Fashion and Accessories Update

Fashion and Accessories

The latest spring trends are now pretty much available everywhere, despite the appalling British weather that we in the UK have unfortunately become accustom to. We hope this blog will guide you through the current and predictive ‘add in’ trends throughout the spring summer season and onto the next and beyond.

We’ll give you inspiration and new ideas of how to up the fashion anti in your wardrobe with this season’s looks from fellow bloggers, vloggers, magazines and send in styles. We’ll also be showcasing some products, tips and offers from our fashion, beauty and hair industry friends which you may find of interest.

For a fresh take on Spring looks to the feminine boho or grunge trend, mixing it up with multiple prints, playing with colours with a natural hues and multiple shades of blue (Sorry Delilah it’s not grey this time) pastels have taken a slight backseat since the in season introduction of multiple baby blue tones.

Incorporate sheer materials into your wardrobe with clothing items like slouchy trousers and free flowing maxi skirts. Team this more feminine trend with products styled differently or made of an alternative material; items such as biker jackets, leather or a block blazer to complete the look. Summer grunge is big , big like V fest big, meaning you just can’t go wrong with adding a biker or a blazer to a feminine look, so long as the colours blend well and aren’t too out there or OTT or clash with accessories or footwear.

Not forgetting this seasons accessories- the perfect addition to your spring wardrobe and great to make the same set of clothes look different. Team an oversized clutch with footwear like summer open toe wedges or kitten heel sandals with perfected nude tone nail polish to dress up and outfit for a summer BBQ or wedding reception, or a pair of flats with metallic accents, print or beading for an everyday outfit with a hint of luxe. Summer style this season is very mix and match, ideal for those on a budget or those who want to wear those new wedge shoes at all times, with everything regardless of occasion yet still be on trend and in style.

You can also take a more relaxed, casual approach to fashion with the route of sportier summer. Soft cloth drawstring shorts are the perfect addition team with trainers, low backs, high tops, a denim or leather jacket and a tee for the ultimate ease outfit ideal for those early morning errands and for

 ‘I feel awful what should I wear I can’t be bothered’

days. (We all have them!)

Crazy Uses For Deodorant

We're always on the look out for something new and whacky to share with you all and our latest find even made us curious! It's something we all have in our draw whether we're male or female, hairy or not hairy and if you don't that is quite frankly gross. (If you've just run out that is borderline acceptable *Note to self - be more prepared. 

 This piece was a tip from Jills Junction Here are five kind of crazy uses for deodorant:


1. Apply deodorant to your bare feet at night (on the bottom). This will keep your feet fresh during the day. Deodorant at night fights both odor and wetness during the day.

2.Put deodorant on your feet prior to wearing shoes that are painful. The deodorant will keep your feet from rubbing on the shoes and torturing you! This is especially helpful on the sides of shoes that rub. Be sure to use clear deodorant for this so you don't stain your shoes.

3.Deodorant is helpful in keeping your bug bites from itching. Next time you have bug bites that are bugging you, try this alternative relief.

4.If you have a lot of hair, you can use clear deodorant on your hairline to keep you from sweating and ruining your best hair do. Again, probably clear deodorant is best for this.

5.Need to freshen up your closet? Simply take off the lid to your favorite antiperspirant and your closet will smell awesome in no time.

So girls that is the answer as to what to put in shoes that hurt or you haven't worn in yet! Many people have roll on in their handbag meaning you are already carrying the answer to your shoeaholic problems!  

We'd love to here your little hints, tips and fashion solutions you use, to look and feel fantastic!

Hot 500!

Last night we attended the Hot 500 Club in Birmingham, UK. The hot 500 is a collective group of young entrepreneurs who come together to bounce ideas, learn about funding and connect with other people in business. Here is some more info on the hot 500

Who we are?

We are an inclusive entrepreneur hub network working in partnership with enterprise education providers and other young entrepreneur networks, to enhance the level of support available to aspiring young entrepreneurs. We also deliver the Hot500 Club, an innovative peer learning environment that brings together the motivated young people, to help each other overcome the challenges of running their own business and in developing their own entrepreneurial capabilities. Contact us to find out how we can work together, and support the next generation of business leaders!  

Our Mission

We provide an inclusive ecosystem of empowerment and holistic support, that nurtures the development of entrepreneurial talent, peer learning and collaborative partnerships, focused on the positive growth of enterprising young people.

Our Commitment To You

We will provide a transparent, positive and inclusive level of support and service, to help young people make a positive impact in their own lives, whilst making a positive contribution to their community. We also strive to build innovative and sustainable partnerships with forward-thinking organisations that are committed to the long term development and support of young people, focused on increasing the level of added value that they provide to young people, through enterprise and entrepreneurship activity, training and support.

  You can find out more here: http://thehot500.co.uk/ We had a whale of a time, laughing and catching up on what's new on the business SCENE. Here are some snaps of a group of us at the event.

   

 From left to right:

Sep Sabet (National student Apprentice Challenge), Romario (Pure Gender), 

Abdul Shakur (Marketing Solutions CIC), Chloe Tomalin (I'm Sorry What Did You Say!?), 

George Devereux (REZ Media), Amir (Aston University).

   

Keeping it real right there....  

Romario (Pure Gender), Abdul Shakur (Marketing Solutions CIC),

Chloe Tomalin (I'm Sorry What Did You Say!?), George Devereux (REZ Media), 

Amir (Aston University).

REZ releases Mazzy Star music video

 So our friends at REZ media have been working on a little project. Lovers of Mazzy Star's music they decided to produce a music video for the track 'Fade into me' It's inspired by love, light and deep inner emotion. It's emotive and demurely beautiful. Check it out, I was lucky enough to be there during some of the filming and it was a pleasure to watch such creative talent at work.

 

 As many ISWDYS followers already know we work closely with REZ media on multiple projects due to their highly motivated positive attitude and relentless commitment to our fashion projects. Creative flair flows and explodes onto our website, you think what has been released in the past couple on months was good? - We haven't even started. 

You can see more of REZ Media's work on their Facebook page here: FACEBOOK

Art Textures

Here are some royalty free textures we came across on an old DVD: ideal for style pictures and playing around on picture edit, photoshop etc we're currently loving using opacity and blending for culture photography and style sections for magazine editorials.

Feel free to take a copy for current and future reference. All we ask is you reblog, repost, tweet or like our facebook or pinterest wall!  


 
  





 

What About Us!?

Massive fans of The Saturday’s new tune ‘What About Us’ which last week hit the top spot on the UK official Itunes chart.

Una, Vanessa, Rochelle, Molly and Frankie all feature in this new sound club anthem. It’s fair to say this has been on repeat a lot recently!

Congrats to all the girls on their well deserved number one! 

Louis Barnett's Mayan-inspired Easter egg for Selfridge's.

Louis Barnett is the young chocolatier who has developed a Mayan-inspired Easter egg for Selfridge's.

Far from being simply a 3pm craving, chocolate was once considered the gift of the gods. For the Mayans, who toasted and fermented seeds of the cacao trees in the Yucatán forests 3,000 years ago, it was sacred. ‘Wars were fought over chocolate, and the beans were used as currency,’ Louis Barnett, who founded and runs Louis Barnett Chocolates, says. Barnett is obsessed with the history and craft of chocolate making. His own range of bars includes dark chocolate with spiced ginger and cacao nibs, milk chocolate infused with lime, chocolate truffles, fondants and pips (for cake decoration and hot chocolate). For this Easter he has gone back to chocolate’s roots to create a Mayan-inspired egg for Selfridges made from Mexican cacao beans fermented in the traditional way (trodden on rather than left in wooden boxes, which gives the chocolate a rich, fruity taste) and decorated with designs inspired by early Mayan drawings of rabbits.

   

 In a development kitchen opposite his house in Kinver, Staffordshire, Barnett invents wacky-sounding flavour combinations, including white chocolate infused with cola fizz (this new product is already a bestseller, along with the milk chocolate with honeycomb, sea salt and black pepper). In a hand-written book of more than 1,800 recipes, his latest creations are bacon- and pork-flavoured chocolates – pancetta truffles are his current favourite. ‘As you experiment, the library of flavours in your head gets bigger and easier to access,’ he says. Although Barnett has run a business for nine years, he is only 21. He left school at 11 after being bullied and was home-schooled (shortly after leaving he was diagnosed with dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia). As a hobby he made cakes for family and friends and then started supplying local restaurants. He also became obsessed with chocolate making. ‘I remember the first Belgian chocolates coming to Britain when I was about eight; the flavour was a whole new experience, it was fantastic. After that it became a little quest of mine to try as many brands as I could, and that led on to me trying to make my own.’ His grandfather lent him £500 to buy his first chocolate machine (‘essentially just a melting bowl’), and in 2005, at 12, he launched his company, Chokolit (a nod to his dyslexia; on his 21st birthday he renamed the company Louis Barnett’s Chocolates) from his parents’ kitchen. His revolutionary product was an edible dark chocolate box filled with nine chocolates. In 2007, the year after it was launched, Waitrose started to sell it, making Barnett the supermarket’s youngest-ever supplier. The same year, his parents raised the funds to open a factory in Burton upon Trent, where Barnett now employs 10 people – his mother, Mary, a former muralist, has worked with him full-time since the start, and his father, Phil, left his job as a health-and-safety officer to do the same role in the business seven years ago. By the time he was 14, Barnett’s products were stocked in Sainsbury’s, by 15 in Selfridges. Last year the renowned chocolate maker Callebaut appointed him as one of its world ambassadors. ‘It’s like the Nobel Prize for chocolatiers,’ Barnett says. Barnett delights in new technology. His latest hi-tech device cuts down the tempering process to 15 minutes (his old machine took two and a half hours). ‘It has speeded up production, but I’m glad I learnt using the old methods so I have that knowledge,’ he says. Even more hi-tech is a laboratory in France that Barnett uses (along with other chocolatiers) to analyse the molecular make-up of all chocolate sources in the world. The taste of the beans changes from season to season, so every six months the $150 million machine recalibrates his recipes, changing the percentages of beans so that his bars taste the same. Barnett is often away travelling, meeting the cocoa farmerswho supply him. In Mexico he is treated like a celebrity. ‘My picture is on billboards and buses, it’s crazy,’ he says. At home, a number of television deals are in the pipeline. Could he have imagined any of this when he started? ‘Absolutely not. It was a hobby, something to take me away from the tough time I was having. But now I am travelling the world, doing public speaking and running a business. There’s never a dull day in chocolate.’ Louis Barnett Mayan Egg (milk or dark chocolate), £89.99, exclusive to Selfridges