Primark Sunday Spring / Summer 2014

It's that time of year again when I get a Sunday all to myself to do a big Primark shop for the current season. Today's Primark Sunday is all about shopping for Spring Summer 2014 and it was certainly inspired by a hot, hot summer holiday in Ibiza and surf style.

My obsession of the day was definitely the Maui collaboration with Primark, my husband Phil started off my interest in Maui by asking how Primark were allowed to get away with ripping off Maui, or so he thought, as we drove past the Bristol Primark window display. I had to go and investigate this, so called, Maui ripping off but was pleasantly surprised to find it was indeed a Maui and Primark collaboration! The range is so late 1980s early 1990s beach style, think surf shorts, logos, neon vests and Hawaiian prints mixed with Vision and Stussy retro skate style, I just loved it! I loaded up my Primark bag with everything Maui and tried it all on, managing to cut down the amount of Maui purchases to the ones you will see below. It didn't stop there......I got into the kids dept and there was the coolest range of Maui t-shirts, vest tops and shorts for boys, I had to restrain myself from buying the whole collection so I just got my two sons a Maui top each, we don't want to go around looking like the Maui family. However, I also checked out the mens dept and there were even more Maui items, I have told Phil who is also interested in having a browse, I feel another Maui/ Primark shop coming on.....I have to mention that being a reputable brand you would think that the Maui items would be a bit pricey but I am happy to say it is the opposite. The prices are the same as the usual Primark bargain prices, it really is a brilliant range, go check it out!

I didn't just return home with a bag full of Maui items, I also bought little Sylvie some more of the, cheap as chips, Kawaii print t-shirts, aztec trousers and some flip flops. For myself, as well as the Maui haul, I bought more frilly ankle socks, an aztec bag and two pairs of white shoes. White shoes are everywhere this summer and I thought I'd try out some cheaper versions from Primark. I really love the creeper style high tops, they are so comfy but I am afraid to say the (rather flimsy) white sandals have already become a casualty of the summer and have broken, which was a little disappointing. I really loved the style of the sandals though so it has inspired me to perhaps splash out a little more and get a better quality pair elsewhere! The final garment for myself was a sleeveless monochrome checked shirt. I am loving this shirt and have worn it loads of times already, watch this space for how I wear it! 

In conclusion, I managed to buy all of this for under £100, apart from the broken shoes, it's brilliant value for money! I love Primark!

All clothing from Primark. (above photograph clothing from Primark, H&M and Underground)

Thanks so much for reading and following! 

Don't forget to like my facebook page and follow me on Instagram for daily No Debutante fashion updates!!

ND xx

No Debutante - Pink Sunshine

Phew! I'm back in the blogging room! It's been a busy old week with work (I am soooo busy and seriously need a pay rise) I also attended my sons various sporting activities including Saturday morning football and a swimming gala, in which, I am very proud to announce, my son Lucian came third (in his first ever swimming gala) and came home with a bronze medal in Breast stroke! A-mazing!! Whilst all this is going on I have been living without a kitchen since last Wednesday, it's crazy but very exciting as my retro caravan kitchen diner is being fitted as we speak!! I will write a post on how the kitchen is going when we have made a little more progress and I cannot wait until it is ready!! 

Well, that's where I have been for the last few days. Let's get back onto some personal style looks from No Debutante!! I had just had my hair coloured pink in todays post, I went for a dip dye look this time - I have so many colour alternatives that I want to try that it is now becoming an obsession , as with the tattoos, did I say I have arranged a date for my first ever tattoo?? I am very excited and terrified at the same time....but that's another story.

The sun was still shining and I was still tightless, although the weather is still very mild in the UK at the moment, I am not braving the tights free look anymore, it's over! I chose to wear my Topshop peephole skater dress and my vintage denim pinafore dress both with frilly ankle socks and Dr Martens. I went through a few weeks of a Dr Martens wearing, centred parted hair, riot girl, grunge mood as you will see in the next few personal style posts.

I love wearing my hair down when it has just been pinked up and my hair is long enough now to be worn down and to look half decent in a centre parted 1990s style. After colouring my hair, my hair stylist Vikki Mac braided my hair, which I kept in until the next morning to create braid waves (not the official name for them, I think I may have made it up) it looked OK but it still isn't quite long enough to achieve the long, flowing, bohemian waves, I looked more like the 1980s toy dog Poochie, you remember Poochie, what the?? 

  Despite the Poochie after effects I am loving the style of my hair in the braids, I love braids(or plaits as we call them in the UK) It's such an easy thing to achieve, just braid up random sections of hair and pin them up. Tadaa! Effortless and effective. 

I love my Pink hair, thank you Vikki Mac!! For all of you who are local to Bristol, get yourself over to  Vidal Sassoon trained Vikki Mac's Hair Studio at Me Time Hair and Beauty https://www.facebook.com/decohairtotterdown 

She's the best kept secret in Bristol!! Well, she was....

Thanks so much for following, reading and just hanging out with me. I promise to be back very soon with more fashion fun! 

Remember for daily personal style hits from No Debutante follow me on Instagram. http://instagram.com/nodebutante

ND  xx

Saint Laurent AW 2013 - Smells Like Teen Spirit

I was hoping to spend one last weekend wearing summer clothes and flip-flops since there was a rumour that the sun was going to pay us one last visit here in the UK, instead the rain decided to pay us a visit and brought along it’s friend the cold and that was the end of the summer! 

To celebrate let’s have a look at one of my favourite collections from the Autumn Winter shows which on this occasion is the unlikely candidate for No Debutante - Saint Laurent.  It must be Hedi Slimane that has turned my head and made me take notice of this very young, grunge inspired, Saint Laurent collection with it’s oversized plaid shirts worn over cute Peter Pan collared dresses, 1990s inspired ditsy floral slip dresses worn with furs, duffle coats, oversized cardigans, denim, fishnet tights and biker boots.  It’s grunge, punk and rock, it’s all my favourites!!!

 

 I am looking forward to putting this look together wearing my existing wardrobe and adding  new pieces to it to covet the look. Who doesn't already own a cute little dress or an oversized cardigan? Most women I know own a fur coat too and some biker boots or a pair of Dr Martens. Just add a plaid shirt or a denim jacket worn over your dress with some sheer tights and you're there. I already have a duffle coat but I am looking out for a slip dress or mini tu-tu style skirt and those strappy studded boots do look good.......Do I really need more boots? Well, of course I do! 

I saw the Zara window display (below) on my way to work and knowing I was about to write this post I had to get a photograph and show you how this look has been coveted on the high street. I think Zara have pretty much hit the nail on the head here. Well done Zara!

All images (except the Zara image above) courtesy of vogue.co.uk

More of my favourites from the Autumn Winter collections will follow over the next few weeks, expect a personal style post with a difference for my next post.

ND xx

No Debutante - Summertime Blues

I feel sad to announce that this is the last post on my Ibiza holiday, these photographs were taken on the last two days and as you may have guessed, I really didn't want to go home just yet!! On the last nights stay I wore my beautiful Vivien of Holloway gingham bustier with my denim cut offs and more flip flops, I victory rolled up my hair and put on a head scarf to finish the look. I actually wore this exact outfit on my Ibiza trip last year, it really is a holiday favourite and I seriously need more of those bustier tops, I love them!! Sylvie is in the first set of photos with me wearing her H&M leopard print maxi dress and rockin it!

I wore the second outfit  - crop tops and maxi skirt - the evening we left, we had not wasted the last day and managed to squeeze in one last trip to the water park and pools, we took a last stroll on the beach after dinner then we left.........but then I had to run back down the hill to our hotel, not an easy thing to do in flip flops and a maxi skirt, as we had forgotten Sylvie's pushchair!! Doh!!  Not the Cath Kidston Maclaren!! How could we?? Everything else ran smoothly but it was an evening flight and I had three sleeping kids on me all the way home, someone had to help us off the plane with all our kids and bags! This is why you should take grandparents on holiday!!

So, I finally got a few photographs of Mika up and check out Lucian rocking the 1990s in a baseball vest and cycle shorts worn with his Santa Cruz cap and flip flops, I had to get a photo of him! 

Thanks for the memories Ibiza, I'll see you again soon!! 

ND xx

No Debutante - Hot Hot Summer

I am loving the hot weather here in England, it's been a long time coming and I can finally wear all my SS 2013 inspired outfits the way they should be worn without heavy coats, tights and too many layers!! We had a small family BBQ yesterday on Bank Holiday Monday and spent the whole day outside, I am trying to get this post written up as quick as possible, so I do not waste the sun - that we hardly see - and get myself in it before I'm back in the office tomorrow!!

 

Here's what I wore yesterday for the BBQ and what I am wearing today on this very warm school day. I Love the sun!!

Vintage Americana and crazy hair (as my sons referred to it)

Slouchy 1990s

I thought I would show you my kids today in the first summer photographs of the year! It isn't summer for children without a Fab ice lolly! Look at little Sylvie's head scarf! I love it!

 

I'm off to get some more Vitamin D in the glorious sunshine. Have a good day in the sun and thanks for reading.

 

ND xx

No Debutante - Pretend That We're Dead

I am very happy today since finding out that my blog had its largest amount of hits in a day ever yesterday, this is really encouraging for me as a blogger who appears to have more people following me on Facebook and Pinterest rather than through the usual google or Bloglovin'. This isn't a gestimate, it's just what the stats tell me and also I get so many Facebook friends who comment to me personally about my blog (and on Facebook) rather than messages on my blog itself. This is great for me as a blogger but sadly it doesn't look so great on the blog and doesn't rate me so highly in any Fashion blogger stats. This used to get me down a bit but, to be honest, I now know that people are following me and that Facebook and Pinterest have been the most help for me to get my blog noticed. This has also got me thinking that I  need to create a No Debutante Facebook page and start a Twitter account, this has been of no interest to me until now, I'm quite excited!

 

One last thing that has been on my mind is the Company Style Blogger Awards 2013 (quick plug -nominate me here http://www.company.co.uk/magazine-hq/stylebloggerawards2013 for the Best Personal Style Blog) I would love to win this and get some recognition but I have no idea how it is judged, I am hoping it is by content and not by how many visible followers you have. There are so many blogs nominated that they will need to whittle them down to a shortlist in a small amount of time, which means not much research into each blog! Of course, I am still confident I can get noticed and I am intrigued to see who gets on the shortlist! Impatient? Me?

 

So here's something a bit different from me in the personal style area, after complaining about my hair looking weird down I have actually been wearing it down for the past couple of days. I was inspired to perhaps go a bit grunge/1990s and pop a couple of hairgrips in centre parted hair. I was not sure whether to show these images or not as I pretty much got dressed and hair and make-up done in about 5 minutes (busy life of a mum of three init) took the photographs and left the house - a trip to the cinema to see The Croods with the boys on this occasion - so not too much thought went into the look! I have ended up looking a bit grungy, a bit Tim Minchin, a bit Ginger Spice and a bit me during the 1990s but I think there is a cool grungy look in there somewhere so let's go with it.

Hair down or up? I know these last minute images are not doing my hair worn down the greatest justice so perhaps I'll spend more time on some other photographs over the next week to try to sell it to you, well, me.......

 

ND xx

No Debutante and Mark Sewell Photography Collaboration No 2 -Part 3 Real Wild Child

I have to apologise with the lack of posts of late, for once it has nothing to do with illness, I have been real busy planning my club night Bang's big 10th year Birthday party which might I say was an amazing success last Saturday night!! It wasn't just arranging the event that took up my time it was the rehearsing for the Bang Band which forms once every 5 years to celebrate Bangs more significant birthdays and I also made a Bangzine (Bang's fanzine) which features all the photographs that I have taken over the past 5 years, there is also a previous Bangzine which celebrates the first 5 years. Its great to see all the different faces and fashions that happened at my little club night over the past 10 years, I'm so happy we have evidence that it has happened!! I promise to do some posts with all my favourite Bang pics very soon!

 

OK,  so yeah, I've been busy, so busy that I haven't managed to show you the last part in the most recent photoshoot collaboration between No Debutante and Mark Sewell Photography.

 

Part 3 has been named Real Wild Child due to the overload of faux animal print and fur that feature in the shoot. It wasn't planned, I had taken along the bodycon tiger print dress and wanted to show off my new fur coat bought in the Topshop sale.

 

The photos, for me, have come out looking like a mash up between Jerry Hall late 1970s early 80s glamour, punk and those girls in the Happy Mondays video for Kinky Afro, some people say they were prostitutes, but who am I to judge, let's say their look is very early 1990s glam, whatever, I am happy with the result.

 

 

 

 

All styling by No Debutante and all photographs courtesy of Mark Sewell Photography.

Clothing from Topshop and Underground at Office Shoes.

 Watch this space for another collaboration between No Debutante and Mark Sewell in the future.

I've gotta go because the baby has woken up but I thought I would leave you with this. Hope it works??

 

http://youtu.be/pJCZml22k50

 

 

ND xx