Masculine-styled Womenswear

Zara’s recent SS13 collection features tailored blazers, the most popularized masculine piece for a feminine wardrobe. Tartan suits pack a punch stating smart meets sassy. Meanwhile a black blazer can add simple slick to any outfit.

Textures and materials originally associated with menswear have seeped into our wardrobes. The rise of leather is proof. No longer constrained to motorcycle jackets, the material toughens up any feminine garment; leather skater skirt? Don’t mess with her.

We’ve also shown the men how to rock serious shoes. Once associated with the menswear department, loafers and brogues now sport chunky heels and fantastic colour. Comfort and practicality meets fun and stylish; step aside boys, we’ll show you how it’s done.

Accessories listed as ‘unisex’ have soared in popularity. Masculine styles of watch especially. Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs led the way last year with large, heavy pieces. The days of the dainty are over; chunky and solid are in favour for 2013.

Street style loves masculine styled womenswear, it’s easy to achieve and thoroughly effective. Cigarette trousers paired with a fitted blazer creates a powerful silhouette, pop on some statement stilettos and you’re ready to face anything. If casual is more appealing, a simple flannel shirt with an oversized cable knit jumper and satchel should achieve the desired look. Be careful to avoid hipster connotations. But the crisp white shirt, a little oversized, half tucked in, half unbuttoned, has to be the iconic piece of a masculine wardrobe. What’s not to love in a world where girls can not only wear the skirts, but the trousers too.

First published by Spark* Newspaper: http://sparknewspaper.co.uk/fashion-beauty/masculine-womenswear/

April Showers

It’s that time of year where the cold is out and the rain is in. Yep, we’re talking raincoats and umbrellas and anything waterproof; the April showers are here.

Burberry really showed us how to rock the rain with their SS13 show last fashion week. The leader of waterproof wear, they rocked a spectrum of metallic macs. Pinks, purples, blues and browns dominated the shimmery coats meanwhile they paired them with classic shaped but clashing colored bags – the Burberry Blaze.

If Burberry is a little out of your budget – if not, then good for you – the trench coat is easy enough to hunt down on the high street too, with Mango, All Saints and Topshop all cashing in on the weather change.

Meanwhile, fetch yourself a plastic handbag to complete the look. Plastics are right on trend and give a subtle quirk to any outfit; available in clutch or rucksack form what better way to keep your books dry.

If you want a coat with a little more longevity, opt for the traditional, festival favourite, the Jack-in-a-Pack. The cheesiest and most practical but least stylish of them all. Luckily for us, companies are picking up on the fact we want practicality and style, so there are a variety of options popping up all over the market in various patterns and colours to keep us dry and trendy. If you fancy something a little more fun, head to ASOS for their lollypop-lady yellow rainmac, complete with ears.

Finally, if my mother taught me anything it’s to never leave the house without an umbrella. Umbrellas are a great excuse to mix up your style. Normally wear block colours? Go for something really heavily patterned. Don’t want to clash your patterns with your brolly? Neon is in and what better way to embrace it than over your head. Still not convinced? Play it safe with any outfit and opt for a simple monochrome one – totally on trend right now and one hundred percent clash-risk free.

First published by Spark* Newspaper: http://sparknewspaper.co.uk/fashion-beauty/april-showers/

Opening up spaces for discussion

My degree is all about texts and how they talk to each other.

My twitter feed is all about people and talking to each other.

I'm not trying to say that my degree is like twitter because a two thousand word essay is a lot harder to compile than a 140 character tweet (sometimes). But I am trying to say that I'm an advocate for discussion.

Recently I made a statement on Twitter about the stereotypical events my student union had going on for International Women's Day and how it would have been nice to see them branch out to wider demographics and activities outside of: a cake sale, belly dancing and zumba.

This led to a discussion between myself and two other girls about the availability of groups, interest in the event and the event itself.

Upon telling someone of this discussion they remarked that this is why they didn't like social networking - because it causes unnecessary problems between strangers.

Social networking does sometimes cause arguments between strongly opinionated people. However, at university level, I'd like to think these discussions are educated enough to not descend into personal attacks. Sometimes problems need to be aired to be addressed, in this particular instance, I ended up speaking to next academic year's Women's Officer. She assured me that next year something will be done to include a wider range of groups. Upon a suggestion of another Twitter user, I plan to get involved in the event myself to make sure that happens.

Tough topics are tough because they need to be spoken about. These discussions don't have answers. Feminism, for example, is a big discussion I am wholeheartedly a part of. It's not a problem to be solved overnight. I am glad that there are these social networking spaces, including blogs, which allow people the space to air their views and keep contributing to the discussion.

English literature and why everyone thinks I'm going to be a teacher

"What are you going to do with that degree?"

I've had this conversation so many times. "So, you're going to teach, right?"

Now, I possess neither the skill of teaching nor the desire to. I have a perpetual fear of children.

English degrees open up to so much more than just teaching. I'm looking at careers in communications, fashion, journalism, PR, to name a few. You wouldn't assume someone doing a science degree wants to be a science teacher - you'd think "doctor" or "microbiologist" or even, for the narrower minded among us, "scientist"!

I love texts. I love reading about them; I love writing about them, but I don't want to teach them. I want to make them.

English is one of those subjects that, from the outside, seems confined within the boundaries of education. The transferrable skills aren't explicit and the modules offered sometimes make it understandable why - Renaissance Drama doesn't exactly say "fashion columnist material".

When people assume what my future career is it makes my skin crawl. It's the conversation equivalent of running your fingernails down a blackboard. I'm getting bored of hiding the grimace I pull whenever someone utters the first "tee-" syllable.

Studying English is about discussion and discovery. So talk to me about my future career and you'll discover your ideas about it are very wrong.

The Problem With Feminism

The problem with announcing that you're a feminist means that people immediately jump to this preconceived idea of a crazy woman who doesn't shave her legs, throwing herself under a bus for the right to not shave her legs or something.

But hey, guess what, that's a stereotype cooked up by ignorant people.

Suddenly, you're no longer a three dimensional person, you're a feminist, so you must be: a lesbian, a man hater, etc etc etc.

Um, just because I'm a feminist doesn't mean I'm not anything else. I'm also a student, a daughter, a music lover, a sister, a fashion enthusiast, a friend, an assistant dog groomer, etc etc etc - the list goes on.

I don't stop being all the other things I am. I have opinions on other things, and opinions that differ from the general ideas of feminism. That doesn't make me not a feminist, I am a feminist because I choose to be.

It's all about the right to choose. I want to have the choice of whether I become a stay at home mum or a career woman (these have ridiculous stereotypes too but I'm not even going to get into that) or a mix of both in the future, because of feminism, I get to make my own rules about my life.

I'm sick of people trying to justify being for or against anything with the line "I read this article one time which said.... yadda yadda yadda".

It takes years of research, understanding and get this - open-mindedness to build an opinion, and people who jump to conclusions because of a singular article, without knowing the opposing stuff, are just as ignorant as the ones who don't know anything about it. Worse in fact, if they're forcing their potentially misinterpreted ideas down your throat.

I'll believe and fight for what I want, and it's thanks to decades of feminism that I am allowed to do that.  And people who write me off for that can suck it.

If you still don't get what I'm on about, here's a seven minute explanation of exactly what I'm on about, and some other cool stuff. This woman's my new hero: