Ugly/cute

Hello! This is just going to be a quick little post to show you some new shoes I have acquired recently! I so rarely buy shoes, I genuinely think that on average I buy a pair every year, or maybe even every other year. I am incredibly picky, and also have really awkward feet (skinny size 6 and a halfs, urgh), so when I finally find a pair that I love I wear them until the soles are falling apart. As a result, my shoe collection is rather sad looking. I wear my brogues an awful lot, but I often feel like my lack of variety in the shoe department lets my outfits down. Anyway, I was lucky enough this year to be given two lovely pairs of shoes for my birthday!

I have been musing on purchasing a pair of Doc Martens for a while now, and I asked my Dad for these ones from their website. They are so cute! They have lots of floral patterns, but I feel like this is a fairly unusual one. I really like the delicate red flowers on the clunky, iconic shape and they look so cute with my frilly socks! (Of which I have bought literally six more pairs)

Before I started wearing these, I was really worried about getting blisters as I've heard they take a while to break in, but I've actually been alright! They fit really well too, which is a dream when you have difficult skinny feet like I do.

I also got another pair of shoes for my birthday, but this time from my flatmates and some of the girls I'm living with next year. They are so adorable, and I was so surprised as I didn't think they were going to get me anything! I love these, they feel quite schoolgirlesque, but a lot cooler than the hideous things I used to wear in school.

I really like the ugly vs cute dynamic these shoes have going on, I like the idea that people won't be able to work out if I'm wearing these because they're sweet or tough.

Both pairs look so adorable with socks, especially my new glittery socks! These are the lilac pair, but I also have them in blue and mint green.

*

By the way, I have Instragram now! I have no idea what I'm doing, but my username is strawberry_charlotte if you want to follow me (:

Every era it builds character.

Hello! Today I want to share with you some of my greatest inspirations for dressing, and life in general, basically. I asked my mum for the Advanced Style book for Christmas, Ari Seth Cohen's compilation of his street style photographs of the older generation around New York City. It is a truly beautiful book. I was going to talk about it in my last post, but I decided it really needed one all to itself in order to do it justice!

I tried to choose only my favourite images from the book, but even so this is a pretty image heavy post! Here we go.

Amazing punk hair and incredibly cartoon specs.

I adore this headpiece!

I love the pearl necklace & earrings set from the woman on the left, and the lady on the right's incredible feather and lace combination.

This woman is so incredible! Literally my number one style inspiration, she's just absolutely fearless. I watched this video with her talking about fashion and her clothes (she makes her own eyelashes, FROM HER HAIR!) and was in awe. The first 12 seconds pretty much incapsulate my exact views on why I wear what I wear.

She's just so cute and happy! There's an interview, more like a conversation really, in the back of the book between her and Dita von Teese which is just perfect.

Love the shell theme on both of these ladies.

The lady on the left has the best hair ever, you can't really see it that well here but there are more pictures in the book. She mixes vintage mens and womenswear with the most decadent jewellery. The woman on the right is just proof that being older doesn't mean having to forget whimsy and ~youthful~ colours when you get dressed.

This woman is amazing! In all of her photos she looks so elegant.

"In your body is a good place to be"

This woman is incredible! She's lifting dusty pink weights while wearing lace gloves, I mean, there is nothing better than that.

I don't know how well you can see them here, but the woman on the left has the most amazing nails which match the colours of her outfit exactly!

The woman on the left is the absolute cutest person ever! I adore her big hat and her even bigger hat boxes! The two ladies on the right are best friends and both have an astounding collection of eyewear. (The one on the bottom right really reminds me of my English teacher who I talked about in my last post, the one who got me back into feminism. She doesn't really dress like her, but her face is really similar)

I love how they look kind of coordinated, and very Comme des Garcons, here!

A final quote from the lady on the right above. These words are ones I plan to live by, and ones I kind of try to live by now. It doesn't matter if people don't like the way I dress or look, because I like it, and that's really all that matters. You can watch the trailer for the Advanced Style film here, I hope you find it as inspirational as I do!

Also, I'm not really sure what's going down with the whole Google Friend Connect thing, but I signed up to bloglovin and (I think) you can follow me on there via this link, & I put a link in the sidebar too.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Littlest things.

Hello! I have bought (and also received!) quite a few pretty new things lately, so I thought I would do a little post featuring some of them!

Some very wintry looking accessories! I am finally starting to accept that I live in a pretty cold country. I was walking home from a lecture one day and my ears were so unbearably sore and cold that I ducked into the local Oxfam to warm up a bit and have an angry browse, and found this hat! So, a practical decision rather than a style one. The scarf is so warm too, I actually saw this way back in September (before I even left for uni!) in an H&M in Newcastle but never thought I'd be able to find it again, so I was really surprised when I managed to find it reduced to £2 in the one here. It is ENORMOUS and feels more like wearing a neck blanket than a scarf.

This bag is made from the most amazing silver holographic fabric, I literally walked towards it in the shop with my mouth open and my hands outstretched like a small child. I never really frequent ~high street~ shops that often because I feel a bit awkward in them, but the H&M in Sheffield is actually really good and has some very cute stuff. They also have a kids' department which is I adore because there are so many cute, sparkly things! I wander around there quite a lot, sighing over all the pairs of glittery pastel tights that would be so perfect in my wardrobe if they weren't about twelve sizes too small.

For Christmas, my sister bought me some tights which I am exicted to dress up with! I have worn the two pairs on the left so far, and can't wait to try out the other two.

Some more pretty pieces! I bought the necklace from a vintage fair way back in September for only £3, I showed it to my mum and she said it looked like it was probably an original 60s one too, which is pretty cool! The other one was a Christmas gift from my brother (which I directed him towards!), I absolutely adore it! It feels very Dolce & Gabbana AW13, and it goes with so many of my blouses.

My friends from textiles and I decided to swap Secret Santa presents this year, but the deal was that we couldn't spend over £5 each. This was mine from Lianne, and it's so cute! We opened them all together & everyone said this was very "me".

I have had this scarf for ages, my mum found it languishing in a donation box in the charity shop we both work at over the summer and set it aside for me. It's so delicate and see through, I think it must be from the 1950s. It has some absolutely beautiful water colour style illustrations of London landmarks on it, the ones here are some of my favourites.

Big Ben and Boadicea Statue

Eros Piccadilly Circus.

Also, I bought more frilly Topshop socks! These were kind of a birthday present to myself, so I celebrated turning 20 by buying socks for a child.

(Yes, that's my way of saying I am now an Older Person. 20 is quite a scary age, it sounds all Serious and Proper, and unfortunately I am neither!)

Pretty organza trim socks. I am trying to collect the entire pastel spectrum in sock form.

*

In other news, the lovely Adele has graced me with the Liebster Blog Award! There are a few questions to answer, so here goes!

1) What is your favourite flower?
I really love peonies, especially the dark magenta and lilac ones. I also think sweet peas are really pretty, I would say I mostly like quite delicate flowers (apart from peonies!) because I used to adore pressing flowers when I was younger.

2) Who is your favourite designer?
Meadham Kirchhoff! No surprises there I suppose, I'm currently bidding on two of their past pieces for Topshop on ebay and I might actually cry if I don't get them as they are the dream. I also love Mary Katrantzou, Erdem, Louise Gray, Prada and I am in awe of this collection by The Blonds. I'm quite fickle though as I tend to change my favourites every season, although Meadham Kirchhoff are always top of my list.

3) Who was your favourite teacher at school?
There are quite a few teachers I would consider my favourites. I had two Spanish teachers for A2 that were really funny and lovely, and I also had an art teacher (who was also my form tutor) who was really inspirational too. She was pretty eccentric and completely spoke her mind, which I was totally in awe of. She also really helped me to get better and drawing and being more experimental, which I appreciate so much. I had two amazing English teachers in my final year too, one in particular was amazing. I didn't like at all at first, in fact I was slightly scared of her! She definitely opened my mind in terms of thinking about literature, and feminism in particular. I have always considered myself a feminist (literally since the age of about 9/10), but I had a few Lost Years in high school where I think I kind of forgot what it meant to be a feminist, and I really credit her with getting me back in touch with that.
4) Do you have any inspirational quotes that you love?
Arghhh I am the absolute worst with remembering quotes! I have started a little notebook where I write down all the quotes that I find inspiring or interesting to avoid my problem of forgetting them. I think one of my favourites is "We accept the love we think we deserve" from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, not because it's particularly uplifting but because I find it quite sobering & I always think about it when watching people interact. I also have another favourite from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five which is something about constructing a life from things that you find in gift shops (obviously that's not the exact quote!). I just find it really funny.

5) If you could be granted 3 wishes, what would you wish for?
I would wish for the invention of a pastel hair dye that doesn't require your hair to be bleached first, equality for all people and all of Meadham Kirchhoff's SS12 collection.

6) If you had to choose only one pair of shoes to wear for the rest of your life, and throw away the rest, which pair would you save?
This is a really tricky question as I have recently bought/been given two pairs of beautiful shoes (which I will show you soon!), but I would have to say my brown brogues. They are really versatile & comfy & all other things you would want in a shoe.

7) Do you have a favourite store on etsy - vintage or otherwise?
In terms of vintage, I figuratively weep over the dresses in this shop, and this one always has really nice pieces. I also love Caitlin Shearer's shop, her illustrations are so pretty! I tend to favourite items rather than shops on Etsy, so my favourites are a pretty good cross section of things I'm interested in.

8) Describe your perfect day.
I would say it would be a nice sunny day, but one of those springtime ones where the air is quite cold and crisp and everything feels fresher somehow. It would start with a couple of hours of (successful!) charity shopping, then I would meet some friends in an artsy little cafe, and then go home alone and watch Submarine or something. Perfect is a strange concept to me because I think I am a person of contradictions, I like being alone but I also like to be around other people.

9) How long do you think you'll continue to blog?
Indefinitely? I'm not really sure, until I am bored of it I suppose. Although I've been doing it (in various guises) for about 4/5 years now, and I'm not bored yet. I think as long as I continue to read & be inspired by other blogs, I will keep this one going. I like having it as a scrapbook, to record and chart my ideas and outfits, it's kind of like a part of me now.

10) Recommend a musician/band that I should listen to.
I am going to recommend several! Slow Club, Summer Camp, Stornoway and Sweet Baboo. I don't know why they all start with S.

11) What is your favourite thing about yourself?
Oh, gosh! This is actually a really tricky question. I think I have really good taste? In films and music and clothes and things. I am very sure about what I like, can that be considered a good thing? I don't know, I have a lot of flaws and things, but I think it is important to accept those as part of yourself, so that's what I try to do. So being happy with myself, I think, would be my favourite thing.
*
Okay, so I know the rules of this is that I have to award it to five other bloggers, but I am being a little more selective (read: lazy) and will just be awarding it to one: Kailey, as her blog Mermaidens is adorable! Here are my questions for her;
1) What is your favourite TV show?
2) What started your interest in fashion/clothes?
3) If you could only take three books with you to a desert island, what would they be?
4) Who would you consider your style icon?
5) Which is your favourite season?
6) What is your most treasured possession?
7) What was your favourite subject in school?
8) Where would you most like to visit in the world, and why?
9) What is your favourite painting or work of art?
10) If you could swap lives with anyone for a day, who would you choose?
11) What superpower would you like to have?