Wednesday, 31 May 2017

FALLING LIKE A DOMINO

This shirt, in my opinion, is one of the coolest All Saints have produced for a long time. This light laundered black shirt is soft to the touch and has one of the snazziest prints around. The print features small monochrome domino's. It's your classic open collar shirt, which also comes with a small loop fastening at the top, a cool little detail. I bought the shirt in a small and the fit was great.

I've styled this shirt with my staple black skinny jeans, a simple black studded belt and my favourite hat of course. This look oozes cool, carrying a leather in hand, and styled with shiny black leather boots. Since it's an All Saints piece I'm talking about here, I tried to scout out a really cool place to shoot that reflects the brand. As you can see, I came across the PERFECT place! The place I decided to shoot was originally a busy shipbuilding office in my hometown of Sunderland. This was once a bustling main entrance to the yard, that has now sadly fallen into disrepair.

The 'grungy' backdrop was a great place to shoot as it fits with the brand aesthetic and the shirt. It was quite sad looking around this cold, abandoned place, thinking of the entrance back in its hay day. How many workers passed through the gates on their way to work, or on some occasions to take their breaks for a social smoke and maybe even a game of domino's.

To view and shop the shirt click here.

THREE FESTIVAL OUTFITS ON A BUDGET

Fashion, Music

Face it, British festivals, are hard to dress for. What the weather has in store is anyones guess. Heat, hailstones or torrential rain, no one ever knows. In this post, I'll be dressing for all occasions, hopefully giving you a little inspiration for the up and coming festival season. I've chosen my outfits from three high street stores, Topman, H&M and Zara. I searched through their entire websites and picked my favourite pieces on a budget. I've linked all the details below if anything catches your eye.

Outfit one, The classic denim jacket. I spotted this immediately when scrolling through Topman's website, as you may have figured out by now I own a fair few denim jackets, but this one still jumped out at me. The colour of this jacket is the perfect denim blue, not my normal style, however, I'm a massive fan! The jacket is soft and very comfortable to wear, the blue denim is slightly washed out in places giving the jacket it's character. In my opinion, this jacket looks much more expensive than the £40 I paid.

Worn fastened to the top and with a contrasting bandanna the classic blue denim oozes style and is the perfect piece for your everyday festival look. Buttoned pockets for your wallet or mobile phone, this piece is functional as well as stylish.

I also bought a pair of Topman sunglasses as no one wants to take an expensive pair to a weekend in a muddy field! A simple and inexpensive pair are perfect as you can drop, sit on or even loose without constantly worrying. A pair of shades complete the festival look and were an absolute bargain at only £12!

To shop the jacket click here.
To shop the sunglasses click here.

My second look is quite similar to what you normally see me in. A polka dot shirt and a leather jacket. What I'm trying to create here are cool outfit's made up of cheaper alternatives, that way you won't care so much if you were to get a little mud on them. This look is made up of pieces I found at H&M, surprisingly for less than £70. A classic black and white polka dot shirt will always look at home at a gig or music festival, paired with a 'leather' "cough", you couldn't get any more rock & roll. This outfit is the warmer of the three, so if the weather doesn't play ball, you have a suitable alternative.

The 'leather' jacket I found in H&M was actually quite surprising, not only is the styling top draw, I think it looks pretty cool too. Yes, this jacket isn't real leather but at a festival who would give this a second glance? With its press stud lapels and diagonal zips this biker actually has a lot going for it.

To shop the shirt click here.
To shop the faux leather click here.

My third and final festival look is when 'fingers crossed' the sun makes an appearance. I decided to hit Zara for this look as their summer range is always a good one, especially their range of printed shirts. I decided on this palm tree inspired shirt, not full on palm tree's as that would look a little too summer holiday but this monochrome number. The material of the shirt is viscose so it's very light and breathable if things turn a little tropical. Sleeves worn down or rolled up this shirt will always look killer at a festival.

If the sun does make an appearance you'll need a suitable pair of sunglasses to match the outfit. I've chosen these thick black resin framed shades also from Zara. A few pounds more than the Topman glasses, but all round a lot better. The sunglasses I chose to complete this look are a dupe on the iconic Wayfarer. This style of sunglasses is synonymous with fame and music artists, the perfect shades for any festival. I think these black glasses compliment the shirt very well and make for another rocking festival outfit.

To shop the shirt click here.
To shop the shades click here.

DUPE SHIRTS

Fashion

The next three shirts I'm about to share with you were quite the surprise. I’ll describe them first as per, then show you how I've styled them into a look. However, I'm not going to tell you where they're from or how much they cost till the very end. This post is definitely worth the read, you may be equally surprised! All the shirts I'm featuring are half sleeve, does this mean I’m finally beginning to feel comfortable with my snowman arms? I don't know, I'm still unsure, ha. Nevertheless, I think the shirts I've picked up are perfect for our hopefully hot* British summertime to come!

The cut and shape of all three shirts are the same, with an open stitched down collar. To keep costs down, retailers often design one pattern for a shirt then use a variation of motifs and prints to make it different. This is exactly what this store has done, meaning whatever your taste, you're more than likely going to find one that suits you. These are the three patterns that caught my eye.

All three of the shirts I've chosen have a very distinctive pattern, this makes dressing the shirts up every day very easy. You can style them with a simple leather jacket or even wear the shirt alone, it’s a simple statement piece that you can't get wrong. The sleeves of all three shirts are turned up & stitched in place. You can always roll them up a little more depending on your taste, this gives the shirts a more personal twist, as well as making them look a little more tailored to you.

If I told you that all of the shirts I’ve featured in this post were from All Saints, you wouldn't question it. I personally think these shirts are pretty sweet and love the different patterns! Although I can tell you now, none of these shirts had the £90 A.S price tag. In fact not even half of that! The first shirt featured was a remarkable £4! Yes, four pounds! This shirt was in the sale and initially made me look on their website. I was originally planning to blog about that shirt alone, but after paying their website a visit, I came across two more shirts I actually really liked! I never thought of buying anything from this store before, but after finding these shirts I changed my mind.

I’ve now learned to never judge a book by its cover. Sometimes the look of an outfit is all based upon how you style it up. It's all about making clothes work with what you already have. All the shirts I’ve featured in this blog are shirts I purchased in NEW LOOK. The three shirts I've featured are all under £20. The last two costing £19.99. What a bargain!

Here's the link to check out what New Look men's website has to offer. Click here.

ASOS ANIMAL PRINT HAUL

Fashion

If you know me, you'll know by now I'm a massive fan of an animal print shirt. In my opinion, there's nothing cooler than a wild print, teamed up with a leather biker jacket. It always looks so bloody cool, it's very rock & roll! Carefully chosen printed shirts styled correctly, create a strong look, so don't be afraid of a little pattern! I've scouted out the best animal print shirts I can find from Asos and styled them to suit my look. Hopefully, this post will give you a little inspiration to try some bold prints for yourself.

This season, Asos have their animal print shirts down. They're some of the best I've seen both online, and on the high street, all for a very reasonable price. All Saints have also got some killer animal print shirts in stock too, but I can't justify buying one when there are so many less expensive alternatives elsewhere.

I've always loved a zebra print shirt. Believe it or not, a few years ago, it was near enough impossible to get your hands on a zebra print shirt, well a guys version anyway. Believe me, I tried! Thankfully now there's more out there as the animal trend is finding its way into mainstream fashion. Asos have aced it in designing this fitted half sleeve shirt.

Shop the ASOS zebra print shirt here.

The second shirt I chose was this black leopard print number, it's one of my favourites. I love the simplistic black leopard pattern, the design resembles more brush marks than leopard print. It's a simple monochrome half sleeve shirt, perfect for a summer holiday or upcoming festival. Since this shirt has a very busy print, I've teamed it up with a classic black denim jacket & black skinny jeans. This tones down the overall look of the outfit.

Shop the ASOS leopard print shirt here.

This shirt you've seen before, but I still wanted to include it into this post. I wore this shirt while I was on holiday in the States. This shirt was a surprise, as I found it in the women's section in H&M. This shirt, although a women's, still looks super cool, it's a lightweight material and has one AMAZING print! I bought this shirt in a larger size than I'd normally go for and rooted for a medium. No one would question if it was a women's shirt, in fact, nobody did, I was complimented on the shirt a lot. Sadly this shirt is now out of stock in H&M but there are similar ones you can find on their website.

The final shirt is a change for me as I normally go for neutral coloured animal prints. This burgundy colour has grown on me a lot the more I wear it. This shirt has a spread collar and has that vintage look. In my opinion, this is the perfect shirt for under a black leather jacket. As you can see it's a match made in heaven!