Dope Plaid Shirt, My New to Me Autumn Shirt

Hi everyone!! I hope you all had a good weekend, I'm trying my best to have a semi self imposed shopping ban in that I've thrifted (and bought) quite a few items over this month and now it's come to  the end of the month I'd like to start wearing all my new and existing items that I have in my Autumnal wardrobe.

The shirt that I am wearing below is 'new to me'. My eldest son is not only a freelance photographer he also works full time in a London men's PR fashion company, so does come home every now and then with new items for his own wardrobe. He actually brought this shirt home earlier on in the year and when I realised it would be ideal to have a flannel plaid shirt for the coming season I decided to swipe it and put it in my wardrobe!!

The shirt is by a Los Angeles street wear brand called Dope Couture and is in red and black brushed 

cotton, perfect for wearing by itself or as a layering piece over tees and under jackets. I'm wearing the shirt with my trusty All Saint's boyfriend style skinny jeans, claret Zara chelsea boots and a black Primark tee:

To be perfectly honest, although plaid, check and tartan are totally on trend for this season, I doubt if I would have gone and bought an item in these- I like the trend, but don't love it. For me the best way to adopt this trend was to 'steal' the look from the nearest men's wardrobe and as myself and my eldest are pretty much the same size, I dipped into his!!

Do you borrow items from the men in your life's wardrobes? Some items are ideal to 'borrow or steal' to create a different stylish look- a cosy wool knit is a great piece to have and is perfect with skinny jeans or faux leather leggings!

Wishing you all a great week ahead!

Thrift Inspiration.....Day Birger Et Mikkelsen and Dune Way!!

Hi everyone!! Over the last few weeks I haven't been visiting the boot sales as often as I have done in the past, so on Sunday I decided to visit my local one as inevitably boot sale season will be coming to a close shortly. I do love Autumn as I'm most happiest in jeans, jackets and boots which are my three favourite items that I can have in my wardrobe. I was fortunate to be gifted some flat ankle boots from T K Maxx which I showed you all at the beginning of the week and I was inspired by Vogues Spy section in choosing them.

Well my latest boot sale trip provided dividends as I was rewarded with this pair of black leather riding boots by Dune, which I so love and can't wait to start wearing:

They're knee height and being flat are perfect additions to my wardrobe as I've far too many heeled shoes and boots that rarely get worn:

As you can see, riding boots are very much on trend this season and not cheap either- to shop Dune for their current riding boots you're looking at an eye watering £250 and Ralph Lauren's are an even more unbelievable four figure amount of £1050-gulp!!

Which is why I love to see what is on trend for coming seasons and try to thrift accordingly!! My Dune pair were a bargainous £3- a lady spotted them before I did, tried them on and slung them aside and I just pounced and paid my money for them without any hesitations! If these are my last boot sale bargain of the year, I shall be most pleased!!

My second bargain over the weekend was this stunning cotton and silk peasant blouse by Day Birger et Mikkelsen a Scandinavian company which produce really unique covetable pieces and can be found at the likes of Net-A-Porter and My-Wardrobe:

The colour is very much plum/grape which is a perfect Autumn colour and will work easily with existing jeans, trousers and jackets in my wardrobe already and the price from my local Sue Ryder charity shop? A wonderful £3.25, less than a bottle of wine and a perfect weekend self treat!!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend whatever you get upto!! I've been a bit behind updating my other blog, LiveToLoveDenim.com, but I've just put a new post up-it would be great if you get a chance to check it out!!

All Saint's and Converse for an Autumn Berry Inspired Look

Hi everyone! I hope you're managing to ease yourself stylishly and fashionably into Autumn, I've been picking up a few basic key pieces in Autumn hues to add to my existing wardrobe.

I really love berry tones and decided to get this boyfriend tee from Primark which was less than £4. It works well under my leather biker jacket and winter knits and jackets and provides a nice cheap pop of colour for this season:

I'm wearing my thrifted All Saint's jeans from the boot sale last month for just £3. They are a skinny boyfriend fit and having no lycra content just get more relaxed and comfortable with wear. 

I pulled the whole look together with my black Converses and I put new laces in them to colour co-ordinate with other pieces in my winter wardrobe.

At the weekend I did a wardrobe edit and put away summer dresses and skirts and put winter knits to hand. What with other unwanted clothes from around the family, two sacks of clothing and footwear were dispatched to the NSPCC and I walked a smaller bag to my local Sue Ryder charity shop where I managed to pick up a lovely designer item which is perfect for Autumn and that I'll show in a future post!

I'm really liking berry hues, brown, navy and monochrome tweed colours for this season and rather than buying major items in these colours, I'm adding accessories in these shades here and there to update my wardrobe. What colours are you liking for Autumn?

Autumn Inspiration for Boots from T K Maxx

Hi everyone!! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend, unfortunately the weather where I live never materialised into an Indian Summer-more of a typical overcast Autumn day that couldn't quite decide whether to rain or not!

Well I was certainly cheered up last week when I was asked by the lovely people at TK Maxx to pick and review my choice of women's boots. Well it must have been fate because I really had been in my local T K Maxx store looking for boots for Autumn at least a couple of times already these last few weeks. Looking around in store I certainly found styles that matched up for the right price, but unfortunately my sizes were not available. So getting to choose what I wanted from their website was a perfect compromise.

I had an idea of what I wanted, as looking in the most recent edition of Vogue magazine I was immediately drawn to the Vogue Spy's feature. It's all about traditional and heritage pieces with a modern take for the coming season and the boots featured were really inspiring for what I wanted:

I wanted flat ankle boots, preferably featuring straps and or stud detailing, in brown or black.
My first choice was a pair of flat black leather biker ankle boots which had just the right amount of stud and strap detailing and perfect for wearing with skinny jeans this season:

My second choice was a true heritage and classic choice of  brown leather Chelsea boots which will go with so much that I have already in my wardrobe. This style in particular will work well with boyfriend style and straight jeans as well as smart trousers and also have a side zipper for easier access:

Both pairs are an extremely good fit and are sturdy, stylish and good quality leather-so it's a definite thumbs up and big thanks to T K Maxx for providing me with my perfect boots for Autumn and Winter!

If you've still to invest in some women's boots for this coming season then I would from my own experience definitely recommend you checking out the T K Maxx site, as they have a really good variety in different styles, colours and sizes and not only is delivery free for orders over £50, you can also do free returns instore too. Have a sneaky peak at their latest ad campaign, it really puts you in the mood for sorting out your wardrobe for Autumn!!

I hope you all have a good week ahead and I've heard the Indian Summer we've been promised should be with us this week, so here's hoping!!

London Fashion Week Photos at Hunger TV magazine

Hi everyone! In Monday's post I said I would do a post later in the week on my talented son's photography for Hunger TV magazine for London Fashion Week. 

Here are my favourite photos of what he took both backstage and front of house for various designers and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!  As well as the shows featured he was at Eudon Choi, Christopher Raeburn and PPQ. Please do check out the designers links for a full synopsis of the show and more photographs too:

DAKS 

GILES

HOLLY FULTON

JOHN ROCHA

PAUL SMITH

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!!

Thrift and Vintage Inspiration, The Liberty of London Bag with a past!

Hi everyone! My latest thrift find was this gorgeous brown leather mock croc messenger bag by Liberty of London and I bought it earlier this week in my local Salvation Army for just £1.99:

I really didn't need another bag as such, but one that leaves you hands free is always welcome and the bag has a real 'Heritage' vibe which seems to be always in trend come every Autumn season. Another buying plus is it's leather and from Liberty's of London!!

It is an ideal bag to take shopping as I can fit the bare essentials of my phone and purse in it and still have some room left over. I generally always come back from town with food shopping bags so a handbag that goes cross body will really be handy. 

The bag is Italian leather and I know for a fact it is at least nearly 20 years old, because I found an interesting piece of paper in the side zipper pocket:

The previous owner obviously loved their Arts and maybe attended this exhibition for the private viewing?? Having this in the bag really feels like the bag had quite a 'cultured' life before it finally came to me! I can't promise it any visits to future art exhibitions, but I'll certainly try to use it as often as I can!!

What is your bag of choice to use at the moment? Do you stick with one bag for weeks on end or do you like to chop and change your handbag on an almost every day basis?

Afternoon at Somerset House for London Fashion Week in Chanel and Leopardprint

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend! As you all may be aware, it's London Fashion Week until tomorrow and although I don't have any shows to go to, I have been living the 'experience' of it through my uber stylish and talented son who not only works full time in men's fashion pr, but is a freelance photographer. He has been fortunate to attend over nine different designer's shows to shoot backstage and some front of house-his highlights being Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith for Hunger Magazine.

Being such a proud mum, I will do a round up post of his wonderful pictures later this week when he has actually finished. Anyhow, it's been great to hear and see firsthand from him the backstage adventures and front of house antics from the view of a photographer and has made my experience of London fashion Week all the more enjoyable even though I did not participate!

As the sun was shining yesterday morning, I thought I would take him for a coffee at Somerset House before he set off to do his shows and we arrived early afternoon:

My intention was for us to have a coffee, him set off and for me to have a wander around Somerset House, take some photos and then do some people watching.  I just got to the people watching after making myself comfortable when it decided to rain-hard! Still, I managed to get some photos before the weather turned:

My lovely son, who was pretending he didn't want his photo taken, hehe!!

A view of the Embankment and the London Eye

Such a hub bub of passer by's, photographers and fashionistas in the business!!

My outfit of choice yesterday was my thrifted Chanel jacket, some new to me thrifted PRPS boyfriend jeans, black wool pashmina, a new Primark tee, thrifted Clarks black peep toe shoes and my leather leopardprint tote by Autograph at Marks & Spencer. I was so pleased I'd worn my scarf, I even had a hat in my bag which went on when the rain came down!! 

The shops at Somerset House had some gorgeous items-my favourite's were the Bella Freud and Markus Lupfer jumpers which I could easily have bought all of them if money were no object and also the wonderful bookshop, where I fell in love with nearly all the bookshelves and their contents. If you're after any designer or vintage book then this must be your first port of call:

As you can see, i was very windswept, but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon-especially when I had a sneaky McDonalds before getting the bus back to Liverpool Street for the train home!!

Have you been keeping up with London Fashion Week at all? I like seeing what the designers have to show, but I am not at the point where I watch live streams or apply for tickets for shows. I'm more than happy to take a backseat and view it through my son's camerea lens, hehe!!

Wishing you all a really good week ahead!!