Sweet like cinnamon

Jacket: American Apparel, £29 T-shirt: Hand-me-down Trousers: Urban Outfitters, £9 Necklace: Urban Outfitters, £4.50 Ankle Boots: TopShop, £35 (gift from the Kyle)

Hey my main bitchezzz. Yes I did just greet you like that; that's just how I roll now... First of all, I would like to say a massive thank you for all of the amazing response I have got from my last post via Twitter, comments, views and speaking to people in general. I am rather overwhelmed with how many of you took your time to read it (it's my blogs most popular post by almost double!) and respond to it- and there was little me thinking no one would bother! Thank you all so very, very much!

Back to an outfit post this time I am afraid. Although I have got some exciting DIY tutorials etc. coming up so watch this space! Every single thing I am wearing today (that I purchased myself) was on sale; the jacket especially was a steal (horribly aware right now that I am wearing the brand that I spent my last post ripping apart...), as anyone who shops at American Apparel would know, their sales are shit and hardly ever come about, and when they do they're so poorly advertised that unless you happen to stroll into the shop on the very few days they are having the sale, you're not going to know about it. This jacket remained full price on the website, but for some reason the Leeds store had it half price (not complaining...). I actually just walked past it and because of my, truly crippling, outwear-hauling disease (IT'S REAL OK) I just had to try it on, and because I tried it on, I obviously had to buy it. And so that I did.

The trousers are a bit of out of comfort zone- they're clearly meant for a taller lady than me and my 5 feet and 1 inch, and they have a terrible habit of making me look even smaller (I'm talking borrower size here), but I still love them and as I don't wear/have many prints in my life these have a very special place in my wardrobe... Unfortunately, they're see-through as well, not good for anyone who doesn't want to flash their knickers to the world or catch a severe cold, but being the genius I unquestionably am, I just wear them with some three-quarter length leggings underneath and Wa La! Problem solved. Plus, £9 is a bargain.

The necklace doesn't even need explaining; it's orange and has feathers----and was £4.50. You can't argue with that.

The lipstick I am wearing (MAC Matte in 'Lady in Danger') is definitely my new favourite. My heart weakens at the very thought of red lipstick so when I saw this one for sale for an amazing £8 on this lovely lady's beautiful blog, there was no question that it had to be on my lips asap. It came through the post yesterday and I actually love it so much I slept with it on last night, much to the confusion of Kyle.

Eurgh, I put false nails on for the first time in my life on Tuesday and I have found them completely fine except for typing! They're hitting every surrounding key instead of the one I actually bloody want! Anyway, I am starving and I have my usual 1000 tonnes of washing to do so I shall leave it at that for now. Hope you're all feeling as jolly as I am and enjoying the double figured temperatures!

Chow for now.

American Apparel: a teenage (boys) dream.

All images belong to AmericanApparel.com

Like many people, I love American Apparel- although the prices often flood my bag with the tears of my tortured debit card, the clothes themselves are worth the pain, and mostly promise to stand the test of time, of general wear-and tear and the ever-changing face of fashion.

As anyone who reads my blog would know, I am not one who enjoys spending money; even the thought of someone spending £400 on a bag triggers a flush of acid to my throat...If I can’t justify the money leaving my purse, it will stay closed. But since I trust in the quality and the versatility of American Apparel, I, most of the time, have no problem with buying from them, and have since had no regrets.

I have to make that clear before I get to the actual point of this blog post: I do shop at American Apparel and am (aside from a few unsavoury dealings with their twisted, non-existent, refund policy...) a happy customer. However, if I take money out of the equation, the reason I sometimes have reservations about buying American Apparel is their advertising.

Forget risking the embarrassing browsing history, monthly fees and the threat of saturating your computer with virus’- American Apparel adverts are teeming with young women with their tits, fanny’s and, if you’re lucky, a glimpse of pubic hair, hanging out for your pleasure; posing like they’re ready to fuck, wearing next to nothing, they look like they’ve been freshly plucked out of a LA ghetto at 15 and fed heroin to stand in front of a camera and masturbate.

Obviously I am aware that it’s just the styling, and that these girls are professional models and are probably not ex-prostitutes who just can’t get used to wearing many clothes, but they do look like they’ve just had a night of coke and rough sex and have woken up to find a pervert with a camera in their face promising them a full English if they can just get a few more shots in. (Disclaimer: this has never happened to me, so I don’t know how one actually looks after a night such as that, but if I had to guess...)

Nudity doesn’t offend me, nor does pornography, and I fully believe that sexual freedom is a thing of great importance in order to sustain/create equality and democracy. However, when I am shopping for clothes, I really don’t want some half dressed, well-oiled, barely-legal, young woman’s nipples screaming at me at the top of my screen. That doesn’t sell clothes for me.

Three guesses for what gender the people behind AA’s advertising are? For some completely unknown reason, I think it might just be the work of men. Which there is obviously nothing wrong with; I am sure there are thousands of innovative and brilliant male advertisers out there, but I think, in this case, they have completely forgotten that they’re supposed to be selling women’s clothes TO women.

Forgive me, I know it’s been said billions of times, but if the Pankhurst’s, or any one of the thousands of women who fought for our rights over centuries of male dominance, saw us letting this sort of advertising continue, I think they would have taken their picket boards and thrust it squarely in their stomachs.

This isn’t just a result of a society increasingly accepting sexual expression, this right here is simply advertisers using the women’s body to sell you their goods, and using the ‘sexual revolution’ to their own advantage, in this case, to take off more of her clothes. It’s something that advertisers have used explicitly since the 50’s—just because you live in a society where you can happily tweet “Just had the best sex of my life” without thinking, don’t think that as a woman you no longer have to fight- you do, in the same way that just because these adverts have a woman mid-thrust in a thong instead of posing with a can of soup, don’t think that these images don’t sexually exploit women. They do.

All in all, from a consumer perspective, I just don’t find it necessary to have an arse in my face when I am looking for a pair of socks, and find it a bit weird that if I show my boyfriend a skirt I like he might get an erection. It’s not empowering women, it’s not selling the clothes in any way and it’s making it difficult to browse the site in a public place without looking like an utter nympho. I'll admit that, like many of us, my boyfriend may or may not have similar photographs of me on his phone, but I didn't send him them for him to consider purchasing the shirt I may or may not have been wearing in them. If I typed in "school girl gets naughty in bedroom" I'd be extremely happy with the majority of these photos, but, alas, I didn't, and I got them anyway. So to summarise what I think of American Apparel's general advertising- it’s just fucking stupid.

Blue Jeans

T-shirt: Boyfriends Skirt: £22, American Apparel Shoes: £12, Office sale

Hola you beautiful people! This was actually what I wore on Monday, and I have been meaning to post it ever since but just haven't found the time, life got in the way, as they say.

I have had a horrible week; money issues, assessments, complete lack of motivation etc. etc. It's just been one of those weeks when absolutley everything you touch turns to absolute shit. In fact, just today, the toilet overflowed. Fucking fantastic. That's always nice.

Anyway I am not here to talk about plumbing now am I? I am here to talk about CLOTHES. And I bloody love clothes.

I love this skirt- I bought it online before Christmas. I have to say, the delivery took the actual piss but it was well worth waiting for. I have a similar one in plain black which I have worn to death and I know that shape doesn't make me look like the half-ton mum, which is not the look I am really going for, so when I saw this one on sale I thought eh why not. And I have no regrets. I am sure a lot of people would wear it as a dress or jazz it up for a night out, and I actually think it would look amazing with a pair of heels and a more formal top, but as I have excessively established on twitter I am an 18 year old who prefers baking pies to taking shots so we can abandon the idea of me going out in it completely right now (out of your mind? Good, I shall continue...)

You should have seen Kyle's face when he saw me wearing this T-shirt, it was hilarious. I've mentioned before that he absolutley hates me wearing his clothes, but I just can't help it! The way I see it is, I wash them all and fold them all up, and so I have the right to wear them ;) obviously you should all know by now I absolutley adore Moz, so the reasons for me wearing this T-shirt is pretty clear haha.

Bleh it's been such a struggle to write this post, I've been really homesick recently so my heads just everywhere. I promise my next post won't be as forcefully cheerful! Hope you've all managed to keep the smile on your beautiful faces.

EDIT: Oh I forgot to mention, I experimented a little with my tripod to see if I could get some full body shots so you can all get a good laugh at how short my ickle legs are, and I found that if I strategically balance it on my bed I can get my feet in. Let me know if you'd prefer me to take them like this all of the time or stick with the old above knee shots.
And about the shoes, they're beautiful and they were such a bargain, but they've well and truly ripped my right foot apart...

Lots of love and kisses,