The much-hyped Jimmy Choo line for H&M arrived in stores over the weekend, and it certainly drew the crowds to the new H&M store in our home city of Glasgow. The range has also proved massivley popular worldwide (it will only be sold in 200 stores). Some people even resorted to camping outside the stores – now that is dedication to fashion.

Many of the lines have sold out already and are going on eBay for ridiculously inflated prices.

Did you manage to get your hands on anything? How long did you queue up for? and most importantly: Are the clothes any cop?

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

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

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

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!

Bright and bold glam from Dune

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

Wet winter ahead

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?

A maternity-based poll today. It seem s to be all the rage with the rich and famous to be with child these days……….but which of this lot are carrying out their pregnancy in style?

From R-L: Penelope Cruz, Nicole Richie, Gisele Bundchen, Jennifer Hudson, Ellen Pompeo, Sarah Michelle Gellar - 2009 Preggers list

Some sublime/ridiculous outfits in there, whos got their maternity fashion dialled?

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!

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!

Unless you’ve been on an expedition to the moon over the last couple of weeks, you can’t have failed to notice that quirky London lass Lily Allen has a new album out this week, ‘It’s Not Me It’s You’ – having only heard the single ‘The Fear‘ it seems like more of the same, Cockney-accented melodic pop – which isn’t necesarily a bad thing.

New album from London Lily

Not only is wee Lily conquering the world of music, her unique fashion sensibility seems to be the primary influence on many of the ranges of some of the top high street stores this spring. Let’s have a look at some Lily-isms………..

Vitually all of the Ladies Dresses at Peacocks are Lily-Style…..the pink ruffle bow is pretty similar to the one on the album cover.

Pink Bow Dress at Peacocks

Ideally, combine said dress with a pair of white trainers, something like these……..

Converse Layer Ups - Office

A slightly bizarre item of headwear is also an essential Lily-ism, take your pick……

Fake-fur-tastic

Lily often sports a de-stressed leather jacket of some description……and as for acessories – anything at all that you can rustle up will do.

Combine all these and you can become fully Lily-fied, good luck and let us know of any interesting combos that you manage to create.

Valentines Day - Are you up for it?

Ok, im going to get this out of the way right at the start – im not a big fan of Valentines Day. For me, it is a second grade celebration day (like mothers/fathers/grannys dog day) created primarily to service the needs of the greetings card industry. Its probably not the best idea to use this as an excuse for why you didnt buy the other half anything this year.

So, having said all that – ive been noticing that many of our top retailers have been pushing Lingerie as the Valentines gift of choice this year. For the men out there, its a difficult one – yes, you say, we are big fans of Lingerie – but the actual physical act of purchasing Lingerie is pretty traumatic, is this too sexy? will it fit? is bright red silk really her style?. Women are mainly thinking – Why did he buy me Lingerie?, last year i got a soap and pot pourii set – Is my ordinary underwear not up to it? and I dont even like red!

For once, there are no advice on what to buy here, far too dangerous!. Have a romantic day anyway.

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.

From our point of view at Cheap Clothes Rule, 2008 was a transitional year in fashion – there were no huge breakthrough fashions and no designers grasping the style baton. Having said that there were a few fashion winners on the high street this year. Skinny Jeans, Gilets, Retro-Printed T-Shirts, UGG boots and Leather Jackets were ubiqutous in 2008 (although not necessarily worn together!)

What did you love wearing in 2008, fill out our fun Poll!