Daily wear: Boyish charm

Hi guys,
I'm really enjoying this January's warmer approach to winter, which has meant for the past week I have been able to leave my winter accessories at home. Don't get me wrong I love my hats, but I also love not having frizzy hair when I get to the office!

As a general rule I'm far to curvy for the masculine trend, but today I'm looking quite boyish, and I like it! Time to invest in a bowtie, perhaps?



Today i'm wearing my new coat from Miss Selfridges, my favourite dress from River Island (I just wish it was more flattering!) my Moschino brogues, a stack of jewellery, and my Betty Jackson Black satchel.

I normally wear bangles religiously, but I picked up these leather wrist wraps at the Topshop outlet this weekend, and have been experimenting with them. I actually really like the way they look, and they have the added bonus of not constantly bashing against the keyboard when I type. Result!

Love Tor xx

It's not over 'til it's over.....

Hi guys,
Usually by now all of the sales are just about done and dusted. But this year, maybe because of the warmer than average weather and maybe because half of the country is flat broke, there are still a ton of bargains to be had. Some stores are advertising up to 70% off, and almost every high street store is offering further reductions. If you aren't in the flat broke half of the nation then hit the shops, because you're in for a treat! Here are my picks:

Metallic detail dress, Topshop, £40 (was £150)
Beige coat, Miss Selfridges, £30 (was £69)
Brogue ankle boots, Feaith @ Debenhams, £32.50 (was £65)
French connection bag, £64 (was £160)
Vintage apple ring, Accessorize, £1.80 (was £6)
Lanvin purse @ Harvey Nichols, £68 (was £170)
Marc by Marc mouse pumps @ Selfridges £149 (was £215)

Miss Selfridges has an amazing sale. I picked up this gorgeous leather (actually pleather) sleeved coat for just £30, and it's still available on their website. It looks so much better on than it does off - in a soft lightweight fabric and an amazing fit. I'll be showing it off soon!

As well as having up to 75% off all of their sale, all of French Connection's sale coats are now £89 or less. My tip would be to look for a classic style in a colour you love, so that you can buy and wear it now, but still wear and love it again next winter too: that way, you're actually saving money!

Have you had any amazing bargains from the January sales? Are their any other shops you'd recommend I check out?

Love Tor xxx

January Sales 2011: Miss Selfridge and French Connection

Hi guys,

Another day, another visit to the sales! This time I popped to Miss Selfridges and French Connection to try on impractical party dresses that I don't need: my favourite impractical things to buy! I haven't been massively impressed by the sales so far, but I haven't hit any of the big department stores yet: i'm sure as soon as I do i'll be regaling you with tales of armfuls of lovely stuff bought (well, here's hoping!) Until then though, here's what I tried on in Miss Selfridges:

The nude dress had been reduced to £20, the metallic T-shirt had been reduced to £8. I loved the nude dress, especially the detailing around the shoulders and the ruffled capped sleeves. But boy, did it make me look top heavy! I ummed and ahhed over it for a little while, but decided it probably showed a little too much boob for me.

Like the magpie I am, I was attracted to this dress because it was shiny and sparkly. The sequins were gorgeous, and it was reduced from £100 to £45: bargain! But it isn't exactly flattering on my wobbly mince pie belly, so this one ended up back on the rack for somebody else to find and love!

I loved this dress from French Connection, which had been reduced from £190 to £50, and even came with a matching bag that was reduced to £25. However I was put off by my shopping partner (aka Mike) who pulled that face when I came out of the changing room (complete with slightly wrinkled nose) and put me right off!

Love, Tor x

Sales review: Miss Selfridge

Like all of the sales there are lots of sparkles and party dresses available in the Miss Selfridge sale. However unless I have a really important event coming up I usually avoid these like the plague: if you're honest you won't want to wear this seasons dresses next Christmas, and you probably have enough party frocks in your wardrobe (I know I do!)

So in the Miss Selfridge sale I decided to ignore the party frocks and focus on practical things I might actually need, with varying degrees of success:

The good

I love this little polka dot jacket, a bargain for £12. Its also a good kind of piece to buy in the sales at this time of year because it can be worn like a cardigan now and as a jacket come Spring/Summer, when polka dots will still be in vogue. This top is another example of something you can wear now that will still be of use in the summer; that's generally what I try to look for in my sale items, so i'm getting as much wear from them as possible

The not-so-good

Check out the mince pie belly! yuck! These 2 jumpers are perfect examples of on the hanger it looked pretty good - on the body not so much! They just didn't flatter my figure! The material of both was lovely though, and I do have to point out that they were a bargain at £10 each!

My first sale of the season is done, and it's only left me thirsty for more! Watch this space!

Love, Tor xx

Party dress week. Day 1: Miss Selfridge

In recent months Miss Selfridge have really up their game, and i'm impressed with almost everything in store. I used to view them as Topshop's younger, not-so-cool sister (because the clothes were always a bit too teenie) but they have definitely stepped out of the shadow.
.
Funnily enough, Miss Selfridge is one of the few stores still in existence that featured in my dissertation; it began as the fashion section of Selfridges in 1966. It got its name because Charles Clore, the owner of Selfridges at the time, saw a window display in the Bonwit Teller store in New York which showed "Miss Bonwit" dresses aimed specifically at teenagers. The 60s was the birth of this youth culture when collections and stores were specifically aimed at the newly coined "teenagers". Some of the first dresses to be sold in Miss Selfridge were the famous paper dresses, which I have written about in the past.
.
However the dresses in store now are definitely not made of paper. Here is my pick of the best party dresses in store now. I have taken pictures of them both on and off, because some of them look amazing on the hanger, but aren't really cut for boobs and there are some spillage incidents. Oh, and my budget went out of the window. Apparently even a £50 budget is too restrictive for this seasons party frocks:

Almost everything was very dark and black (with the occassional colour pop, as you can see) and embellishment and sequinning was massive; I suspect we will see alot of that on the highstreet this week. The tunic is the shape that suits me best and I actually quite like the first dress. The third dress is spectacular with amazing detail all over it. But like the rest of the Miss Selfridge dresses it probably looks better off the hanger than it does for me. They just don't seem to cut for boobs! But here they are:

Not a bad start to our party dress week! Any suggestions for where you'd like to see me go tomorrow? I'm very open to external influence!

Love, Tor x

Topshop + Miss Selfridge + Evans +++ = Arcadia!

Tonight was the Arcadia online press event and (in my typical "Tor-is-going-to-gush-now" way) it was super super fun! I met loads of my favourite lovely bloggers, got to see all of the new season collections from Topshop, Evans, Miss Selfridges et al, and best of all, got to try some of the lovely clothes on. Actually, best of all was that a lovely photographer took photos of us trying all the lovely clothes on and we got to take them home to show to you!
.

One problem was that the vast majority of the clothes on show were in sample sizes. Which I most certainly am not. But the up side of this was that I got to try on some of the sample size Evans stuff, and as I rarely pop into evans, this was a definite bonus; especially given the sequinned glamour-puss nature of their new season collection!

.

So here I am:

Sequin zig zag dress: Evans, Sequin snake top: Evans, Fur jacket: Topshop, Shoes: Topshop, Jewellery: "models own"(that's a fancy way of saying it's mine!)
.

On my definite "want" list are the sequined snake top and the cobalt blue ankle boots. Actually, the zig zag dress would also be a complimentary addition to my wardrobe too! I would never need more incentive to shop with the Arcadia group, but if I had, then tonight would have been it. Fun fun fun!

.

Love, Tor xx

PS - I meet Susie Bubble (!) and was so star struck I had nothing to say! I don't think i've ever met anyone who made me like that before!

PPS - Miggy from Miggy likes the internet is one of the prettiest people I have ever seen (and her blog is great!) and other new (to me, obviously, not really new!) blogs that I can see myself falling in love with are Diamond Canopy and Young Shields!

Bargain hunting

Unless you've been locked in a cave for the past week, you probably don't need me to tell you that we are in the middle of a Debenhams 3 day spectacular; they are advertising up to 25% off everything, but in reality the majority of wares have 20% off- still a good deal whichever way you look at it!

However what you might not be aware is that this 20% discount also applies to concessions within Debenhams stores. This in effect means that for the next 2 days you can get discounts at Miss Selfridge, Dune, Faith, Warehouse, and loads of other stores, depending on which Debenhams you use (their website will tell you which concessions are in your closest store!) I know it's not as cheap as the January sales (you wouldn;t believe how many people have said that to me over the past 2 days!) but hey, it's not January yet, and I for one still have plenty of Christmas parties to look fabulous for in December.

Here are the 2 outfits i'll be looking to make savings on:

Dress; Miss Selfridge £45, Boot; Faith £72, Fan clutch; Warehouse £30 and Money Gold necklace £56.

This whole outfit then would cost £203 to buy on a full price highstreet type day. However on a magical day like today, the whole outfit costs only £162.40. I know thats not the cheapest outfit we've ever brought you (anyone else remember last years "christmas dress for under £30 fiasco?") but £40 off is definitely not to be sniffed at!

The next outfit is:

Dress; Miss Selfride £50, Shoes; Faith £68, Lace tights; Warehouse £8 and Earrings; Miss Selridge £10. (Total cost:£136 Saving price cost:£108.80 )

How amazing are these ginormous oversized stud earrings!?

.

Hmmm, i've just realised how similar these outfits look; that might be because I LOVE LBD's and because i'm feeling all gothic sophistication for this seasons Christmas endeavours!
.

Anyway, the point i'm making is that if you do need a new dress for Christmas, and you we're planning on buying it full price from the highstreet anyway, now is the best time to get yourself to debenhams and save some money; afterall £40 is 8 cocktails, and thats a good night out!
.

Lots of love,

Tor

.

By the way - You can now have fabfrocks delivered to your inbox every week - just sign up to the newsletter by entering your email address in the box to your left. ----->