DENIM DESTRUCTION ZONE

It's about time this blog stopped cosseting dresses and going jelly-legged over lace. It's time to put hands to scissors, bleach to washing machine and cheese grater to denim. Yes, this is the month to arm yourselves with all the sharp edged objects and corrosive liquids you have in your house (keeping within obvious health and safety precautions of course!).

It's time to get in touch with both your creative and destructive sides.

It's time to come to terms with the fact that those Miss Sixty and Topshop jeans we wore when we were 13, in reality, are never going to fit round our thighs again. No matter how much we despise this fact and try to ignore it we must ACCEPT IT!

Your old jeans will be much more useful this season as patchwork squares and mini shorts.

The fun begins with the cutting and continues with the bleaching and I think you'll find, the high point will undoubtedly be the shredding, tearing and ripping!

Wearing your grunge creations will be pretty fun too. I promise.

If you really aren't ready to come to terms with destroying your old jeans then go out and buy a new pair...denim is EVERYWEAR this spring in all sorts of shades and washes. Go denim mad and buy some denim in every item of clothing...

shirts

dresses

shorts

tops

crops

bralets

and even shoes.

One condition.

Every item must undergo the home finishing grunging process.

You don't want your high high street denim to look the same as everyone else's bought denim!

Topshop has some great washed denim pieces I am longing to get my creative claws on!

My beady eyes are paying particular attention to this cropped bodice.

What fun I could have grunging it up!

Denim Bralet Cami. £18. Topshop

Nothing wants to be washed out with bleach and cheese grated more than thi cropped jacket.

Be as creative and as brutal as possible. Experiment. Take risks. Cut arms off jackets and shred the edges. Grate and scrape through pockets. Bung all your denim into a washing machine with a load of bleach. Cut all your denim into patchwork squares and sew them onto other clothes.

Crop Denim Jacket. £40. Topshop

If savaging denim into grunge creations isn't an appealing prospect to you then simply walk into any shop on the high street as I can guarantee you there will be the perfect 'already worked on' denim piece in there for you. You simply need to take it to the till, carry it home and pop it in your wardorbe. If my Grandma reads this blog post she feel completely bewildered as she just can't understand why anyone would buy a pair of jeans with holes and rips in them, let alone purposefully destroy their clothes on purpose!

I love these washed out denim-torn to shreds jeans!

Lace Ripped Skinny Jeans. £50. Topshop

Johanna Denim Shorts. £50. Abercrombie and Fitch

Vintage shops and charity shops will be fantastic places to wade through racks of previously worn denim pieces and the fantastic thing about second denim is that you won't have to do anything to it!

Emma x

MY LIFESAVER

Topshop: Angellica Plain Shoe Boots. £70

They may look fairly

safe

standard

simple

and sophisticated

but I just couldn't live without them.

Wear them to work

Wear them to dinner

Wear them whilst you dance for hourse on end

Wear them in winter

Wear them with jeans

Wear them with a dress

Wear them with leggings

Weat them to work

Wear them with tights

Wear them ALL the time!

Black, suede ankle boots...are a must have staple item for EVERY wardrobe!

YOU WILL LOVE THEM FOREVER
WEAR THEM FOREVER

and

NEVER LOOK AT ANOTHER PAIR OF HEELS AGAIN!

Emma

THE VERSATILE CROP

Having hit the high street at possibly the most unpredictable time of the year-mid winter-crop tops could possibly the trickiest trend to handle. The cold weather doesn't provide any inspiration and nor do our pale untanned complexions. However, don't give up on the crop because here are some ways to wear what we all want. Contrary to belief, you really don't need a toned, washboard tummy to wear the crop and look good. In fact, I think cropped tops look more stylish worn over other garments like strapless tops and dresses. If you do have a tummy like Madonna show it off by wearing a cropped top by itself. Keep it edgy but sophisticated by teaming with something more conservative like a great pair of jeans. If you don't want to bare your tummy to the wintry world, all you need to do is buy the following basic items:

Plain Boobtube dress. £14. Topshop

Plain black and white vest top. 2 for £9. Topshop

Cotton Lycra Tunic. £12. Topshop

Keep these undergarments simple, preferably black or white in order to create a plain base layer against which the cropped top will stand out.

Wear the cropped tops over the tunic and boobtube dresses. This look is great in the evening, particularly when the cropped top is embellished and when teamed with a black or school grey blazer. It is also wearable during the day with a big knitted jumper. Team the vest tops under cropped tops and wear with jeans or high waisted skirts and shorts.

Now for the CROPPED TOPS!

LOOK NOWHERE ELSE BUT TOPSHOP

EXCLUSIVE TO OXFORD CIRCUS AND TOPSHOP.COM.

Jubilee Sequin Embroidered Top. £60

Embroidered Neck Cropped Top. £22

Sequin Swallow Crop Top. £20

Butterfly Ruffle Cropped Tee. £20

Butterfly Sequin Cropped Tee. £22

Scalloped Crop Top.£25

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE DESIGNS. MANY MORE ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT

http://www.topshop.com/

The great thing about cropped tops is they can be worn all year round. In the winter over vest tops and under knitted jumpers and in the summer as a cover up over a bikinis and with denim shorts.

BUY NOW OR REGRET LATER

CROPPED TOPS WOULD MAKE THE PERFECT GIFT THIS CHRISTMAS!

EMMA

An LPD is the new LBD

I know everyone has to have one or two jaw dropping Little Black Dresses in their wardrobes but after X Factor this weekend the wardrobe evening essential seems to in fact be a Little Pink Dress! This post is for all the avid X Factor viewers, fashion lovers and Cheryl Cole obsessers that read our blog because, this weekend, as you may have guessed, CHERYL COLE blew everyone away with not one, but two stunning, show-stopping bright pink dresses

CHERYL COLE ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT

Here are some beautiful pink dresses available on the high street-I think it is definitely necessary to have more than one LPD. After all Cheryl did have three!

ASOS Frill Sleeve Zip Frills. £38. Asos.com

ASOS Bow One Shoulder Slinky Dress. £25. Asos.com

Bandeau Peplum Dress. £45. Topshop

Bandeau Beaded Dress. £85. Lipsy.co.uk

Bubble Hem Dress. £55. Lipsy.co.uk

PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK

Emma

High Rise...STILETTOS

GIANT platform high-heeled stilettos are swarming the shelves in shoe departments.

Can anyone remember when this last happened?

Once again, we look back to the so-called period of 'anti-fashion' (you wouldn't have guessed where the name came from from the photo below) the NINETIES!

The infamous British fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood re-introduced the high heeled platform shoe into high-fashion in the early 1990s. It was while wearing a pair with five inch platforms and nine inch heels that the super model Naomi Campbell took a tumble on the catwalk at a fashion show in Paris.

Naomi Campbell on the Catwalk in Paris

The best memories I have of platform shoes, however, are the times I spent dancing around my living room dressed in my mum's high heels with blond pigtails to 'If you wanna be my lover' and 'Who do you thnk you are?' Yes, I was Baby Spice and , yes, I was in my own Spice Girl band! Throughout the late 1990's whilst the Spice Girls were pulling out continuous hit singles and becoming the UK's bigest phenomenum, platform shoes were hitting the world of high-fashion HARD! The Spice Girls took what, the 5 inch platform heels we now buy today, to extreme 9 inch levels!

The Spice Girls on tour-LOOK AT THEIR SHOES!

The platform shoes on sale today are, to the relief of boyfriends and our ankles, a little less ambitious. However, don't expect anything too safe as platform heels must have a reasonable sized platform to count and this season, it is all about the platform heel!

Here are a few I have picked out,

In order of size!

Office. Simple Minds. £70

Topshop. Shakira Studded Gladiator. £75

Carvela Giant. House of Fraser. Was £110. Now £79


Topshop. Unique Metallic Sandal. £95

Topshop Boutique. Passion Frill Shoe. £95

I thought I'd end on a high note...

Office. Party all night. £85

Emma