Onesie Direction

Yes I copied the title from Miranda Hart when she created a girl group for Comic Relief but it was just too strangely appropriate to not use. Over the past few weeks it has come to me that  One Direction have actually been setting a lot of trends here in the UK over the past few years. Probably the most obvious example ONESIES!
 
Remember their video diaries when the were still in the X Factor House in 2010? Well one of them featured the boys in what they called 'giant baby grows'; 2 years later, a onesie was almost a staple item in any teenagers wardrobe. But now they don't just come in different colours, dinosaur and penguin onesies are just some that are up for grabs.

 
Also, around the year 2011 if I recall correctly, our shops were filled with chinos, Particularly red and beige ones. My thinking is that if the group didn't just catch the trend early, than they might have started something with the trousers. Especially as their music video 'What Makes You Beautiful' has been viewed 364,267,162 times (as of 10th April 2013) and they were all wearing them.
 
Yesterday, I went into Topshop and was mildly surprised that there was a baseball jacket included in the collection. When looking at it, I immediately thought of Zayn Malik and his 'look'. It wasn't the first time that I had seen a jacket like this in the shops and it seems that Niall Horan has adopted the style too of late
 
For as long as I can remember, cardigans on young men were considered to be slightly odd and...old fashioned. That was until last year when cardigans on men created a sense of sophistication and was probably exaggerated more by the 'geek' style that came into trend amongst teenagers. How that came into trend I don't know but big, black, round glasses were immensely popular as well has checked shirts buttoned right to the top.
 
Of course the 1D could have just jumped onto the bandwagon early but I think that even if they hadn't started the trend, they at least contributed to it.

Make of the month- Skater Skirt

I am going to start  putting things that I have made onto my blog monthly to give you inspiration and to adapt what I have made to suit you. This month I will put 2 makes on in separate posts. For this entry, I would like to show you my black and white polka dot skirt that I have made from a pattern. In England, the 60's fashion trends are coming back for a vintage feel and our shops are currently filled with monochrome patterns (such as black and white vertical stripes). This era was more fun and daring than the previous decades in fashion. Something that was exaggerated in London Fashion week is the thought that everyone would be wearing skater skirts this year and they are already starting to emerge on the clothing rails in our favourite high street stores.

My outfit

Coral coloured lipstick brightens up an outfit

The reason I made this skirt, however, is because I was shopping in River Island with my mum when I showed her a skater skirt that I thought looked really nice. I told her about how it was coming into trend yet instead letting me try it on, she looked at the seams and suggested that I made one myself. I had made a couple of items of clothing in the past but this was the most excited I had ever got about making clothes. 5 days later and I am typing this scene whilst sitting in the very skirt that I was excited about making.

Strips of material can be used to make a hairband

The skirt is very simple, yet with this material, bright or eye catching. It is very easy to dress up or down and with it you could wear either pastels and neutrals or bright colours. It wasn't that hard to make either. As a relatively new dress maker, it was more time consuming for me as I had to tack certain parts before sewing. The top I have put it with and the way I have tucked it in gives a slight 50's feel to the look (which is good for me as I love the 50's style). The head band I put in my hair is literally the bottom of the skirt. I had to cut it down to make the bottom of it even so randomly I tied it to my head...and I kind of liked it. The make up I put with it was designed to liven the whole look up a bit yet keeping to the 50's style what with the black eye liner.

Vest- Primark £2.50
Top- Primark £5.00
Bracelet- Primark £2.50 (1 of 8)
Lipstick- MUA lipstick -nectar shade 16 Superdrug £1.00
Eyeliner- Rimmel Scandaleyes waterproof  kohl eyeliner in black- 001 Boots £3.99
Earrings- H&M £2 (1 of 12 pairs)

Bruno Mars' Unorthodox Jukebox

Bruno Mars' most recent album is Unorthodox jukebox. My reactions when hearing the songs for the first time were that the songs were very different to his last album. Despite this, I could still hear similarities in the songs which would define Mars' 'style'. This would possibly be songs with a strong beat with not an extensively long intro. The texture and instruments used vary throughout each track which at times can make the music seem quite stop-start. This is intensified as silence or pauses are experimented with occasionally. This keeps each song interesting as, with Locked Out of Heaven for example, instead of listening to the lyrics of the song, I will in fact be listening to the drumbeat of the... unusual vocals in the background of parts of the song. However, I often find myself chanting along to that bit.

I find the tracks on this album quite heavy which is the opposite of what people would generally listen to coming up to this time of year, but with exams coming up, I think that this CD could be a great way to relax, and if you can concentrate with music on, then to work to as well. Personally, I think that this album is suitable for many situations perhaps apart from kids parties perhaps.  My reasoning is that Unorthodox Jukebox has a few swear words and the topics of the songs could be regarded as rude. I generally don't like this in songs yet this album seems to be an exception.

Throughout the CD, you hear many different genres of music, you could easily dance to Treasure, When I Was Your Man is stripped back and is a sincere yet undeniably sweet track. If I am totally honest, Show Me constantly reminds me of Hawaii (and doing the wave motions to the side with my arms) which is where he lived before becoming an international star.

I love this album so much! It has taken permanent residence in my CD player and I doubt that it will be moving any time soon. I would give this album a score of 8.5/10.