Black lace

A/W 08 has proved to be the most eclectic season in fashion for some time, with everything from muted, sophisticated credit-crunch inspired classics to hideous peg leg trousers gracing the catwalks.

But my favourite trend by far (and this will not surprise those that know me) is goth. Yes goth. But banish thoughts of patchouli stinking torn trousered emo types - this is a modern, grown up look with attitude.

Think leather, denim and (thank you Prada) lace in black, black and more black.

And the shoes are to die for. sky-high shoe boots, patent stilettos and open toes everywhere.

The ever reliable New Look have tapped straight into the goth look with these gorgeous black lace-look pointed toe platform stilettos. Bang on trend and only £25 - what's not to like?

Peacocks

I wonder if there'll ever be a time in my life when I stop getting such a kick out of buying cheap shoes? Considering my current financial situation it's doubtful I'll ever be in the position to find out.

On the way to the pool the other day I, out of curiosity more than anything else, wandered into Peacocks. I'm not averse to the sweatshop end of the high street (I love New Look shoes and Primark pants), but Peacocks has always seemed a bit, well, chavvy.

And from a clothes point of view I'm afraid I haven't changed my mind. (Does anybody really buy those bright pink velour hotpants?) But the shoe collection was a lot more interesting, and I picked up these (definitely not leather) sandals for £15.



OK so they are definitely not the most comfortable shoes I own, and they have a weird built up bit on the sole which doesn't extend to the toe and thus trips me up quite frequently, but on the whole a bit of a steal imho, and I practically skipped out of the (otherwise horrible) shop with them.

Chelsea Flower Show 08

There are always a few recognisable themes in any year's Chelsea flower show, and this year one of them is fashion.

Susannah Hunter has created a limited edition handbag for the show, and Liberty's Creative Director, Tamara Salman a print for a scarf.



LK Bennett and Jo Malone both designed gardens - the LK Bennett one was nice, but I couldn't get near the Jo Malone garden for all the Chelsea girls with aggressive elbows.

The 2008 Chelsea creative was designed by none other than Manolo Blahnik, who has also created a (very) limited edition of one of the best sellers from his SS08 range, BOGAZICI. Only ten pairs have been made in this special rose print, and they're only on sale at the show.



They're on display in the floral design (that's flower arranging to the likes of you and me) tent in a glass case full of grass.

KG Hattie platforms

My new job definitely has its perks. The 50% discount, the sample sales, the ridiculous amount of holiday. But being paid to spend time 'researching' other fashion sites is the one I'm enjoying the most.

Recently I was asked to set up a new screen for part of the checkout process, and fortunately I remembered Kurt Geiger had a particularly neat example, which I'd come across almost buying a pair of sandals recently. I love the KG website. It looks classy, it's easy to use and it has one of the smoothest checkouts I've come across.



This seemed too good an opportunity to miss, and I bought myself these lovely brown suede platform Hattie slingbacks in the sale for £81.

If only I could claim them on expenses...

Peep toe townies

Generally I find M&S pretty disappointing in an all-talk-no-trousers kind of way, but I'm a sucker for their advertising. Not those massively irritating food pr0n ads, but the billboard and magazine campaign featuring Lily Cole and her enormous forehead. So I sometimes wander in just to make sure they still don't actually sell any of the clothes in the ads.

On the rare occasion they do have an item of clothing that actually catches my eye their sizing is so weird I've never found anything that fits. The trousers are too short, the skirts are too long and their tops are too dull to bother trying on.

So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across these grey patent peep toes with pink heels in the Limited Collection range. They also come in purple or black, but only the grey comes with the contrasting heel. I can only suppose the M&S shoe designer was smoking something when they came up with these, but I love them!

They had the added bonus of costing only £19.50, w00t!

l'autre chose

Despite the minging weather I'm determined it's going to be spring any day now, so obviously I'm in need of some platforms for wearing with flippy skirts and tea dresses.

Fortunately the Yoox sale popped up at exactly the right moment, and I picked up these beauties for £39 (reduced from £76).

Yet another pair to consign to the 'completely impractical' pile - with 4" heels and a 1" platform I ain't going to be running any marathons in these, but goodness they're pretty :)

all saints

Despite the fact I haven't posted in coming up for two months I've bought a whole heap of shoes in the meantime, some of which I will no doubt write about at some point. But without a doubt these Scrunch Boots from All Saints are top of the pile.



With killer 4.5" heels, round toes, black leather and soft slouchy cuff they look like something from the Vivienne Westwood AW 07/08, so they almost felt like a bargain at £115.

OK so these are not a pair of boots to wear to the office, or in fact to anywhere that involves any amount of walking. They've even got leather soles to help me slip over on carpets too. But the shape from the back of the ankle to the toe is so perfect it makes me smile every time I look at it.



Damn I love these boots.