Crush

When did Rhianna get so fierce? I love her new song Rude Boy. It's pure filth and I've never had a girl crush on this pop star until now. I've always been more of a Beyonce girl myself but maybe it's time for a change.

Her video for Rude Boy is 80s-tastic with loads of colours and hip grinding. There would have to be some hip grinding considering the lyrics to this wee gem. I even spotted a Baby G watch, remember those?! I feel a revival of the Baby G coming up. The monochrome bodysuit she wears in the video is similar to one I saw the model/DJ (this means she probably does neither except not eat, smoke and look cool) Leigh Lezark wearing at Paris fashion week recently. Imagine being able to carry off something that looks like your about to go deep sea diving? Credit is due. I love her hair. Let's hear it for the girls! I can't stop thinking about Rhianna's quiff, it's the coolest quiff I've seen in a while.

Leigh Lezark in black and white

Poptastic Baby G. I didn't have one the first time round. I lusted after them madly but my mum wouldn't buy me one. My friend Julie had and I used to wear it sometimes when I was round at hers. It was the pink one.

How catchy is this tune!!

Making a Statement

These photos are brilliant. Ou Zhihang, a Chinese photographer and TV personality, photographed himself doing naked push ups at sites in China that have hit the headlines. He said that he "created this series because news passes, while art lasts forever. I want the world to understand China through these pictures".

The Sunday Times Magazine always has some great photos in it's Spectrum section. There's always a few which can be quite unsettling but it's good to be aware of what's really going on in the world. Never underestimate the power of a photograph. Definitely my favourite part of the Sunday papers.

Saturday Market

The trend for minimalism is in full swing. I keep reading that it's because of the current economic climate (I love that phrase, it rolls off the tongue) and no one wants to flash their cash anymore. Although it's probably just to compensate for the amount of sequins, power shoulders and fashionable but unflattering trousers that reigned in the fashion parade last year. There's still a bit of glamour of course and there's still lots of shoulder details but the sequins had an overload moment in Christmas 2009 when every second person I saw had a sequin jacket on. One person I spotted on a Christmas night out even had a sequin jacket and sequin harem trousers on at the same time and this made my eyes sore.

Pret-a-Portobello has just the right amount of tea dresses, nude dresses and clothes with animals on them. This appeals to me a lot because animals are clearly the best thing to have on your clothes. Items below are all from Pret-a-Portobello dot com. I don't work for them, it's not a PR stunt. I just enjoy the website.

Nude with lovely shouldersAn otter with glasses on? What's not to loveThis wrap tea dress looks dreamy and flattering
Still the glamour with this velvet bandeau dress. This one is reduced :)
Wow, a cat with a pirate eye patch on! I love the loose crop Tshirt style around just now, more flattering than you might think!I love this. Hurry up SummerHello sailor!
This looks so flattering and it's actually navy so a bit different to black

I loved Portobello Market when I went to London last summer for my birthday. A trip planned to London in December was unfortunately axed because of the snow. Between the threat of a British Airways strike and the weather it was doomed.

I was bought this gorgeous hair band from one of the stalls for my birthday (and Nelson Mandela's by the way) and as it's nude it goes with everything. There really is every stall under the planet there and it was fun to look through the second hand stalls for clothes and vinyls.

Busy Portobello Market last July
Tea on Market Day

Wonderland

I'm super excited for Tim Burton's version of Lewis Carroll's classic tale Alice in Wonderland. It's always been one of my favourite stories and I even won a fancy dress competition as Alice in primary 4 complete with a beautiful white rabbit painstakingly crafted by my mum's friend. It's a story of magical adventure and it is completely surreal which is exactly why it is so appealing to generation after generation. I find myself falling down rabbit holes all the time, dipping in and out of daydreams and ending up on the other side. Curiosity may have killed the cat but life is boring without it. It will be interesting to see Alice a bit older than she's been in previous adaptions. Apparently she's almost 20 in this one. I hope it lives up to my expectations!

There's quite a lot of dreamy Alice in wonderland inspired clothes on the high street at the moment which is making me green with envy.

Edit: Just found this gorgeous Alice inspired dress from Pret-a-Portobello dot com, love this website. Wish I was in Portobello Market right now...

I think modern Alice might like this gorgeous prom dress from boohoo dot com: (There's also lots of sugary prom dresses just in at Miss Selfridge)

She would love these gorgeous ditsy print shorts from Warehouse:

Worn with this white rabbit Tshirt from Truffle Shuffle by Disney Couture:

And these beautiful accessories would top off any Alice inspired outfit, not even the Queen of Hearts would chop your head off it looked this pretty...

ASOS Alice band Oasis Charm bracelet

Mad Hatter Necklace by Disney Couture @ Truffle Shuffle dot com (as above)
You can even paint your nails in Alice inspired colours by OPI!

Weak, Limp Lifeless...

It's time our hair got a life! Exactly Cheryl. I completely agree. Her hair looks great in her

new video - she should wear it up and out her face more often.

Any couple who posed like this before their wedding should

have been shot years ago. What were they thinking?

YUCK! This photo sealed their fate

Cheryl's new vid

Torry Rocks

The Scottish Governenment is funding a scheme in Torry, Aberdeen which will see up to nine boarded up shops turned into small businesses. You can apply to win a fitted out shop space rent free for one year and mentoring from retail experts when an information centre opens up in Torry this Spring. Start thinking of ideas for a shop now!! Keep your eyes and ears open...

Torry Regeneration Rocks from Rachel Loxton on Vimeo.

Girl, you'll be a woman soon

Oh my goodness Barbie is taking over the world I think. It all started when I was looking through ASOS dreaming of buying this Tshirt. This Tshirt was designed by Kingdom of Style bloggers. It's an ace blog and an ace Tshirt. If anyone wants to gift me then this is the gift to do it with.

Anyway so I came across a page called Barbie Lounge and had to take a peek. Beautiful Barbies stood in a row like proper supermodels; white, brown and black skin, brunettes, blondes, blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes. Barbie has gone upmarket. Barbie in a LBD (as in a little black dress, who knew Warehouse made such small sizes nowadays). I don't remember Barbie this way. I remember Barbie as trashy and I loved her this way. Has she grown into a woman? I had a collection of Barbies (and even a Sindy controversially) and spent hours giving them makeovers and dressing them up in any crazy clothes I could find.

Sometimes I would even cut my own clothes to try and make new designs for the dolls but I was given a telling off for this. They would be left naked for days as I had ruined all their bikinis and dresses. Cycling Sindy had bandy legs so I snipped her hair off and made her a boy. Their heads used to fall off constantly because I used to make them snog too much. This resulted in neckless dolls and bad super gluing incidents. Sometimes legs fell off too. Come to think about it, was I the mentally unstable child Sid from Toy Story?

I can't imagine the new breed of Barbie having to face the indignity that I put my dolls through. They dress better than I do and their hair is so glossy, what are they using? I reckon after a few glasses of wine these dolls are all over the place. Singing Karaoke, texting their ex boyfriends, bitching, pulling each others hair and stuffing chips and cheese down their gob on the way home. No Barbie is perfect.

The Barbie Lounge @ ASOS dot com you heard it here firstPaul's Boutique Loves Barbie Zebra Trim Padlock Bag; just one of the Barbie accessories on ASOS dot com. Yes that is actually the name of the bag, catchy don't you think? Would you carry this around?
This Barbie is too perfect, she needs a makeover from me...

Barbie as I remember her. Bleach blonde, orange, garish clothes and pure trash

Portfolio building

This was fun to shoot and edit!!

First TV package for uni from Rachel Loxton on Vimeo.

Cold Times

There's only a few things getting me through the winter weather and they are all completely superficial. First is awards season. It's too exciting to see the outfits and they all lead up to the Oscars which take place on 7 March this year. My favourite BAFTA outfit this year was Carey Mulligan and not just because she's a winner. She is so cute it's impossible not to like her. The Vionnet dress would have been so wrong on someone bigger than a size six but she pulled it off like a pro. I really wanted to see 'An Education' the film she won a Bafta for. It was written by Nick Hornby who is one of my favourite British writers. Audrey Tautou also looked amazing in her sugar pink Lanvin dress. She always looks so French. Another personal favourite of mine was Jaime Winstone who looked a vision in Alexander McQueen. I love her style, it's so grown up but edgy and fun at the same time.

Carey, Audrey and Jaime above looking fabulous

The Brits last week were mixed. Music and fashion alike. Between Cheryl's terrible miming and Geri acting like she was still relevant today, it was a bit of a wishy-washy show. Highlights for me were Florence performing with Dizzee Rascal (obviously as she and he looked amazing) and Liam throwing Oasis's award in the crowd. He got a lot of stick for it but I thought it was quite funny in an altogether uneventful show.

Florence belts out and Dizzee looks suave @ The Brits last week

The second thing getting me through the-7 degrees weather in the morning (the car recorded this temperature this morning) is the coverage of London Fashion Week. Live streaming here, magazines dedicated to disecting the catwalks, the catwalks politics and who's wearing what on the front rows makes for good reading and watching.

The third thing getting me through is comfort food. Soup and bread has never tasted so good. Need more carbs to keep warm.

Cold times in Torry

Image sources: guardian dot com, times dot com, Claire Harkins dot com

Get yer antlers on

London began hosting it's Autumn/Winter 2010 Fashion Week on Friday. Fashion is always ahead of itself and that's why I like it. Since we are still in the depths of winter everything on the catwalks is appealing me to so much more than sorbet Spring colours. In fact I nipped into Topshop today to kill 5 minutes before shorthand and they actually had bikinis in stock. My skin hasn't seen real hot sunshine since a brief day in July last year when the sun came out in Guernsey. I love the sun but the cold north east wind up here means that even when the sun is shining on the glistening granite I still have goosepimples. It's good to give your pins a break from opague tights though.

Margaret Howell's show looked great (I only know from the photos because I'm miles away) but her looks are just up my street. Duffle coats, oversized shirt dresses, chunky knitwear, gilets, belting up and mannish shoes (see post below - flats rock!) and lots of layers. A recurring theme in a lot of the shows has been red especially in Howell's, I don't wear a lot of red but this could mean it will be everywhere come Autumn. Apparently I read on Grazia dot com that Alexa (as in Chung obviously) took a photo of one of the outfits and declared "I fucking love them!" If it's good enough for Chung...

I also found out that Topshop Unique had some interesting headgear on their catwalk. Displaying their animal obsession, models strutted with antlers and uber-bushy eye brows amongst other interesting ideas. Furry mittens, lots of faux fur added to the winter animal theme. Clearly I am way ahead of the fash-pack as I sported antlers and a furry gilet way back in October 2009. See below my antler effort sandwiched between Topshop Unique's creations. The last three images are Margaret Howell's designs:

Look how cute the red satchel is in the last one!! Margaret Howell A/W 2010, Topshop Unique A/W 2010. Photo sources: Grazia dot com and Guardian dot com