London Fashion Week: Burberry Prorsum

Tags

burberry, catwalk, clothes, fashion, london fashion week

(Image taken from the Telegraph. APF)

One of the collections that i have been most impressed with from the New York Fashion Week is Burberry’s A/W2012/2013 collection.

The styles are simple and classic with a girly twist. I have their use of ribboned belts to secure coats, this is a trend that I can really see taking on and adapted easily and affordably into the high street shops.

The colours scream autumn. The subtle greens and browns are far from garish and look sharp and classic without a lot of fuss which give a very English countryside feel to the pieces.

I can’t help but be reminded of Britain in the wartime; the large bags and coats for some reason remind me of that era and for me look really historical.  ”I like taking all these clichés and these very familiar things and playing with them a little bit. Because behind every cliché I think there is usually something a bit more profound.” The designer, Christopher Bailey explains this perfectly.

With Burberry being such a respectable and established brand the show attracted many famous faces such as Kate Bosworth, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and British Prime Minister’s wife Samantha Cameron the event was star-studded to say the very least.

What i like most about this collection is how adaptable it is. I can see all of the styles they show cast working perfectly on both the high street and high end brands.

Check out the video of the show for the full collection…

Mover over Topshop, It’s all about Yayer!

Tags

fashion, shopping, topshop, vintage, yayer

It’s official, Yayer is my new favourite clothing brand.

In recently months i can’t help but think that Topshop has gone down hill. For me coming from a small town it used to be such a treat- it was an Aladdin’s cave full of treasures. These days though my mum is wearing more Topshop than me. I hate to say it but i think the brand has lost its edge. Yayer is everything for me that Topshop used to be, their unique clothing designs are split into two sections; modern and vintage. Two styles that i personally love to mix up together and wear time and time again. Sometimes i like to be bright and bold like the ‘Modern’ section of their website and others more subtle and sophisticated like their ‘Vintage’ section. At the minute Yayer is a bit of a hidden gem, and i like how it is a bit of a secret, i am very careful as to who i recommend it to! -but i’m sure soon enough it’s going to be a brand that is widely recognised and in all fairness it really does deserve to be.

There are so many beautiful garments that i could easily fill a basket in five minutes but i don’t think that my wallet would forgive me if i did. The only let down to the website that the clothes are ofter marked as small, medium or large which does make it hard to judge what size you need which is a problem at the best of times with internet shopping anyway but i’m sure most of their clothes would be worth the risk. It also surprises me that they charge 50p delivery per extra item you buy on top of their standard delivery which could mount up and is quite unusual.

All i can say is bring on payday! I can see my wages disappearing right in front of my eyes on this one website…

Blog to do List….

Tags

blog, facebook, social media, twitter

Today I went to a talk held by Sam Lynas about how to use the social media more effectively and it got me thinking about how i personally use the internet.

“Content is King” were the first words i heard him say as i arrived five minutes late after prowling the car park for about 10 minutes in an attempt to find a space on Open Day (not fun). Do i really think about the random status uploads i post or the photos that i add? No i do not. And this is something that could determine whether you get a job over someone else now many companies have taken to snooping through your Facebook profile befire hiring you so they know what you are really like; in my opinion ever so slightly creepy, but at the end of the day if you are posting something publicly you have to be able to accept the criticism. Maybe this is something i really need to think more about: especially now with the ever intrusive ‘timeline’ profile which makes sure that you will never for get those cringey or outrageous things you posted while drunk.

Although i have only had my blog up and running a month in all honesty i do not give an awful amount of thought to what i upload; instead  i just upload whatever is on my mind or pops into my head. Apparently this is not good for the audience. Audience like structure and knowing what to expect. And in all fairness, yes, i probably would get a lot more page views or ‘traffic’ as Lynas described it if my blog did have more of a sense of direction but right now i am experimenting with what i like writing about and hopefully this blog will then take a direction on its own.

I have to admit after hearing him list the benefits of socail media websites such as Twitter i do feel slightly guilty about neglecting my account which has about three tweets and five followers….he made me think about using the platform to benefit myself through self promotion. This is also something that i hadn’t given much thought to. A blog is a bit like an online CV for a budding journalist.

So from this talk my resolution is to shape up my blog and think more about how i can use the internet more usefully (and no more winey Facebook statuses)

If i knew you were Coming I would of Baked a Cake

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Baking, cake, cooking, muffins

Confessions of an ex-shopaholic

Tags

clothes, fashion, high street, money, shopping, topshop

My new years resolution was to stop buying things beside essentials. This may sound like a simple and easy thing to do but it has been anything but. Knowing that i can’t have something makes me want it more and i seem to be browsing online shops more than ever and exposing myself to the many tempting treats available and knowing that they could be mine with a few simple clicks of a button makes it harder than ever. But in general i have been good- so far so good.

I have been wondering what is it that makes us want to shop and the powerful urge that people (me definitely being one of them) get to own something. Is it the having it part or the sense of satisfaction you get from actually purchasing something? I’m starting to think it could be the later of the two. I can confess that i have clothes that i have never worn, some even still with the tags but at the time i bought them i would of felt like i couldn’t leave that piece on the shelf.

By not spending and trying to be careful with my money this sense of needing to own things has stopped. The other night i created a basket on Topshop online thinking i deserved a little treat for doing so well with my resolution but when i clicked on the checkout screen i felt so much guilt at the thought of breaking my resolution that i closed the screen and walked away. That was it. I didn’t even think about the lovely new clothes that could of been delivered to me and instead i felt proud that i had managed to keep my resolution.

I have come to the conclusion that it is the experience of shopping that often makes us want to buy things and not just the purchases. What i like about fashion is looking at it- a lot of things i look at wouldn’t suit me but in the past i have bought them anyway.I have decided now to only buy something if i really, really want it and think that it is worth it- not just because it is a bargain, in fashion or a shop is offering a good student discount. Lets hope that i can keep this up…

Motel S/S12 Collection

Tags

clothes, fashion, motel, motel rocks, SS12, summer

It’s that cold time of year again with temperatures in my town threatening 0 degrees yet a lot of shops are releasing their Spring/Summer collections. This does not only make the weather seem even colder than it is but makes me want summer to come around even quicker as I’m sick to death of having to wrap up as an eskimo just for a quick trip into town. I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like to leave the house and actually feel warm sunlight on my skin.

I have just been looking at one of my favourite brands, Motel’s spring/ summer collection. It’s out there, quirky and quite simply fabulous. The collection has taken a lot of inspiration from pattern, although some pieces a bit too daring to venture out in, in my small town, they are definitely pieces to make a statement. The ‘galaxy print’ items will no doubt do this- how often do you come across a skirt or dress with the print of the galaxy on it? Theses pieces are going to make heads turn.

Personally I’m not brave enough for these jeans. Maybe in London but Cornwall is defiantly not the place. You are much more likely to catch me in the ‘Elsa’ dress. A simple, classic bodycon in a deep wine colour. Myself i like to keep things simple and i lot of the time i think this can be more effective than wearing something outrageous.

Although there is a lot that i like about this collection there is also a lot that i do not like. There are a lot of dresses with high ‘turtle necks’. For me i can’t think of anything worse- itchy and unflattering. Also I’m not a fan of a lot of the bright colours, and not just because i don’t think they would suit me but a lot of their combination and colour clashes are a just a bit too garish and slightly over the top. Overall i absolutely love about 60% of this collection. The other 40% to put it bluntly is vile. Now I just can’t wait until summer until i can actually start wearing it.

Have a look at the collection for yourself at: http://www.motelrocks.com/shop/categories/NEW-ARRIVALS/

Is the Social Media a Blessing or a Curse for the Newspaper Industry?

Tags

ipad, media, new york times, newspapers, page one inside new york times, rupert murdoch, social media

I have just finished watching the documentary, ‘Page one: Inside the New York Times’. Although on the whole i found this documentary quite dry it did address a lot of issues and questions. It was one of those documentaries that left me thinking that although it did not do this in the most engaging manner. What I found distracting about this documentary was the amount of people who were being filmed; it was all a bit busy and a bit too much to take in within 90 minutes.

One of the issues  that was raised in this documentary was, is the social media a blessing or a curse? The film showed footage of people being cut from their jobs as the way people are getting their news has changed completely. Newspaper sales are declining. I can’t think of many people who I know under the age of 25 who regularly purchase a newspaper and that’s coming from someone on a journalism course. It would therefore look like journalism is a dying industry but with the rise of the social media things are changing. ‘The iPad may be the saving of the industry’ claimed Murdoch which in my eyes does reflect the truth. Although smartphones and iPad’s have ultimately taken the audiences from the traditional newspapers if people are still reading news articles on the internet there is still a market for advertising as long as news companies are willing to change where they publish their stories. As well as a tool of publishing news rooms can use the social media to actually find stories. This was something that you saw ‘The New York Times’ do in the documentary so it’s clearly an affective way of using the social media.

The documentary was dry and talked through by dreary voices so I was surprised to hear that it made 1.1 million in the US box office alone, but at the end of the day it did illustrate some interesting points; especially about the impact of the social media. In my opinion there is always going to be a need for the news, even if people have changed the way that they choose to digest it.

Edit

Tags

Editing, Image, Manipulation, Photography

I found this image whilst researching for an essay that I’m writing on how images can be a beneficial tool for a journalist. The argument that I am making at the minute is that can you ever really trust a photograph. Who’s to say that it hasn’t been heavily edited or set up? Not that I’m against any of these things; as you can see from the picture I’ve found editing can quite simply be amazing. But when it comes to photographs in the newspaper it’s not in the readers interest for an image to be so heavily edited- newspapers are about publishing the truth to the world and if an image is extremely edited it is not portraying the truth.

I found this picture on this website:  http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/40-examples-of-incredible-photo-manipulation/ It’s really worth checking out for some amazing images and examples of editing.

Game On…

Tags

Baking, cake, Come dine with me, cooking

Here are a few pictures from the first round of ‘Come Bake with Me’ – as you can see the standard has been set very high. The next round will be hosted tonight so more pictures to come!

Save the Internet

Tags

PIPA, regulation of the internet, SOPA

I think today that it’s well worth a mention the campaigns that have been happening all over the web recently.Wikipedia is the main website that has ‘gone black’ in campaign against SOPA & PIPA - America organisations who are trying to control piracy through monitoring the internet. They turned their home screen black and in effect shut down for a day to show the implications come from the higher regulation of the internet.  I can obviously understand that music artists who work hard at something don’t want to give their music away for free and recognise that music piracy especially is a real problem. If PIPA (the Protect IP act) comes into place it will allow governments to take legal action against things that are published online. SOPA is the ‘Stop piracy Act’ so the explanation of that is in its name. I can’t help but think though that once a line has been drawn on something like this there will always be the temptation to move that line. This could go from the monitoring of illegal downloads to what we are or not allowed to publish on the internet. Freedom of speech is a vital aspect of democracy. The internet is a unbeliavbly massive source of freedom of speech. Things that are too biased or opinionated to be printed in newspapers can appear on blogs and nobody would batter an eyelid. Therefore this makes me against the American Government changing the way the internet works. With regulations we wouldn’t get a variety and only be hearing things from official sources and as we all know variety is the spice of life.