Bargainista

I have had a good sales. More by luck than judgement I have managed to add a fair number of lovely items to my wardrobe and even better I got a good balance of things I really wanted and was delighted to find half price and things I'd never buy at full price but just took a punt on.

In the former category there was some practical black trousers and jeans from Monsoon, where I managed to save £97.50 by erm spending £97.50. In the second category I took a liking to this Jade coloured sweater which is unlike anything else I own and which should complement said plain black trews beautifully

I also good some good results shopping on the Boden website which has a great sale, though the big sizes tend to disappear quickly. I love the print on this wrap dress, and really you can never have too many decent wrap dresses in your life. Reduced from £85 to £55

I avoided the shopping emporia that were like hell on earth (I'm taking about you John Lewis)  and my good fortune came I think by concentrating on just one or two shops and websites where I'd shop in non sale times rather than trawling around speculatively. I hope the sales were good to you too and that 2011 will be a happy year in dressing for all us fashion aliens

Thank you Mr McQueen

I am all booted up for winter. Thankfully I still have a couple of pairs of full length zip up boots from the marvellous Duo which are fine for everyday wear. If you haven't shopped with Duo before then I highly recommend them for the best fitting footwear available.

To supplement these I was looking for something in an Ugg type stylee. I well remember stomping about with freezing feet all last January and very nearly succumbed then to the Mucluk look. And when I saw this Moray Sky style in Clarks last month I absolutely fell for them.

I can tell you that they are a dream to wear, warm and comfortable, plus the elasticated button at the side means they are most accomodating to the chunky calf. I know fashion editors groan at the sight of these type of boots but they really are a wonderful triumph of comfort over style. Even on the most miserable day you feel like you are walking about in your slippers and its a strain to put anything else on your feet.

However, I have also purchased something a little bit more aethestically pleasing in the shape of these shoeboots which are part of the Autograph range from Marks & Spencer 

These come in a wide fit and are, considering the height and spindly heel, actually pretty comfortable to wear. Unlike most purchasers, I suspect, I also chose these boots as an ideal style to show off my hand knitted socks which I will wear proudly peeking out betwixt the cuff and the bottom of my jeans and or leggings (but never jeggings (shudder)).

I think that my new shoeboots are a distant, well-behaved cousin of this notorious Alexander McQueen design oft seen on the feet of Lady Gaga and other hobbling celebs 

Obviously these are a lot more extreme, but the contrast between the chunky platform toe and the stiletto heel is still there and this helps to flatter the leg giving an illusion of lengthening and while walking about I can imangine myself as some sort of forest dwelling creature, daintly stepping about amongst the undergrowth. Or something equally daft. So you see practicality and fantasy in the same post.

H&M Hopeful & Maddening

H+M are now selling clothes online, following in the footsteps of Gap and Zara, there must be some sort of critical mass thing going on here.

The range to buy includes their BiB  line which was a very welcome presence when it pioneered plus size fashion on the high street about 20 years ago. But unfortunately they seem to have been selling EXACTLY the same clothes all that time. Thanks, but I have plenty of black and white vests and I'm just grand for voluminous kahki parkas. Occasionally though you find something pretty like this leopard print cardi which I think I'll buy

Visit hm.com

Of more interest to me is the completly unannounced information that h+m's mainline range is now available up to size 24, at least online and in some only some items. For example in this very celine-esque knitted dress which is just calling to me with its comfort-wear shawl-collar

Visit hm.com

Bloggers may also wish to note that h&m's web site has a friendly link by each garment allowing you to copy the HTML for the image direct to your own site. This is an excellent idea which I wish more retailers would use instead of having tricksy flash images which are a nightmare to copy.

So while that's all good and positive I need to have a moan about my local branch of h&m in Glasgow. I popped in last night to have a quick look at what was available in the BiB section only to find that it had disappeared. When I asked I was told that all the stock had been moved out to another branch further out of the city centre as it was selling better there.  This is just maddening, I mean would h+m move all their leggings to another location if they were selling better elsewhere?  Sometimes I think stores should just erect a sign at the door that reads "FAT CUSTOMERS NOT WELCOME HERE" it would save all the time and effort searching for something that we might just want to give them our cash for.

Joe Browns for Simply Be

I've just had a look at the new autumn range that mail order company Joe Brown has produced for SimplyBe and I think its pretty fantastic.

For a start there is lots of it, not just one or two tops. This range includes some very covetable boots, accessories and lingerie and clothing ranges over six pages. The sizing goes from UK size 14-32 which is pretty unusual for such a fashion forward collection, the pricing is mid-range high street (£80 for a coat, £45 for jeans).

But mainly and most of all I like it because the clothes are gorgeous, there is so much in the range that I would wear that I cannot make up my mind what I should order.

I need some jeans just now and quite fancy these , just the right amount of slouch

This Coat is certainly an impact piece, imagine wearing it on bonfire night (I'm still not really getting this minimalist camel thing am I?)

And although its way, way out of season I love that this pin-up girl bikini is available to buy should I suddenly need to take a trip to Hawaii

My only gripe about this range is perhaps a political one. Joe Brown have a perfectly serviceable website  which sells many of the same clothes, stopping off at size 20. Why don't they sell the plus sizes to everyone there?

Frilling stuff

So, I've been reading everywhere that sleek, minimalism is the look of the season and camel is the only colour to be seen in. There is also a definite nip in the air which is good for me as I get to cover up all my extremities. Bearing all this in mind see below my latest purchase for Autumn.

I wanted to get something to mark this weekend's trip to London and alas I did not make it to Selfridges new Shoe Gallery, nor a chance to see the full Beth Ditto collection at Evans Marble Arch flagship. I also had a faint hope of visiting either Beige Plus or Wall London, but in the end my only shopping spree happened within the confines of Luton Airport.

Which brought me to this frilly, sleeveless top from Monsoon. I can't make up my mind whether it qualifies as suitable for workwear or purely weekend casual. But still I quite like the silliness of it and I'm looking forward to wearing it. Even if that happens only once.

Sweater Girl

I loves me a sweater dress, they are like the dressing equivalent of comfort food; tactile, warm and comfortable to wear. I look forward to autumn coming around every year so that I  get to try a new one and then I can pair it with my favourite pair of Duo boots, a good pair of black opaque tights and I'm sorted.
This year's model is a beauty. You can tell how much I love it because I'm prepared to post a picture of myself wearing it. Yes dear readers that's me in the pic below, not Elle Macpherson, do not adjust your screens.

This is called the Little Black Knit Dress and is from Planet who fearlessly sell online and instore in a generous range of sizes from 6-20. One of the things that prompted me to take a photo of me wearing the dress rather than just reproduce the image on the website is that it is difficult to pick up detail on black clothes. The dress has a "waterfall" detail at the front which is, well a bit sexy. You still can't really see it here though, maybe it shows better in this candid changing room shot.

I will of course be wearing this dress with appropriate underpinnings in order to maintain a smooth silhouette, in this case my favoured option is Scupltz tights, also available from Planet and a ladylike black slip underneath to stop static cling.

A dress like this will be ideal to show off some bold accessories and I'll be on the hunt for a good necklace to wear with it. Maybe a subject for a future post.

Spot the Difference

See if you can spot the difference between these two rather elegant , workaday pairs of black trousers

Struggling? Well the pair on the left is an image from the new Gap.eu website which finally allows Gap lovers the chance to buy their full range online in the UK. The pair on the right is from the US site Gap.com These are exactly the same trousers but sizing on the UK site only goes up as far as (US size) 14, roughly a UK size 18, while on the US site sizing goes up to a 20, which is the equivalent of a UK size 24.

Can anyone explain the reason for this disparity to me? Is it madness, rudeness, negligence, ignorance or stupidity on the part of the retailer?  These are exactly the same trousers people, made in the same factory. Pah!   

I contacted Gap.eu's customer service about this issue and recieved the following response. Its hardly an explanation.

"We appreciate the time you've taken to contact us about our current size selections at gap.eu.  Unfortunately, we do 
not know when we will be offering additional sizes in the future. We sincerely apologize for any disappointment this may cause."

I would ask anyone who take the time to read this post and agrees that this policy is unfair leaves a quick message on their website. Things will only change if they can be persuaded that public opinion is against them,

Blog Recommendation: Clothes on Film

As a bit of a departure from my usual posts I thought I'd draw your attention to a wonderful blog I've just discovered courtesy of The Guardian Guide. Clothes on Film is part reportage, part review of Screen Style and Identity. In recent posts it has provided an exclusive interview with Jeffrey Kurland on the clothes for Inception,  a preview of George Clooney's new movie (which I was excited to find is directed by Anton Corbijn) and best of all some fantastic archive material reassessed, like considering Audrey Hepburn in Jeans. Just look at this marvellous shot taken from her 1966 rom com Two for the Road, wouldn't you just have loved to be her best friend?

Jolie Julie: Evans brave new departure and why all women deserve the right to wear beautiful clothes.

Evans have embarked on an exciting and brave new step into high-end retailing by commissioning a range of dresses by Jolie Julie. These are all 100% silk with hand-finished details and they retail at £150 -£160; about four times what their usual price point might be.

There is a fascinating interview on Evans blog with their buyer who comissioned the range.  She relates how she spotted the range in Fenwicks and persuaded the manufacturers to make the range for them up to a size 26. I'm a big fan of this tenacious approach and wonder if Nikki Adams-Rose might be persuaded to have a word with those nice Marni people next season. I also really appreciate this level of transparency from a retailer about how they go about comissioning stock.

To me these dresses are perfectly lovely and exactly represent what I want to buy (I'll definitely be ordering the mint green style above) so I was surprised to read some very hostile comments about the range on the Evans blog and Facebook page which said the dresses were overpriced with much use of terms like "frumpy" and "shapeless". I fear that the younger Evans customer who is happy to pull on a slogan t-shirt over a pair of "jeggings" and who looks great in that can't possibly understand why someone might get excited over a beaded sash or a sheer bracelet length sleeve.

There is only a tiny amount of choice of plus sized clothing available at the luxury end of the market that might appeal to women over 30 with cash to invest in interesting clothes, something that Janet Street Porter has been recently been lamenting in her rousing Daily Mail columns  Similarly the battle cry of the great fashion journalist Caryn Franklin "All Women Deserve Great Fashion" could be the motto of this blog.  So finding this range, tiny as it is, is just wonderful and I hope Evans is able to find sufficent quantities of their customers fall into the same neglected demographic as me.

I like Woman Like Us

I'm very much in favour of a newish clothing website called Women Like Us. It features the designs of Tina Malhame who according to the site has designed for the likes of Monsoon and Marks & Spencer in the past and features a small selection of tunics and kaftans in sizes 10-22 which feature a wealth of unusual styling details that lift them into the realm of something a bit special. All their designs have sleeves (hurrah!) and necklines tend towards the modest.  There is also a selection of casual jewellery designed to complement the tops.  I would say that the clothes on the website are design rather than fashion led and would particularly suit those that love the sensual pleasure of natural fabrics and lots of textural effects such as ruffles, seaming and buttons.


I'd like to have reproduced a few images from their website but alas all are published in Flash and I can't grab stills from that format to show you, but I urge you to go and have a browse.

I can show you my new Medici Tunic which I ordered from the store at the beginning of the week and which arrived in the post within 2 days. Its a gorgeous turquoise linen with a really luxe looking bejewelled collar detail. Absolutely the perfect thing for wearing for a night out on a summer holiday.
The colour of the fabric is a bit brighter than the image shows here.

With your parcel you get a free brightly painted wooden bangle which is the kind of girly detail that further inspires  my affection for this brand. I really hope that the collection takes off and starts to include a wider range of clothing.

And this is me

Emboldened by some other bloggers who are far more widely read and better linked to than me I have decided to take the plunge and finally publish a photograph of me wearing some actual newly purchased clothes .

This outfit was bought, believe it or not, because I'm in a quandry about what to wear for a school trip to Alton Towers later this week. Obviously I want to be casual but still presentable at the end of a six hour bus trip to get there. I suspect that I won't wear this altogether and will probably give in to some jeans/tunic type combo but I still quite like the indivdual elements. All of which are from the Marks & Spencer Autograph range. I thought it might be interesting to compare how the items look on me with their model.

These are the Trousers which I really like though you might notice that they are coniderably less cropped on me. They have a cute peg-leg shape which is unlike anything else in my wardrobe and which does give a flattering silhouette.

I'm a bit less keen on this shrug but bought it in a fit of fear of British weather panic, in that I will always need an extra upper layer to ward off frostbite. It is a serviceable rather than a glamourous item but it does look good with the trousers. I'm also suspicious of viscose knits. i have one of those waterfall cardigans which I swear gains two inches every time I wear it out. Incidentally, I hate the way M&S have styled it over a leopard print top which to me just looks ill-matched and ugly.

Finally here is the shirt. Actually this looks better in the flesh than in either picture as it is a lovely silk/cotton mix and the shape is more like a dress with pin-tucks that puff out at the bottom. 

Chafing

This will be the least dignified blog post I am ever likely to write. Dressing can sometimes be a nasty business, especially in summer where the there is no option other than to wear fewer clothes and put more of your body on display. Some of this can be fun, in this category I would put self-tanning, body buffing, scrubbing and toenail painting; some are a bit of a chore, like constant depilation and some when you are my size at least, are just plain embarassing.

I speak of chafing, an inevitable consequence of summer temperatures coupled with the desire to wear a pretty dress. Most times in the past I have retreated into covering up areas which rub together. Evans still sell garments labelled "comfort shorts" which are really just knickers which cover your legs. They are functional but hardly exciting and you do live in fear of strong gusts of wind blowing what little cool you have away should you be caught wearing these in public.

A more modern solution is Spanx and its derivatives, of I which I have a drawer full. These are wonderful for smoothing bulges and pulling bits of you in but they are not something which I would want to wear everyday, especially in hot weather, save them for cocktail dresses and summer weddings.

So I am happy to be able to write that I have found a new option in the shape of Body Glide, a product imported from the US which comes packaged like a deodorant stick and which you simply apply to areas like your inner thighs where you are likely to rub and you can move about in comfort. So far I've used it with considerable sucess, while wearing my denim skirt today. Its not exactly been Saharan in Glasgow this weekend so I've not tested it to the limit of its abilities but I am confident that the product will work even if it needs re application.

The product is avaialble in the UK from Amazon, but I bought mine from a local independent running specialist Achilles Heel (also fine purveyors of FitFlops and Sports Bras) as the product was designed with highly toned athles in mind rather than fatties like me. Nonetheless it does the job.

So now that's out of the way here's a pic of just the kind of pretty skirt I should buy to celebrate my newly liberated legs

This Pretty Flippy Skirt is from Boden for £49.00

Clark's shoes-some summer styles that work

My resistance to gladiator sandals hardens everytime I am in a mixed crowd in sunny conditions. I recently saw an extremely chic woman dressed in a breton top, navy blazer, coral scarf and good jeans all but undone by the ugly flapping straps around her feet. The Sartorialist has yet to feature anyone stylish wearing this item.
So what then to wear on your feet in summer? I have my beloved converse, but sometimes you want to dress up a bit more so I started browsing around and found a few lovely styles, surprisingly perhaps from Clarks, the high-street staple. All are available in UK sizes 4-8, including half-sizes in a standard width-fitting.

I have purchased this pair of gentle navy wedges already. I think they'll look perfect with a pair of cropped trousers from last year and I already have a navy bag to wear with them. The style is called "Pillion Race" which I'm not quite sure makes any sense as a name, can pillions race?

There are plenty of ugly shoes in Clarks so it can feel like finding a diamond in the rough when you see something acceptable on their shelves. I've shown another couple of desirable examples below from the summer collection, all retail for about £50.

This pair reminds me of the kind of thing Faye Dunaway would have worn in Network and to me has a whisper of Roger Vivier about it.

I love the funkiness of this style which is also comes in navy suede. I like it because its a wedge which gives plenty of height but which looks pretty easy to wear.

My Lovely Evans Bargain

There is so much positive stuff on the blogging front about Evans that I have long wanted to join in the fun and write about all the desirable clothes I found in there. Trouble is I could never find anything much to buy there apart from the odd pair of cute shoes. The chain are ever improving though and in a recent visit to their Braehead branch I saw this perfect summer top hanging on the rails.  Priced £29.99 I trooped happily off to the checkout to purchase said item; the lady behind the till scanned the label and asked me for £10. I questioned her mistake and so she checked another of the same item but no, still a bargainous tenner.  I can only assume Philip Green is making so much money off Topshop and the other Arcadia stores that he gives away stuff to needy Evans shoppers for cost price. I'll be back. The top is also available in mid-blue. Can't locate on the Evans website, possibly because of the pricing anomaly.

A quick word on the hosiery front.  I recently tried Scupltz tights and leggings which Planet are selling in their UK stores and found them pretty marvellous. Normally I'd pay what, £6 tops for a pair of M&S opaque tights. These babies cost £22 for a pair of their sheer shaper tights and are worth every penny and more. They fit beautifully have a great true black colour, hold me together nicely and have lasted a few machine washes.  As a late adopter I'll be wearing their leggings (£33) under summer dresses and shifts safe in the knowledge that the knees will not have gone baggy, that's my idea of investment dressing.

Bodysuits

The bodysuit seems to have returned to stores after a twenty+ year absence and I'm hailing this as a good thing. I remember these with great fondness from the late 80's when I had a drawer full of them from Oasis, Next and I think one by DKNY.
They are excellent for providing a nice smooth line around the waist and accentuating the torso. For the past few years we seem not to have been tucking things in but just letting tops kind of fall around that area (or shudder, creating a muffin top). Even if you are layering cardis or jackets on top to me it makes sense to have some neater proportion underneath. I always thought they looked particularly nice worn with a printed a-line skirt.
I first saw these on sale at my local Sainsbury's of all places. They had quite a few colours plus a leopard-print and a striped version all for £8-£10 including their plus sized True range. A net search located a few more sellers including Henry Holland for Debenhams and Oasis but not yet any of the high street sellers with extended size  ranges. They will follow suit soon; just look at the current tragic situation with jeggings.
I think this time I'll be buying mine at American Apparel. Apologies for the cheesy photo but this is from their website

This version comes in four colours and has a high spandex content that will provide a nice bit of support and shaping. It goes up to size XL which should be OK for me as UK size 20. These things stretch trust me. I was also pleasantly surprised to find on the AA website that there are a fair number of styles in 2x and 3xl (not alas bodysuits as yet)

I cannot leave the subject without touching on the oft-commented on problems encountered in the ladies room whilst wearing these items. Again I take you back to the late 80's/early 90's which for me were my serious drinking days. Even through that haze I think I managed to avoid serious accidents and it was simply a matter of practice. Dungarees in my expeirence are far, far tricker to manage.

Yummy Tummy Mummy buys Mac

Today I bring you the mildly exciting news that Boden now sells in sizes up to a UK 22. I found this out when I was searching for a new spring mac and was left in near despair by the unspiring choices available at my usual ports of call. I bought a Betty Jackson short Mac last year which looks fine on the hanger but once on my pudgy form the fabric belt twists and moves around and the shoulder flaps, well, flap. So I was looking for something streamlined but with distinctive styling. When I found this

Seems pretty perfect. Nice big buttons, good length, my favourite princess seaming; it should arrive in about three weeks so I look forward to reporting on its wearability.
I've used Boden a few times in the past, notably for their brushed cotton pyjama bottoms which kept me warm in bed over this last horrid winter. And their kidswear is very durable for those with an interest it that area.
I'm delighted that they are now expanding their range into a larger size; though I couldn't find a specific explanation why on their website, so I'm assuming its demand led. Boden have a niche market providing funky clothes to the middle-class, (approaching)middle-aged market. Their catalogues are always bursting with colour and are pretty things to flick through and their website is easy to use with excellent product descriptions and customer reviews. Its a sensible choice; you won't get the same hit shopping here as you might if you were grabbing a taffeta  skirt in the Vivenne Westwood boutique but they do feature clothes that are classy and fun to wear like the silk dress and cardi combo below.

Colour?

Presenting my new shoes, from Evans which I purchased yesterday. Pretty aren't they. But where the flippity am I actually going to wear them? And with what? Still its lovely to buy something that has a bit of colour to it, prancing about the house in them last night was spirit-lifting in itself.

I have to say sadly these were about the only thing in Evans that I wanted to buy. What with the relaunced blog and images from the spring catalogue that were light years ahead of the usual poly-jersey tat that the shop sells I was hopeful for better things. But I still found the selection very conservative and uninspiring and worst of all the quality of the materials used was pitiful. Print dresses that look pretty from a distance as you get closer show signs of limpness and lacklustre colour that would get considerably worse after a couple of washes (see how middle-aged I am).

I was unexpectedly in search of colour yesterday on a quick shopping trip into town which saw me purchase a green stripy cardigan from Betty Jackson Black (pic hopefully to follow) This makes it the third green cardigan in a row I've bought to celebrate spring. It must say something about me. Also whilst looking at depilators in Boots I was accosted by a young Benefit salesgirl who persuaded me to sample their lovely new Sugarbomb blush 

Four colours in one-how could I resist?  

Anna Scholz-In Black and White

Anna Scholz has announced on her website today that she is splitting her collection in two. From now on there will be White Label using luxury fabrics and detail and selling at familiar designery prices (around £369 for a maxi dress) and more excitingly, for us mortals not posing for a magazine shoot, there is her new Black Label Collection which is priced a bit lower; this lovely poppy print dress is £195.

That's not as cheap as her diffusion collection for Simply Be, nor her erstwhile Debenhams line from the early 1990s which I loved, but its more accessible nonetheless. While I very much like the AS range and  admire it as being one of a tiny number of high-end brands designed for plus-sized women I do feel that the shapes used are a bit repetitive. There is a sense that every collection retreads the wrap dress, maxi-dress and kaftan permutation in every new print that comes into her workshop.  So while I might want to buy one dress for a summer wedding I'm not sure that I'd ever need a second one.

However there are some directional bits in the black label that seem fresh; like a cute nautical tunic which I think is a wise way to go towards developing a clientle.  Also the website benefits hugely from having the clothes modelled on a human being rather than the old dress form. I'd still wish for more tailoring but still this is another reason to feel optimistic about the amount of choice there is out there for non-standard sizes. The range is available from UK size 18-28.

ASOS Curve

It looks like it might be an excellent spring for plus-sized shopping. A few things have converged around just now to make me think things are rosier than they have been for ages. Firstly there was the publication in the Guardian last Saturday (30th January) of Young, Fat and Fabulous a glorious article by Kira Cochrane highlighting the vibrant world of plus sized fashion blogs which thrive despite an (until now) complete lack of media presence. I knew of some of the blogs mentioned such as Fatshionista and Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too but I had no idea of the scale and diversity of what's out there. I'll just mention The Pocket Rocket as one which is beautifully written and laid out for now. I guess the USP of this blog if it has one is that I'm a generation older that most others and I'm desperately trying to avoid the matron look. Not that Hattie Jacques couldn't rock a look, but still. My elusive search is for a middle ground where fashion concept meets quality. If Banana Republic made clothes in my size I'd have nothing else to write about.

From a scan of these blogs I've learned that Evans spring collection for 2010 looks to be a real leap forward in terms of style with delicate frilly dresses inspired by Chanel and Balmain shoulder-padded jackets. I'll look forward to browsing there for the first time in ages.

I'm also greatly inspired by the launch of a new collection in size 20-26 by ASOS called Curve which intelf is a genius name, how come noone did that before? Its a small collection of about 50 pieces including the boring basics like vests and leggings. (I guess we all need them for layering). However there are some fantastic things like a long line double breasted blazer and stone me: for the first time in my life i am considering the purchase of a jumpsuit as the range has a strangely alluring Chiffon cross -front number. It helps tremendously that all the range is shown on a real human model. I have already ordered the navy blue dress shown here to wear with skinny jeans and I'll need to find a chunky gold-chain necklace somewhere to go with this.

Nordstrom now ship to the UK

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is more choice in plus-sized fashion in the US compared to the UK. This is not something I've always found to be completely correct.  Mainstream mall fashion like Lane Bryant is rubbish and nowhere does the comprehensive basics as well as our own Marks & Spencers do.

However American department stores do score highly in the middle market where there is a complete lack of choice in Britain. Stores like SAKS and and Neiman Marcus will routinely stock clothes from labels like Eileen Fisher and Anne Klein where the quality if not the style are way better than high street equivalents.

Now Nordstrom are providing a mail offer service in the UK . I should say this is across all their range not just plus-size clothing. But some of the clothes they offer are lovely like this dress by Adrianna Papell which is unlike anything I've seen on sale in this country. I need to find an excuse to order and wear it. There is also choice from some designer diffusion lables like Lauren by Ralph Lauren and the skinny-minnys favourite Calvin Klein is represented; check the lovely blue draped dress under this label that I am seriously coveting. 

Bon'a parte

Bon'a parte is a mail-order company originally from Denmark who are now selling in the Uk The styling in the catalogue is a bit odd; there are a lot of printed harem trousers and the like which look "interesting" on the models but I'm not sure if this would transfer well for a jaunt down Byres Road. That said there are some gorgeous things, put together in a wearable way and available up to a UK size 26. There is also an option to buy entire outfits as pictured, which maybe takes some of the creativity out of dressing but which might work well for the seriously time challenged trying to keep up with current trends
Overall the look is a prettier version of the casual layers you get in Fat Face or that Next misinterprets every season

Tanya Gold in today's Guardian

I'm not sure I believe everything Tanya Gold has to say about why fashion is so hateful in today's Guardian but it sure is a great polemic

Click here to read