Saturday 19 March 2011

Boyband Chic; the state of current men's fashion on the High Street

Men's High street fashion currently seems to be forming a regular pattern. A boyband shaped pattern.
Shops such as Topman and River Island are full of too-tight T-shirts, Baggy crotch trousers, tops with unusual and unflattering necklines and military boots. Ok if you belong to the Wanted, JLS or One Directon but not as much if your day job is in an office.

Of course, it is a matter of personal taste but I find that the best menswear is made by the more expensive brands. Us girls have the luxury of popping into Primark, New Look or many other bargain shops to pick up an on trend outfit for less than 30 quid but men, it seems don't have this option. Men's budget fashion looks cheap, ill-fitting and plain wrong.

My favourite style on men is the classic, preppy look; jeans or chinos, well-cut T-shirts or polo shirts, baseball jackets and for the evening a smart shirt or a suit. The best brands for these are Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo boss which, unfortunately don't come cheap. If any of you can think of any good value shops and styles for men please comment. I'm sure there are places out there that I haven't thought of.

Therefore it seems that men have a much more difficult job being fashionistas on a budget. H&M, Gap and Uniqlo, however are great for T-shirts and shirts and Gap and Levis are good for jeans. Classic High street items mixed with more high-end pieces I believe is the way forward for men's fashion. And while we're here, men in Ugg boots is just WRONG!

Monday 14 March 2011

Crazy for Coral

This month I have been mostly wearing... coral.
It's one of the hottest colours of the season and I can't get enough of it.


On Friday night I went straight out for drinks after work (a rarity for me) and wore a coral tulip skirt from Dorothy Perkins which I've had for about 3 years with a cream chiffon shirt and coral costume jewellery.


I recently purchased a coral, frilled, sleeveless top by Lipsy from Ebay at the bargain price of £21. (www.ebay.co.uk) I found this just by typing in 'coral top.'

And here it is...




I admit, this isn't the most flattering picture of me but this was after 5 vodkas.

I also found a one-shouldered chiffon dress at the not-to-be-sniffed at price of £11.
These dress will be perfect for those summer days and nights.


You can add touches of coral to your outfits at an even lower cost by accessorizing with a coral lipstick or nail varnish. Rimmel do the best products for this. (www.rimmellondon.com)
In the picture below you will see my nails painted in Rimmel coral romance. This has to be one of the best punchy summer nail varnishes around at the moment.

Monday 7 March 2011

Holiday Wardrobe crisis

So much for giving my Spring/Summer clothes an airing on my weekend break in the sun. The only sun we got was a couple of hours worth on the Friday and Sunday afternoons and even that occasionally disappeared behind the clouds. The Raybans only left their case for about an hour and the tailored shorts didn't even leave the wardrobe as it simply wasn't warm enough to wear them.

That said, I did get to wear both of my floral dresses by adding leggings and a cardigan to make them weather appropriate and my floaty peasant dress was suitable for our evening meal as I wore it with black opaque tights.

Even though the weather wasn't great it was a nice break and it was lovely to see my grandparents.
Roll on summer!