Tips on Warm Living:

HOT BLOGS

Perhaps a thicker version of this?

Autumn thus far, has been freezing, and we all know it’s only going to get worse. Rain, hail, wind. Wrap up warmly our mothers say, but the truth is, no matter how many layers you expertly put together, out in the blistering streets, your face will always be cold and exertions will make your body sweaty. Until Alexander McQueen showcases some wearable-ish balaclavas (maybe with lace?) nothing is going to help.

You can feel it coming; this weather can not be stopped nor denied. So I am going to offer you some suggestions on how to keep you warm with some blogs to keep you smiling, though from your hair icicles may be dangling.

Duvet Sandwich: My housemate used to do this, making a duvet sandwich, with one duvet below and one on top. Like a much less restrictive, elongated sleeping bag. Perfect with a hot water bottle if you’re not already sharing your bed with a human heater (man/woman).

Heat things: Once upon a time I was working in Manchester (God, it was so cold!) and I think my favourite day ever was when a company were giving heating pads out free at Manchester Piccadilly station. They are small bundles of heat joy you can stuff in your pockets, nestling your gloved fingers next to them. 

Best Buy: various heat pad in different shapes and sizes

Blogs to read: Apart from House of Beth of course, here’s a few that will warm the cockles of your lungs.

 

A curvy-friendly read:

http://fullerfigurefullerbust.com/

All you’ll ever need to know on chic dressing:

http://www.fashiontoast.com/

London centered, savvy reviews on fashion & culture

http://www.notsolonelylondoners.com/

For the feminist leaning amongst you

http://wordsaboutwomen.tumblr.com/

Ethical fashion news

http://www.ethicalfashionblog.com/

http://designandkindness.blogspot.co.uk/

Always great comedic value

http://www.how-tobeawoman.com/index.php/category/blog/

Keep dreaming, laughing and stay warm.

By Rosalind Kendal

The London Fashion Week review

We have just seen Fashion Week and a sneaky peek at what’s to come for us in spring and summer
2013! I’ve been checking out some of the big designers and there have been some really adorable
pieces on show. We have seen a lot of prints and geometric shapes especially in the case of Sass
and Bide’s cheeky burlesque inspired short dresses! Maria Grachvogel’s collections of pastel and monochrome inspired dresses have some amazing feminine aspects to them. As for accessories I love the Anya Hindmarsh Satchel style bags with neon shoulder straps too.

There’s a lot to look forwards to, but spring and summer 2013 seems like an age away! What about
over the coming months? Here are some of the top trends to help you look hot on those cooler
days!

Houndstooth/Checks and Tartan

This is a huge trend over the coming months; we are seeing a lot of tartan and check patterns. You
don’t have to be part of a highland clan to rock that tartan on your six inch stilettoes! Houndstooth
is also going to be huge this season and not just on coats. Think oversized and asymmetric black and

white patterns on dresses as well as accessories; mix this up with your tartan rara skirts or fitted
jeans.


Wedge heels and Flatforms

The last time we saw flatforms was back in the 1990’s when the Spice Girls rocked those towering
platform trainers. Without a heel they were named the ‘Flatform’. Over the summer we saw some
absolutely gorgeous summer shoes, the trend is still going strong well into the autumn. Don’t go
throwing those peeptoe or sandal flatform to the back of the wardrobe just yet. Instead try wearing them with some patterned woolly tights? Add some legwarmers around the ankles for added warmth and a quirky style.


Peplums

Once a reserve of those wanting to relive those Joan Collins Dallas days; we saw the peplum backwith a vengeance over the summer. On those bright colour block and floral dresses during the summer months. The shorter skirt over the longer skirt style is very in and does amazing things to any girl’s waist regardless of size and shape. Perfect for those ‘straight up and straight down’ figures adding shape while also great on those curvier girls.

Motifs: This is another very popular trend this season; we have seen everything from cats to oddly
moustaches! It’s anything goes when it comes to motifs. Some may consider animals on clothing
to be childish and a little eccentric maybe, but wildlife motifs are everywhere this season. Foxes, owls and rabbits can be seen on sweaters and scarves as well as accessories! Call it revisiting ourchildhoods but we love them! Why not sport an animal motif that’s most like you? Are you as cunning as a fox? As wise as an owl or fluffy like a cute little bunny? Take your pick of this season’s animal motifs!

By Hema

Ripping it bare

Whether you wax, lazer, trim, use burning cream, or shave: most females reading this, remove your pubic hair at least twice a year, if not twice a week. There are so many different ways to exterminate or cultivate all those hairs piercing your smooth skin, but today let us ask why we spend so much time, money and effort doing this? (And on that note, why arm hair? Why leg hair?)

“Body hair is ugly” says little miss normalised. “If you’re going to share, it ought to be bare,” says little miss conventional. But during this article, gag the little misses with scarves made of your own discarded pubic hair, because the removal of hair can be a so very painful and expensive process, we need to examine our reasoning. Indeed, feeling on occasion like paid-for-torture, just so you can be a ‘normal woman’, the wax process, for anyone not familiar goes like this: a woman in a lab coat towers over you, dripping hot (but pink!) wax onto your skin, and as she rips the thick wax from your shuddering body, you cry out from the hideous pain and she cackles. That’s why the lazer, for over a hundred a go, is so popular. Wax is torture, lazer is expensive, shaving and epilating does your skin no good, and cream isn’t precise. It is uncomfortable and expensive and yet we consider it almost a necessity to our lives.

Do all cultures make the same cut? And what is the history of the hairless? Well, there is evidence for it in ancient Indian and Egyptian cultures, especially amongst the upper echelons of society. There are moments of women taking a stand against the excessive hair removal in history too, the habit falling out of fashion after Catherine de Medici, then queen of France, forbade her ladies in waiting to remove their hair any longer from one of the most sensitive places on their body. But the history of waxing, like the history of menstruating is an obscure one, the female body, unless she was a prostitute, was a private body.

Catilin Moran argues that our obsession with making our bodies resemble a pre-puberty time is a pornographic aesthetic. In pornography, they keep it clear so you can see the genitals better, and it has now become a fashionable trend. I would add to this that until the 20^th century, the majority of classical western painters seemed to conveniently miss the pubic hair upon their nude women for perhaps a similar reason? While literature never seemed to explicitly mention women’s body hair, not in Shakespeare and certainly no Jane Austen character went off for a wax.

Indeed, it’s as if female body hair and the everyday women removing it, just never quite existed until recently. Although from the way bikinis and lingerie is cut, it seems the existence of pubic hair doesn’t factor in their designs at all. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if these companies were in cahoots with the waxing industry, shaking hands over secret deals to make tiny underwear that only looks good if you’re barely there.

There is history behind the idea that hair on the body, signifies an unkempt disinterest in basic bodily grooming like an unattractive heathen, even your own underwear is against you!

This has reminded me of the time I confessed myself a feminist to my thirteen year old classmates. ‘That means you have hairy armpits!’ was the intelligent conclusion they taunted me with that break time. I should have replied “Yeah, so what?” defiantly. But I let them instill a sense of shame in me so that I could fall in line with their hairy politics. Didn’t we all? Hair ultimately symbolises subversive contempt for the public ideal of beauty, showing there is someone who does not let the needed approval of others govern her own body. Like the fall of paradise, we became aware not of our nakedness, but of our hair that needed to be governed.

We will carry this playground shame and continue our efforts until someone makes body hair seem beautiful. But meanwhile I’m asking for baby steps. Do you need to rip it all off? And so often? Can you ever feel comfortable with the fact that there is hair growing on your body? This is my parting gift to you.

By Rosalind Kendal

The Ethics of Fur

Six months ago I asked three students what they knew about ethical fashion.

‘umm,’ they replied, ‘it’s like not using fur isn’t it.’

‘Is that important to you?’ I asked.

‘Yeah, I guess.’

‘How about making sure your clothes aren’t made by slave labour?’ I asked, good naturedly.

And the students were silent. Awkward.

Ultimately, the woman who began PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, is a clever marketing guru as well as an ethically minded individual, who has managed to pull a lot of stunts to get the attention of the press, the worldwide community and students. People really do remember and often adhere to her cause, fur is not as fashionable as it used to be. We probably need someone like her in the ethical fashion community, pulling high profile political stunts directed at the labour behind the label and sustainable materials. For although PETA is impressive, I believe that the no fur campaign has over shadowed the general ethical fashion campaign somewhat. Do people care more about animals than they care about people in poverty when they list no-fur as the main ethical choice in their purchases? And what is the real problem with fur in the first place, especially when it is second hand?

The truth about fur is (unless you’re a vegetarian who does not wear leather) in principle using fur from animals you already eat, is theoretically not a bad thing. It’s actually waste efficient. Of course there are farms that breed animals just for their fur, which can seem cruel, places that treat animals badly which is horrible. But just like the choice between buying a free-range chicken or a battery-farmed chicken, can we make a similar choice when buying fur? Is there a way to buy fur ethically?

There is a website called furisgreen.com which argues “For many trappers and aboriginal communities living far from urban centers, beaver and other wild animals are part of their everyday diet. Whatever they don’t eat is returned to the forest to feed other wildlife. Nothing is wasted.” Which all sounds like a rather lovely eco cycle, if it does indeed take place amongst the fur-coat gathers of the Canadian hemisphere. In any case there must be a way to establish more transparency in the fur industry, so that just like free-range chickens, there can be the option of free-range fur. Just as we must try to establish more transparency in retail generally, fur needs to fall in line.

I spoke with a very good friend of mine (Maxine) who always has a more considered stance than most, about what she thought of fur and buying ethically. She takes a more anti-fur stance, yet does not necessarily have the labour behind the label as a high concern when she is shopping, as many people do not, yet. She offers this:

“I think the problem is that the fur campaign was ultimately far easier to push onto people, because the people it targeted are a smaller group and because it's a luxury item people can live without. A person's basic wardrobe is a necessity. As is their child's school uniform. So the pressure consumers can place on the brand/product isn't the same as there's no affordable alternative. If, however, an affordable alternative did exist, then maybe people could be more choosy about where they shopped. Even something as simple as organising charity shop stock so that it was organised by size could help.”

Luckily House of Beth offers both an organized way of ethical shopping, offering only quality clothes at affordable prices, so an alternative now does exist!

As affordable recycling is key to all modern life, I see no problem with second hand fur. In England we are blessed with icy winters, and a second hand fur coat, is a way to keep warm and glamorous all winter long, like Narnia’s winter queen. Besides which I am on a new bridesmaid mission to find the bride a second hand white fur vintage coat to keep her warm in her wedding dress. So far I have checked charity shops, Ebay and I am soon to go Portebello. Wish me luck. (Any retail suggestions are welcome)

By Rosalind Kendal

What women wear: Sarah Sleeter

What Women Wear

Sarah Sleeter

FX/SWAPS/CDS Analyst at where Bloomberg LP (Finance for those who don’t know!) Sarah is a lover of all things fashion – not just the everyday clothes but the artwork, the couture.

Ralph Lauren ruffle shirt and Shirin guild skirt

What do you wear to work?

Smart wear – not usually suits though except for an important meeting.

We are the only department not to get casual Friday’s because my boss hates jeans. I like being smart and getting dressed up though.

Orlando's poem precious stone necklace
and Boutique turquoise wrap dress

Is fashion important to you?

Yes – I think even as a kid I would experiment with different things though not always successfully (still not always successfully!). I think presentation is important. I like a mix of trends and my own style – not every trend looks nice on every person. I do read fashion magazines but not religiously.

Vintage gold shirt and Whistles skirt

When buying an item of clothing what are your main considerations?

Price and Quality. I like labels – because usually they are better quality. I don’t mind paying a little bit more because it lasts longer.

Catwalk Collection skirt, D&G top, Swarvski and pearl necklace

What is your favourite item of clothing and why?

My knee length cashmere sweater/jumper/cardigan. It is like wearing a blanket around you. I cant wait till it gets cold out so I can wear it out! I bought it in a shop in Manhatten called Olive and Bette.

I prefer London shopping to Manhatten – I think the quality is nicer and I like the European influence.  I love jewellery but I am too afraid to have any wild jewellery so it is all a bit delicate.

Who is the woman you admire most from past or present?

Armani scarf and Armani dress

I admire bits of different women. In the past it has been important for women to be successful in family life, then with feminism women became career focused, but now we want to be successful in both which puts a tremendous amount of pressure on women. So when answering this question do I choose a woman who has succeeded in family life? Or is it important to choose one who has achieved academically, or politically? Or is it a woman who has been able to juggle both successfully?

Sportswear Style for House of Beth

There has always been something so intriguing about sportswear. It serves a very practical purpose, and yet from it’s very inception, has has a surprisingly large fashion impact. Trimmed, toned, fit and fabulous: the power of the iconic cropped top and cycling shorts combo is unsurpassed by it’s practical and fashionable offering. It is a fab way to look super sleek that is only accessible to those sweating it out at the gym- Until now that is! Sportswear has never been more exciting, especially with London 2012 Olympics & Paralympics!

Examples of designers who have sat up and taken notice of this trend include Alexander Wang, the collection for spring/summer this year reveals American football and varsity inspired cardigans and athletic socks, shown at New York Fashion Week. During Milan’s fashion week we saw Bottega Venetta's models in Karate and Tennis inspired sporty head bands. Gucci has come up with a scuba diving theme complete with sports mesh and harnesses. Jonathan Saunders model’s used the wet-hair look- very in keeping with the swimming theme. The London University of the Arts have got in on the trend and are offering a BA (Hons) in Fashion Sportswear. Fashion is so obviously in the process of producing the next generation of fashion sportswear designers- a sure sign that Haute Couture Sportswear is here to stay! Want to rock the Sportswear Style? Here are some hot sporty trends to look out for:

The Body Con: ‘Body Conscious’ dresses were introduced to the catwalks a few seasons ago and have never really left us. A prime example of combining the fashion with sporty: The use of Elastane (Spandex) and other Lycra based fabrics have proven very popular. This is primarily because it ‘pulls in’ and ‘pushes out’ in all the right places making for a sleek and sexy silhouette!

Stella’s Olympian style: As you are most probably aware lots of fashion designers have been getting in on the action. Stella McCartney has worked with Adidas to come up with a range of sportswear for the GB team. It’s classy but daring enough to make an impact! The range of Stella McCartney sportswear will no doubt be highly sort after once the Olympics are over, a great range that will inspire other designers to follow in its wake.

Red, White and Blue: No doubt that over the past couple of years with the Royal wedding, Her Majesty the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics there has never been a better time to be a Brit! The colours of the Union Jack are a very hot trend and can be seen on everything sporty! Don’t be shy about donning your Lycra Union Jack and wearing the colours with pride during the coming seasons.

House of Beth has this Fashionable sports mix covered, in particular the structured Leopard Print Leotard with shoulder pads. House of Beth also offers a Sportsmax yellow and black check with asymmetrical hemline, perfect for a lunch date or a busy weekend on the go. Or the Marc Jacobs dress? Take a look at House of Beth’s website for some great sportswear inspired fashion!

Love Hema x