LOVER AW12

I just had to share with you my favourite looks from the new Lover collection. I rarely see a collection that sums up my own personal style (or what I would like it to be...) as well as these pieces do - red, lace, peter pan collars, a hint of leather, high-waisted silhouettes and flippy full mini skirts. Does it get any better? I think not. And I would gladly trade the contents of my whole wardrobe for the dress with the black lace sleeves! Although that would be kinda awkward - only having one dress to wear. What would I do on laundry day? Anyway, nip over and see the rest of the collection here.

Images: Lover

The fairy

My mother gave me this wonderful hair ornament a while ago, and I still love it. It's from a bridal shop, and even though a marriage isn't on my schedule right now, I love wearing this accessory. I think it suits the top pretty well. The pearls of the crown definitely complement the sequins, and together they give the outfit sort of a fairy look (with some help of the gorgeous environment).

ps have you already joined the giveaway?!

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Bag and skirt - ARAFEEL; Cardigan - ONLY;
Hair ornament - Bridal shop; Shoes- La Strada; Top - Storets

DIY BRIGHTLY LINED LACE MINI SKIRT

Recently I refashioned a white lace mini skirt by lining it with a tube of bright red/orange jersey fabric - inspired by similar skirts I saw from Sass & Bide and Taylor Tomasi Hill for Lane Crawford. I made a tube of jersey to add but alternatively you could add a ready made colored tube skirt and just alter it to fit the zip in your skirt if it has one. 

You need:
- A white lace mini skirt (here or here). A pencil skirt would also look good!
- Some bright coloured jersey fabric - use any colour you like!
- A needle and thread
- Scissors
- A Sewing Machine (optional)

How to:
1. Lay the skirt over the top of the jersey fabric to work out how long you need the tube skirt.
2. Cut out the fabric in the shape of the skirt, cutting a piece that is double the hip width of the skirt (so you can fold it in half and sew one seam to create a tube).
3. Fold the fabric in half.
4. Sew the edges together to create a tube - you can hand or machine sew.There will probably be a zip somewhere in your lace skirt - back or side, so  leave an opening in the seam of your tube for the zip.
5.  Put the skirt on and slip the tube over the top of the lining but under the lace - orientating the seam of the jersey tube to the seam of the zip
6. Push the tube carefully between the fabric all the way to the edges of the waistband and zip and pin in place. You want none of the original lining to be showing through.
7. Take the skirt off and carefully hand stitch the coloured jersey lining in place along the waistband and down the sides of the zip.

Voila! You should have completely covered the original lining with the coloured tube skirt. I didn't have much problem with riding up of the jersey lining - make your tube skirt quite tight to stop this happening.

And you're done! You can wear this skirt a few times like this, and then remove the coloured lining or replace with another colour afterwards. Talk about making your clothes work for you rather than the other way around.

Inspiration images via Sass & Bide and How I Met Your Style

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DIY INSPIRATION - LOVER LACE DRESS

This gorgeous lace dress by Australian brand Lover  has to be one of my favourite pieces from last year. It's been on my mind for ages and has inspired in me a love for this 'dippy at the front' hemline. Not something I would usually go for at all, but it's seriously grown on me recently. You could make something similar yourself by altering a thrifted dress and cutting and hemming to look like this - much in the same way I made the fishtail skirt. So what are you waiting for?

Images via: Hanneli and Not Quite Carrie

Increased level of comfort

Dreaming with eyes wide open is better than living your life while keeping your eyes closed. Don't ignore the small but beautiful things in life. Before you know, you miss your golden opportunity.

My apologizes for this cryptic one, but it's all true (in my opinion) so I want to share these thoughts with you. However, in case you don't feel like deciphering a quote at this time of the day, just take a look at the picture beneath. The outfit isn't a special one, but probably it's inspirational in case you're searching for a veeery comfortable, warm, and layered weekend look. ;-)

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Lace dress - ARAFEEL

DIY ON THE RUNWAY - CARVEN SS12

Best collection of the whole of Fashion Month? For me it has to be Carven. Ok, so I know that's a big call, but I challenge you to find another show with such perfectly measured ingredients. Dainty collars, digitised tribal and aztec prints, cut outs, lace inserts, embellished ikat shoes, technicolour backpacks, leather harnesses and a palette of reds, pinks, yellows and mustards. How Carven did all that without over-doing it is a mystery to me, but it works.

Of course, it wouldn't be a favourite if it didn't inspire a million different DIY ideas - so look forward to seeing a heap of cut outs, bright collars, embellished shoes and lace inserts here in the months to come. Why wait for these pieces to hit the stores in Feb/March next year when you can DIY them yourself? The whole seasonal thing has become so blurry to me that I have no problem mixing summer and winter colours.

Images via Eight London and My Fashion Diary and Style.com

DIY JASON WU INSPIRED LACE EMBELLISHED SWEATSHIRT

If you've been following me for a while you'll know that I fell in love at first sight with the Jason Wu AW11 collection. Gorgeous tailoring, velvet bow ties and thigh high splits were topped off with one stand out piece for me - a lace embellished sweatshirt. Inspired by this gorgeous collection, I recently embellished an Asos Lightweight Sweatshirt with some scalloped lace to wear to the Asos Tea Party. You may remember I did something similar to a pair of J Brand Jeans a while ago.

The project was really quite simple - I just pinned some scalloped lace along the shoulder seam and down the side of the sweatshirt and then carefully handstitched with black thread all the way around.

Update: In response to a question from a reader, in the corner where the lace does a sharp turn, I cut it and then layered the bottom piece underneath.

And voila! It's such a simple way to update a basic piece.

Have you voted for your favourite Asos Tea Party look yet? Make sure you do because one voter gets £250 to spend at Asos! Voting closes Oct 17th.

VOTE HERE

ASOS BLOGGERS TEA PARTY | Win a £250 Asos Voucher

Since moving to HK I've been to more high teas than I can count on both hands, and they're always a delicious mix of the quintessentially British (scones, carrot cake and cucumber sandwiches) and oriental deliciousness (egg tarts, pork bbq buns and green tea). I recently had the pleasure of being invited to a particularly lovely afternoon tea with a few of my favourite Hong Kong bloggers, where we got to style our most coveted Autumn/Winter Asos pieces.  It was a perfect afternoon with mountains of mouthwatering food, and we were fortunate to have the talented Carmen Chan (half of How I Met Your Style) on hand to take some pics of the festivities.

The challenge was to style an Autumn/Winter outfit for under £100. For my outfit I chose a plain grey marl sweatshirt which I (naturally) embellished with lace a la Jason Wu, a burgundy suede (very mini) skirt and a pair of ankle boots, all Asos of course! I also made a wool pompom headband to top it off.

OK so here's the best bit. Asos have set up a page on their website for you to choose your favourite outfit out of the 6 bloggers that were there - with one lucky voter winning a £250 Asos voucher! The blogger with the winning look also gets a £250 voucher, so head over and vote here.

I'll be posting the tutorials for the lace embellished sweatshirt and pom pom headband (as well as info on where you can buy a handmade tulle pompom headband of your own) over the next couple of days so stay tuned.

Wearing:

Asos Grey Marl Sweatshirt with DIY Lace Embellishments

 Asos Burgundy Micro Mini Skirt

 Asos Aggie Boots

DIY Pom Pom Headband

A big thank you to the gorgeous bloggers who made it such a fun day, including Sam of Sam is Home, Tania of T Like Bubble Tea, Sybil of The Style Voyager, Christing of Fashion Hedonism and Denise of Superwowomg. A few of the girls worked particularly hard with Asos to make it all happen so a huge thanks to you guys. The food and styling was impeccable - these girls should be paid to style events like this!

Remember to VOTE for your favourite look to win a £250 Asos voucher!

Thanks to Cafe Loisl and VERO for many of the delicious cakes. Photos courtesy of Carmen Chan and Sam.

J BRAND COLLABORATION - JASON WU INSPIRED DENIM

Recently I had the pleasure of collaborating with J Brand Jeans on a AW11 Runway Inspired DIY. I chose to embellish some jeans with lace - a la Jason Wu RTW. Was such a fun project! Thanks to J Brand for arranging it - head over to their blog to check out my post and lots of other fun bits and bobs.

Lace has been popping up everywhere for the coming fall/winter season, and I couldn’t help but drool over the scalloped lace embellished dresses, sweatshirts and jackets that came down the runway as part of Jason Wu’s amazing AW11 RTW collection. What better way to get a bit of lace in your life than by doing it yourself? Never one to shy away from a challenge, I got to work adding some gorgeous black scalloped lace to my favorite J Brand style in an amazing bright lime green. Lace + chartreuse = two of my favorite AW11 trends wrapped up in one fun little DIY package!

To do this DIY you’ll need:

A pair of jeans (go for a bright color like green, orange or red)
Around 3m of black lace, scalloped along one edge. Try to pick lace with some stretch.
A needle and some black thread.
(& some re-runs of Sex and the City to watch while you do the project!)

1. Measure out enough lace to run down both sides of jeans.
2. Cut the lace to fit, leaving a little so the ends can be folded and sewed to the underside.
3. Line up the flat edge of the lace with the side seam of the jeans.
4. Pin in place.
5. Hand sew all the way around the lace, starting along the straight edge and then moving to the scalloped edge. This is when you’ll need a supply of your favorite re-runs – it took me about 2 hours to stitch the lace. Hand stitching works best because it allows a little bit of stretch for when you put the jeans on.
6. Complete both sides.

Voila! How easy is that? The scalloped lace gives a gorgeous and on-trend look, and a friend mentioned when I was wearing them that the lace was quite flattering on the legs, um, score!