This is my second Pure London show; I attended the first one back in February, and this time, the show was actually bigger.
Rather than looking for trends (which I do anyway, but it is such an enormous space, with so many styles), I look for new brands that excite me and revisit some of my favourites.
It took me a while to go through the Elle accessories report, out a few weeks ago. There are so many choices that I decided to concentrate on my favourite types and created picture gallery with my heel, bag and jewellery picks.
Just as I would with an outfit, I am starting with the high heel shoes: it might come as a shock but I haven’t fallen *madly* in love with any number in particular – none made me want to cash my shoe fund immediately.
Having said that, I could easily see Lara Bohinc’s Tatjana courts in leopard print gracing my footsies – definitely my favourites, these amazing shoes have a somewhat art-deco brass circles sitting on the leopard print calf and at the top of the heel, giving them an amazing texture. I really love the metal details on the shoes upper – Bohinc’s Tatjana collection is definitely worth checking!
A self confessed heel lover, I am fascinated by their architecture, thickness, material and texture so I was immediately drawn to the heel shape in some selections, special attention to Miu Miu and Prada, with very exquisite heels (I had to go to Selfridge’s Shoe Galleries to actually touch the Miu Miu’s – they are amazing!). Their shape was almost remitting to historical/costume footwear, with the back of the heel quite prominent and the high heel itself quite chunky and arched outwards, almost like a “C” at the back of the shoe.
Designer until then unknown to me, Chrissie Moriss stood out – amongst my favourites are the Liliana peeptoe shoe boots, the Metropolis and the Dakota – they play beautifully with geometrical shapes on the body and the black Liliana has very sexy heels with a “precious” stone at the end. Fierce!
Other favourites are Giuseppe Zannoti Design’s orange suede sandals, Jimmy Choo’s Kerfield, Flaxley and Kemp, Camilla Skovgaard’s grey peeptoe and grey and silver with zips stilettos, Charlote Olympia’s Cordelia tall boots, Alejandro Ingelmo’s Nighthawk (what a cool name, I am glad the shoes live up to the expectation!) and Pierre Hardy’s leopard print circle cut out sling back sandal.
Style wise, lots of sparkle, multicolour compositions and loafers seem very strong. Platforms are still present.
Now, the bags – I noticed that there are many clutches featured, especially box clutches. Amongst my favourite are the Prada python, Miss Dior jacquard, Valentino snakeskin box bag, Jimmy Choo Candy and “Lanvin Evening”.
Satchels and totes also appear quite a bit, as well as fur/pony skin. Other picks are Chloé’s Aurore, Celine Trapeze, Versace Metallic bag (with the iconic Versace Medusa head made in gold metallic mesh, with long-ish straps, lush!) and also from Versace, an embossed number with tassel, very pretty.
Victoria Beckham‘s bags appear a few times, with their clean, sharp cut, straight lines design, and my personal bag obsession, the Mulberry Bayswater, appears as a fox-riveted haircalf incarnation. I did miss Chanel, only one pick for Coco’s brand and that didn’t blow me away.
As far as jewellery go, big, bold cuffs are everywhere, chunky collars and chokers too. Among my favourites are a Louis Vuitton collar, a BOSS Black red feather brass cuff (gorgeous!), a Cavalli shell gold cuff and an owl ring, a Vionett gold cuff and a D&G star necklace.
Needless to say, the shoes are my favourite part – and I don’t see them as merely accessories! I enjoyed going through the report, and overall, it does provide me with plenty inspiration when looking at accessories to buy.
The sold out fascinator I fell in love with, from 2adorn
No, I am not getting married!
When an occasion arises on my social calendar, my very first thought is: what should I wear?
From there, I start looking for the dress, which should be a starting point. However, I do have a tendency to get side tracked – I start looking at what I call “secondaries” – shoes, bags, jewellery and hair pieces to go with a dress I haven’t found.
Then I do the wrong thing – fall in love with a secondary. So I start looking for the perfect dress for my fascinator. Or shoes.
So this time, for and August wedding, I knew I wanted red. To go with my Louboutin soles. So I found a red/black fascinator, which was sold out. So I trawled the internet looking for the same materials to make myself a fascinator that looked like the one I fell in love with. Then I finally found a dress. it looked like my plan got together, 4 months before the wedding.
Needless to say, I was very happy with my outfit. But then tragedy stroke. I heard that the wedding was to be way more informal than I thought. My perfect outfit was so fitting anymore.
Shock. Panic. Horror.
I decided I needed a new dress! And this time it came naturally. During a casual stroll I found a lovely coral dress and bought it.
Now, that caused me another problem the shoes and fascinator, but that’s another matter altogether…
So Many Lovely Things 