Products of the Month - October

Look! It's me! In a video! Oooh technology!

Snuggly buggly part deux

Shearling hasn't just been confined to jackets this season; the shops also seem to be full of fluffy boots, which, after getting my crappy faux velvet Primark flats absolutely destroyed in the rain the other day, I'm thinking I definitely need. Strong, sturdy leather on the outside, fluffy and warm on the inside? YES PLEASE!

AMORE Shearling Ankle Boots, £95 and Unique Fur Cuff Boots, (this colour isn't currently on the website) £140, both Topshop

Fornarina Lace Up Boots, £185 and KG Wentworth Buckled Ankle Boots, £180 both ASOS

Leather Aviator Boot, £79.99, New Look and Korr Lace Up Brown Leather Boots, £92, Office

I've just realised that my picks are all rather expensive, especially the ones from ASOS - eeek! Also, eighty quid seems like a lot for a pair of New Look boots, but I suppose if they're real leather, they're bound to be a bit pricier. Even so, apologies for not providing a more varied selection. I know boots can be expensive, but I'm sure there are much cheaper options out there - please let me know of any you come across!

Right, back to X Factor - are you watching it? One of the things I've noticed is how well dressed so many of the contestants are! Not all of them, obviously (Chloe Mafia? Bleurgh...), but I do think it seems that more people are giving more thought to the overall 'package' of being a pop star; not just having a good voice, but also having a good image and personality etc, which makes sense really as X Factor (whether you think this is a good thing or not) isn't really a singing competition is it? Thoughts? And who are you loving/hating? At this early stage, I've got a feeling that Cher will go quite far, she's something a bit different and interesting, though I really wish she'd sort her eyebrows out....

Snuggly buggly

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's lips are ridiculous. In a good way. Ridiculous though.

As much as it pains me to say it, the cold weather seems to be well and truly here to stay. All that talk of an 'Indian Summer' was clearly LIES, because I've seen nothing but wind, rain and oh, what's that? More rain. I'm already recovering from my first cold of the season and it's not even October yet. BLEURGH! Fortunately, while it's cold outside, I can stay warm and toasty inside with a cup of tea, my fluffy pink dressing gown and Ian Somerhalder's strong arms the new series of Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries. However, while I'd love to pretend that I'm a squirrel and spend the next few months hibernating, I'm not sure how happy my job and social life would be with that arrangement so there will probably be occasions when I'm forced to leave the house and brave the elements. Conclusion? I'm going to be needing something significantly more snuggly to stop me from freezing to death. And my first choice is a big, chunky shearling lined jacket.

Burberry Prorsum

Mulberry, Topshop Unique and Wunderkind

ADAM, DKNY and Giles

If money was no object, I would absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, be sporting that khaki green Burberry Prorsum jacket (the middle one). I would wear it everywhere, probably even in bed. Sadly though, since I'm pretty sure that I don't have a spare £3000 lying around (I'll check down the back of the sofa, just in case, but I doubt it), I'll have to settle for a high street version instead.

Faux Sheepskin Flying Jacket, £78 Topshop

Pilot Jacket, £24.99 H&M

Quilted Shearling Aviator Jacket, £290 ASOS WHITE

Sessun Short Duffle Coat, £199 Urban Outfitters

Of all the shearling jackets I've found online at the moment (and there is A LOT - these were just a few picks), this is probably my absolute favourite - it just looks SO WARM! And it's very similar to the Burberry one. Sadly, I found this on the Topshop website a couple of weeks back but it must be out of stock at the moment because I just checked back to get the price and I can't find it on there - anyone know how much it costs? And whether it'll be back in stock?! I hope so, because I feel this might be the coat that will help me survive the next few months of coldness and misery...

Links à la Mode

Working the new season with fabulous new discoveries.

Influences, Impressions, and Interpretations of Fashion and what it all means

Edited by: Marie Denee of The Curvy Fashionista

It is without a doubt that fashion makes the world go round. Just last week, Fashion's Night Out helped revive the economy, fashion week's across the world bring together old friends, new friends, and those in between. Technology fused with fashion now offers inside perspectives- once only exclusively shared. Adding to this breath of fashion are those who blog.

This week's roundup offers a retrospect of fashion as New York Fashion Week comes to a close, designers have teased us with what's to come, and the world comes back to life- the fashion blogger's mind only now begins to race with influences, impressions, and interpretations of Fall Fashion and what it all means...

• Amanda Brohman: How the nerds(and their style) conquered the fashion world:


• Amanda Lee Dot Org: How to Make High Heels Bearable


• Denim Debutante: Wearing White AFTER Labor Day


• Dirty Hems: Fashion is a Tramp: the cyclical nature of cultural appropriation in fashion, particularly pertaining to the homeless & "hobo-chic"


• Dramatis Personae: Fall Fantasy Lookbook- the bits and pieces I'm coveting for Fall '10


• Fashioncents: 3 guidelines for wearing or not wearing socks with shoes. It's time we all got on the right foot with this one.


• For Those About to Shop: So much invaluable information at the IFB conference. I decided to take Gala's advice and write my first "how to":


• Grechen Blogs: how to make your fashion blog more user-friendly


• Houndstooth and Tortoiseshell: So, how do you make it in the fashion industry: Real life advice on how to break into the fashion biz from a successful runway producer.


• Interrobangs Anonymous: Gender roles in fashion blogging:


• Mimosas in Bed: The big apple gets evolved


• Pretty Shiny Sparkly: The Thrift Virgin - One girl's deflowering when it comes to thrift shopping fashion.


• Previously Owned: Exclusivity vs. availability: New media taking over?


• SLSVGG Fashion: The best bits of London's Fashion Night Out


• Style Eyes Fashion: Join the evolution for a new fashion democracy - do you get fed up with being told what you 'must have for the season ahead' here's how to end the dictatorship and have your say.


• Style Spotting: Fashion's Night Out in LA with celeb stylist Taylor Jacobson and her collaboration with Kasil denim. Loved her hot rocker chic!


• The Curvy Fashionista: My Fall 2010 Luxe(wish)list- aka my birthday wishlist


• The Lingerie Addict: Should You Buy Your Lingerie Online or In Stores? A brief guide to knowing the best place to buy your most intimate fashions.


• The Little Curly Girl: The camel coat is one of the most talked about pieces for Fall 2010. Will you be wearing one this season?


• Your Saving Style: A Thought About Real Women

Sponsor:

Now at Shopbop: Ever - LD Tuttle -DL1961 - Tapeet - IRO - MiH - Factory - Sexy Tops

If you never do anything, you never become anyone

I don't know if anyone else ever does this, but sometimes, I'll buy a film on DVD even though I've not seen it, simply because something tells me that I'll like it. Most of the time this works out for the best, and I'm happy to add the DVD to my worryingly large collection, but occasionally I'm left with a DVD that I'll never, ever watch again. (Mulholland Drive anyone? WTF?!) Fortunately, yesterday, when I decided to buy An Education on a whim, (it's currently £8 in HMV) my gut feeling that this would be my kind of film, was spot on. I think a sign of a good film is one that stays with you for a while after you've watched it; sometimes, I watch a film and forget it as soon as it's finished, but after watching An Education last night, I just couldn't stop thinking about it and even this morning when I woke up, it popped into my head again.

Carey Mulligan as Jenny

In my mind, everything about An Education is perfect; the casting, the individual performances (especially Carey Mulligan, my goodness, that girl is TALENTED!) the cinematography, the actual story - it all just works so well. I'm not sure you can say a film is one of your favourites after only seeing it once, but I'm very tempted. It's based on Lynn Barber's memoir, also entitled An Education, and I loved the film so much that I bought the book on Amazon last night. I think a film like this is even more touching when you know it's actually based on a true story. Have you seen An Education? What did you think? I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't, it's just lovely and brilliant and funny and sad.

Dominic Cooper as Danny and Peter Sarsgaard (aka Mr Maggie Gyllenhaal!) as David

Of course, apart from the fact that the film itself is fantastic, one of the most striking things about it (aside from Dominic Cooper looking like a total dish. And I never use the word "dish".) is the visuals; the setting and costumes are fantastic and fully capture the era of the early 60s. As a huge fan of big-haired glamour and super girlie dresses, I fell a bit in love with Rosamund Pike's character, Helen. Pike must have had A LOT of fun playing that part, as Helen spends the entire film looking beautifully groomed, wearing incredible clothes and coming out with brilliantly (unintentionally) funny one liners.

Helen: "Someone told me that in about 50 years, no one will speak Latin, probably.

Not even Latin people."

It's a bloody good job that one of the big trends for this season is 'ladylike', (which I'll discuss at a later date) as this film has left me with an overwhelming urge to coiff my hair into a complex up-do, put on my prettiest dress and speak in a clipped RP accent. It's also left me with an overwhelming urge to go to Paris, but funds being as they are at the moment, I'll have to make do with sitting in my room with a baguette and my mini Eiffel Tower statue. Alors, c'est tragique, n'est pas?

[ images from the IMDb]

Role models

As any regular readers might have noticed, I've slowly been becoming more than a little bit obsessed with nail art and nail varnish. I wear nail varnish every day (I hate seeing naked nails!) and I paint my nails at least a couple of times a week, because I get bored really easily and always want to change things up. It's even gotten to the point where, not content with just painting my own, I keep demanding that my sisters let me paint their nails too. My collection of nail varnishes is increasing at a frighteningly rapid rate, and if you ever happen to go into the Liverpool One branch of Superdrug, there is a fair chance that you'll see me, pale and twitchy, lurking around the Barry M section, asking people to spare some change so that I can get just one more hit nail varnish. Ok, maybe that last bit is a slight exaggeration, but I think you get the point - I LOVE NAIL VARNISH!.

It probably comes as no surprise then, that when cheap and cheerful cosmetics brand, Models Own, recently had a 50% off everything sale online (to celebrate getting 10,000 'Likes' on their Facebook page - wowza!) , I got quite seriously excited. I was already a fan of this brand as it has a MASSIVE range of nail colours available, as well as other cosmetics such as lipsticks and eyeshadows and it's really reasonably priced (I think most products are priced around £5/£6) . Having previously tried a couple of their products (they recently started stocking it at my local Boots) I knew I had to get all over this sale like a Premiere League footballer on a cheap WAG wannabe (oooh! Topical!). Here's what I bought...

Nail Polishes: Red Alert, Coral Reef, Pink Blush, Purple Grey, Black Magic

Pearl Pink Powder Eyeshadow

Brushes: Angled, Blending, Shading

As my nail varnish collection is already full of unusual colours, I decided to go for some 'standard', traditional colours instead. Red Alert is a proper fire engine red, because everyone needs a red nail varnish don't they? Black Magic is a rich, shiny black, for when I'm feeling a bit vampy ;) Pink Blush is super pink and girly and Coral Reef is a vivid coral, leaning more towards a kind of reddish orange (you can see some better images of Coral Reef on my new nail art page). I also bought Purple Black which is an absolutely brilliant dupe for Chanel's new Paradoxal - check out The Swatchaholic's comparison of the two - they're very similar and the Models Own version is about a quarter of the price! Not satisfied with just buying nail varnish, I had a little snoop around the rest of the site and also got the Pearl Pink powder eyeshadow; a gorgeous shimmery powder that works really well as a highlighter on the brow bown, and the three eyeshadow brushes, all of which are really good quality (I especially like the blending brush for blending shadow into the socket). And the cost for all that? £18! Not bad eh?

Apparently, because the traffic during the sale was really high, a lot of people couldn't actually get onto the Models Own site at all, which must have been really frustrating (I remember the same thing happening during the farce that was the Outnet 'Everything for a £1' Sale - NIGHTMARE). I didn't have any problems when I made my order, but I think I waited until the second day of the sale and probably did it quite late at night to avoid traffic. The only issue I had was that I didn't recieve my makeup brushes until a week after my other stuff, despite the fact that they were all ordered at the same time. I wouldn't really have minded this, except Models Own didn't give me a heads up to say that the brushes would be arriving late, and didn't even respond when I emailed them asking where they were; the brushes just arrived, with no note or anything, a week later. Not the best customer service in the world, but I imagine that week was particularly hectic as everyone seemed to go a bit mental for the sale! And it's only quite a small thing, the overall transaction was very easy and the first batch of stuff did arrive really quickly.

All in all, I'm a big fan of Models Own, and I'm really glad I took advantage of the sale. I've just revisited the site and had another look through all the nail colours and I've already got my eye on a few more... this won't end well... I fear I might have to start attending Nail Painters Anonymous...

Camelot

So, as promised last week, I'm going to spend some time focussing on the big 'trends' for this season. (Have you ever noticed how the word "focussing" always looks wrong? I just checked; that is the correct spelling, I swear.) As coats are generally quite an important factor for the chillier months of the year, I figured where better a place to start than with the camel coat?

This is another of those subjects where I feel like I have a lot to say (you wouldn't think there'd be that much to say about what is ultimately a beige coat, but you know, there really is!) so please bear with me while I try to format this into something that makes at least some sense.

The Fall 2010 shows were literally bursting at the very seams with neutral shades, with khakis, browns, greys and beiges all neutralling down the runway, proving that a stark, yet classic palette is big news this season. Camel was the neutral of choice for countless designers and, while it wasn't just coats that were seen in a sandy hue, it was the camel coat that became one of the most stand out and talked about garments since sliced bread. (what do you mean sliced bread isn't a garment?!)

Now, this might make me sound a bit stupid but I'm going to say it anyway, how does a trend like this actually come about? What I mean is, how is it that seemingly every designer under the sun decided that Fall 2010 was the season to resurrect the camel coat? Was there a really good deal on camel coloured wool at The Big Trendy Haberdashery? Or did all the designers get together for tapas and discuss it in advance? If they did, I think the conversation went something like this;

Jean Paul Gaultier: "So basically, I've been thinking, you know what colour I've not really used in a while? Camel."

Hussein Chalayan: "Camel? As in the colour of camels?"

JPG: "Exactly. Camel has so many wonderful connotations - camels...sand...er...llamas... and yet it's simple and classic at the same time. It's elegant, like a camel. Aaaah the graceful camel."

Hannah Macgibbon: "You know, I think he's on to something! Let's do it, let's do something a bit different for once...Philip Lim, can you PLEASE stop hogging the garlic mushrooms?"

JPG: "Yes Hannah! Different! Crazy!"

Carolina Herrera: "Well, JPG, I'd hardly call camel a 'crazy' colour, but it would make designing my new fall line a lot easier - I mean, camel goes with everything. Think of the possibilities for coats!"

JPG: "Yes! The camel coat! So graceful, so chic! CRAZY!"

Carolina Herrera: "Er... yeah, ok JPG, think you might have had a little bit too much sangria. But we're all agreed then, camel is the colour for Fall 2010?"

Michael Kors: "Yes, definitely, I mean JPG is a full on nutter, but he's right, the camel coat will be seen as a classic investment piece - everyone will want one!"

Hannah Macgibbon: "Then we'd better get designing! Quick designers! To The Big Trendy Haberdashery! I hear they've got a sale on camel coloured wool! We'll take the Chloémobile! Oh, and Philip Lim? If you get one drop of olive oil on my suede interiors, you're walking..."

The little curly girl - giving you an (entirely accurate) look into the minds of fashion designers since 1972.

Anyway, I understand that there are always trends; whether it's a certain theme, such as "ladylike" or "grunge", or a colour, or even just a specific accessory - if a certain thing crops up on several catwalks in a season, then it's likely to become a trend. And since fashion often recycles old ideas (albeit in new and different ways), it makes sense that if a colour or style of garment hasn't been seen on the runway for a while, then it's only a matter of time before it makes a comeback. That being said, I still find it a little crazy that so many fashion houses seemed to champion the camel coat for this season. It just seems like a quite a big coincidence, I mean there's loads of them! See for yourselves;

3.1 Philip Lim

Aquascutum, Carolina Herrera, Hermès

Hussein Chalayan, Lanvin, MaxMara

Tommy Hilfiger, Chloé, Michael Kors

[images all from style.com]

Of course, fashion being as it is, even though so many designers have 'done' a camel coat, they're all somewhat different (I LOVE the 3.1 Philip Lim one with the black piping and the double breasted 'boyfriend' style one by Hussein Chalayan) and I suppose that's part of the reason why every blogger and fashion journalist this side of Nebula 53X1 (I just made that up. What is a nebula anyway?) has been going crazy about camel coats since the Fall shows back in February. The camel coat is an easy to wear, versatile piece that goes with most things and instantly makes you look classy and chic (well it does to an extent; if you're wearing a pair of Crocs and one of those beer can hats, you can pile on as many camel coats as you want but you'll still look completely ridiculous). It's what I like to call a 'grown up lady coat'.

However, as the epitome of classy, chic, smart, grown up lady fashion, the camel coat is kind of supposed to look expensive. And most things that look expensive are expensive. Now, I've been trawling the Interwebs looking for camel coats, and while there are some high street versions, I worry that they may, in person, look a bit cheap. And I don't think you can get away with a cheap looking camel coat, it's positively paradoxical. So here's a few 'proper' camel coats, for grown up ladies with grown up salaries that can afford grown up coats.

£225, Karen Millen

£119.90, Mango

£225, Reiss

£129, Zara

See? Pricey. Maybe it just depends on how much you're willing to spend on a coat. Currently I've got about £3.64 in the Franki's New Coat fund.

But Franki! You're missing the point! As Michael Kors said in the completely non-fictitious conversation above, the camel coat is an investment piece! It may be expensive but you'll wear it forever and ever!

But I won't, will I? Because this time next year, there'll be another 'must have' coat and the camel coat will be long forgotten. Oh fashion, you are a fickle mistress!

So, in conclusion, the camel coat is lovely, versatile, classy and makes you look and feel like a real, live grown up type. Will it be my coat of choice for this season? Judging by the ones I've found online so far, possibly not. Although, H&M Magazine did recently feature this image;

and while I've not actually seen it instore yet, if the price was as reasonable as most H&M things are, I could be tempted.

The only thing that's still bugging me? What about all the camels? Haven't they suffered enough?*

*camel coats are not made from real camels.