Wednesday 24 October 2012

Motel Rocks; Halloween Treat of 30% off!

Happy soon to be Halloween everyone! Hope you're all getting your costumes sorted and getting those pumpkins carved! If you need a bit of help with your costume gear or just fancy 'treating' yourself over the Halloween period, the lovely people at Motel Rocks are offering 30% off when you use my code 'justinegibbins' at the checkout. Unfortunately it's not valid off the amazing Jeffery Campbell Litas & Rock n' Rose cross I've popped on the second moodboard (sorry, I got a bit excited and added them anyway because I love them) but you can definitely treat yourself to the other gorgeous sparkly and studded pieces they have on their website here! Below are some of my favourite picks from their collections at the moment!












Hope this helps a few of you out in preparation for the weekend! The discount offer is valid till the 31st October so make sure if you like something you use it whilst you can :)

 

Friday 19 October 2012

She acts like summer and walks like rain.

Hello hello!
So I thought it was about time to pop up a new outfit post! Those of you who follow me on Instagram (Username: fashionmixbag) will recognise my t-shirt as I somehow managed to go from owning zero fun tops to receiving two on my birthday, as they were both gifts from different friends! What that says about me as a person I have no idea! But I thought I would have some fun with them and re-live a bit of festival style with this You Only Live Once one!

 In the run up to Bestival I was kindly sent this fab waterproof jacket from Bravesoul, thinking that it would be classic torrential weather! But against all the odds, as you probably remember, it was a scorcher of a weekend so I didn't manage to test it out till now when Autumn has set in! Although I have to say, packing it was a dream! It folds up so small and weighs next to nothing, so it was perfect to take as an emergency festival jacket!

Waterproof: c/o  Bravesoul £20
Necklace: Accessorize £18
Denim Shirt & Shorts: Topshop N/A
Shoes: Converse Navy All Star £40
Top: Gift from friend
 I've put it together with my classic converse, Topshop denim shirt & purple denim shorts and this gorgeous beaded collar necklace I recently bought from Accessorize. As you can see, the jacket has a great draw string waist that adds a lot more shape than your average waterproof and it even has cute little bows to girlie it up :) The cocoon-ing hood is also much appreciated to keep away the rain, especially if you have naturally super frizzy hair like me!

It's made me really want the festival season all over again even though I know we couldn't be further from it! What do you all think? Have you got a fun graphic tee you love to wear?

PS. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post I am now on Instagram! I recently joined the Iphone crew finally about 5 years after everyone else did, but hey, I'm making up for it now! I don't actually know what I did before without it! But anyway, yes, the point of this is to say you can now follow me on Instagram!  Username: Fashionmixbag

 

Thursday 11 October 2012

Cheltenham Fashion Week: Boutique 24

Hi guys, sorry I've been delayed in posting this up, I got a little distracted with work and other posts but here is my second post from Cheltenham Fashion Week! Following the student show, I was invited to the Boutique 24 event which was held at the gorgeous hotel, Cowley Manor! The event was sponsored by the hotel itself, Coutts, My-Wardrobe.com and Mercedes Benz and can only be described as a complete hub of fashion and beauty with all the hotel rooms transformed into mini pop up boutiques for brands, designers and stores such as Bobbi Brown, Harvey Nichols, My-Wardrobe, Jo Malone, One Piece.

Warning: picture heavy post!

The entrance to Cowley Manor with the infamous Pink Shoe!



 It was great fun pottering around the hotel discovering all the different rooms and making your own path around the grounds! I had a few favourite areas, such as the Jo Malone lounge, which was simply gorgeous with lillies scattered everywhere and the aroma of the new perfume 'Blackberry & Bay' filling the air via perfume sticks and scented candles!

Jo Malone lounge

Harvey Nichols Pop Up

Shoes and Bags at Harvey Nichols

Mulberry loving at Harvey Nichols

Benefit Loveliness
Another favourite was the 'My-Wardobe.com' room which was housing some of my favourite designer names such as Marc Jacobs and Lucy Choi. When I arrived, I was greeted by two lovely representatives for the online company who were so welcoming and super stylish, check out the man's studded suede shoes! On that note, it was also great to meet the ladies at Bobbi Brown who played with their new make-up range and showed me a few of the new blushers! Excitingly, I've just learnt that a Bobbi Brown concession has made it's way to the Cheltenham House of Fraser! Eek! I think I know where all my money will be going from now on!


Sequins galore at My-Wardrobe.com pop up

Designer purses, clutches and Ipad Covers at My-Wardrobe.com

My-Wardrobe style guide

More lovely accessories at My-Wardrob.com

Rail of gorgeous designer clothing at My-Wardrobe.com pop up

Bobbi Brown Pop Up


The ladies of Bobbi Brown

Outside of the hotel were a few more mini boutiques such as some bridal wear pop ups and the Cowley Manor gift shop. I am a sucker for all things Wedding related so loved looking at all the dresses, gowns and hair pieces. In particular, I had a fab chat with milliner Katherine Elizabeth who had some amazing statement fascinators on display that have all been hand made in London!


Katherine Elizabeth Millinery 


Throughout the day there were multiple styling and fashion presentations shown and the general atmosphere was really buzzing as lots of ladies were there on a girlie day out having champagne and nibbles and looking at all the designer goodness! I could have easily spent all day and all my bank account at Boutique 24 if I could!


If you haven't yet seen it, I have done a summary on  my time at Cheltenham Fashion Week as a guest blogger for The Editeur! Check it out here.

 

Saturday 6 October 2012

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2012

Last night I made my way to the big capital for this year's much awaited Cosmopolitan Blog Awards which were sponsored by Next! As you may know I was up for the Next Newcomer award as I'm a bit of a newbie still in the world of blogging, so naturally I was a big bubble of excitement and nervousness in the run up to the evening, especially with deciding what to wear!

After coming back from a mad shopping dash with three potential outfits, I debated for what felt like 50 bazillion hours and decided to go with a black sequined Mismo playsuit that I bought from Republic for an absolute steal of £25. I popped on my favourite black New Look heels, grabbed my Next box clutch and finished off with my cream Zara blazer. The lovely ladies at Cosmo said to wear whatever you felt comfortable in and what represents your blog so of course I stuck to my typical high street budget!




Excuse my slight devil eyes in this pic, the flash wasn't my best friend last night!

My Leighton Penny Coral Reef and Models Own Hed Kandi Ibiza glitter polish I painted on the train journey to London. I don't think the other passengers were too impressed I fumed up the whole carriage!

 This year's event was held at The Rose Club, just off Oxford street, and when I arrived the place was brimming with all the other bloggers looking absolutely fab as expected. There were so many style notes to be taken I definitely lost count of them all! Eventually after admiring everyone's outfits I managed to work my way to the bar to try out the yummy free cocktails from Mahiki, after all it was only right to have a Cosmopolitan on the night!




As those of you who follow me on Twitter will know, I unfortunately didn't win the award but it very deservedly went to Em from 'A day in the life of Em's' who has a fantastic blog! So a big congrats to her! Each award winner was given a lovely framed illustration from the Cosmo ladies!

Aside from the awards, cocktail sipping and a fab DJ who played some absolute tunes, there were various pop ups dotted around the spangly club venue such as makeovers, manicures, glitter tattoos, fake eye lash bar and fun fortune telling to go and visit! I had a make up touch up done by Vicky who created a smokey eye look with all Next make up products and added a spot of deep red lippy! I love getting my make up done, especially as smokey eyes is something I can never still manage to achieve successfully!

The whole evening was a great opportunity to meet other bloggers, and I spent most of my night with my new cocktail partner in crime, Laura from Logans runway who was wearing a gorgeous playsuit from Topshop! Definitely check out her blog here.



Overall the evening was so much fun, and even though I didn't win I really did feel so lucky to be there with 35,000 blogs initially being nominated according to the judges! So a big big thank you has to go to everyone that supported me to even get shortlisted in the first place, it means such a lot! And of course, a huge thanks to Cosmopolitan and Next for putting on the awards and celebrating bloggers!

 

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Cheltenham Fashion Week; The Student Show

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to head to a few of the events going on at Cheltenham Fashion Week to cover for Fashion Mixbag! As a girl born and raised in the Cotswold town, I love the fact my hometown embraced the fashion air surrounding London Fashion Week and brought it to those of us unable to make the happenings in the big city! The first of the events I went to was the student show on Tuesday evening as part of the education day of the week! Supported by George Davies (founder of Next, George at Asda and Per Una at Marks & Spencer) the evening brought an exciting catwalk show featuring new and upcoming talent in the local area from young designers aged 16 upwards. It was fab to see my old school representing one of the collections featured especially as someone who studied Textiles whilst I was there.



























The show itself was packed and had a great atmosphere, it was brilliant to see such passion, creativity and innovation with the variety of designs and fabrics displayed! After all, only at a student show would you see L.E.D lights entwined with a rope bustier! The models were fabulously styled in 60′s mod with heavy eye make up and sharp dark bob cut hair and there were quite a few pieces that I really would snap up in a heart beat. Namely some lovely tie-dye jackets and graphic printed trousers!






















Drawing the evening to a close, the judging panel consisting of George Davies, hair stylist Stuart Holmes and fashion journalist Sarah Hayley chose three students as winners of the best designs and received a fab prize of work experience with George Davies in London which were thoroughly deserved! All the talented ladies definitely got me wanting to crack out my creative side again, hope those of you that went enjoyed it as much as I did!  



Excitingly, I've recently been asked by The Editeur to be a guest blogger on their blog so a round up of both the events I went to have been posted here. However as usual I was overly snap happy, so thought I would feature the separate events on my own blog with more of the other photos!