Down and Dirty

"I realized this week that I just cannot do it all. So I will choose to do what I can fabulously." Clinton Kelly

 

Topshop White drape blouse

Zara black combination leather blazer-similar here

Skirt stolen from my mum-similar here

Sandwich knit snood-similar here

 

How is time passing so quickly lately? It's October next week! I have literally not bought clothes for the last 9months! Just October, November and December left and that's me. Finished this silly challenge.  It's not silly really.  I love this look that I am wearing today and I don't think I ever would have been able to piece this together last year.  Oh don't get me wrong, I would love new stuff. Black ankle boots. Nice ones, not too big a heel but still stylish enough to dress them up or down. Technically this skirt is new, well my mum didn't want it anymore so I took it off the charity pile that she leaves in my bedroom up room.  I can be seen as charity really. I have no idea where she bought it, I think a tiny boutique in Italy.  Who knows, it's mine now.  Insert evil laugh.

 

This last week, I have just been trying to sort my life out.  At the start of the summer I set a long list of goals that I wanted to do and I am slowly but surely achieving them.  Exciting things like resealing my bath, repainting the kitchen roof, clearing out my store room.  All very very exciting stuff. I have a new housemate moving in this weekend so I am trying to tie all lose ends up. Shout out to my mummy who I forced to help me last weekend with the cleaning of my bathroom. Wee legend and the bathroom looks brand new.



 

 

Before I got down and dirty over the weekend, I went to the Directory 14 Catwalk event on Thursday night but my lovely fellow blogger Gemma Louise Bond.  Events like this annoy me now. Oh don't great me wrong it was a great event.  It was a catwalk geared towards you.  No models on the catwalk that you think, aw I could never wear that, she looks great in it with her model figure & the fact she is 7ft and has legs as long as spaghetti.  This is coming out wrong.  The models were gorgeous but they ranged in age, size and represented the majority of society.  Young models, plus size models, older models, size 8 to size 18.  It was get to see variety on a catwalk.  It was more commercial.  But I hate events like this now.  May sound sad but it's the pressure of what to wear.  Wearing something new always take the edge of it but I of course, don't have anything new so I am trying to think up ways to my smelly old clothes.

It's like I feel people are looking at me going, there is that blogger Laurina, what the hell is she wearing?!? Though these events are also fun because I get to play around more with my clothes and experiment more which is something I have always been too scared to do.  Take a look at my photos, I rarely do anything with my hair but for this event I tried the slicked back look.  I loved it, my family made some funny comments about the fact that it just looked normal & like I hadn't washed my hair as usual.  Fair comments.  I am a bit minging. I then took a cotton stretch top that I use for layering and tucked it in half & into my bra so it wouldn't fall down.  Ta da!!! My very own crop top.  Totes on trend.  Then paired it with a black pencil skirt.  I had a good tummy day so was happy to show a bit of skin. Loved this look.  Ignore my grumpy bake, I was trying to be fierce. I failed.

Starting to come into catwalk season, I am doing a catwalk for Cruise tomorrow night so lots of backstage photos to come from that.  Then I will blogging from the Victoria Square A/W Fashion and Beauty Spectacular. Lots of backstage craic and photos of the gorgeous clothes that the fab Rebecca McKinney will be styling. Can't wait! I promise to have cleaned my nails by then.

God bless you my child

"When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to be a priest." Mike Krzyzewski, Monsters inc

 

Zara white shirt

Zara black jumper with elbow patches

River Island black skinny jeans

 

It was only after I took this photo and put on my coat to walk to work that I thought to myself that I kinda looked a bit like a priest. With my white collar and all black outfit, I am happy to take all your fashion confessions. About how you have sinned against the God that is fashion and we can say our Hail Anna Wintours' together & pray for your sins to be forgiven. Amen.

 

One thing I need to be forgiven for is Saturday night.  Oh no, don't worry I wasn't drunk or anything, just slightly tipsy.  But it was such a good girly night.  I haven't been out in ages, didn't even go out for my birthday in July.  Starting to show my age but I was really excited for Saturday night to blow off some steam after a stressful week.  So excitedly I tried to decide what to wear.  As I said, I don't get out much anymore so all the lovely slutty dresses and short short skirts don't get worn that much.  I wanted to wear everything I owned.  And I practically did as I changed 5 times before the taxi came.  Don't get me wrong, I loved every look I had on me and now I am completely organised for the next few events that I have coming up over the next few weeks but I just couldn't decide what I was feeling.

 

H&M white cropped jacket - similar here

La Senza black corset top-similar here

Topshop skater skirt

 

So this is the look I ended up going with.  Mainly because I was being shouted out the door due to the the taxi waiting on us downstairs.  Remember La Senza???? Aw I loved that place, I have a thing for underwear.  I have I think 19 bras, 20 as Connor bought me a Victoria Secret one for my birthday. So as tacky as wearing a black corset out sounds, it actually worked quite well. It wasn't very visible that it was a corset, more like a structured top.  They are in Topshop at the minute as cropped versions so this is the only way I can channel this style due to a stupid challenge I set myself at the start of this year.

 

Jayne wears: Asos sequin corset top-similar here

Jayne wears: Zara white pencil skirt-similar here

 

 Rebecca wears: River Island cut out dress

 

And here we are!! Typical toilet photo that most girls take on a night out. My gorgeous housemate Jayne and the beautiful & fabulous Rebecca McKinney, Personal stylist at Victoria Square. We didn't mean to colour corindate but we did. We are unintentionally that good.  We literally just danced all night, by the end of it my feet were on fire.  The music in Ollies, Belfast was amazing, such good tunes! Here are my beautiful feet after Saturday night. 

 

Question.....hat.....yes or no??? This was my hungover look for Sunday when I went for a massive munch in Maggie Mays in Botantic to settle my growling stomach. I loved it, I've so many hats but I'm too scared to wear them due to the thought of looking like an twat. Girls all said yes, boyfriend said I looked like inspector gadget. Well actually he said a 1950's detective & I said or inspector gadget. So I ignored what he said & went with it? What do you think? Yes or no?

My Precious

"Sometimes Pattern trousers come in handy when trying to match the carpet in your office" bourbonbasted, Styleforum

Topshop Black Peplum top

Warehouse Tile print trouser

My shoes are really starting to smell.  Granted I have quite smelly feet already but the fact is I haven't bought new shoes in 7 months or probably more.  If you think about it, I haven't bought summer shoes since last summer so technically I have been wearing these for over a year now & they are starting to get a whiff about them.  My black studded pumps that I wear religiously to work, if they get too close to my face I can definitely smell a pong coming from them.  What am I meant to do??? They are the only black shoes I own other than high heels, trainer wedges or boots.  I am not going to be saving any money from this year due to the fact I will have to bin most of my wardrobe at the end of this year.

One thing I won't be binning are these trousers.  Confession.  They are new.  BUT I didn't buy them.  This amazing thing called blogging has opened doors for me & given me stuff.  Free stuff!!! When I met with the PR girls from Warehouse to hear about them opening their fab new store in Victoria Square in September, they gifted me the gorgeous neon necklace you may have spotted me wearing (If not, check it out here) 

They also gave me a £50 gift voucher!!!! 

I went to the Warehouse in Forestside, think Gollum from The Lord of the Rings with my giftcard. My precious.  It was so surreal, walking around actually looking at the clothes but actually looking at the clothes in a sense of hey, I may buy you.  I wanted something that I had desired for a while.  You have to understand I could have bought everything in the shop because I could have just went crazy and relapsed.  It's like setting alcohol down in front of an alcoholic & saying you are allowed a sip.  Ok, maybe thats a bit more serious than my shopping addiction.

I walked around the shop for 35 mins, touching everything, smelling everything, rubbing my face with wallets, handbags over my arms.  The shop assistants were looking at me thinking who is this crazy person.  I wanted boyfriend jean, really baggy, lots of ribs.  I love the look at the moment of the boyfriend jeans and high heels.  Love to wear them out to dinner with a blazer.  So I tried on Warehouse's boyfriend style jeans and boy were they gorgeous!! Best fitting jeans I have had on me in ages. However, they weren't quite what I was looking for, not baggy enough.  So then I tried these on pattern trousers & we have a winner!!!

 

They just go with anything, you can wear them 101 ways.  I have kept it quite plain so far when I have worn them. Sticking to a plain black or white top & black pumps but I would love to wear them with a clashing top or even a colourful cami.  They are great for work too and I think they would be lovely even with heel highs for heading out to cocktails.  I almost cried as I saw the blue version of the trousers featured in the Look magazine 2 weeks ago.  It is so nice to be wearing something that you know is in style.  Can't remember the last time I saw something in a magazine were I was like ooohhh I have those, totes on trend or they are beaut, I am going to get them.  And the best thing is I still haven't spent all of my gift voucher!!! Oooohhhhh my precious, I am keeping you. Coveting you for a later date. Yes, my precious.

Cruising into Summer

"Style is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style." John Fairchild

black boyfriend blazer Benetton

Zara basic white shirt

Asos Tux trousers

Last night I attended the Cruise Summer Style Party and the launch of their new re-vamped store. I originally wanted to wear shorts, a t-shirt & a gorgeous borrowed sequin jacket from Miss Zoe J Watson but as usual the lovely Northern Ireland weather put me off this idea on my walk home. Rain and freezing wind so bare legs was a hell no! So what to wear? 

I came up with this idea as I was searching my wardrobe for something to cover my legs but something other than jeans, these tuxedo trousers again are a piece in wardrobe that I have never worn.   I bought them from Asos in the sale about 3 years ago but never knew what to wear with them. Or maybe I was never brave enough to wear them. So tried the look on and loved it but felt it needed something. 

Black ribbon, Of course!! Standard last minute me, where the hell do I get black ribbon 45mins before an event?? Hunting all over the house, I huffed and I puffed but nothing. So I sat on my bed & moaned in my head that the whole look was ruined. Looked to my left and what do I see but a cruise shopper bag I had used to carry my samples home in the other day. And what are the handles on a cruise bag??? Black ribbon!!! How ironic is that?!?! 

 

Cut the ribbon off & ta-dah!! Pussy bow! 

 

Cruise is a luxury designer store in the Victoria Square complex in Belfast City Centre. With brands like Alexander McQueen, Victoria Beckham, Pinko and Lanvin, it is your one stop shop if you want to buy one of a kind stand out from the crowd pieces. Whether you are a big designer shopper or not, last nights event was a perfect excuse to be blown away by the gorgeous new collections that they have in store. With free cocktails supplied by Smirnoff and Captain Morgan as soon as you walked in the door, I was scared to even move to look around the shop incase I tripped and poured my drink over one of the gorgeous Chloe bags.

 

 Gorgeous new layout for Cruise

 

Thankfully I was able to get a seat for the catwalk show were my stunning housemate Jayne Higgins was modelling the gorgeous clothes. She was even able to wear a gorgeous Temperley London dress that we have take note off as a potential wedding dress for the future. I was with Jayne's boyfriend, Kevin for the show & I did point out the price to him but at the end of the day, she's totally worth it ;) 

Ella wears: Forever Unique Coral Dress £220              Jayne wears: Pinko Long Purple Dress £317

Ella wears:Alexander McQueen Petal Shoulder Dress £2675      Jayne wears (future wedding dress):
                                                                                                       Temperley London dress £2,500


Well done to Judi Graham and all her team at Cruise for last night's event, it was a great turn out and lovely to see everyone on a school night. With a helping hand from CMPR, what do you expect though!  Definitely pop into the shop and have a nosey! They start their Mid season sale today and Judi and her team are always willing to help you out or just have a natter!

www.cruisefashion.co.uk