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.

Here are some of our favourite examples thus far:

Chunky Knit Top from Diesel

Mohair Dress at Oasis - Pricey but Pretty

Knitted Dress at Peacocks

Bold choice but worth it - River Island

TopShop - Asymetric Style

Have you seen any great Knitted Dresses on the shelves yet? or are we talking nonsense? Let us be aware!

Alternatively, if none of these float your boat – you could knit your own! Could you do it?

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:

• Keep it simple – what we have definitely noticed about Mrs O is that she never appears over-dressed. Her choices at massive occasions such as The Inaurguration and The Oscars could have led to some potentially overblown and inelegant choices – but not from Mrs Obama, she has judged each occasion perfectly – less is more.
• Don’t overdo the bling – Michelle rarely appears to sport a great deal of jewellery, but when she does it makes an impact  (see the Oscars necklace)
• Subtle make up
• Accentuate your best features
• Smile!

Our favourite Michelle Obama fashion moments

What are your favourite moments of Michelle Obama fashion so far, get in touch with your first lady style tips!

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.

Boyfriend Jeans – All the celebs have been trooping around in these recently and they are set to make a big impact in the UK high street in 2009.

Boyfriend-approved denim

Dont count out ripped jeans revival – yep, believe it or not torn denims are going to be back this year. Quite fitting on the 15th anniversary of grunge poster-boy Kurt Cobains death.

Ripped Jeans return to the catwalk

Plaid/Tartan – Continuing with 2009 grunge revival theme, plaid and tartan have already begun to filter onto the shelves in late 2008, and looks set to be big in 2009.

Plaid by MuzikGirl

Fashion Hoodies – Watch out hoodies about! – Daily Mail readers everywhere will be quaking in their boots with the news that the hoody is due to make a massive comeback. However, we aren’t just talking about ordinary sweatshirt-style hoodies – ultra-stylish versions of the hoody are going to be ubiqutous.

Indian influenced fashions – Ethnic-influenced fashion hasn’t been quite as prominent in the last couple of years, but early indications are that it is on its way back – particularly Indian styles, many of which are fairly awesome.

Indian style in 2009

Modifications – well, we hate mentioning it, but the current economic downturn is surely going to influence on Fashion this year. People are going to be holding onto their existing wardrobe and modding it themselves – this should make for some interesting viewing on the high street.

Happy New Year to you all.

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!

Theres no getting round it, these are sad days for the UK High Street. The demise of Woolworths has been so spectacularly quick that we can hardly believe its actually happening. Although Woolies didn’t go into the cheap clothes market quite as heavily as their competitors (one mistake to add to the list possibly?), it was still a good stand-by if you needed a pair of socks in an emergency.

Like many of us in the UK, i harbour fond memories of Woolworths, for a few glorious childhood years it was a weekend highlight to get treated to a new toy or board game. There has obviously been some disastrous managment decisions, but regardless of all that  – passing the local store on the bus this morning with its empty shelves and disconsolate looking staff was actually quite poignant.

Contrary to this rather downbeat note, is it just us or does the High Street seem busier than ever this year? During our Christmas shopping shopping trips over the last couple of weekends there is scant evidence of the credit crunch. There are queues in almost every store and people seem to be buying in bulk. Where exactly are they getting the money from?

Jumper Dresses have been one of the fashion success stories of the winter season. This explosion in popularity is mainly down to their sheer versatility: jumper dresses can be worn with almost anything!

Liquorice Style Jumper Dress

Of course there is a huge variety of styles, patterns and colours in jumper dresses. In recent years, the style of jumper dresses have changed and they now encompass a wider genre rather than the pinafore. Some jumper dresses are fitted to the knee and are typically worn over leggings, fishnets, thick woolly tights, opaque tights or narrow trousers. There are styles of jumper dresses that come with a belt that can be tied around the waist.

Roxy Jumper Dress - Patterned

The most popluar materials used in jumper dress design are polyester, rayon, spandex, cotton, viscose and nylon. Jumper dresses have different necklines that provie a unique look for each dress. Knitted jumper dresses are ideal winter wear on cold days and are comfortable and stylish.

There are some excellent bargains to be had on the high street and online. Let us know what you find!

Choosing a dress for the office xmas party can be a stressful experience. We have seen some xmas fashion disasters over the years, with some dresses that were probably worn once – never to see the light of day again. Here are some of our golden party dresses rules:

Dresses

Don’t spend alot – We always feel that spending too much is not a great idea as these nights can be messy – there is no need to splash out on a high-end designer outfit when you can achive a glamourous look direct from the high street.

Keep it simple - avoid long, single-coloured cotton dresses – we have lost count of the number of dresses ruined by the accidental flying glass of red wine.

Glamour is good – this is the one time of year that you can truly let your hair down and shoe your colleagues your true personality – blow them away with a black sequin dress or mini skirt.

Other Party Gear Considerations

Make sure that your footwear is comfortable – jumping around the dancefloor can become an agonising experience if your shoes are giving you blisters.

Wear a coat – chances are that you will be wandering the streets at a late hour trying to flag down a taxi home, dont get caught without a warm coat or you’ll have more than a hangover the next day.

These are some simple rules that we follow, whats your favourite christmas party combo?