So hopefully you’ll forgive me for not posting too much.

I have a ton of posts I intend to write, but right now my focus is on studying/revision, so they will have to wait, unfortunately.

So here’s some fashion-y snippets from the last week or so, to fill up this blog until I have time to write a proper post:

1. I gave my housemate a lab coat. He now wears it all the time. Sometimes inside out.
2. I received Closet Confidential. I love it.
3. I have not bought any new clothes or accessories! Maybe I won’t end this year in too much debt!
4. My hair is now the longest it has ever been. From now on, this growing adventure is all new ground.

I promise you real entries as soon as exams are done! Stay tuned!

The Prejudice I Used To Hold Against Fashion: “I can’t afford to be fashionable, so why bother trying?”

What the old Kate would have said to defend this view: Celebrities are shown in magazines with £400 shoes and £1000 handbags, and there’s no way in hell I can ever afford that, or justify paying that much even if I could afford it. Even for cheaper items, styles change every season, and it still all adds up.

What I didn’t know at the time: Style is not about trends. Style is not about designer items. Style is about an expression of yourself that you wear on your body, and whether you never wear the same dress twice or whether you wear the same clothes every day — it is style if it suits you, and if it (in your opinion) looks good, if it makes you feel good, and if you enjoy getting dressed in the morning.

I’m not going to pretend that style doesn’t cost money, to some extent. If you’re worrying about where your next meal is coming from, or whether you can pay rent next month, buying accessories (even cheap ones) is unlikely to be your top priority. Obviously.

But it doesn’t cost as much money as I used to expect. It can cost as much money as you’re willing to spend, true. But if you can afford to have enough clothes to wear clean clothes between washes, you can financially afford to dress in a way that makes you feel wonderful — purely by making sure that all the items in your wardrobe (which, after all, you have to buy anyway, or go naked) make you feel wonderful. You can change your look just by learning to mix and layer your items in unexpected and exciting ways.

I’m lucky enough to have a little bit of disposable income and not be worried about whether I’ll still have a roof over my head next month: I am aware that I am in a privileged position. But I am still a student, still living on loans. I am definitely not ‘footballer’s wife’ rich, or even ‘yuppie’ rich. I buy a lot of second hand items. I am always grateful for hand-me-ups from my little sister. Many of the pieces of jewellery I own were my mother’s or grandmother’s. I love sales. Fashion costs me money, but it doesn’t cost me hundreds of pounds I don’t have — if it did, I would just say ‘fuck it!’

What changed my mind: Playing dress-up in my room with my existing items. Boggling at the possibilities of how my clothes could be worn, even if I wouldn’t dare wear the combination out of the house. Putting wrapping ribbon in my hair. Scouring charity shops for secondhand finds. Inheriting properly vintage jewellery.

There are many things I’m looking forward to in the year 2010. I want to finish my second year of University (assuming all exams go well), go on holiday if I can afford it, and see my hair reach waist length. I want to go shopping with my sister when she visits me at University, and take part in NaNoWriMo. I hope it will be a good year.

But I have a newborn blog that needs a lot of nurturing yet before she grows up, and since I’ve only been blogging less than a month, she is still in the formation stages. And I got to wondering what my blog is looking forward to in 2010. So, this year, I’m hoping that the following things will happen:

1. Find my camera, and post regular outfit posts. — the world of personal style blogs thrives on outfit posts. They provide me with so much eye candy and inspiration, and yet my own blog is severely lacking in them. I like writing these long-winded text posts, but I know the value of images and short, sweet messages, and I would really like to make my blog about 50-50 long posts to outfit images, which probably means eventually about two outfit posts a week.

2. My first comment on a fashion post from someone I don’t know. — I have a couple of comments on my ‘Has political correctness really gone mad?’ post from people I don’t know — which is great, it’s amazing to think people are actually interested in what I have to say! But I want to carve this place out as mostly a fashion blog, so I am really hoping to have a comment from someone I don’t know on an entry in my ‘Fashion & Personal Style’ category in the coming year.

3. Making my way onto a fashion blogger’s blogroll. – My lovely boyfriend has a link to me on his blog, which I appreciate. But I’m not too sure that our target audiences are one and the same! This year, I would love to make it into the blogroll of a fashion blogger. It would make my day.

4. Writing a post worth sending to a friend. — I would love people to come here simply for my opinions and chatter and photographs, but I’m sure that I’m not, in myself, quite that interesting! The key purpose of the internet is sharing information, and I hope that in 2010 I can write a post that is helpful enough that people will refer back to it later, whether it is a crafty tutorial, a compilation of helpful links, or anything else.

5. Getting a Google PageRank. — That grey bar I see when I visit my blog is a reminder of how far I have left to go. However low the number is that appears, I would just love to see a number.

So, those are my blogging ‘resolutions’ for this year — and I have to admit, they’re more fun and inspiring than the ‘real world’.

The Prejudice I Used To Hold Against Fashion: “Fashionistas are a bunch of airheads.”
What the old Kate would have said to defend this view: Fashion is just frivolous — there are more important things in life than makeup and shoes, and it’s silly to care so much about what you look like to other people when it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Why I was being prejudiced and moronic:

Of course fashion is frivolous. But that doesn’t mean that the people who follow it are. Almost everyone has a frivolous hobby or pasttime, whether it’s watching TV, or clubbing, or building little cars that actually go quite fast. Despite usually promoting the idea that everyone should try and make the world a better place, I strongly believe that none of us can be doing this all the time — we’d knacker ourselves out!

Everyone needs a little frivolous downtime, some ‘me’ time, and fashion is no lesser a hobby than any of the other little fun stuff that people fill their days with. Just because someone’s ‘me time’ of choice involves dressing up in pretty things doesn’t mean that they aren’t deep people. Plenty of people interested in fashion are academics, feminist writers or volunteers in their community. In fact, plenty of them are just all-round inspiring people, and would be even if they wore a binbag.

Besides which, fashion isn’t the passive interest I used to believe it was. It can be an active hobby, one that involves learning about colours, trying to understand weird clothing sizes (and hence, revisiting high school maths), and occasionally getting a little bit crafty. You don’t become stylish by buying a four hundred quid handbag — you become stylish by carving an image just for yourself, that makes you look and feel your best — and that is both a science and an art.

And hopefully, you gain skills, and confidence, along the way.

What changed my mind: As smarmy as it sounds, fashion bloggers converted me. Learning to disassociate fashion from the style magazines I avoided, or the peer pressure in high school, and associate it with how everyday people showed their artistry and taste through their outfits — that was an eye opener.

And I can only apologise to fashionistas everywhere for juding you, and hope to learn a few of your tricks as I continue along this blog — and hopefully, to gain skills, confidence, and friendships along the way.

… but it sure is pretty!

snapped in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne city centre.

any ideas, readers?

Ohmigosh. Omigosh.

Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Lady Dragon shoes [first mentioned in my dressy-up post] — best thing ever?

When I first saw them, a number of months ago, my poor father didn’t hear about anything else for a long time. But as an utterly broke student I just couldn’t afford the price tag (even if they are the cheapest thing to ever sit on the shelves of a Vivienne Westwood shop).

So when he asked what I wanted for Christmas, I coyly suggested … it would be REALLY nice if I had a pair of these shoes.

On Christmas eve I opened my gift from my grandparents, and found these absoloute beauties:

Aren’t you all very jealous?

Well, none of the rest of my family is. They dislike the smell and think I’m a little bit bizaare for wanting shoes made from rubber. They also seemed skeptical that December is the best time of year to be given high heels, considering most of the UK is still covered by a thin film of ice and I have to walk uphill to University.

BUT — I love them. And if my boyfriend, and the kid sister, and my grandparents, all don’t understand the prettiness of rubber shoes, then that’s their loss.

Even if I can’t wear them until March.

My dad’s girlfriend, Venetia, remarked that her daughter [also, coincidently, called Kate] was ever so impressed that I had a dad who would search a Vivienne Westwood store for shoes for my Christmas present from my grandparents. Even if he is blind to their beauty, I have to agree with the other Kate that he is a pretty special dad.

If all this wasn’t enough, on Christmas morning I opened a wonderful box from my dad, containing …

… uh, you’ll have noticed that’s a stock picture. There’s a good reason for that. I don’t own these any more.

See, my dad had bought me the wrong size, and today I had to go on an adventure of Entering-A-Shop-Where-I-Cannot-Afford-a-Single-Item, to exchange them for a pair that fit. I came back with a different style:

They’ll go well with my red train case, don’t you think?

So guys, if you need me, I’ll be prancing around inside in my new shoes. I’m happy to report that they’re super comfy (for heels, that is) and that I get a weird kick out of wearing truly beautiful shoes to sit at home and surf the internet. But when spring comes I will be wearing them in front of people, just you wait.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why I haven’t got a full length picture of me wearing these shoes so far in the post …

... this is what happens when the only person around to take a photo is my Dad!

taken by the kid sister, on my iPhone

… unfortunately, not with a good camera. This post shows two of my amazing Christmas presents — the much swooned over Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Lady Dragon Shoes that I’ve wanted FOREVER, and the train case I gushed about in a post a little while ago. Turns out, it works to your advantage if your boyfriend reads your blog.

I’m pretending I’m in the 40s, hence the centre part. They had purple rubber heels back then, right?

More on all these items, and more, in future posts. Consider this a teaser.

Mostly wine. But yes, me and Boy shared an under-the-mistletoe kiss, too.

Christmas has been fun [I'm still relieved it's over]. Spent 23rd/24th with my extended family in Darlington, and we spent 25th/26th with his parents. There has been awful snow. Even the beach is frozen. Sometimes cars don’t start, and I get stuck in York. Presents are given, and loved. I have a lot of fun gifts to write about, mostly fashion-wise. I also have already hit the sales and will be dressing up in my new clothes as soon as I can get someone to play photographer with me. Look out for some good posts in January — I’m going to write about the 6 Things I won’t do For Fashion and about Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Lady Dragon Shoes and give an update on that vintage train case I mentioned, among other things. So I might have been quiet over the Christmas season, but I will be back with a vengeance. Watch out!

I’m really starting to love my houndstooth coat, mentioned in an earlier post. At first I preferred the Lipsy mac, but this has now taken over as my most-worn coat.

Sorry for the bad picture guys, but taking a photo of yourself on an iPhone just aint easy.

It’s a bit huge on me but it’s super comfy and pretty warm and I love it.

I wore it onto campus the other day, and, like usual, ended up in the computer science undergraduate common room, where conversation immediately turned to my coat.

“Wow … what … is that? I can’t look directly at it.”

“Is that the stuff optical illusions are made from?”

“Why are you … dressed as static?”

“Sorry, Kate, your coat is making me nauseous.”

Not everyone will always appreciate your personal fashion taste. Especially not a bunch of geeks.

I’ve never entered a blog giveaway before, but I’m a big fan of Winona at ‘Daddy Likey’ (and the name)* and when I saw the awesome stuff she is giving away to celebrate the end of the year, I just couldn’t resist. This girl has badass taste, and if you aren’t already reading ‘Daddy Likey’, you should be.

She’s giving away so much stuff that I couldn’t write about it all, but I thought I’d post the most gorgeous thing that a sponsor is contributing here as an example, since I can’t take my bloody eyes off it:

Awesome Unicorn Necklace, $16, etsy seller CupcakesAndMace

It’s awesome! And a Unicorn! And a necklace! It’s saved on my computer as awesomeunicornnecklace.jpg. I am in love with it!

Sure, the cupcake necklace would suit my branding a little better, but honestly, I love this little guy. Maybe if I owned him, my unicorn daydreams could be complete, and I wouldn’t have to tie my hair on top of my head and pretend it was a horn. Then my housemates wouldn’t embarrass me by telling their friends I do that.

Winona’s book, of course, is the other awesome prize. I totally intend on buying it if I don’t win it. And if I do win it, I might buy a copy for the Kid Sister anyway.

* look out for me writing about Winona, as well as some others, in a future post. I intend on doing a piece about bloggers who finally inspired to start blogging.