Show Your Sparkle

For the last 8 years Pauline Clifford has been dedicating her time to making people shine. With fabulous footwear, that is.

Pauline set up StarSparkles after finding that her very own customised converse were a hit with customers in the Glasgow shoe-shop where she worked. The shoes were each hand customised with beautiful Swarovski crystals. When she started to offer a customizing service to customers, quickly Pauline found the demand for her shoes was increasing and her company was officially launched in 2006.

Since then Pauline has come a long way, StarSparkles is going from strength to strength, with plans to expand into customised hoodies.

Starsparkles is no stranger to celebrity fans, being worn by the likes of Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams.

Most recently, Pauline customized a pair of bespoke StarSparkles for singer Paloma Faith. Paloma adored her Sparkles and wore them on stage at her concert in Glasgow on 17th March 2010. These one off Sparkles were created using thousands of swarovski crystals that were placed individually by hand on shoes provided by Evening Lady

‘Since then StarSparkles has featured in many publications, and won many awards including, BT Scotland Young Entrepreneur Most Visionary Business, Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur UK finalist, ROCCO award Most Promising Soletrader and also a nomination for Accessory Designer Of The Year at the Scottish Fashion Awards. StarSparkles have been sold in prestigious shops such as Selfridges and Harvey Nichols and can be found on the feet of many celebrities including Pharrell Williams, Fergie,Justin Timberlake, Audrey Kitching and Jeffree Star.’

Pauline is truly a shining star, and one to watch out for. A pair of shoes from StarSparkles is definitely something to put on your list for Santa this year. You can purchase them online directly at StarSparkles.

All images provided by and posted with permission of Pauline Clifford at SparSparkles

Say No to Plastic Vintage

 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
— Margaret Mead

This is the tagline, and indeed the mantra for Heather Suttie’s website Say No To Plastic.

The movement was set up by Suttie in October 2007 to encourage us all to stop using plastic or poly bags
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The group believe that if we all said no to plastic just once a day, we'd all be doing our bit for the environment.

The organisation works in many ways - one if which is by promoting sales of second hand and vintage goods. You can join them for an afternoon of shopping and meandering round stalls selling beautiful vintage & designer and recycled wares - clothing, accessories, bric a brac, second hand DVDs & books, gorgeous gifts, cards and loads more including mini fashion shows and the luxury lucky dip.

Promoting the reduce, reuse, recycle message, it's also a great opportunity to get ready for Christmas for yourself, gifts for others or just something sparkly and lovely to purchase for no reason on a Sunday afternoon.

The bar is also open so you can enjoy a cuppa or a cocktail too. The event also supports The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice.

Say No to Plastic Vintage is on this Sunday at Oran Mor on Byres Road, Glasgow. From 1pm.
　
　
 Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead, American Cultural Anthropologist

Winter's-a-Comin'

Over the last week, it would seem that the temperature has seriously dropped! This leaves me longing for a few things: the warmth of my cosy feather pillows and duvet, a mug of hot chocolate.. but most of all it leaves me with a burning desire to go shopping for winter clothing.

For me, the best thing about winter is the clothes! There's nothing better than chunky knits, leather boots and luxurious coats.

I spent a while on the asos and topshop websites, picking out items I liked, but I just kept coming back to chunky knitted sweaters!

As mentioned in my previous post, I recently paid a visit to Edinburgh's Grassmarket. This was mainly in pursuit of some seriously old fashioned knitted sweaters - which I have become rather obssessed with of late. Trying to avoid Topshop's range of knitwear, and at the risk of walking through uni and spotting everyone wearing the same jumper - I opted to go vintage.

So, after roughly 10 minutes in Armstrong's I walked out with 2 (what I think are) great finds. The first item I picked up was a lovely little cream lambswool sweater adorned with cream sequins, for a complete bargain price of £24, and then this massive oversized blue chunky knit sweater from the 80's, priced at £14. I absolutely love them both - I'm glad I went vintage :-)

Fabhatrix, Edinburgh

The other day I was perusing Edinburgh's Grassmarket on my way to Armstrong's Vintage Shop when I came across the most delightful independent hat shop.

Fabhatrix is located at 13 Cowgatehead, Edinburgh. Established in 2002, it attracts hatlovers from around the world with its innovative design and eclectic mix. It has a wide and varied collection of classics, mixed in with extraordinary one off designs.

Walking through the little store was like being in an Aladdin's cave - with over 300 men and women's hats in stocks, Fabahatrix promotes the work of both local designers and the wider hat trade.

I spoke briefly with the owner who advised me that they individually make hats as well as sell many classic styles. This shop is a must-see in Edinburgh's vibrant Grassmarket area where you should expect to find the unexpected. The Grassmarket area is a few minutes walk from the Royal Mile with its many independently run designer shops.

Street Style

With thanks to the lovely Helena for allowing me to take her photograph.

Helena is wearing a vintage grandad style cardigan with suede elbow patches - purchased from Godiva Vintage on Grassmarket. She has teamed this with an oversized grey slouched top, black jersey mini and vintage brown boots. She carries a vintage handbag and Barbour quilted jacket.

Student Discount at ASOS.com

Just a quick update as I noticed yesterday that ASOS is now offering a 20% student discount on all products with the use of an NUS Extra card.

Personally, I don't have an NUS Extra Card but with the amount of money I spend of clothes from ASOS, I think it's a worthwhile investment :-)

Happy Shopping.

Designer vs High Street

After buying a lovely little vintage aviator style leather jacket a few years ago I was glad to see the return of this trend for Autumn/Winter.

I've been coveting these Burberry Aviation style boots ever since I saw the photos of Caroline Sieber wearing them to the Burberry show at London Fashion Week recently. I love the fact that they can be worn with multidues of different items and I really could wear them now! Unfortunately the £695 price tag is slightly out of my budget at the minute.. so instead I've just ordered these little babies from ASOS.

I admit they are completely inferior compared to the gorgeous leather buckled beauties from Burberry.. but at £55 I really can't complain, we are in a recession after all..

Photo from net-a-porter

Photo from asos

Can you rent happiness?

So some of you might remember the scene from the Sex and the City movie where Carrie's assistant (played by the lovely Jennifer Hudson) confesses that she rents her designer handbags from a website online, much to Carrie's confusion.

The site is Bag Borrow or Steal for those of you interested.

Whilst being a brilliant endorsement for the popular rent-a-bag site which already has a section dedicated to different Sex and the City characters, it also brought to the masses the fact that you could actually rent a designer handbag.

However, more recently there has been the launch of similar websites, this offering designer dresses for rental. Sites such as My Celebrity Dress and Girl Meets Dress offer dresses from multitudes of designers from French Connection and Philip Lim to Hervé Léger and Dolce & Gabanna.

Perusing through Girl Meets Dress I came across this grey bandage stress from Leger's Spring/Summer 2009 line that I had been slightly obsessed with at the time. 8 days rental would set me back £115 - a fraction of the £900 price tag it came with. However, the calculations don't really add up for me to make it worthwhile.

I would certainly consider this option if the dress was something I would never purchase - for example, something that isn't classic and wouldn't last me a lifetime. Something extravagently expensive that I would maybe only wear once - for that sort of item, I think it's something I would consider.

As for the beautiful Leger dress.. I think I would have rather own it for myself, and preferably not a year after its release.

Photo from My Celebrity Dress

"What was I thinking...?"

There it was right in front of me. That red and blue tartan jacket that I just had to have. Granted, it was a few years ago now and thankfully, my tastes have evolved somewhat since the purchase of that rather garish number.

But we've all had those moments. You see an old picture of yourself, or you find the item itself hidden in the back of your wardrobe. All you can think is "What was I thinking?." Yeah. You know precisely what I mean.

At the time of the tartan jacket incident, I genuinely believed that my life would be enhanced by owning and subsequently wearing, said jacket. Was it fashionable at the time? Of course it was, I wasn't the only person sporting it, that's for sure. (No, it didn’t escape me the fact that I was a Scot, living in Scotland and wearing a tartan jacket, either)

Anyway, when I came across this jacket the other day - it got me thinking about these little trends that appear all the time. Where do they come from? Who made the decision to sell countless numbers of tartan jackets to young women all over the UK?

Well, fashion trends are usually predicted a few years in advance.. Right? So they had been plotting this for some time.

Sneaky.

I actually remember teaming that jacket with a striped shirt that held a massive bow on the front of it. Luckily the shirt is no where to be found..

But I do always laugh to myself a little when I see people merging trends together for an "original" look. I do it all the time. But am I actually just creating an unattractive mesh of themes and items? Will we look back on today’s fashion and shake our heads in miserable disdain?

Or should we just chalk it down to being truly original?

I’m not sure.. All I know is that I have just spotted and incredible satin jumpsuit that I must have…

Oh and, for my sins… here is the jacket in question.