[Note: Originally written for a project - December 2011]
Take a peek at Lucy's style: http://lookbook.nu/lulutrixabelle
Lucy Sarah, better known in
the blogosphere as ‘lulutrixabelle’, is one of
our personal favourite
fashion bloggers. This 19 year old London girl lives fashion. She’s a
self-confessed shopaholic but not for high street or designer brands! She
stands out from the crowd, not only because of her bright pink hair but because
of her enviable talent in hunting out the best buys in charity stores and car
boot sales. As a student, Lucy has successfully created and defined her image
on a budget. Her low cost wardrobe is desired by many. Not only can Lucy find
second-hand gems, she knows how to style and work an outfit; whether floaty and
girly or edgy and adventurous, this fashionista’s way with clothes leaves us green
with jealousy!
Alongside her love for discovering wardrobe treasures in
charity stores, Lucy enjoys making and customising her own outfits. Her blog features
tutorials on things such as ’designer’ laptop cases, fringed t-shirts and splashed
bleach shorts so her avid followers can steal nuggets from Lucy’s creative
brain to create their own on-trend items for cheap! Her tutorials often feature
DIY versions of popular brand clothes, making her versions a great hit with
those on a tight budget.
Extremely happy to win this award, the queen of thrifting
speaks to us about her life, clothes, style and skills; and with a few of her
fashion finding tips thrown in for good measure, you too can learn how to bag
yourself some gorgeous bargains. Take note!
Today, Lucy rocks a typical charity-shop-find outfit. She
puts her own twist on vintage, wearing a gorgeous full length black and white
sheer skirt, teamed with a studded leather jacket, white Doc Martens and a
vintage pink t-shirt to match her equally pink hair. Of course, all jewellery
is charity shop chic; and fabulous, might we add.
It all started for Lucy when she began searching blogs
online for outfit inspiration: “I often go online in the mornings to get ideas!” This soon
prompted Lucy to start her own. First starting with the increasingly popular
Tumblr to post her self-styled photos and then moving to BlogSpot to document
her life too. Lucy not only uses her blog as a platform to spread her fashion
knowledge but personally loves “reading back” and “seeing how [her] style changes over
time”.
Lucy regularly finds herself admired in the virtual world
for her fashion flair, with her followers asking for style-tips, outfit advice
or simply to compliment her ever-changing style and expanding wardrobe: “It gives me a
really funny feeling inside when I get complimented on my style, I get so
happy!“ Lucy however, still feels like a relatively “new blogger,
especially to BlogSpot” so she “really [appreciates] any kind messages from
people“.
The praise certainly hasn’t
made this lovely lady into a diva!
However, despite the adoring fans lusting over Lucy’s eye for
fashion and seemingly effortless style, her parents think she’s “just weird“.
Lucy and her mother often don’t see eye to eye when it comes to shopping,
especially when she picks up “an old granny skirt in a charity shop”.
Her mum often “makes a funny face and says ‘ew, that’s horrible!’” But
that’s the fascinating thing about Lucy’s sense of style: she can take something
old, plain and boring and make it exciting and beautiful. Even her mum would
agree that Lucy can jazz up anything, even a ‘granny skirt’: “once I put it
into an outfit, it looks so much better and she says I can just pull it off.”
Lucy describes her style as “a mixture of patterns textures and brands”.
A particular favourite is matching “a £2 granny shirt with a 25p vintage
belt, along with a £120 pair of shoes!” admitting her love for “splashing
out on shoes”. We can’t blame Lucy; what girl doesn’t love a great pair of
shoes!
Looking
back, Lucy has always had an interest in fashion and grew up surrounded with
style and creative influences: “My Nan worked in the fashion industry and my
mum's also very crafty, so I just have creative genes“. Lucy still owns the
first fashion drawings she ever did, although admittedly they were “awful“.
If this fashionista started out bad, then there’s still hope for the rest of
us! Lucy’s love for fashion is “just in [her] blood”; starting from
drawings at a young age and a love for textiles lessons at school, progressing
to fashion studies at college and now there’s a degree in her favourite subject
on the horizon as she explores fashion at University.
Nowadays, awful fashion
drawings seem a distant memory. Lucy can piece together items to create outfits
from anywhere and anything. This self-confessed charity shop and car-boot sale
addict gets “a buzz” from finding a bargain. Taking first place over
high street stores are jumble sales too as “they are the cheapest places to
buy clothes, especially vintage”. And Lucy’s top tip for readers? “Don’t
be afraid to rummage!”. Although it may feel like trawling through a load
of old “junk” it’s the only way you can find those hidden gems. Lucy
certainly isn’t afraid to get stuck in and always reaps the benefits of this! “At
car-boot sales I am often kneeling on the floor rummaging through piles of
people's old clothes, but sometimes it’s a bit of a fight as with other girls
doing the same!” So prepare to get competitive when you come across
something especially good!
Lucy’s
most important tip for developing your own style is: “be creative. Think
of how you can customise an item and how you could incorporate it into an
outfit. Don't just look at the clothes in your size, look at all sizes.”
Taking a peek into her wardrobe, nearly all of the shirts are sizes that appear
much too big for her small frame, but style them up right and you‘ve got a
killer outfit. Also girls, don’t be afraid to “look in the men’s!”.
You’ll be surprised what you can find that can be easily worked into an outfit;
no-one will ever suspect that it’s labelled for men! Simply: “think of what
you can do with an item”. Lucy isn’t afraid to take a risk with her
clothes; ripping the sleeves off a shirt, cutting a pair of jeans into shorts
or working the collar of a cut-up shirt into an outfit. Be experimental and it
will pay off. Oh and of course, Lucy’s favourite: “stud it, stud everything!”.
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