Late-night Oxfam surfing

I don't need a jacket right now but if I did I might be tempted to buy this one.

Vintage Morvic of London jacket, £12.99

Sam disapproves of polka dots but I think they are great. And I do like blue and gold ...

- Zen

Zen's picks from Oxfam online - #1

Vintage 50s dinner coat and dress set, £145

I have a new means of procrastination: the Oxfam online secondhand store.

It's a sad truth that it's difficult to find affordable vintage in the UK -- of course all depends on your definition of "affordable", but what with shipping costs those beautiful Etsy shops selling gorgeous vintage dresses at $20 a pop are rarely an option, and even on eBay the real beauts soar beyond £20 pretty darn quickly. Sue and I hardly ever win eBay auctions because we are so cheap.

The nice things about charity shops is that they are affordable. The less nice thing is that often they are an exercise in wading through a sea of Marks & Spencer jumpers. The Oxfam online shop is not dissimilar to its real-life counterparts in that respect, but it has some really gorgeous pieces if you dig a bit, like this vintage lace dress:

Garmel of London dress with lace overlay, £35

And this highly bargainous Prada jacket:

Prada pinstripe wool jacket, £34.99

(It did occur to me to wonder how one would know it was Prada -- but hey, if one is going to trust N. E. Ebayer when she swears her item has only been worn twice and retailed at a million, one might as well extend that trust to Oxfam.)

And even Marks & Spencer has it in them to come up with something pretty neat once in a while.

Marks & Spencer cotton/polyester jacket with damask pattern, £9.99

I love the glossy brocade effect on this jacket, and ever since I saw it I've been wondering what one would wear it with. I don't know! I don't think it is that wearable and I am a bit dubious about the fit and yet I am strangely infatuated with the jacket all the same. (A chunky scarf? A little dress? Jeans and unexpected shoes?) I would so buy it and find out what it'd look good with if I were not on a shopping ban right now.

So, um, after about a coupla hours surfing the website I decided I had best put my wasted time to some kinda use and do a Lemms post about it. Here's a handful of Zen's Picks -- nothing over £20 unless it was awesome enough to merit inclusion. Click on the pictures to go to the Oxfam website!

Dresses

1970s dress with matching belt, £11.99

1970s shift dress, £13.99

The description on the website claims that this is handmade. This isn't a great picture, but from the close-up of the fabric it looks like it would be super cute on, and I love the angled pockets.

Jacques Vert sheath dress, £16.99

I can't decide if one would look like someone's great-aunt or totally awesome in this -- I suppose it would all hang on the fit.

1980s jersey crossover dress, £17.99

1970s handmade dress, £25.00

I didn't like this one at first, but the more I gazed at it the more charming it became. I like the grid pattern, the glossy material and the gorgeous deep colours.

Kaliko loose roll neck dress, £19.99

High street secondhand rather than vintage, but if the colour is anything as rich in life as it is in the picture, I think it'd be gorgeous.

And I was going to go on to coats (-- then waistcoats -- then tops -- then skirts), but I looked at the list of links I'd collected and, well, it is bedtime. I'll save it for another post. You should tell me if you buy any of the dresses linked here so I can hate you secretly in my heart!

Belted Down

Literally. Labs, events and interview, read one interview have bogged me down. So here I leave you all with a look that goes with my current mood. I'll be back! Soon I hope.

boyf's sweater, h&m scarf, primark grey tights (inner), m&s tights (outer), vintage belt, charles and keith buckle pumps

Sue

Which is mostly Zen moaning

There are days I can't bring myself to get out of bed unless I promise myself I can wear something exciting. Since my usual uniform consists of jeans + a faded top from Seed/Padini, my definition of 'exciting' isn't very, but whatever gets you through the winter, right?

I don't like winter :(

I'm slowly growing reconciled to it (winter, that is) on account of having newly a) started to wear scarves and b) started to make scarves. If there were no winter, there would be no real need for scarves, and then where would I be? Crocheting pointlessly, that's where.

But still I keep dreaming of summer ... in Cambridge especially. I haven't summered in the London yet, but I imagine it would on occasion be a bit sweltery and awful -- I find the smell of exhaust about a bajillion times more horrible when it's hot than when it's cold for some reason. It's so gorgeous in Cambridge, though. The green spaces. The trees. I was sitting in class earlier this evening staring sadly out at the grey world and remembering the people who used to clamber out of their windows and sit on the roof.


Happy days!

But I shouldn't just roll around in nostalgia like a dog in a pile of poop; I certainly have a lot more free time now than I did then. And there are lots more vintage shops, where one may find delightful dresses for 10 of the British pounds!


That is five gazillion in Malaysian, but it is not too bad compared to Topshop.

NB. I did not really wear the scarf that-a-way the whole day. But I should have done!

- Zen

Fashionista kiasuism - my first Polyvore set - cool links!

Maybe I won't swing by H&M to have a look at the Comme des Garcons collection after all. O_O Can you imagine? I hate going to the Primark at Marble Arch as it is; this looks like it would be indescribably worse. (Though at least the clothes would be nicer!)

Today I wore the following outfit!


What I wore 12/11/08 by lemmsandhems

It's a bit dressier than was really necessary, since all I was doing today was staggering to school, but I woke up this morning and thought: I am not getting out of bed unless I have something to get up for. So I decided to make my new dress from Dorothy Perkins an incentive to get out of bed.

The cardigan's a much prettier colour in the fleshbric, a sort of cross between plum and aubergine -- plumbergine, as the fashionistas say. Once I put the dress on the rest followed without much thought: thick charcoal grey tights because it might be cold, a cardigan, boots because boots look nice with dresses and I wanted to casual up the outfit. But the colours surprised me once everything was on -- they looked really nice together! Subdued but not dull. And I love wearing lined dresses; they make one feel super classy when they swish against the legs.

Neato links of the day:

Retro to Go
A blog focusing on retro design, inter alia in clothes.

Clever Nettle has awesome 1930s photos of a girl and her various outfits. E.g.


So cool, and very inspiring! Several of these are totally looks you could wear today and look awesome in, so go check them out.

- Zen

Comme des Garcons for H&M

So I'm pretty excited right now about the Comme des Garcons collection for H&M. H&M own the parts of my soul that don't belong to Patrick O'Brian and the guy invented Choco Leibniz biscuits. Before I came to London in September I owned 0 dresses from H&M; now I own -- O shame -- three. They are gorgeous and I wear them all the time, but rest assured that I wear them solely to roll around the floor in guilt.

Their prices are very reasonable, though! And the quality is pretty nice, unlike the stuff you get in Primark, which rivals your average potato sack for comfort and workmanship. Hopefully quality will be evident in the Comme des Garcons pieces for H&M, because cheapness isn't their most notable characteristic.

You can, for example, get this charming polka-dotted scarf for £34.99. That is not what I call bargainous. I guess an original Comme des Garcons scarf would cost that times a bajillion, but still ... I'd be interested to see what the scarf is made of; it would make sense if it was cashmere or something.

I really like the piece de resistance of the collection in a "omg that is crazy, I love how crazy it is" kind of way. I wouldn't wear it, but you could imagine a certain kind of girl looking hot couture in it.

Most of the collection is really wearable, though. I love this ensemble that they've put up on the H&M website:

Just your classic black-and-white skirt-and-jacket combo, wearable in even the most conservative offices, but so cool! I love the weird asymmetrical details on the jacket and the frilly cuffs of the shirt.

I just really like the jackets in the collection, actually. They mostly seem to come in black and grey, so very wearable colours, but with that touch of detailing that makes them special.

I like the raggedly scalloped edge. And again, asymmetry in outerwear is always a surefire hit with me.

What are those weird stringy things hanging off the front of this jacket? I don't know! But I like them!

And this tuxedo jacket is just adorable. What I love about it is that it's costumey yet normal enough to wear every day (though of course everything depends on how you define normal!).

The jackets are mostly £60 to £70, so it's unlikely I'll be getting them unless they go on sale after Christmas. Sigh. But an ad in Vogue informs me that the collection will be in stores November 13, so I'll definitely be swinging by H&M in Regent Street next week just to see what the clothes are like in person. It would be delicious if that tuxedo jacket actually had tails!

- Zen