hilkat

It’s pretty safe to say, that no matter how many times my friends cry, “Hammer time!” at me, I love my harem pants. They’re comfortable, they’re a little bit different and they’re quite hard to pull off - and I do like a challenge.

For a night out for dinner with the boyfriend, I decided to brave his critical eye and team them up with my wonderful Paris print crop top that I do actually adore (despite only having worn it once…oh dear…) and my black shoe boots. I think it was a winner, but a nice oversize cardigan would have been useful to keep out the evening chill…

I had an interview for a position at Paul Smith today, and spent an obscene amount of time flipping through my rail of clothes to try and find something, anything to wear. Yesterday I found a boyfriend blazer in TKMaxx, and was planning to wear that, but typically woke up this morning and decided it absolutely wasn’t right. In the end I went with the cropped blazer from my earlier post, my stripy dress and my beloved brown boots (which will have some stiff competition once I get my hands on those Topshop lovelies).

As I trawled round the shops yesterday searching for something to wear to my interview for Paul Smith today (three hours to go and I still haven’t finalised it….), I ended up in a near-coma at the never-ending sight of summer clothes. Gladiator sandals (snore), strapless dresses (zzzzz) and shorts (yawn), all jostling for space on the crammed sail rails, while the rest of the shop was enticingly empty, clearly awaiting the onslaught of the A/W 09 stock.

One of the things I’m most looking forward to about winter is being able to hide my head under a nice hat. I suffer the pull of naturally curly hair, and so when the weather is damp, a cover up is essential. I’ve got a trilby already, and a couple of other little beanie hats, so I’m searching for inspiration for something a little different. I started by having a rifle through the photographs on lookbook.nu, and found some great looks:

The A/W collections aren’t fully available yet, but there’s still some great picks online. Topshop have got a fabulous selection of the grungy girls best friend, the beanie, in a range of different colours, while Nasty Gal Vintage have a couple of wonderfully eclectic genuine retro pillbox hats. Personally, I’m lusting after the studded trilby and bowler hat from ASOS, both ideal for the colder months but also completely wearable now.

Above: Beanies, Topshop.

Above: Pillbox hats, Nasty Gal Vintage

Above: Trilby and bowler hat, ASOS

My accessory obsession of late is the cuff. Big, small, leather, denim, plaited, weaved…. I’m not bothered as long as they adorn my wrist and can be stacked up to almost obscene levels.

I found some great examples on wonder-collage website Polyvore (if you’ve never been there, and you’re in the fashion or art industry you absolutely have to visit), my favourite being the massive chain link cuff on the top-right.

My other favourites came from the best retro online store you’ll ever find, Nasty Gal Vintage, and ranged from around £10 to £31 - a bit of a bargain when you consider how absolutely amazing they are.

Urban Outfitters had a couple of nice ones as well - I particularly like the one on the left, but at £135, it’s slightly out of my price range!

I mentioned in an earlier post that I wanted an oversize check shirt for Winter, to wear over jumpers and leggings, and found the perfect one in the Matalan men’s department (surprise surprise). It’s not as thick as I would have liked, but considering I’m the queen of layering in the winter, it suits me fine - and as it’s thinner, I can wear it now while the temperature is still warm(ish) as well. Fabulous.

Although I’ve already posted on the DIY studded waistcoat, I thought I’d pop it on with one of my favourite floral dresses and my trusty brown boots to show exactly how it fits on the body. I like the way it’s almost a little oversize on the shoulders, like it could possibly have been intended for a man.

I was reading this great blog this morning, and the girl who owns mentioned using a camera tripod for some of her pictures - which reminded me that actually I own a tripod from my college photography days. After digging it out, it turned out that my new camera fits on it - so now I no longer have to rely on other people taking my photographs, and can spend as long as I like messing about with clothes. Happy days.

Due to wisdom-tooth problems, I haven’t been out for the last week (apart from to the doctors and dentists, and even I don’t dress up for that) so in the outfit-posting department, I’ve got nothing. So instead I’m going to concentrate on my latest style icon, Erin Wasson. Rock and roll supermodel and best mate to Alexander Wang, the multi-talented Erin not only works some of the best poses ever, but also designs her own jewelery line, LowLuv.

I love her low-key, thrown together style, mostly because of the grunge and rock elements, but also because she looks amazing without looking like she’s put more than five minutes thought into it.

I’ve seen sleeveless denim jackets absolutely everywhere at the moment, and have been lusting after them for quite a while, especially the ones from Topshop, middle and left, and Current/Elliot, right:

The problem is that I’m a total tightwad and refuse to pay high prices when it comes to trend items, meaning that the £35 Topshop price tag made me scoff, and the beautiful Current/Elliot version that was actually my favourite, almost caused me to faint when I saw that it was a whopping £395.

Never one to admit defeat, I decided that a DIY job was in order. A sleeveless denim jacket is exactly that - a denim jacket with no sleeves. So I visited my local charity shop, spent a fiver on an old denim jacket, and got the sewing machine out…

Searching for inspiration with regards to my winter purchases, I knew a key element of the look had to be “grunge”, but apart from the obvious oversized check shirts and chunky boots I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. Rock print t-shirts were also on the list, but what else? I looked on the wonderful Lookbook for inspiration and found a great selection of photos as always…

Today, stuffed at the back of the wardrobe, I found a cropped blazer I bought in New Zealand when I lived there for a year or so back in 2003. That’s a pretty old jacket, and what’s more impressive that six years and a baby later, it still fits. Granted, it’s a little more snug than it used to be, but that just adds to the cropped boxy-ness of it, which can only be a good thing. In my eyes, if a seam doesn’t split open when you move, it’s all good.

I added it to my home-ripped jeans, my favourite brown boots, and my John Lennon and Yoko Ono t-shirt from…. yep, you guessed it. Matalan. And the fringed bag, which has really paid for itself this summer.

It was a two-cocktail-ring day as well.