I know it’s been a week so this might seem a little out-of-date, but hey what are you going to do?

So after going to see Daydream Nation’s A/W’ 08 collection, I followed that up with a trip to the LCF for Colin McDowell’s Film Club screening of Lagerfeld Confidential on Monday evening.

Call me a geek but I was little bit awe struck by Colin McDowell, as up until that point he had been a name I only saw in print and who featured prominently in my bibliography when I was writing my final year dissertation at university. He is a funny and charming man, who knows how to hold an audiences’ attention when he speaks; which he litters with little stories. It’s amazing to hear about the things he has seen and the people he has met. Anyhoo…

I had gone to see Lagerfeld Confidential and much to my surprise found Lagerfeld to be quite a funny man who made me laugh out loud on some occasions. The film has been commissioned by the powers that be at Chanel so you have to take the ‘film’ with a pinch of salt, as obviously they want to portray Lagerfeld in the best light.

To be quite honest, I was never that interested in Lagerfeld as a person, even though I was interested in the clothes he designed for Chanel. However, when I saw this event at the LCF I saw it as an opportunity to maybe learn something about him; and I did.

Considering his immaculately groomed appearance, it turns out his house and living space were the exact opposite with items, books, magazines covering every surface. He is human!

The film showed him choosing what clothes and accessories he should bring on a shoot, trying to decide what rings to wear and then just opting to bring them all by tipping the bowl of rings out into a bag. Hilarious. He then proceeded to open draw after draw of stiff starched collars, which was equally as comical.

The film even showed him NOT wearing black! Shock horror.

I don’t want to give too much away about the film and spoiling the funny bits, so I won’t mention anymore. I would say that it is definitely worth a watch.

Here is a little teaser trailer for you if you haven’t already seen it… enjoy!

Being deprived of shopping at the moment has sent my lust for some items through the roof. It has slowly escalated from just looking on the web, to going in store, handling the items and then before you know it I’m trying it on.

This can only lead to one thing… purchasing. I must stay strong.

At the moment I am obsessed by these shoes from Office:

The Giddy Up ankle boot

Madge Multi-coloured Leather Peeptoe

Egg Noodle T-Bar

and even though I already own these in gold, I want all the other colours too.

Abu Dhabi sandal

More things to add to my growing wish list. I may have to ask some friends (very nicely) over at Office for a favour.

p.s sorry for the small images.

I think I’m in love. No, its definite. I am in love with this Vivienne Westwood Scribble Signature Shopper at Urban Outfitters.
It’s £282, which I’m thinking is not that much for a Vivienne Westwood bag; then again my financial judgement is slightly impaired by the fact that I want it!

I can already see it swinging from my arm. Oh to dream….

Last Friday, the last day of London Fashion Week my friend managed to get us press invites to Daydream Nation’s Goodnight Deer A/W ‘08 show at the ICA. I didn’t really know what to expect as to be honest I had never heard of Daydream Nation before; clearly I am out of the fashion loop.

We were greeted by two men both shabbily dressed and warning us to not go into the lecture theatre where the show was to be held, as there were strange noises coming from there. It’s then we realised that it was going to be a performance piece.

It turns out brother and sister team Jing & Kay use their respective disciplines - textiles/design and theatre design to bring us the performance, stories and clothes that Daydream Nation is about. In this case, the story of a hunter who kills a deer, only to wake up and find that he has turned into the deer that he killed. I think I got that synopsis right.

Anyhoo, they had a live band playing to accompany the show, which was great. The lead singer/screamer/clarinet player was a little distracting though. I did like their cute litte, ummm ears (?)

The special people at the front were given cakes and treats, which we were jealous of. My wishful thinking hoped that they might give away free Beard Papa cream buns…mmmm. However, it was not meant to be.

Back to the show and clothes. I was pleasantly surprised by the show. I loved the choreography of the models as it made a change to just seeing them just walk up and down a runway. Even with this unusual presentation, it did not distract or take away from the clothes.
I also liked the autumnal colour palette of browns, greens and golds.

I personally would not wear a lot of these items, just because I don’t think they’d suit me and I don’t think they are my style. That’s not to say the clothes weren’t beautiful. However, I did like the deer t-shirt, this I’d wear.

All in all the drama and story telling, as well as the clothes of Daydream Nation made for a great first Alternative fashion week experience. If you get a chance definitely go to a Daydream nation show. You just won’t know what to expect, but I can assure you that you’ll enjoy it.

For more pics of the clothes visit and more from behind the scenes, visit Daydream Nation’s Blog.

As an aside we also saw Tracy Rose at Daydream Nation wearing a showstopping hat.

I previously posted about how much I wanted this dress from Miss Selfridge.

Well I finally succumbed and went to try it on knowing full well that if I liked it, the chances of buying it would have greatly increased.

As it happens when I got into the changing room and put on the dress, my reaction was …. meh.
I was slightly underwhelmed by the whole the thing and the way it looked on me. Instead of feeling elated and already being flooded with ideas of what to wear it with, I felt nothing, just meh!

Actually I lie… I felt I looked a little like a deflated Violet Beauregarde, just without the blue face.

Today I am wearing a red leopard print dress from Urban Outfitters with a black cardi and layered over some jeans.

It basically looks like this, but with black leopard print all over. I love it!

I wore it because it was the first thing I saw in my wardrobe that was clean, and I thought I hadn’t worn it in a while, so why not.

Left the house thinking I looked presentable- not overly done up, not trampy - just right for work.

I got to work and settled down at my desk. A friend then came over and asked whether I had worn red today for Valentine’s day.

Poop!! With a capital P.

I hadn’t even thought about that. Urrrrggghhh. Now people are going to think I’m really into Valentine’s and dressed up for the occasion.

I’ll say it again. Poop.

Other than my usual daily dressing dilemmas, this year I am getting married and so have had to face the biggest What should I wear panic. I use the past tense ‘had’ as I have bought my dress , the dress. I managed to pick one up at the end of last year in a wedding dress sample sale, and I am glad it is out of the way; one less decision to make.

Choosing my wedding dress was not easy. Trying to decide whether I should go for modern or traditional, how much I should spend, where to buy it from… I looked at magazines and websites for inspiration, and for a while this was my dream dress: Elie By Elie Saab at Pronovias
The £5000+ price tag was a tiny bit out of my price range, and so helped me make my decision. I decided maybe sample sales would be a good place to find a gorgeous dress at an equally lovely price.

Anyway the sample sale was held at a hotel, and I didn’t really know what to expect. It was timed entry and so I turned up at my allotted time of 5:00pm, along without about 30+ other girls and waited patiently in line.

When we were finally allowed in, the brides to be were given instructions on what was to follow: you would be measured and told what size dress to go for, go into the rooms filled with dresses and choose five to try on, lastly go and try them on in the hope that one of your five chosen dresses would be your wedding dress. Sounds simple and it was.

The part that I didn’t like though was the part where she said, once you were measured you should choose a size UP from what you normally wear. What?!? Why?!? Apparently, it was nothing to worry about and was just the way designers cut the dresses, it didn’t mean anything.

How can she say ‘not mean anything’? Of course it meant something. In 30 seconds I would have gained a dress size, without even having had the pleasure of eating something delicious.

I know there has been all the talk on the high street about vanity sizing, things being cut larger to make you think you are slimmer than you are. You would think that would be a good principle to apply to wedding dresses; obviously not!

So with my new ‘larger’ dress size I begrudgingly went to look at my plus sized rail thinking all I would find were sequin covered sacks. To my surprise I found three that didn’t repulse me or look like Liberace cast offs and headed for the changing room. I found this was actually just one big communal changing room with lots of semi-naked brides-to-be. More trauma.

Needless to say one of the dresses I picked turned out to be the ‘one’. It looked a lot nicer on than it did on the hanger, and looking back I was  too quick to judge. I put it down to the shock of going a size up. Now all it needs is some altering to make it fit properly in the right places,  and I can’t wait to finally wear it.

Now all I need is some shoes!