Wow - Heeled Boots!

I was searching the Topshop Boutique website and found these beauties! At £130, these heeled booties are made of leather and 5 inch high. They mix tomboy with fashionista; providing a middle ground between these extremes. I love the laces which are oh-so very sexy and buckles adding that military stance.

The Under-to-Outer Lingerie Trend

Ask me six months ago about this high new trend and I would have laughed in your face. However, the more I see the more I heart it! Apart from Marc Jacobs who went all superhero on everyone, I feel it's sexy but it can be subtle and in pale pastel colours, it can look dead cute.

Think knee-high socks, suspenders, boned bras, corsets, lace and see-through layers. Here are my favourites:

Straight from the the ready-to-wear collection by Tomas Maier for Bottega Veneta, where the all in white collection includes a boned bra corset and cropped trousers with a creamy cardigan. Note, the 'sensible' shoes which appeared on the catwalk this season as well as hairbands like she wore.

Model Erin Wasson wears a black lace dress for Teen Vogue. The long sleeves make up for the see-through areas. I feel it looks a bit plain without anything on her legs, and the idea of roughier boots is good, but these aren't right in green.

This girl has incorparated 2 trends into this outfit: itsy bitsy denim shorts matched with over-the-knee suspenders. On her top half she covers up; not to over-expose.

I love Christopher Kane's take on this trend. The whole baby doll look: white cropped tee with the plain bra with innocent shades of baby blue. The shimmery chiffon skirt is amazing; definately for those who are a bit tentative playing with this trend on an every-day scale.

Fashion and the Economy

Today the BBC said: "Figures due out later are expected to confirm that the UK came out of recession in the final quarter of 2009."

Today is the day of recovery because despite breaking news of "end of recession" this only means we are the economy is starting to go up since the economy contracted in 2008 by 6%.

Just the UK market alone was worth £48.55 billion in 2007, and as clothing and footwear adds up to 6% of the economy, the recession or branded 'credit crunch' has hit them pretty hard.

Stores closing, other large retails in debt or looking to be bought out or into a partnership, many find ways to cut costs. For example, Linda Scailon's Flow rings collection (see left). She states Flow is an 'eco-ring' but when I see it all I see is cheap. Yes, maybe it could be quirky and unique, but at that price I honestly could make my own.

With this month the VAT rising again back up to 17.5%, now is definitely not the time to spend. Recently I went shopping and as I perused the shelves - well, general mess of Primark -I noticed how the prices are sneakily going up. £10 for a cardigan? Come on Primark, you can do better than that!

Look out for for expensive lippies and hemlines going crazy because, my friends, we are not out of recession yet.

Sharing my art work

Yes, I decided to share my art. I was looking through blogs and found a scrapbooker who inspired me. I thought that as some of my work is fashion related then I should share it as part of my fashion blog. Here they are:

Using work from our structures projects, we had to use it to inspire us into making a fashion piece (below left). I made the silver jeans out of tin foil and drew squares into them to create an effect which looked like windows of a building. The square-shouldered white blouse is classic like many structures are and I played with it by adding purple detailing.

Yes, strictly this one isn't fashion, yet I really enjoyed creating it and the outcome I really like! In our culture project, I chose to do about England. I used printed out photos, torn up tube map and even a train ticket in my work.

Anti-Valentine's Day

Ugh, Valentine's Day.

Yes, I haven't had the best VD experiences and therefore find it harder with all the pumped out magazine trash about what to get your guy or similar. (Secretly, reading it is a bit of a guilty pleasure but don't tell anyone else that!) Come VD I will be at home alone moping about with no cards same as many others that I know, and so here is the birth of Anti-Valentine's Day (AVD).

Here is a 5 things that I (and maybe you!) will do on AVD:

1. If the only thing you'll be receiving is a card from your mum, then SPLURGE! Personally, as a teenager, I am very attached to high street shops such as Accessorize; this beautiful Betty Bird necklace at only £8 is a bargain.

2. Meeting up with my friends. They're all single and we'll steer cleer of any public places where couples may be.

3. I'll do something that actually makes a difference. I was researching the new film Valentine's Day(which includes everyone including Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner!) when I saw a rather special ad. I clicked and signed up. If in your most depressing moment, you feel no-one will ever want your heart, you can still do something worthwhile; donate it by joining the Organ Donor Register. I donated my heart and think this is the most worthwhile thing I could do with it this Valentine's Day.

4. I'll be spending time re-defining myself. Finding your own distinctive style can take a lifetime but by appreciating your likes and dislikes you can adapt and update it. Don't try and box yourself into a label or stereotype. For example, I love that laid back girl-next-door look but that won't stop me from buying biker boots or preppy blazers. You never know, I may be next-door neighbours to some cute guy who'll be next year's Valentine ;)

5. I'll be ending that long-lasting love affair with my awful makeup collection. My products are all old and near the end of their lives so I will treat myself to loads more. I'll be looking out for season highs but mainly key staples which suit my colouring and style. I'll definately be looking high and low to find a foundation as pale as my skin and a new mascara that won't cost the earth.

The Start

This is the start of my first proper blog where I will write about my interest in fashion. I'm just a teenager but fashion is something that compells me to be individual as well as others like me - a method of escapism I find.

So have a read and I hope I can inspire you like fashion inspires me. Thanks.