In line with my New Year’s Style Resolutions [yep remember those?] I thought I’d make it a feature out of recommended some of the coolest online shops run by fellow bloggers.
The first up is Sawyer & Scout, run by Erin. I’ll admit this is a partly a cheat as I won a runner up prize in her giveaway last week, which was a pretty little set of handmade charm bracelets.
But rest assured I’ll be heading over to snap up some items of my own. I’ve been a window shopper for her store for a while and am a big fan of her fandom pieces from The Hungers Games and Harry Potter. Her charm necklaces inspired by characters and quotes from the popular series are some of my favourites.
What I wore: Top [McFLY Tour 2007], Denim shirt [H&M], Leggings [New Look], Ankle Boots [Dorothy Perkins], Necklace [DIY-ed]
It’s been at least 5 years since I saw McFLY, so when they announced they’d be stopping off in Southampton on their ‘Keep Calm and Play Louder’ Tour I jumped onto Ticketmaster and booked those tickets faster than you can say ‘5 Colours in her hair’. Some may scoff at my love of this band but despite what you think of their recorded versions of their songs or their stints on reality TV shows, if you really want to get an idea of what McFLY are like as a band? See them live.
Me and my sister arrived at the Guildhall at about 6pm and two queues on either side of the building were already huge and only got bigger as we headed inside at 7pm.
There were two support acts. Raising Maisie (@raisingmaisie), a polished punk indie-eqsue band, all suited and booted with big hair and eyeliner. And the main support for the tour, Ivyrise (@Ivyrise). Ivyrise are a very McFLY-eqsue pop punk band who really played up the crowd, they also took to the queue before the gig to get people to sign up to their mailing list and I got a nice high-five from guitarist Dan cos I’d watched them on YouTube before the gig. Hopefully I’ll get to see them again in May on their tour.
It was another hour before McFLY came on and our view pretty much sucked for most of the gig (too many tall people and me at 5′ tall, you do the math lol) so most of my photos are pretty horrendous. They opened up playing ‘God Save the Queen’ on guitar, leading into ‘Nowhere left to run’, the whole crowd went wild, camera/iphones flashing and a giant surge to push forward towards the stage. Notable moments from the gig were old favourites such as ‘Star Girl’, ‘I Wanna Hold You’ and (a personal favourite for me) B-Side ‘No Worries’. It was a real treat to see them able to pull songs out from 4/5 different albums and medley them, as was the case with POV/She Falls Asleep pt2/Down Goes Another One.
Danny Jones was especially on point a this gig, channelling Springsteen’s front man capabilities to get the crowd to sing along to a medley of covers, of artists such as Rihanna, Whitney Houston and One Direction, mixed with ‘Everybody Knows‘.
What really impressed me was their 3 newest tracks; ‘Red’, ‘Touch the rain’ and the tentatively named ‘Do what’cha want‘. As someone who wasn’t that big a fan of their more electro sound for ‘Above the Noise’, these new songs are a promising return to their earlier The Who and Springsteen inspired sound mixed with a good dose of Blink-182.
And a McFLY gig would not be complete without a few random moments, from Dougie’s preacher call and response, Tom saving Dougie from a little humiliation of not knowing the whole of the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme tune and a Danny-led chant for their long standing guitar tech Neil.
All in all my boys did not let down. Their vocals and musician-ship really shine when live in front of a crowd and, quite honestly, they know it.
Definitely looking forward to the new album! And you guys should too!
Inspirational advice from the world’s hottest fashion bloggers
I don’t know about you, but style books tend to bore me a little. There’s a new celeb one out every other season and I’ve definitely flicked through at least 5 of Gok Wan’s, but none of them has held my attention as much as Style Yourself.
I remember it being mentioned here on the blogosphere, I can’t remember where exactly but I was definitely intrigued. So I ordered it online and it arrived yesterday morning. Because of work, I couldn’t read it straight away, but as soon as I got home and started to read Jane Aldridge’s intro I was hooked.
What separates this style guide from others I’ve seen is that it was first and foremost written by people like you reading this review. After seeing success stories such as Tavi Gevinson and Jane herself go on to become ‘internet famous’ and attention high fashion events to schmooze with the designer, I think we all forget they’re just like any other style blogger out there when it comes to styling themselves. They don’t have the money or luxury of hiring a stylist or shopping in Harrods every weekend, it’s all about experimentation and working with what you’ve got, which to me it what this book really preaches.
This theme of experimenting is a thread that runs through the whole book. Starting off with highlighting the basics, and when I say basic I mean basic. These are items of clothing you should have in your wardrobe, basic t-shirts, work dresses, classic jeans etc. Following this checklist, I own pretty much everything, except “one super fancy” dress but I’ll live without one for now. This immediately caught my attention. Already the book doesn’t encourage you to rush out and buy a new wardrobe but work with what you’ve got already (which I apparently have plenty of :D)
A feature I found particularly useful was the ‘remixes’. Spaced throughout the books, these illustrated and photographic guides give ideas of how to get completely different looks from one item of clothing – from something as simple as a grey cardigan to a pair of ballet flats. They also show remixes for accessories and even prints and colours.
Though this is primarily a style guide I also found the book to be a fantastic educational tool for novices entering into the world of fashion, with illustrated pages deconstructing basic items of clothing such as pants, tops and even underwear. As well as mini-profiles showcasing fellow fashion bloggers from around the world explaining how they come up looks.
Overall I think this guide is wonderful, both informative and fun. If I could fault it only anything, however, it would be to add more remix ideas – you can never have enough inspiration ^_^ One thing I noticed is that it never pushes you to buy more clothes. Unlike a lot of other style guides which try to get you to ‘shop for your shape’ or give you tips on how to dress a certain way, Style Yourself is all about freedom of expression when it comes to how you dress the book itself features so many different types of looks to inspire you to think out of the box. Again the theme of experimentation comes into play here.
I’d recommend it for any budding fashion blogger, novice to Internet famous, this is definitely a must read.
*images via Sawyer and Scout
