On Friday evening, I went to Dawn O’Porters pop-up shop in Seven Dials, Covent Garden for an event ran by Women and Home magazine. Dawn O’Porter is writer and presenter and from the TV series ‘This Old Thing’ which was on last year, she is also married to the actor Chris O’ Dowd, which is where the ‘O’ comes from.

It is fair to say that Dawn is mad keen on vintage clothes, so she has scoured the streets of LA, where a lot of the best vintage comes from, for some lovely finds which is BOB Vintage. She has also created a new collection of designs based on vintage clothes in standard dress sizes, (as we know, one size does not fit all in vintage) and this collection is BOB by Dawn O’Porter.

During the event, Dawn made a speech about her collection and urged everybody to try on from the new collection and the vintage collection. She was very hands on selecting items from new and vintage and for a few of the ladies there was definitely a falling in love moment with a few of the pieces.

I had a good rummage around the vintage section and the new collection, the vintage is probably priced starting at around £30, £60 being the average, although there are more expensive pieces. I spotted a beautiful Jean Muir dress that was around £480, but it is an absolutely stunning evening dress and could even be worn as a wedding dress, if white is not your colour. There were also some great vintage day dresses, jackets and skirts and some lovely occasion wear.

My favourites from the new collection are the fabulous fifties circle skirts THE JANE – GEESE IN FLIGHT SKIRT

THE JANE – DOG WALKERS SKIRT, THE JANE – PAPER PLANES SKIRT, THE JANE – QUOTES SKIRT all really inventive, prints, with a bit of comedy thrown in. I also like the Little Black Dress, THE LOU  and a crepe mini dress THE  ELVIN that will work as a day to evening dress, which comes in bright red or bottle green.

I hope Dawn O’Porter grows and develops this collection, as it is a great idea, I am a big fan of vintage clothes, the way they feel when you wear them, the quality is so much better and you feel you are wearing something special, if you can get that same feeling from her new collection as well as her carefully selected vintage pieces, then she will be on to a winning combination.

The pop up shop is only open for another two weeks and you’ll find it at 35 Monmouth St, so bob by and have a look.

If you are still searching for that occasion wear outfit for a wedding or party this summer, my last offering is from Marks and Spencer.

This dress is incredibly versatile and will hide the tummy area effortlessly, so if you are apple shaped or a pear it will be a perfect addition to your summer wardrobe, a great holiday and weekend dress too, you should get lots of wear out of this one.

AUTOGRAPH Drape Front Maxi Dress T504517 £69.00

You could wear with either of these two really affordable jackets and they would look great with skinny jeans or flares too.

M&S COLLECTION Open Front Textured Jacket T590791J  £29.50

M&S COLLECTION Linen Blend Open Front Easy to Iron Jacket T590781B £35.00

LIMITED EDITION Crossover Platform Slingback Sandals with Insolia® T029368A £35.00

M&S COLLECTION Floral Box Clutch T010383C £29.50

To dress this maxi dress down, just add this cropped denim jacket

LIMITED EDITION Western Denim Jacket T693049J £45.00

This dress is from Monsoon also and would look great on hourglass shapes, pear shapes and straight or slim figures to add curves.

Lemon can be a difficult colour to wear, but looks surprisingly good on quite a few skin tones, it looks great on medium to dark skin and can look good with fair skin too, but generally if you are fair skinned that tans easily or peaches and cream, it’s a goer, but if you have fair skin with any yellow tone to it, then step away from the yellow dress.

ROSELYN DRESS 7455624614, Monsoon £69.00

If you are planning to wear this one for a summer wedding, then you could wear it with this little shrug

CALLIE CHEVRON SHRUG 7431801451, Monsoon £35.00

With accessories, you are spoilt for choice, white, cream, pale blue, red, magenta, or even silver or gold, for shoes and a bag would work well.

Remember you don’t have to match your shoes to your bag, for example you could have a cream, white, or yellow bag and pastel blue shoes like below.

AUTOGRAPH Leather Pointed Toe Stiletto High Heel Court Shoes, T024067 £45.00

FRANCES ZIPTOP ACROSS BODY BAG 7898609800, £10.00 Accessorise

This bag has a detachable strap so can be used as a cutch bag

The Roselyn dress can be dressed down for a less formal evening out, same shoes and bag as above and wear with a cropped denim jacket like below. For an everyday look, add flat sandals, wedges or white converse trainers.

LIMITED EDITION Western Denim Jacket, T693049J £45.00 Marks and Spencers

My last article was about occasion wear, as we know, lots of high street stores do occasion wear very well, Phase Eight, Coast, French Connection, Hobbs and Reiss have all got it covered for a wedding or party.

But if you are looking for something that you can wear again and something you can also dress down, without a hefty price tag, this is how to do it.

GEMMA JACKET 7480876112, Monsoon £59.00, PIPPA PLAIN MAXI DRESS 7455380216, Monsoon £49.00

This Jacket will also work well with jeans, cropped tailored trousers and a pencil skirt for dressing down. This maxi is good for minimising bigger hips and is good for creating curves on straight figures, it also comes in a shorter length too for petites

If you don’t fancy a maxi and want something more structured, try this … MILLIE SKIRT 7411150218 £59.00 and FEARNE TOP yellow 7425511408 £29.00 or CORALINE T-SHIRT 5232533210 cobalt £5.40 all Monsoon

This skirt is good for hourglass, straight and pear shapes 

Marks and Spencers Autograph Suede Platform High Heel Sandals, T021993A £45.00 Accessorize Mint light blue leather clutch  And to dress down, just add a denim jacket, this one’s from GAP

I have always loved Alice Temperley designs, if I want to transport myself somewhere for ten minutes, I browse at her gorgeous bridal collection or watch the video collaboration with Net-A-Porter. But back in the real world, if I want my Alice moment, I head for the concession Somerset by Alice Temperley at John Lewis.

 

 

Known for her romantic look, there are her usual floaty pieces, but there is more…there are edgier pieces, there is classic and there is glamour. Somerset is at the pricier end of the high street, but the pieces are investment pieces, so even if you buy one item from her collection, for example, the Somerset by Alice Temperley Leather Flare Skirt £199, it will last you beyond this season.

Other great pieces in the collection are the Pocket Floral Shirt £79.00, Long Pintuck Shirt £89.00,  Jacquard Oversized Knit Top £89.00,  Winter Floral Silk Dress £140, Animal Jacquard Dress £160 and the Rumbold Leather Brogue Shoes £120. If you are looking for something really glamorous for a special event this Christmas, then the Bugle Crepe Maxi Dress, £249 would be the perfect dress and will not date. And keep checking the website for reductions, it’s only a matter of time.

If you are buying a gift for a toddler or baby, then head straight to Mothercare or visit them online and take a look at the Little Bird childrenswear collection. Ever since Jools Oliver (yes, Jamie’s wife) has brought her children’s range ‘Little Bird’ to Mothercare, it has been consistently good. Celebrity high street ranges can often lack quality and imagination, but Little Bird is a lovely collection, which evokes childhood memories in spades. Jools is a child of the seventies and Little Bird was inspired by a Mothercare nightie embroidered with a fawn, that was passed down in her family, then on to her own children. The range looks more ‘expensive baby boutique’ than ‘high street’. The quality is good, it is well designed, practical, quirky, colourful and nostalgic, in fact pretty ‘pukka’ all round. The clothes are sweet for girls, without being twee or too grown up and the boy’s collection is cool and so far away from the standard tractor or dinosaur on t-shirt. Quite a lot of the collection is unisex, which is a real breath of fresh air. They have babyswear collection that is cute and they also have a fabulous interior range for a baby’s nursery.

Jools has already won the Junior Design Awards 2013 for boy’s fashion and was short listed for her interior range. I hope Jools Oliver continues to do well, as she seems like a nice down to earth girl. And just like I imagine Victoria Beckham designs her collection by her LA pool in 6 inch heels and shades, I’m sure Jools, designs her collection at her huge Essex pile, surrounded by bottles of herb infused olive oil, a massive piece of aging ham hanging up, with Petal, Daisy, Poppy and Buddy running around.

You can buy Little Bird from larger Mothercare stores or online, check out this gorgeous selection.

Little Bird by Jools Floral Bibshorts  Little Bird by Jools Crochet Blanket  Little Bird By Jools Seaside Dress  Little Bird by Jools Spot and Floral Cream Dress  Little Bird by Jools Seaside T-Shirt  Little Bird By Jools Multi Stripe T-Shirt

Little Bird By Jools Block Coloured Sweat Top  Little Bird by Jools Towelling Poncho  Little Bird by Jools Rainbow Wellies Little Bird by Jools Red Buckle Shoes