Beauty. Fashion. Lifestyle.
Archive for July, 2013
Thrifty Finds No.2: ASOS Rabbit Across Body Bag
3
5 years
As my regular readers will know, I’m always on the hunt for a bargain, and last week something special caught my eye through the window of my local Oxfam charity shop – a gorgeous little bag with a rabbit motif on the front. Unfortunately the shop was closed, but I knew I needed that bag, so the next morning I whizzed on down to buy it, with my fingers firmly crossed in the hope that it hadn’t already been sold. Luckily it hadn’t, and I was surprised to find that a) it was an ASOS bag (I half expected it to be from Primark), and b) it looked brand new!
A quick Google search revealed that, though ASOS no longer stock this bag, it was quite a popular design last Autumn/Winter, and cost £20.00 on their website, and is regularly being sold on eBay second-hand for close to that. I paid the small sum of £4.99 for mine, which I’m very pleased with considering it looks new!
The bag itself is made of mink coloured faux leather and is also lined. It has a nice sturdy shape to it and is accented with gold corners and, of course, that beautiful little rabbit motif. The strap is long so it fits across the body, and adjusts with a buckle. I just love it, and though it’s not a colour I’d usually wear, it’s neutral enough to go with almost anything.
What do you think of this thrifty find?
Naomi x
Zatchels Factory Shop VIP Launch Event
7Last Friday I was among a few lucky bloggers and press who got to attend the Zatchels Factory Shop VIP launch event in Leicester. For those who don’t know (and I’m sure there aren’t many) Zatchels are a fashion brand who design and create leather satchels, saddle bags, barrel bags, duffel bags and other accessories, using traditional British manufacturing methods. Their factory is located in Leicester, where highly skilled staff make every single bag by hand, and everything is made to order. Leicester used to have a thriving manufacturing industry, which many of my relatives worked in, so as a Leicester girl born and bred I like to see a Leicester brand doing so well, and I was very keen to support them on their factory shop launch day.
The event started with a chance to meet the brains behind the brand, including Company Directors Dean Clarke and Brian Brady, and Zatchels Creative Director and celebrity stylist Gemma Sheppard, who it was great to meet. We also got to preview some bags from a few new collections which are yet to be launched, and they are absolutely stunning! This pretty little thing was my particular favourite…
Once everyone had arrived Dean and Brian took us on a tour of the Zatchels factory, which had a friendly atmosphere and bright interior, what with all the piles of different leathers – it was amazing to see! We got to watch how each bag is made by hand, from selecting the leather, cutting it and putting all the parts together, right up to quality control and packing. It was so interesting to see the process from start to finish, and I can assure you that so much care and effort is put into every single product.
After the tour, we were taken to the factory shop for its official opening. There were some yummy ‘Best of British’ nibbles on offer, including Zatchels cupcakes from Bitsy’s Cupcakery and Sweet Eve strawberries, and we had the opportunity to browse the bags on offer and have another chat with the other guests and Zatchels directors.
The Zatchels Factory Shop is based at 10 Charter Street, Leicester, which is located very close to the city centre (about a 5 minute walk) and has ample parking. The shop will be open every Wednesday to Friday from 12pm until 6pm, and Saturday 10am until 5pm, and there is a mix of factory seconds and sample bags for sale, as well as quality retail products. Every bag in the shop has been graded and priced accordingly, as follows:
Grade A – Perfect Quality – Full Price
Grade B – Slight Imperfections – 30% off
Grade C – Stitching Imperfections or Scratches – 40% off
I checked lots of the bags over myself to see how noticeable the imperfections are, and even the Grade C bags are still brilliant quality (I could barely find anything wrong with them) so you really can get yourself a bargain.
I had such a fun day at the Zatchels VIP event. It was really nice to meet some other Leicester bloggers and chat to the Zatchels team, and I loved having a look behind the scenes at the process that goes into making every single Zatchels bag. All guests left with a goody bag too, which was a really nice touch. I plan on doing another post soon with advice on how to style your Zatchels bag, so keep an eye out for that!
Naomi x
My Summer So Far
0
5 years
Evening everyone, I hope you’ve all been enjoying the Great British summer so far. I’m not usually a sun worshipper, but I’ve actually been really enjoying the hot weather this year… Probably because it’s been so long since we last had a bit of sun! Get ready for some good ol’ summer storms though (my favourite!), they’re on their way.
On a different note, I can’t quite believe it’s been more than a month since I last posted on here. I guess that just shows how busy I’ve been though, as I’m not usually one for abandoning my little blog. I’ve missed it, and I’ve missed you too! Lately my weekdays have been filled with the monotony of writing my postgraduate dissertation, which is twice as long as the undergraduate one I did two years ago. So as I’m sure you can understand, when considering the planning, supervisor meetings, intensive research and 20,000 word limit I have to reach by September, I’m left with very little free time for other forms of writing. I’m getting through it though, so hopefully I’ll be around a bit more in the near future, and things will definitely be back to normal in less than two months time.
It’s not all been hard work though, I’ve also been having a lot of weekend fun, some of which I’ll tell you about now…
30th June – Race for Life
At the end of June I ran the Race for Life in memory of my Grandad, with my sister, her best friend, and her best friend’s cousin. It was a fairly hot day and we were all expecting to walk most of it, but we surprised ourselves and ran around 4 kilometres, on and off, of the 5 kilometre distance, speed walking the rest. We all had a lot of fun and the atmosphere on the day was really lively and exciting. I managed to raise over £110 in total for Cancer Research UK, so a big thank you goes out to everyone who sponsored me.
13th July – Friend’s Wedding
Last weekend my partner and I went to our friend’s wedding reception, and it was lovely and quirky, and all outside. There was a vintage tea party in the afternoon, a curry buffet at night, pick n mix sweets to help yourself to, great music, sunny weather, huge garden games (I particularly enjoyed the big buzzer game) and brilliant company.
I didn’t get any good pictures of my outfit, but this is what I wore…
Cat Dress – H&M – £14.99
Clutch – Irregular Choice – £7.00 (from TK Maxx)
Black Suedette Shoe Boots – New Look – £15.99
20th July – Tramlines Festival
Yesterday, my dad, my partner and I headed up to Sheffield for the Tramlines Festival. The festival happens every year and is usually free, but it cost £6 this year which is still amazingly cheap. We went specifically to see two of our favourite bands – Amplifier and 65daysofstatic – but we also saw a few other bands which we enjoyed. The highlight of the day for me was 65daysofstatic’s Sleepwalk City installation at the Millennium Gallery, which involved a half hour live set accompanied by projected videos and surround sound. According to the Tramlines website, the installation explored ‘submersion, noise, and the collapse of everything’, and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE. Such an awe-inspiring experience that I’d love to repeat. Amplifier were as excellent as ever too, and they sang one of my favourite songs which is always a bonus.
Here are a couple of photos from the day that my dad took on his iPhone…
So that’s me! Busy, busy, but I have a backlog of products to review, a few Thrifty Finds to share with you and potentially a VIP event to attend, so keep an eye out for lots of exciting posts coming to Bewitchery soon.
What have you been doing with your summer so far?
Naomi x
