Happy New Year

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Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope that 2012 is an amazing year for you. 2011 was probably the best year ever for me. I did so much fun stuff and met some fabulous people that I really can't wait to get started on another year. Here's hoping that 2012 will be just as amazing, if not better.

Here are a few highlight of my year:

• I met Susie
• Went to a lot of great gigs

I managed to see White Lies 3 times in 2011!!

• Was fully booked for both Fashion Weeks, including being backstage at Maria Grachvogal thanks to ghd.
• Went to the Zoo

• Went to the Gym with Aussie
• Bought the coolest hat ever

• Visited Reading and Canterbury
• Went to Switzerland

• Changed my opinion of UGGs
• Went to Reading Festival

• Threw an awesome leaving party
• Went Rowing with Gant (Definitely THE HIGHLIGHT of the year)

• Read a few books
• Went to Qatar more than once

• Designed a knitted hat for Innocent
• Saw the best winter collection
• Visited the Red Bull Racing Factory

In terms of resolutions, I haven't really thought of any yet! I guess I'll just see how it goes over the year, rather than make any concrete resolutions.  My resolution for 2011 was to have more fun and just enjoy life, and I wholeheartedly did this. Maybe to do exactly what I did in 2011? Or the same resolution as everyone else: get in shape!!

And let me know what you'd like from HiFashion in 2012! More outfit posts, or maybe less? Anything else you'd like to see more or less of? I'm planning on finding myself an absolutely gorgeous photographer/web developer boyfriend to take all my outfit pictures and do a blog tweak for me. Let me know if you know anyone!

What have been your highlights of 2011? Are you looking forward to 2012? Any resolutions?

Sherin xx

Inspirations: 30.12.2011

I think I've only given a sneak peek into my inspirations once before, so I thought it was time to do it again and share what's really inspired me in 2011. I've linked where I can, but a lot of the time, I've saved an image straight onto my computer, without a care in the world, not thinking that I'll be sharing it. So, if you do recognise a picture (or it's one of yours), give me a heads up (read: don't sue) and I'll be sure to credit the appropriate source.

1. I have no idea where this picture is from or who the model is...but I love it. I love the way she's casually sitting, looking gorgeous, while wearing the beautiful heels and jumper.

2. I'm a sucker for anything '60's, which is why Bridgette Bardot is a clear style inspiration for me. I love her hair in this picture, and have attempted it myself many times.

3. Some nail inspiration from blogger, Tiffany AKA Will Work For Make Up. The nails here are gorgeous and so festive. I'm supporting similar glittery nails right now as well.

4. Chanel. Pretty heels; Pretty Jewellery. Need I say more?

5. Blake Lively for Glamour is one of my favourite all time editorials. Again, I love the 60's vibe to it, especially her hair and make up, and adore the yellow she's wearing.

6. Visiting The Northern Lights is one of the few things on my Bucket List. I can imagine them to be absolutely stunning and breathtaking.

7. This editorial of Ashley Olsen has her looking gorgeous, as usual. Once again, the clear retro make up has found a place in my heart.

8. I love live music and went to a lot of gigs this year. I already have 5 gigs planned for 2012 (including Foster The People), which I'm really looking forward to. For me, nothing compares to watching live music.

9. It's pretty cold in London right now, but I'd love for it to get cold enough for it to snow. I really want to bundle up in my winter knits and have some snow fights.

10. 2011 was the year that my heel collection grew to an unimaginable size. I love walking around in heels and love the confidence I get from them, and these black pumps are so elegant, especially paired with the nude skirt. 

11. I love Alison Sudol AKA A Fine Frenzy. I love her hair, I love her music and I love the inspirational humanitarian work that she does. I also love her casual, laid back style, especially the hat here.

12. I am obsessed with The Hunger Games. I read the book in two days and I'm super excited for the movie now. Another positive is that it stars Josh Hutcherson, who is HOT! I first became a fan of his during Cirque du Freak, and have loved him ever since.

13. A gorgeous picture from a MinkPink campaign. I love how fun it is and how the girls are having such a good time. A lot of the MinkPink pictures look like the girls are having a ton of fun, which is fantastic. 

What's inspired you this year?

Sherin xx

Spring/Summer Hair with ghd

This post is very overdue but, a few months ago, I was invited to a breakfast held by ghd, to discuss the latest hair trends for SS12. ghd were backstage at various LFW shows, so they definitely knew what they were doing, and creative director, Kenna, had some amazing hairstyles on show for us.

We were treated to a delicious breakfast, while Kenna showed some of the hairstyles and gave us a step by step on how to do them.

From Left to Right: It's A Kind Of Magic (Aminaka Wilmont); Gloss It Over (Maria Grachvogel); Somewhere Beyond The Sea (Basso and Brooke); Walk The Line (David Koma)

All the hairstyles looked great and Kenna made them seem so easy to do, so I'll definitely be trying them out for myself come Spring/Summer. Here's the inspiration behind each of the styles and ghd's instructions on ho to achieve each of them:

It's A Kind Of Magic: Seen at Aminaka Wilmont to create a fairytale, almost elf-like, style where the ears are visible and hair is deliberately undone.

Use Volume Foam and Curl Hold Spray (both from ghd) and dry them into the hair with a hairdryer. Then, create a centre parting and section off a diagonal back section to the top of  the ear. Clip these away and bend the hair slightly so it sits away from the head with a straightener (the ghd Gold Max Styler). Spray the front smooth, and straighten your hair, making it sleek. Add five small plaits at the back of your hair and clamp then with straighteners to set them in place, and once cool, unravel them to release soft, slightly frizzy waves which you can brush through. Spray the style into place and, finally, tuck a small panel of hair behind the ears to expose them. 

Walk The Line: Seen at David Koma, it was a more masculine look and had graphic lines and structure to give it a strong sense of symmetry.

Blow dry your hair smooth and then straighten it so that it's all glossy. From the centre of the forehead section off a diamond panel that ends an inch below the crown and slick it back using a brush and secure it into place. From the top of the ear to the side point of the diamond section create another section then

divide away small sections from this from the mid-recession diagonal back. And from the back of the earlobe, take another diagonal section to the centre back point of the diamond section and do the same on the other side.

Spray all the sections so that they look neat and that the lines between them are visible and use elastics to keep them flat. Tie up the remaining hair together and spray them. The upper sections should join into the main ponytail at the top of the crown and then be joined by lower sections, creating one ponytail with the hair underneath left out long and straight.

Somewhere Beyond The Sea: Used at Basso and Brooke, it shows that more is more. Hair was damp and it had a homespun feel, with stylists adding loose quiffs and a lot of product for a underwater glistening feel.

This is one of the easiest styles. Apply ghd's Root Lift Spray to give it a natural and waved texture, and use straighteners to create a varied wave shape while bevelling sections of the hair around the irons to create a haphazard bend. Create a natural parting with your hair and backcomb at the crown. Gather your hair into a low ponytail, letting the baby hairs fall out, and add ghd's Smooth and Finish serum to the hairline for a wet look effect. 

Gloss It Over: A high shine styled, seen at Maria Grachvogel, that is glossy and able to make a statement. I was backstage at the show, so really got to see how this was done. 

Start with ghd's Root Lift Spray and blowdry your hair smooth. Then, using a tailcomb, create a zig zag parting and section off your hair, into two sections, at your hairs. Use hairspray on the front section and pull into a low ponytail. With the back section, gather it into a ponytail and connect the two together. Use a straighter to smooth out the ponytail and spray with gloss spray. Finally bind the ponytail with a leather cord so that it really stands out.

I was also handed the brand new ghd hairdryer at the event, the ghd Airdryer, and I absolutely love it. I have no idea how I lived without it. It works like a charm and even has a 'cooling' function which is a great feature. I definitely recommend it, especially if your hair takes as long to dry as mine. I never used to use hairdryers before, and just let me hair dry naturally, but this is such an easy product to use and works incredibly well and fast.

Thanks to ghd for providing the photos.

Will you be trying any of these hairstyles this summer?

Sherin xx

My Year in Outfits: 2011

Now that we're hitting the end of the year, I thought I'd do a round up post of all my favourite outfits that I wore this year. I found it harder to decide my favourites this year, and I don't know if that means I'm better dressed, or less picky!
Here they are, in no particular order:

1. I wore this back in January, to the launch of Sky's new Channel: Sky Atlantic (a channel which I now can't live without). This dress, from Fearne Cotton's Range at Very has been worn more than once this year to various different events and parties, so has definitely proved it's worth.
2. This Mina dress was worn back in May, to a hang out session with Susie, at my local park. Little White Dresses were a must this summer, and again, I've worn it countless times since. I love how the leather jacket toughened it up a tad.
3. I love these Sarenza shoes, which are one of the cutest in my shoe collection. They took a while to be comfortable, and by that time Summer had ended, so I'm looking forward to wearing them a lot next year.
4. I went more traditional to my neighbours wedding, earlier in the summer. I don't tend to wear traditional clothing that much, so it's a nice change when I do. I really love the colours on this suit.
5. An outfit that I repeated a lot more than once. The Paprika dress was one of my go-to's for the summer and love how well it fits, and how well they go with my Sarenza heeled brogues.
6. By far one of my favourite Take 10 Challenges that we did. Company Magazine featured us in their November issue with this ASOS dress and we were so honoured. I had a lot of fun accessorising with the hat, bright belt and large sunglasses.

7. Plaid is one of my favourite things to wear, so I loved this more autumn look, worn just as it was cooling down. Motel do some great pieces, and this plaid shirt has become one of my favourites. I love how I glammed it up a bit with those amazing heels.
8. A nice girly look, which I don't wear nearly enough. It was a thrifted Lipsy dress, and we know 2011 was the year of thrifting! The Spartoo heels are one of my favourites of the year as they're so versatile and comfortable.
9. This was taken during September's Fashion Week, where I was street styled by Cosmopolitan Magazine! Exciting, right? The top and skirt are both from Clothing at Tesco, and I love how the royal blue and black compliment each other.
10. This cute outfit, taken as the leaves were falling, was made a lot cuter by Susie's incredible photography skills. It was another one of my outfits that has been worn to death this year, and no doubt the 18 and East skirt and the Clarks shoes will be making more appearances together.
11. Another autumn shot, which was a casual outfit that I loved when I wore it. Vans are my favourite shoes, and boat shoes were the shoe of the summer for me. These Vans looked amazing, especially worn with the Hot Tuna Tank, which is a new favourite brand of mine.
12. Leather really made a comeback for the winter, and this was me trying out the look for myself with a Very faux leather skirt, paired with Sarenza wedged boots. I liked how it came out, and was definitely willing to try it again.

13. One of my favourite looks of the year. I loved the bright skirt but it was this Ganni hat that has made an impact on my life. I've been wearing this hat all season and it never fails to give any outfit that extra little touch.
14. Another favourite Take 10 Challenge of mine. House of Fraser did a great job picking dresses for us and I loved the asymmetrical hem line, along with the pretty print on the dress.
15. This is at the start of the Christmas party season and I got to debut my incredible Sam Edelman spiked heels, that I love! I got them majorly discounted at a sample sale held by The Times Style Magazine.
16. This was one of the more 'edgy' looks that I rocked this year and loved how the skinny jeans looked paired with the slouchy H&M tees. I added a lot of silver and jewellery to really finish off the look.
17. I wore this to the launch of new brand, Client, at a store on Old Street. I loved the colours and print of the Mina dress, paired with the really awesome ASOS heels, which never fail to impress.
18. Finally, another really comfortable pair of shoes, this time Converses, which was worn went we went to visit Rachel in Canterbury. I've always been a Converse wearer, and love how great they look paired with a skirt

So, what have I learnt in comparison to last year: well, firstly, I've been doing a lot more to my hair (not necessarily a good thing) and that I've been been a lot more experimentative with what I'm wearing this year as well. Hopefully the later will continue to happen well into 2012.

What do you think? Which of these is your favourite? What have you been wearing this year?

Sherin xx

Merry Christmas

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Just wanted to wish all of you, my dear readers, a wonder Christmas. Hope your day is filled with family laughs, delicious food, snowball fights, and lots and lots of amazing presents. I hope Santa heard me when I wished that all of you get a pair of Louboutins!

Mine will be spent at home, where my mum has taken the tremendous task of inviting and feeding the rest of the family. I, on the other hand, will be cramming in as much Christmas TV as is humanly possible. I'll be watching anything even remotely worth watching.
Or, I'll stay in bed all day and finish off The Hunger Games. I'm literally racing through that book.

I also want to thank each and every one of you for all your support this past year. HiFashion would not be what it is without all your comments and feedback: You all seriously ROCK! I've enjoying working on HiFashion so much, that everyday has been like Christmas for me this last year.

Sherin xx

Taking the Plunge, with Wonderbra

I've been lucky enough to have worked with Wonderbra a few times this last year. They've sent me some amazing bras's and I've loved trying them out.
I got the Full Effects Bra, which gives me some assests (which otherwise are non existent), the Ultimate Strapless which works so well and really stays up no matter what, and, now, I'm lucky enough to try the Ultimate Plunge, which is perfect for any low cut dresses that you're planning to wear this part season.

The bra is perfect for any plunging necklines that you're planning on wearing and to coincide with this, Wonderbra is aiming to get women more daring and 'take the plunge' with fashion after research suggested that women only wear 34% of their wardrobe for fear of being too daring.

Although I don't have a lot of really plunging necklines that I could test the bra out with (lack of assests means I don't 'take the plunge' enough), but the bra clearly works amazingly. I paired it with two dresses, just to see how well it worked. The first one, the black H&M one, isn't too low cut, but I really got a chance to see how well it worked with my new Mina dress (I saw it on the website for £70 a few months ago and checked back last week, where it was on sale for £15!!). It's more of a low cut dress and the bra wasn't peeking through at all!

The centre is made of clear plastic so that your necklines can be as low as you want, and the underwire has been replaced with hand-like structures on the padding, which really firm and lift. And there's more: the microfibre material makes it invisible under clothing and the multiway straps mean that you can wear it with everything, including halternecks. Doesn't this sound like the perfect bra ever??

Best of all, it's a really comfortable bra. It doesn't dig anywhere and fit's perfectly, which is what Wonderbra do best.
They're also having a weekly Facebook competition: The Wonderbra Ultimate Plunge Style Challenge, where you can win prizes, such as a dream shopping experience and a VIP night in London, every week. You can get more information here.

Are you taking the plunge this season? I'd recommend the Ultimate Plunge if you are!!

Sherin xx

Monochrome

The Monochrome look: so simple and effective. One that I've worn on countless occasions and one that always works.

I love this casual monochrome look that I put together the other day. I felt pretty cool in it (which doesn't happen very often) and it was comfortable as well.

 I wore Sarenza booties (which I'd been scared to wear for the longest time as they're so high), black Asos skinnies and a white H&M tee. To make the look a bit more fun, I added lots of jewellery.

These H&M tee's are great. I picked up a white one and a navy one and can see myself wearing them a lot. They're the softest material and weren't too expensive from what I remember (£6.99 I think). I'm definitely going to get more of them and stock up, especially since I predict them to mysteriously disappear when Susie comes to visit next month, hehe.

I added a lot of jewellery to the look and tried my hand at the 'arm candy' trend. I'm definitely going to wear a lot more bracelets next time round. I'm wearing an array from the likes of QVC, Monica Vinader (gifted by Susie), Truth and Jon Richards. My necklace was bought at a sample sale and is from Kew 159 (I was lucky enough to bag it for 50p). As for the rings, the 3 finger dragon ring is Asos, the middle finger ring is from Qatar and I can't remember where I got the index finger ring from. And my watch is Nina Ricci.

Are you a fan of the Monochrome look? How would you make it more fun?

I'm also on the look out for the perfect pair of black and grey skinny jeans. I want them to fit and look amazing. If anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

Sherin xx

Red Bull Racing Factory

If you follow me at all on Twitter, you'll know I'm an F1 fan, and during the season, every other Sunday is dedicated to watching the race on TV (providing it doesn't clash with a football match). Also, some of you may have already seen this post last week, when it went up accidentally. Whoops.

A few weeks ago, Pepe Jeans invited me along to a tour of the Red Bull Racing Factory in Milton Keynes and I was so excited to go. I'm a Sebastian Vettel fan (he races for Red Bull for those that don't know) and also went last year, where I really enjoyed myself, so was very eager to go again.

We were met at reception by this great F1 car on the wall, and a lot of trophies. We know Sebastion Vettel is a winner, so of course there were a lot of trophies to admire.

We started off the day with a talk about the cars, followed by a hearty lunch. I learnt a lot during the talk, from all the prep that goes into the races to information about the team itself, and all the major members.

We were also given a tour of the factory and got to admire some gorgeous pieces, and check out the machines that are used while making the cars. Although, understandably, we weren't able to take pictures during the tour, we were able to take pictures with this car and admire it in all it's beauty.

Are you a racing fan? If so, if given the opportunity, I'd definitely recommend taking a tour of an F1 Factory. It's so much fun to see how these amazing cars are designed and what goes into them.
My next mission is to go to one of the F1 races in the upcoming season.

Sherin xx

Battling the Elements

I think I've confessed my love of boots enough on this blog. They're seriously the best type of shoe, especially now that it's so cold (Snow HAS to be on it's way soon). In my opinion, I reckon I've put together an amazing little collection of the best boots, from biker and heeled to wedges and casual run around pairs.

I put this outfit together for a cold day shopping and it was perfect to keep me warm, while battling the elements. It's nothing too special, but worked. The boots are from Spartoo, from the Elite brand, and they're so comfortable. Unlike with new shoes, which I usually start wearing for only special occasions, these boots have found their way into my daily rota and have, so far, been worn like mad everytime I go out, whether a shopping trip, or a quick errand run. They're just so warm and comfortable. 

Anyone have any ideas on how I can get both sides of my hair to look the same?

I paired them with A Wear Jeans and Cardi, and a Gant jumper. The cardi I bought a while ago, but only recently found in my wardrobe and have since fallen in love. As for Gant, I'm a massive fan of their pieces so was very excited when I got my hands on a press discount card. Can't wait to treat myself every once in a while now. This jumper is so cosy and perfect for the cold.

I can't believe Christmas is so close now. Hope you're all prepared!!

Sherin xx

Christmas Wishlist: Watches

I wrote my gift guide a few weeks ago, but I thought I'd write about something that's always on my wishlist: watches. My dad's gotten me some amazing watches during past birthdays and, for about the last 7 years, I haven't been able to leave the house without one.

I've always been an advocate of splurging when it comes to watches and Time2 have some amazing designer watches that are begging to be on my wrist for the new year.

Gucci have some beautiful Swiss Made pieces that are both stylish and absolutely stunning. Gucci has always been on the forefront of elegance and their watches are no different. There really is something for everyone, whether you want something classic or something to make a statement. The watches contain gold hands and even diamonds or mother of pearls, to make them something special.

Ebel are one of those classic brands that can be handed down through generations as they're so timeless and perfect. Although slightly expensive, they are watches that will last and never go out of style.

Finally, if you really want to make a statement with your watch, Vivienne Westwood is the brand for you. Full of bright colours and fun designs, including the her well known orb, they're bound to make a splash no matter what. A lot of the watches are really unique, and perfect for any fashionista and any occasion.

What's on your wrist?

Sherin xx

P.S. This post was written on behalf of Time2.