What I'm Wearing: Georgia Hardinge & Dries van Noten Posted by Unknown |

Ok, let's get one thing straight. I am not the height designed for when it comes to this dress – the designer's ideal clients are the likes of Grace Jones, Skin from Skunk Anansie and Erin O'Connor (who is already a big fan of London designer Georgia Hardinge). Let me add to that list Florence Welch, who was recently photographed wearing this very AW12 print in a coat and top combo. Anyway, the point is, these are tall women of grand bearing more than capable of carrying off strong colour and print and more importantly lengthy, flowing materials. As I explained in a previous post, some of Georgia's dresses were trailing on the ground on my 5"2 frame at our try-on sesh, so really, this dress is a winner. On a model it's more of a knee-length affair (I'm not going to link to the catwalk version of this look, it's too much for my little heart to bare) on me, as you can see, it's coming in more mid-calf. Moving on, as previously discussed, I have added a pair of Dries van Noten heels (bought in sale), a vintage Oroton mesh evening bag (identical here, though I bargained the price at Spitalfields much lower than this!), an ASOS faux fur jacket (you've seen this in an outfit post before) a vintage/costume jewellery necklace and ring (family gifts, no idea of origin). Plus a dash of red lipstick by the now discontinued Ruby & Millie. And this, my friends, is about as damn glamorous as it gets around here. (In case you're wondering, the do I'm off to tonight is the Great Scot Awards where my hubby will be receiving a music award. :) Very proud!)

What I'm Wearing: Outfit Planning With London Designer Georgia Hardinge Posted by Unknown |

Recognise the print? Gorgeous, right? It's from London designer Georgia Hardinge's AW12 collection – I've blogged about Georgia before here and here; her amazing designs have been worn by everyone from Florence + The Machine, Lady Gaga and Erin O'Connor to Beyonce, Alesha Dixon and fashion blogger Susie Bubble. Anyway, last night I popped round to her east London home to do some outfit planning for a do this week. Not a massively major do, but the first one I've been to in yonks, so I figured I needed some help. Georgia helped me try on five of her fantastic designs (1. full disclosure: I'm such a shortie two were sadly too long on me despite the mega-heels and clever tricks with belts and 2. note to self: when a designer offers to whip you up something floaty over the weekend, say YES!) and after a few mirror poses and snaps (plus me moaning about how my figure is not what it once was) it was soon quite obvious which was the right one. Full outfit post featuring the dress we chose to come. 

I'm quite pleased with my choice of shoes, I think the geometric detailing goes quite well with a Georgia Hardinge design. So these are a pair of Dries van Notens I've hauled out of retirement; they were bought in a Christmas sale at Harvey Nichols at least three years ago. Can you believe I used to wear these out to clubs and dance all night? Oh, how times have changed.

And this is the bag, it's a vintage Oroton made in west Germany (Australian brand founded in 1938 but some of the older pieces were also made in west Germany, which is what is says on the inside tag making it quite a cool piece of sartorial history). Bought after some extremely hard bargaining in Spitalfields market. I didn't want to get too fussy with statement jewellery so I thought the metallic gold would bring the right amount of measured glitz to the outfit.

What do you think? Do you like the combination of pieces? How much time do you spend planning a big night out?