No Debutante - Pump It Up

It is so sunny outside and I have just got the baby to bed and done a few house chores and I am actually longing to get outside in the sunshine, so here's a quick personal style post from me where you can find out what I wore on the family excursion to see Elvis Costello (first outfit) on Sunday evening and what I wore yesterday on the first day back on the school run. I'm still wearing denim, there are infinite combinations although it appears I cannot stop wearing those dungarees, they're back again!! Expect more big hair, ankle socks and wedge boots!

 I'm off to get me some sun before the baby wakes up. BTW I'm still no closer in getting shoes and accessories for this wedding, Baby girls like trips to the Mall don't they?

Thanks for reading y'all.

ND xx

No Debutante - Ten Storey Love Song

The first night out from my double-whammy weekend was to attend the very lovely tenth wedding anniversary of our friends Mikee and Yva at a rather grand wine and champagne bar & restaurant named Goldbrick House in Bristol. I have been there before for my friend Rudi's wedding so I knew it was a dress up event! Phil pointed out that the staff were very keen to help (he was lugging decks about that were being borrowed for the night -for once we had managed to not DJ or have Phil's band The Relay Rips playing, it was just a night out, which is a rarity for us ) anyway back to the staff, they actually carried all the equipment for him and kept calling him 'Sir' which for us is a rare treat, we are used to turning up at a venue where we are playing in the room upstairs and have to lug all equipment ourselves. I have been known to complain about this, you try lugging heavy record boxes and decks about in heels!! I even did it when I was pregnant! Rock'n'Roll!

 

We had a great night getting spoilt and dressing smart.

 

 

Who'd have thought it, a Primark dress at a posh place??

 

Styling by No Debutante

All clothing from Primark, Office shoes, Topshop, Tatty Devine and Accessorise

 

Nominate Me for the Best Personal Style Blog in the Company Style Blogger Awards 2013 here http://www.company.co.uk/magazine-hq/stylebloggerawards2013

 

Thank you! ND xx

No Debutante - 5 Feet 9 And Rising

 I'm very excited about the package I received in the post today, it contained a pair of ridiculously wonderful platform wedge baseball boots!! Not only do these wedgetastic lovelies have a multi colour striped wedge but they also only cost me £20 in the Office Sale! I understand that it takes a certain type of person to wear these wedges but I can't believe how cheap they are and how nobody else wants them. I bloody love' em! Some of you may have noticed that I do already own a similar pair of wedge baseball boots, but these are a little different with a straight creeper style wedge rather than a heel wedge and that's a good enough excuse for me to get a second pair. I haven't worn these new lovelies out and about yet but around the house they feel more comfortable and I don't feel like I'm going to topple over in these ones!

 

These boots are also a blatant copy of the rainbow wedge boots from the Ashish AW12 collection which is probably why I have obsessed over them for about a month until I finally caved and bought them (the rip offs not the Ashish boots - I wish!) why I had to ponder over it for so long I don't know, they were such a bargain! I wish I had had the time to blog the Ashish AW12 collection, it really was a goodun, I shall be happy that I got to use one of the images from the collection today.

Let's also notice at this point that I am still wearing my hair down and I am actually getting used to it! Who'd have thought it?

Oh yeah, blatant copy - thank goodness for those copies or I wouldn't have my lovely rainbow wedge boots!

 I really love my new ridiculous rainbow wedges and they make me real tall!!

 

All images and styling by No Debutante except for the final image of the Ashish AW2012 collection from the very talented Kris Atomic http://blog.krisatomic.com/ 

 

If you like what you see please nominate me for the Best Personal Style Blog in the Company Style Blogger Awards 2013 Follow the link http://www.company.co.uk/magazine-hq/stylebloggerawards2013

 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

No Debutante and Mark Sewell Photography Collaboration No 2 -Part 2 Fade To Gray

Hey Hey! It's Part 2 of the most recent No Debutante and Mark Sewell Photography collaboration!!! It turns out there are so many great photographs that this will infact be a three parter! Whoop! Whoop!

 

The inspiration behind this next set of images come from my new favourite designer Louise Gray....who I have mentioned here, once.. maybe twice....ahem! I am a very lucky girl who recieved a dress for Christmas from my amazers husband Phil from the Louise Gray designer collection for Topshop!!!! I love this dress with all it's sparkles and it's happy face!!! Just perfect for a moody Mum of three!

 

Mark and I really took advantage of the studio for this part of the shoot, inspired by Louise Gray's promo shots for the Topshop range, the lighting and white back drop worked out really well. Some of the images have been photoshopped to make them jump out at you at bit more (quite literally in some of the shots) but I have decided to use some of the shots as they were taken with background umbrellas in etc as I am creating a personal style blog here and don't want to lose my own look and style with bright lights and airbrushing!!! See what you think. This shoot is much more playful and colourful from the more classic retro images of the previous shoot. Enjoy!

 

 

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

Clothing from Louise Gray at Topshop, H&M and Rock Candy at Office Shoes.

 

Watch this space for the third and final part to the latest colloration between No Debutante and Mark Sewell.

I'm off to practise for the Bang Band! Watch this space for more exciting info on that!!! ND xx

 

 

 

 

 

No Debutante - A Winters Tale Part 2 -Your hair looks like an easter egg...

Whilst Phil and my sons play Skylanders Giants on the newly received Wii U. I shall ignore what they are doing (and recognise when I am not wanted) and begin the second part of my Winters Tale double bill personal style blog post. I have since been taking many more pics of my Christmas fashion goodies but lets just end with the Nov-Dec fashion moments first! The baby is in bed by the way, she's not just randomly crawling about the house like that baby in Trainspotting...

 

 

I bloody love this Gang of Four tshirt!! I was a bit scared of it when I first got the big, oversized, monstrous bright yellow item but now I get annoyed when it isn't clean! (You can only imagine the clothes washing dilemma in my house with five people including two young boys and a baby) Here it is, my new favourite tshirt, worn with my high waisted H&M skater skirt (which is virtually vintage) and the studded Topshop pumps! This is what I look like at the end of the day after work and school pick ups BTW!

When I have a bit more time on my hands, I pop on some make-up (a little too much make-up on this occasion, some might say) and pop my hair up into cute kiddie bunches and then go hunting for my one year old daughter and do the same to her, Sylvie is clearly loving it!

  Not the bunches again Mummy!!!

Here's a sneak preview of me at the December Hoochie Coochie event, where The Bang DJs are residents, in a Rags to Riches themed outfit. More images of this amazing night to follow over the next few weeks!!

Vikki Mac, my hair stylist was our babysitter for the evening and Vikki kindly quaffed my hair up into and amazing curly mohawk. It's great when your hair stylist is your babysitter, isn't it?

Here's my hair after Vikki Mac got her hands on it again a couple of weeks later, she put on a toner which I would only describe as neon orange, which was terrifying when wet, but I have actually been loving ever since!! It's still in my hair a bit now, two weeks later, which frankly is great for a toner on hair that needs to be washed regularly. I'm tempted to go back and get it done again already!

 

This is the outfit I chose to wear at my work Christmas party. My bodycon tiger print dress with the baseball boot wedges and my neon hair which coincidentally matched the 1970s wallpaper behind me. The party was held at the Big Chill Bar in Bristol (where my club night Bang were resident DJs for two years) this room is the secret 1970s kitchen diner, which looked great and was a pretty intimate space but unfortunately the retro record player couldn't play any of the vinyl as they were all scratched and we only had the tiny speakers to play our ipods instead which were frankly too quiet.......despite this I have many photos proving we were having fun, even though I was apparently ill when i got home and I don't remember the taxi journey at all........I'd say the party was a success!

 

Pour me another Sailor Jerry's and ginger ale Phil! Happy Christmas!! ND xx

 

 

 

Fox in Socks

As much as I love a bit of Dr Seuss, this post is actually about my ongoing obsession with socks, tights and footwear in general.

 

For years now I have had a serious (problem) obsession with socks and tights, I'm more obsessed with them than shoes, shoes are a mere accessory to wear with your wonderful socks and tights! It's all about the colour, the print and the styling, a simple hosiery item will not do!

 I think I can pin point the obsession to the late 1990s. It was the Harajuku girl that had caught my eye and a bit of styling from The Face Magazine, which was also an obsession around that time (RIP The Face....I loved you). Both for me, made me want to start taking notice of socks and tights, I would buy every interesting pair I could get my hands on. This seems extreme now as it's easy to pick up interesting hosiery wherever you go but in those days it wasn't. The reason for this was simply that socks and coloured tights were not a big consumer thing- god, if you want interesting socks go to Sock Shop...Er, no thank you.... I remember over knee socks (nearly always in black) made a few comebacks during the early 1990s but coloured socks and legwarmers hadn't been a big thing since the 1980s and bright coloured tights hadn't been seen for years! It seems mad now but I used to get very over excited if I found a pair of red tights in the late 1990s let alone anything else!

Since the weather is about to change here in England, I have been looking forward to more socks and tights layering and trying to find new ways to wear them! I have collected a load of images on pinterest of how I would like to wear them. I hope you like these images and are inspired to take a bit more interest in your socks and tights!!

Let's start with the good old sporty tube sock. I always get mine from American Apparel, they are frankly the best and probably one of the only suppliers of the tube sock these days. This is why it would be a complete tragedy for me if American Apparel was to shut down, I'd have to buy a life time supply of tube socks!

The king of the tube sock is the Z-Boys skater Tony Alva circa mid-late 1970s -see skate image below. No-one rocked a pair of tube socks, Vans and shorts better than Tony Alva. My husband Phil pretty much works his look whenever we are on holiday, let me add Phil rarely decides to put on a pair of shorts, this never happens in England, it has to be sweltering hot and then he'll wear shorts....with some tube socks....

 Layering tights, socks and wedges...Love it!

A couple of retro images found on pinterest. I'm loving the bright colours, mix prints and platforms! The above image is very Chorlton and The Wheelies (1970s UK kids programme -well worth a youtube glance) and I'm loving the high top boxing wedge boots below!! It's a great image!

Inspired by the above retro image and Meadham Kirchhoff's Autumn Winter Collection, I bought the above Lulu wedge baseball boots by Rocket Dog from Office. It was the stripey wedge that won me over! Below is one of my current style icons Susie Bubble from the Style Bubble blog - find her here www.stylebubble.co.uk (I shall be doing a Style Icon blog on this fantastic fashion outsider very soon) although Susie has forgotten her socks, I do love them high top wedges!

Eley Kishimoto always has fantastic collections of tights and socks, they often cost a fair bit but look great! I haven't posted any Henry Holland images this time but let's not forget his fantastic hosiery collections too! You can find both on asos.com. and the styling on Asos is worth a look for inspiration.

Catwalk Trends

Here are a some images that had caught my attention for the current A/W collections. The first image is from the inspiring Meadham Kirchhoff collection, I had originally posted about this  in September, I love the stripey socks worn with rolled up jeans and wedges.

The second two images are from Bernhard Willhelm's A/W collection, I shall be blogging about this collection very soon so here's a quick look at the footwear. It's more urban this time with strappy, comfy trainer boots and graphic mix print tights, the collection is a full on print clash which will always catch my eye!

Hey! This obsession isn't just for adults, check out the kids images above that I have collected on Pinterest (mostly from my friend Selena I imagine -she's kids pinterest obsessed!!) I'm loving the mix print leggings, stripey tights with boxing boots and spots, stripes and Dr Martens. You can't go wrong!

 

All images are from my pinterest boards find them here http://pinterest.com/nodebutante/ but a quick thank you to these sources office.co.uk,  ipaddock.it,  stylebubble.co.uk, bernhard-willhelm.com, eleykishimoto.com,  backtothefiveanddime.tumblr.com http://store.americanapparel.co.uk  indiansummervintage.wordpress.com  matildajaneblog.com  petithood.com pauletpaula.com 

I hope I have changed your mind about your footwear attire?? Next post may possibly be a look at what I have been wearing lately....It's been a while....ND xx