EAST

Happy Friday (evening)!! Today I want to share with you the shots I did with my friends Meg Johannessen (who, y'know, just happens to be a model) and Christos Patelis (who, funnily enough, is a photographer) at a shop called EAST where I work. This all went down at number 85 George St in Edinburgh where the shop is located and the goal of the shoot was to show people my age that EAST isn't just for their Mum and Gran ;). Not only is it a cool little feature for the blog but this is also helping me build my styling portfolio! And I really hope you like what ya see. When I started working at EAST, I didn't know the clothing hugely well but after a week on the job, I was lusting after half the stock. Beautifully made, many of the pieces are hand made in India and although slightly higher than your typical high street prices, every piece is worth it. A lot of the new winter stock is made of fabrics like merino wool, cashmere, velvet and silk and is luxurious to the touch. I put together 8 outfits in total, combining each (mostly) with my own shoes and below are the results. I have linked all the pieces in the descriptions underneath each outfit. Which one is your fave? Let me know what you think!

OUTFIT 1 - The Hand Stitch Jacket

Here, I dressed Meg in the Neeru Kumar hand stitch jacket, the merino wool tie front jumper in slate (feat. beautiful flared bell sleeves), black stretch jeans, the silk blend pom pom scarf and the moon and star necklace. The boots are my own and they are still available at ZARA. I love the way this jacket sits, especially with cut-out, tie-front neck and flared sleeves of the jumper underneath. An outfit totally appropriate for all ages. 

OUTFIT 2 - The Velvet Dress

 Could you think of a better outfit to wear to your Christmas night out?! No. Didn't think so. Meg wears the new beaded velvet dress, the silver plate star necklace and her own over the knee boots.

OUTFIT 3 - The Fedora

This is a really easy look to wear and pull off. Adding the leopard print ankle boots brings the outfit to the next level and adds a bit of colour too. We are all becoming far too comfortable in all black ensembles! Here Meg wears one of my favourite pieces - a beautifully fitted wool blend blazer, the same jeans featured in outfit 1, a felt fedora and a pair of leopard print booties I bought from ZARA last year. There are plenty of similar shoes to these kicking about still from places like Topshop, ASOS (SUPER similar) and Sam Edelman (also available on ASOS if you're wanting your 10% student discount).

p.s. You could wear a lot of different tops with this blazer but I kept it simple with this super soft t-shirt (which I can vouch for because I own it and it is such a great wardrobe staple).

OUTFIT 4 - The Bardot

My favourite! The bardot dresses and tops are an EAST staple and sell like hotcakes whenever they come in. This black one is a size small and is still in the Edinburgh store right now although unfortunately not on the website anymore! I teamed it with this beautiful mirror work belt to stop the straight fitted dress from drowning out Meg's slim frame and also to add a bit of sparkle. This dress also looks beautiful with no belt, and looks great with black jeans and boots.

OUTFIT 5 - The Song Bird Dress

I loved the idea of teaming this dress (the one on the website is in a plum colour, the one we used above is available in the Edinburgh store) with Dr Martens for a while before this shoot happened so I couldn't wait to put Meg in it. I wanted a more grungey than girly vibe, despite the Song Bird print on this beautiful dress as I figured it would make a good contrast. Because it's winter, I layered one of EAST's classic long sleeve black top's underneath and jewellery wise I included a deep blue beaded necklace and my all time favourite cuff (which I own - it goes with EVERYTHING).

OUTFIT 6 - The Palazzo Pants

GUTTED I can't even say that I styled this look and it's one of my favourites! My boss Louise suggested putting these awesome palazzo pants with this wrap around cardigan and so we tried it and I loved the result. Because the pants only come in S, M and L, the Small size was a little loose around Meg's waist so I hoiked (spelling? Is it even a real word?) them up and fixed them in place with this pleated leather belt. This belt is great because there's no buckle and it' super long - you just wrap it round as many times as you need and tie it in a knot. So, credits to Louise Aylesbury for styling this one (and me for adding the belt lol). 

p.s. Just had a look and there's no sign of these trousers or cardi on the website but I can assure you they are both available in all sizes at the Edinburgh store!

OUTFIT 7 - Pink Fairy

Just look at this angelic dress!! I couldn't help but team it with the craziest shoes I own. This is in the sale and although it is still at a high price, think of all the things you could wear it to! A wedding! A holiday abroad next Summer! A party! An ex EAST employee came in once and tried this on and she had on the cutest golden ankle boots so if you want some more realistic shoes to wear with this but still keeping it date-night, can I suggest these? I love the combination of baby pink and gold. Perfection! 

p.s. These crazy platforms are Jeffrey Campbell X Wildfox and came out about 5 years ago now so are very hard to come by :( I lusted after them when they first came out but stupidly didn't get a pair so, 5 years later, I had a search for them on Depop (the app which is basically what you would get if eBay and Instagram had a baby) and I found them! Yay!

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I hope you've enjoyed this blog post and I hope it has helped you get to know EAST a little better. Massive thank you to my pals, model Meg Johannessen (who is signed to Colours Agency) and photographer Christos Patelis. Both did such a smashing job and this blog post would have been nowhere near as good without them (I am most defnintely NOT a model lol). I've also decided to add some of my favourite EAST pieces below that I didn't feature in the shoot. Enjoy!

G

Hooded Poncho

White silk oversized shirt

Pink tassel necklace

Merino long cardigan 

Bleach London Rosé review!

I wanted to make this blog post because the amount of times I have searched for a review of this stuff on someone's hair that is not white is unbelievable. For those of you who don't know, Bleach London is an Insta-famous, super cool salon based in London, specialising in bleaching and crazy cool coloured hair. A couple years ago now, they released a line of their own products and the stand out colour was Rosé, the colour all girls wanted to achieve on their hair. Well, since my lengthy process going from brunette to a bright blonde, I have wanted to dye my hair a cool colour and as basic bitch as it might seem, pink was always going to be my first choice.

You can buy the Bleach London products on Boots.com or on Bleach London's website and from reading reviews on Boots saying it made very little difference to a lot of peoples hair, I did not have high hopes so I took precautions. I bought two bottles of dye (I have relatively long hair and this was unnecessary.. I didn't even finish the first bottle), the Rosé shampoo and the Rosé conditioner. Now, I bought these a while ago but I finally found the courage at 3am last night after finishing an essay.. See the results below and how I achieved it!!

Before:

As you can see, some bits are super yellow-y towards the front. About a month ago (before this pic was taken, I used Bleach London's white toner to brighten the hair to help it take to the dye better - try this if you feel it's necessary. I also use Bleach London's silver shampoo and conditioner religiously). You can also see the rough colour my hair was before in my previous blog post. This photo was taken by Christos Patelli <3

After:

Fruit salad sweetie results due to my different coloured strands of blonde. Can't say I don't love it though!

Sooooo, in order to achieve this I shampoo'd it twice with the Bleach London Rosé shampoo, leaving it on for 5 minutes both times before washing it out. It is only recommended to leave the shampoo on for 3 or so minutes but I decided to push it a little to help boost the colour better. After washing out the shampoo for the second time, I towel dried my hair and proceeded to messily apply heaps of the Rosé dye throughout my hair (with my bare hands - use plastic gloves if you have some). Now it says to leave the dye on for 15 minutes but after reading reviews on Boots.com, I pushed to an hour.. Yes. A whole hour. After the hour was up, I washed it out and applied the Rosé conditioner and left that on for 5 minutes then rinsed it out and this is what happened! So pleased I avoided a half arsed peach colour and achieved a full on baby pink. My next challenge is to not look too hipster now when dressing myself. Will probably leave the Wrangler mum jeans in the cupboard for the next month.

G

Creeper xox

(Fur cape - vintage. Jeans - All Saints. Shoes - triple stack creepers by Underground London. Bag - Louis Vuitton. Vintage cashmere jumper - there's some great finds at Armstrongs!!)

These were taken in our stunning *cough* stairwell today right before I left for work (two hours too early cause I'm smart like that...). I work at EAST, a UK based artisan brand located on George St and today I pitched a quick idea to my boss. She then told me to phone the head of merchandising for permission and I got it! So this new project for the blog will be coming very soon!

 Also, if you have not yet invested in a pair of creepers - I recommend that you do. They make you feel and look cooler, taller and skinnier. For cheaper options, head to TKMaxx (where I got these for £30 when the RRP is £110) or look on eBay and Depop. They're great for walking through puddles without getting the bottom of your jeans wet..

G