The Orange Revolution

    COS dress, Miista shoes, vintage clutch, belt & necklace
Along with the rest of the country I'm rejoicing over this week's glorious weather, and used the sunshine as the perfect excuse to wear a sunny dress. Hardly an orange revolution as the title suggests - far from it, as this is one of my favourite colours to wear. This evening I had an epiphany over its drapes, however; I've owned it since Christmas and this is the first time I realised I was wearing a piece of material on the wrong side. Duh. After a little repositioning it now fits and looks a whole lot better.
Wore this for a dinner with Annabel and Adam of The éditeur and Clare of tweet. Lots of exciting goings on - we dined with the new England football manager (well, sort of, he was on the other side of San Carlo), a prominent purchase was made from the online store during the main course, and arrangements began for an event, which will remain up our well-tailored sleeves for now.. but expect to be hearing lots about it in the very near future!

Tuesday Shoesday: A Poppin' Mixture

"Oi! Oi, girl!" shouted a male youth at me as I walked along a Hackney street.

Oh, God. This was it, I thought. Goodbye, cruel world, I have been a part of you for such a short time but..

"Your shoes be poppin'!" the youth interrupted my thoughts.

"Er.. thanks!", came my relieved response.

I was wearing my newest Miista shoes - the Hildas - and ironically the reason I was walking along said Hackney street was to pay the ladies of Miista a visit.

I stomped into the office and recounted my tale; we all agreed that "poppin'" was a worthy compliment for a Miista shoe.

Laura Villesenin, designer and founder of the Miista brand, talked me through the new spring collection. The Incas were a big inspiration, and the collection consisted of new styles, colours - some you may not expect from Miista - and shapes, plus classics from previous seasons reworked in a fresh way.

The amazing Saga Sig-shot lookbook continues with the Incan theme, with rich, saturated colours, creating highly impactful photographs.












Patricia busy editing the photographs

Laura has always been into shoes (a girl after my own heart, then) and studied at the London College of Fashion accessory & shoe-specific campus, Cordwainers. She then went onto working for high-street brands, most notably Aldo, until the Miista idea was born.

The team are currently working on their autumn/winter collection, and there is much talk of glitter, stars, and.. Boy George?! I'm allowed a sneak peek at their moodboard for the next season..










Miista are set for worldwide domination. The brand is expanding globally, shipping orders as far as Japan and Australia, plus a full-time team member lives in New York and handles appointments on the East Coast of America (icluding high profile clients such as Nordstrom and Anthropologie).

The team, too, are an international bunch, with a mix of accents bouncing around the office (ever wondered what "Miista" means, by the way? It's a twist on "mixture").

The Miistas are beat after arriving back from a Parisian trade show late the night before. I leave them wearily discussing who will fetch the next lot of Diet Cokes from the fridge.. but not before trying on some of their spring collection. I may have squealed fangirl-style and declared my Miista love (or was it obsession?), but the less said about that, the better..

Tuesday Shoesday: Miista Cheaper with a Tweet

My affair with Miista shoes has been well documented throughout this blog; it was true love at first sight. My affection for them has grown and I now own two pairs of Miista badboys - my treasured, well-worn birthday Luanne boots, but also my new Hildas. It may surprise you to hear the latter pair cost a mere £1. Yes, ONE POUND. Let me give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the ground.





This was made possible by the "Cheaper with a Tweet" campaign, which ran from the 3rd to the 13th of January. Put simply, you tweeted a link from a special button on the Miista site, which then decreased the price of the shoes you tweeted about - the percentage depended upon your Klout score. The actual campaign has been dissected and discussed by many who are much more marketing- and social media-savvy than I - in fact you can hear the ins and outs of it from the agency which coordinated the whole thing, RAAK. What I do know is that within one day the site had crashed due to sheer volume of visitors, within a week nearly every shoe from the site had sold out (unless you're a size UK3.. in which case, what were you waiting for?!) and the whole of Twitter was abuzz with the campaign. Even Paloma Faith got involved, decreasing the cost of the Hera Black by 17%.

I spoke to Chloe Dinga, branding and marketing guru at Miista, who said that although they were initally very nervous about the campaign - mainly due to its complexity - it was a huge success. "We did have to make some tweaks after the first day, the response was even more than we expected and we had some difficulty with the site crashing from all the traffic", said Chloe. Once the site was fixed, the Miista team then made sure everyone participating was only allowed one tweet, and to be able to buy one pair of shoes. Had they not done this, "everything would have been gone within a day!"

The gorgeous Daisy Kate of Fashion Stereotype wears her £1 Hildas

The ultimate goal was to get the Miista name out there, and to involve the entire fashion community - especially bloggers, as Chloe states that "more and more [trends are] being set by bloggers instead of magazines and other established elements of the industry". I picked some numbers up from the RAAK report: unique visitors to the site increased more than ten times over the course of the campaign, with 62% visiting for the first time. That's a big bunch of new Miista fans.

I'm told by Chloe that the SS12 collection will be available for purchase online "at the end of next week". Until then, feast your eyes on the lookbook preview pictures, shot by Saga Sig in Iceland, who has also worked with Topshop, Dazed & Confused, and i-D online. If you squint hard, you can just about see the shoes in the last picture, but this little taster seriously whet my appetite for the SS12 drop!

A Very Merry Boxing Day

Good times hanging out with my family and friends over the past few days, plus of course opening a handful of Christmas presents and drinking a pint or two. Or ten.

Today was a harsh snap back to reality working Boxing Day in House of Fraser, plus there have been some odd goings-on where I live in Manchester. After the comforts of my parents' house it's all rather jarring but normality will indubitably ensue presently. These three pictures - which were the start of an oufit diary whilst at home that clearly ran out of steam after day two - should suffice until I get a better grip on reality and can share some of the wonderful goodies that Santa Claus brought. Here I'm wearing a H&M men's shirt, Topshop palazzos, and Miista boots, and a French Connection jumpsuit with a H&M kimono and Acne shoes.

I hope you all had a happy Christmas, and enjoyed spending quality time with your loved ones!

Lovely Latex

Attempting to do a bit of a "today I'm wearing" every day this week, or at least for a couple of days. Not a particularly special outfit today - all high street apart from my Miistas and Very leather shorts, and in fact mainly from the place-beginning-with-P-that-shall-not-be-mentioned. But I've been hankering after a pair of latex hold-ups for a while, except I wasn't so keen on the sweaty, sticky properties of the material, not to mention the intense care procedure, so my friend Dawn of Tokyo Royale (I'm in Afflecks Palace here, the home of the Japanese-inspired boutique) got me some latex-look stockings as a post-birthday present, which are much, much easier to wear! I'll be wearing these with big boots or flat brogues, and maybe a tea dress to create a contrast.

I've long been a lover of the aesthetics of latex clothing (though the feat of actually wearing it is a whole different matter..!). The more conventional the look seems at first, the better; the mixture of the usually overly sexualised material combined with prim daywear is the perfect juxtaposition. Plus, it's mega-fashionable at the moment, with Marc Jacobs using latex for entire garments at Louis Vuitton, and again using the rubber in his autumn/winter namesake collection for oversized pailettes.

Louis Vuitton & Marc Jacobs AW11 (both images courtesy of style.com)

I was handed a flyer for the William Wilde collection at Honour which is well worth checking out if you're a fan of fashion latex (rather than fetish style). By far my favourite is this orange column dress; reminiscent of Raf Simons' for Jil Sander spring/summer 2011 collection. Stick a skater skirt over the top as a peplum and you have a real fashion forward look.

If you're wanting something a little more theatrical, check out the new Femme-A-Licious collection at Westward Bound. This Libertine Latex Top is deep red, with statement collar and a pretty peplum. Wear with a high-waist pencil skirt, perfect for the Vuitton-led Night Porter trend.

I hope today's sojourn into sedition has provided you with a little inspiration; with a fetish finish, you can easily whip together an outfit that will make anyone hot under the collar.

The Birthday Blog

The past year has been a big one for me. I applied to university, volunteered for the British Red Cross, then left my well-paid full-time role as a veterinary nurse to work for them for a year, interned at Rare, moved to Manchester with my boyfriend, got a kitten, started a new job with Oasis and began my degree studies. Whew - that's more events in a year than in my entire life! Seriously, I'm from a fairly small town where not a lot really happens. You're expected to go to school, then college, then get a job, and go to Wetherspoons every Friday for the rest of your life.

One day, I was mopping the waiting room at the veterinary practice where I worked, and I suddenly realised that it just wasn't enough for me anymore. I felt that life was too short to not do something you loved dearly every day, and that night I went home and started researching university courses. Soon after I started volunteering for the British Red Cross, which provided me with some amazing opportunities - I became employed full-time by the Society, managed to increase the Northwich shop's takings drastically, gave presentations about fashion and merchandising, and met some amazing people. In fact, it was the friends who made it, and I doubt I could have survived those months without them. I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with such an inspiring, hardworking people. Of course I can't forget about my boyfriend, who held my hand throughout that time and reassured me during weak moments that I really was doing the right thing.

Now, I'm in the first term of my International Fashion Marketing degree, about to hand in my first set of assignments. It's been a long journey with many tears and tantrums along the way, not all of them in private (oh, hello, Manchester Met open day..). Whenever I feel tired, homesick, or just plain fed up, I think of how hard I've worked to get where I am, which instantly puts whatever's bothering me into perspective.

That's why this birthday has been less about presents, and partying, and more about spending time with those I love and reflecting over the past year, seeing how far I've come.

However.. you'll be happy to hear I've not completely given up on materialistic possessions. What kind of birthday post would this be if it didn't feature at least a few goodies?!

Remember the post I did on Miista shoes a few weeks back? Well, my mum - an avid reader of my blog (hello, mum!) - saw it and got me the Luanne boots as a present! They're even more amazing in real life, and also really comfy. I spent the whole of today walking in them with no aches. My parents also got me the cosy red knit dress. The bobble details are so cute.

Notice the difference in picture quality to normal? My super duper boyfriend went halves with me on a Canon 1100D. I've been driving everyone crazy by taking pictures of anything and everything, but usually just extreme close-up pictures of peoples' faces (it captures pores really well, in case you were wondering).

I spent the weekend at home in Cheshire, and as a treat my parents took Chris and I to Dagfields, near Nantwich. I don't know how to explain this place other than an antiques emporium. There are various halls full of antiques, collectibles, oddities - and some absolute junk. I love it! You just don't know what you're going to find; I remember seeing a false leg there once.

Nothing that exciting today, but I practised my photography skills by snapping vintage clothing and accessories. I find it interesting how people creatively merchandise their wares without using any fixtures or fittings.

Best Christmas jumper I've ever seen..!

This was my favourite concession - so bang on the heritage trend for this season.

Speaking of heritage, I wasn't expecting to get any street-style pictures in the heart of rural Cheshire, but I loved this chap's look: a real mélange, yet well put together.

There's a huge second hand bookstore too, which you could easily get lost in. Love that there's a fashion section.

If you'd like to visit Dagfields, there are directions and a map here. I'd thoroughly recommend setting a day aside to go for a rummage through the wares.

I'm off to drink a cup of tea, and enjoy the rest of my birthday in true Fashion Dotty style... reading Vogue and doing uni work!

Miista Magic

I was just doing my daily browse of the Topshop website, looking for some boots, when I must've scrolled a bit further down than I normally would and my eyes clapped on three pairs of amazing shoes.

Got your attention?! These babies are made by a brand called Miista, and are designed by Laura Villasenin in Hackney, East London. In the brand's own words, Miista "brings together seemingly opposites. Miista deliberately juxtaposes elements that would be at war without creative expertise". That sounds like a bit of bumpf to me; what I think is that they're bonkers good cybery, punky, industrial, and sporty shoes that could actually pass for quite normal worn with jeans and an oversized blazer, or could be really FASH styled with a directional dress and some Gaga-esque make-up.

I'm also a massive fan of neoprene used in shoes and clothing, so I would happily stomp about all winter in the last pair! Whatever your opinion on the style of these babies, there's no denying that the quality looks top-notch and the leather looks buttery soft whilst still being hard-wearing. Buy through the Topshop website, or take a look at the where to buy page on the Miista website - my nearest stockist is Moo Boutique in Stockport.

Apologies for two shoe posts in a row; maybe I should coin today Shoe Sunday! Back to regular scheduled programming tomorrow.