Wolves and Foxes

If I could have any pet in the world right now, it would have to be a fox. I've gone and got myself a little bit obsessed of late with foxes, I love their cheeky little faces and the fact that they're always up to mischief. And since reading about Miss Snooks the domesticated foxy in the news earlier this year, I'm pretty convinced that any sane red coated fox would love it round my gaff.

But try as I might I haven't managed to tempt one in, so for now I'm settling for foxy high street fashion instead. And I was thrilled this week to discover the Reko Fox Print Dress I've been coveting of late has made it into the Topshop Sale.

The Toppers website seemed to sell out of everything in the Sale section in record time this Autumn, but luckily the stores are still well stocked with delicious bargains and I managed to pick the dress up in Westfield for £25.

You'd think that would be enough to satisfy my cravings for animal fashion, wouldn't you? Not so! The very next day I found myself in the fine city of Norwich, which happens to be equipped with a particularly fine Topshop. Well it's rude not to just pop in isn't it? And if there's one thing I like almost as much as foxy fashion, it's wearable wolves. So imagine my utter joy when I discovered this incredible Wolf T-Shirt Dress by Illustrated People also in the Topshop sale for just £12.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! It's a really flattering shape and i've been wearing it with my new black vintage boots constantly since I bought it. Yeah the wolf is due a wash.... That's ok, I can cope without it for a few days. Next, to get my hands on a squirrel jacket and a pair of red panda pumps....

Mia x

Monday Monday

It's been a week since my last post and I really wanted to show off the scarf my mum made me but I haven't had chance to take a picture of it yet. It's bright colours and massive thick links of wool that sit really nicely. I've been wearing it in the office with a t-shirt to keep warm!

I also got my hands on a gorgeous LEOPARD PRINT COAT on the weekend (yes, finally I have one!). I will have to post about that another time too. My new Tavi t-shirt arrived a few days ago and I LOVE LOVE LOVE ITTT... I am now officially a member of Team Tavi... hurrah! I love the way that Borders and Frontiers make the labels, each one has an individual pic of the designer and some info about them. I'm wearing it with my new vintage jacket from American Archive on eBay, it has amazing shiny buttons...

American Archive love-in

So I told you a few entries back that the lovely American Archive sent me a dress. Well, I have to say it's one of the prettiest things I own,  I love the embroidery and the fact it's so easy to wear, pull on a pair of leggings and you're all set. I thought I'd put a few pictures up now I have my camera back in full working order.








Corinne x

Bird Bag

Here's my finished bag from the Oh Sew! course.

I messed the corners up a bit and accidently made the wings look quite good. I used it yesterday to bring some stuff home from town and it didn't fall apart, which already makes it more of a success than anything I've ever made. (When I was 16, I made a bag out of faux fur and took it on a night out, not realising the fabric was stretchy, by the end of the night it reached down to my knees.)

I'm now trying to work out what I can sew that will make good credit crunch Christmas presents. I'll keep you posted.

Mia x

Oh Sew, Brixton

Today Mia and I spent a lovely day at a sewing workshop in South London. I'm not usually one for signing up to classes (usually preferring to pick things up by reading books and making lots of mistakes). I have to say though, nothing beats sitting in a class and working to a deadline with no distractions. Neither of us has done much sewing since school so this was a good opportunity to try new things with a teacher on hand to help if anything went wrong.

Oh Sew Brixton!, run by Fiona Douglas has a number of classes covering everything from simple bags to more advanced dresses and skirts. Our class (The Introductory workshop) was made up of ten or so people all wanting to learn the basics of sewing and it was really great to work through the processes to leave with a finished product.

We were first shown how to thread a sewing machine correctly, how to sew different types of stitches and eventually set to work on a shoulder bag. Mine was made of calico with a big leopard print heart in the middle (still haven't got round to getting my fur coat yet but this will do for now!)

What do you think? I'm sure Mia will post hers too (she has a bird on hers which was much more complicated than mine and she's planning to sew on a button eye - impressive).





UPDATE: I found a similar pattern to the one we used on The Observer website so you can have a go yourselves. We didn't do the painted bit in the pattern, instead we sewed on shapes prior to sewing up the bag.

Funkin Junkie

I found the store Funkin Junkie today on eBay. If you love ultra cool vintage then this is the store for you. They specialise in difficult but wearable trends like leopard print coats and jackets, peplum blazers and draped and high waist harem trousers. I love their model who has razor sharp bowl hair and massive Raybans in all the pics. Don't miss out on a good rummage!

Vintage Boot Success

I've just returned from a trip to the fine city of Norwich where my band (2hot2sweat) played as part of the awesome Hell Yes Fest. I hate to return home from a trip empty handed and managed to squeeze in a quick and rather succesful visit to Prim Vintage Fashion, Norwich's newest and cutest vintage boutique, while I was there.



Last weekend I spent hours traipsing round Brick Lane's various cavernous vintage stores desperately in search of some black boots. My old faithful knee high patent boots (picked up in Absolute Vintage a couple of years ago and worn constantly ever since) have finally split and I'm completely lost without them. Perhaps I was overwhelmed by the choice (I think I maybe get overstimulated and go into a weird vintage trance when faced with too many options) but I just could not find the right boots.

Fast-forward to last night and a quick trip to Prim Vintage introduced me to these beauties:



It was love at first sight! They're the perfect biker-pixie boot hybrid and I plan to wear them all winter. Now all I need is a vintage studded leather jacket to match...

In other news the gig was shambolic but fun, and we played with The Invisible and Micachu and the Shapes, who were both lovely and ace. FYI (I know you're dying to know) I went for a particularly brave and possibly foolish Topshop ensemble of gold tiger bodysuit and gold sequin plimsoles with pop socks. Here it is...

I'm not sure why I am raising my fists. Perhaps I'm surrendering to the fashion police. You decide.

Mia x

Vintage eBay stores RULE

Hello kids. I have been on a training course learning how to use a fancy Z1 camera this week. I do a bit of filming as part of my job and I'm so pleased because the course was brilliant, I felt like I picked up a lot of new skillz.

I've been trawling eBay every night this week and I've purchased two items from American Archive (which I'm going to keep as a surprise till they arrive). The lovely folks at the store sent me a beautiful pink dress after I blogged about them a few weeks back. It's is so lovely, I've worn it about 3 times already and it only arrived on Friday! I really didn't expect them to send me anything but it was so lovely of them. Pictures will be up this week, I promise!

Unfortunately my camera battery has RUN OUT so I can't take any pictures till I pick up my charger (which I've left at work like an idiot!). I'll try and get a picture of it up on the site as soon as poss. There are similar ones available from the American Archive store should you wish to purchase one yourselfs. Most of the stuff they sell is listed as buy it now so you don't have to wait and obsess to see if you've won. It's not badly priced either so that's always a massive plus. If you're used to sites like Nasty Gal, then AA will be a breath of fresh air! I always find it infuriating when companies list vintage at prices befitting catwalk wear.

Anyway, enough blah blah, I've been trawling eBay like a mad woman all week, I've been getting withdrawal symptoms (usually I'm locked to my laptop all day long but being on courses I've not had the opportunity to get computer time in). Evenings have become an eBay search fest with vintage dresses, bags, tops and trousers flashing up on the screen in bright and beautiful lists.

Tonight it's all about California Vintage Connect, they stock excellent quality vintage from bohemian fur coats to hot pink sequin flapper dresses (my personal fave) to sequin blazers. Check it out if you have time. I love to look through stores even if I have no intention of buying. Here are some things I'm currently crushing:








Corinne x

Vintage Betsey Johnson goth dress

I have my eye on this gorgeeeous Betsey Johnson dress on eBay at the moment. It's being sold by a store that I only just discovered on eBay today called Mint Mall. They sell a massive range of vintage stuff and they're all at really reasonable prices (unfortunately if you're not based in the USA then you have to allow for shipping, but that's not too bad). Make sure you check them out on your next eBay trawl!

I made floral leggings!

Hello! Sorry for the lack of posts this week, work has been mayhem and I've been going to training courses and all sorts. Anyway, I just thought I'd write a quick post to let you know that I've had some official legging making success. Leggings WIN.

Check out these floral lovelies that I made last night - .

Excuse the car-park background - I live in London so garden pictures are out of the question! I bought the fabric from eBay (and I still have tons left) and I used a vintage pattern (also from eBay for 99p). The pattern was shorter than I required so I added inches of fabric to the bottom to lengthen the legs.

I'm wearing them with a H&M bodycon dress and my Minky Linky Office wedges.

I = Pop Tart

The London postal strike has left me a little short of subject matter this month as I wait anxiously for all my latest ebay purchases to materialise. Languishing in a sorting office, somewhere, are an American Apparell dress, high waisted jeans, 1980s vintage ankle boots and AMAZING Topshop biker platforms. I can only hope that we'll be united soon, and I fear I will be in a kind of fashion limbo until we are.

In the meantime, I've decided to look back at the good times and put together a little retrospective of some of my favourite pop star outfits. As some of you may know, when I'm not blogging, I play electro pop songs in the band 2 Hot 2 Sweat. It's really fun - I love leaping around on stage, waking up my neighbours with band practice and writing songs about people who get my goat. But most of all, I LOVE the excuse to buy ANY item of clothing. There is nothing too ridiculous, too revealing or too bad taste for on stage 'Sweat wear.

So with that in mind, I've picked out some of my favourite Sweat outfits from the last couple of years to share with you, hope you like them.

1. Our very first festival appearance @ Latitude Festival 2009
I went through about 6 different potential outfits for Latitude before settling on this one at the last minute. I'm wearing a vintage batwing t-shirt with a tiger on which I absolutely love, Topshop sequin hotpants and vintage white knee high boots. I genuinely believe every girl should own a pair of sequin hotpants.

2. Indie Ghetto @ Latitude Festival 2009
This is another appearance at Latitude. We were invited to do a turn at a hip-hop covers show and picked 'Boom Shake the Room' by The Fresh Prince to rework. I loved it! I'm wearing my vintage sequin butterfly cape (which Corinne is really jealous of... tee hee) and an amazing Topshop wet look jumpsuit which I picked up in the sale a few months ago. It shows all your lumps and bumps and is definitely not one for the faint hearted. But in a dimly lit room I like to think it makes me look like Sandy from Grease, post makeover. (as long as you don't look too hard).

3. John Peel Night @ BBC Electric Proms 2008
We went up to Liverpool to play this special tribute gig in November last year - it was such an honour. I knew for ages I wanted to wear this fab vintage purple jumpsuit which I found in a store in Notting Hill, but decided at the last minute the full length trousers made the whole look a bit too Star Trek, so hacked them off and turned them into cute hotpants. I found this vintage gold skinny belt in Beyond Retro. It's one of my faves.

4. 80s Wedding Disco @ Shindig, Brighton
This gig was so much fun. Everyone wore their best 80s wedding get up and we played with the Bobby McGees. I'm wearing a vintage 80s prom dress, which I picked up in Notting Hill at the same time as the purple jumpsuit, neon pink tights from ebay and Urban Outfitters nerdy glasses.

5. @ The Good Ship, Kilburn

This gig was a bit rubbish but it is one of my all-time favourite outfits! I'm wearing a vintage anchor print vest which I found in a charity shop, a vintage white leather mini skirt from ebay, and a cute anchor cinch belt which my sister gave me. The sailor hats came from my local fancy dress shop.

6. Recording Huw Stephens Radio 1 session @ Maida Vale
We were SO excited to record a session earlier in the year for the super lovely Huw Stephens. The Maida Vale studio walls were covered in pics of some of my heros recording their own sessions in the very same room. I went for a Bonde Do Role t-shirt which I picked up at a gig last summer (they are ace) and Topshop high waisted hotpants with a vintage skinny leather belt I found in a charity shop.

I won't bore you all any more. But keep an eye out for unwearable vintage and send it my way. I love a challenge. I'm off to search ebay for a cape...

Mia x

Papas got a brand new...

Hello! I went to a carboot sale today and picked up this rather marvelous satchel bag type thing, which I am told by the seller was bought in India. I was basically sold by the crazy colours and soft leather handles. It won't be long till it's jam packed with loads of bits and bobs...

Dead or Alive

It's been a while since I did my trawl of Etsy but I took a quick look at their homepage today.. and what should I find... Check out this awesome vamp teeth necklace from Etsy store VeraMeat. It's amazing - not least because Halloween is coming up and I'm usually really lazy with my costumes! I can see a whole range of these being made - imagine the 'Prince Charles teeth' necklace?

It'd need a good clean after a night out - no doubt it'd go round the group after a couple of glasses of white wine.

Corinne x