BYCO. A different approach to fashion

A dear friend shared a link to a wonderful site that I have never heard of before but instantly got excited about . BYCO. is a platform dedicated to help designers bypass the hurdles that come with the process of production and distribution of fashion by handling the process of sampling, production, distribution as well as photography and marketing. Designers are invited to submit their designs and the selected designs are then produced and sold on the site. The designers themselves receive a percentage of the sales when their submissions are selected to be sold on the site. 

As someone who always likes a little bit of online shopping and more than that loves discovering new designers, it looks to be a very promising platform, the designs being sold on the site at the moment look beautiful and well made and what's more surprising is that the items are actually affordable with some items starting at $80. I think BYCO. definitely is definitely a great example of the future of innovation in fashion marketing and retail online and I'm really looking forward to seeing this platform growing.

Avoiding temptation

I paid a quick visit to H&M yesterday when I met my friend, she was mostly looking for some work wear items and I was just browsing in hope something will catch my eye and of course I eventually stumbled across something, but this one was a little less ordinary (at least for me). It was one of those items which worlds away from anything I would ever choose but I absolutely loved it when I tried it on. Luckily I had my rational friend with me and she immediately vetoed my choice which meant this lovely jumper was left in store, I assume in a way it's good , it's not something I'll feel comfortable wearing on a day to day basis but instead of this eye catching jumper I decided to stick with my friend's rational advice. 

Earn your stripes

Skirt H&M, Jumper Mango

This morning a friend finally managed to pull me out of the house for a bit of shopping. I've been avoiding shopping recently as I gained a little bit of weight recently and not feeling very fashionably content with myself and clothes at the moment. I tried going shopping on my own a few weeks ago but just couldn't find anything that fit me, all those lovely oversized garments and rounded shoulder silhouettes dominating the catwalks and high-street this season are an absolute pain for me, no matter what I try on I look like I pulled a sack of potatoes over myself. At the moment I seem to have a thing for stripes, as you can see by the two items I bought on my shopping outing today. I thought a couple items with stripes can be good to work into my wardrobe that recently seems to rely only on solid black and grey items. Hopefully this stripey investment would help me to get out of the style-rut for a little bit.

&other stories - a sneak peak

Images : stories.com

Earlier today, an email landed in my mail box inviting me to take a sneak-peak at H&M's new sister store &Other Stories so I couldn't resist and had to check out the website, I believe the official launch is tomorrow and I don't remember signing up to the mailing list but a sneak peak was more than welcome and got me quite excited.

I'm really impressed with the variety, I've seen some of the lookbooks online previously but never got around to going through everything properly so I was really excited to have a quick look and was actually surprised as I remember reading on more than one occasion that the store's price range will be 

higher than what we're used to with H&M and sister brand COS , however I have to admit that the price range is really varied which made me quite happy as there are a lot of great items that are quite affordable (some of the accessories start at less than £10 and clothing ranges from around 15£ for simple tops to over £100 for jackets and coats) and as usual I already have my eyes set on some interesting items but I'll have to hold myself as I'll be in London tomorrow just in time for the store opening so would probably have a verdict after I visit the store but so far everything looks tempting, even the gorgeously designed beauty products!

Weekday finally launch an online store!

Yes, it's here finally ! After months and months of checking out the Weekday Facebook page to see fans across the world beg and plead for the brand to open an online store, UK fans of the ultra cool retailer can finally rejoice as the new Weekday.com  online store has launched allowing all of us to enjoy the amazing range they carry.

I know I've spent a lot of hours on the phone to my friends in Germany and Denmark begging them to help me get my favourite items from Weekeday and finally I can hear the sighs of my friend's relief as I'm finally able to do the shopping on my own from the new store! I've been planning to write a long post of how frustrated I was when I used to browse the Weekday website and couldn't buy my favourite items! I guess my prayers have finally been answered and despite the slightly limited stock at the moment (I know,I know it's just launched!) I'm quite excited to finally be able to get my hands on some Weekday items without having to beg :) 

Here are some of my fave items in store at the moment, really looking forward to see more stock added in the coming weeks!

I've had better days ...

Zara jumper and military shirt

The last few days have been just a bit too much for me, starting with ice and snow on the weekend and continuing with a terrible flu which I just can't shake off. The idea of walking into Zara on my way back home from the GP's office yesterday was an absolutely stupid idea but not surprisingly I was just drown in like a fool.

I actually planned to go there to check what happened to an order I made on-line (a very long story!) but since I spent the last few days in my pyjamas,I was really tempted to treat myself to something new and bright, something that feels like Spring and would help to shake a bit of the winter blues. Since I haven't been to Zara for a while I was hoping that new season items will be everywhere. I discovered I was wrong as it looked like the sale was still in full force and only a tiny section was dedicated to new season pieces, disappointed but still not ready to admit to my defeat I picked up these two very basic items that are probably a sharp contrast to anything that can be considered 'springy', a black jumper and a grey shirt that perfectly represent my mood right now as I'm sitting at home wrapped in layers just wishing for this flu to be over already and for the sun to come out and melt the ice and snow. I already have some ideas in mind for both so I'm really looking forward to getting better and having the opportunity to play around with both. 

New year, new shoes

There it goes , another pair of shoes, the guilt trip started when I opened the box. 

I ordered this pair before the new year and because of the holidays it took forever to get here , the problem is that by the time I got them I already made another shoe purchase so told myself I will be sending those back the minute I get them but then I opened the box and completely fell in love with them, it's bad but I guess not too bad considering I'm the proud owner of only 4 pairs of shoes (now 5), I could do with just another pair after all. 

The bottom of the wardrobe

You might think this is a menswear related post, but it's actually not. This post is all about reminding myself why it's always good to think twice before buying something.

What does the bottom of my wardrobe has to with that? Well, for a long time now , the bottom of my wardrobe has been the place where all fashion mistakes have been laying , in case one day I wake up and change my mind about them, although this rarely happens, from time to time I have a look around and try and see how I can workout those items into my daily outfits.

A good reference for that is the example above, I found the shirt and the nasty green/khaki sweater yesterday as I was trying to re-organise my wardrobe, the shirt on it's own is fine, but I'm ashamed to say I can't recall when I last wore it. The sweater, has definitely never seen the light of day and just looking at the photo I can't help but hear my mum whispering 'what on earth were you thinking' . So now I don't really know , I decided to see if those two work together and cringed a little bit but thought  maybe sometime this week I will give them a chance - probably each on its own, if this doesn't work, at least it would be a good reminder to think twice before making my next purchase!