Over the last few outfit posts you will have seen a few extremely cute new additions to my wardrobe like this stunning purple cardigan and these bow bangles. Each of these pieces are by local Melbourne label Friends of Couture.  I absolutely love Friends of Couture and you will have seen me wearing their pieces for some time now, remember this little lamb cardigan? Occasionally you come across a collection that you think to yourself, ” Oh that is all so me, I just have to have it!”, well that is the way I feel about everything FOC does.  They have a brilliant knack of combining vintage inspirations with super cute detail and modern chic, which  is why when they invited me to review their latest collection, Paris After Dark, I jumped at the opportunity.

Jo Matheson, (chief designer) and Candice DeVille aka Super  Kawaii Mama

Nicole looks stunning in the “Little Red Ridinghood” dress is azure blue with the red striped Matelot top underneath.

Paris After Dark is the new Autumn Winter 2010 range by Friends of Coutures head designer Jo Matheson.  Inspired by the romance of vintage lines and a strong traditionally French colour palette, Jo has created something that is both wearable, collectable and very very head turning. The collection takes a journey from the flirty and feminine lines of sweet floral chiffon with a distinctly 1930′s flavour and meanders through to stunning, slightly puffed sleeved cardigan with beaded art deco detailing. I particularly love the Hotel DeVille cardigan in a soft, buttery cream wool with deep blue beading.  There are the iconic pieces that take wardrobe staples and give them just that much more punch by creating a strongly waisted silhouette and drenching you in azure blue; as well as classic boat necked tee’s with stripes that Gigi would have been proud to wear.

Jo Matheson is responsible for the beautiful Paris After Dark collection.

Hotel DeVille Cardigan (left) clearly must have been named after me! Little Drummer Girl cardigan (right).

The feminine detailing doesn’t stop at the figure flattering cuts, but continues through to corsages, bows (that can even be worn in the hair!), tulle skirts and the softest of soft cropped angora cardigans. (I don’t know about you, but the snuggle factor of angora wins me over every time.)  I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to find a local, accessible label that knows how to combine current trends with timeless classics in such a seamless way. For example, they’ve taken the military feel (so popular in that Balmain jacket) and managed to capture the essence of the style in soft, wearable cardigans that make the most of our assets without having to cash in any to buy them!

When I start to think about “Paris After Dark”, my mind drifts to Parisian bordellos (clearly I watch too many films), smoky eyed women in sumptuous fabrics, with kissable lips and strokable hips.  Jo has woven this intensity and edginess into some of the darker pieces in the range using velvet and sequins (bows!), strong shoulder lines and strategically placed zippers. While our Parisian girl by day may be all feminine pinks or jaunty stripes, at night her walk takes on just a little more wiggle in body con electric blue, violet and black.

Oh, and for those of you who have been drooling over my high waisted jeans… let me tell you, this collection has the most amazing pair of wide legged, high waisted black pants, Sartori.  With flat fronts, button detailing, even button on suspenders; when I tried these on, they fit like a glove and I even gave a little Squee in the dressing room.  You are going to LOVE them. ( Watch out for an outfit post with them next week.)

See them on the left? Awesome Sartori pants!

Friends of Couture pieces get my seal of approval for not only being infinitely stylish and cute, but also for their quality. I’ve worn some of their pieces over and over and over again in the last three years, washing the knit wear and popping it back on the next day, and they have kept their shape, their colour and their edge. I can’t say that for a lot of modern pieces in my wardrobe, especially not those others of a comparative price.

Yes, I could go on and on about how fab this range is, but you really must see it for yourself.  If you are in Melbourne you can head straight to the stores at:

225 Chapel street, Prahan

186 Sydney Road, Brunswick

Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Melbourne CBD 311 Swanston Street, Melbourne

And, because one can’t possibly not share something this good with the rest of the world, you can get your hands on some of these fantastic pieces for a ONE DAY ONLY 20% off Valentines Day Sale in the online store!! Just enter “bemyvalentine” at the coupon section at the checkout for 20% off on ALL stock!

***EDIT: Just to clarify they do sell online and will ship to ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! So get in there while the Aussie dollar is still a bargain!***

So yay for awesome new designs and a great big yay for special sales too!!

Hold onto your hats friends, because today’s hair tutorial is a never before attempted feat of daring!

Two of my blogging buddies (who are also well known for creating fun and interesting tutorials) and I were having a little chat one evening when we came up with this idea. It went something like this, “Hi Violet, Hi Cheesie. You know how much we love doing awesome hair tutorials? Well how about we try this?”

It is a simple and fun hair do you’ve seen me wear an casual days and asked for a tutorial on. It’s also one you can customise to your own style.

Enjoy!

You can visit the awesome Violet Le Beaux and Cheesie to see more of their fun tutorials!

All of my favorite things – All at once! Monday and Tuesday this week were unseasonably cold. Wind, rain the whole box and dice.  So many poeple hate that about Melbourne, but I love it – it means I get to play with some of my favorite winter pieces all year around!

Can I just say I LOVE this outfit?  The dress was a fantastic find at a vintage fair.  It is a classic Misses (that is young lady’s) piece form the 1960′s.  It isn’t the most ideal fabric, as at the time all those doddgy man made fabrics were all the rage.  But the detail!  The little lacework collar that looks like frosting on baby blue gingerbread. The box pleating and the big covered buttons.  A brilliant dress found for the brilliant price of $40!

One of the best things about this dress is that it lends itself to being styled in so many different ways, it just depends on what side of the bed I wake up on.  Today’s outfit inspiration wasn’t actually the dress though, but these GORGEOUS bangles from Friends of Couture.

Aren’t they just like coconut ice lollies?!

I am also in total love with this new lipstick from Loreal in their Sheer Gelee range. It is the perfect Cherry shade, goes on smooth and soft, stays moisturising and even smells like raspberries! You can read a little review of it here over at Beauty Swatch.

Outfit Details

Dress – Vintage “Pretty Girl” label

Bow Bangles – Friends of Couture

Hair Bow Bunny – Nicole Linder on Etsy   Coloured Stockings – Columbine

Shoes – Tokyo & Paris by Le Pommier

Feeling the girly vibe yet?

Some Daily Outfits give me more challenges than most – especially when children and roller skating are involved! I was invited to take Miss Five on her first skating expedition this week along with a group of mothers and children from her school.  She was SUPER excited about going, wondering if she was supposed to win a gold medal and jump off big stuff! Me, well I used to be a big skater, going a few times a week and carving up the floor…. but that was a very long time ago.  I still had the old skates out away in the cupboard, but the have only been out on the rink about once or twice in the last eleven years.  This presented a whole new wardrobe challenge – just what does one wear when rollerskating with a bunch of five year old children??

I had to think long and hard on this one as my first instincts were to go with some of the outfits I last wore and break out the whole Olivia Newton John in Xanadu tpe of look.  But just in case that may cause the other mothers to shield their children from this crazy woman I decided to go with something a little less theatrical.  There was no way I was going to wear my workout gear for this ,as for me, workout gear belongs only in the gym so I had to think of the next best thing.

After a bit of a rummage around in the depths of the wardrobe I came up with an outfit that I haven’t worn in a while – it was one of my last pregnancy staples!  I have this great skull print jersey dress that has an open, cross over back that I used to wear backwards while I was pregnant with Miss 2. I’d throw this over yoga pants for casual days and it did the trick.  So it was the perfect thing to be both cute and comfortable whilst skating too.

Outfit Details:

Skull Print Dress – Episode    Tank Top – Portmans

Cropped Yogo Pants – Puma   Pewter Ballet Flats – U.B.H

Hair Bow -Bought so long ago I can’t remember!

Skates – Check your local skate store!

Of course it turned out that none of the other parents intended to skate and I ended up the only one over 3 foot tall on the rink!

I may be a vintage queen, but that doesn’t mean I’m always wearing red nails, because like most things variety is the key to having a bit of fun! So this week’s nails sees me having a crack at my own DIY Japanese style nail art. I have had to tone it down a bit so the girls don’t loose an eye to a diamante, but I still had to amp up the sparkle factor.

I made this set with a distinctly girly feel and paired them with my little 1940′s cropped cardigan, which made an unseasonal appearance yesterday as the temperature plummeted here in Melbourne! From a top of 38 degrees to 16 degrees in one week!

They are a combination of three different polishes, glitter, two kinds of diamantes and a sealer!

What do you think? Worth all the effort?