London Calling

I have lived a stone's throw from London for as long as I can remember. However I feel I have never taken full advantage of the great city that is on my doorstep and have made it one of my goals this year to explore London more. London is definitely the place to go for a perfect day of shopping.

For my perfect shopping trip to London, I'd start in West London and then head to the West End. I would start my day in Knightsbridge - where I'd pretend to be in 'Made in Chelsea' and head to the 2 big H's (Harrods and Harvey Nichols). In these stores, I love to meander the beauty halls and swoon over the beautiful bags, while munching on macarons bought from the Laduree counter in Harrods. Following this, I'd jump on the number 9 bus or the Piccadilly Line and head towards Oxford Street to hit the big flagship stores like Topshop, Primark, Selfridges and Liberty. Here I would meander more beauty halls, spritz even more perfume and no doubt, spend more money than I should.

To top off a perfect day of shopping, I'd pop along to the National Portrait Gallery for the Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair exhibition (which I'm dying to go to), then to China Town for a spot of dinner, before dashing to the Royal Opera House for a glass of champagne and a trip to the ballet. Following the ballet, I'd head towards Charing Cross, shopping bags in hand, woozy from the champagne and get on a train home for a well deserved snooze. Sounds perfect, doesn't it?

I've put together some outfits that I think would be perfect for a day of shopping and exploring in London. Throw in your favourite coat, woolly scarf and bobble hat and you'd be all set to roam London in this weather.

The jumper and jeans are both by Topshop and I think the orange jumper adds a nice pop of colour to the outfit. The Zara studded wedge trainers are a great shoe choice, as they not only look lovely, they would also be comfortable enough to walk around the city for hours. The juxtaposing slouchy shape and structured metal handles of this gorgeous Zara bag counteract the casualness of the outfit and is the cherry on top of a casual and comfortable outfit like this one.

Sometimes a dress is the only way forward and I love the simplicity of the monochrome of this Topshop dress. Boots are a must in the winter and these Topshop boots fit the bill perfectly. A little bit of pretty lace peeking out makes this outfit that extra bit girly and topped off with this bright satchel by Zara, you're good to go.

What's your perfect shopping day in London?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

This is a competition entry for Visit Britain Shop - Details here.
Images used in this post from Zara.com, Topshop.com and Tumblr.com

Saint Valentine

Valentine's day is almost here again and while I'm a single pringle, I thought I'd compile an outfit of what I'd wear on Valentine's day.

You can't go wrong with a dress on Valentine's day and this River Island dress would carry you from a day date all the way through to the midnight hour. The print is classic and non-offensive, and the cut of the dress is flattering with the black panels at the side, nipping you in in all the right places. You could brave the cold in the hopes that your man will lend you his jacket, but in case they're not quite Prince Charming, a fitted blazer like this Topshop blazer would add a pop of colour and look chic in the process. To tie in with the pink blazer, the classic Lulu Guiness lips clutch is perfect for Valentine's day and is big enough to hold your essentials. The Ferragmo Selaby heels with a pretty embellished bow add a touch of girliness to the outfit. To top off the look, accentuate your features with makeup you feel gorgeous in and finish with a slick of Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy for pretty pink lips.

What would you wear on Valentine's Day?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

This is a competition entry for Daisy Butter - Details here.
Images from RiverIsland.com, Topshop.com, Selfridges.com.

Day to Night: Topshop Cap Sleeve Dress

I really enjoyed doing the imaginary online shopping for my virtual Christmas Party post and that got me thinking about doing more. I wouldn't say I am a particularly fashionable person - I just wear what I find comfortable and what suits me - but I like putting outfits together, so I thought I might give this 'Day to Night' feature a go. As a student on a budget, I had to be wise with my money and learnt to buy staple pieces of clothing that were versatile enough to be worn again and again (Because although we'd all love to wear an outfit only once, who really has the money to continually buy new outfits for every event?). All of the outfits in this feature will centre around one item and will cost less than £100.

As Christmas has just passed and new year is approaching, that generally means spending more money than any other time during the rest of the year, I was thinking of how you can buy some staple items in your wardrobe and wear them to a number of events, during the day and night. For today's 'Day to Night', Topshop's Cap Sleeve Flippy Dress in Bottle Green is the item that will be worn from day to night. I love these dresses, as they are super versatile, come in a great range of colours, can be worn all year round and are flattering to pretty much every body shape. Although the bottle green shade is reminiscent of my secondary school days, I think it's a perfect winter shade and perfect for the holiday season.

I am a big fan of cardigans, whether they are chunky or fitted. This cream chunky New Look knit (£17.99) is the perfect juxtaposition against the more fitted form of the dress and would look lovely worn open and slightly oversized. The black accessories complement the cream and green hues perfectly. The shopper from Zara (£19.99) is a steal and is the perfect size whether you use it for work, shopping, uni/college. Classic black flats are great for day time and these shoes from Boohoo (£20.00) are gorgeous. The leopard's face detail is lovely and adds a bit of extra pizzazz to the outfit. The silver heart earrings from River Island (£3.00) and black snood from H&M (£6.99) are some cute finishing touches to this day look. 

For this night out look, this River Island necklace (£12.00) is a nice statement piece, which will jazz up this plain dress. The great thing about this dress is that it gives you free reign with how you want to accessorize it. The H&M box clutch (£19.99) is lovely and is just big enough to hold your essentials, but not too small that you can't put anything in. These cut-out shoes from New Look (£19.99) are on my to-buy list, as although they're fairly plain, they've got the lovely cut out detail and look more expensive than they actually are. To finish off this outfit, a fur stole such as this one from H&M (£6.99 in the sale) and a slick of red lipstick (e.g. Rio Rio by Topshop £8) are perfect and glam for the wintery nights ahead.

How would you pair this Topshop dress? What do you think of this feature?

Thanks for reading. xoxo, Joy

(Images from Topshop, Boohoo, H&M, New Look, River Island)

Virtual Christmas Party

Last year, I did a post about a high street and high end outfit that I'd wear to an imaginary glitz and glam Christmas party if I was invited to one. I forgot to include jewellery last year, but this time I'm going all out and you're all invited to join me.

For my high street option, I picked this simple black dress from Warehouse (£55), as you can't go wrong with a little black dress and I liked the faux leather panel detail on the front. I decided to keep the rest of the outfit fairly simple to go along with the dress, focussing on a gold and black theme with a dash of festive red. The bag (£22.99) and shoes (£34.99) are from Missguided and I love how the gold studs 'pop' on the bag and the criss cross detail on the shoes. Tying in with the red sole of the heels, I thought the nails should be a bright classic red, such as Revlon's Red Carpet nail polish (£7.99). The earrings and bangles are from New Look (£6.99) and Forever 21 (£4.90) respectively and they were kept quite simple as I think the dress should be the focus and I think the whole look would be complete with a messy updo.

Total Outfit Price: £132.86

I had a lot of fun picking out this high end outfit! I chose this gorgeous embellished dress by 3.1 Philip Lim (£850), as I think it has the right amount of glam and is absolutely gorgeous. As the dress is quite the statement piece, I thought the accessories should be kept quite plain. It would have been difficult to match everything to the teal sequins, so the accessories were matched with the black portions of the dress. The clutch is a gorgeous box clutch by Alexander McQueen (£745). While it's fairly plain, it has the wow factor with the skull on the latch. I felt that open toe heels would go better with this dress and it seemed only right that a pair of classic YSL Tribute shoes (£565) were thrown into the mix. Again, the jewellery was kept fairly simple with a YSL Arty Ring (£180) and Kenneth J Lane drop earrings (£155). Glamourous big waves and a lick of Dior's 2012 Christmas collection nail polish in Lady (£20) would be the perfect finishing touches to this outfit.

Total Outfit Price: £2515!

Are you going to a Christmas party? What would you wear to it if you could buy anything? If any of you do a virtual Christmas party outfit post, please link it in the comments and I will check it out!

Thanks for reading. xoxo, Joy

(Images taken from Google, Warehouse, Missguided, Forever 21, New Look, Boots, Net-a-Porter and Selfridges)

Virtual Christmas Party

I don't actually have a Christmas party to go to, but I have been virtual shopping for one! I love that you can completely over the top with the glitter, glitz and glamour at Christmas and nobody would bat an eyelid! My picks are quite reserved, but I love the colours and glamour of the outfits. I completely forgot to pick jewellery and I didn't pick jackets either, because who really wear jackets when they're all dolled up and going out? If the celebrities can brave the cold for premieres, why can't virtual me?!

Firstly I have my high street picks with items from Miss Selfridge, ASOS and Aldo. I absolutely adore the colour of the dress and I have been lusting after an asymmetric dress like this for ages. I think the gold clutch and gold accent of the shoes match perfectly with the rich tone of the teal, while the accent of black on the shoes means it isn't gold overload.

Dress - Miss Selfridge (£39), Clutch - ASOS (£45), Shoes - Aldo (£80)

Total = £164

Now onto the fun part! I decided to select a few items from high end, out-of-my-price-range designers. I may have had a little too much fun picking these as it made me feel like Tamara Ecclestone, hehe! (Did anyone else watch 'Tamara Ecclestone: Billion Dollar Girl'?). The dress is a beautiful red, which ties in nicely with Christmas. I love the subtle diagonal pattern on the dress, which (I assume) would be slimming. The Charlotte Olympia shoes are absolutely to die for! It was a hard toss up between these and the Paloma ones! I think the Bottega Veneta clutch finishes off the outfit nicely, as a black clutch may have been too matchy-matchy with the shoes, while the cream sticks with the neutral theme and I find ivory goes lovely with red.

Dress - Adam (£375), Clutch - Bottega Veneta (£890), Shoes - Charlotte Olympia (£608)

Total = £1873!

Are you going to a Christmas Party? What are you wearing to it? What would you buy if you could spend, no expenses spared?

xoxo, Joy