Daydreaming

I went to the Meadham Kirchhoff sample sale in December. The end of last year was a weird time for me, I had a major breakdown and was severely unwell mentally. I was prescribed anti-depressants which I am still taking now. It was a hard time.

I heard about the sample sale when I was in a much better place, my side effects from the meds were wearing off and counselling was going well. I saw Edward's post on Instagram about the sale and I was desperate to go. I was talking about it to my house mate when I realised that there was actually nothing stopping me from going if I really wanted to. I only live about two hours away and I had no commitments that meant I couldn't go, so I booked the tickets and googled the post code of the studio and the tube route I would have to take.

So I went! I bought something!

Before I got there I was constantly looking through both Edward and Ben's Instagrams for pictures of what would be on sale. I knew if I was going to get anything at all it should be something from the Spring/Summer 2012 collection, because that was my favourite of theirs and it changed everything about how I relate to clothing. When I got to the studio there were so many beautiful pieces and it was such a lovely, overwhelming experience to see their work in the flesh, to touch the fabrics and inspect the tiny details that you can't see from a photograph. There were only letting ten people in at a time and because I'd got there quite early I came in with the second lot. I kept trying to find something from that collection, but I could only see pieces that I was less keen on. Then I saw this collar hanging slightly above a rack of clothing and I knew this was it. If I was going to buy anything at all it should be something I was totally in love with.

I know I'm prone to exaggeration, but this honestly was one of the best days of my life. They were playing Destiny's Child on the speakers and had tinsel curtains all the way around the entrance. It was so incredible to be in the place where my favourite things had been made, and now knowing that they don't have enough money to continue designing it feels even more special (but still so sad).

I also bought a pair of knee high socks from the same collection. Partly so I have something that doesn't have to be looked after quite so much as the collar and partly because the packaging was so beautiful.

Collar - Meadham Kirchhoff, jumper and skirt - Missguided, headscarf - gift.

I keep the collar wrapped in tissue when I'm not wearing it. Now that the duo are no longer making collections because of their lack of money, it feels like a museum piece. In fact this is what Ben said to me when I handed it to him to pay. I said I just wanted to frame it and he told me I should wear it because it needed to be worn, and I think he's right. His assistant said that I was buying a piece of the brand's DNA. It feels so true. For me this was the collection that started my love and obsession for the design team and is also the one that propelled them into the mainstream. It feels like their essence.

New things.

I went on a solo holiday this summer - nothing special, just a little tour around some places I'd never been to before & meeting up with some people along the way. I went to Bath with my mum (on a plane, which I hate), did some work experience at the museum she works at and wrote about it here. I went to London on my own (which, I'll level with you, as a northerner both scares and infuriates me), survived staying in a pretty gross hostel, went to lots of art galleries, met up with friends and basically burnt holes in my shoes. I also went to Peterborough and got a tattoo, but I'll show you that later.
When I was wandering around waiting to meet up with my friend Laura, I tried on a bunch of stuff at a vintage shop I found when I was trying to find a Costa. I bought some new things, and here they are.

I own lots of blue skirts already and it's becoming a bit of a perverse in joke with myself where I keep collecting them. This one made into the collection because the stripes are cute and I don't have enough things I can wear belts with. Also, I actually think it's super plain and I'm really into that at the moment. Making up for my mid-teen obsession with wearing as many patterns and bright colours as I possibly could at once, I guess.

This belt is fairly new too. It's holographic and snakeskin (fake, obviously) and therefore the perfect match for this feather necklace I wear like, all the time.

I have barely bought anything new this summer - it wasn't a conscious decision to save money or anything, but I think when I have free time I am just less inclined to spend it looking for clothes online. I think when I have stuff to do that I'm stressed about/want to avoid (hiya uni work!) I buy things to make myself feel better, for something to look forward to. I like this! but now that I think about it more I really want to concentrate on self-care that doesn't require spending money on material things. Not because I don't like the material things - I really do - but because I want to focus on taking care of myself in a way that doesn't depend on buying things and that I can actually carry on doing when I don't have any money. Also, I want to focus on having clothes that I wear all the time and that I really love.

I also bought some super ridiculous comedy shorts. Mainly because they are actually quite cute but also because they made me laugh and I still treat getting dressed as some kind of dressing up game, apparently. They feel a like clown shorts because there's just so much fabric going on, but also the pattern gives me serious kid's party vibes? They're actually a really weird piece of clothing, they fasten through a zip inside the left pocket and have unbelievably tiny pockets for how large the legs are.

I bought this crop top (and another one in cornflower blue) from Asos when I was in one of my essay avoidance fugs. I wear them both all the time, I feel like I've ascended to another level of dressing to be honest. Charlotte 5.0, the era of the crop top.

I didn't take a coat with me on my mini expedition because I was going to the south and I didn't expect it to be cold or wet. Spoiler alert, it was both. So on my way to catch one of the nine trains I caught that holiday, I bought this Emergency Coat. It's cute and will definitely be worn a lot, so I don't feel that bad about getting it.

 It looks nice in the sun too.

Top - Asos, shorts - Rokit vintage, skirt - Rokit vintage, mac - Topshop, necklace - Tatty Devine.

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I'm driving back to Sheffield this weekend, and I'm pretty excited. I like seeing my family over summer, but I do feel like I'm stagnating here and I just don't think I take care of myself as much here as I do in Sheffield. I'm also looking forward to third year, but kind of getting super scared about how much work I'm going to have.

More new things from me: I wrote something for the Style Con about breasts and clothes and body politics. I've been thinking about those ideas for ages now & I'm glad I managed to get the courage to pitch it somewhere. It also made it into the Fashion REDEF round up, which is pretty cool! Anyway, you can read it here.

Squares and lace.

Hello! I feel like I'm on a bit of roll with my outfits lately, so I have another one to show you! I bought this shirt a couple of months ago when I was on my serious gingham binge and I really love it. It actually feels very preppy & a little bit more androgynous than the blouses I usually wear.

(I tried to match the squares with my unmade bed, which kind of worked?)

Also I can finally show you this lace jacket I bought! I got this forever ago & I wear it so much, it's kind of surprising that it hasn't made it on to here yet. I saw it in an H&M catalogue literally about two years ago but couldn't find it until last winter. I love it so much, it goes with everything. I especially love it with this outfit because of the mixed patterns and shapes. A very preppy, soft but boxy feel, right?

Shirt - Asos, jacket - H&M, skirt - vintage/DIY, hairband - DIY

I took these pictures just after making lots of horrid phone calls, this is my "I'm super stressed about bills, being an adult is awful please make it stop" face. We've had such a nightmare trying to sort out the bills for our new student house, the tenants who lived there before hadn't paid anything for months & owe like £500+ & we've had bailiffs come round to try & get money off us. NOT GOOD. VERY STRESSFUL. I have been hyperventilating lots.

But at least this is a cute outfit, right?

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I'm quite excited/stressed at the moment because I'm sorting out lots of travel plans for August. In the space of two weeks I'm going to be in Manchester, Bath, London, Peterborough (to get a tattoo done!) and then back home. I'm really looking forward to going to London because I've not been in ages, and much as I love being from the North, there are so many art exhibitions & things on there that we just don't get up here. So, if anyone knows of any cool (and preferably cheap/free) things to do there please let me know!

Sepal, petal, ovule.

Happy August! August always feels like a weirdly anxiety-inducing time for me - it's far enough into summer for me to feel guilty about all the things I should have done/should be doing (like reading for my dissertation) and close enough to September for me to be worrying about it. But also it's summer!! So I should be enjoying myself!! My dark circles are being sponsored by Netflix and blank Microsoft Word documents.

I really wanted to show you my new favourite top! I've been wearing this thing so much since I bought it I can barely remember what I did without it. This is my first purchase from Sheinside and I'm actually pretty impressed! It's really cute and such a blatant rip off of Christopher Kane's SS14 collection that it really makes me think that the fashion industry needs to tighten up their copyright laws (not that I'm complaining, as if I could ever afford the real thing).

Style.com

See? Isn't the picture on this top such a good double for the Kane one? Minus the sequins, obviously. I loved this collection so much when it came out - all de-constructed petals and anatomical diagrams you could cheat on a biology exam with (as astutely pointed out by one of my friends). I wrote something about it here for Liberty Belle ages ago and I'm so pleased I finally have something that looks a little bit like it in my wardrobe. I think it looks perfect with these vintage shorts, I hardly ever wear these to be honest but when I saw the top I knew the yellows would work so well together.

Also, I have really been enjoying trying out new things with my outfit posts recently. I always felt a bit out of place taking pictures in my bedroom, it never looked quite right somehow. This painting outside my room felt right though, and I really want to start taking pictures in more fitting locations! (Hence the outside photos from my last post).

Style.com

Sigh. Completely besotted with this skirt and its 3D petals.

Top - Sheinside, shorts - gift/vintage, headband - gift.

I bought this beautiful set after a tip off from the lovely Kailey - the sequinned Oasap version was sold out & she sent me the link to this! It's so cute but unfortunately the skirt is just a bit too big for me, so I'm selling it on ebay & depop (@charlottekook) if you fancy having a bit of knock off Christopher Kane in your life (:

Mendl's

Change of scene for today! I thought the colours in this outfit really matched the flowers in my garden so I thought I'd take a trip outside today.

I have been looking for a skirt with braces (a suspender skirt? harness skirt?) for ages and I was so pleased when I finally found this one! It is such a cute shape with a lovely flippy (if very, very short) skirt. I've been trying out wearing it with lots of different things but I think this blouse is my favourite because the sleeves look so sweet poking out of the straps slightly.

(Also, I'm definitely not wearing my signature white tights in this photo because it was far too hot, just thought I would clarify because my legs are so pale that's certainly what it looks like).

Zero & Agnes in The Grand Budapest Hotel (image credit: Google Images)

The colours and the shapes in this outfit (collar, braces etc) really made me think of the uniforms and the colour palette in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, aka one of my favourite films I've seen this year. Actually the lilac particularly reminded me of Mendl's the patisserie, but I think I actually must have been remembering the colours wrong because it looked a lot pinker than I thought when I was trying to find pictures for this post! My hair and lipstick were bright pink but it was too light outside to properly capture that on camera. If I had to come up with a concept for this outfit though then I would say "Lolita inspired 50s diner waitress who stumbled into Wes Anderson's pastel filter". Or something like that.

The details on this blouse are so pretty! I love the embroidery and the scalloped edges on the pocket and collar. I added the bears myself because this blouse looked so much like the pink one I wore in this post which had yellow bears on to cover a rip and I really wanted them to match.

Blouse - vintage/DIY, harness skirt - ebay, headscarf - gift, socks - Topshop.

(image credit: Google Images)

Goodbye for now!

Daisy Duck and constantly moving forward.

Hey! I bought a new glittery Daisy Duck print tshirt and I want to talk about it!

I'm bleach blonde now! (Or I will be until I get sick of my roots creeping in.) I cried for a solid ten minutes when I got home after this haircut, properly sobbing in the mirror. The hairdresser straightened it into a horrid, flat shape and I can't deal with my face when there isn't a mane sticking out from it, it brings back too many memories of middle/high school unhappiness. I could feel myself tightening up in the chair as she cut it too short and I had to wear my sunglasses walking home because I knew I was going to start crying (and I did). Strangely enough though, I really like it now! I can't tell if I was being melodramatic or having a disassociating panic attack, but I cried in my housemate's room whilst two of them (both blonde) told me how nice it was, something I normally would never, ever do. I don't know why I'm writing this out other than to tell you that I guess I'm growing? Generally I hate to involve other people in my emotions, but I'm becoming looser now and more ready to let people in. Also, my does actually look pretty cute, I think. I went out that night and a stranger came over to me in the toilets to say I looked like Marilyn Monroe - a blatant lie designed to make me let her skip the queue, but obviously I am ridiculously shallow and it worked.

My outfit is entirely from Asos today. This seems so strange to me; I never would have bothered to post an outfit that was entirely high street a couple of years ago, because I had this weird feeling that that wasn't me, that I couldn't truly be posting/wearing something that was entirely myself if other people could buy it too. Which is very awkward and snobbish, and I'm trying to relax out of this now. However, I do have this vision in my mind of the ideal pair of pink denim vintage shorts that would go best with this shirt, so maybe I'm not over that weird snobbery just yet.

I thought all the photos I took of this outfit were really boring, so I made these unbelievably dreadful, funny collage pictures (that actually took an embarrassingly long time, because technology will never be my thing). I kind of felt that a print so unashamedly cheesy - because it is, and I love it for that and myself for choosing it because I never would have a few years ago - needed to be shown in a light hearted, ridiculous way. Moving forward, moving forward.

So tacky, so awful! So not sorry.

I am so into crop tops these days, so into them. I bought two plain ones in lilac and blue a couple of weeks ago and when I tried them on it truly felt like I was being awakened. Settling into my narcissistic skin a bit more, I think.

Goodbye from me and Daisy, see you soon.

(file under: pretentious ramblings about hair, clothes and identity).