Christmas at Cheap Clothes Rule

Last night the Christmas Tree and decorations went up here at CCR Towers. Here in cyberspace we have enabled the very exciting ‘falling snow’ extra that comes with this WordPress theme -we hope that it doesn’t irritate you too much!

Over the festive period we will have a few very special posts, including the inaurgual 2009 Cheap Clothes Rule Awards:

• Our choices for best and worst dressed of 2009
• Best fashion retailer of 2009
• 2009 best item of clothing
• Biggest bargains of 2009
• What we’d like to see in 2010

Hopefully you will find our lists a bit more interesting than some of the others out there!

This year the number of people shopping online during the festive period is set to rise again this year. We are also just over a week away from what has come to be known amongst online retailers as ‘Cyber Monday’. This is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, Amazon are hiring extra staff and opening new warehouses to deal with the increase in demand.

We were having a think about this at Cheap Clothes Rule – what are the reasons behind this continual increase in online activity whilst the High Street continues to dip? Is it down to improvments in the online shopping experience? or are Christmas shoppers getting fed up with the barrage of Christmas related activity from October onwards? We would welcome your thoughts…..

In the meantime, fill out our exciting Christmas shopping behaviour poll!

Those of us who like to follow the continual comings and goings within the fashion industry can now keep in touch with a pretty cool range of apps that enable you to follow the latest trends on the catwalk and beyond.

Here are our pick of some of the best available fashion apps for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones:

iPhone Fashion Apps

• Net-A-Porter’s free fashion application – a slick app which keeps you up to date with cutting edge fashion……

• Style.com – An app to keep you up to date with the latest gossip and fashion events from the Style File

• Stylebook – A nice app that helps you build a look from your wardrobe…….

Other iPhone Fashion Applications worth trying are:

• D&G Fashion Channel Winter 2010
• The Ralph Lauren Collection
• Donna Karan
• Lucky magazine
• Lookz Lite
• Stylish Girl

See the full range at iPhone Apps

Blackberry Fashion Apps

• Fashion News Service by 360Fashion
• Fashion Mogul – This fun App lets you design and develop your own Fashion Boutique
• Elle Magazine – Various Blackberry Apps are available from Elle
• Shoewawa – One of the top fashion blogs for years has its own application where you can customise the blog to your hearts content
• London Fashion Week

See more Blackberry Fashion Applications.

Google Android Fashion Apps

Those with an Google Android phone may want to keep an eye on the fast-growing Android App Marketplace where there are likely to be a good range of fashion applications appearing in time. For now, have a look at

• ShopSavvy – scan barcodes of any product

• OI Shopping list

These are some of our top apps, if you know of any other useful fashion applications – please let us know!

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?

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!

Hi everyone – hope you liked the snappy post title, here’s a few interesting fashion stories of the last few weeks:

• London fashion week launches today 18th September. Now in its 25th year, Elle UK has produced 25 covers of its magazine this month to celebrate. You can see the full Catwalk schedule of the events ahead here, and also follow the latest happenings on their Twitter site: http://twitter.com/LDNfashion.

• The Sartorialist (Scott Schuman) has released a book – One of the most influential fashion blogs out there for years – now you can buy the book and wonder how he makes these people look so effortlessly cool.

• Emma Watson continues her inevitable ascent to the top of the UK female style tree by collaborating in the design of an ethical clothing range for People Tree. In her own words she was keen to use “fashion as a tool to alleviate poverty” Good on you Emma.

• Adidas and Puma kiss and make up! – Yes, for Peace One Day (Monday 21st September), the two sportwear companies have decided to bury the hatchet and end the 60-year old feud that was insitgated between their founding brothers.

Thanks for reading.

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?

It’s not all bargain hunting here at Cheap Clothes Rule – sometimes we manage to pull ourselves away from the High Street and go to the flicks. Last weekend we  combined our two loves by going to see the movie ‘Coco Before Chanel‘ – a biopic of the life of fashion icon and ‘little black dress’ originiator Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, starring Amelie leading woman Audrey Tatou. Check out the trailer (French)……….

If you have any interest all at in fashion we would highly recommend going to see this film – it is an excellent performance from Tatou and a convincing account of the life of this remarkable woman.

“Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” – Coco Chanel

Audrey Tatou as Coco Chanel

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

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

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

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

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

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!………

Guys, forget about elaborate layers, fancy fabrics and meticulously planning your look for the summer ahead – you simply cannot go wrong with a good T-Shirt.

Here’s our top 5 T-Shirts of summer 2009……………..

Budget Classic!

Peacocks Cheap Menswear – Black Beatles T-Shirt

The Beatles are back (again) this summer, mainly due to the launch of The Beatles Rock Band Video Game. This White Logo T-Shirt has been around for years but our friends at Peacocks have this great version for a tenner.

The Beatles T over at Peacocks Menswear

Retro fun from 8 Ball

It’s fathers day on Sunday, and it’s not too  late to visit 8ball.co.uk and grab some great shirts for your old boy. This Dad’ll fix it T-Shirt is our best bet.

8ball.co.uk - dad'll fix it t-shirt

The Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt on Amazon

Instantly prove that your down with internet humour with this now notorious Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt from Amazon. Read the reviews, hilarious stuff.

Amazon's legendary Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt

Classic Mid Range Value

You can’t go wrong with a good, old fashioned solid Polo Shirt – they can be worn with virtually every type of bottoms in any situation. A classic Fred Perry should see you right – although personally we’d keep it pretty simple, avoiding big stripes and logos.

Classic Fred Perry Polo

Im sorry, how much!!!??

Billionaire Boys Club is probably one of the most sought after labels on earth right now. Set up by the impossibly cool combo of Pharell Willams from NERD and Bathing Ape founder Nigo, BBC have a superb range of streetwear, at a price! For example, this T-Shirt will set you back £70, but it is pretty awesome. Money well spent.

Billionaire Boys Club T-Shirt - Costly but Cool

There we go, five of our mens t-shirt selections for summer 2009! Any of your suggestions are welcomed – cheers!!