Penny Pinching Fashion

It’s the end of January and many of us are clawing on to our last pennies until payday (everyone hates the six week pay gap between Christmas and end of January!)

With all the sales on, it is difficult not to get drawn in (for example, Zara has a cracking sale on at the moment with their trousers/skirts selling for £9, and their blouses/shirt dresses going for just a fiver).

So instead of buying more clothes, as there is physically no room left anywhere in my flat for them, I decided to root through my drawers and see what I could find. I’m talking right to the bottom, where the bandage skirts and peplum tops are!

What I came up with had a geek chic inspiration, as it was an outfit for work but I wanted it to have a cheeky edge and be a bit playful.

I used a bit of layering with the kitted statement jumper (Next) and chiffon blouse (Primark) underneath – although it is winter, it has been particularly mild this year so too many layers would have been sweltering, especially on my power-walk into work. No, I am not a morning exerciser, I have severe issues with timekeeping… 
The skater skirt (about £6, Amazon) was a firm favourite from when I was about 18; I love the burgundy wine colour plus it is RATHER short, so being A-line skater style makes it appear more acceptable for the office.

The accessories are an accumulation of fashion internships and sales over the years. The bangles were from Fabulous magazine's fashion cupboard, as were the oversized geek glasses (which look so adorable but as I have never worn glasses they give me chronic headaches but totally worth it!) The brown leather watch with oversized gold face and Roman numerals was from Red Herring from a Debenhams Blue X Sale about 4 years ago. The bone-style Aztec necklace was from Dorothy Perkins from 2012/13 when the whole Aztec print and statement jewellery started doing the rounds – still a gorgeous piece and always gets compliments for its versatility and intricate design.

The black boots were an eBay purchase, drawn to my attention by Daisy Street. I love the panelling on them and the chunky heel with the gold buckles gives them a biker chick feel, but with the ability to still look feminine. Plus they are super comfy, and with a heel of 4 inches, you can get away with them on a night out – win win! 
If you let your hypothalamus dictate your temperature rather than your insatiable need to look good (unlike me), then try a pair of patterned tights instead of going bare-legged. Primark have a fantastic selection for £2.50 per pair. I recently picked up a gorgeous pair of 10 denier with dark love heart prints all the way up the legs - super cute and an absolute bargain.

#OscarsSoWhite

Are you a George Clooney, or a John Singleton?

Are you a Jada Pinkett-Smith, or a Janet Hubert?

This debate about the Oscars is getting more and more out of control, with a number of celeb A-listers publicly announcing their views on the #OscarsSoWhite discussion.

Whilst I understand the importance of diversity with regards to representation of different races and ethnic groups at public award ceremonies, especially as prestigious and renowned as the Oscars, I must say that I am with John Singleton on this one.

John Singleton (first African American to win Best Director in 1991) claims being nominated for an Oscar has more to do with eligibility than race, and coming from a man of ethnic minority, this is an articulate, concise and reasonable belief. Yes, we need to ensure that equality is exercised, but we must be aware that the actors nominated are done so because of their achievements and not because of their race or ethnic background. When the necessity for representation blindsides genuine talent, it becomes an issue of political correctness encroaching on the film industry.

In contrast, Jada Pinkett-Smith has taken it upon herself to speak for an entire community by boycotting the Academy Awards. I have the utmost respect for Jada; apart from playing the ULTIMATE sass machine Fish Mooney in Gotham, being a total fashion icon and taking on someone else’s child for 20 years, she also always speaks her mind. However in this instance, perhaps she has not considered that the people surrounding her (wildly successful) family are ‘yes-men’. As her and her husband’s rather selective production company (Overbrook Entertainment) demonstrates, the notion of exclusion whispered about in Hollywood is paraded by Jada and Will. I think she has slightly lost her grip on what it feels like to be excluded, as with millions of dollars in the bank, a world famous husband and children who are paving the youth generation’s way through gender identity via fashion campaigns and social exposure, her world makes the most A-list celebrity’s lifestyle look like a mundane humdrum of insurance brokerage.  

Janet Hubert (played ‘Aunt Vivian’ in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air alongside Jada's husband, Will Smith) attempted to make this point via her YouTube response video, but instead of calmly stating her reasons for disagreeing with Jada’s boycott, her speech became a bitter rant exploring a murky past of upset and temper tantrums with Will Smith, rather than focusing on the issue at hand. She was wrong to dismiss the argument as ‘not that deep’ because these are deep-rooted manifestations of centuries of inequality and angst surfacing through this issue. However that still does not change the fact that this debate must be examined in light of present day findings and context.

When George Clooney stated the industry is ‘moving in the wrong direction’, I can see what he means, as in fairness there were more black actors nominated 10 years ago, rather than the all-white Oscar nominations for both this year and last. It is not right to have an all-white nomination list in 2016, especially when you consider Idris Elba’s performance in Beasts of No Nation and Samuel L. Jackson's role in The Hateful Eight. But equally is it right to nominate members of minority groups simply because of their background and heritage, even if somebody else deserves the award more?

We must not take away the achievements and all the hard work from white actors because of a political debate regarding race; it is their talent and effort that is being rewarded. As actor David Oyelowo said, “the Oscars are so important is because it is the zenith, it is the epitome, it is the height of celebration of artistic endeavour within the film making community. We grow up aspiring, dreaming, longing to be accepted into that august establishment because it is the height of excellence”. The Oscars change careers and pave the way to stardom and eternal recognition in the film industry. Is it justifiable to deny this privilege to someone who has worked tirelessly for it, regardless of race?

Such issues are a minefield for any public body, let alone an Academy with nearly a century of cinematic achievements behind it, and can be exacerbated by our expectations, especially when the media dip their little toe into the water to create a few ripples.

Both sides have a valid point. Perhaps this frenzied debate will reintroduce the validity of both talent and race into the spotlight. 

Number One Bestseller... God knows why!

Anyone who knows me is aware of the book overload I am subjected to at Christmas. One book I received was The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins; after hearing all the raving reviews, and being a bestseller, I wanted to try it.

Well. There's several hours of my life I'll never get back again.

Where to begin?!

The plot itself, to be fair, was original in terms of presentation: seeing a life through the eyes of a commuter showed the notion of involvement through objectivity, as if watching a scene on TV rather than reality, which provided an element of dimension; this was the only patience I had with the god-awful plot/writing style. The use of distance was used well in terms of proxemics versus the emotional involvement of characters but ultimately it was dull and dragged on. And on. And on a bit more.

The characters had no depth, they were all hideously shallow. Without ruining the ending, those characters included in the 'twist' at the end were miserably predictable and it came from nowhere. To make twists believable, there must be a crescendo, some sort of subtle development throughout the text to make it plausible. Here, apparently Hawkins got bored of writing her endless drivel and decided to end it by picking out a character from a hat to pin the murder on.

The use of short sentences was dismal: never having a sentence with more than 10 words just makes it sound like you can't write properly. The vocabulary, although it shows promise in certain places, was of a primary school standard, and when an interesting word did present itself,  it was usually thrown in to appear intelligent, rather than actually contributing effectively to the text. More often than not, one gets the sense that the author has merely used the 'synonyms' option in Microsoft Word.

Severely unimpressive book. I definitely don't understand the hype surrounding this book, but if you disagree then leave a comment! 

"New year, new me"

So 2016 is finally here. ✹

          

How many of us have already said ‘New year, new me’?

And yet how many have already reverted back to their old ways – those who said they want to get in shape have signed up to the gym but not yet attended. Those who said they will be more patient on their morning commute to work shoved a fellow passenger for walking too slowly on the 1st January etc etc.

Well, I do not judge you. I think the whole ‘new me bla blah’ is so overrated and conceptually ridiculous. For two reasons:

1.       Why must we wait for a date change to dictate our new beginnings

2.       Why must we be socially pressured into feeling we have to change at all

Firstly, if you are an ogre in life, you probably already know it. (Hint: if you scream at people on a regular basis/if you didn’t get many Christmas cards/your own mother rushes to get off the phone to you, you are most likely a life-ogre. Picture Ebenezer Scrooge without the Christmas references and here you have a life-ogre). If you enjoy this life choice, and wish to be left well alone, then fair game.

If, in fact, you have a marvellous group of friends and are generally happy in life (minus the January blues) then why do you feel that you have to change? Granted, all of us have minor vices in life that perhaps we ought to keep an eye on, or those irritations that are the bane of our housemates’ lives, but these are our quirks, what makes us loveable and endearing (or so we’d like to think!).

However, if these actions are having a negative impact on your life, or on those around you, it is frightfully lazy to be aware of such annoying habits or unhealthy lifestyles and choose to wait until one single date at the end of the year to be proactive and do something about it. If you want to change then do so at your own hand – make your own choices and stick to them! Don’t be a sheep and endlessly follow the social herd because it is the easy route. Sometimes change can be difficult, especially when faced with new, unfamiliar territory but take this as a valuable lesson in self-belief and motivation, and push forward.

Nobody ever learnt anything new from staying in their comfort zone!

Secondly, I find that a lot of New Year resolutions come from the pressure put on us by the constraints of modern culture. If you are joining the gym to re/gain a healthy physique, or you are in training, or think you could benefit from more exercise in your lifestyle, then fantastic, kudos and bravissimo.

IF you are doing it to get the abs of Kylie Jenner/Hailey Baldwin/Alessandra Ambrosio (the list could go on and on…) thennnnnn perhaps this is the wrong reason, and perhaps it is comfortability in your own skin that needs to be exercised.

Celebrate yourself! ❤

We all have body hang-ups but when you realise how beautiful you are without the generic constrictions, then the resulting happiness that comes is truly liberating.  

If you are having a bit of a down day, try Gerad Kite's new book, Everything You Need You Have: How to be at Home in Your Self.
"Kite gifts his patients with something they often weren't aware they had lost: that ineffable sense of 'me-ness' that a child is born with but that many of us mislay along the way." - Daily Telegraph