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DIY Fashionista
By
charity_chic
Outfit details:
- Shirt - charity shop/DIY (see below)
- Skirt - vintage
- Shoes - Clarks
DIY Heart Printed Shirt:
Recreate the look with Sally's Heart On My Sleeve tutorial:
How would you describe your style?
My style is classic, smart, elegant and chic with a slightly 'fashion' edge. I wear high heels a lot. I source my clothes and accessories from a variety of places, largely charity shops but I also make my own clothes and customise my charity shop finds to make my unique wardrobe (I have been blogging about this since 2011). Overall, my wardrobe is a real mix of high-end, high street, self-made, charity shop and vintage and I love mixing things together to create unexpected results!
What's your favourite piece in your wardrobe?
Tough choice! This summer dress I made is a prime candidate. It's a designer copycat piece I made from old sheets, using Japanese shibori dyeing techniques. I was delighted with how it turned out.
Who are your style icons?
Carrie Bradshaw.
Do you have any favourite designers?
My favourites include Erdem and Stella McCartney, but honestly there are a lot that I admire.
Where are your favourite places to shop for new clothes clothes?
I'm a charity shop addict. I love finding old and unusual things and turning them into something new.
Do you make or customise your outfits?
A bit of both, but mostly customise. I do everything from tweak the size of garments to dyeing/bleaching to cutting them up and starting again.
Do you have any great tips for mixing up and personalising an outfit?
It's great fun mixing up vintage with high street and charity shop with designer, but remember, less is more. One killer piece or one killer accessory only! Let that piece shine!
Which other fashion blogs do you love to read?
The US has some of my favourites including Atlantic Pacific, Wendy's Lookbook and Lam in Louboutins.
By
Amy M.
Outfit details:
- Crown - DIY (see below)
- Dress - Tulle
- Boots - Seychelles Footwear
- Socks - Target
- Lipstick - MAC's Love Forever!
DIY Flower Crown:
Recreate the look with Amy's DIY Flower Crown tutorial:
How would you describe your style?
My style is very retro/vintage.
What's your favourite piece in your wardrobe?
My cat sweater by Louche is my absolutely favorite, without a doubt!
Who are your style icons?
Personal style blogger, Keiko Lynn, was the gal who inspired me to break free of my stay-at-home-mom frump, and she continues to be my main inspiration today. I also fancy the styles of every female character in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, and pretty much any young lady pictured in vintage photographs.
Do you have any favourite designers?
I'm a huge fan of Bait Footwear, Seychelles Footwear, Dear Creatures, and small business, Bonne Chance Collections.
Where are your favourite places to shop for new clothes clothes?
ModCloth, ASOS, Etsy shops filled with beautiful vintage clothing, and thrift stores are my favorite places to shop for new and new-to-me clothes.
Do you make or customise your outfits?
I'm not very talented with a sewing machine, so I don't make any of my own outfits. We have this eternal war going on, my sewing machine and I.
Do you have any great tips for mixing up and personalising an outfit?
Experiment with different accessories and find what works for you! For me, I usually always wear something on my head, whether it be a vintage silk scarf, a knitted, 1920s-inspired turban, or a hat.
Which other fashion blogs do you love to read?
I've already mentioned Keiko Lynn, but also love The Soubrette Brunette, The Briar Rose Blog, The Photogramps, Scathingly Brilliant, and Skunkboy Blog.
Outfit details:
- Shirt - White Stuff
- Collar Clips - DIY (see below)
- Jumper - Vintage (The lady in the shop told me it dates back to a farmer’s son from World War Two! I love it when my clothes have a story behind them.)
- Skirt - Joules
- Tights - White Stuff
- Boots - Jones Bootmaker
DIY Collar Clips
Recreate the look with Jojo's collar clips tutorial:
How would you describe your style?
I’d have to say quirky and brightly coloured! I love to express my personality through my clothes and have fun with it. Recently, I’ve fallen into a style rut by wearing the same things again and again. I’m blaming this on the cold weather – I’ve been living in hats. I’m also trying my best to make mittens ‘happen’ as I’m rarely seen without them.?
What's your favourite piece in your wardrobe?
I have a gorgeous skater dress I bought in the TopShop sale last year. It’s backless and it’s made entirely of sequins. How could I possibly resist it? It’s become one of those dresses that I hang on the wall of my bedroom as decoration and am saving for a particularly magical day. Aside from that, there will always be a special place in my heart for my lucky pinafore dress and my trusty red tights. If in doubt, I’ll wear that combination, probably paired with a beret. I love wearing my beret so much some of my friends first knew me as ‘Beret Girl’ – a title I was proud to live up to.
Who are your style icons?
Most of my ‘style inspiration’ comes from outfits on blogs or Pinterest. I, also, love to recreate outfits from in films, Luna Lovegood out of Harry Potter had the coolest sense of style. My obsession with coloured tights must have stemmed from her. I have been known to make myself a pair of spectrospecs and a cork necklace too!
I adore vintage style and I’m always collecting old photographs of film stars or family members. My grandma was so stylish! I’m forever complaining that I was born in the wrong era. I wish we still wore the kinds of dresses they were wearing in the fifties and I love nothing more than to wear an Audrey Hepburn style headscarf.
Do you have any favourite designers?
My favourites are Orla Kiely and Cath Kidston. I’m all about bright colours and bold patterns. I’ve recently fallen in love with Kate Spade, anyone who condones cake for breakfast is a hero in my book.
Where are your favourite places to shop for new clothes clothes?
I’m a high street girl, I find Internet shopping too overwhelming, as there is too much choice and I like being able to try on items. I can’t resist TopShop but a few firm favourites are Yumi, Joules and Joy the Store. I also like to go into independent shops as they offer more variety and you’re more likely to find a one-of-a-kind item in there. That or a top that has a Mean Girls quote on it.
Do you make or customise your outfits?
How I dream of being able to make my own clothes! I still haven’t quite mastered the sewing machine yet, but one day, I will, hopefully. There has been an odd time that I’ve shortened a skirt, fixed a hem or darned up the toe of a much-loved pair of tights. I usually only customize them with pieces of handmade jewellery, hair accessories or brooches. My first customized fashion piece was a pair of sunglasses adorned with buttons. They always brought a smile to people’s faces and I still wear them to this day.
Do you have any great tips for mixing up and personalising an outfit?
I recommend layers to build up an outfit. I usually wear a patterned T-shirt underneath a dress, and then add a cardigan or jacket and some accessories on top. I find hand making something is the best way to personilise an outfit as it will make it entirely unique. There is no way anyone else will be wearing a crown made of pom poms, is there?
Which other fashion blogs do you love to read?
By
leethal
Outfit details:
- Boots - Village Merchants in Portland, Oregon
- Layered tights - bottom yellow layer from Target, top circle-hole lace tights from Nordstrom Rack
- Skirt - sewn from the sleeves of two button-down shirts
- Fingerless mitts - Color by Number Stripy Mitts in Malabrigo Sock yarn
- Cardigan - DIY, reconstructed from a thrifted cardigan (see below)
- T-shirt - thrifted and printed with a hand-carved linoleum block print of a camera
- Glasses - Zenni Optical
- Hat - Barry knit in Anzula For Better or Worsted
DIY Sweater Cuffs:
Recreate the look with Lee's Reconstructed Sweater Cuffs tutorial:
What's your favourite piece in your wardrobe?
That's constantly changing, usually to the most recent piece I've made - so it's probably currently my travel sweater that I just finished knitting. It was a super long-term project, striping between all the yarns I bought on a 3-week trip around the UK and Ireland in September 2012, which I started knitting while traveling on that trip.
Do you have any favourite designers?
I only pay attention to knitting pattern designers (and not nearly as much attention as I should pay) - a few of my favorites of those (off the top of my head) are Lynne Barr, Olga Buraya-Kefelian, Teva Durham, and Elizabeth Zimmermann, of course.
Where are your favourite places to shop for new clothes clothes?
I pretty much don't shop for new clothes, but I do occasionally buy something basic from H&M or Target. My favorite place for socks is Sock Dreams, though I don't go there often because I don't have much budget for fancy socks.
Do you make or customise your outfits?
Yes; most of my accessories are knit by me, many of my skirts are sewn by me, and many of my other items are embellished in some way (printed on, embroidered, etc).
Do you have any great tips for mixing up and personalising an outfit?
I love color, but I try to avoid looking like a clown by either keeping the main outfit items more neutral and accessorizing with bright colors (like I did with this outfit), or if I want to wear a bright main clothing item, then keeping accessories toned down, and/or making sure they match nicely instead of just throwing on ALL THE COLORS like I'm sometimes tempted to do! As for personalizing, try adding small embellishments if you can't or don't want to make full items, like bits of embroidery, trimmings/edgings, freezer paper stencil printing, etc.
