Wednesday 29 January 2014

New York Shoe Haul!

Hello my darlings! How are you all? I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in an age but we haven't even made it through two weeks of second semester yet and already they have drowned us in work, no joke!
Anyway enough of excuses lets get down to todays blog post. Some of you may know I am crossing the Atlantic in less than two weeks for a Fashion Comm trip to New York during fashion week! I am so excited but also rather worried as the weather over there at the moment is atrocious, its freezing cold and there is the possibility of snow while we're there so obviously I would be anxious.
In light of this (and my somewhat empty shoe collection) I have hit the last leg of the January sales and bought some new shoes in preparation for my trip, although I could be returning next week to buy some thermals as well!




Now as you've probably noticed, the first pair of shoes here are completely impractical for New York! I wanted some smarter black boots to replace the ones I bought in the Office sale last year which I have worn to death and yet somehow I came out of Topshop with these gorgeous things under my arm. It seems like I'm the last person to buy a pair of shoes like this with huge buckles and straps and I had no intention of buying some however these in astrid grey with the gorgeous silver "tongue" bit (I don't know how you would describe it) were just too lovely not to buy. I'm still going to take them to New York in an unrealistically-optimistic hope that the bad weather will improve...
To counter my hopeless purchase I also bought these adorable ankle wellies from Office. I'm usually not a massive fan of these but if it is still snowing in New York when we get there I will need something snow proof. The only wellies I own are bright pink with a lime green trim (they are much more beautiful than they sound) from Joules which I thought would not fair me very well when trying to get into shows so for £12 I bought these cute studded ones. Thoughts?
I'll try keep the posts more regular but for now I hope you all have a lovely week and it's not gloomy where you are like it is in Newcastle. Love Holly x

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Thursday 16 January 2014

January Sales Finds!

Hello my lovelies! I hope you're all having a wonderful week, mine is getting better and better! On Tuesday I passed my driving test second time round with only four minors! (I'm not entirely sure how because I was a crumbling mess!) I got the marks for half of one of my first uni modules back and I got 67%, to say that that was one of my first modules at university and I've never done anything like that before, I'm pretty happy! My best friend Megan has also had a wonderful week as she not only got a job yesterday but she's also been accepted in university! The new year is off to a good start!
Anyhoo, getting back to the main purpose of this post, I went shopping in Harrogate and in Leeds in the new year and picked up a few wonderful new pieces in the sales so I thought I'd share my favourites with you guys. Here we go!



First, this beautiful bag I picked up in Accessorise, it was originally £45 I think and I got it for £32 which isn't a great discount but it was beautiful and after searching everywhere else and feeling disappointed I couldn't resist. I thought it would be perfect and professional for my trip to New York.
Next I found these gorgeous trousers in River Island, these were a good bargain and only cost £17. These trousers surprisingly fit me really well considering its almost impossible to ever find me trousers that fit because I have huge thighs and high street stores expect everyone to have match stick legs. I love the pattern on these and the fabric is thicker than you'd expect so I can still wear them in these cold winter months.
This sophisticated dress was a great find from Topshop, I'm not sure how much it was originally but in the sale it was £25. Obviously its very smart and I don't really have any occasion to wear it to yet but I thought it would be great for interviews for internships so I'm gonna save it for something important. It's a little bit baggy around the waist so I might take it in if I can do so without ruining the chiffon!
Finally to these beautiful high tops, this purchase has been a long time coming. When I was about 15 (God thats ages ago) I bought a fantastic pair of DC high tops that I have worn to death. I couldn't bare to part with them but they seriously needed replacing. I found these in Urban Outfitters for £25 and I love them. There was a tan colour or black and although the tan ones were gorgeous too, nearly everything I own is either black or white so these seemed like the safer option.
Annoyingly with sales you can't really go looking for something, you have to just sort of see what there is and buy pieces that you might not wear for a few months but are good investments. I was quite lucky this year in that I found things that I needed and not only wanted. I hope you all did well in sales too and I'd love to see what you found so leave links below to any your blogs and posts about sale shopping! I'm back at uni next week so posts might not be as frequent from now on but I'll try my best. Enjoy your weekend! Love Holly x

Monday 13 January 2014

Christmas Presents: Fashion

Hello everyone! I haven't seen you in a while so I hope you're all well. This post has been a long time coming, Christmas seems like a life time ago and I never shared with you what presents I was blessed with so today I thought I should at least show you the fashion related ones. Just to say I am not trying to show off in this post I simply want to share with you some things that I think are beautiful.



My main Christmas present was this gorgeous alpaca-wool coat from French Connection, its called "The Bunny Coat" and its divine! It keeps me so warm and the classic monochrome colours are timeless so the style will last season after season. And its perfect for my trip to New York in February with my course!
My next fashion related present was these wonderful faux-fur gloves from Topshop. These were £20 which is a little expensive but they are so worth it! They're fleece-lined and so they, like the coat, are super toasty. I'll definitely need these for going state side next month.
My final fashion-related gifts are definitely a necessity for any fashion student, subscriptions to both Vogue and Elle magazines, generously given to me by my parents and my grandparents. Being a student, buying fashion magazines every month can be expensive so thank heavens for these! I've just received February's copies of each of them and already I've ripped out half the pages to stick in scrap books as inspiration.
For Christmas I also got socks and knickers and some lovely Eeyore pyjamas but I thought I'd best not model the knickers. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this post and I also took the pictures for my January sales haul today which I will be posting later this week so stay tuned! Hope you all have a lovely week. Love Holly x

Saturday 4 January 2014

What I Go To School For

Hello everyone! I hope your new years have all started wonderfully!
Today I went shopping with mum in Harrogate because I was so disappointed with the sales in Leeds. We went to Leeds on Thursday and it was so exhausting! There were too many people and too many rails of sale garments, we felt so overwhelmed so I didn't come away with much, but I did get this gorgeous tartan skirt...


The reason I named this post thusly is due to the fact that I look like I belong in Wild Child or some other teen comedy set in an expensive boarding school. This skirt was unfortunately not in the sales but we thought it looked too gorgeous to miss, it's a wrap-around from Urban Outfitters in their Urban Renewal section by One & Only. It cost £35 which is a bit much when there are so many good bargains around but I couldn't resist, I've wanted a tartan skirt for ages as it's such a good pattern for winter. Because this one is a wrap around there is risk of indecent exposure I wore it with my laced shorts underneath to add to the adorableness of the look.
I'm planning another post showing you all the things I bought in the sales so keep your eyes peeled and as always, let me know what you think of the look. Love Holly x

Wednesday 1 January 2014

New Years Resolutions!

Welcome to A Freak Of Fashion and 2014 everyone! I hope you all had an excellent time last night celebrating and weren't too hungover to function today. A new year has begun and unlike everyone else I know who adored 2013, I'm surprisingly ready to wave last year good bye and embrace the new one. It's not that anything awful happened to me last year, in fact I'm very lucky for the past twelve months and what I've done and achieved and who I've spent them with, in truth I think I'm just a bit bored.
But now a new year is here and it gives us all a chance to change things in our lives and address some things we were maybe avoiding and the promise of new days fills us with hope and determination to make this year even better than the last. There are certainly many things I'd like to not necessarily change but improve or develop. Here we go...
1. Get on with it. I am so lazy, I spend ages in bed in the morning so half my day is gone and then I don't get anything done, when I sit down to work I'll spend an hour on Youtube first and I put so much off and say "Oh I'll do it tomorrow" and guess what? I never do! This year I'm going to work at motivating myself to get on and do things so I can make the most of my time and really enjoy myself.
2. Do more research. This year I want to keep my eyes open all the time and constantly be seeing and listening and watching new things so that I can be inspired and therefore more knowledgable and creative.
3. I want to be more adventurous and confident with my fashion this year and not let anything stand in the way of my dreams and career. For some reason I feel really awkward saying to people that I'm studying fashion because I don't really feel confident enough to stand up and say "Yes these are my dreams so what?" This year I don't want my self-consciousness to stand in the way of what I want. Which leads me onto my next resolution...
4. I want to be a better blogger. I know I haven't had this blog long but I want it to be successful and inspiring. I want to be able to keep up the amount of posts I'm currently publishing when I go back to university and I'm bombarded with work again. I want to work on the layout and presentation of my blog too because I feel its a bit boring at the moment so I'm going to work on that too in the next few months.
5. I had a small operation in September and my doctor told me not to do any exercise and it has taken ages to recover and I'm still not 100% there but I am very nearly. Because I haven't been able to do any exercise and it has just been Christmas I am now very unfit and not quite as skinny as I'd like to be. Therefore when I go back to Newcastle I will be joining the gym and starting to eat more healthily. I want to be fit and look after myself, I don't want to become a slob because I'm a student.
So there you have it, these are all the things I want to change/improve on within the next twelve months so I can make 2014 a year I'm proud of. In all honesty I'm not very optimistic for how these are all going to turn out but I am determined so I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how well it goes. Please leave me a comment and share some of your resolutions and how quickly you've broken them, or if you're more motivated than me how successfully they are going. I hope this year is one you all will never forget. Love Holly x