Midi to maxi

There's no better time to bring out those midi and maxi dresses and skirts than on a summer holiday abroad, when wind and rain are less likely to ruin that Seventies glamour-puss look. So, making the most of the weather, I wore little else on my recent jaunt to Turkey.

Midi and maxi lengths are perfect for that late twenties-mid-thirties age range, which means these pieces will no doubt become holiday staples for years to come. Curve-skimming and pin-covering, they're also pretty handy if you want to over-indulge or hide any embarrassing sunburn.

Dress - Primark, clog sandals - Swedish Hasbeens x H&M

Ribbed top - Primark, floral skirt - vintage via Etsy.com, tan sandals - Clarks

Maxi dress - Fashion Against Aids at H&M, black flats - Terra Plana

Shopping between seasons

Despite having to battle through several hundred missing-piece bikinis and sole flip-flops (a flip flop?), I've actually managed to keep a level head in this year's summer sales. I've achieved 'sensible shopper' status by talking myself out of buying light floral-print dresses. My wardrobe has reached saturation point with this type of garment, and they really didn't do me any favours last winter.

Instead, I've scoured the sales for investment pieces that will start to make up my winter wardrobe. River Island came up trumps with studded pixie boots for £15 and khaki army trousers at £20, and among the sea of floaty kaftans that you'd only ever wear two days a year - tops - in Monsoon, I spotted a cosy long marl chunky knit cardigan - half price at £30.

I've already worn all of these pieces - the cardie had a outing in Yorkshire, where it is apparently autumn already - and I'm currently bidding on a pair of low-heeled wooden clog sandals on Ebay that I'll be able to wear bare foot now and with socks when it gets colder - ignoring soon-to-be husband's unsure looks. I love how Laetitia at Madmoiselle Robot wears these.

So, I seem to have acquired what those in the fashion press call 'transitional pieces', with other items in this category for a/w including:

The maxi dress, which can be layered with chunky knits and skinny belts. This Seneca Rising dress in the ASOS sale would make the perfect new season maxi.

The shirt dress (French Connection have some gorgeous bird-print designs - see exhibit one and the Mui Mui-inspired exhibit two), worn with bare legs now and leggings and an undertop or cardi when it gets colder.

The cropped military jacket - big now until the foreseeable future, although personally I'm all about M&S's khaki greatcoat.

Very lovely autumn IMAGE by Flickr user Nicholas_T.

Pixie for Lipsy launch day

Yesterday Pixie Lott officially launched her debut fashion range for Lipsy and I went to cover the in-store event at Bluewater and the party at Movida for the Lipsy blog.

The full reports are on the blog (links above) but here are my two favourite shots from the day. The first shows Pixie patiently posing for the photographers' scrum and the second her freinds and family going wild as she nears the end of her set. She sung a medley of The Strokes, The Killers and Ce Ce Penistone songs as well as her hits 'Cry Me Out' and 'Mama Do' and really does have an incredibly strong and soulful voice.



Pixie's range is made up of two collections - Festival and Party - and includes some lovely white sun dresses, denim pieces and a very wearable maxi dress.



Click on images to enlarge.

Mad Men: Betty's maxi dress

Mad Men is by far the most beautiful thing on television. Expertly crafted, cleverly written and seductively stylish, it's an aspirational show.

Each time I watch an episode, I wish I could be transported back to that time, to wear those clothes and to exude that elegance. But in actuality I wouldn't want to swap places with any the three main female characters. Trapped by the societal constraints of the Sixties, they aren't able to reach the potential that they could if living in 2010, when they could all embody the best bits of each other.

I, as I'm sure many women do, aspire to be as beautiful as Betty, as sexy as Joan, as ambitious as Peggy and as strong as them all.




This week's BBC4 show (series three, episode eight) featured Betty at her best - glammed up in Rome, flirting in fluent Italian and, for once, enjoying herself. But it was the Biba-style bright geometric maxi dress that she wore once back at home that really grabbed my attention.

The maxi-dress is one of the defining styles of the Sixties: Long not because it had to cover up skin - this was the decade of the mini after all - but because it was comfortable and, being informal enough for daywear, a departure from the floor-sweeping evening gowns of the Fifties.

The loose and floaty design was a staple of the Sixties and Seventies bohemian look, yet as Betty's dress proved, if the cut was right it could be also be the height of elegance.

Now, where do I get myself one of those?