Cheap Clothes Rule / Fashion and Style Blog











{October 20, 2009}   Womens Shoes We Like This Winter

More winter fashion fun now (the clue is in the title). Needless to say, a new pair of womens shoes is utterly vital this winter – especially if you live in the frozen north like us.

Here are five of our favourite pairs that we’ve come across.

Practical

You know what – we’re going with Kickers here. Yes, we’re probably over a year behind the Kickers revival but so what – they are still a superb winter option – tough, comfortable and they still retain a cool edge. Solid choice we say.

Kickers - still cool

Kickers - still cool

Glamour

Well, heels never die and for good reason – they remain the option for any Glam outfit. This year though, people seem to be wearing them higher than ever. There are thousands of pairs to choose from – we would go for something like these simple, elegant (and reasonably priced) Morgan heels over at Schuh – the more adventurous among you may prefer something from Iron Fist – we love their designs.

Morgan High Heels

Morgan High Heels

Working Out

Something that we are determined to do this winter is up the exercising ante – and that will require a stylish and functional pair of trainers for the gym – something along the lines of these Nike Metros at Office should do the job.

Daily use

For the everyday slog we would choose a pair of boots that will go with almost anything. Look no further than these Peacocks Biker Boots – only £25.

Great quality womens boots at a decent prive

Great quality womens boots at a decent prive

Going out

Obviously, one of the better things about winter is that it usually invloves a fair few party occassions – what we would buy for going out this winter are a pair of bright and bold heels – what aboput these from Dune? These should get you noticed!

Brigh and bold glam from Dune

Bright and bold glam from Dune

There’s tonnes more choices over at allwomenstalk – Ladies, what cool shoes have you seen?

Wet winter ahead

Wet winter ahead



{September 29, 2009}   Winter Fashion 2009 Poll

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

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



The summer is in full rain-shower based swing here in the UK and fashionistas everywhere are tuning their seasonal outfits to perfection. Of course, most outfits feel incomplete without a range of top accessories to top them off. Here at Cheap Clothes Rule, we have a few guidelines when it comes to accessories, we thought that we would share them here. Feel free to laugh at them or mock us via comments.

Our rules on womens accessories

BAGS

Bags are basically one of the best things that you can buy. Period. They are basically capsules that contain your life. With that in mind, we would always choose any bags that we would buy with great care. Essentially, we have a bag for every eventuality:

  • a clutch bag for the nights out when you need to travel light
  • a holdall for carrying everything you need to survive a whole day
  • a handbag for those occasions where elegance is called for

Also, what many people don’t take into consideration is their body type – this matters for bags as well!

Cool Clutch Bag from Peacocks

Cool Clutch Bag from Peacocks

BELTS

Belts are great as they are versatile and can be used in a manner which will transform an entire outfit. To be perfectly honest we never have more than about five or six belts at a time, we tend to throw them out when they become too stretched or worn, they do actually lose their shape! Our current collection includes an elastic, hipster, skinny, black leather and glitter belt. Each of these can be used to form a number of looks.

Buckle belt from Warehouse

Buckle belt from Warehouse

HATS

Dear oh dear people, please be careful with hats! Some of the biggest fashion don’ts that we have ever seen have mostly involved some poorly judged headwear. Conversely, if done right a hat can be a cool and sexy complement to an outfit. You can get away with more in the summer though, think simple and elegant.

Simple and cool straw hat from Brixton

Simple and cool straw hat from Brixton

TIGHTS

Again, we urge caution with tights – has anyone noticed the sheer volume of bight red tights on the streets these days! We would keep it simple, muted colours and patterns are our preferences.

Cette Tights - Nice

Cette Tights - Nice

JEWELLERY

In contrast to nearly every other item on the list, we love bright and bold Jewellery! It can really add a great finish to any outfit.

Bright and brassy sherbert necklace

Bright and brassy sherbert necklace

Thats our feelings on accessories. They are great fun and you can get some great stuff for not alot of moolah.

You can get some more great advice on accessories from these guys, also here and this bunch too.

If anyone out there has some recomendations that we should see then leave us a comment – we want your feedback!

In the meantime, what’s your top accessory!………



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 YOUYOU 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.

peacocks denim skirts

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

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!

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

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

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!



{April 23, 2009}   Five Fashion Links of Q1 2009

Well, that’s almost one-quarter of 2009 down already – how quick was that? – i haven’t even managed to get round to spending my Christmas gift vouchers yet! Anyway, i don’t know about you, but i feel that its been quite a tame start to the year in fashion terms, with very little standout stories, events or styles.

That said, there have been a few standout moments so far in quarter one of 2009 – here are our five favourites…..

  1. Susan Boyle takes over the world! – being proud Scots ourselves the rapid ascent of Susan Boyle has been quite something to behold. A mere two weeks on we already have: A YouTube video with over 40m hits!,  Susan Boyle T-Shirts and Hats and mass debate all over the place as to whether she needs a makeover - our opinion: be who you always have been Susan – let your voice speak for you!
  2. 10 floral dresses for the summer – Lovely list from Popsugar with some classic summer dresses, not long to go now!
  3. Tribeca: Vanity Fair Best Dressed – post from thefashioncult which is pretty cool due to a) its analysis of Vanity Fair and b) some of the clothes look amazing
  4. Showcase of Beautiful Fashion Websites – Great post from the always excellent Smashing magazine, some of the sites listed are truly stunning – our favourites include the Benetton site, Issey Miyake, Louis Vuitton and Paul Smith.
  5. 50 most stylish men – GQ have compiled an excellent list here, which ranges from Marlon Brando to Andre 3000. Inspiration for the men out there and eye-candy for the ladies!

There we go – that’s our top five ‘things’ of this year so far – what has caught your eye?



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:

Read the rest of this entry »



In the past we have been known to bleat on about dresses, jeans, maternity clothes, designer clothes, sportswear and on and on – however, one item that we seem to have ignored is women’s trousers. Ive been relaibly informed by my fashionista friends, who have their fingers much closer to the fashion pulse than i, that High-Waisted and Harem Trousers are one of the most popular emerging styles on the High Street these days. This is quite a sea change, as not so long ago if anyone sugessted resurrecting these styles they would be laughed out of town. Im stil not convinced that they have the staying power to see off a decent pair of jeans or a smart skirt……….

Therefore, now seems as good a time as any to conduct a poll into your thoughts regarding trousers.

Let us know where the best examples on the highstreet can be found!



et cetera