Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Marks & Spencer's 'Best of British' Campaign

I spotted a "Best of British" poster as I wandered through my local Marks and Spencer a few days ago, and made a mental note to take a look at the website when I got home. It turns out that M&S have put together a Summer 2014 collection, using only British designers, fabrics and manufacturers. Pretty nice, right?! :)

"Best of British is part of a three-year partnership between M&S and the British Fashion Council. Working to champion our best homegrown fashion talent, the collection celebrates a return to traditional manufacturing and world-class British design."

Here are my picks from the collection - including some bits for the boys because look at those shoes! Beautiful. It's not the cheapest collection on the planet by a long shot, but given their reputation and sources hopefully these pieces will last and last, so they could be a worthwhile investment if you're looking to replace something worn out! :)


The menswear is mostly a neutral palate (although there are a couple of splashes of pink in there, and some fun patterns to liven it up). Classic pieces, for the most part, with a few little twists to keep it interesting. You can browse the full menswear collection here.


The womenswear collection is a much brighter affair, with bold patterns and prints and bright fuchsia pinks and coral reds to really make the clothes pop. How delicious are those white brogues, by the way? :) Be still my beating heart! 

I'm not going to lie, there are a few items in this collection I'm not brave enough to attempt, but there's still enough items that I'd would be happy to walk down the street in, phew. (Let's start with that gorgeous bag, shall we?). See the full womenswear collection here.

It's nice to see a brand really embracing British fashion - hopefully we'll see some others starting to follow suit!

Love

Sarah

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

One Ethical Dress, Three Fashion Looks

I know I'm probably not the only person who keeps hold of clothes that no longer fit, don't look great or don't really go with anything else that I own. I've been trying to mend my hoarding ways recently, by clearing out things that would better serve someone else - that dress I love on the hanger but which makes me look waistless - the charity shop with you! Jumpers with holes in, tights that are sagging, anything that isn't working anymore: gone.

It's really tempting to replace everything I get rid of with new things - the lure of the shiny and new bombards me every time I walk down the street, but instead I've decided to try and create a capsule wardrobe. Buying a few staples and working a multitude of outfits around them. That way I always have something to wear and I don't feel like I have a crazy amount of surplus clothing taking up space in my house. Everybody wins.

With that in mind today I've put together three different looks using the same dress, to show how you can dress up, dress down and switch styles with one core piece of clothing :) As always, these pieces were all sourced from ethical retailers, since there's no reason looking good can't also be helping to look after the planet too. Double yay!

First up, I've put together a look for when the days are bright and the evenings are warm enough after work for a quick visit to the local beer garden. Mm. Sunshine...

Next up we've got an office casual look. For people working somewhere a bit more formal you might not be able to get away with this, but I know a lot of people are working in more casual offices these days and I think this outfit more than fits the bill.

Last but not least an outfit for those chilly, rainy days of spring that we get every year. Throw in some tights to go with it and you can still wear your beautiful dresses even when it's pouring down outside :)

The trick to a capsule wardrobe is to buy versatile clothing - something that can work with lots of different pieces. I'm off to do some window shopping to see what else I can find ;)

Love 

Sarah





Thursday, May 1, 2014

Me Made May 2014


It's that time of year again - wow! Me Made May is a fun challenge created by Zoe from 'So, Zo...What Do You Know?' to encourage sewers to wear and love their handmade items. As someone who is super interested in sewing but hasn't actually plucked up the courage to make anything yet (I know, I know) I'm hoping the participants this year will inspire me to plug in my machine and get crafting! Who knows, maybe by the time Me-Made-May'15 rolls around I'll be taking part ;)

If you've never heard of "Me-Made-May"and have no idea what I'm going on about then read on...

What is Me-Made-May?

"Me-Made-May is a challenge designed to encourage people who sew/knit/crochet/refashion/upcycle garments for themselves to actually wear and love them. 

Participants decide the specifics of their own pledge - a very common pledge is for a participant to aim to wear one self-stitched or refashioned garment each day for the duration of May 2014. The participants can also choose to document their challenge with daily photos (though this is in no way compulsory for taking part)."

Why should I take part?

Zoe put together a helpful list of reasons of why you might want to participate (thanks Zoe!):
  • Do your handmade items often get left in the wardrobe rather than worn as part of your everyday wardrobe? Participating in this challenge can give you a bit of a nudge to help you to integrate your self-stitched items into your daily life.
  • This challenge may also be useful for discovering the 'holes' in your wardrobe so in the future you are able to focus your precious garment-creating time towards making things that will be useful. 
  • If you feel that what you tend to wear, day-to-day, doesn't really suit you or represent who you are, this challenge is a way to spend a monthfocussing on getting out of your wardrobe rut. 
  • You may enjoy an excuse to focus on finishing off lingering UFOs (un-finished objects), or to start a project you've had on your mind for ages. 
  • If you have been creating clothing for some time and already wear a lot of your me-mades, this challenge might help you to bring newer self-stitched items into regular rotation. If you tend to make all kinds of garments, you may even want to see if you can get by all month entirely without shop-bought garments (with undies or outerwear as notable exceptions, but not necessarily!). 
  • There is also guaranteed to be a lovely online community of fellow participants to give support, advice and inspiration.

How do I sign up?

All you have to do is copy the pledge below and post it in the comments section of this post adapted to include your details and the personal specification of your challenge before 1st May:

'I, (insert name here and blog address if you have one), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear......................................................... each day for the duration of May 2014'


This is YOUR challenge, write the pledge any way you want, just remember: IT IS A CHALLENGE and not meant to be easy or what you do usually. Push yourselves! :)

You can find all the details about the pledge on Zoe's blog here, and there's also a Flickr group and Pinterest board you can join and post your photos too :) If you're on Twitter you can use the using the #MMMay14 hashtag to keep up with the conversation. Make sure you sign up ASAP tho, as registration is only open until today!

So what do you think, will you be signing up? :)

Love

Sarah