Fur Coat, No Knickers

Quite taken with these Topshop Lectric shoes, which combine knotted straps - that remind me of mountain climbing ropes – with a nice disco neon perspex heel.

Tracey Emin neon via Lehmann Maupin

Bloggers writing about Barbours is a doozy, but I couldn’t resist drawing your attention to this juicy Liddesdale which is currently on ASOS for a mere £70. Love that purple and fuchsia combination; reminds me of the best ever Mac wallpaper.

The Liddesdale is currently languishing in my ASOS ‘Save for Later’ basket. Not because I’m not going to buy it, but because I am currently participating in the Crave It // Save It competition. Open until midday London time tomorrow, one lucky entrant will win the contents of their saved-for-later bag. Neat huh? Only rule is you can’t go over £300, which is fair enough. My bag is full of more coats, heaps of ASOS own-brand rings, and a couple of summer dresses. Because I need more of all those things.

Enter! Why not? It’s just like making a wishlist with the added bonus of maybe winning it.

New Look Blouse // Topshop Boutique Skirt // old Primark belt

The spotty blouse which I spied at the New Look press day is in store now, which can surely mean that summer is just a week or so away. Right? In the summer I want to wear it with a bright blue or baise green skirt, but I haven’t managed to track one of those down just yet.

For now, I thought I’d make myself look like more of an idiot than usual by wearing it with a similarly dotty print. The skirt in question is this one from Topshop Boutique, which appears to have vanished entirely off the website. As ELLE astutely point out, it is a particularly modern shape – below the knee, and knife pleated to perfection. I have already decided it’s my favourite skirt – congratulations!

Much like Rodarte, Ashish makes me want to spend stupid money on plain jersey. Hmm. The new Ashish for Topshop collection is available now, sigh.

I’ve been humming and hawing (apparently the correct spelling, I don’t believe it) about buying this Topshop Sequin Daisy Tee for ages, but it seemed kind of an impractical buy. I also had nothing to wear it with. But I really liked it. It reminded me of Shampoo and Just Seventeen and the Smash Hits A-Z of Indie.

This weekend I bought a boring jersey skirt, which I thought would be good for wearing with everything in summer. Once I got it on, it suddenly dawned on me that it was just the right length, colour, and boring level to wear with the sequin daisy top – so I gave in and bought it. The only thing I need now is an appropriate bra to wear underneath. As you can see (sorry), I don’t have anything suitable.

Happy ending.

Now I work out in the sticks, my trips up to Oxford Circus are planned with military precision. I scour the Topshop website for days in advance, making a mental note of intended purchases. I guess at roughly where in the shop the items in question will be located – srsly I shop there a lot, I know – and shop like a pro; eyes down, hangers on belt.

One thing I hadn’t planned to buy yesterday were these shoes, but needs must, and unfortunately yesterday those needs came in the form of a broken heel. Sigh. These flats are really 80s, so obviously I like them. Black suede, tassels, gold… Well, they’re better than boring black ~ballet~ pumps, that’s my defence.

More on what I actually went in for to come…

I have to hang around in the office for 1 1/2 hours because my FRIEND can’t meet me until 7pm. I’m trying to avoid doing work for that extra 90 minutes so here’s a picture of my new gems instead. I was on birthday present duty yesterday and instead of buying presents… I bought myself things. Fly earrings from Topshop, big black ring from Primark (£1!!) and spiky gold bracelet that looks a lot more expensive than it was, also from Topshop by the mysteriously named Gogo Philip.

With the Vegas trip looming ever closer, thoughts have turned solely to wardrobing the occasion. So far the only outfit set in stone revolves around this pair of vintage Betty Barclay trousers [I know!] that I accidentally bought because I thought they were a maxi skirt. They’re really high waisted and so wide you would think they were a skirt (it’s where I went wrong) and feature a rather fetching anchor motif. Them, my New Look boater and a nice denim bralet, all good.

Anyway, today I got an email about this Topshop dress and it has been added to the list. Something about a vintage fruity print and one armed bandits just seems to work nicely together. There’s nothing I like more than dressing to a theme. There’s also a really nice t-shirt with the same motif, except the pineapple is embroidered. I was considering buying that last week, but I think the dress is better. So, next step, work out an outfit around this. Two days down.

[I don't like making love at midnight, I'm usually asleep by then]