Elle Intern Competition

So Elleuk.com have launched a competition to find their next intern. They are offering a 6 month…. PAID…. internship. Oooph. So, along with 100s of other girls, I entered, and here is my entry on SS11 trends:

If last season saw us drinking hot chocolate in front of the fire, then this season sees us hopping atop a Harley Davidson, brandishing a multi-coloured Mohican. Rebellion pervades the catwalk this summer, like a v-sign to last season’s muted tones, restrictive knits and lack of skin. Veteran rebel Christopher Kane has upped his ante for 2011, giving royal fashion a perverse make-over with acid green skirts paired with argyle twinsets. Even notoriously serene designers have been seduced by colour. Prada seeks to galvanize our senses with a cacophony of tropical prints and block colour, and Fendi too, who once heralded the nude and pales trend, has had some intensity injected into its colour palette, with flashes of tangerine and aqua. But if colour becomes too saccharine, we can turn to Givenchy, who serves up gothic decadence with a hint of leopard, to shake things up, and Balenciaga who reactivates androgynous chic, with boyish blazers and biker jackets. Lanvin amplifies the romance trend of previous summers, with an acutely feminine collection; his gliding layers of fluid silk and plunging necklines exude glamour. Overall, it’s another tantalizing sartorial season, full of energy and zest.

If you like it, please vote for me, by simply going here:

http://intern.elleuk.com/index.php//contestants/emily-bratt

and clicking ‘pick me’.

Thank you ever so.

Olivia, she’s so Wilde

Oh Em Gee. How totes gorge did Livs look at the Globes?

I do love all the best dressed pictures that appear after award ceremonies – nothing quite like indulging in a bit of bitchy judging from the safety of your laptop screen.

Often, I don’t agreed with the some of the best dressed candidates – like old Kirsten here in a Prada dress at some charity do.

YAWN.

According to TeenVogue, she was one of the best dressed… Wow, that event must’ve have been wild. But who am I to judge, I read award ceremony coverage in magazines and think ‘yeah, that dress definitely deserves the best dressed list’ only to discover it’s not listed in that one…

But OLIVIA is something else in that Marchesa dress. It’s like something out of Cinderella! I’ve always been an Olivia Wilde fan since the days of the O.C. where I fancied her in a I’m-not-a-lesbian-but-neither-was-Marissa kind of way. I have always admired her feline features and deep American voice. Oh and bless her, she was only quoted as saying that she didn’t eat before the Globes, so that she could fit into her dress – oh gosh she’s just like you or me!! I once didn’t eat just before I had to fit into a certain dress, god we’ve got so much in common! Maybe I’ll write her…

Anyway… this has got me totally hooked on Marchesa, whose dresses are overwhelmingly beautiful; oozing femininity and fantasy. More on that later.

Maxis for Pears

The end of Christmas and New Year needn’t be depressing when you remember that all the clothes you’ve lusted after over the last year are halved in price come January! Ahhh the January sales, the only sales where you can be sure that genuinely popular items have been genuinely reduced in price. Because the number of times I’ve been attracted by the word ‘sale’ at any other time of the year, only to find that mysteriously, I’ve never seen any of these ugly sale items before, yet they’ve been generously reduced from £60 to a fiver! Only a fiver!… Well then… maybe I should just…. I mean, perhaps a purple tie dye long sleeved synthetic top is just what I need….

NO.

Continuing with the maxi obsession, I have been scouring the sales for the best of reduced maxi marvels. However the problem I always come up against with winter maxi hunting is trying to look good in the dreaded tight, show-all-the-lumps-and-bumps, synthetic fabric that so many WMs are made of. For pear-shaped ladies like myself, this kind of hip and bottom hugging fabric is an absolute disaster. So us big bottomed girls might have to steer clear of basic (cheaper) maxis,  but all this means is that we can easily justify a little indulgence in chiffon/velvet/linen numbers with beautiful embellishments, like a dramatic flared skirt or cascading layers.

So, here are some of the best maxi sale items I’ve found, best for pear-shapes (think: fall from hips, not cling to hips).

ASOS

Left to right…

1) Side Puddle Maxi Skirt £31 (was £70)

2) Waterfall Chiffon Skirt £30 (was £60)

3) Black velvet skirt £16 (£32)

 

TOPSHOP

1) Kate Moss Lurex Winter Maxi £20 (was 60)

2) Kate Moss Ruche Waist Maxi £30 (was £80)

3) Knitted Kimono Maxi Cardigan £10 (was £46)

 

URBAN OUTFITTERS

1) Sparkle and Fade Maxi Skirt £22 (£48)

2) Reformed Alyson Leopard Maxi £20 (was £65)

3) O&O Sheer Paisley Maxi Dress £20 (was £48)

 

RIVER ISLAND

1) Gold pleated maxi skirt £20 (was £44.99)

2) Chelsea Girl Print maxi dress £25 (was £50)

3) Black Mesh Maxi Skirt £7 (was £29.99)

Maximum Effort

The maxi skirt was another of those trends that instilled an irrational fear within me. I had no qualms about the maxi dress – having seen enough photos of bronzed Lauren Conrad sailing down LA streets in one, to convince me of their beauty. But the maxi… skirt? Is that not just one of those multi-fabric, multi-coloured monstrosities that hung in Topshop etc (as well as those shops that smell really strongly of incense and sell rain sticks..) many summers ago? Or perhaps it’s one of those grey wool, slim line efforts that the over 60s wear because knee length is no longer acceptable? Well, several gorgeous editorials over the winter months, including this one in the January issue of Company, have shown me that the maxi skirt is in fact a beautiful and practical way of staying boho and fairytale-esque after the last of the summer sun. But if you’re not down with such dreamy femininity, you can take the grungy stance and pair with baggy jumpers and worker boots. And so, nobody can say anything about not dressing appropriately for winter. It’s the perfect winter garment!