Elin Kling <3 H&M

Stockholm has long been a fashion capital to the fashion savvy. What with some of the top fashion blogs in the blogosphere coming from Sweden, it makes perfect sense that Swedish high street brand H&M would have it’s first blogger collaboration with Elin Kling.

This marks the first time the major retailer has teamed up with a fashion blogger. H&M is popular for its collaborations between its budget-conscious brand and haute couture designers, such as Viktor & Rolf, Matthew Williamson, Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Commes des Garçons, and most recent Lanvin.

The 11 piece collection designed by the Swedish blogger includes modern and simple designs in an airy, all-white collection with accents of blush pink and gray pieces with bohemian influences. The details are discrete, such as the un-even hem on the washed leather-jacket, the hidden chain at the neckline on one of the dresses, and the raw edge on the wide pants. The balance between the hard, tough and sculptural, and the soft, draped and feminine suits both H&M and Elin perfectly.

Not a hugely exciting line but we don’t think it will be going off trend anytime soon. Unfortunately those of us who don’t live in Sweden or aren’t hop/skipping/jumping over there anytime soon won’t be able to get our hands on it – not even online! The line launches on February 3rd 2011 in 10 selected stores, with 10% of sales being donated to UNICEF.

Let’s see if they do one blogger per “fashion city”…

Shearling Trend – Topshop AW10

Shearling is already a HUGE trend for AW10, Burberry put the exclamation point on that during LFW AW10.

GlamUK organised a shoot for us to showcase some of Topshop’s AW10 shearling collection. The shoot was photographed by Adrian from Snappy Lifestyle, styled by Joel from The Dash Empire and modelled by Em fro Make Lemonade, Karena from My New Best Friends, Ellen from The Real Runway, and moi.

I’m modeling Khaki shearling coat, £395, Topshop

Karena from My New Best Friends models Tan leather wool collar jacket, £58, Topshop

Em from Make Lemonade models Black leather and shearling jacket, £78, Topshop

Ellen from The Real Runway models Black Shearling jacket, £325, Topshop

I’m modeling Black shearling gilet, £195, Topshop

Em from Make Lemonade models Khaki shearling hooded gilet, £195, Topshop

Ellen from The Real Runway models Khaki fur lined hooded parka, £85, Topshop

Karena from My New Best Friends models Black hooded shearling gilet, £58, Topshop

Joel from The Dash Empire models Khaki shearling coat, £395, Topshop

And The Winner Is…

Tuesday 17th Aug 7pm was the time, Boutique by Jaeger pop-up shop on Foubert’s Place was the place that we would find out who would be the proud winner of the Boutique by Jaeger style challenge in association with Glam.

Thom Ticklemouse and I strolled up fully juiced up from the Topshop Make Up event before, just in time to hear who had won the competition. And the winner is…

Emete, Editor of Make Lemonade

First place for the facebook comp went to Style Noir, the look was styled by Rosie Foster

The event on a whole was great, as well as some healthy competition, we were given a chance to be in the same room as some of the best bloggers the UK has to offer. The refreshments weren’t half bad either…

Above two pics taken by Lira Leirner

Above two pics taken by Rosie from Style Noir

We got a lil too heated in the pop up store and had to take our champagne and chat outside

With Emily from Fashion Foie Gras, taken by Lira Leirner of The Portmanteau
Kristen The Clothes Whisperer
Z and Laura

On to Wrangler…stay tuned!

Going Vintage with Vitamin Water

Last Saturday I was invited by Charlotte “stylecartel” Smith to join her and a few other bloggers on a vintage excursion with Emma aka “Miss Revive” and Paul Valentine from Exposure.

The objective was to go meet Emma, who has a vintage store called East Of Eden opening soon on Balls Pond Rd, and help her in her quest to find great vintage gems for the store.

Emma is featured in the Glaceau Vitamin Water summer campaign “show your vits”. The ads feature real people, specially picked because they fit the brand’s personality. Emma is Miss Revive. a party girl with a twinkle in her eye, she is often hitting the tiles in her 1940s get up, painting the town red – specifically East London, where she runs a club night!

Living in Hackney on and off for almost a decade, she embraces the creative energy of the area as well as its cultural diversity; not only because Hackney has a higher concentration of artists than anywhere else in Britain, but she should know what she’s talking about – she studied at the prestigious school of african and oriental studies and is now studying for a phd all about cultural diversity.

We met for brunch in Nude Espresso on Hanbury St, where we were all introduced to each other. In attendance there was Amy from Wolf Whistle, Alexxsia from Alexxsia Elizabeth, Charlie from Girl a la Mode, Charlotte from Style Cartel, Leigh from Style Canteen with her 4yr old Jase in tow, Paul from Exposure and Emma (not forgetting moi). As you can imagine we all had a lot to talk about, one of the topics being FONTS!

After brunch we went on to Hanbury Hall Vintage Market, where I pulled out some great things.

A black shirt with printed gems all over it, very 90s Ghetto Fabulous; a black cotton western shirt with hand embroidery over the shoulders from Ease the Squeeze; a sequin jacket; a navy “ostrich” lady like bag; and this…

A silk dress with multicoloured snake skin print! Char said it’s like Crystal from Dynasty, funnily enough that’s what my mommy said when I showed it to her.

Char found this delicious sequin dress and gave it to Emma to try

Emma found this female Captain America get up, which reminded me of Marina and the Diamonds.

As well as clothes there were some cute vintage jewellery, accessories and bits for the home…

This reminded me of when I was at nursery! I could’ve  used it as a magazine “rack”

These vintage inspired feather pieces are by Morgaine Alexandra

Amy and Paul got stuck in with this large tan bag

After leaving Hanbury Hall we moved on to Brick Lane, to the market upstairs next to the food place. Bert of Yorkshire Pearl spotted us instantly and hauled us over to his patch. He had an abundance of furs, one of which was a fur vest/gillet, which I was very pleased to see as that was going to be one of my fur purchases this year!

He also had this amazing fox fur, which incidentally looked better on Char, the arms were way too short for me. (Get the violins out people)

Fur back on the rail I went in search of something else, I found these trousers and shorts. Cayute!

Moving around the room I found Ease the Squeeze part II and had a right old rummage through their bag of tricks. They sell their jewellery wholesale and are in the midst of designing their own pieces which I cannot wait for!

I love big statement pieces, mainly rings and earrings, this was like heaven for me! I think I was with them for like half an hour, Leigh came to find me and also got stuck in!

In the end I took the Skull and Wings rings and got their contacts for future projects.

After the “Where are you” call we had to leave and find the others, who were at the Vintage Kilo place. Get a kilo of vintage for £15! I also got a few Deluxe Freaks for ya

I need theses mannequins in my life!

That was the last stop, we were supposed to be done by one, we went on til 4pm!

Ciao for now.

“AMAZE!”

Last Friday I headed down to Flemings Hotel in Mayfair for “The Very AMAZING Bloggers Event” hosted by The Very Simon G! We supped on champagne and munched on mini cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery.

Simon uses AMAZE/AMAZING non-stop hence the title of the event and this post. His event gave bloggers and PRs a chance to meet and/or put faces to names in a wonderful informal environment. The PRs that came brought their swag bag of goodies to hang around the room…

PPQ merch from Oli.co.uk
From l-r: “Fox Stole” & Bow Jumpers from Dorothy Perkins, Grey & Pink Maxi Dresses from Evans, Checked Shirt & Reindeer knit from Dorothy Perkins
Alexander McQueen Boots from VivaLaDiva.com
United Nude Heels from VivaLaDiva.com
A selection from Gant
Sunnies from GiantVintage.com

The Very Simon G

Doing it Dwayne Wayne style!

On leaving we were all given goodie bags, I’ve never had a goodie bag so good!

My faves…