Petite Coquine

Playing Dress-up

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:26:56 -0400

I was invited to a 21st Birthday a few months ago and was under the impression that it was next Saturday night…until it dawned on me yesterday that I had approximately an hour and a half to cobble together a fancy dress outfit.

I contemplated hippie since I knew I could do that quickly with many items I already had but I settled on a nautical sailor theme and was torn between two outfits..

I settled on the second one, since it seemed more fun and colourful. I managed to use the much lusted after, sold out Topshop Riviera Skirt and paired it with a button down tee and a sailor necktie that belonged to a dress I bought many years ago on ebay. That last photo was taken at 3am when I got home, now thats dedication!

Apologies!

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:37:00 -0400

Life has kept me busy these last few weeks, I have decorated the living room, worked a lot, and got a new job! (Yes, I got the Benefit cosmetics job!)

I went to meet the manager for my store approval this morning and when I got home it was miserable, cold and pouring down with rain. I really wanted to feel warm and cosy so I settled for a grey knitted dress that worn alone is pretty body-con but over my tiered floral skirt is comfy and slouchy.

I’m getting kind of sick of my hair cut, I want to grow it but something just isn’t right..maybe I need to trim my fringe? I have no idea.

Shopping Hell

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:27:19 -0400

My lack of posts this week can be attributed to me hunting high and low for the perfect black outfit to wear to my forthcoming interview with Benefit. I never wear all black, and so the black pieces I do wear are all varying shades of black and can’t be worn together. I never wear trousers either, which makes this almost impossible. I only wear trousers when forced to, since they really don’t flatter my body shape (tiny waist and huge hips) dresses just look so much better!

I found some cute dresses online at ASOS but they were of course out of stock in most sizes! All the shops are filled with pretty dresses in fun summer colours and all the black dresses/tops are too night time. I spent a humid evening in the Trafford Centre for 5 hours the other night, to no real results. I walked away with a £15 top and a £55 dress, and when I got home I didn’t feel particularly good in either. I’m going to try and figure out an outfit today, wish me luck!

Dear Fashion Gods

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:31:00 -0400

Please let me find £60 down the side of the sofa?

Don’t worry, I totes have some spare change for the P&P

Thanks!

Hurrah!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:21:00 -0400

I am a Benefit JUNKIE! I have been seriously addicted to their products forever, and recently I decided to take the next step and apply for a job with them, since everytime I go to one of their counters the staff seem to really enjoy themselves.

I sent my resume to them, not knowing if there were any positions available but I just had a telephone interview with them and was successful. I have been invited to a Benefit audition and I’m so excited! I am so passionate about their products and I really hope I get through. Keep them crossed! I have read all about the interview process and how tough it is (its all about getting people to sit down for makeovers and sell sell sell) but that doesn’t faze me too much. Anyway..

To celebrate I thought I would share my favourite Benefit products with you all. I know this is strictly a fashion blog, but I think a post about beauty products is acceptable :)

Some kind-a gorgeous foundation faker that is super light but conceals. My only complaint about this is how quickly I use it up.

Benetint - This makes me look super duper healthy no matter how hungover, tired or sick I may feel - miracle!

High Beam - an amazing highlighter that is also great mixed with mosturiser, foundation or even benetint to make you glow.

Hollywood Glo - Makes you look radiant and moviestaresque. Put on over makeup or wear alone if you’re going au naturale.

Sorry this is such a fangirl post, but I’m practicing my hard sell! Wish me luck!

Cath Kidston

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:40:47 -0400

I headed down to my local Tesco last week to purchase the copious amounts of ice cream for my Gossip Girl marathon and Becki and I were pleased to see the Cath Kidston designed bags were in store!

The bags are meant to be re-useable grocery bags but I think they would be cute and practical for hauling all those books and files around uni. At £3.50 the bags (made from recycled plastic bottles) are a lot cheaper than anything you could find in an actual Cath Kidston store and at least 50p from each purchase goes to fund cancer research. I bought the floral bag and intend to get the polkadot one as soon as I can get my hands on it. The prints are limited edition, and there are four more designs being released before Christmas.

Speaking of Cath Kidston, I saw this cute fabric on her online store that would make an adorable dress, but I just can’t justify the price tag, its pretty ridiculous. Looks like a trip to Abakhan might be in the works on Tuesday to find something similar!

So sad.

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:41:00 -0400

Rushlana Korshunova died after falling from her 9th floor apartment in Manhattans financial district yesterday in an apparent suicide. So so sad. She was only twenty.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:01:34 -0400

Today I cleaned by trusty sewing machine in preparation for the intense Summer I intend to put it through. My ‘brother’ who is older than me but fabulous and functioning was kindly donated to me by my Great Aunt (a sewing WHIZZ)

Here’s to a fun Summer!

I decided to distract myself from the pouring rain (it should be summer now!) and I had a Gossip...

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:56:00 -0400

I decided to distract myself from the pouring rain (it should be summer now!) and I had a Gossip Girl marathon with my friend Becki served with copious amounts of Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. If it isn’t sunny outside, I will try to inject some sunshine into my outfit!

Wearing this skirt just makes me want to twirl!

I finally tidied my room and had a big spring clean so these photos were taken in my room for the first time!

Top - H&M

Skirt - Vintage via ebay

Belt - Primark

I must apologise for being a bad blogger this week. I haven’t had that much to do and yet...

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:43:51 -0400

I must apologise for being a bad blogger this week. I haven’t had that much to do and yet somehow my days seem really full with hardly any room for fun at all. No real outfit posts to show you since whenever I leave the house I am in my work uniform and look like this.

This past weekend Alex and I went meandering around Manchester for the day and we ended up in the Matthew Williamson exhibition in Urbis. I have been meaning to check it out for ages but never really got around to it. It did of course have the pretty dresses and some catwalk videos but I can’t say I wanted to spend all day in there.

Sorry I don’t have much else to post! I’m trying to spend less money at the moment so I dug out my sewing machine and have found some tutorials to make some cute summer skirts. I’ll keep you all posted!

If you haven’t already, you should check out Buzz Paradise and become a Buzz Angel!

My experience with the Helmut Newton photo machine!

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:43:28 -0400

Today I went into the city centre with two uni friends, Hayley and Liz. Liz lives about 6 hours away so I won’t be seeing her until late September. Before she travels home tomorrow we all wanted a day out and we decided to go for a little look around the shops and some lunch.

As I was heading into the city I realised that the Helmut Newton machine was in town already! I was planning on going later in the week but I thought it would be nice for us all to go together to have a photo, and thankfully I wasn’t wearing sweatpants and uggs. Here is my experience:

When we arrived in the entrance there were commemorative booklets about Newton in the foyer for people to take away, I must confess I picked up a few extra to keep! As we made our way up to the machine section of the store, there was a little bit of a queue and all together we probably waited around 40 minutes including makeup (but during our wait the computer processing the images crashed so the machine was out of action for a little while.)

Inside there were NARS makeup artists and a rail of clothes and some shoes and accessories. I should point out though that the clothes were all size 8 and 10 so if you are differently sized its probably worth wearing something of your own that you like. My friend is a 14 and since she was wearing jeans and a hoodie, asked if she could bring something off the shop floor and she was allowed, but I’m not sure if that happens all the time so its best to wear something cute to be on the safe side. I was wearing a dress and decided to stay in my own clothes, but I had my makeup done (fuschia lips!!!) and changed into some topshop heels. I told the makeup artist to do whatever she wanted, since I wear neutral makeup usually and I thought it would be fun. She kept my eyes neutral with pinky shades and added doll-like blush and bright lips which was fun because I never wear more than a slick of benetint and gloss on my lips. She was pretty excited because apparently everyone else wanted nude makeup or just eyeliner so I think I made her day.

As I was about to enter the photo bit I realised that the strawberries I had eaten earlier had stained my cream dress so I was limited with my poses, I had to make sure I held my dress over the stain as it was too late to get changed. Oh well!

The machine itself was cool, the area is private so you don’t feel self concious and even the makeup area is closed off from the main store. The machine is open from 12pm till 6pm and it seemed to be always in action, but the queue was bearable unless you were in your lunch break. Normally one print per person is selected because of time constraints but my friends and I got two, one all together and then one individual one each. I don’t however, think they advertise this fact and we had to call back an hour later to get the second print once they had time to do it. My only criticism is that you don’t get to see the images that you take, you wait outside and the print that the photographer selects as the best image is brought out to you. (How very ANTM panel! haha) I would have liked to see the rest of my pictures since I cringe when I look at mine, but I guess that would happen no matter what the picture. I’m hoping to go back with another friend, the pictures are such good quality (and free) that its almost like going to a professional photographer to have a nice picture done (minus any awkwardness.)

Here are the images! I don’t have my scanner set up here so these pictures of the pictures will have to do for now!!! Click here, here, here and here for bigger images.

Overall I think it was a fabulous idea, and a fun experience, especially as something to do with friends. Go now!!!!

My new favourite top

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:19:20 -0400

The weather is killing me right now! When I wake up its cloudy and miserable so I pick out an...

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:06:00 -0400

The weather is killing me right now! When I wake up its cloudy and miserable so I pick out an outfit, head out the door and the sun comes out and makes me look ridiculous! Today I had wanted to wear a super simple outfit and I put the tights on because it was windy.

The sun has just come out so I am going to have to change because I am boiling!

I picked up the skirt at work for £1! It was too big so I wore it highwaisted with my belt, and the top was £2 from New Look. Bargainous.

Also, I thought I would try my kitchen for better lighting! Spot my rabbit making a cameo in the first photo.

EDIT!

I ended up changing into this more summery outfit…

I kept the tight because you never ever know..

Not long now till the Helmut Newton Photo Machine will be in Manchester! I am definitely going to...

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:25:00 -0400

Not long now till the Helmut Newton Photo Machine will be in Manchester! I am definitely going to drag the boyfriend down to Topshop to try this out!

The machine will be in London until June 15th, and will then be recreated in both Manchester ( June 17th-22nd) and Dublin (17th-22nd)

Click here to watch a Times Online video about the machine.

Style Inspiration - Alexa Chung

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:48:00 -0400

Whenever I see a picture of Alexa Chung I am always jealous of her laid back but put together style. The model turned tv presenter has made her way onto numerous best dressed lists and bagged an Arctic Monkey so she must be doing something right. Here are some of my favourite Alexa looks…

I got this skirt a few weeks ago from work and haven’t worn it yet, but after I saw Ida in...

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:26:00 -0400

I got this skirt a few weeks ago from work and haven’t worn it yet, but after I saw Ida in her fabulous belted skirt I felt I should dig it out. I’m still looking for the perfect tshirt that looks just right with it.

Take to the streets

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:17:36 -0400

I have wanted to start a street style blog for a long long time, and now with the whole summer ahead of me I am really itching to do one. I know the internet is saturated with them but I like the idea of going out and interacting with people. That sentence makes it sound like I never leave the house haha.

Anyway, if you are a UK blogger in the North of England and fancy a foray into street style, let me know!

Knockoff Dior Extreme gladiators.

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:02:21 -0400

I’m not sure about the mock reptile, but I’m desperate for a good knockoff of the Dior shoes. I’ve seen a really good pair somewhere in a magazine but I can’t for the life of me remember where.

Chaussures

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:34:19 -0400

I’ve been on some kind of black shoe kick recently, and here are two of my recent purchases, both from Primark, since my budget is not permitting anything else right now..

I really like these, just to have as a basic black shoe that will go with anything. They had an off-white pair that could have looked a little Chloe but I was worried that without the height and gold detail on the heel they could have looked a little Essex Wife.

I had originally wanted these in a pinky nude colour but they only had the size below me and although they fit, they were so uncomfortable and I knew getting them would mean they would end up at the back of my wardrobe, which they just don’t deserve. The beauty of these is that I can change the ribbon for different occasions.

Its been a really busy week so I apologise for the lack of any real posts. I have filmed a little video tour of my wardrobe so I will edit that asap!

What I wore today - Sex and the City part deux

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:53:19 -0400

I wore this to go see Sex and the City for the second time, I had 5 minutes to get changed after work!

Tunic top - £1!!! George at Asda

Leggings £6 Topshop

Boots - £120 Topshop Shoes

Jacket - £8 Primark

Scarf - £4.99 H&M Sale Bin