No Debutante - Happy Shopper

I am very excited today as I have just realised I now have 100 Google+ followers! Whoop! I am really, really happy that you are all interested in all my fashion moments, current obsessions, personal style, my somewhat alternative lifestyle and what I have say, I am right chuffed!! Thank you xx

Today we are having a look at some more personal style outfits that I wore back in Sept, It's nearly November (What???) so let's get cracking!

The first outfit was worn on a day about town in Bristol with my family (Phil and the kids) as I recall we visited a few skate shops where Phil purchased some jeans from the Levis Skateboarding Collection, I have to agree they look pretty cool on him, I really must do a fashion post on his skate attire, he will hate the idea, which just encourages me to persuade him to do it! We ended up buying Sylvie a Hello Kitty skatedeck (Girl X Mike Carroll) Phil's excuse was that it will be a piece of art for her wall and she can skate on it when she's older! It looks the cutest, some of you may have seen it on my last Instagram post. For the skate shop tour I wore my Kuccia bomber jacket with a crop top, denim cut offs and leopard print Converse, I couldn't decide on which bomber jacket (both from Topshop) to wear but opted for the Kuccia for a bit more colour, I love both though! Why didn't I buy anything on this shopping trip? Well, I was saving up all my energy for my Primark Sunday shop that I went on the following day and I was very excited about this kids free shop too!!

I have added a couple of images of Mika and Sylvie from the skate shop tour day, the Instagram (second Mika image) of Mika has attracted a lot of interest on Instagram, it's had nearly 100 likes and this rises on a daily bases. Mika's personal style pic has more likes than I have ever had on Instagram and I can't even take the credit because he styled himself on that day! I am really proud of the stylish little boy though. I taught him all he knows!

On Primark Sunday (second outfit) I wore quite a simple outfit, I usually always wear a skirt and tights on a shopping trip so I can try on dresses and skirts easier and to see what they look like with tights (in the UK you spend most of your time covering up your legs due to the colder climate). So I wore my skater skirt, Sonic youth tee, a denim jacket and my leopard Converse again. I like it that the whole outfit is not new, the jacket is one of my hoarded vintage ones, I just like to mix and match (or miss-match in most cases) my whole wardrobe mixing old and new items, sometimes the whole outfit ends up being old stuff which keeps me believing that keeping (certain items) for years is a good thing! I can wear my vintage, my Primark and my designer stuff all at once and that makes me happy!!

So, what did I buy on Primark Sunday?? You'll have to wait and see.....

Watch this space to see what Autumn Winter goodies I bagged from Primark back in September. Two bags?? Exciting!! 

Thanks for following and see y'all soon xx

ND xx

Teddy Girls

It has been a while since my last post due to my still (yes still) living in the bombsite whilst my retro kitchen caravan diner is being created. A lot has happened and it is looking great but amidst the chaos I have also managed to have guests staying over followed by a bad cold which knocked me for six! Anyhoo, back to this week and we have been visited by a hurricane in the UK, it really has not been as bad as it sounds to be honest, but bad weather and the school holidays do not mix and we're only on day one!! The promise of a trip to buy a pumpkin for Halloween has kept the boys sweet and whilst the baby sleeps I shall attempt to write a blog post that I have had waiting to go for a week, which for this blogger is very frustrating!

Today's post is influenced by Teddy Girls. I had collected a few images randomly on Pinterest over the past year or so and have now realised I seem to have loads and it's about time I shared them with you. I am very influenced by the 1950s, androgynous styling, punk and Rockabilly and the latter two inspirations were one way or another inspired by The Teds scene from the 1950s. I love tough, cool women and although there are great Teddy Boy photographs to share with you too, I just want to focus on the girls from the Ted Scene. I am going to show you some images from Ken Russell's Teddy Girls (the first Teddy Girls I noticed on Pinterest) up to the modern day versions of Teddy Girls and contemporary fashion shoots which I find really cool, tough and inspiring. 

Ken Russell's 'The Last of the Teddy Girls' series (images 1- 5) were photographed on the streets of war torn London during 1955 and are a fantastic example of early British youth subculture, some of the images look so contemporary that these girls could easily be seen as part of a British (or anywhere for that matter) subculture now. I was surprised how androgynous and tough some of these girls looked and I wonder how much of a shock it was at the time to see girls dressing this way? I love all of these photographs of Teddy Girls, whether they are original Teddy Girls or contemporary photoshoots, so let's stop talking and get on and with looking at these brilliant, tough and stylish Riot Grrrlls! 

All images are sourced from my Pinterest Boards and are courtesy of Ken Russell, Roger Mayne, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Chris Steele Perkins and Bust.com. I apologise for any missing contributors but I could not source where all the images came from originally. If anyone could help out with anyone I have missed out I will happily add them to the post! 

Thanks for reading and hello to my new followers! I promise not to leave it so long next time!!

ND xx

No Debutante - The Clash

Three weeks on am I am still living in an upside down house where half of my kitchen is still in the living room/ lounge making things impossible to keep tidy and even more impossible to find!! So is the chaos that surrounds me!! This would be one of the reasons why I have been behind with my blog posting and even more behind in catching up with all the bloggers I follow! I have also taken a back seat with the daily fashion photos due to the fact that there are builders in my house and I don't really want them to see me taking my personal style photographs! I'm sure my personal style confuses them enough on a  daily bases without my flauting it in their faces with constant selfies!

Today's personal style pics show that I am not afraid to clash and mix up prints and colours, if you are a regular reader of my blog then you will already know this. I wore both of these outfits to work and I love it that I can now wear my jackets again since the weather has got cooler. I have had the H&M leopard print fur since Lucian was a baby (he is now 9 years old) and it is a classic part of my wardrobe that just keeps on giving! On this occasion I have paired it with a rockin' skull tee, denim cut offs and my favourite Dr Martens (I have other pairs but these are just so worn in and comfy that I can't stop wearing them!). 

I had caught sight of myself in a shop window on my stomp to work and realised how outrageous I looked with my pink hair, pink sunglasses and my pink headphones clashing up a treat with my leopard print coat. I had to laugh to myself and took a quick photo on my phone so I could show you guys the extreme of my possibly, out of control, accessorising! Love it!

The following day I was inspired by the 1990s and Bjork and popped my hair up into a style that was a bit of a regular for me during the 1990s when I was a teenager. This time I like those Bjork Buns even more in my pink hair! I went for a bit more print clashing with camouflage and Breton stripes worn with denim cut offs again, ankle socks and creepers. The look was both a mix of cute and tomboy style. Business as usual!

Thanks for following and reading and I shall be back soon with some more fashion fun, perhaps looking at another of my current obsessions or my favourites from the autumn winter 2013/14 shows. Hmm? You'll have to wait and see, until then, have a good time, all the time xx

No Debutante - Pretty RIOT

My style is mostly a mix of girlie girl and tomboy androgyny, I have no reign on this and sometimes it is ultra girlie and other times I am one of the boys. I do not dress for my mood, I can be an angry riot grrrll all dressed up pretty or a tomboy talking about make up and kawaii style. I do however get constant inspiration from the people around me and whatever my current obsessions may be at that time.

Today my personal style outfits feature denim and elements of skinhead style both looks have the Pretty Riot Grrrlll style going on!

 

The first outfit features my H&M skater shirt dress worn with my denim waistcoat, tube socks and Dr Martens to give it a tough edge. There is something a little tough about wearing a dress with Dr Martens and no tights, I think it's the fact that you are exposing your legs but not in a provocative way, it's more of a 'yeah, I have bare legs, so what?' Nobody messes with you!  On a more femme note my hair was centre parted with asymmetric twists and plaits keeping things girlie and grunge.

The second outfit is a bit more tough and androgynous. I am wearing my denim and lace panelled sleeveless shirt, denim cut offs and my new favourite Topshop airforce bomber jacket. My hair looks is plaited and pinned up in a messy, just got out of bed look, the total opposite of the way I used to wear my hair up, where perfection was key! I like the 'I did it myself ' look to an up do these days and with the masses now perfecting the beehive it's a case of anything goes! Don't be scared to try out new styles, who's judging??

Which is your favourite look?

 

Thanks for reading and following xx

 

ND x

No Debutante - She's Like a Rainbow

It's been raining over the past few days here in the UK and it's getting cold, grey and miserable so let's cheer ourselves up by wearing rainbow creeper shoes and colouring our hair pink.....well.....er....that's what I'm gonna do....I hope I can bring some sunshine back into your day with my next personal style post! 

I wore the first outfit out to a Sunday night gig to watch my friend Nic's band The Afterparty, who frankly rocked it! I was one of the oldest people in the room and felt a little out of place, not because of my age, i really couldn't give a damn about that, but even I thought I may have over dressed for a Sunday night gig. Looking back at the photographs today the outfit seems to be pretty standard for a No Debutante outfit so I'm not sure why I was secretly feeling a bit insecure, perhaps it was the Canadian support band who I heard say something about the UK fashion being crazy and way ahead of Canada, I'm sure this isn't true, although I don't know any Canadians personally. Can any Canadian followers validate this for me?? I have come to the conclusion that my short lived insecurities actually came from the fact that I was wearing my ridiculous rainbow creeper shoes that make me tower over most people, I think the only people who were intimidated on this night were the tiny sixteen year old Scene and Emo girls, bless them, I must have been terrifying! Check out my Topshop airforce bomber jacket, it has taken me half a year to find the perfect bomber and there it was in Toppers all along!

The second outfit has a more preppy 1950s high school look, I am wearing my peoples favourite (everyone loves this top) Primark vintage Americana Prada copy top with the classic Vivien of Holloway 1950s jeans worn with leopard print cardigan (also Primark) frilly socks and Converse. I was very comfortable in this outfit, 1950s preppy is always a winner. I wore my pink hair up in a topknot for a couple of days, it's simple yet looks cool. I apologise for the cropped off feet on the second outfit, I must have been in a hurry when I took the photographs, at least I took a still of the footwear so you can actually see what was on my feet!!

Thank you for following and reading my blog, it means alot to me!!

I will attempt to get more posts up this week but there is still lots of renovation work going on in my house which is proving hard to work around! Perhaps another personal style post to follow, watch this space! 

ND xx

Peskimo Wedding Fun!

My lovely friends and local kawaii lovin' illustrators Jodie and David - aka Peskimo -  just got hitched (well, a month ago) and they kindly invited Me and my clan to join them to celebrate at their wedding Party. The bride and groom looked fabulous as did the wedding decor (I would expect no less from these creative art rockers) It was a great British do with handmade hanging decorations & bunting, homemade cakes, Peskimo vintage inspired transfer tattoos and lots of enthusiastic dancing. My eldest son Lucian loves dancing and rocked out with a very enthusiastic and highly intoxicated Uncle Mike which was half the coolest thing ever and half hilarious (Uncle Mike being the latter). We all had a great time and ended the night with a good ol' British knees up. I think the photos speak for themselves.....Thanks to my good friend Paul Channing - for letting me use the last seven photographs in the post, I think you successfully captured the moment!

Before we get to the photographs from the wedding party itself I, of course, have to show you what I wore and I also managed to get my brothers (Uncle Mike's) girlfriend Naomi to pose for a couple of shots too. These photographs were taken on my Samsung Galaxy phone in the toilets at Beeses Bar (oh the glamour!) unfortunately they are not the best quality so I have shown you the best ones! I thought Naomi looked rockabilly cool, she is half way through her pregnancy and is working it! Naomi is also sporting the cute home made Peskimo tattoos which I think she should consider getting made into real tattoos! OMG, my tattoo day is getting closer!!!!!

My personal style photographs were taken at home in my garden using  a much better camera! 

I had managed to try out a more complicated victory rolled up hair style on my freshly coloured pink hair and I am pretty happy with the results! I wore the dark floral skater dress from Zara, originally bought for Phil's sister Dawn's wedding back in June. Dark florals are a big thing for AW 2013 too, which is a spot of luck! As you can see, the weather had cooled down a bit so dark floral dresses, black tights and shoes with a cute cardigan topped off with victory rolls and a flower in your hair, was the way to go for us ladies. (We did not plan this, honest!).

I bloody love a wedding!! Why do they always come in fours?? Thanks to everyone who got hitched this year and invited us to join them and a Massive Congratulations!! You all rock!

Thanks for reading and following. More personal  style pics to follow.

ND xx