Purple Haze

I recently had a good 4 or 5 inches chopped off my hair, leaving me with mixed emotions. The ends were pretty ratty and I was way overdue for a trim, but it was those ratty ends that formed the bulk of my signature bouffant, giving me massive hair. I can't imagine life without stupidly big Gibson girl hair! So far I've been too scared to even try and put my hair up...fingers crossed I haven't lost my super-hair-powers.

I'm not in the habit of wearing leggings as trousers, but today's outfit was for a rather long car journey, where comfort was essential and being seen by the general public was minimal. I've had this blouse for a while now and thought it was about time it made a blog appearance. It's rather humongous on me, so belting is necessary, but it is light as air and shall be a delight to wear on a hot summers day. It is kind of fanciful, childlike even, but I love the jewel tones used and the little butterflies appliquéd all over.

Wedges (Pied A Terre), cardigan (Zara), blouse (Anna Sui), black vest [worn underneath] (Topshop), leggings (M&S)

Super new nail varnish. Wish I could find a lipstick this shade of bright purple.

Bang Bang

I go through phases of wanting a fringe, then realising I could never commit to it and that my signature bouffant of massive hair would be severely hampered by its presence. So, a few weeks ago I bought a clip-in fringe (or 'bangs' if you're American). I'm not convinced a fringe even suits me, but it's nice to forgo vanity and change things up once in a while.

Shoes (Ravel), cardigan (Zara), blouse (Topshop), roll neck (H&M), skirt, (Topshop)

Erdem meets Monet

You may recall this Topshop blouse from when I included it in a number of hypothetical summer outfits back in March. I really fell for the beautiful watery floral pattern and the colours used. The effect is that of a Monet water lillies painting, as re-imagined by Erdem, particularly the ss09 collection. Topshop is a little crazy these days with key pieces selling out fast or only being available in certain stores, so the good news is that not only did I manage to find the gorgeous blouse, but it was already in the sale. The bad news? Well, my size was nowhere in sight, so I had to settle for 2 sizes too big. It's therefore a little ill-fitting, but the blouse is so pretty I don't really care. Being 100% silk, the blouse is light as air, perfect for the warmer weather. Warmer weather also means I can wear open-toed summery sandals, something I have been looking forward to for the past few months. These silver snakeskin peep-toes aren't very comfortable, but they sure are cute!

Shoes (Miss Selfridge), cardigan (Topshop), blouse (Topshop), trousers (H&M), belt (gift).

Later on, I changed into an evening look for dinner round my nanny's. I tucked the blouse into my AA disco pants, and wore some incredibly comfortable heels from New Look.

Lilac and Red

I bought this rather summery, girly, flowery vest a week or so ago (those are adjectives I never thought I'd use). Initially, I just got it in black, but it was so so cheap, and there were so so many colours to choose from, I went back and got a mint green one and a lilac one. I've talked about my love/hate feelings towards purple on here before, but this particular shade of watered down purple is perfectly acceptable, and even rather lovely, with red accents. I'm really not a fan of purple and red together, but somehow lilac and red works. I wouldn't normally opt for lilac, but I wanted something to wear with my purple sunglasses...and today was sunny enough to justify sunglasses, for the first time this year! I did some sparkly lilac eye make-up, which was actually rather lovely but the camera didn't pick up on it very well. You'll just have to trust me.

Vintage shoes, bag (Anna Sui), vintage skirt, blazer (John Lewis), vest (Primark), belt (eBay)

I should probably adjust the straps so there's not quite so much bra showing through, its the sort of thing that really annoys me!

Feeling Floral

Yesterdays post was rather long winded so I'll keep this one short and sweet (a bit like the dress I'm wearing). I am wearing ye olde golde bargain boots yet again, with an outfit I've had in mind for a couple of days. I don't know why, but I thought the gold would somehow compliment the colours of this dress. It's probably the girliest thing in my wardrobe. I'm not normally a flowery print kind of girl, but I loved the colours of this one. The bright lilacy purple with the sagey green was too pretty to pass by. I don't normally go for shift dresses as I'm a bit of an awkward shape. If it fits me on the bottom, it is inevitably too big on top, and if it fits me on top, its probably too tight on the bottom. Well, I squished and squeezed myself into this one, and its worth effort. Putting on this dress immediately makes me feel like such a girl. The big ruffly swingy sleeves add to this feeling. The boots mean this outfit isn't too dressy, and more suitable for daytime attire.

p.s. I don't know what possessed me to do the 80's hair. Yes, thats a purple scrunchie. No, I feel no shame.

Dress (Topshop), Cardigan (Urban Oufitters), Boots (Office).