Yesterday I attended the Bristol Fashion Week Live Blogging Catwalk Show at the Mall at Cribbs Causeway. Bristol Fashion Week had provided 200 free tickets for bloggers and fashion students to attend and I was lucky enough to get one of them! We were encouraged to tweet during the show and were allowed to take photographs - this was great, as at the last fashion show I went to at Bristol Fashion Week, it was strictly prohibited.
Having arrived slightly late, I picked up my blogger pack, picked up a glass of fizz and was ushered straight into the show. I noticed that the girl next to me had a blogger pass as well, so I introduced myself and it turned out to be lovely Laura from
A Daisy Chain Dream - we'd tweeted about the event earlier, so I was really surprised we ended up next to each other!
Below I've put together my favourite picks from the fashion show.
Pastels and Pinks from John Lewis
The show started off with dresses from
John Lewis in a variety of pastel pink colours. The models were trussed up in sweetie wrappers with pastel coloured blue and green lipstick. The dresses shown were mainly knee-length or shorter and were a mixture of work and event-appropriate dresses.
I know it's a terrible photo, but the dress above is probably my favourite from John Lewis. Here's a
link to it - it's £129 at the moment. I think seeing it modelled on the catwalk really brought it to life for me, as I don't think I'd give it a second glance from the website model!
Sports Lux from Next
The standout piece from the clothes from Next was definitely these coral coloured jeans. I desperately want some coloured jeans to liven up my spring wardrobe and I think these might be the ones! They're very similar to the ones that Kate Middleton has been
photographed wearing in the past week, but a lot cheaper. Kate's jeans are from J Brand and are £200 from
Net-a-Porter. I think I've found the ones on the catwalk from Next
here - they are a lot cheaper, at £40, so I'm definitely considering blowing the dust from my wallet for these.
Workwear from Hobbs
Continuing the trend for pinks and pastels, the Hobbs show was one of my favourites. The clothes are summary and work-appropriate with a nod to the 1950s and are totally my style. I've never bought anything from Hobbs, but I'm really tempted to go and have a look now.
The outfit above is devine! I think I need to have this skirt in my life - it's totally my style and I love the colours. I also like the fact that it's striped and slightly colour-blocky, but the stripes are slightly more abstract than just straight across. The skirt is the Hobbs
Invitation Galindo Skirt and it costs £110. I think I might be tempted. The top is the
Invitation Jewel Jacket and it costs £199.
I also love this dress from Hobbs, the
Invitation Jewel Dress. It costs £149 and would be perfect for a wedding, but you could definitely wear it to work in the summer.
I didn't manage to take a good photograph of it, but on the very left of the photograph above (purple) is the
Invitation Gem Dress, which is also absolutely stunning but a bit of a splurge at £179. I think the colour and styling is fantastic - I'm seriously impressed by Hobbs and will definitely popping in there.
Occasionwear from BHS
I almost never think of shopping in BHS. However, whenever I do, I buy something - infact my favourite ever sundress was bought from BHS when I was just passing throught. Actually, my Egyption cotton bedsheets were bought in there for under £20 for the set, so it's worth going in there more often. There were some lovely monochrome 1950s inspired prom-dresses at the fashion show from BHS with bold floral prints.
Coming in at £49 each, these
beautiful dresses are a total bargain! I particularly love the
purple and pink dress above, also £49. Having spent some time browsing the BHS website, they have some amazing dresses - how cool are thier
going out dresses and look at the prices - bargainous!
Italian Tropical Fashions from Oasis
I love Oasis when it comes to summer dresses - I own many of their floral bright prints myself and I think the photographs below show that they've done it again for 2012. I love the very Italian look of the dresses - they make me want to pack my bags and go to Rome immediately.
Here's the link to the
Tropical Fantasy Collection. I particularly like the
Tropical Jewel Dress (seen on the left above, £70). There are loads of gorgeous pieces and most of the prices aren't too sky-high either, so I might put a few on my wish-list.
Miss Selfridge Nude Tones and Floaty Fabrics
The Miss Selfridge scene showed off an array of beautiful nude-coloured dresses in soft, sheer and floaty fabrics. It was a very romantic and soft collection.
Miss Selfridge are on to a winner with their Maxi/Mini dresses. Basically, a mini dress with a sheer maxi-length dress over the top, they give you extra coverage, whilst still showing off your figure. The
nude dress above is a very reasonable £45.
This
floral print mini/maxi dress is £50 from Miss Selfrdige.
Channelling Chanel at Jigsaw
One of the standout collections was from Jigsaw. It was, according to presenter Mark Heyes, the best rip-off of Chanel he'd ever seen - I'll have some of that! Thinking lady-like fashion, and taking inspiration from First Ladies Michelle and Jackie O, the collection includes work-appropriate tailoring in the pastel spring palette.
The
tweed suit (above right) is not cheap with the jacket costing £235 and the skirt £140 ... but it's still A LOT cheaper than Chanel. The Lemon Merino Cashmir Cardigan on the left costs £135 - pricey, but imagine how it feels!
The beautiful
Deco Fan Dress on the left costs £169.
Celebrating the Great Gatsby at Marks and Spencer
One of my favourite stories was the Great Gatsby-inspired, 1920s feel of the Marks and Spencer Collection. Apparently, this is going to be a strong trend through the summer, and with the release of the Great Gatsby film in autumn, it's likely to continue through the winter as well.
I love the wide-leg trousers on the left. I think these
Seam Waistband Wide Leg Trousers are the ones - at £22.50, they're very wallet friendly and have been added to my wish-list. I couldn't find the dress on the right online, but it's rather lovely as well.
I love the cut of the dress on the left and I really like the outfit in the middle for workwear as well. Unfortunately, I can't find either online.
In Conclusion
So, the top trends for spring summer 2012 are:
- Pastel colours and soft tailoring
- Coral coloured jeans
- Purples and pinks with deconstructed stripes
- Lady-like fashion, chanelling Jackio O and Michelle O
- Tropical, Italian prints
- Nude floaty fabrics
So, that's my round-up from Bristol Fashion Week Spring 2012. I thought bringing in the blogging community was a great idea and it generated a lot of excitement about the show. Unfortunately, I arrived slightly late, so I didn't have a chance to mingle with the other people before the show and I had to dash off afterwards, so I didn't meet anyone other than Laura. If the organisers are reading this, thanks so much for inviting the bloggers - it was a great idea. I've got loads of fashion inspiration from the show, so I'll definitely be having a little shopping trip to pick up some of the clothes shown soon.
I do think that there should be a programme for the show with the outfits and prices set out in it, as it would make it so much easier for shopping afterwards. When I've been to other fashion shows, such as the one at Harvey Nics, the clothes and pricing was all written out on a programme, so you could make notes or ticks as the models went down the runway. I think that this would help to generate more sales and interest if the Mall did this as well.
By the way, the saga of my laptop keyeboard continues - I've had to bring my work computer home to type this... I couldn't face doing it with half a broken keyboard! I might do this more often so I can actually do some blogging for once!
What are your picks for spring summer? Thanks for reading! xx
