English Spring OOTD

Now anyone who lives in England, or anywhere with a similar climate will know how unpredictable the weather is. We had a few weeks of lovely sunshine and no-jacket weather and now it's back to rain and cold! But the other day I devised the perfect outfit to wear to transition you from the cold into the slightly less cold season.

The jumper provides that warmth that we sadly still need (even though it's may), but the casual slip-ons that show your feet a bit stops the outfit looking too wintery. I paired them with cords as you can never go wrong with cords, they're just a funner alternative to wearing the same jeans every day. I feel like this oufit also has a sporty look to it which is very 'in' at the moment, especially the jumper with it's striped neck, hem and cuffs. The colour and cute pink writing on the jumper also stop it looking too wintery in my opinion. 

This outfit was a perfect college day outfit, as it was comfortabe, warm, but still stylish in a simple way.

Jumper: s.Oliver

Cords: Topshop

Slip-ons: Topshop

Hope this helped and thanks for reading,

Emmy x 

I love Grayson Perry

Today's post is a post from my phone for the first time, as I had a sudden urge of late night motivation! I'm going to tell you about an artist who changed my opinions of art exhibitions for the better. The incredible and talented Grayson Perry. 

Now, I'm certainly no artist, and I've never been good at art galleries. I'm the type of person who is impressed by paintings which look like photos and not much more. But in December just before the end of last year, I visited the Grayson Perry 'Who Are You?' exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. This was the first exhibition that has enabled me to truly understand the meaning behind the art.

The exhibition was basically all about how people identify themselves, and it was based upon a group of British people Perry had met, who all were in a stage in their lives of needing to define their identity.

Each piece of work had a description of the subject's story and how the artwork represented their story, which is why it was so easy to relate to and understand the art, and what made me fall so in love with it. I could ramble for days though so I'm just going to finish by showing you a few of my favourite pieces.

'The Ashford Hijab'

This piece depicts a young white woman, Kayleigh Khosravi, who converted to Islam, to be free from consumer and sexual pressures of westernised young women. It shows her making the journey from the haven of consumerism (Ashford designer outlet) to Mecca. 

Melanie, Georgina and Sarah

My photo is a little out of focus but it shows 3 women, who in ancient times represent fertility goddesses, with beautiful curvaceous bodies. Adorned all over these bodies, however are images of food and the 'perfect' female body, to represent the contrast between how he female body used to be seen as beautiful, but now as a health problem.

Memory Jar

This was probably my favourite piece from the exhibition. It represents dementia, shown by an elderly married couple, still very much in love. The Husband has Dementia, and this is depicted as an evil creature on the back of the vase, cutting up the photos which represent the memories the couple have together. I found this beautiful yet sad and it's the piece I haven't once forgotten about.

Those were only 3 of the 14 pieces of the exhibition (The most famous one is probably 'The Comfort Blanket', research it if interested) but I hope this post interested you and made you appreciate the thought behind Grayson Perrys artwork. His most recent book 'Playing to the Gallery' goes into more depth on how to appreciate art and I love it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Playing-Gallery-contemporary-struggle-understood/dp/184614857

Thanks for reading, much love,

Emmy x 

Why I went Veggie

So I haven't blogged in months, pretty much because as I was a new blog I just lost the effort and gave up trying to gain followers. But I've now become motivated to try and change that, so I'm back!!!

The best welcome back post surely has to be an update on changes in my life, so I'm talking about a change I recently made in deciding to become a vegetarian! 

I decided to make this change as I found myself being more and more put off meat. I eat mostly vegetarian anyway, as its healthier and my Dad's a veggie so it makes life easier, and I just realised that I just didn't WANT to eat meat. I soon found myself feeling guilty when I did eat meat because I know how cruel the meat industry is and also how bad farming is for the environment, so I thought I'd just go for it and make the commitment.

I was nervous at first to admit the decision I made, because being veggie comes with a tonne of judgements and misconceptions. To name just a few:

"You just want to go veggie as a statement, to try and look cool and foodie":  I literally cannot stress how untrue statements like this are. Admittedly you get cool vegan bloggers who make amazing food and do make vegetarianism look like an alternative statement, but I'm sure 99% of people would NOT want to give up burgers and bacon butties just to look cool, and I personally think the cruelty to animals is a much more important issue.

"The animal's already dead when you buy it, so whether you eat it or not doesn't make a difference": In these cases people need to learn about supply and demand. The animal's only dead already because of the extremely and ever raising demand for meat. If everyone became a vegetarian the demand would be completely reduced and there wouldn't be thousands of dead animals in the meat aisle of your supermarket I can assure you. 

"But what about cavemen, they ate meat it's part of the food chain!": It is art of the food chain! Hunting animals for food for survival that is, but not farming thousands of cows and housing them in dark cramped conditions before sending them off to be slaughtered. Definitely not.

Anyway, this blog post might have been extremely boring if you have no interest in vegetarianism (sorry!) but to conclude, I don't regret this decision in any way and couldn't feel happier about my conscience when eating so I would recommend this change to everyone. Also, people who say you can't get nice vegetarian food, just try the quorn cocktail sausages, They are life changing.

Much love, Emmy x 

Halloween

This is a bit belated but I've been meaning to do a Halloween post! As I'm sure many other people do, I love autumn. Everything gets a bit colder, the new starbucks flavours come out, leaves fall and everything feels so christmassy and festive. And the best thing about autumn I think you'll agree is Halloween!!

My favourite part of Halloween is dressing up. This year, instead of being traditional and dressing scary, I decided for some reason to go as a 'pop art girl', based upon Roy Lichtenstein artwork. Although some may argue that it goes against the idea of Halloween to not dress scary, I found my idea a bit more individual and interesting, and also really fun! To create the look I drew circles on my face using a No.& lipliner, and added the details and expression marks with gel eyeliner. It was actually a super quick and easy makeup process and was quite a lot of fun, as I love experimenting with Halloween makeup. There are also tonnes of tutorials for the look on YouTube to help. To finish I just pinned my hair up in a vintage style and wore a 'Clueless' inspired checked co-ordinate. 

Me as a 'Pop Art Girl'

As for celebrities, my favourite looks were firstly Kim Kardashian as a skeleton, which I think was really flawlessly executed and cool, as skeletons were very popular as outfits this year. She also dressed her child North West up as a skunk which was ADORABLE. Check her instagram for pictures. My other favourite celebrity Halloween look, just for the comedy factor, was Katy Perry as a cheeto, you go Katy Perry.

I don't want to bore you anymore with Halloween talk, just hope you had a good one yourself and I'll leave you with one last picture of my Pumpkin which was amazing.

Emmy x

Goals

Internet Crushes!!

I thought a good blog post idea would be to tell you all about the people on the internet who I follow and adore! They are social media queens with amazing style and online personalities, which is what makes them so popular. My first internet girl crush is:

Charlie Barker

@charlieburker on twitter and @charliexbarker on instagram and snapchat, Charlie is the girl crush of ALL people. She's signed to select models and you can see why as she's beautiful, but inside and out as she always points out!! This is one of the reasons I love charlie, as being a feminist she encourages girls to love themselves and not compare themselves to others which I completely agree with. She receives lots of negative comments for being unusual and not shaving her armpits etc. but she doesn't let it stop her and can deal with the hate which I think is extremely admirable. Her style is really unusual but she always looks good and really individual which I think is why she's internet famous, as she really stands out from other people. 

I think the amazing thing about the Internet is that people can meet and make real friendships with people they wouldn't know otherwise, which leads me to Charlie's friend:

Joanna Kuchta

I first discovered Joanna through tumblr (ppolishprincess.tumblr.com) and immediately fell in love with how cool she was. Her tumblr has an 'aesthetic' theme which I love, and from her many messages from fans, I could tell she was popular. Her instagram which is joannakuchta also gets thousands of followers, likes, and comments. What makes Joanna such a girl crush is her cuteness, her simple but cool style (lots of American Apparel - I approve.), her relationship with her boyfriend which many people describe as 'goals' and her friendliness over social media. She is also a feminist who believes in self positivity which I love, and she doesn't wear a bra and works it which I'm extremely jealous of. Her twitter is @pixiejoanna and so is her snapchat, I recommend you give her pages a view if you don't follow her on everything already.

My third and final internet crush, who I have been a fan of for YEARS is:

Erika Bowes

 I discovered the japanes/english beauty through her blog 'handfuloffashion' on blogger and followed her back  in the days when she had long hair and posted cute outfits which I really liked at the time. Now i'm probably 4 or 5 years on but love her more than ever as her style has become less on trend and girly, and more experimental and unique. She is a fan  of oversized clothes, anything with good strucure, and sophisticated looking outfits and always styles them perfectly. She's different to Joanna and Charlie in that she's popular through fashion rather than just being a general girl crush. She always inspired me to one day become a fashion blogger which I guess is what motivated me to set this blog up! Her tumblr is erikakbowes.tumblr.com,  and her instagram and twitter are @erikabowes.

Thanks for reading, this post wasn't meant as a promotion of these accounts as that would just be an insult to their level of internet fame, but rather a post to give people inspiration of good accounts to follow, or to let them know who on the internet inspires me.

Emmy x

Vinyl Revival

Not done a music related post yet so here we go, I'll talk about vinyl.

Vinyl is experiencing a boom like never before. So much so that it's possibly beginning to overtake the figures from it's prime, as this years vinyl sales have been at their highest in 18 years. Why?

Well, at the moment in time anything a bit vintage and retro is cool. Be that mom jeans, polaroid cameras, or 90's velvet crop tops. And with this surge of vintage styles, someone somewhere must have brought their old record player back to life.

With this, they would have rediscovered, what, in my opinion is a superior listening experience that you just don't get from an ipod nano. There's something about going to the store and picking up a record, and then taking it out of it's fresh sleeve with beautiful artwork on which makes you much more invested in the music you're listening to. And as well as that, the sound quality is actually better too, and the general image of a record spinning on your turntable is a cool one.

If you're one of those people who thinks that records are just for trendy people from shoreditch or old men who still use their turntable from their teens then you're wrong! I used to be cynical about them myself, thinking they were just accessories for the indie to try and make themselves more indie, but I couldn't have been more wrong! Once I tried vinyl I never looked back, and with more and more genres of music now being produced in vinyl, it really does have appeal for everyone! 

A turntable I can recommend if you don't want to splash the cash and just see what records have to offer, while not compromising too much on sound quality, is the one I have which is the ION Pure LP (pictured below) for just £59.99, and it comes in 4 finishes!

Another I can recommend if you want to spend that bit more for high quality sound and a sleek look is the Rega RP1, which my dad has and is amazing! It's pictured below and is around £230 but in my opinion totally worth it.

Thanks for reading and please follow if you like what you're reading of the blog so far!

Emmy x

The F word!!!

Feminism!!!

Yes, I am writing a post about feminism. The reason being that I am a feminist and feel that as a blog is a platform to write about your passion, I am writing about a passion of mine, gender equality. Firstly, this idea that feminism is a bad word because it has the word 'fem' in it, really needs to stop. not only because hating the word fem is another reason feminism exists, as automatically the word is hated when it is to do with just women, but because feminism by definition affects both genders. It is gender equality, and only has 'fem' in it because it as a result of women fighting against oppression for hundreds of years. And rightly so. Feminism is the reason women have equal work opportunities in the UK, the reason women are allowed to vote, and the reason the wage gap is getting smaller! It is safe to say that feminism has achieved massive milestones in this country, but that sadly in other countries women don't have the rights that women in the UK have.

However, just because the UK is in a better position than other developing countries for women's rights, doesn't mean we should stop trying, as there are still battles to be fought! Women still face oppression everyday in the UK, whether that be derogatory language ('slut' to name one of many, whereas guys would be called a 'lad' for the very same reason), cat calling in the street, rape culture, or unfair pay. If the UK tries to completely abolish gender inequality, it could also teach other countries to do so and have a positive affect around the world. I think it has recently come to light, that in order for gender equality to be achieved, we must strive to give both men and women rights. Although it's clear that women have been much more oppressed than men over the years, men do also face discrimination, which is spoken about in Emma Watsons 'He for She' speech. The Fact that celebrities are getting involved in the movement will hopefully cause great progress as they are helping abolish the stereotype of feminists being angry man haters, which in 99% of cases we are not!! 

Now I only decided I was a feminist myself a few months ago, after a discussion with some friends. I was one of those people who thought that women had a fine and easy life, we have the vote so we're fine surely?? But what I found after talking to my friends who are feminists, is that there is so much about the movement I was simply uneducated about! So if you're the same I would highly recommend doing some research,because we should live in a world where you can dress how you want, not shave if you don't want to, be safe walking around streets alone, be allowed the same BASIC human rights as men in developing countries, and get paid the same. If you're a man reading this you should be able to express your emotions without being called a 'pussy', dress however you want without being accused of looking to feminine, not be frowned upon as a child if you'd rather play with dolls than footballs.

I hope that whoever has read this understands the opinions i'm trying to get accross and respects my views, and hopefully learns something from it!

Bye for now,

Emmy x