One for all

My love affair with jumpsuits started in Pepita Is Dead in Madrid last Spring and looks certain to come full circle in SS10 (what I haven't got yet is an eye-popping printed all-in-one. Hm, I need to go shopping...) For now, (it's only January after all) I think you can still get away with sequins and I love this black strapless jumpsuit with loose fitting, shiny harem-style pants from Little Red Vintage which I gave a test run on Saturday night.

The pants make me laugh because aside from skinny jeans, I don't ever wear trousers so it must have been an incredulous look that I shot my friend Toby when he said he thought I was wearing a top and trousers. Incredulous. A face I pull a lot (see above) and a face Michi Girl was probably pulling when she wrote about jumpsuits in her book, Like I Give A Frock.

'One girl's comfort zone is another's camel toe.' True, Michi, true. But sequins up top + harem pants down below = problem solved.

Paparazzi

Flashing lights, click click clicking, stalkers amidst the crowds, after show parties, champagne on tap. Being famous has its pros and cons. While the very notion of 'celebrity' post-2000 baffles and often infuriates me, I do like a glass of fizz. But would you let the lady (who am I kidding) above, get her greasy hands on the canapes? I assume not, and at the National TV Awards, they didn't. Sadly all after show parties were reserved for 'winners and nominees'.

Not that I wasn't dressed the part. Was a bit self-conscious at first exposing so much leg, but I love this dress! The top part, covered in sequins is actually a leotard with shoulder-pads and the skirt is attached to the back and ties at the front, leaving a massive slit where, unless you're a member of the Hollyoaks cast or have ever stepped through the doors of Big Brother, you'll be needing some seriously thick tights. Mine let me down a bit as stretched to look more transparent than I was going for, but I won't hold it against M&S. Kate (at Little Red where I bought the dress) suggested teaming it with a bright colour of tights which I might do next time. From the back, it has the appearance of a long, sleek maxi dress.

Despite being told it was 'very Cheryl Cole' (not really what constitutes a compliment for me), she's better than most of the Z-list 'nominees', taking my place at the after show party, drinking my champagne...

Not-so-Little Red

If there was only one shop in the world to buy clothes from, for me it would be Little Red in Liverpool. That may sound like a bold statement, but even with all the vintage shops, fairs and websites at arms length, I still end up buying most of my clothes there! Ok, so it's owned by a very good friend of mine, Kate Harris and I'm probably slightly biased, but it's just a lovely shopping experience, and that is by no means just because she's my friend.

Everyone should sample the Little Red experience. The clothes are affordable, unique and beautifully preserved or where appropriate, re-styled so the wearer gets the maximum out of them for an individual or quirkier look. The shop is, at the risk of sounding like an estate agent, bright and airy, so the dresses on rails have space to breathe and at no point do they look cluttered. The owner isn't merely a shopkeeper, she's a stylist dedicating much of her day to helping shoppers customise a look of their own.

Naturally, she's had a big hand in styling me over the years. This weekend, I went in to find a dress to wear to the National TV Awards on Wednesday. I left with a shoulder-padded black sequinned leotard attached to a skirt that you knot to form a revealing maxi dress for the awards, (pictures to follow when I'm brave enough) a strapless sequinned jumpsuit, a puffed out, high-waisted gold skirt and a 1960s felt hat in bright blue.

A year ago, Little Red was just a little shop in the Grand Central shopping centre in Liverpool, and now she's also got her own premises on Bold Street. Try it out and you just see if you can go in and make a single purchase... it's impossible.

New year, no clothes...

Yes, I know it's not the done thing, but I'm still new to this whole blogging malarkey, so surely that excuses the TWO whole WEEKS I've had away from my computer. Not that (if I'm being honest) it's done me much good... 


Aside from the extra weight I'm carrying (thanks to the indoor 'picnics' on the days there wasn't anything to celebrate but it was too cold to go outside) my booze-oozing skin and the hangover from NYE, AKA The Fear, I'm convinced will be sticking around until next year, I've got writers' block, the start of a cold and no money to buy the dresses that would perk me up. 


But, getting a grip and before this turns into a dissertation-length rant (my new year's resolution is to write snappier, more frequent posts like normal people) if there's one rescue remedy (no, not the stuff in a bottle, though that does help with The Fear) it's that dress already in your wardrobe. You know the one. The if-in-doubt dress! The only one you've had for over three years that never seems to look old and worn or go out of fashion. The outfit you wear when you're feeling unsure of yourself, or in a situation you'd rather not be in.

This red sixties mini has helped me through first dates, perked me up when I've been poorly, held my hand when I went ice skating with Gareth Gates for a TV assignment for work (less said about that, the better) and most recently, got me through a rather tricky one-on-one with David Dimbleby about the History of Art (not my forte, luckily the dress distracted him for at least ten seconds). Needless to say, when my rail of dresses collapsed twice this morning before my first day back in the office, it was the first thing I grabbed from the pile... 

And this one's for me...

I was kidding myself going 'Christmas shopping' at Paper Dress Vintage's late night opening tonight. Buying presents for other people was as likely as me going home to read David Dimbleby's latest book (which I'm technically supposed to as I'm interviewing him on Friday)

But I could hardly go to one of my favourite shops in London and not buy a dress. Especially when we were plied with mulled cider. As the title suggests, the quaint and colourful shop on Curtain Road in East London, stocks a lot of 1960s dresses. Which makes me... a helpless little insect caught in a seductive spiders web?

This thick winter floral sixties dress would look perfect with a (faux) fur coat, woollen tights and flat Mary Janes in the day time, and gold heeled t-bars for evening. I love that the flower pattern borders on tribal and how the skirt puffs out, making it more shapely. A definite departure from the usual shifts of that era.

Love the ruffled neck, too. Here it is close up.

Considering the dresses are just a fraction of the shop, amid the furs, jackets, skirts, bags and I spied an Ossie Clark brown velvet jacket in my size, I think I was very restrained. Dresses for me, are escapism after all. But enough justifying another pre-Christmas 'present to myself'. Time to get back to David Dimbleby...

Life's a bitch

Found this pretty shop on Tib Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter yesterday.

The collection of winter warming faux furs, velvet and silk evening gowns, 1940s hats and perfectly fitted jackets provided a welcome contrast to the incessant downpour outside. Typical Manchester, but places like Rags to Bitches make venturing outside with no umbrella on a December afternoon worthwhile.

Saviour Sonia

Designer/High Street collaborations don't exactly rock my world. At the risk of generalising, the clothes can feel a bit cheap. I think making designers more accessible to the masses and steering flocks of sheep away from Primark ought to be a good thing, but at the same time, rails of the same black 'such and such designer for H&M' blouse, for me, take away all the covetousness and the magic. I may not be able to afford the genuine designer article, but that doesn't mean I'm going to lap up the watered down version.

And I'm certainly not going to camp outside the store in this weather - the other reason they're not for me. But maybe I'm just bitter. Maybe if I pretended not to notice tripping up over all the pieces nobody wants on the floor and made it to the cash register without hyperventilating in the queue, things could be different...

I'm tempted to give it a go this weekend when the Sonia Rykiel Pour H&M line hits stores 5 December. It's old news of course, having been advertised everywhere from Vogue to the bus shelter at the end of my road, but I'm head over heels for the fifties boudoir style nude satin basque, amongst others, in the 70-piece lingerie, nightwear and accessories collection.

It's the first time H&M has collaborated on designer underwear and the ads speak for themselves. Newly brunette model-of-the-moment Lara Stone joins forces with Anne Vytalitsyna and one of my favourite models, Caroline Trentini and bam, if we didn't know it already, underwear is officially the new outerwear. Ok, I'm not exactly going to walk down Kings Cross Road in it, but I've definitely thought about it.

It's a gorgeous line, but I wouldn't have expected anything less from 'Queen of Knits' Sonia Rykiel. For those who aren't familiar with the chic Parisian designer, she was the first person to make wooly jumpers look sexy. Back in the 1960s, she was pregnant and started designing knitwear because she couldn't find anything that was flexible or flattering enough to wear.

H&M clearly haven't forgotten this, either. Her knitwear line is the next to be unveiled in the store in February. Plenty of time to eat some humble pie. And dig out that tent.