Return of the headscarf

The headscarf is back, according to Vogue, according to Hermes. I have never really experimented with a head scarf mostly because I always find like I look like I am bald whenever I try to don one.

Hermes have created an orange boxed set of playing cards, each one featuring a step by step guide to tying some key styles which you get free when you buy a scarf, so maybe I can learn how to look like Lily Donaldson rather than Sinead O'Connor

Glasto stylez

Oh yes Daisy, you do festival chic so well...

Collaboration time...

Lets all run to Japan...maybe take your massive shoes off first...why? Here's why...

Louis Vuitton and Rei Kawakubo of Commes Des Garcons are opening a shop together in Tokyo which will last for 3 months from this September in an existing CDG store.

The shop will be selling six LV bags specially designed by Rei K, according to Elle.uk.com the bags will be "‘party’ bags", that "hark back to the styles of 30 years when Vuitton made only bags and leather goods", collector's pieces in the making if ever we saw one.

It may seem like an odd pairing, CDG being a ground breaking designer brand and LV being slightly more traditional but I will hold judgement until I see them...thats very safe of me.

Back and in love again

Coo-eee...

Holidays never last for long enough huh!? It was amazing but no one wants to hear about other people's travels so instead lets take a look at the hottest sunglasses around, they come from the sexiest designer around Tom Ford and they look a bit like this...



What the picture neglects to show is a gold rim over the bridge of the nose, you can see the etching on the lens and the gold T on the side, I think they might just be perfect...Ray who??

On a beach somewhere

...but I will be back next week xx

We Are Sailing....

I bought the A.P.C sailor top at the weekend as Maison Bertaux were having a 30% off day and we were early for a film at the Curzon (is that a rubbish excuse). I have it in time for my holiday tomorrow and I'm so excited.

Next question is, how to wear it? I know the above picture shows it with white shorts, however, I think black skinnies and massive heels might be more suitable, any thoughts?

Its not very fashion, hey ho

I know this blog is mostly about fashion and music, but on occasions I find something in London that I want to shout about, so I hope you don't mind me gassing on about Wahaca, its brill.

One of the best discoveries I made this weekend was Wahaca, Covent Garden's best Mexican restaurant. My friends and I often complain that London does not have a decent Mexican restaurant...well now I have found one, woop. Not discounting Mexi Cali on Wardour Street, who make a mean burrito, I enjoy many a carb coma afternoon after one of those bad boys. Well, Wahaca is a restaurant rather than a take out place so different.

I first heard about this Mexican restaurant while reading the GQ restaurant guide (yes, I tick them off as I go, what a loser), the restaurant has also won the Observer's cheap eats award- oh I didn't mention how reasonably priced it is - £26 for lunch for the two of us and we ate lots - as we were nursing hangovers there wasn't any alcohol involved.

Wahaca provides a great service, when queuing you are told exactly how long it will take to get a table and if you want to wander off for a quick drink while you wait they will give you a call when your table is ready. The food? You can either choose from the Street Food menu, Salads and Soups or Bigger Plates menus or mix them all up. We had six Street Food plates (that's what they recommend, we weren't being fatties). Some quesidillas, tostados, tacos and taquitos all washed down with their special Mexican Flower Water drink, which tastes a bit like a flowery cranberry juice.

My favourite dish? Well its a choice of three I'm afraid

Black bean & cheese quesidilla
Chargrilled rump steak taco
Nopalitos - mexican cactus (!)

All the food is sourced in the UK and free range, what more do you want?

Check it out

I Visa Swapped!!

On Saturday my boy and I popped into Visa Swap and swapped the following things:

Pink Eley Kishimoto Cardigan with spider web print
Diesel Jeans
Topshop High Waisted Jeans
H&M Jeans
Carvela shoes (gorgeous but they wreck my feet)

I just swapped all of the things that, while I may love the look of, I just either look a bit silly in or don't fit.

In return I got 1150 points which I will be able to exchange for clothes on the final swap weekend - 19 & 20th July. Visa Swap will be open for swappers to wield their Visa Swap cards and basically fight with all of the other shoppers for the best designer spoils at the makeshift shop at No.1 The PIazza, Covent Garden.

I, for one, will be there at 9.30am for the 10am start because you need to get the best for your money huh?

Start London - where fashion meets rock and roll

START is one of the best shops in London stocking the likes of Miu Miu, Chloe and Phillip Lim, Start also stock shoes, REN skincare products and jewellery.

As soon as you walk in to START one of the resident pugs (adorned with pink bejewelled collars) are bound to sit - not at - but on your feet making you feel quite at home, also Ross from Project Catwalk works there - what more could you want? Oh and its close to my house, result!

START have just kicked off their fantastic sale in which loads of the ranges are involved, I have put together a collection of some of my favourite items that you can pick up on the cheap, oh those Chloe SHOES!!!



Non London dwellers fear not, you can purchase items from the online shop here.

ps Luella batman t shirts are on sale too, woopee

Got some!

I finally got some sandals for my hols, super comfortable and no toe in betweenies! Woo hoo.

Topshop £22, what a bargain

ASOS Limited 100

ASOS' Limited 100 collection hit the online store yesterday, handpicked by Henry Holland, Ben Grimes and Vogue's Emme Elwick from final year students at London College of Fashion. The designs are limited to 100 garments per design and the designs are selling out fast.

You can find them here

I love this Puff Sleeve All Over Sequin dress designed by Lui Sin Ki




What's great about this project by ASOS is that the students get 10% of the profit and three overall winners also get a placement at asos.com as well as an all expenses paid trip to Tokyo with the asos.com design team god knows that this is a great break for broke students!

Get Swapping

There has been a lot of coverage in the press recently regarding Visa Swap, Visa's three week fashion swap bonanza hosted in the Visa Swap Loft in London's Covent Garden. Visa Swap gives people the opportunity to take their designer/good high street clothes, bags and accessories to the Covent Garden swap shop. Swappers will receive a special Visa Swap card in exchange for their items, the swap works on a point system so the better and probably more expensive the item, the more points you receive. You can then 'buy' other people's items with your points - anything left over will be donated to uber cool charity shop Traid (I bought one of my favourite dresses from the Brighton branch)

I missed the launch to this, much to my annoyance (can I win the lottery soon please and not have to work ridiculous hours??) but I love the idea so thought I would blog about it anyway.

This year there is a van that will pick up your clothes in and around London. You canfind out more about this here and this year VS have introduced the Visa Swap Market where you can buy small items to customise your new clothes, stylists will be stationed at the Visa Swap Market to give shoppers advise.

You can drop off your clothes at the below times.

June

Drop-off at The Flower Cellars 4-6 Russell St, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7BN
21st June 10am - 6pm
22nd June 12 - 6pm
Drop-off at The Flower Cellars 4-6 Russell St, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7BN
27th June 12 - 7pm
28th June 10am - 6pm
29th June 12 - 6pm

July

Drop-off at The Flower Cellars 4-6 Russell St, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7BN
4th July 12 - 7pm
5th July 10am - 6pm
6th July 12 - 6pm
Drop-off at No.1 The Piazza, Covent Garden, London, WC2
11th July 12 - 7pm
12th July 10am - 6pm
13th July 12 - 6pm
Final Drop-off at No.1 The Piazza, Covent Garden, London, WC2
18th July 12 - 4pm
Final swap week, No.1 The Piazza, Covent Garden, London, WC2
19th & 20th July 10am - 6pm

My New Favourite Band

I know I always gush about Durr but they really do put on the best bands, take last Monday, when White William headlined and I instantly fell in love with them. White Williams make exciting wonky electro with heavy bass lines and the most intricate guitar parts I have see anyone play for a while.

Hailing from New York WW also look effortlessly cool and make you want to dance around the room like a mad thing - what more could you want??

Songs you should download:

New Violence
Violator

Chanel Pop Up Store much? Yes please..

Chanel's pop up shop in Dover Street Market has popped up and its open NOW, stocking limited edition pieces from the Paris-Londres Metiers d'Arts Collection.

Another Agyness pic then from the launch party? Yeah go on then...

Do you wanna be in my gang?

Henry Holland's rise to fame has been astronomical, from Bliss fashion ed to internationally renowned fashion designer in a matter of what, a year? Two?

Extra (the chewing gum people) threw a party for Henry on Monday night in Shoreditch - pictures up now on dirtydirtydancingThe Shoreditch mafia were out in force and looked as ace as ever, Agyness sang with 5o'clock heroes, Alexa and Alex allegedly had a row, Kelly Osbourne turned up with her new beau. It all goes off on a Monday night.

Et Tu Brute?

These Abu Dhabi sandals from Office are ace (£55)

I spent the whole of Saturday afternoon looking for the perfect pair of Gladiator sandals and just could not find a pair that was good enough for my tootsies when I take to the beach in a couple of weeks. The problem is that I cannot stand anything between my toes so instantly this discounts half or more of the styles on the high street.

Since Saturday I have been scouring the internet and below are some of my favourite pairs...

Kurt Geiger Kimono sandals - £55



Carvela's Kane sandal £55 - yeah they aren't really Gladiator sandals but I do like the simplicity of them



Another hit for Carvela, these Kimberley sandals will set you back £70



These Kurt Geiger Kohl sandals are £45 and perfect for festivals



These are delish...KG's Luxors come in at £85



You are going to love the tan lines on your feet!

Yes, another sample sale

Today was the Luella sample sale in Kensington, I only got my ticket yesterday and you cannot believe how excited I was. On entering the sale I started trembling with adrenaline. They were selling the Love, Love Love range as well as hanbags, coats and dresses. The prices were unbelievable, £150 for a handbag, £20 for tops. I had a good old rifle through the stock and tried everything on - no changing rooms so I ended up stripping off in the middle of the shop, a man got embarrassed at the site of my bra, hopefully because of my state of undress and not because he thought my bra was rancid!

I know its old, but the pieces were classic and beautiful.

Anyway, on to the purchases....

I bought a Bernie bag, yep, a proper grown up bag, kind of - it is bright orange after all



One of these:



One of these, its gorgeous and the quality is great, i got one in white



A black dress - the zip detail at the back, oh my gosh, i cannot find a piccy, sorry! It was last season dontchaknow.

I also got a green woollen skirt with black velvet trim and a Love Love Love sweater. Eek, now i've written it down it does seem quite a lot. Oh well, i loved every second of it!

You knew it was going to happen

Yes yes, I went to see Sex And The City last night with one of my best friends, I never really watched it regularly - I don't know why - so sitting in the cinema surrounded by ladies replete with Cosmos (I say ladies rather than girls because it is definitely more accurate in that particular cinema) I felt a wee bit out of place. This lasted about 10 seconds.

I knew I would get some kind of shoe envy and sure enough in one of the first scenes it hit me. Carrie's Dior Extreme heeled Gladiator sandals became the pair I wanted. Lets face it, I'm never going to spend a fortune on Dior heels, because a) I dont wear heels that often so it would be a massive waste of money and b) I don't have enough money full top.

Cue ASOS.com, everyone's trusty little online shopping friend, who have created a rip off pair for a more palatable £55



Instantly I realised that I had seen this pair before on Queen Michelle of Kingdom of Style in this very post being completely savvy, Michelle bought them in March - yes thats right MARCH. I need to get in step and pronto, still as you can see from QM's post they are super comfy shoes, so, when they come back in stock (yep sold out, boo!) snap em up!

I really want to see those fingers

Flying Saucer is a blog I tend to look at everyday, the lovely lady who runs the blog often gives her readers tips on how to make your eBay items as desirable as possible, she answers the endless quandary of should I wear it? Should i hang it up? What colour background?? And so on and so forth.

I love eBay and truth be told, I love buying stuff more than selling it...

How exciting then to find an eBay shop which is so perfect that you want to buy EVERYTHING. California Select is the one stop shop on eBay for vintage finds, so much so that I have posted some of my favourite items above and below. Great models huh?!

JC de Castelbajac - no I cannot fathom how you pronounce it either

I know, I know. You've seen this skirt before, you've read all about JDDC in fashion magazines from here to eternity, however, how could I ignore the fact that his London flagship store is opening this week on London's fashionable Conduit Street.

For those who do not live in London, Conduit is a great street for designer clobber - Vivienne Westwood, PPQ, Rigby & Peller (you will never wear the wrong size bra again), Issey Miyake all reside here (Luella is a stones throw) and you can get yourself a lovely cocktail at Sketch on your way home.



Inspired by pop art, Castelbajac (58) started his career at Kenzo before launching Sportsmax and then his own eponymous label in 1978. Nu rave has meant that his clothes remain as popular as ever. The brand new shop will stock menswear and womenswear as well as homewear and furniture.

Rufus Wainwright, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mary J Blige and London hip-hop artist MIA have all worn his designs in recent years, so why not you and I??



My favourite story about JCDC is lifted directly from a recent Independent article and goes a bit like this:

In 1997, Pope John Paul II invited Castelbajac to design ecclesiastical robes for 500 bishops and 5,000 priests for a National Youth Day celebration in Paris. Rainbow-striped vestments were inspired by the story of Noah and the ark, though the gay community felt their emblem had been inappropriately hijacked. The Pope's reported response? "There is no copyright on the rainbow."

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, 50-51 Conduit St, London W1, opens on 5 June.

Your new favourite video

Video directed by the wonderful Sam Crack, cor talented and hot!

Stricken CIty - Tak O Tak