Just a quick heads up folks…………..

Ex-Indie queen Pearl Lowe has designed a very cool range of dresses for clothes retailer Peacocks (modelled by her daughter Daisy). They have been on the website for a couple of days and are selling fast.

Therefore, we would advise a speedy purchase, as this range won’t last long!

 

You know that winter is truly on its way here in the UK when you start having to dig around in your wardrobe for jumpers and jackets. This happened to us over the last week and got us thinking that our winter clothing could do with a bit of an upgrade. But what will we be buying? Some nice new Wooly Jumpers? New Jeans? Women’s Coats? Accessories like a Beanie Hat or Gloves? Could be an expensive Winter ahead…….

What will be your top fashion priority for the upcoming Winter 2009 Season?

Winter's on its way again.....oh dear

This week we’ve been gazing into our fashion Crystal Ball here at Cheap Clothes Rule. We haven’t been looking too far ahead (Christmas EEK!) just into the upcoming Autumn Season (although it does seem like we have a permanent Autumn here in Scotland). Anyway, going by some of the early indications, the Autumn ranges of all the main High Street stores seem to be featuring one item very promnently – Knitted Dresses.

With June approaching fast, there are probably several hundred websites and blogs with this title vying for your intention on the internet. The reason being, that the writer has read that list articles are a popular, easily scannable type of post which due to the nature of peoples attention span on the web is more likely to get featured in Digg or Reddit and the like – which is fair enough.

However, here are at CCR we are only interersterd in the clothes and if anyone reads our posts its a great bonus (and a big thanks to all that do!).

We proclaim no qualifications or real expertise – just a deep enthusiasm for fashion and a nose for what we feel people are going to be into this summer. We have nothing too shocking or revolutionary to say here, trends are very difficult to predict and sometimes can emerge from nowhere. Many of the Summer 2009 fashion trends were predicted by the major magazines and blogs in February/March – they have their reasons but its only now as we come closer to the actual summer that trends begin to emerge. What they still don’t understand fully is that the main players in trend setting is YOU. The real power to influence lies with YOU – YOU define summer fashion, YOUR choices influence someone, who tells their friends and the effect ripples around the streets.

Anyway, slight rant over – let’s have a look at some clothes! Five fashion trends of Summer 2009:

1 – Denim – Will jeans ever go out of fashion? A perrenial winner, summer 2009 is no different. As well as classic cropped, skinnys and boyfriend jeans, weve seen some pretty cool Denim Skirt and dresses combinations. Peacocks as always have a great range of Denim shorts and  skirts, illustrating that you rarely have to break to bank for this look.

Denim Skirts from Peacocks - cool but cheap, great!

2 – The single shouldered dress and top – wow, tops and dresses with this look can be so sleek and sexy if done right – we’re so glad to see this style blasting back onto the high street. We would have one formal (like the Jane Norman top below) and one informal one-shouldered top, just to cover every occassion!

One shoulder class from Jane Norman

3 – Trousers – there is alot of trouser action on the streets already this year. Jumpsuits, harem, high-waisted and hugely bright colours are what weve come across so far. Fashion chicks have some great examples.

Harem Trousers - big, baggy and back!

4 – Transparency – light and airy transparent tops are definitely a big mover in summer 2009 – a great, versatile style that can look fantastic as a component of a layered ensemble – just be careful with transparent-only layers!

Great chiffon at Urban Outfitters

5 – High heels – the coolest shoes of the summer – literally. We would chuck our cheap clothes sensibiblities out of the window and invest in a pair of top class heels. Some great advice here on making heels comfortable.

High heels - the skys the limit

What are you going to wear this summer? – let us know your thoughts on whats going to be big in Summer 2009!

Michelle Obama is probably the most photographed woman on the planet. For a woman that only a few of us would admit to having heard of this time last year, her ascent to style icon has been impressive. The 45 year-old first lady has cut a dignified and confident figure throughout the presidential campaign and short term in the presidency.

Obviously, being in a privileged position, Michelle Obama has access to the top designer fashion labels -  she isn’t exactly operating in the same levels of clothes shopping than most of us here in the real world. Her fashion portfolio so far, at most major events has included Jason Wu, Thakoon, Isabel Toledo and Jimmy Choo. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t take some general inspiration from the First Ladies style. As she told Vouge:

“If I can have any impact, I want women to feel good about themselves and have fun with fashion.”

Read on for some Michelle Obama style rules:

Looking into the crystal ball where fashion is concerned is always a dangerous game. Realisitically, not even the great soothsayer Russell Grant himself could have predicted that in 5 short years: a) Skinny Jeans would make a major comeback to become one of the best selling jean styles on the UK high street and: b) UGG Boots would be considered the apex of stylish footwear by a vast majority of the general public. Crazy happenings.

Anyway, we thought that as we are a fashion blog (and everyone else seems to be doing it) we thought that we’d throw our hat in the ring as to what you might be seeing on the UK streets in 2009. Check back on this post in a years time for extra humour value.

2009 is only a couple of weeks away and the new year party season is almost upon us. Contrary to almost all of my fellow countrymen here in Scotland, I have never been the biggest fan of Hogmany – Year on year I find it almost impossible to keep all my acquaintances happy – when the big night arrives you feel like you have to acknowledge everyone of any importance at all in your life, although invariably someone always misses out. Very frustrating.

There’s also something about the forced jollility of it all that really irks (have these people never been out the house before?, sometimes we wonder) – complete strangers thinking its alright to grab you anywhere or kiss you full on without warning, massive queues in the pubs, vast entrance fees to the nightclubs, the list goes on ………

Fashion-wise however, new year is a lot more enjoyable than Christmas, mainly because the boxing day sales offer a great opportunity to grab a brand-spanking new party outfit at a bargain price.

Lets have a look at some outfit ideas for the three main types of new year party.

The House Party – These are probably the most common type of parties that you will be attending (im going to a house party this year). We would keep it simple in the house party scenario, the golden rule is never to appear over-dressed, there will always be someone in a suit – they will stand out like a sore thumb and no-one will talk to them. Go with a shirt or t-shirt, a relaxed fit pair of jeans and a pair of trainers for boogie-ing.

The Dance – This is a slightly more difficult to judge style arena. If you are going to a Ceilidh dance, where you will be on the dance floor for about 80% of the night, something light and airy would be the choice, like a long dress. If your are attending a more formal dinner dance a more slinky dress is probably the way to go, possibly with a scarf or pachmina, you will be sitting down more in these type of dances.

The Formal – Formal new year celebrations make us shudder somewhat -  however, obviously it makes things easier stylistically – black tie is pretty difficult to get wrong for men and a simple but elegant dress for women is the way to go.

We hoped you enjoyed our advice on the new year party style. Let me know what outfits you are planning to wear this year. Hope you have a great time whatever you get up to – imp going to try my best this year not to be the party pooper!