divine, and although I was really after the flats, I consoled myself with the high heels and bought the McQ by Alexander McQueen suede biker flats on the right as well…
The central green Anya Hindmarch clutch is the bargain of the century for me. Originally on sale for £595, I found it at Bicester for £50. It plays ‘Deck The Halls’ and is adorable, but sadly, you can’t even fit a lipstick inside it! I’m happy with spending £50 on it though, it’s very quirky.
Finally, the bottom right purchase was my final and most extravagant. A half price exotic tweed large Lily in flame from the Mulberry outlet store. I saw this bag months ago on a style blog and fell in love. It’s also been carried by Jennifer Lawrence – and who doesn’t love a bit of J-Law in their wardrobe? Anyway, it’s probably my favourite Mulberry bag to date, and I’m thrilled I managed to scoop one up.
So, have you been shopping in the sales? Pick up any bargains? Let me know!
Gold for Christmas
It seems as though gold is definitely in this year, and in honour of the season (and in order to satisfy my window shopping habit) I’ve put together a collection of some of the hottest items in this season’s most festive colour! I was inspired by Burberry’s beautiful gold beauty collection – and when I saw Mulberry’s new Metallic Mushroom range, I knew there was no hope for resisting…
Food, Fashion and Fitness 