Fringe benefits

I love fringing. It’s so carefree. Obviously you have to be careful not to go too far – Texan cowboy or 80s throwback is not a good look! But in moderation, fringing is my friend.

My favourite way to incorporate it into an outfit is in a bag.

I think I’ve blogged about this bag before – in fact this is my 4th one; exactly the same! You can pick them up on ebay for £6 to £10 and they come in various colours. But I always come back to the black.

Fringed bag

It’s my go to bag for outside of work – it dresses down a fancy outfit for when you want to be a bit more casual but looks great with jeans too. It fits in so well with my current 70s/hippie obsession as well.

This bag is from Peacocks. There’s a dearth of the usual High Street shops in my most local town, so I regularly have a wander around Peacocks. Pricewise they’re probably on a par with Primark, maybe a little bit more expensive, but the quality is incomparable, and they often have some nice bits and pieces that you won’t see everyone wearing.

Peacocks fringed bag

Peacocks fringed bag close up

Their website isn’t particularly user friendly, but they do offer free delivery over £30 and free returns to stores (you have to pay if you want to return by post). They also do discounts fairly regularly too, like 20% across the store or £5 off if you spend £30, that kind of thing.

I like that this bag is a mix of leather and suede (both faux, obvs) with a chunky silver chain. It’s smaller than the other fringed bag and doesn’t hold as much, but sometimes that’s a good thing!

I got this waistcoat in the H&M sale, reduced from £29.99 to £9.

H&M fringed waistcoat

H&M fringed waistcoat back

It’s a thick twill fabric with silver embroidery and tassel fringes. You may have spotted it on my weekend post a few weeks back. I think I’ll be wearing this a lot.

Here’s some fringing inspiration.

Fringed v-back festival boho dress

Fringed suede skirt fringed clutch bag

Olive green fedora fringed jacket cut off denim shorts

Black fringed suede jacket black fedora skinny jeans

Fringed western suede beige ankle boots

Fringed tan suede bag with peacock feather trim

(images from pinterest)

Thanks, as always, for reading!

Festival Fashion – Download style

In just one week time I’ll be frantically packing for Download Festival, praying for dry weather, and wondering whether I really need 6 pairs of boots for 3 days (obviously the answer is yes).

Last year at this time I was having a mini (read major) meltdown because I’d never been to a festival before. Well, not on the scale of Download. I’d been to a one day dance festival back in the day, and a local folk festival. I also had tickets to V Festival one year, but sold them the night before because it had been raining for 3 days and I couldn’t stand the idea of mud (and we weren’t even camping) Download is massive compared to any of those things; just the thought of the size of it made my head explode. And I knew that cancelling was not an option.

Of course my main concern was what to wear. With the chance of rain being ever present in the UK, even in high summer, I needed to be prepared for everything. Such was my naivety that I even enquired of festival going friends whether I could wear sandals if the weather was good (yes, if you want your feet trampled and covered in beer/food/general festival ickiness, was the answer).

At one point I had 16 (yes sixteen) pairs of wellies in my flat, trying to decide which pair I liked best, fitted best, suited my style best. I bought a waterproof poncho. I overthought the whole thing to the point where I didn’t actually enjoy the lead up.

And then it was sunny. Sunny as in warm sunny. Sunny as in denim shorts and sleeveless tops sunny. It was glorious! I wore denim cut offs and vests and shades. Only on the last day did I need my poncho for 10 minutes. Fingers crossed for more of the same!

Because I don’t do camping (I mean, just why?!) I have the luxury of being able to take oodles and oodles of stuff, stack the car up and clutter our hotel room – hurrah! It also means I should be covered for all eventualities should the weather go from one extreme to the other (double hurrah! No-one needs a wet, cold and under-prepared me on their hands – I reckon I can out-bawl even the loudest of bands if I’m not happy). Plus, should the worst come to the worst and I fall over in mud, I have a whole clean set of clothes for the following day(s).

None of this “camping is all part of the experience” for me. Forget it.

Here’s a selection of what I’ll be taking this year.

Biker wellies – Asda (last year)

FB_IMG_1433358954017

Side split maxi dress with leopard print cross (H&M)

H&M maxi top dress

High waisted black denim shorts (H&M)Black denim shorts

Feather headdress (ebay)

Feather headdress

Black and white stripe top (H&M)

Black and white stripe top

Waterproof poncho (Amazon)

Waterproof poncho

Fringed skirt (H&M)

H&M fringed skirt

Tartan trousers (New Look)

Tartan trousers

Grey draped vest (H&M)

Grey draped top

C’est la Vie t-shirt (Dorothy Perkins)

Cest La Vie tee

Black leather jacket (Tesco F&F) and berry fedora (H&M)

Download festival outfit

Denim playsuit (Tesco F&F) and blue denim shorts (Matalan)

Download festival outfit

Obviously there’ll also be the usual staples of black skinnies, leather look leggings, over shirts, maybe a baggy jumper or two (depending on weather forecast). Perhaps kimonos if it’s not going to be too cold at night (although if I take a big enough bag I can have a costume change). Loads of jewellery. The good thing is I can just pack EVERYTHING! And I fully intend to!