A Trip To The Seaside With Mulberry

We may be a fair few miles from sun, sea, and sandcastles, but last night Mulberry brought the shores to Manchester with a seaside-themed celebration of their spring/summer collection.

The first delight was a Mulberry ice cream van, serving up yummy raspberry ripple ice cream with sprinkles.









Rebecca of Vintage Romance enjoying her icey

The store's interior was not short of sweet treats, either..









Notice how the waiters' aprons were co-ordinated with the key spring/summer piece. That's dedication for you!

The Spinningfields store was previously accessory-centric, however the party served to highlight that the store now carries more of the pret-a-porter range. On the left of the store is the perky Resort 2012 collection, featuring fun fruit prints with googly eyes, and this quite special tea dress.





Take a closer look at its print and you will find more cute characters.

On the right of the store you will find the spring/summer 2012 collection, inspired by the Great British seaside. Pieces currently on sale include the pivotal yellow, pink and green striped Lollipop dress (the maxi version of which is featured in the Frida & Lindsey ad campaign), a black tunic with sewn-on plastic stars, reminiscent of my fourteen-year-old self's dream - which is in no way a bad thing! - and an adorable yellow dog mac (I'd be all over this but I doubt Henning would be very impressed. Yellow is not his colour).

The ladies from Grazia were on hand to talk us through Mulberry's key trends; candy shades, teamed with buttery leather separates and studded chambray dresses are set to be cool as ice-cream for summer.

Two ladies whose attire caught my eye were a doctor, left, and a solicitor (remember Lisa from my Stylist street style piece?), proving you can have fun with what you wear, whatever industry you work in.

Realising I may have consumed too many alcoholic beverages when I started to think buying the Bayswater in bright yellow made good financial sense (it's an investment, darling!), I knew it was time to go home. But not before Rebecca and I had a go on the ubiquitous seaside game, The Grabby Machine.. (not official name)

I won a teddy! I've named him Cuthbert.
The team who masterminded yesterday evening deserve a huge pat on the back - I am grateful that such a huge brand will open the doors of its boutique and risk the spilling of free Prosecco onto £500 plus handbags. It's a risk that pays off, however; the brand are expecting 2012 to exceed forecast, after a cracking Christmas and New Year period (Business of Fashion/Reuters). Brands retailing in Manchester and beyond would do well to follow the example of the British super-brand.



They do give out a cracking goodie bag... I can't bring myself to eat the rock.

Catwalk images from style.com, all other images my own

Wearing Resort 2012 Trends

Over the past couple of days the weather has changed drastically in Manchester; there's been sleet, snow, hail, and, of course, buckets of rain. Stuck inside in my dressing gown with the heating on, my mind wandered to warmer, balmier climes, ones where I don't have to wear ten layers just to leave the house.

Just as well, then, the Resort collections have hit the shops this week, most notably at net-a-porter. Resort (or Cruise) collections used to be only for the wealthy who needed summery clothing for their January-long jaunts in the Carribbean. No longer just the "bit inbetween", in recent years Resort has taken on an importance of its own - helped, I'm sure, by the rise of social media, blogging, and the ridiculous pace the fashion industry now moves at.

A whopping 200 designers created Resort collections this year, including newbies-but-goodies Prabal Gurung, Erdem, Preen, and Proenza Schouler.

I like to try a couple of these trends out to ease myself into the new season, so I picked out a few of my favourite Resort 2012 trends and styled them as winter-ready daywear.

Tailored pale yellow was shown at Thakoon, Stella McCartney, and Pucci as strong tailoring mixed with white shirts and neutral accessories. For winter just wear one yellow element and team with black or neutrals for a striking look.

All-over prints were at 3.1 Philip Lim, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci. These pyjama-like looks are styled very simply, the print being the focus of the outfit. Wear in this winter's colours and prints.

White lace was popular with Alexander McQueen, Lanvin and Alberta Ferretti. These houses all showed frothy, maxi-length confections, which would be impossible to wear in rainy Manchester. Style it out with a shorter-length tunic with warm leather trousers.

These looks were all styled with items from my existing wardrobe. The one trend that evades me is the boxy waistcoat, shown here at Balenciaga (I'm missing the visor too, but I'll pick one of those up on my next visit to Blackpool beach).

If I were to add any piece to my wardrobe to style this trend, it would definitely be the Barneys Vintage asymmetric vintage gilet from IL2L.com; the perfect cover-up for Resort and beyond.

It's also a Vogue's Online Fashion Week pick; check the coverage for this online event here to find out about special offers and competitions. You can even win a Lanvin bag, just by tweeting your #todayimwearing!

If you're in need of more of a fashion fix, the pre-Fall collections are being shown this week. Lap it up, you trend-hungry fashionistas!

All runway images from style.com