EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FASHION FUN

Note from Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The FashEd and I will be taking a break from the blog for the next week or so. I'm off to, very ironically, escape the UK heatwave in Ireland. Melanie is having some very well deserved time putting her feet up so FEAL will be having a rest, but I'll be back and raring to go in a week's time with the countdown to fashion month and plenty to say about Autumn/ Winter shopping. In the meantime, Scot style columnist Lynne McCrossan brings news from the Edinburgh Festival. I know several friends who've already been and am still kicking myself that I've never got around to going to the festival which is where Great Britain's cultural heart beats at this time of year. So, if you're heading to Scotland, take heed of some of Lynne's tips and if not, then hopefully you get a sense of what's going on from her report. 

Posted by Lynne McCrossan

The Edinburgh Festival is in full swing evoking one of two emotions in its residents. Euphoria or dread.

Luckily I say bah humbug to the misery guts who refuse to partake in festival fun. For the full month of August our tiny city is stretched to capacity with comedians, street performers, musicians, artists and actors. Plus drinking licenses are extended and alfresco boozing is embraced giving Scotland's capital a continental feel.

The Udderbelly at Teviot on a gorgeous summer's day

There's no place quite like Teviot for soaking up a bit of everything. Home to Udderbelly and the Guilded Ballon you can take your pick from hundreds of comedic performances within the square. A hit with visitors and residents alike, the place is swarming with punters, perfect for people watching over Pimms. One of the must see shows here is musical comedy Bourgeois&Maurice: Sugartits.

Teviot's made that much sweeter for having one of Edinburgh's best vintage stores straight across the street. Armstrong's is one of the oldest vintage Emporiums in the U.K originating in the rag and bone trade back in the 1800s. Their Grassmarket store is its flagship branch, but this little shopping bolt hole is where you'll find Edinburgh's fashionistas.

Fashion lovers are finally being catered for this year with the arrival of the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival at Summerhall. It kicked off yesterday with talks on neuroscience and the sense of style. Exhibitions from Issey Miyake and catwalk shows from Bebaroque, Aimee McWilliams and Pam Hogg round out a pretty diverse festival line up.

There's something for all budgets. Even taking a stroll through the Meadows gives you access to free street performers. So pack a lunch and plonk on the grass, and pray the rain stays off.

BYE FOR NOW + HAPPY SUMMER LOVE TEAM FEAL X

TIME FOR NEW SHOES

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Today is A-level results day which strikes fear into anyone under the age of 18 (crap, that could be me one day) and evokes strong memories for anyone who did the exams. As with many of my memories, A-level results involved a pair of shoes. The day after I found out I'd got into the university I didn't want to go to, I went on a very hungover shopping trip with my Mum and she bought me a pair of nearly thigh high suede lace up pirate boots as a reward for my efforts. Rewind to GCSE results and an abiding recollection is a pair of pink and grey striped stilettos with a huge pink bow on the front- another reward for hard-earned grades. Although my tastes were questionable, these are far more pleasant markers in my personal footwear history than the annual trip to my school's appointed shoe shop which would happen at this time each year, like clockwork, from the age of five to sixteen. It was a hugely painful wrangle to confront the fact that I had yet another year ahead of me in my regulation flat, black, boring lace-ups.

Thankfully times have changed and six years on from A-level results, the Startrites which punctuated my younger years have been replaced by much more exciting options. It is pretty obvious from my browsing, and eventual edit, that footwear is rather glitzy right now- think studs, full on metallic and more glitter from Miu Miu- I swear they're keeping the small bits of sparkle stuff industry in the black. The big game changer is glitz for day- it's now fine for trainers, everyday boots and the like to be just as blinged up as their evening counterparts. There's always further to go in the world though and I feel like I'm perhaps half way up my personal shoe Everest, at the top of which lies the most impractical, out of this world awesome and super expensive footwear- some sort of custom made Laurence Dacade/ Celine with a dash of Nicholas Kirkwood? The shoes below are also fantasies, of course. Unless by some freak of nature I pass an A-level in "Magicing from Nowhere Lots of Shoe Money". Something to work on, Michael Gove?

Giuseppe Zanotti at STYLEBOP £780

ACNE at Browns £440

Miu Miu at My Theresa £325

Laurence Dacade at STYLEBOP £625

Charlotte Olympia at Matches £465

Nicholas Kirkwood for Erdem £795

Esquivel at Net-a-Porter £600

LOVE IT OR HATE IT? AZEALIA BANKS DOES DAZED AND CONFUSED

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

After all hoo-hah surrounding Azealia Banks co-starring on the cover of Dazed and Confused with a pink condom, we can finally see the offending image for ourselves. It's been banned in seven countries including Singapore, Switzerland and India. Obviously, I won't be taking this to show my Granny but Azealia is a key player in music and culture right now. She's famous for her foul mouth and fearless attitude so why not mark her influence in the appropriate way with a safe sex-centric, cigar allusion, bubblegum blowing metaphor? Or are you of the opinion that condoms are for bathrooms, wallets and male genitalia, not news stands?

SUMMER TUNE: THE HAIM SISTERS DO FLEETWOOD MAC

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The super cute Haim Sisters from LA (image from ww.complex.com)

Apologies for the brief post today but just wanted to check in to share this gorgeous cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Hold Me" by the Haim Sisters. Best enjoyed in the evening sun, drink in hand...



And the original. I cannot wait for their reformation next year. Please let them be at Glasonbury.

GIRL POWER: FORGET SUPERMODELS, ATHLETES ARE WHERE IT'S AT

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

We can never hope to achieve this...

But we can get close to this

"Girl power" has had a sudden resurgence in usage these past two weeks. As we have witnessed women breaking records, running fast and far, jumping high and long and displaying seemingly inhuman feats of strength, agility and physical skill there has only been one way to sum it up in a Twitter hashtag and that is #girlpower. Whenever another Team GB female (or females) won a medal, "Girl Power" was sure to be trending and appearing in Facebook status updates within minutes. It feels like a breakthrough. You only have to take a glance at the dreaded DM's sidebar of shame to see that a little something has shifted. In the last fortnight those stories about Kim Kardashian's gym visits or TOWIE Lauren's latest diet have been significantly peppered with stories of women who have triumphed to win medals or just compete, whether that's Saudi Arabia's Sarah Attar running 800m as her country's first ever female track and field competitor or Gemma Gibbons winning her Judo semi-final and mouthing "I love you, Mum" towards the sky, before going on to win Silver. Where girls have been really quite unpowerful in celebrity media until now, the Olympic athletes have shown that girls can worry about more than boys and fat bottoms. Hadley Freeman and Elizabeth Day (both at The Guardian) have written in the past day or two about how we can embrace Olympic athletes as our new body image role models. You see, anyone can look like an Olympic athlete because these men and women come in all shapes and sizes but are united by the fact that they are the very best version of themselves. You don't have to be freakishly tall, thin and ethereal as you do to even approach supermodel standards. While Kate, Naomi, Stella et al looked awesome last night in their golden Brit designed gowns, we could never hope to emulate their figures because they have one in  trillion kind of genes. But go for a run, swim some lengths, pedal a few miles, lift a few weights and elements of an Olympian body will be yours. We need to harness the girl power.