May I shoot you?

I've just got my new Nikon D5000 camera for my birthday (which is in a week but hey!) so I'm really looking forward to posting some better pictures with my posts. I've also joined Lookbook after getting an invite from the lovely Sitting Pretty blogger Claire so I can post my looks and what I've been wearing. I'm pretty excitable at the minute!

My new label crush.

I love coming across designers which make me want to talk about them and use in my sketchbooks for inspiration. And todays turn is Ostwald Helgason. I had this label bookmarked and only just re-found it today whilst clearing my bookmarked pages. Ostwald Helgason consists of Susanne Ostwald and Ingvar Helgason and they work together to produce amazing tailoring and draping which gives the brand their signature look. I love the prints and colours which they work so closely on and what I love most is that they are a high-end label who describe their consumer as having "no specific age or social background". Their designs can be worn by any woman of any age - although I haven't been able to find a price yet which is definitely a bad sign as to whether students like me can afford it!

From the images above it's easy to see how the label uses traditional tailoring in a contemporary way and I don't know about you but I adore men's style tailoring on women. It's not my personal style but if I was sophisticated I would definitely be all over the tailored look! I would also do anything for that baggy tye-dye print coat.

Boots boots and more boots.

I have a pair of Topshop boots which were my "I'm not going to Leeds festival this year so I'm treating myself" present. I bought them in August and have worn them more or less each day since then! I have always bought rubbish boots in substitute for good ones - money usually being the problem - but I thought I'd invest this time. Sooo I love love love my little black studded boots from Topshop so I ordered some more boots from Topshop online. I wanted some brown ones so ordered some tanned, rouched, ankle boots. When they came in the post they looked a little "All Saintsy" - as I like to describe them! I'm not a fan of All Saints and these boots looked a little plastic like the All Saints lace up boots which everyone has and every highstreet shop has copied. So I went into Topshop and swopped them for some different boots which didn't make me feel like an All Saints wannabe. I wore them out on Saturday night - I apologise for the picture, the bad quality definitely has vodka stamped all over it!

This week I've been...

...making earrings in Afflecks. This week on placement has been hectic to say the least. Me&Yu are now being stocked in River Island menswear so this week has been mental trying to get the order finished and packed! Sooo I've been covering in the shop whilst Angie and Gordon get prepared for River Island AND the Clothes Show Live. I have made some too cute earrings whilst being in the shop and I thought I'd show you them...

I want to live here.

I came across this House of Holland cottage whilst looking at the Vice website. It's basically an idea which Vice and Henry Holland came up with together and built inside his studio. On the Vice fashion webpage they describe it as a "petite fashion cottage" and its so adorable. He even designed an exclusive range to sell from the mini House of Holland. My friend is currently on work placement at Henry Holland so maybe I'll ask her to discretely bring it home for me!Come on, who wouldn't want to live here?

Online shopping rocks.

I recently posted about the Christopher Kane collection for Topshop and how I NEEDED not wanted but NEEDED to get something from it. Well I ordered the lace one shoulder dress off the Topshop website and it came yesterday! Not only is it lovely but it was £25 less than the price it's being sold for instore AND you get free Christopher Kane stickers - it was like Christmas had come early for me!
That's it above!

This is why I love vintage.

This week I actually got to do some vintage shopping around Manchester, rather than just walking past on my way to work. I took my sister Olivia and friend Sam who had never been vintage searching before. My sister is a bit skeptical about my charity shopping and vintage obssession but I think she enjoyed it! I found an amazing dress which is perfect for my staff doo and the fur coat is from Lost Property vintage right next door to Me&Yu in Afflecks. I have had my eyes peeled for the perfect fur coat for agggges and have been watching this one so that it didn't run off without me! Luckily on Saturday they had an "any reasonable offer accepted" day so Angie got it for me at £35 which is a bargain!

The coat has some lovely gold buttons on the sleeves too which add that little extra. I think I want a long one too now - how much will my bank balance take?!

Sketchbook.

I've found this amazing little magazine which is THE cutest thing I've seen in a while. It focuses on art, culture and fashion but the process of creativity and how something is produced. It's an entirely different concept for a magazine and its lovely to look at as it's full of sketches, hence the name Sketchbook - yes I am a genious! The current issue is all about fashion bloggers and stars one of my favourite blogs Style Bubble. Buy it from here - it's about $27.99.

I don't want. I need.

Christopher Kane's Topshop collection has made me all weak at the knees and wishing I had a decent bank balance to buy EVERYTHING! I don't usually follow the celebrity/highstreet or designer/highstreet collaborations and now I know why. I had a look at the Christopher Kane designs and it was love at first sight. His designs ooze sophistication but at the same time he throws that girly, childish essence into them which we all have hidden away. I'm in the process of looking for a dress for my 21st (old or what?!) and I may HAVE to have one of these.

My particular favourite is the black lace one shoulder dress which is one of the cheaper ones at £75...wahoooo!

Polyvore

I've recently joined Polyvore so I could put together some mood boards for Me&Yu's new collection. Polyvore is a styling website which allows you to put together sets for different looks or just to show off your favourite items around at the minute! I'm sure it would have been much easier if I had my lurrrvellyyy new Mac to play with as it wasn't so easy uploading images and editing them on Polyvore but I figured it out in the end!

Sportstar

Me&Yu

A look inside my head...

At the moment I'm thinking about loads of different things and usually I'm always like this. My room is an extension of me and how I am. I'm not particularly tidy, I love clutter, I like having my own things around me and I love having lots of polaroids, old family photos and photos of my friends around me. I dont think anyone understands my room the way I do - every space is filled with vintage scarves, handbags, piles of dresses waiting to be hemmed, magazines and sketchbooks. Thats how I like it. My seventies style built in pin board echoes this chaos.

Monsters shouldn't be this cute...

So all introductions over I wanted to post some images of Me&Yu's wayyy too cute monster brooches (including a Usual Suspect style image!)

Me&Yu.

For my work placement year I decided to contact a fashion label which I already had love for and ask them to have me for a year! Luckily Angie and Gordon of Me&Yu said yes to me and I started my 12 months on the 3rd of August this year. Me&Yu are an independent label based in Manchester and sell in the fabulous Afflecks of the Northern Quarter of Manchester City Centre - I'll blog about Afflecks in the near future. The label consists solely of Angie and Gordon, a boyfriend/girlfriend team, and produces hand printed hoodies, sweatshirts, t-shirts and vests, along with to die for screen printed fabric cleverly crafted into dresses, skirts and cardigans.

Everything about Me&Yu is done with love and thought and most importantly with you in mind. I could have gone to London and sat in a PR office all day sending out samples, attending posh parties handing out drinks and steaming garments on a shoot BUT that's not me. I didn't want to blend into the background on my placement - I wanted to have a hands on experience which I learnt something from. I'm loving being at Me&Yu and sewing, pattern cutting, doing photoshoots, assisting on photoshoots, working in Afflecks, blogging and meeting lots of cool people along the way!

Take a look at the link for Me&Yu's website (I promise you you'll love it!)

First post nerves.

I'm not a complete blog virgin but this is my first personal blog I've ever done. Scary business. My blog experience was severly damaged by my Journalism module at Uni, as we were forced to start a 'class blog' and basically made to sit at a computer for two hours posting comments to each other about about stimulating subjects such as Huddersfield's music scene - there isn't one - and Christmas.

As I've mentioned in the 'About me' section, I'm currently on a 12 month placement with Manchester fashion label Me&Yu and my faith in blogging has been restored. I look after the Myspace blog and have it imported into Facebook - as sadly the good old days of Myspace are nearly over. I try to concentrate solely on Me&Yu related posts for that blog but I sometimes spill over into what I've been doing or what new magazines, labels, sites and blogs I've found. I decided it would be good to put all that into a new blog which I could keep as a personal blog and carry it on when my 12months at Me&Yu draws to an end. So here goes!