Fashion

Could The Greatest Showman film spark a circus fashion trend?

March 17, 2018

(Alternative title: Clowning about in the woods!) I became a little suspicious back in November when I had the chance to browse some well-known high-street shops in a city. I noticed that the stripe trend had turned vertical, and wider, like circus tents! And combined with ruffles, the effect of these details does point to the circus! It’s been known to happen before with a popular musical movie: Do you remember the 1920’s fashion trend of 2013 that well and truly kicked off after the success of The Great Gatsby? I for one am not complaining, I love everything about the circus, particularly the wonderful clothing!….

How to rock the granny chic trend! Styling a hand-knitted cardigan

February 25, 2018

I don’t know whether you’ve noticed it, but I’ve spotted lots of people lately wearing jumpers and cardigans that look like their granny knitted it. They probably didn’t, because these people are probably young enough that their grannies are still in full time work and far too busy to be sitting by the fire and knitting. However, I was lucky enough to have a Nan who knitted and was proud to wear my royal blue school cardigans with massive sleeves that no-one else had. (At least I was until I was ten.) Maybe that’s what sparked my love of wearing things just a little bit different to everyone else. (Damn – I wish I’d thought of that argument when I was a teenager “Well if you didn’t want me to wear 1960’s mini nightdresses with Doc Martins, maybe you should’ve just bought me a Woodlands school cardigan with the logo on it like everyone else had!” sort of thing)….

Is a capsule wardrobe the right way to go? I tried it for a month to find out.

February 13, 2018

There are several YouTubers and bloggers I follow who live by a capsule wardrobe. They don’t just live by it; they fully recommend it, citing how wonderful it is to know they can get out of bed in the morning and easily choose an outfit that will colour co-ordinate and work for them. I have been fascinated by this, but to be honest, I’ve always thought it wasn’t really for me, I mean, if you want to see the state of my wardrobe/dressing room, then take a look at the tour coming soon to my YouTube channel! However, for four weeks at the beginning of the year, I went to stay in America (accompanying Chris on a work trip) so I really didn’t have a choice as everything I wore for a month had to fit in my suitcase. I’m currently typing this on the plane coming home and I thought I would share how I got on with my experiment with a capsule wardrobe….

How to wear your party outfits through winter

February 1, 2018

Now I’ll be honest here, I only had one Christmas party to go to last year, and really that was more of a small get-together than a party! However, I do have a few items in my wardrobe I was thinking about, and if you’re little miss socialite, I have some ideas that may help you make the most of those dresses you bought for the party season…

The red Christmas party dress

December 23, 2017

Red is the colour of choice for this season anyway, so what better time of year than Christmas to embrace the fashion? I bought this red dress from the Jameela Jamil collection at Simply Be back in spring, but sadly the event I bought it for was cancelled, and I’ve been waiting for the opportune time to fetch it out of my wardrobe! Christmas is practically upon us, and I think this red dress could not be more perfect for the celebrations! Pillar-box red is a colour that suits everyone, so don’t be a wallflower in black this holiday – get out the dress you know you’ve been wanting to wear!….

How to style red velvet trousers

November 22, 2017

I’m covering two of autumn / winter 2017 fashion trends here: velvet, and red! These are actually two of my favourite things, so I was pretty chuffed to find them both together in these trousers from Joe Browns. I went very casual with this outfit, but as velvet is really a luxurious fabric, you could also style them up to be really smart. I could swap my old battered converse for a pair of heeled boots and there you have your day to night outfit sorted!….

How to wear a wrap-dress. My favourite floral dress from summer to autumn style.

November 3, 2017

I love a floral dress, and I don’t think they’re just for summer either. Sling a shawl or cardigan over the top and team with a pair of brown leather boots and you’ve got yourself an outfit perfect for the autumn season…..

Styling cream and khaki and enjoying a warm day!

October 16, 2017

Khaki green is another regular colour that crops up in most autumn fashion style editorials in magazines at this time of year – some years more than most. I’ll admit, it doesn’t seem to be one of the major must-be-seen-in colours of fall 2017, but none-the-less I love it! It’s almost a neutral, and seems to go with every other colour in my wardrobe, except perhaps red and grey. And pale blue. Ok, so maybe not every colour, but quite a lot! It goes perfectly with dusky pink (of which I own a fair few items), black, and every shade of brown from dark chocolate to pale cream. On this occasion, I chose cream….

Styling a Next outfit for a blogger event – autumn fashion

September 26, 2017

I am so nervous about this event, but I equally don’t want to miss out, so I’ve swallowed the £55 train ticket to London (yes, that’s right – £55 to get in and out of London off peak) as I’ve been invited to a Next Blogger Network event in Shoreditch. Social anxiety aside, I am looking forward to it, but as you might expect from me, my outfit had to be planned well in advance…..

How to make a woodland fairy wedding gown – The story behind the dress

September 21, 2017

If you’re new here, I should begin by saying that I make dresses for my business, Threads of a Fairytale. My husband, Chris and I had the photoshoot in mind before I even started making the dress, so I knew exactly what I wanted to begin with, which is fairly unusual for me! So the dress originated as a vintage pure silk Indian tunic that more-or-less fitted me. It’s a gorgeous mottled moss green pure silk fabric with lovely metallic dots – called Mukesh work – which give a beautiful shimmer in the light. Then I went round my various stashes of fabric round the house, gathering bits and pieces that would blend well with the colour…..

Cultural Appropriation in Fashion. Should it really matter?

September 7, 2017

If you know me, then you’ll know I am a person who happily trundles on in life, getting on with things as pleasantly as I can, doing as much as possible to avoid drama or confrontation. However, I think someone linked to a blog post I wrote over year ago, as I’ve come back from holiday to a flurry of angry comments on the post called OSHUN – THE STORY OF MY CLOTHING BRAND, AND THE YELLOW DRESS INSPIRED BY BEYONCE’S IN LEMONADE. I thought I would respond to those comments in a blog post, rather than reply to them individually, as hopefully I will explain myself and my opinions in a more complete and thought-through way. So to understand what I’m about to talk about, you might want to have a look at that post first and have a read of the recent comments below it. In summary though, it was written at a time when Beyonce appeared to be channeling the ancient African deity, Oshun, so I wrote a bit about her for those who hadn’t heard of her before, and explained how I came to choose her to name my clothing business and a dress after. I wrote a brief message a couple of days ago addressing this on my Threads of a Fairytale website, and if you don’t mind, I’ll quote it now as an introduction: “Hello! I’m back from holiday and had a wonderful time exploring the Acropolis and other ancient remains and ruins around Greece and Albania and have come home full of inspiration. Three new goddess dresses influenced in design by ancient Greek attire will be appearing in the Threads of a Fairytale shop very soon – one in pink, one gold, and one in a mottled green and grey – all pure silk chiffon. I will continue to be inspired by religions and cultures from all around the world; ancient and modern, because that’s the way art grows, develops and nourishes one’s soul and interest. The term “cultural appropriation” seems to be more in fashion than fashion itself at the moment….If you’re a regular visitor to this page, you’ll know that I changed my clothing business name from Oshun to Threads of a Fairytale a couple of months ago and explained my reasons here. And no, the change had nothing to do with cultural appropriation because I’m sorry, I simply don’t agree that it’s a problem here. We have been influenced by our neighbours of all colours and heritage since time began and I think that’s a wonderful thing. Segregating oneself and not allowing this to happen comes from a place of ego, not from a place of good”. If you are going to comment here or on facebook (or anywhere), I would appreciate it if you take the time to read this whole piece to fully understand where I’m coming from, and hopefully even take a minute to think about some of my points. I haven’t written this to try to get anyone to change their opinions – of course we’re not all going to agree, but I want to say at the beginning that I have listened to your comments; looked into them further, and really given it some thought from all points of view before writing this……

Styling a simple blue dress – summer fashion.

August 4, 2017

As you can tell, these photos were taken on a warm day in spring, back when the bluebells were out in full force; but this is still an outfit I’m wearing four months later, so I thought I’d do some catching up as I haven’t written so many fashion blog posts recently. This was actually an impromptu photo-shoot as we were out hunting for bright yellow rape-seed oil flower fields. We always see them next to the road when we’re not looking for them, but when we were it took us hours! We saw the dappled light shining through the trees and thought we’d hop out the car and take some photos there just in case we never found what we were looking for….

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