No Debutante - Inspired by Ashish

As you have probably seen on my last blog post I have entered the Company Style Blogger Awards 2013. I am, of course, hoping to win with my niche being a fashion blogger over 30s in the Best Personal Style Blog section. My good friend and fellow blogger Dilly Foxtrot facebooked me, telling me I had to enter my blog, which was a great compliment! Thanks Dilly!

 

I will need to keep the personal style blog up-to-date as much as possible if I am going to get shortlisted for the awards. Wish me luck and nominate me here http://www.company.co.uk/magazine-hq/stylebloggerawards2013

 

During the last week I have been inspired by my Brimful Of Ashish post from last week  check it out here http://no-debutante.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/brimful-of-ashish-ss-2013.html and have recreated the Ashish SS 2013 collection my way, many of the garments from my Primark Sunday post are featured in this weeks outfits.

Side top knot with scarf

 

 

Denim details and white embroderie anglaise

 

Tailored denim with sheer print details worn with oversized jeans and hidden wedge high tops (instead of the Ashish white Reeboks).

Headband worn as a scrunchie

Oversized layering

 

Crop top over denim shirt and tapered jeans worn with tube socks

OK, so I think I managed to cover washed out denims, rolled up tapered jeans, mash up denims, layering, sheer panels, ankle socks, tailored shirts and jackets, I even had my Dierdre Barlow glasses on at work (I forgot to pop them on for the photographs!) and the vital scrunchie topknot! 

Thank you Ashish for the inspiration!!

 

All clothing from Topshop, Primark, Galeries Lafayette in Tokyo, American Apparel and Vivienne of Holloway.

Styling by No Debutante and inspired by Ashish SS2013

 

ND xx

COMPANY Style Blogger Awards 2013

http://www.company.co.uk/stylebloggerawards2013

If you like what you see

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE  - NOMINATE ME!!!!

NDXX

The Bang DJs at Hoochie Coochie Christmas Ball

It’s been a long time coming but here are some of my favourite images from The Hoochie Coochie Christmas Ball event which was held in a 100 year old Spiegaltent on the Harbourside, here in Bristol, UK during December 2012. I was lucky enough to play at this amazing event as part of The Bang DJs, who frankly, rocked at the after show party!

The Spiegaltent is constructed from rich mahogany, dappled glass and coloured mirrors, decorated in velvet and brocade, and illuminated with antique lamps this created a vintage, dark and lavish backdrop to the Hoochie Coochie Kabaret show and the atmosphere was electric!

The photographs have a dark, vintage look to them thanks to the reflections from the coloured mirrors and the deep red velvet backdrops (the camera flash turned off also helped!) They are fun images that seemed to capture moments from the evening seen through the Bang DJs eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we had a good time! Bang on!

ND xx

No Debutante - Welcome to my 100th blog post!!

I only just noticed that this is my 100th blog post!!! I am very excited and amazed I actually got here! I wish I could post on my blog every day but I seriously do not have the time! I am writing this post on the evening of Mothers Day after receiving a lay in, breakfast in bed (a Marmite Bagel lovingly prepared by my 8 year old son Lucian), homemade cards, chocolates, spa vouchers and a bottle of Sailor Jerry's rum - I have been totally spoilt, again! We then spent the day at the pub with my family with lots of food and drinks consumed, followed by a freezing cold walk home, more food and here I am sat with a glass of rum about to watch an episode of Mad Men. Life is sweet!

This is a No Debutante personal style post featuring Monochrome, Primark Sunday and other oddities.

Monochrome

 

This is the outfit I wore for Primark Sunday. What is Primark Sunday? As I have mentioned before, twice a year (to meet the change in the fashion season) I plan a big, kids free, day out at Primark for a big shop! I can try everything on and spend ages (4 hours on this occasion - the Primark here in Bristol has 4 floors, don't judge!) browsing and hunting down the best buys for the current season-which clearly hasn't started yet as snow is predicted, again. It's ridiculous, there was a bloody heatwave in the UK this time last year!!?

A Primark shop includes everything you need for the season at a 1/4 of the price, it's disposable, high fashion and I love it!

Beehives, headscarves and flowers in your hair!

 

The below images were not taken on Primark Sunday but I liked them so I thought I'd pop them in for a bit of colour and wish it was actually Spring!!

 

 

 

 Primark Sunday

 

  Last spring I returned home from Primark Sunday with lots of Americana printed garments but this spring it was definitely the season of the shirt! I managed to get a sleeveless shirt, a white broderie anglaise sleeveless smock shirt with denim details, denim shirt with mesh leopard print sleeves, and a khaki army jacket with aztec detail.

I also managed to get hold of some studded denim cut offs, a long black vest with white skull detail (for a mere £3!!) a  long cross detailed necklace and a great crop t-shirt which is the perfect 1980s cut with RAD written on it. It's supposed to be an ironic statement to my husband Phil who skates and this sort of thing annoys him. The irony actually is, that I really like the Rad t-shirt! It's Rad!

One outfit from Primark Sunday.

 

I thought I would give you a glimpse of one my new outfits from Primark Sunday. I had to be quick so I am actually still wearing the monochrome outfit underneath! This is a brave new look for me -the pleated maxi skirt- I have chosen to wear it with the new denim and leopard print shirt and my brothel creepers. I was already wearing the socks but I liked the look and went with it. I chose the skirt in black as pleated, light weight black garments are a big thing for the summer. What do you think? Can I work a pleated maxi skirt?

 

 

Creeper love!

All clothing from H&M, New Look, Underground at Office and not forgetting Primark!

All styling by No Debutante.

 

I love Primark Sundays!

ND xx

Brimful of Ashish SS 2013

It was actually sunny today and I didn't even need a coat and scarf for the first time in ages! It has been a cold winter here in the UK and I am very much a summer person, so nothing pleases me more than sunshine! The sunshine (and a recent shopping spree) has inspired me to post about the Ashish SS13 collection. Yeah! Yeah! I know we are currently supposed to be inspired by everything AW13 according to the recent Fashion Weeks but y'know me, I like to stick to the season I'm in and I always have soooo much to show you that I don't even have a moment for AW13! Sadly, I did plan to post about Ashish AW12 collection as it was also amazing but, alas, I ran out of time! Boo hoo!

 

I first spotted the Ashish SS13 collection back in October 2012, it was posted by one of the bloggers I follow www.alexloves.com and I fell in love with the collection whilst on the bus to work and pinned it onto Pinterest immediately, to remind me to post about the collection on my blog too!! As you can see (there's rather a lot on my Pinterest boards alone -see here http://pinterest.com/nodebutante/) it has taken a while to filter through!

The first thing that caught my eye was, of course, the dungarees followed by the amazing styling and a mass of structured and customised denim pieces that I need to own!!! I love the way the clothes are worn and are cut in an unconventional style making them fresh and a little multifunctional. I soon realised the dungarees were not dungarees at all but more of a denim boiler suit with one sleeve hanging around the back. This styling also really reminds me of the young fashion designer Heidi who appeared on Styled to Rock  ( a UK TV show where the fashion designer contestants compete for the prize to dress Rhianna with Henry Holland as a judge-what's not to like here? Can I also point out at this point that Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud was also a judge and every week seemed to wear an item from my Pinterest  Fashion board-which I felt rather smug about....ahem...) So Heidi, yes, I loved her styling so much, I'd buy her whole collection, let's say it was very street, new and unconventional, I love her and she didn't even win! Blasphemous!!

OK, back to Ashish, I am loving the 80s style rolled up tapered jeans ( I refuse to call them boyfriend jeans, I can't bear it!) in washed out denims or cut into asymmetric /two tone styles with sequined or sheer panels.I adore the layering and the styling is fantastic, let's take a moment to check out the topknot tied up with a scrunchy, Dierdre Barlow /national health glasses -y'know I love them - topped off with a lovely bit of ankle socks worn with white Reeboks!!!!! Love it! I am also loving the 90s inspired sequinned slip dress it looks great worn with the topknot and trainers (probably not on me, I'd agree but it's nice to see the return of the 1990s staple!) There are alot of tailored shirts and jackets in this collection and I am currently really obsessed with both - I even considered buying an iron the other day, which is unheard of!! The recent shopping spree that I mentioned earlier was clearly, although not intentionally, inspired by this collection, luckily the shopping spree took place at Primark (Primark Sunday a twice yearly event on my fashion calender) so I managed to pretty much buy all the elements I need to work this collection without the price tag. Basically, the elements needed (and found) where a sleeveless denim shirt, a denim shirt with sheer leopard print panelled sleeves, mix fabric denim and lace sleeveless shirt worn with my tapered jeans and the denim jacket I found hoarded (by me ) in my attic all oversized, of course!! Let the Ashish inspired styling commence.........

 

This collection features so many of this seasons trends including white textures, monochrome, metallics, iridescents, textured black, pajama pants, slouchy styling, billowing blouses and oversized tailoring, and of course, my old favourite, a lot of denim!! It's much more wearable than you may think.

 

Thanks to Ashish, alexloves.com (for the images and the blog post), yahoo.com (for the images), Heidi from Styled To Rock and Primark  - I couldn't have done it without you!!!!

 

Hello Ashish, I love you, please please please send me your collection (or at least one piece?) ND xx

The Kids Are Alright - March 2013

It has been ages since I posted about my oldest children Lucian and Mika. So let's have a look at what they have been up to. I have to admit, I have struggled to find recent photographs of Lucian, I need to take more photos of the him!!

 

Lucian 8

 

Lucian likes to watched his Dad's band The Relay Rips play a gig, he dressed up as Ben 10 for National Book week? (perhaps they should have renamed that National TV week) Lucian was supposed to dress as a character from a book....his excuse was that he has a Ben 10 book! Anyhow, it's amazing what you can do with a green hoodie and some masking tape! Lucian plays the cornet (just like his Dad), he also plays the guitar, skates, plays basketball and is a fantastic swimmer. Lucian has just started his own blog.  http://theellicottsrock.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Lucian is laid back, considerate and cool.

Lucian Rocks!

 

 

Mika 6

 

 

Mika is cheeky, quirky and has a great sense of humour...He begged me to buy him the Varsity jacket and then wanted to model it for my blog (just like his Mummy). He also insisted I took a photo of him posing by the Vans bench in the local skate shop. Mika likes tech decks, tattoos, his new headphones for his MP3 player and making cakes. Mika, like his brother, is also a great swimmer and would like to learn to play the drums. He is such a cool dude!

 

As you can see the kids are indeed alright!! I feel a Whole Lotta Sylvie post coming soon, watch this space for a look into my little lady Sylvie's world! ND xx

I'm going out dancing.....February Fashion moments

There seems to be a theme for February which features either dresses or denim. It has been freezing here in Bristol so I am totally faking the bare arms look just for the photographs! I cannot even imagine going outside wearing no tights or in a short sleeve, hot weather is a distant memory to me.

My complexion suffers too, during the winter months I go a healthy shade of jaundice and need to smother my face with bright make-up to stop me from appearing, well.....dead!

Here's what I have been wearing this month.

 

Monochrome with red

 

 

 

 Double Denim layers

 

1970s tight tees and denim midi

I love my cute new Topshop dress with peep hole front detail and vintage style Hawaiian print.

 

Peep hole dresses and crop tops are totally wearable at the moment (if you ignore the cold British weather that is) as you are baring your torso rather than your belly button, your highwaister skirt, jeans, shorts should be covering that area up! This is not the 1990s midriff and hipster exposure, we do not want to see a muffin top, it still needs to be flattering! Try this look out, you may be surprised. If you don't fancy the dress, tie up your shirt or a top a little, we only need to see a flash of skin but remember, no hipsters or belly buttons, it's highwaisters all the way.

My outfit for the Bang 10th Birthday Party (a post to come very soon) I wore a belt with the Louise Gray dress on this occasion as it made it more flattering. I got so many compliments about the dress and other comments about how the strategically placed stars made people want to HONK my boobs, yes, I said HONK!!

The day after the night before, I was feeling surprisingly well here and was about to go and pick up my kids from my parents house. I'm still wearing these Dr Martens in, I love them, despite the pain!

 

All clothing from H&M, American Apparel, Rock Candy at Office,Topshop, Louise Gray at Topshop,Super Lovers-Japan, Vivienne of Holloway, Dr Martens, Primark,Charity and Army Surplus stores, Underground at Office. All styling by No Debutante.

 

One last thing, yes, I have been messing about with fonts,I get bored easily and work with graphic designers who will notice and be annoyed with my careless font choices! Sorry!So many fonts so little time!

ND xx