christmas christmas christmas

I had such a good Christmas this year. It was definitely over too soon, but I think I made the most of it while it lasted. I spent the day before walking back and forth from snappy snaps twice to pick up developed photos, before sprawling on the sofa to eat popcorn and watch Wayne's World 2 with some pals (which was a fantastic decision as I love that movie and popcorn is always a good idea). Christmas morning was spent being woken up (the joys of being a teenager with no body clock whatsoever) opening presents and eating cinnamon porridge I bought from Selfridge's on our annual christmas Selfridge's visit. We then went to my Aunt's house to spend the rest of the day with family, which was lovely and traditional and christmassy. The festivities carried on way into Saturday, which I spent prancing around the shop in a tiara and eating amazing homemade mince pies. Now unfortunately the realisation that my mocks are next week has finally hit me, and I have entered into a mad panic trying to memorise the whole of Jane Eyre, about 15 Yeats poems and about a billion case studies and dates for psychology. Oh, the joys of A levels are truly endless.

The above two pictures are from the shoot I did with Ailera Stone in the summer. The rest can be seen here.

As you probably know I met up with Opi, Ibe, Hollie, Theo, Agnes, Dani and Harriet last half term and spent the day wandering around Soho. I used up a whole roll of film and the pictures were so co-ordinated and end-of-summer looking but somehow I managed to lose the entire thing, half-term and halloween pictures included. I haven't forgiven myself just yet. I did manage to steal these few from Agnes (above) although I am still living in hope that I will one day find the ones I took. (I have no idea what I am doing in the last one).

I am still quite proud of myself for keeping on using film so much recently though. For some reason I record so much more on film than I do even on my phone, and as you know I have a bit of an obsession with documenting and remembering everything. I just like the thought that all the things I have done this year can be found in my little stash of photos, to remind me of even really trivial events that I might have otherwise forgotten. These are all from the Christmas holidays.

My christmas and boxing day outfits were a little thrown-together (as are all of my outfits I guess). For Christmas I wore a skirt and cardigan from Beyond Retro with a shirt dress from Clothes Show, socks from Topshop and new shoes (eep) from The Whitepepper which I have been obsessing over for months. I also wore a little brooch from Dear Rose, With Love. On Boxing day I wore a Beyond Retro cardigan and same skirt, with an Elvis t-shirt from a shop in Soho and a scarf from Blitz.

In other news I received the loveliest Christmas present from Rumour PR, which was made up of the loveliest things from Rigby & Mac, The National Portrait Gallery, Anorak, Thornback & Peel and Mary Kilvert. It was such a nice surprise and reminded me to send mail more often.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

saw you dancing across the room

I finished school for the holidays on Friday. My friends and I tend to do something on last days, but this year we really went all-out and ended up ice-skating at the Natural History Museum. It was probably one of the most christmassy things I've done this year, and was a lovely start to the holiday season, although I couldn't get over the sheer comicality of realising that we, a group of seventeen year old girls, were wandering around a museum on a friday night instead of being out drinking or partying or doing the things teenagers are generally supposed to do. It really got me in the mood for christmas, and for the rest of the holidays - I want to go out and spend more time around London while I have the time, as working now means I don't get out on Saturdays like I used to. I am in desperate need of going record shopping, as although my Abba collection is essentially all I need I do feel like I need a few new albums to kick off the new year with.

In other news, after a café breakfast with friends (and running late, as per usual) I went out to see the family and finally managed to take some outfit pictures. Every time I've worn a vaguely put-together outfit recently (that isn't pyjamas) I just haven't had time to photograph it, and although my resolution to take more film pictures has been kept quite well, the wait to finish the roll and get them developed have left my content for this page seriously lacking. I will get my act together over the holidays though, I promise.
I wore my shirt and dungaree dress from Clothes Show, with a little necklace from Lotus Fairy on Etsy.

I'm still really into florals and clashing prints at the moment, and so you can imagine my elation at being sent this coat from Style London. It has an amazing matted texture that reminds me of that handmade paper you can buy with little dried flowers mixed within it. I forget that coats are just as much a part of an outfit as they are something to keep you warm, and so it was nice to be reminded that you can dress up and still be weather-appropriate! I'm looking forward to wearing it in the snow (if it snows this year!) as I can imagine it standing out so well against the white.

I had a lovely day at work on Saturday, and was so surprised to be given the chance to choose a piece of jewellery to keep as my christmas present. I couldn't help but go for a pair of tiny gold-plated frog earrings by Bill Skinner which I have had my eye on for weeks - despite my limited (but growing!) knowledge of jewellery, I have managed to identify Skinner as one of my favourite current designers, and so can't actually believe I now have something of his. I am sure I will be wearing them for possibly the rest of my life. I also was given Japanese green tea, which I am so ridiculously excited about (as you probably know I have a literal passion for green tea, I can't get enough). The above photos are from when I photographed the shop about a year ago for this post, but I couldn't help adding them as the warm light and cosiness of it just makes me think of christmas.

I'm really looking forward to getting some more of my film photos developed, and getting some more content ready over the holiday for this page. In the meantime, I hope you are all feeling as christmassy as I am, and if I don't post before the day itself I hope you have a great one!

and all the people that come and go

This weekend has been unusually eventful, and although I am completely worn out I definitely think I enjoy being busy. I saw Metronomy at Alexandra Palace with a bunch of friends on Friday night, which consisted of amazing music, glittery tops, velvet scrunchies (I felt very 80s) and lots of face glitter, before a sweet little get-together with people which felt very teenager-ish and unlike me (who often spends Friday nights in watching movies in bed). It made me think my friends should have been scouted for a new series of 'Skins' instead of the new Misfits that they were actually scouted for. I then spent Saturday at work, before heading off to Birmingham on Sunday and getting back in time to see the family. A successful weekend, if I do say so myself.
If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll probably already know that going to Clothes Show Live in Birmingham has become something of a little yearly tradition for me. About a month after starting up this page I went for the first time, and was so overwhelmed by all of the vintage stands in one place that I couldn't help going the next year as well. This year was a little different, as I actually got a press pass sent to me (third time lucky?) and so felt my annual shopping spree was a little more justified as I was 'working'. Definitely.
Anyway, if you aren't already aware Clothes Show is basically a yearly shopping event in Birmingham, bringing hundreds of independent brands, businesses and shops all together under one roof to give the general public an almost physical experience of shopping somewhere online like Asos Marketplace. For me it's become the perfect opportunity to get my winter clothes bought before it really starts getting cold outside, as well as giving me the chance to spend any leftover summer/birthday savings. Usually photography isn't allowed, but the press pass meant that I could capture a little slice of all the sparkly vintage things on display for this post.

Putting Bowie records on your stall wall = guaranteed yourself a purchase from me
This year there was definitely way more vintage on sale than there ever has been before. I'm not sure whether that's because more vintage sellers and boutiques exist now and applied for a space, or whether the demand for secondhand has increased recently, but it was impossible to ignore the fact that the ratio of vintage to high-street was definitely a good 3:1 at least. It was nice to be able to compare so many pieces at once - I absolutely hate the feeling of buying something in one shop, then going into another and finding it for £10 cheaper. Having all of the stalls out together gave me an opportunity to scoot around a few times and make sure I was getting the best price I could (which happened quite a bit, as most stalls were giving discounts and doing offers as the weekend was nearly over).

After spending the day browsing and photographing, we stopped for a quick strawberry and marshmallow kebab situation...Ive only ever been able to get these from Clothes Show and couldn't resist (I can't resist anything that's been dipped in a chocolate fountain).

I wore my Beyond Retro shirt and velvet trousers, Rokit bag, Topshop socks and Deichmann shoes. Since I can remember I've always been more of a gold person, but recently I've been really into silver for some reason. This outfit felt quite witchy and 90s...I kind of regret not getting into my silvery sparkly phase earlier as it would probably have been more suited to Halloween but hey, you can't have everything.

I bought quite a few new patterns and autumn-y/wintery things which should hopefully see me through the next few months of sixth form. Having no uniform is great, but it really speeds up my cycle of loving a piece of clothing and then tiring of it, so I really need to work more on selling old pieces on my Etsy so I can afford to keep my little cycle going! I still have some pieces on there that are worth checking out (super cheap) and hopefully will put some more up for sale this week.
In other news, my Fashion Week trend report was published in Judy's Vintage Digest online magazine, which you can read here! (Pages 8-9). Hope you all have a good week,