TOP PICKS FROM THE BIG WARDROBE

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

It's Day Three at the Westfield Big Wardrobe, and I decided to have a snoop around each individual wardrobe and pick out the cream of the crop. If you are heading down this weekend, be sure to check out these beauties...

Ted Baker

Lovely summer brogues....

A stunning shift dress featuring the print of the season

Chelsea Girl

Enjoyable retro displays and fun shoes...

...along with this perfect lace summer dress with angel sleeves. Very Florence-ish. 

Pauls Boutique

If you are brave enough, green denim hotpants for when the weather decides to warm up! 

Firetrap

You can enter a draw at the Firetrap wardrobe to win £500 worth of their delectable denim

Or you could opt for the leather jacket of dreams!

Delicious!

DKNY

Super hot pink skinnies - must have item of the moment! 

French Connection

There are a lot of giggles to be had at the French Connection wardrobe - not only a lovely selection of clothes, but the opportunity to win the entire wardrobe just by entering a draw. 

Not forgetting the infamous 'cat's cradle game' as mentioned yesterday, where you have to complete an Eiffel Tower in less than a minute in order to win a beach bag. I tried it out....

And promptly failed. Maybe you can do better? Let us know if you succeed!!

There are loads of great things to see, do and shop - not forgetting the fashion show on Saturday, which will feature looks from Ted Baker, DKNY, Kurt Geiger, Coach, Accessorize, Oasis, Warehouse, Mango, Next and New Look. There will be all kinds of trends on show, including Seventies, Festival and colour pop styles, so come down for your summer inspiration! The first show is at 1.30pm on Saturday and if you scan the front row, you might just spot the Fashion Editor at Large...

FASH JUNIOR GETS A MAKEOVER @ THE BIG WARDROBE

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Working in fashion land generally means no two days are the same, which is great, but it also means that sometimes your job description can be a little...flexible.

Fashion Junior at Large: Blogger, assistant, part time model?!

I do love it when the Fash Ed comes up with one of her 'schemes'. So today I found myself in the Westfield Big Wardrobe, with my fairly distinct personal image entrusted to the hands of hair and make up artistes.

 The Go Style area at Westfield's Big Fashion Wardrobe

Before: do I look a little bit nervous to you?

Now, it's safe to say I'm a little picky when it comes to my look; in particular the hairdo that led Brix Smith Start to christen me 'Kandifloss'. What can I say, I enjoy a bit of backcombing. So I was a little bit afraid at the sight of many a GHD. However, the lovely Haf of the Ginger Group vowed to give me bubbly, voluminous hair that no tail comb could ever achieve, and she dutifully set to work untangling the crispy hairsprayed cobwebs that masquerade as my actual hair.

Work in progress...

It was truly a work of curl-tastic art.

About half way through the curling procedure we decided to go a bit mad and attempt a full on Sandy from Grease look, so the curls got steadily bigger. By this time a small crowd had gathered to watch the tongmaster at work as she produced platinum ringlets. The final look was definitely something I could never hope to achieve without her expert skills!

 The Make Up Store's vibrant eyeshadow selection: which to pick?!

Next up, I popped to the Make Up Store's multi-coloured stand for some seriously vibrant lipstick, an eyeliner touch up and some coral blush. The kind people at Firetrap loaned me a wonderful leather biker jacket (which, to be honest, I didn't really want to give back) and all I needed was a handsome bequiffed fellow to play my Danny...

Did somebody say Katie Waissel? 

 ...unfortunately, that particular fantasy didn't happen, but I did get to try out some Tyra-approved moves and work an imaginary red carpet, which was fun. Check back tomorrow for the finished results!

In the meantime, the photo area will be open until Sunday, so why not have a go yourself? Remember to 'smize!'

Also, if you want to check out the photo-finish of your fashion finds at the Big Wardrobe, don't forget to try out the Tweet Mirror too, which some of you may have seen in action on the Queen Of Shops 'Secret Service'. It's all good fun! 

PS I'm looking forward to meeting new friends from the blogosphere at the Go Blog! tutorials tomorrow. See you there! 

Photos: Mimi Richman

IN THS WEEK'S GRAZIA...

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

...read all about this season's high street hit, the Whistles Carrie Skirt. The most tweeted/blogged about item of the moment, apparently. And the frenzy surrounding this skirt looks set to get even more ferocious when two more colour variations are soon to hit shop floors!

March Madness - Crazy Lady Sale

After 20 years of selling antiques, 13 years of online selling, it's time for this mass accumulation to GO!

I started on line selling vintage lingerie, but my passion for all vintage clothing kind of took over, so began to sell anything I found that I loved.



When I realized I couldn't fit my little car into the big garage, among many other factors, I made an "executive decision" ~ its time to purge. My passion is vintage lingerie, and am returning to my roots, everything else must go. So ~ we're having a crazy sale on Facebook only.



I'll be listing items from pottery to shoes on Facebook daily.. first come first serve! Only one of each item is available. These prices are not available at my shops, they are only on facebook.






All you have to do is leave a comment on Facebook indicating you want an item, with your zip code, and I'll change the listing to reflect the reduced price (everything BELOW cost) and your actual shipping and you can check out as usual using paypal or google checkout.


Kind of an on line garage sale ~ so I can get my garage back! :D

Find the wild and crazy deals here:


Vintage Pretties on Facebook

WESTFIELD'S VERY BIG WARDROBE ADVENTURE

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

I have a lot of a soft spot for Westfield London. My other half  Mary Portas helped launch it, and during my time as fashion news and features editor at Grazia I came up with the idea the we move the office in there for a week to make an issue of the magazine. It was a mad idea - and we had a total ball doing it. It took popping to the shops during the lunch break to a whole new dimension. We also won a Campaign award for doing it!  As a result of all the Westfield involvement ( I was on site in a hard hat before launch, and live locally) I've spent more time than is seemly inside this wonderful behemouth of a shopping centre. And yes, I like it.

So I was happy to say yes to working on a project with the Westfield gang this week. The project, as evidenced by the above photograph, is called "Big Fashion Wardrobe". The location is the same spot Grazia built our very real working office, and it is there for fashionistas to have a deeper experience of shopping at Westfield. It is also rather good on the feet as it is all in one space.

Chelsea Girl is there at Big Fashion Wardrobe - flashback to the Eighties! I'm sure I had a phone like that when I was a kid and dreaming of being able to shop at Chelsea Girl

The idea of the Big Fashion Wardrobe is to get fashion conscious girls and women to come in and engage with some of the brands who have stores at Westfield - the bonus is the stores have exclusive product and special offers it would be unseemly to ignore. Reiss, French Connection, River Island (who are in the midst of reviving Chelsea Girl - what River Island used to be called back in the day) Jaeger, DKNY Jeans and LK Bennett to name a few have Wardrobes in the space.  There is also this attractive shoe wall.

I do like a multi-brand shoe wall.

A view across the catwalk to some of the wardrobes.

The view from above - you can see the various brand wardrobes and runway to the left and centre. On the right in the bottom corner of the picture is the photo studio and make-up area where you can get a makeover and have your 'cover photo' taken - George Langford my fabulous Fashion Junior at Large is doing this tomorrrow and reporting back for  us. Along from the photo area is the bloggers lounge where we will be later this week.  

There is plenty of fun to be had in the midst of all that retail therapy - we particularly love Daisy Lowe's lomography exhibition, all in aid of the British Heart Foundation, and the chance to win a bag at the French Connection wardrobe simply by achieving the perfect cat's cradle 'Eiffel Tower' in less than a minute. Now that's something we haven't tried in a while.  To finish the whole event with a bang, on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd April there will be live catwalk shows all through the day. 

Find out all the details by following @westfieldlondon on Twitter. Or click here. 

More from Big Fashion Wardrobe tomorrow when Fashion Junior at Large gets a makeover - I am looking forward to that!

Funky Duds Would be a Great Vintage Fashions Shop ~ VFG Etsy Treasury

'Funky Duds Would be a Great Vintage Fashions Shop' by anothertimeantiques

Color, funky, MOD and all wonderful vintage clothes, hats, jewelry and accessories. Yep - that would be my next dream vintage clothing shop! And I'd pick all these super pieces from the Vintage Fashion Guild members to stock it!

Vintage Western Cac... bigyellowtaxiv... $8.00	1950s Aqua Blue Pat... pastperfectvin... $32.00	Vintage 60s Mod Flo... thevintagebung... $18.00	Vintage 70s Psyched... VintageFanAtti... $150.00
Vintage 60s Chiffon... VintageFanAtti... $85.00	VINTAGE 1960'S ... sewingmachineg... $14.99	vintage 70s funky d... bigyellowtaxiv... $36.00	Mod Cherry Red Vint... ClubVintage $18.00
Vintage 60's Ha... Catbooks1940s $120.00	Vintage 40s Hat Pur... damngoodvintag... $85.00	Yield Mod Ahead Vin... PersonalPursui... $69.00	Two pairs late 1960... kickshaw $18.00
Old Hollywood Rhine... walkbymoonligh... $75.00	Escada Mohair Cocoo... KitschNCollect... $95.00	Vintage 1960s SUPER... PinkyAGoGo $99.00	SUGARCUBES Vintage ... FastEddiesRetr... $10.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

STREET STYLE TREND ALERT: SEVENTIES BOHEMIA

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Here at FEAL HQ, each season we devote ourselves to analysing catwalk trends until we know them inside out. However, every now and then a certain style will become the look of the season, and have very little to do with the catwalk at all.

It has become clear that Summer 2011 will be the season of the Seventies, but not the colour-popping, grown up glamour of the Studio 54 styles that swished down the runway. Instead, there is a huge movement towards the scruffy, rocky, fringy, Stevie Nicks-y and maybe even bohemian-y look of the Seventies Woodstock chick. Yes, you did just see the word 'boho', but fear, we are not stuck in a 'Sienna Miller circa 2006' timewarp (a scary thought indeed). 

 

 The original queen of rock chick bohemia: Stevie Nicks

This is a decidedly darker, more mysterious take on hippy-trippy chic; we might be wearing flowers in our hair, but we'll also have thickly smudged black eyes and layers of leather, velvet and at least one item with serious fringing. Navajo details - turquoise, suede, beading - all play a key role.

Personally, I knew something was up when I had an uncontrollable urge to bid for this beaded, fringed kimono on eBay...

Now, you could blame this street style trend on our perennial love affair with free spirited music festivals and a desire to rebel against a frankly depressing state of affairs this year. However there is a more obvious culprit, who goes by the name of Topshop. Yep, the high street dictators have once again come up with the most covetable collections. What's more, they have seemingly gone against the catwalk grain - and it's working incredibly well. 

Topshop's 'Snake Valley' is exactly where we wanna be.

Smart people, those Topshoppers; they took the grains of Seventies catwalk inspiration, and have transformed it into what we all want to wear. Their behind the scenes film from the SS11 shoot sums up the Stevie Nicks feeling perfectly.

So it seems the scene has been set. Time to dig out those fringed kimonos, kohl pencils and snakeskin hotpants (maybe). No matter how you look at it, it seems bohemia is back.

Images: Stevie Nicks, Huffington Post, George Langford, Topshop