Designer Looks For Less 01/11/11

Hello loves, how're we all doing? As most of you know by now I've had a pretty awful week and whilst I'm not going to bore you all with doom and gloom what I do want to say is a MASSIVE heartfelt thank you to all of you on twitter who've been so lovely and supportive! 

On to brighter subjects now! Today I have some pretty awesome 'Designer Looks For Less' (if you hadn't guessed already by my subtle title) to share with you. Now, I always love doing these posts but I have to say today's finds have been my faves so far!

Let's have a look:

 First up we have this rather deeelicious fluffy coat! I'm not exaggerating when I say there's nothing clothing wise that actually more appealing to me than one of these right now. For the chilly walks to work in the morning, the late night excursions that should come with a frost-bite warning and for just feeling cosy for a change these babies would do it all. Oh and how utterly ridiculously glamorous are they?
On the left - Splurge - MAJE £990.00

On the right - Steal - Topshop £89.00

 Next up, we have the most exquisite of tops. Both just radiate elegance and opulence. The perfect top for wowing your date in the candlelight or for some delectable after-dark drinks with the girls. Team with anything from a pencil skirt to tapered trousers for a look that is pure haute-couture.
On the left - Splurge - Philip Lim £415.00

On the right - Steal- Miss Selfridge £32.00

 We then have these gorgeous shorts. Perfect for throwing on over a pair of black tights for a heritage-chic look this Autumn/Winter. With their gorgeous Autumnual tones these would look just divine for a country walk and pub dinner with your man. Team with a gorgeous cosy knit and the boots below and you really would be the embodiment of Autumn Style. 

On the left - Splurge - Tibi £550.00

On the right - Steal - Topshop £38.00

 Next up we have these beautties. Now, I'm not sure about you but I actually cannot think of anything that these wouldn't go with? I meen from skinny jeans and a blazer for an off-duty chic ensemble, to toughening up a gorgeous floral dress or keeping your leggings and sweater combo cosy - they're just perfect. Oh and they're pretty damn hot too!
On the left - Splurge - Monamoore £1240.00

On the right - Steal - H&M £24.99

Lastly, what girl doesn't need a bit of arm-candy? Sorry boys, I dont meen you! These lovelies would finish of any outfit to perfection. Classic brown tones work with anything from neutrals to bright pops of colour. Classy and practical - check out those sturdy handles - these would definitely see you through a long working winter.
On the left - Splurge - Mulberry £1150.00

On the right - Steal - Debenhams £40.00

So there we  are loves! Another load of gorgeous looks for a hell of a lot less!
Hope you enjoyed!
<3

Looks for less 05/09/11

Hello my loves, since my last Look for less post (which you can find here) I've had quite a few requests for me to hunt down some more designer or high-end inspired pieces for you lovelies to find for less (love requests keep them coming!)

Now you all know how much of a bargain hunter I am so of course I was more than happy to oblige and here are this weeks findings: 

(Disclaimer - I'm not claiming these are exact replicas obviously with such a vast difference in price there's going to be some differences but I do the best I can ;))

 Cosey cable knit sweaters - perfect with skinny jeans or leggings + boots for the cold snap!
On the left - blowout - Pringle £860.00

On the right - Budget - H&M £24.99

 Leather skirts - perfect over black tights + booties for a glam grunge take on Autumn/Winter styling
On the left blowout - Alice Temperley £106.00

On the right - budget - H&M £15.00 (I own this see it here)

 Next up a bit of cage fighter glam - these amazing caged booties I'm desperate for a pair of these in my life and plan to team with leather leggings + slouchy tees - perfection!
On the left - blowout - Christian Louboutin £980.00On the right - budget - ASOS £38.00

 Then we have some gorgeous bling to help put the finishing touches to your cold styling
On the left - blowout - Michael Kors £199.00On the right - budget - ASOS £25.00

 

 Lastly we have these beautiful berry toned bags to carry around all of your Autumn/winter goodies in!
On the left - blowout - Alexander Wang £282.00

On the right - budget- Miss Selridge £45.00

So there we are my lovelies, this is going to become a weekly feature from me so if you've seen something gorgeous that you just can't afford drop me a comment + I'll get on the hunt for a budget version for you!
<3

Designer Knits for Less

Hello beauties, I hope  you're all well! As we all know (mainly because I wont stop banging on about it) the colder nights are drawing in (dark at 8:30 BOO) and the high-street is currently awash with a complete feast of Autumn/Winter goodies (YAY).

When I was browsing today (including the lovely Mia's website) I came across some really funky knitwear that totally reminded me of Proenza schouler and Missoni's gorgeous patterned designs. Here are some of these designer looks from  fashion week :

 Proenza Schouler 

Missoni

And here are some amazing 'copies' that I've spied on the high-street. They'd look absolutely fabulous as a gorgeous focal piece of any outfit (I especially love them teamed with black skinnies or leggings and long boots) and for an added bonus these babies come at an absolute fraction of the price :

 

1. Dorothy Perkins  £25.00

2. Dorothy Perkins £35.00

3. Topshop £65.00

4. Miss Selfridge £45.00

5. Dorothy Perkins £35.00

So there we are my loves a way to wrap up in super style but without the super cost!
Stay cosy!
<3

Look for less - Winter Addition!

Hello beauties! I hope you've all got that fabulous Friday feeling right about now?! Welcome to the weekend and a couple of days to re-charge those batteries and refresh those feet after a week of rushing around in stillettos.

To further bring you weekend cheeriness I've been on the hunt for some budget replicas of this seasons gorgeous designer winter wear! Can I just say I'm officially in love with the high-street at the moment and can't wait to go stock up on all my cosies for the cold snap!

Here's my top finds :

 Firstly we have these babies. And I dont know about you but in the winter if somethings got fur on it ... I want it ha-ha. I'm all about embracing my inner eskimo and cuddling down in something cosey.
On the left we have the blowout buy - Acne £1200
And on the right - Dorothy Perkins £55.00 

 Next up we have some toasty marshmallow coloured knits - now whilst these might not quite be good enough to eat (imagine the furballs) they're almost there! I love the idea of snuggling up in one of these on a cold winter night.
On the left - blowout - Rag and Bone £180.00
And on the right - budget - Dorothy Perkins £28.00

 This fal I am absolutely obsessssed with shoe-boots I can't even tell you how many pairs I've seen that have literally caused my jaw to drop. These two are definitely examples of how freaking amazing these inventions can be. Imagine them teamed with super skinny jeans and a gorgeous oversized knit -grunge glamour perfection!
On the left - blowout - Miu Miu £515.00

On the right - budget - Asos £26.00

 Berry and wine colours are so in this fall (probably because they encourage red wine consumption and who needs an excuse for that?!) and of course no bag is more covetable than a classic chanel so the mix of the two is every bit as intoxicating to the eyes as a huge glass of vino is to the mind! Despite a few obvious differences the budget bag here isn't too shabby and still has that beautiful pop of colour.
On the left - Blow out - Chanel - Price on purchase

On the right - Miss Selfridge £11.00

 Lastly you all know how cerazzzy I am for leather (yeah ok I know im crazy in general but work with me here) and leather leggings have to be one of my ultimate favourite items. They look so gorgeous teamed with killer heels for a night out or effortlessly chic with an oversized shirt and flats for a casual ensemble.
On the left blowout - Michael Kors £395.00

On the right - budget - Bank £15.00

So there we are my loves! Some winter goodie steals for you!
If anyone is interested in me hunting down budget versions of anything pretty you've seen lately just leave a comment or email:
fashionismyh2o@hotmail.co.uk
Happy weekend!
<3

 

Requested - Pretty Woman inspired look

Hello dolls! Happy Friday - waheyyy weekend time already! Hope you're all well and good with some fantabulous plans for your days off. I'm off to liverpoool (insert terrible attempt at a scouser accent) to see the football with my boyfriend and maaybe squeeze in a look at the shops if I'm lucky! Very excited and will definitely be taking lots of pics to show you all.


Today I have a requested 'look for less' which came from the lovely Jess from JessicaWainwright Jess asked me if I could possibly re-create a high-street version of a fabulous look from the movie 'Pretty Woman' and of course I had to have a go!

Here's the gorgeous look she wanted recreating:

And here is my high-street picks to re-create it (Saddly no rich swoon worthy guy included - need to work on that bit)

 Firsty this lovely polka dot dress. The print is a little bit more subtle than Julia Roberts's in the movie but I think that helps make this look a little more modern and suitable for an everday look. The colour is lovely and that belt will help to cinch in waists for a flattering hourglass effect.
Mango at ASOS £28.00

 Then we have these super cute shoes - you can't actually see the shoes Julia is wearing in this shot and having never watched Pretty Woman (I know I know shoot me) I had to just go with what I thought would compliment the rest of the look - enter these beauties, classic, pretty and very versatile - perfect.
H&M £24.99

Then we have this fabulous bag which I think manages to combine vintage + modern chic all in one. I love the cute straps and whilst it's large enough to be practical it's also small enough to be very cute!
ASOS £17.00

 

 Next up we have these super classy gloves which as well as adding a real 'classic' feminine look to a look like this would look fab teamed with your winter coats for the cold!
Topshop £20.00

Lastly we have this beautiful hat to literally top things off! Super chic it'd look fabulous with a dress for a formal occasion or dressed down with skinnies and a blazer for a really chic off-duty look.

Topshop £25.00

So there we are loves a Pretty Woman look for all you Pretty Women (I'm so charming/cheesy)
Hope you like!
<3

Look for Less - Designer Inspired Pieces

Hello lovelies, I hope you're all well and good - as well and good as you can be on a Tuesday anyway ha-ha.  Today I'm being hassled by a cold-caller ringing me constantly - in the time since I've gotten up this morning (about 2.5 hours) they've rung me no less than 5 times - grrr, I'm not sure wether to pick up and yell at them to go away or just keep leaving it and hope they get the message! Aside from that though I'm having a nice day at home, prepping the house (a.k.a getting stressed at the ironing - I'm such a fail!) for the arrival back of my family from holidays - chaos is coming I can feel it! 

Before the madness ensues though I have a really interesting (well at least I hope it is) post for you today. The subject is 'Look for less - Designer inspired pieces' and by that I basically meen pieces that you can pick up on the high-street that are remarkably similar to much more expensive 'designer' versions. This is a subject I find quite fascinating as A)I always wonder how the budget companies are allowed to create such blatant copies and B)Why anyone would buy the more expensive versions when the knock of pieces are readily available?

Here is just a selection of 'knock off' inspired pieces I have found recently the designer pieces are on the left and the cheaper on the right:

 Left - Leather Jacket £395.00 Coggles

Right - Leather Jacket £49.00 Miss Selfridge 

Now I know I'm always going to be a champion of 'High-Street' fashion as it basically forms the backbone of fashionismyh2o but I honestly, honestly, honestly cannot see a difference in 'quality' in the appearance of these two jackets. I'm sure if I was to pick them up and feel them then there would be but in terms of appearance I seriously think they look like dead-ringers for each other and I'm sorry but at £350 cheaper... It'd be Miss Selfridge for me all the way.

 Left - Boots Guiseppe Zanotti $750.00

Right - Boots MakeMeChic $25.00

Yeah, once again this had me blinking for ages! I can see the Zanotti boots are a little bit sharper in terms of shape but generally overall again purely based on appearance I'm incredibly impressed by the 'imitation' piece again. I'd buy these black boots in a milisecond - how perfect would they look with some grey skinny jeans?

 Left - Yellow Dress  Wren £229.00

Right - Yellow Dress Topshop £46.00

Now I can at least visually notice a difference in the material used for these two dresses - the Wren dresslooks a much lighter fabric, but I have to say ... I think I actually prefer the look of the Topshop dress here - it just looks far less likely to crinkle and I much prefer my outfits to look like they've not been rolled around in ha-ha. Both dresses are beautiful though and I imagine the Wren dress would be a perfect quirky summer cocktail dress.

 Left - Black fitted dress - Ellie Saab £547.00
Right - Black fitted dress - Dorothy Perkins £38.00

Now again with this dress I can see that the expensive version is obviously slightly better cut - the shape of it is just absolutely gorrrrgeous! But the Dorothy Perkins number is definitely a decent contender and for those of us who could only dream of dropping £500 + on a dress it's not at all that bad of a consolation dress. Infact I'd be more than happy to rock it for work or a formal occasion anytime.

 Left - Jeans Veryeickhoff £329.00

Right - Jeans Witchery £49.95

Now I know it's not strictly true that jeans companies 'replicate' designer jeans - most jeans look pretty much the same to me but I think if you're going to be charging so much more for a pair of jeans I would expect to notice more of a difference? I'm sure the fit would probably be better (anyone with a designer jeans habbit want to elighten me?) these both look great to me and once again whilst I'm on such an 'adverage' budget I'd seriously struggle to justify the more expensive jeans.

Left - Printed maxi dress Tibi £270.00

Right - Printed maxi dress River Island £29.99

Lastly this is probably my 'favourite' find when I was creating this post - I absolutely cannot beleive how similar the two dresses are! The print is pretty much exact and the only extra points I can give to the Tibi dress is that the yellow base colour is a lot more warm and soft. Despite that though for just £30 the River Island dress is a complete style steal and I absolutely adore it!

So there we are then honey's what do you think? Can you justify dropping some big ££ on a 'proper' piece or do you head for the knock-offs? What's your opinion on this? I'd love to know as I'm actually fascinated by this side of fashion.

<3