New Season: Topshop does rock chick

I fell in love with everything I saw in Topshop when I went to check out their new season collections. The Rock Chick look is so easy to incorporate into my everyday style, and it was hard to pick just 6 items to take into the changing rooms with me. Sadly, however, this seasons shapes and styles from Topshop don't love me back. I need structure, nipped waists, and angles. Anything loose and unstructured just makes me look bigger than I am. And don't even get me started on how terrible my legs (by far my worst feature) looked in leather panelled leggings. I so hoped they would work. But they clearly did not.

Here's what I tried on:

I loved the pattern on the long dress, and like a butterfly, was immediately attracted to the colours. But the loose drop waist hid rather than emphasised my figure making me look wide and shapeless.The spidery printed one-shouldered chiffon dress looked lovely, but was far too short for me (is this a sign i'm showing my age!?) The piece I really loved was the drape fronted marble-print satin jacket which was soft and plyable, and would be a great versitile piece to wear over just about everything. The deer T-shirt was another favourite and will look great, given structure: tucked into a highwaisted skirt with heels and a belt.

On the Topshop website I noticed a plethora of flippy little sixties-style dresses with flowing sleeves, similar to the ones I was lusting after on ASOS. I think on my next visit to Topshop (often referred to as the motherland) i'll be trying those, and leaving the leather trousers to the whippersnappers!

Speaking of Topshop the news broke today that the next collection Kate Moss designs for Topshop will be the last. I realise this is ironic, as i'm wearing a Kate Moss @ Topshop dress as I type this, but I for one am ambivilent about this news: the collections were always samey, overpriced for the quality received, and far too overhyped for my liking. Is anybody actually disappointed about this? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Love, Tor xx

I wanna be a rock chick, but I don't have a guitar!

Has anyone else noticed that it doesn't just rain anymore? It floods.

This weekend is another one of those cold miserable drizzly weekends (standard January in England weather, really) and i've decided i'm not leaving the house. I'm not going shopping, i'm not going to the pub, I can't even be tempted by getting dressed up and going to a restaurant. I'd much rather stay in and play guitar hero whilst eating pizza.

I am a Guitar hero Addict: I needed a fully thought out 12 point plan to wean me off the machine so I could sit down and write this post. There's nothing quite like standing in the middle of your living room with a plastic guitar, the volume of your tv pumped up, your body swaying, feeling like a genuine Goddess of Rock. Which leads me neatly to today's post, and is also my reason for writing it: Rock Chick styling.

The Rock Chick look is so popular it's almost like a cliche. Even GMTV did a 10 minute segment on how to 'get the look'But i'm not talking about wearing red plastic shoes, tearing up your denim mini and sticking skulls onto everything. I could be wrong (I often am) but I think the rock chick look is a trend you have to really like, and commit to with some not neccessarily bankrupting, but certainly better than Primark key investment pieces to avoid looking like a cheap wannabe popstar/Big brother contestant (which isn't a bad think, but definitely not for me)

I turn to style icons Karen O (from the Yeah yeah yeahs) and original queen of rock-chick-cool, Debbie Harry.

Debbie Harry is on my top 5 list of women i don't just admire, I actually want to be (and last weekend someone told me I looked a bit like her- they were lying, but yay!) My attention is imediately drawn from Debbies shock of hair and sultry eyes to her leather jacket: If your looking for a key Rock chick piece then a tight fitting leather jacket is a good place to start. This Alexander McQueen leather biker jacket (£1805,00) is an even better one.

Alternately, in the real world where money doesn't grow on trees and my bank balance doesn't have that many zeros in it this zip detail leather jacket from Topshop (£45) is nice:

And if you're blessed with time rather than money, and have the patience, shopping second hand is a great way to find a gorgeous genuine leather piece for the change in your pocket. Charity shops, vintage fairs, and thift stores always house some treasures, as does our old favourite: ebay.

This genuine leather original 80s style biker jacket was selling for just £10 : a bargain that can be just about stretched to from any budget (even mine if I squint a bit!)

A perfect leather jacket won't just make you look like a genuine rock chick, it will make you feel like one too. In fact, I think i'm going to slip mine over my pajamas and get back to the Guitar Hero........