Shopping treats, November 2017

About 18 months ago I made a blog post sharing some of the new clothes I'd bought for work. Since then I've found it kind of hard to find things to add to my office wardrobe, which isn't ideal when some of my favourite pieces are getting worn out. The Peter Pan collared blouses I adore have disappeared from the shelves and been replaced with ruffles and wide sleeves and off-shoulder tops and other things that are impractical and unflattering, so I've been pretty uninspired while shopping for the last while. Luckily, on my trip to Carlisle last weekend I finally found some cute things again:

These two blouses are both from Primark. I love embroidered things and I've tried a bunch of different things on over the last few months but this blouse is the first thing I've liked in the fitting room. It's made of a soft material and looks really informal but I plan to wear it to the office anyway. It comes in navy or khaki and costs £8.
I bought a sheer polka dot blouse from a charity shop a while ago and it's one of my favourites but unfortunately it has torn in a few places, leaving it unsuitable for work (but probably still suitable for punk shows). I've spent a long time searching for a replacement and Primark has finally answered my prayers with this, and for only £7. This blouse is less transparent than my old one but it still makes me feel like Harry Styles or Matty Healy (below) which is what I'm after in a patterned blouse - weird fashion icon choices for a girl to have, maybe, but choices I've made all the same.

Next up, two items that I picked up inspired by Stacey Duguid's article in The Pool last Monday - or more specifically, about the line "why save things for those ever-elusive “posh nights out”?". 

The top is from Primark (£8) and you probably can't tell from the photo but it has a black-on-black lace pattern. The t-shirt shape makes it just right for me to wear to work but it's also nice enough for me to wear to dinner. 

I picked up the velvet skirt in H&M (£12.99). I have a couple of skirts like this that I wear to work already but I've been looking for an excuse to wear velvet to work and I think this is it. Velvet is one of my favourite fabrics and it's been hard not to buy up everything I see so black velvet is starting to take over my wardrobe and I have no problem with it. 

 I've got a couple of H&M dresses in this shape that I wear to work and they make me feel like I mean business, so when I saw this navy and white striped one on the sale rail for £7 it felt right. I'm still searching for a black and white striped t-shirt but this will keep me going in the meantime.
Finally, I've been low-key wishing for a fuzzy black sweater for a couple of years now so I was happy to find one in H&M for £10. It looks really 90s and it's fluffy but not thick which is ideal for me because I am almost always too warm. Definitely one for Casual Friday.

Lastly, some new music and books, because I can never resist:

My dad signed the family up for a PureHMV card when they first came out and we've never gotten that much use out of it. Recently though, HMV have started an offer where they always have one record priced at £8.99 for their cardholders. In the past they've had albums by The Killers, Bob Marley and Guns N' Roses, and now they're phasing out their deal on Blondie's 'Parallel Lines' (which I already have, since my mum was a Blondie fan in the 70s) and offering Back To Black by Amy Winehouse at the discount price. 'Back To Black' is now 10 years old and I know a lot of the songs from it but had never listened to the album until I put it on my turntable yesterday. It was a worthwhile purchase, for sure. 

I also bought 'God's Favorite Band', the new greatest hits compilation from Green Day. Like God himself, I also consider Green Day to be my all-time favourite band so I already have all of their albums but it's been my tradition for the last few years to always go out and buy their latest release whenever they put something out. This compilation features lots of favourite songs, like She, Hitchin' A Ride, Holiday, Oh Love and Bang Bang, as well as a new one that I'm excited to hear. 

Lastly, I stopped by the Oxfam book shop to browse the shelves. It's one of my favourite charity places - in the past I've picked up A Clockwork Orange, the Edie Sedgwick biography and the 12" single of 21st Century Boy by Sigue Sigue Sputnik there, and once there was a cat in the shop - so I always visit when I'm in the city. This time I bought 'The Penguin Book Of The Beats' (£2.49) which has excerpts from all of the most famous works and authors of the Beat Generation, and 'The Last Party' by John Harris, which documents the Britpop era of the mid-nineties. At £3.49 it was a little more than I like to pay for a second hand book but as I've been so into Trainspotting and Jarvis Cocker and Elastica and Britpop this year and also because I love pop music non-fiction, I figured I'd treat myself. 

Shopping aside, I was in Carlisle to see The Smyths, who you might've been able to guess are a tribute act recreating the sound of The Smiths. I saw them last year and was so impressed that I've been desperate for them to come back for 12 months. Unlike the real Morrissey who has been giving his terrible opinions again, The Smyths did not disappoint. 12 months to go until they come back... 

Paris Summer: a shopping round-up

Over the past month I've found myself in the city a lot which means I've indulged in a lot of shopping recently. Here are some of the things I've treated myself to lately:

The above tops are all from Primark and cost me £2-£3 each in the sale section, which is hard to argue with. At this point I've more or less removed colour from my wardrobe altogether to project a faux-intellectual Parisian Wednesday Addams aesthetic with plenty of stripes and Peter Pan collars. They're all perfect for me to wear to work aside from the long sleeve adorned with little Eiffel Towers which will be my friend on colder days. 

These dresses both came from the H&M sales (grey dress £5, black dress £10). 

The grey one is thick and wintry and not seasonally appropriate at all but I'll keep it stored away until it gets cold again - or possibly not because when it gets sunny outside my office turns the AC on and freezes us! 

I passed the black lace dress by the first time I went into the store because the mid-section has no underlay and I didn't think the peek-a-boo would look good on me. However when I tried it on I decided to throw caution to the wind and take it home and I'm glad I did... now I just need to find an occasion to wear it to!

The black jacket is another piece from the H&M sale which I picked up for £10 (sharing a coat hanger with a Primark jersey which proves I have clothes that aren't black). It hangs open the way I wear my much-loved leather jacket but I can wear it inside the office, which has already been a blessing on the aforementioned AC days.

I've recently reverted back to jeans after a spell wearing jeggings; I've always found that the jeans which fit my thighs are too big in the waist so the stretchy elasticated waistband of jeggings seemed like the ideal fix. Then I tried on Primark's Super High Waist Skinnies and I haven't worn anything else for months. I bought a pair with ripped knees which I've been living in but I'm growing tired of the jokes about my clothes having holes in them so I just picked up a normal pair, which are down from £10 to £8 at the moment for a little added bonus.

I bought a pair of round sunglasses in H&M a few years ago and they fast became my favourite shape so since Primark currently have them on sale for £1 I grabbed a spare pair. 

New in my nail polish box are two Barry M shades: Black Grape which is a dark blue Gelly polish and Crush which is a matte red. I really wanted a deep red colour and the photos of Crush look darker than it does in the bottle so hopefully it won't disappoint - plus it's matte which means it dries really quickly so there's a minimal window for me to smudge them. I've yet to try the Gelly polishes but I wear dark blue quite a lot so I'm looking forward to testing it soon. 

The third bottle in the photo is a True Brit shade called It's A Monthly Thing, which came in this month's Pink Parcel and was part of the reason why I reactivated by subscription. It's a super pale grey colour which looks really sophisticated and which I plan to use instead of white for a while.

I don't blog about it much but I have a little bit of an obsession with cute stationery. I have a pile of notebooks waiting to be used, a collection of different journals, a fascination with Paperchase and a fineliner selection spanning the whole rainbow. I picked up this huge set of fineliners in The Works for £6, mostly because it has such a great selection of pinks, including a peach shade which means I don't have to use brown and orange to colour skin when I'm doodling anymore. 

The glitter gel pens were £2 and they make me so nostalgic for a childhood where gel pens were a must-have item. I take them to work where I scrawl important Post-Its in sparkling cursive, the only downside is now all my colleagues want to use them too! Next up on the list: scented gel pens...

I usually pick up a magazine every time I go somewhere; as a kid I read Girl Talk and Top Of The Pops, then Kerrang! through my teenage years, but now I mostly go for fashion magazines - both the mainstream and alternative kind. I really like NME since they relaunched it as a free publication but sadly I live an hour away from the nearest stockist so I can only get it when I'm in HMV which means I miss out on most issues. 

I like Vanity Fair for the articles, they print content about old Hollywood and 20th century icons as well as current stars like Amy Schumer and it makes for great company on long journeys. I bought Pop because I missed the bus home one day and had some time to kill; I still haven't finished reading it because it's a few inches thick. I've been chasing the Fame Issue of Wonderland for months since it has great photos of Matty Healy in its pages, so I finally got that today and I'm looking forward to flicking through it because Wonderland is always great. 

Finally I ordered tmrw magazine online because their main feature is on The 1975 (Matty again...) and it has a homemade feel that I really like. I haven't read the cover feature yet but they've also published pieces on emo culture and the vinyl resurgence which sadly I found to be quite poorly written. The photos, however, are gorgeous - plus they sent me a couple of prints of The 1975 to sweeten the deal. 

Lastly, books and music. I've picked up a lot of 2nd hand books and vinyl lately but I'm just going to concentrate on the things I've bought as new. I read Less Than Zero earlier this year and absolutely loved it, so I was glad to find another Bret Easton Ellis book, The Rules Of Attraction, on sale in HMV. 

I enjoyed both Zayn's Mind Of Mine and Drake's Views when I streamed them so I picked up both of those, as well as Communion by Years & Years, which I haven't listened to all the way through yet but have high hopes for. I pre-ordered The F Bomb by Sonic Boom Six years ago (or does it just seem that long?) when they announced it on PledgeMusic and it finally arrived this week - it's been a while since I've really listened to them so hopefully the feminist-themed new material will kickstart the love I had for them in 2013. 

Finally, I used some of the vouchers I won from work to pick up the gorgeous vinyl edition of I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It by The 1975. It's my favourite album this year and I urge you to listen to it if you haven't yet, it combines so many genres and pretty sounds and feelings and I can't get enough. The HMV version of the album comes in a pastel pink slipcase which hides 2 discs of clear vinyl.