Pearl Lowe: It's Back!

Elbows at the ready ladies, Pearl Lowe at Peacocks is back!! As you know I've championed the collection right from the start, so when Peacocks fell into financial trouble and closed many of their stores including their website; I was pretty devastated that the fabulous vintage inspired range was no more. I know a lot of you were extremely disappointed and felt it left a hole in the market for that type of product.  Good news is; Peacocks have just relaunched their website though and there's a small selection of PL items we haven't seen before and man, are they good!

My nearest store closed down and will not be re-opening, but they didn't stock PL anyway, so I always relied on purchasing online. I'd actually spotted some of these newer items on eBay the other week and assumed they were samples that had never been mass-produced, so I'm elated that they are actually available for purchase. There are 5 items in the collection, one being a playsuit (above) which doesn't appear to be available online (not sure if it sold out super quickly or it's never been online), either way it doesn't bother me too much as it's not something I would have purchased. I had good-ish eBay sales on Sunday, so whenever I had enough money in my paypal account, I purchased all the other items (with a few failed attempts at checking-out using paypal!) and by that point had even been dreaming about one of the dresses (no joke)! I would snap these up as quickly as you can, because PL always sold quickly and once everyone realises they are back online, the collection will just go.  The range is available in 'selected' Peacocks stores like it always was, but you'll have to check which ones are still open!

The above images were taken from Peacocks Twitter page, but they didn't have one of the dresses, but I'll come to that later.  So we'll start with the red floral dress (top) £30. I'm so excited by this one (well by the whole collection). Red isn't a colour that I wear often (mostly because it's clashed with my hair in the past), but this dress is stunning-I can't wait for it to arrive. It's got a higher neckline, accentuates the waist and is the subtly sexy but still demure style that we've come to expect from PL. I can imagine this with black tights in the winter and bare legs in summer and can already tell it'll never be off my back!

This floral print tea dress £30, reminds me of the Joy dress from spring 2011 (although I'm hoping it doesn't feel the same, because I sent that one back, it was nasty)!  This is a staple, classic wardrobe item for me, that again, I'll wear repeatedly.

This next one, is the one I dreamt about.  I think I'd been subconsciously stressing that the dresses would sell out before I bought them and so while I was sleeping, someone appeared in my dream wearing this dress, then the pattern fell off and it turned a horrid light blue and became this long sleeved micro-mini tunic.  Don't think I'll be looking up the dream dictionary for that one!  Anyway, it reminds me a little of the blue/white polka dot (that was remade in white with small black dots) and I figured this was a pretty enough floral version (£35).  Then I realised it was actually ballerinas all over it and I was in heaven!  How freaking cute is that?  Seeing as this one wasn't featured in the Twitter pics, I've included a model shot, so you see how it looks on.  I may pee myself with excitement before this arrives!

The final piece of the collection is this fan print jumpsuit £35.  The wide legs give the illusion of a maxi-dress, but I'm pondering cutting it and sewing it into a maxi anyway.  I think I'll get more wear out of it that way (and have been considering doing it to the few jumpsuits I already own).  I don't want to wreck it though and it's been a long time since I've tackled something like this!  I love the details on the bodice and think this whole collection has pulled together all my favourite features of PL into one outstanding collection.

I had an unpleasant experience with Peacocks PR last year in which a situation was handled in the most unprofessional manner (through no fault of my own) and although I've always found the staff instore friendly enough, it frankly put me off the brand altogether.  It's rather sad when something like that happens and it certainly left a sour taste in my mouth.   I would just hope that companies would realise that the people that work for them at every level are responsible for the reputation of the company.  Anyway, they're very lucky they have this fabulous collection which will have me coming back for more and that I still want and choose  to blog about it, as some would say they don't deserve my free advertising!  I hope the pieces live up to my expectations and of course will let you know if they do or don't!  Do you think you'll be snapping up some?

Sale Shoes

I've mentioned that I've been eBaying a lot recently. With Christmas coming and the fact I keep buying things for myself (!) money has been tight. So I was forced to dig deep into my shoe-collection and find anything neglected or unworn and to be ruthless. I'm selling a lot of gorgeous things that would have been nice to keep for myself, but at the moment the money is more important and so my loss is your gain! I have loads of designer shoes up there just now (all are unworn) along with some other lovely shoes, handbags and makeup. Here's a little peek and all auctions end tomorrow (Sunday), most shoes are sizes 38/39 aside from the leopard print Vivienne Westwoods which are a 40. Good luck if you decide to bid x

Vivienne Westwood 'Regent' courts

these are the same as the lovely black courts I wore yesterday here

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania & Melissa (red mules and black skyscraper chains)

Messeca green velvet Coraline

Isabel Marant 'Yoyo' open toe ankle boot and 'Sailor' knee high boot

Michael Lewis 'Rosanna'

Irregular Choice 'Out Of Africa'

ASOS 'Primavera' and 'Partytime'

River Island 'Pansy'

Monster High: Robecca Steam

My last Monster High post featured my new Clawdeen from Ghouls Rule, but a couple of months before I'd purchased her, I got a completely new character, Robecca Steam. I love her name, it's very fitting for the daughter of a mad scientist and the details on this doll are exquisite.

I'd been trying to reign myself in with MH purchases because I was struggling for room and can't afford to get them all! However when I spotted her in Debenhams along with Venus McFlytrap (which I got for my sister) I couldn't put her back on the shelf-she was too gorgeous! Plus at that point, I hadn't bought a doll in a while.  There were literally only these two dolls that were new and it's taken Debenhams until a couple of weeks back to restock their shelves (when I bought two more newbies), which has been months!  Unfortunately I don't have access to a toy shop locally to see a wide range of the dolls, so usually have to depend on buying online or getting my sister to buy them when she's somewhere further afield. So it's one of the few times I've actually had the opportunity to see in person and decide if she's for me or not.

Anyway, the reason it took me so long to do this post was because I took sooo many pictures, I had trouble narrowing them down and started procrastinating and they always got left on the back-burner for another day. My aim is to post MH things a little more regularly though because they always seem to be very popular posts statistically speaking and it's something that's always been a huge interest of mine. Do let me know if you like seeing these type of posts.  So here goes, like Clawdeen, there were several things about Robecca's outfit that I wasn't particularly keen on. I felt it was overkill with the blue plastic accessories when her skin is already so detailed, so I probably wouldn't wear them all at once. I think it's perfectly fine to want to modify the dolls a little to get them how you like (my sister for example brushed out the victory rolls and big fringe on Operetta whereas those are details I liked and would probably keep).  Robecca looks completely different with and without the flash as you'll see as the post goes on. The detailing of mechanical rivets etc throughout her entire body is amazing, I can't believe they really did her whole body like this. She's a darker colour with this wonderful pearlescent shimmer throughout, check out her hands here with and without the flash!

On the back of her calves are these little wheels, which I couldn't believe actually worked! You can rotate them all the way around. It's design details like this that for me, really make Monster High dolls stand out from the rest of the market. It's normally more prevalent in the 'original' dolls, which is why they are usually a little more expensive than the other lines. Still for that price (around £18), you'd never find a Barbie with that much detailing (maybe a pooping dog though!).

You know I always fall hard for the shoes and these boots are ahhhmazing! They are like rockets and I love the shading they've used to make them look a little rusty and more authentic (and that's what I felt was missing from the clean gold boots Clawdeen wore). Again it's something you wouldn't find on an everything is clean and bright-pink Barbie! You can really believe she's going to take off any minute in these boots and there's even a split in the back which allows room for the wheels on her legs.

She comes with a blue plastic cage-skirt over her dress and while I love the idea, I wish it had been made in the same colour as the boots with rust, because it felt a little tacky and too 'plastic' to me. I thought I would want to take it off immediately, but actually when I took off her arm cuff (which has a digital clock on it) and her bag, she already looked a million times better. It was just too much for me with the whole lot. The bag is actually pretty cool as it even opens! Again I'm not mad on the blue plastic, but I guess they really wanted to push 'blue' as Robeccas signature colour.

Her pet, is the adorable Captain Penny, the mechanical penguin, who doesn't need wings with that rocket pack!

She also comes with earrings and mad-scientist glasses...

Here eyes are cog-wheel shaped and she has bumpy rivets all along her forehead and hairline. She has long black hair with this fabulous metallic blue in large chunks and I love the dramatic dark purple lips against her skin. While I think she can look quite severe or serious (probably the bold eyebrows) and older than say the cutesy Draculaura or playful Lagoona; I believe she's one of the most beautiful and striking looking characters. Again you'll be able to see the difference in these images between the darker and shimmering skin with the flash and the lighter looking, less shimmer without.

I don't love her dress, but I don't hate it either. I like the little leather-look skirt and the pvc bolero can be taken off, which completely changes the look. Robecca, by this point was getting a little impatient and started doing the robot. Either that or taking 'walk like an Egyptian' style dance moves from Cleo de Nile!

Isn't she pretty?  Like I said, let me know if you like these posts, because I love my dollies, so am happy to share them here : )