Hot summer style at M&S

FINALLY I can start getting excited about spring/summer trends. OK, so it's still grey and f.f.f.freezing outside, but a visit to the M&S pressroom this morning has got me daydreaming about Ibizan beaches and sunset cocktails.

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The bright and beautiful high summer show featured neon vests, purple playsuits and fuschia frocks alongside a hot nautical collection and killer catsuits.

I'm loving the accessories (especially the festival ready straw trilbys and Chanel style quilted clutches).

And I'll be piling on the tribal style bangles while deputy fashion ed Saskia and fash assistant Nicky fight over the silk playsuits.

In fact, so impressed was I with the whole collection I spent far too much time in the press room scoffing canapes and supping Earl Grey until the M&S girls moved me on (note to self, when they start serving lunch and I arrived there at breakfast time I've probably spent too long at a press day).

Style sins uncovered

Much worse than Jessica Biel's droopy Prada frock was her lank, greasy hair on the Oscars red carpet.

We've all been there: re-doing and re-doing our hair because it's Just.Not.Working ... then dousing the whole thing with hairspray and hoping for the best as we run out of the door.

But that's on a Saturday night down the local, not the most glamorous event of the year. Jess, there's no excuse when you've had months to prepare.

And her unwashed hair is just one of ten style sins that us girls find unforgivable, see the rest below and let us know whether you agree/disagree in our comments section at the bottom of the page.

1. Varying clothes sizes in shops

2. G strings on display / VPLs

3. Unwashed hair

4. Hair roots showing when clearly they need a touch up

5. Foundation tidemarks

6. Muffin tops

7. Chipped nail polish

8. Women who wear shirts that are bulging at the buttons

9. Women who drag their feet in Ugg boots

10. Clumpy mascara

Recession proof red carpet

Hollywood doesn't do credit crunch chic ... and thank goodness for that!

The red carpet at the 81st Academy Awards was a runway of priceless couture, in yer face bling, and most stars had at least two outfits to wear (changing before they hit the after show parties).

Mermaid styles, frothy fairytale gowns and sequins galore were the order of the day.

We loved Frieda Pinto's deep blue Gallliano frock, Maris Tomei's pale grey Versace dress and Victoria Beckham's dramatic jersey dress.

But the fashion team are divided over SJP's frou frou Dior Couture ... too old to look like a princess and too much boob on display, or dazzling red carpet duds? Discuss .....

Happy Birthday Fashion week

As if I needed an excuse to spend the weekend partying and drinking champagne ... London Fashion week is here and it's celebrating its' 25th birthday.

Of course, there are going to be some cool catwalk shows too, and tonnes of celebs to stalk (as we were dusting off our sequins for today's hot Ashish show word reached us that the HOFF will be there!) but we'll be saving most of our energy for the apres show shenanigans, especially the Johnny Blue Eyes show and party on Tuesday and Henry Holland's shindig in Soho.

Watch this space for all the goss, and check out Topshop's excellent blog from behind the scenes at the shows.

Back to the 1980s

Last week River Island held a Spring fashion preview for the fash pack - and it was all about the good old 1980s. If you don't like acid wash denim and studded brogues, look away now.

The store's hottest new ranges have been heavily influenced by the decade that taste forgot and the models at the show looked like they had stepped straight out of a Bananarama video ... lots of flouro, netting, union jacks, cropped cartoon tees and OTT make-up.

The fashion eds in attendance over a certain age agreed that if you've worn something once, then you probably shouldn't be wearing it again (denim look leggings anyone) and that this a great trend for anyone size 10, but RI's PR Manager (and in house super stylist) Arieta Mujay says it's not just a look for the club kids:

"You can still rock the 80s trend if you are not a size zero: bigger is better so team an oversized bright coloured t shirt or a slouchy top with a pair of leggings.

"For a real 80s feel, a pair of boyfriend jeans and an over sized Teddy boy jacket will hide multitude of sins."

Meanwhile I've been rocking my own take on the more grown-up 1980s look with Topshop's satin jumpsuit and mega B A Baracus style chains. Any very early risers might have seen me sporting it on Sunday's BBC Breakfast news ... believe it or not it's actually super flattering worn with sky high platforms and big hair.

Ideas for last minute lovers

Boys - and girls - there really is NO excuse for flowers from a garage forecourt, even if you still haven't picked up a little something for a special someone.

The web comes in to it's own at times like these and a quick look at some of my favourite sites has revealed a bevvy of beautiful gifts that look like you've spent ages choosing them but actually are so easy to order it's criminal.

The lovely TShirt Patisserie offers personalised goodies all year round, and their customisable heart shaped chocs are good enough to eat (see what I did there!). You can add your own design online choosing from different letters, symbols and colours (unlike Thorntons where the whole shop knows you want Big Boy written on your heart shaped candy). They even gift wrap them for you.

Another scrummy gift are these cute Kiss It Better cupcakes from Lola's Kitchen. The raspberry ripple and vanilla cakes are sprinkled with frosted hearts AND 30% of the proceeds goes to the Kiss It Better Great Ormond Street appeal so you can feel even better about your pretty pressie (lolas-kitchen.co.uk ).

And if you want to say I love you in style how about one of the limited edition Shot Dead in the Head t-shirts, for the Valentine that doesn't take him/herself too seriously? If none of the catchy slogans tickle your fancy you can customise the tees with your loved ones' name and have it sent anonymously to them in time for your hot date on Saturday night.

But if the credit crunch is really biting this February why not take advantage of Joy's FREE love letter service where you get to create a romantic message and display it in your local store window for your Valentine (and the whole world!) to see.

Aaaahhhhhhh.

February 8th 2009

Get personal this Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day lovers are wearing their hearts anywhere but their sleeve.

If your Valentine is the kind of person to have everything why not send them a pair of pants featuring a picture of their favourite person - You! These pants from Mio Destino also have space for a cute/hilarious message on the front (no pressure).

Obviously you won't be able to remain anonymous, but if you don't know the person that well, maybe you shouldn't be sending them pics of your face to wear on their butt in the first place ...

If the personalised undies aren't your thing then how about a Hand Hugger from Smitten Mittens ... the glove that lets you hold hands and stay warm while sharing a mitten .. aaaahhhhh.

Rex

Perfect for smug walks in the country ... but we're not sure how you'll defend yourselves from the not so smug singletons that might strike.

January 29th 2009

Daisy strikes a pose for DKNY

Classic American brand DKNY has released it's hot new Spring camapign images, featuring none other than our very own 'It' girl Daisy Lowe.

The leggy brunette looks hot to trot in a lightwash denim playsuit and cool aviator shades.

Shot by uber fashion blogger and street style snapper The Sartorialist the pics make us want to hit Manhattan (and drop a dress size) right now.

Pretty in Paris

Mischa Barton is just one of the celebs fighting with Kanye over front row Paris fashion week seats.

And while we're loving her new found style mojo, we can't help noticing that Ms Barton is losing the pounds faster than you can say "OC". Maybe it's her new found romance with Kooks front man Luke Pritchard that's keeping her so slimline?

We know that couture and curves go together like Donatella Versace and dinner, but we like Mischa with some meat on her.

Other celebs hogging the fashion limelight include Dita von Teese and Kylie Minogue.

My invite must have been lost dans le poste (seems to happen a lot) but I have been gallavanting around Hong Kong and Malaysia in flip flops and a straw trilby so I can't complain.

I don't think I need to bore you with details of my tropical holiday (smug, moi?), but if you do get to visit Hong Kong don't leave without a drink on the terrace at Sevva or watching the skyline light up at night aboard the very glamorous Aqua Luna junk boat.

Golden globezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

As the first major Awards event of the year the Golden Globes are often seen as a red carpet run through for the Oscars. If so, we're expecting the February bash to be one big YAWN fest.

Of course there were tonnes of beautiful frocks and fabulous accessories (Paris Hilton, below, being a surprising style 'hit' in electric blue), but the stars were so overstyled I wouldn't be surpised if they employed someone to pick out their pants.

WIREIMAGE

I miss the days of Bjork's crazy swan outfit and Lara Flynn Boyle dressing up like a ballerina.

As Hollywood recoiled in disgust at the red carpet rebels the rest of the world cheered because it was an indication that there were people in showbiz that didn't take themselves too seriously, that had a shred of individuality and most of all managed to get it colossally wrong sometimes ... just like us.

Unfortunately today even the newest stars have a professional stylist picking out the frock, jewellery and shoes. And so the red carpets are generally a sea of beautiful, safe, evening gowns leaving us with no-one to laugh at.

And this year the gloomy economy has seen the stars playing it even safer in lots of muted nude colours and black. Come on Hollywood, we know you're not being hit by the credit crunch so stop pretending and instead cheer the rest of us up with some ridiculously expensive fashion disasters to look at.

You owe it to your fans.

Plastic fantastic?

We know green is the new black, but are we really going to be wearing plastic bags on our feet this season?

Chilean designer Camila Labra has created a range of boots made almost entirely of recycled plastic bags.

The boots are called the Dacca, after the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka that banned plastic bags back in 2002.

These boots are made for ... erm, shopping?!

Solent

Now I'm all for saving the planet stylishly, but these 80s style bootees wouldn't be my thing even if they were going for a fiver in Primark.

But the 23yr-old designer has been swamped with orders for the �footwear, so maybe we'll all be wearing binliners this time next month?

Back to work blues

Following two weeks of partying hard and watching crap TV movies the Sun fashion team arrived back at our desks feeling rather blue.

I'm talking about our wardrobes of course, as denim is the hottest look to be rocking at the moment, which is right result as it's something we all already own.

True blue ... denim never goes out of style

Throw your old denim jacket over a cute dress, or team your jeans with a long-line cardi and rock chick boots and you're hotter than Amy Winehouse's sun-drenched barnet.

And if you do have a bit of Christmas cash to splash, go for an 80s style denim dress like this indigo one from Miss Selfridge. - in the sale now for just �

One time style icon Sienna Miller has had a great start to the new year as she has clinched a spot in February's packed London Fashion Week event.

She runs fashion label Twenty8Twelve with older sister Savannah, and nabbing a post at Fashion Week is a big boost to their business.

Sienna Miller ... no thriller in a boring stripey dress

But lately Miss Miller seems to have lost her style mojo. Pictured here sporting a dress by her own label the actress looks like she's been shopping in BHS.

She'll need to try harder than that to compete with the big British names like Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith.

And with prices starting at over � for a pair of jeans, we'll be expecting fashion fabulous things from the Alfie star.

Roll on February.