Green Corduroy

Each season both new and old trends return to the catwalk, high street and ultimately our wardrobes. At the moment corduroy seems to be having a moment. Yes corduroy, often seen on elderly gentlemen and Steve Braidy in Sex and the City. If you're a fan of the show you'll remember Miranda's yuppy guilt scene when she invites her new boyfriend to a 'fancy' work event and after asking him if he owns a suit he declares 'Its really nice, it's gold, yeah Corduroy'.
My reaction was somewhat different to Miranda's when I spotted this amazing green pair of cropped, flared corduroy trousers in Zara. I'm currently in desperate need of new clothing and this brilliantly fitting pair have been the perfect edition. I find a cropped trouser often creates a difficult styling challenge.They can sometimes sit awkwardly on your lower leg, but these have been a dream. They fit like a glove and look perfect with slim ankle boots, pumps and heels and work for both a day or night look. They come in Green, Navy and Rust but I felt the green colour-way suited my skin tone better and even though a striking colour, they are still safe if wearing for work with an oversized jumper.
Today I've teamed them with this overtly loud candy-striped shirt from Monki, heeled ankle boots and a trench coat because it's the North and obviously its raining.

Zara Cords | Moni Skirt | ASOS Trench | Topshop Boots | Zara Bag

Colour co-ordination trends I'm loving right now

The night I met my now husband I was wearing red shoes, red bag, red tube top (yes a tube top - it was 2006) and a navy skirt. On a girls holiday to Magaluf later that year I wore a white miniskirt, white shoes and white top. Back then colour co-ordination was BIG!
I felt the need to constantly colour co-ordinate all my outfits. I now look back at pictures and cringe, but that's fashion its forever changing.
I actually don't think I've colour co-ordinated my outfit ever since, I constantly mis-match colours trying to create new ways of styling the overly worn items hanging in my closet.
However, as mentioned above fashion is constanting evolving and changing and recently the colour co- ordinating trend has re-emerged but in a relevant and more stylish way. Its left me wanting to match all the colours in my wardrobe even if said wardrobe consists of Navy, Grey and Black pieces - well its definitely a starting point.

Ph Credit - lacooletchic, gudrunolof, alisonpeebles and manrepeller

An ode to my ASOS Bridal dress

As soon as I walked into an official "bridal" shop I knew I wasn't going to find a dress for me. The very lovely sales woman walked towards me with the biggest, voluptuous, netted dress I'd ever seen and I instantly shouted NO in my head. Whilst the dresses she showed me were beautiful and had sleeves (something I knew I wanted and needed for an October wedding), I knew these dresses were going to look ridiculous on me. 

In the shop I was advised that I may change my mind when I tried a few 'bridal' dresses on. I'm sure that can be true but to be very honest I didn't want that type of wedding dress. So I never tried any on, even after looking around a few dress shops. I don't regret it, I needed to feel like me. 

I've never been very Bridey and up until the point my boyfriend of 10 years proposed I'd never envisioned myself getting married, let alone in a huge white dress. 

At the beginning I thought about a coloured dress, I've always loved emerald green, that could

Work - but I knew I didn't want an extremely traditional wedding and a white/cream/ivory dress could add some tradition to the day. 

Many brides would not even think the highstreet/online highstreet was an option. Most brides want their dress to be original, a one of a kind and I get that but the latter comes at a price but the highstreet offers a whole array of gorgeous dresses at a fraction of the cost. 

I work in fashion and know what our Great British (online) high street has to offer. First I looked at designer white dresses that could pass for a wedding dress at Harvey Nichols then I searched John Lewis, Liberty, Monsoon and House of Fraser. Whilst theses outlets all had some beautiful dresses I didn't find that something unique that suited my style. 

ASOS BRIDAL 

ASOS is the brand I go too for my usual sartorial so why not for my wedding dress? I scrolled for many hours over many weeks before I found what those in the wedding business call 'the dress'. 

Yes searching for a dress online is time consuming. These dresses are not made to measure so you need to ensure it's a style that will suit your figure and in a fabric that looks expensive without actually being expensive. A plus side - around early spring new styles debut regularly giving lots of choice to choose from, finding the right dress was inevitable. It happened one Friday night, as soon as I saw it I loved it. But there was still the possibility that it wouldn't fit, we all know high-street fashion is not always true to size. When the DPD man knocked on my door some days later I was pleasantly surprised with how my purchase was packaged. No usual plastic ASOS packaging - instead a huge ASOS bridal box and garment bag containing my soon to be wedding dress.

I was very very lucky, the dress fit perfectly. I instantly knew I had picked the right dress. Yes, it's a high street dress so their are a few quality issues including some tucks around the bum area but overall this is a beautiful dress. The fabric quality and weight feel much more expensive than the £95 price tag.

On the day it received so many complements and I loved how unique this dress felt. I managed to portray my own personal style and most importantly without having to spend a fortune.  

Ph Credit - Eve Hopkinson Photography