Spring Blossoms

If you are thinking about treating yourself to a new white bra in anticipation of Summer why don't you try a pretty floral blossom print. Mainly white with just a sprinkling of colour they are still easy to wear under pale colour tops.

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Snow forecast on weekend: Dark and Stormy Florals

Enjoy the weather in the UK today as it's not forecast to continue!

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So shop up a storm and treat yourself to some dark and moody floral print underwear. Perfect as an alternative to your good old black bra, try showing it off under a chiffon shirt.

Future Fashion: The Art of Blogging

I couldn't resist popping back to Westfields 

Future Fashion Event last night to see a talk by the fashion blogger DisneyRollerGirl.

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I'm pretty new to this blogging game so it was really interesting to hear some tips and advice from someone who has created a successful niche for herself in the blogging world.

The HOT TIP from DisneyRollerGirl was about how fun and games are set to be the next big thing to influence our shopping experience.

www.disneyrollergirl.net

Spring is in the air: Romantic Florals

If you haven't invested in a pretty floral bra yet, now is the time.

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This is the first of the Spring Floral trends. 

Soft, feminine and easy to wear under all the gorgeous pastel coloured clothing out there.

More trends to follow....

The Future of Fashion: Westfield London

This morning I popped into Westfield London to experience their Future Fashion Shopping Experience.

It's a digital style event aiming to connect the digital shopping world with tradition retail store enviroment. 

The hot topic of the moment! 

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There are Five zones to choose from a 3D fashion show, Styling Cubes, a Fashion Lounge, Beauty Masterclasses and a PhotoBooth

Get there quick for advice on new makeup trends and hairstyles,  industry secrets and mini facials and massages in the Beauty Masterclasses.

  You can share your latest purchases instantly with you friends through facebook in the PhotoBooth.

The 3D fashion show showcases the latest trends while the models walk towards you almost out of the screen towards you. It's quite a new experience especially emerging out of the darkness into the blinding sunlight in Westfield.

You can create you own digital moodboard using an edited selection of clothing and accessories in the latest trends and . It's really fun and when your done you email it to yourself or post on facebook. I did create one but I couldn't quite get the hang of proportion on the huge screen so needless to say it wasn't my finest work and I will not be sharing it. 

Finally, book up for various style talks by the Grazia team in the Fashion Lounge. 

I am definately going to pop back later today.

 

Future Fashion runs from March 27th to April 1st and then moves to Westfield Stratford April 4th to 9th

Lingerie Faux Pas: See through Leggings

Sorry for the lack of posts over the weekend, I was a bit overwhelmed by some sunny weather a few birthday parties and keeping up with my Yoga Course. Anyway, I'm back with a serious issue to highlight, the curse of the see through legging.

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Ok, so Spring is in the air, the sun is shining and we are peeling off the layers bringing our underwear tantalisingly close to the outside world.

First word of warning of the year girls, if you like a legging and you have not invested in a quality pair beware, you may be revealing more than you realise.

It's at the forefront of my mind at the moment because I'm at lots of Yoga classes where a legging probably gets the biggest test of tensile strength of it's life and its got to be one of the only  places I know where you are supposed to be perfectly relaxed while dangerously close to a stranger who you are looking at from an angle that undoubtably they have never seen themselves from. 

It's not completely our fault we were taken by surprise when we thought we were getting better value and more affordable leggings what we were actually getting was gradually more inferior quality fabric that was becoming more see through by the season.

Even celebrities were taken by surprise, as it's not like they can't afford to buy quality. Though I do wonder if some of the time it may be slightly attention seeking? but frankly if your career is such that you need the exposure generated by everyone seeing your backside through a pair of leggings you need to be taking a good look at yourself.

Some words of wisdom:

• If in doubt about the opacity of your leggings wear a short style knicker underneath rather than a thong and never wear white or light coloured underwear under black leggings
• Try on the leggings before you buy or if short of time just stretch the fabric over your hand and if you can see the colour of your hand through them stay clear!
• Invest in one/two good pairs of leggings rather that lots of cheap pairs, Gilly Hicks and American Apparel are my faves.

Paris Hilton

Kelly Brook

Eva Longoria

Lauren Goodger

Tulisa

What Lies Beneath : Sunny Friday

OK, sunny day sunny bra needed

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 yellow push up bra from Victorias Secret

Olympics 2012 : Show your colours

Today Stella McCartney gave us the first peek of her designs for the Team GB Olympics kit that she has designed for Adidas.

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I am one of the many who is beside themselves with excitement about the Olympics being held in the UK this Summer. 
I have embraced the sporty vibe in the country by enrolling on a Yoga Teacher training course a few weeks ago and so having the right stylish functional underwear is now more than ever, an exciting focus in my life. 


I can't tell you how important it is to wear a good supporting sports bra because once that skin around your boobs is stretched through continual bouncing it never goes back and the only way from then on is downwards!


 One of the simplest most fabulous thing that has happened to exercise underwear is that sports bras are now widely available in a selection of colours hurrah!! I have never understood a white sports bra, they are generally made of hitech but synthetic fabric created to wick away the moisture from the body and they just go grey after being washed regularly.


So my advice is to flash a bright bra strap at the gym, just because you can.

Stella McCartney Tangerine Dream
with built in heart monitor

Victorias Secret VSX range

Victorias Secret VSX range

L♡VE this M&S Sports bra
High impact support in popsicle pink with a smooth cup

My personal Sports Bra collection

 Grrrrrrrr  Victoria Secret Pink tiger print 

OK a fab quick fix is to layer a bright bandeau
over your current sports bra. This will give you extra
support and a pop of colour

 Bright Blue Bra: Sweaty Betty

SELLING SEX: SHOWstudio Shop

 It is a well known fact that the majority of images we consume are created by men, and all too often feminism is an easy target for commodification in the wider context of contemporary culture. SHOWstudio has decided to examine this 'self-other' relationship and curate an exhibition about sex, as seen exclusively from a female perspective.
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Marianne Maric, Lamp Girl

Una Burke, Retreat 5 and 6

Ione Rucquoi, Second Skin

Vahage, PonyGirl

We all like to hope that times have changed and the war of the sexes is less like a war and more like a sophisticated dialogue. And yet, when you consider that only 5% of all the artists in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection in 1989 were women, while the Louvre today still has no female artists in their collection of over 35,000 artworks, it's a pretty shocking state of affairs. The facts suggest that the war still needs to happen.

 In Fashion, the leading fashion photographers creating the leading fashion campaigns are mostly men. And it's in Film, where women hold only 33% of all speaking roles and 7% of all Directors in Hollywood are women. And, the real kicker? There are still ONLY three industries in which women earn more money than men - Pornography, Prostitution and Modelling. What does that tell us?

So, its great that Showstudio is giving us the chance to focus on Female image makers and give us the opportunity to look at what womans image of woman. Let's explore such ideas as if woman creates an image of a woman, is the male perspective so engrained that she still creates a to-be-looked at female?

As Showstudio states this is just the start, the beginning of a conversation and one that we hope helps us all emerge just a little more aware of just how male gendered our visual culture really is and be a little less willing to put up with it.

(The statistics in this piece are taken from the Showstudio exhibition preview) 

 'SELLING SEX', set to open on tomorrow March 22, 2012 at SHOWstudio Shop, 1-9 Bruton Place, London 

Lana Del Rey: Blue Jeans - The Video

Wow!** at last, Lanas Blue Jeans video launched today and it doesn't disappoint.

See the House Of Blueeyes Swimsuit I created for her in its full glory.

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www.houseofblueeyes.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/House-Of-Blue-Eyes/60237192845

Azzedine Alaïa: The King of Cling

It's hard to believe but very stretchy fabric used in clothing is a relatively new phenomenon. It was only 20 years ago in the Eighties when lycra really revolutionised clothing.

The designer who really championed the more body conscious silhouette was Azzedine Alaia

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Alaias creations follow the contours of womens bodies accentuating and celebrating them. They scream 'look at the curve from my waist to my hip' or 'can you see how long my legs are" 

He takes the 'foundation' of corsetry and interprets it in stretchy, supportive and comfortable creations.

He famously said 'Its about how a woman feels when she is wearing one of my creations that is important". 

I own one Alaia piece, a skirt and I can vouch for that.

 For a start, if value could be measured in weight this garment would win hands down, it's made of a seriously strong knitted fabric, it oozes quality. It skims over my hip flattening and smoothing and rather than 'clinging' the stretch of the fabric just makes it comfortable enough to move and function in. Every seam is a work of art, they are double stitched in a couture construction called faggotting and when on the body they open slightly to reveal the tiniest peep of flesh.

The ridiculous thing is that I don't actually wear it very often as I feel slightly like my life isn't worthy of it.

Well I suppose I can always just feel good in the company I keep as other Alaia fans range from Naomi Campbell and Grace Jones to more recently Michelle Obama and Lady GaGa

"There is nothing better than a healthy body dressed in wonderful clothes"  Azzedine Alaïa

To see more of Alaias work catch this exhibition at Groninger Museum, Netherlands until the 6th May

http://www.groningermuseum.nl/en/exhibition/azzedine-alaï-21st-century

Playtex Tonique Contour Bra: The future without bra wires?

Traditionally the bras that offer the most support to your bust have not needed wires in them, they are just made of strong rigid fabric that doesn't stretch much so they hold you in place perfectly but unfortunately are not generally very comfortable (or stylish enough!) for us modern women.


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 Lets face it, we want and deserve comfort together with support and we have become used to thinking that a wire in a bra actually equals support. 
It is still actually the tightness of a bra around your body that provides support, you should be able to drop your bra straps off your shoulders without your bra moving from around your body.
 The wires just ensure the cups of your bra are more stable, they give your bust shape and help to keep your boobs towards the front of your body!

That said it's a personal bug bear of mine that a real alternative to the bra wire hasn't been invented yet, when you think about how much technology has moved on in the last 10 years and yet everyday women are still wearing a wire in our bras that has been largely unchanged since the 1950s. 
So, I'm really excited to see any new innovation that explores new ways of supporting and shaping our precious assets! 

The Tonique Contour from Playtex is one of the latest new innovations promising maximum comfort and support without an underwire.

The techie bit is a ‘flexi-support’ panel, instead of an underwire, to help support and shape the sides and underneath of your bust. 

The 'flexi-support' is actually moulded inside the bra padding so thats were the comfort bit comes in. It doesn't touch your skin at all and also there's probably no chance of it coming out in the wash!

There's a good size offer, it ranges from 32 to 40 and from a B to F cup and is available in black and pale nude.

Having tried it on I would say it's a great T-shirt bra that is more suitable for fuller busts, which is probably why Playtex are not offering an A cup. It gives you a great shape, a smooth cup and the same support as a wired bra. 

The styling is a bit classic for me there's a spotty mesh panel on the neckline edge which is not really sheer enough to be a real feature but that said it wouldn't put me off buying it.

It is not cheap at £30 but its a good everyday bra that if it works for you could become a favourite in your lingerie drawer.  

You can buy the Playtex Tonique Contour Bra at Debenhams and House of Fraser