Links à la Mode and Award

The Elements of Style

Edited by Retro Chick

Whether it’s Winter or Summer, relentless rain or an unceasing heatwave where you are, this weeks Links a la Mode is packed with entertainment to keep you out of the sun/rain/wind.

If you plan to travel to escape your current weather conditions then Hi Fashion has some great travel tips and Idiosyncratic Style has some ideas for easy fashion DIY projects you can take with you.

Other highlights this week include a hilarious mans view on some Celebrity Fashion choices from Unfunded, Our Ocean’s coverage of Vivienne Westwood’s appearance on Jonathan Ross and Style Amor’s refusal to buy a wedding dress, as well as some insightful interviews and gorgeous give-aways.

Choosing just 20 links from the number of fantastic submissions is a challenging task and this week I found it particularly hard to whittle down the numbers so be sure to go and check out the rest of the links in the full Links a la Mode thread.

Links à la Mode : July 30th

Breakfast at Saks – Aschobi: Sierra Leone Couture

Brick My Lane – Interview with Christian Joy, the genius behind the costumes worn by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

by Hillary – Deciding if you really need to dry clean that dress that says “dry clean”

Culturistas – The Culturistas find a ‘Lust vs Must’ profile of the Romper Trend!

Fashion Cents – Can you wear the romper trend? Fashion Cents helps you decide if and how to romp around

Fashion Hippo – Fashion Hippo is having a fantastic giveaway: Mary Frances “Mercury Rising” wristlet bag.

Fashion in my eyes – Interview: Fashion editor at 17

HiFashion – Tips for fashionable travellers

Idiosyncratic Style – A round up of 5 cool projects that are perfect for summer vacation, because they are light on supplies and low maintenance.

Independent Fashion Bloggers – Rhythm is Gonna Getcha: Maintaining Consistency in Your Blog

iStyle – The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Looking Fab: A real-life 5 minute make-up guide with unedited photos

Mademoiselle Robot – An interview with headwear designer Jennifer Loiselle about films, motherhood and independent designers.

Only Style Remains the Same – Offer an outfit idea to win a pair of Current/Elliott jeans from only style remains the same and chickdowntown.

Our Ocean – An insanely inspiring interview with Vivienne Westwood on Jonathan Ross

Pursed Lips – Lara Stone, size 4, heralded as bringing “curvy” back. But isn’t the bigger difference her C cup bra, and not her weight?

Rags to Reverie – A look at the Stella McCartney Fall 2009 ad campaign + a couple of deals from the eponymous label

reLYME – It’s Beka’s birthday, and in the spirit of birthday giving, reLYME is giving away SIX China Glaze nail lacquers from the Kicks collection!

Retro Chick – Can I wear it? Yes, I can! Retro Chick gives Harem Pants a try with surprising results.

Style Amor – Check out why I have given up buying a wedding gown from a traditional bridal boutique.

Sweet Fuzz – Score one of a kind fashion treasures at your local thrift store and check out the insanely cheap items I snapped up at mine.

The Coveted – Amsterdam Fashion Week bridges the gap between fashion students and industry at Lichting 2009

Unfunded – Unfunded collaborates with J. Money from Budgets are Sexy to learn what guys really think of the things we wear.

Also, a big thank you to Maria Confer of Lulu Letty for the award! She has such a sweet blog and I always love checking it out.

We, too, like to choose different bloggers for each award we receive. This time, we pass this award on to:

In Bug's Drawers
Little Violet Dress
The Hot Spot
La Dolce Vita
Miss Neira

Mermaid in a Manhole

The Fish Tank

xx Leia & Sherin

P.S. Who else is excited to see Alice in Wonderland? Can't wait!

Birthdays

It's that time of the year again in our family: Birthday season. Within the space on 1 week, there are 6 birthdays in our family (which proves to be very expensive). Everyone also tries to fit their parties within one weekend, so it does get tiring.

Here's what I wore to the first party: my uncle's birthday. He hired out a bar for the evening, so I had to look good.


There's a funny (embarrasing) story behind the dress. It was on sale at Joy and it instantly caught my eye. It was a small, but it looked slightly bigger, so I decided to try it on. It got on ok, and fitted well. I had trouble taking it off. Like it wouldn't come off. It got stuck around the bust area, and would not get over my head. 15 minutes later, I gave up and went to one of the employees. She laughed and pulled down a zipper that I didn't see...Did I feel stupid!

This is what I wore for my birthday, which was only about 12 hours after my uncles party.


I love this dress. I got it from Portebello Road Market and it always looks good. I wore it last year during Christmas.


And then the following day my aunts did a joint party. I was really tired and kind of gave up on my outfit.

The hat is Aldo, the top in New Look, and the Jeans are H&M. The shoes are from a local shop and the bracelets were a present from a friend.

Sherin xx

What to wear when walking the Dog

Maybe I'm not the best person to write this because I don't have, and have never had, a dog. But I always imagined it oddly romantic. Just imagine: walking in the park on a Saturday morning, and your dog befriends another dog, and when you look up at the other owner, it's some gorgeous, dreamy guy.
Anyway, enough of my fantasy. Here's how to look good walking your dog throughout the year, so you can impress any other cute dog owners out there.

Hot Weather

summer walk by sherin88

Cold weather

autumn walk by sherin88

(In case you haven't noticed, I have just realised how great looklet is)

Sherin xx

P.S. Its my 21st today! I can't believe I'm pretty much an adult now. It feels so weird.

Zoo Life

Recently, I've developped an obsession with jewellery with animals on them. I'm not a fan or animal print, but I just love having little animals on my jewellery.

animals by sherin88

And I couldn't control myself and had to buy this baby from Accessorize:

Sherin xx

My Girl Crushes

There are a few female celebrities who I absolutely love. They are beautiful, successful women and are fabulous actresses. Here are my 5 celebrity girl crushes:

Gemma Arteton
I first saw her in St Trinians (I know it's quite trashy, but it is funny) and thought she was just so pretty. Then she played Tess in a TV adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of D'urbervilles' and really proved just how good an actress she really is. She was brilliant in the TV series and her portrayal as Tess was amazing.

At only 23, she's really proved herself to the world and even had a role in 'Quantom of Solace'.
I saw her in person once and she looked great. I know a lot of celebrities don't look that good without a lot of make up, but she looked just as pretty. What I love about her is the dresses she wears to premieres. They're all so colourful.



















Natalie Portman
Definitely one of my all time favourite actresses. I love all the Star Wars and thought she was briliant in them. Such a versatile actress. She is also very clever and has a degree in Psychology from Harvard University.

What I love is how much efforts she puts into her roles. She really shaved off all her hair for her role in 'V For Vendetta' and you should really watch her in 'Goya's Ghost'.

On top of this, she also does a lot for various charities and organisations. She has her own brand of Vegan footwear and is really concerned about environmental issues. She is also a spokesperson for an organisation that helps finance women owned businesses in developping countries.



















Summmer Glau
You might not have heard of her unless you're a sci-fi freak, like me. (I'm a total nerd). She is in the Terminator TV series and was also in a movie called 'Serenity'. I absolutely loved her in the Terminator series.
She looked great in it: She had a very edgy style and spent a lot of time in combat boots and pretty tops.

She's got a cute girl next door look to her and always looks stunning, not matter how casually she's dressed. Shes a huge animal lover and supports various animal charities.



















Rachel McAdams
We all saw her in 'Mean Girls' and we hated Regina so much that we had to love her. Then we saw her in 'The Notebook'. I love that movie so much, and I still get emotional everytime I watch it. You don't get more opposite than those two movies.

I think she has the most beautiful smile and her acting is so much fun to watch. I saw her in 'The Family Stone', and it shows the huge range of her acting.





















Lauren Conrad
I love Lauren Conrad. I've seen every episode of The Hills and think shes great! I love seeing what she's wearing every episode, and how she does her hair.

She's one of my biggest style icons at the moment. She's a beautiful young woman, who also has a comedic side. I saw her on an episode of Family Guy and she was so funny in it.

I can't wait for her to get going on her line again, and can't wait until her book is available here (I can't believe I have to wait until October!!). But she's multi-talented and is actually the reason that I love fashion so much. I was a bit of a frump until I started watching the Hills and loved her style so much and I got interested in fashion.



















Who are your girl crushes? Or guy crushes for any of you male readers out there.

Sherin xx

Workwear

I know I wrote a similar post in the past, but I've really realised that theres a whole other fashion world when it comes to work. No more boring pant suits and baggy trousers: work wear can be cool.

work1 by sherin88
(How cool are those pens? They're shaped like syringes. I need one of those.)

work2 by sherin88

And these were my two favourite outfits that I wore. The first one is H&M shirt and trousers, and Barrats shoes (£5!!!)

The second one is H&M shirt, and a £4 skirt bought from a local shop, and these shoes.


I don't know if you can see my hair properly in the pictures, but I'd just gotten it done. I got a birthday voucher from my hairdressers and I was long overdue a hair cut. I usually get my hair done straight, but I decided to go for curls this time. I have really curly hair, but it was a nice change to have it done properly.


Sherin xx

P.S. Todays the last chance for you to enter our chickdowntown giveaway.

Audrey Tautou: Evolution

I love Audery Tautou. I think she is an amazing actress and she is absolutely stunning. Her style has really evolved over time and she just keeps looking better and better. Lets have a look at how her style has changed over time.

Amelie: This was the first movie I saw that wasn't in English and absolutely fell in love with Audrey Tautou. Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie, you have to watch it. Its beautifully made and is just so sweet. Ok, so this picture on the left is slightly creepy, but she had a very distinct style in the movie.
Her look was fun and colourful. Her hair was very short and girly. It was really fun watching her play with people's lives and the acting was just perfect.














The Da Vinci Code: I'll admit, I prefered the book to the movie, but Audrey Tautou did look good. It was clear that she had grown up and adopted a more mature style.

She stuck to blouses and cardigans in this movie. It was clear to see that Audrey Tautou had definitely grown up and was trying to establish herself as a mature actress.

I quite liked what she as wearing, but would probably only imitate her look for work, Her hair was beautiful in this movie. It was so much more grown up and really well kept through out the movie.

Priceless: I saw this movie the other day and would definitely recommend all of you to watch it. Its really funny and is a proper rom-com. It is such a charming movie.
Audrey Tautou basically plays a gold digger, who's sole aim is to marry rich. She likes spending money in this movie and you see her in a lot of Chanel and Louis Vuitton, as well as sum stunning jewellery.

There is this one scene where she gets locked out and only has her bikini and a sarong to wear. The bikini is beautiful and Audrey Tautou looks stunning in it. Also keep an eye open for the black dress she wears towards the end of the movie. It is perfect.


Check back soon, where Leia will be reviewing Audrey Tautou's style in her new movie 'Coco Avant Chanel'.

Sherin xx

P.S: Don't forget to enter our Chickdowntown giveaway.