London Collections: Men

London Collections: Men - Britain's biannual menswear showcase - recently celebrated it's fifth season. It is the men's equivalent to London Fashion Week set over three days of fashion shows, showrooms and invents showcasing London's leading menswear designers. Held between Sunday 15th June and Tuesday 17th June, I was lucky enough to land one of the exclusive badges that granted me access to the showrooms at The Hospital Club and Victoria House in London.

Here's a look at some of the brands that were showcasing their AW14 collections during LCM...

Working in menswear myself, it is so exciting to see men's fashion finally getting noticed as influential and important. As I work on the Men's Branded Non-Clothing Department, I focused on men's accessories throughout the day and made contacts with interesting new brands. 

This beautiful book held details about each designer featured at LCM, the magic badge to gain access to the showrooms and a catalogue of trendy bars and restaurants to visit during the three day showcase. Who said men aren't thoughtful?! 

P.S - I'm at my cousins wedding over the weekend so won't be able to blog until the beginning of next week where I will be posting about the dress I'm wearing for it! I can't wait to wear it and share the images with you all after. In the meantime you can follow me on instagram @alicehodkinson to keep up to date with my outfits and outings! 

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Blanket Cape

Cape: River Island

Top: Matalan (last year)

Jeans: River Island

Shoes: New Look 

As soon as I saw this blanket cape I knew I had to have it! It's the perfect combination of comfy yet stylish and I can now get away with wearing a blanket to work! The style of the cape has been inspired by Burberry AW14, who's models rocked a sort of scarf/coat combination, however the tartan brings the look back down to street style which means it's super wearable! 

I teamed the cape with a textured black top and ripped jeans. I wanted to keep the rest of the outfit fairly simple and make the cape the statement piece. I know this is a very wintery item to wear in August, but with it being as cold and rainy as it has been it's the perfect excuse to wear it early! I'm also loving my new chunky Chelsea books from New Look, what do you think? Leave a comment below and let me know!

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P.S. Please excuse the poor quality of some of these photos! It's so dark and cold by the time I get home from work that I had to take these photos inside. :-) 

Afternoon tea, darling!

Last week I had some time off work and so my boyfriend decided to surprise me by taking me to Afternoon Tea at the Marygreen Manor Hotel in Brentwood, Essex! We both dressed very smartly for the occasion and headed down to the very cute 16th Century hotel for our tea and cakes. The inside was very old-y world-y which made it all the more special. We had a pot of tea each - I had green, of course - and a tier of sandwiches, cakes and scones to choose from. Everything was delicious and we were both fully caked-out by the time we had finished!

Dress: ASOS

Shoes: ASOS

Clutch: TKMaxx

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Winter in August

Blazer: River Island - similar here

Top: ASOS

Necklace: Topshop sale

Jeans: Primark 

Shoes: ASOS 

If the suns not out then I'll class it as a winter's day, and at the moment that's exactly what it's been like! So, in an attempt to keep warm I decided to team my smart long-line blazer with a few more casual pieces to create a very city-chic work look. I don't normally dress this smart for work, (and by smart I mean wear a blazer) however it gives me such a confidence boost and even though I bought the blazer in the January sales, it's a classic piece that won't be going out of trend in a hurry! I'm also still loving these jeans which were one of my amazing Primark finds that I featured in my very first styleandlondon post! 

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ASOS #IceBucketChallenge

If you're on any kind of social media platform then you would have heard about the #icebucketchallenge by now. Celebrities are flooding instagram (no pun intended, wink wink) with instavids of them being drenched in ice water in the most random of places. But what you didn't know, perhaps, is that it's all for a good cause! Macmillian Cancer Support (UK) and the ALS Association (USA) set up the challenge in order to help promote awareness of both diseases as well as to raise money to help fund research. 

It was about 4pm in the ASOS office today when a strange email went round... We had been nominated by Boohoo.com to take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge and we had accepted, of course. At 5pm today, ASOSers everywhere gathered outside the front of HQ to watch two of our most loved models, Billy and Tsana, get soaked by ice! In return, ASOS donated £100 to charity.

Recognise these guys...?

I even chatted to Billy just before and he didn't seem nervous at all! 

The guys looking happy as ever just before...

The ice bucket even fell on Tsana... poor girl!

It was a great 15 minutes away from our desk and all done for a good cause!

If you want to see Boohoo's challenge click here

To see ASOS in action click here

ASOS have nominated Topshop so watch out - they're next!!

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V Fest 2014

Yesterday myself and two of my mates headed down to V Festival in Hylands Park for the day. We had an amazing time and saw some great acts! Vfest is the third festival I've been to this year, and yesterday was the second time I've been to V itself (the first time I went I met Louis Tomlinson, wink wink!). I've always felt as though there is a different vibe at V to other festivals I've been to. Everyone's really up for a dance and getting in the crowd, whereas at other festivals it's more chilled and relaxed. 

Luckily for us, all the acts we wanted to see were on the main stage so we didn't have to shuffle from stage to stage all day. When we got there Tom Odell was playing so we sat on the grass and got our bearings whilst listening to Tom rocking on his piano and drinking from a pineapple, ha! The Kaiser Chiefs were up next and Ricky did his signature run-all-the-way-across-the-stage move. After them Bastille were up and I've got to say I was a bit disappointed. I've never really been the biggest Bastille fan and in-between songs it was a bit dead on stage and the crowd seemed to tune out. Example was amazing as always as he's such a classic festival act! Ed Sheeran is someone I've never seen live before and I thought he was brilliant! Everything from his stage setting to his voice was on point. Although, I have to admit that while he was playing I was more bothered about eating the noodles I had just bought than anything else! The night finished with Justin Timberlake and he was just what I hoped he would be! I've seen him once before at Wireless festival last year and I was a bit disappointed back then as he played all his then-new songs like "Mirrors" that no one had heard of yet, so it was a bit awkward. However this year he did a great mix of old and new songs and there was never a true lull in the crowd's energy. 

I wish I was able to take a proper outfit photo, however I was too far in the crowd all day to get a good shot! All I did with my hair was add volume with straighteners. I opted not to go for any of the ideas I tried out here as I didn't feel as though any of them went with the outfit I chose. 

Sunglasses: Urban Outfitters £18 (last year)

Jacket: Vintage Levi (it was my mum's!)

Dress: Mango was £34.99 now £15 

Mini Rucksack: H&M (last year)

Socks: Calvin Klein 

Shoes: Converse All Star

This year in music

• V Festival - Tom Odell, Kasier Chiefs, Bastille, Example, Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake
• Wireless Festival - Ellie Goulding, J Cole, John Newman, Outkast
• Clapham Calling Festival - Paloma Faith
• 02 Arena - Icona Pop, Katy Perry
• Dingwalls, Camden - George Ezra

Have you been to any festivals this year? Planning to go next year? Leave a comment below and let me know!

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Casual is Confusing!

Crop top: H&M was £14.99 now £5

Hareem pants: Next 

Shoes: ASOS, £35

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this when I say that sometimes, dressing down is harder than dressing up! Getting ready for a night out with friends is simple because there are unspoken outfit "rules" us girls (usually) follow by... dress/skirt/heels. However this is all turned upside down when it comes to a night in with friends. It's like you want to dress comfy but still be ready for the idea of a spontaneous drink at your local bar. Last night I went round my boyfriends to watch films and eat pizza and opted for this outfit as its baggy enough to feel comfortable in, yet chic enough to not be mistaken for pyjamas!

Do you feel more at ease choosing an outfit for going out as opposed to staying in? Leave a comment below and let me know!

P.S. I would just like to say a massive thank you to all the lovely ladies who have left comments on my blog or followed me on Bloglovin so far. I've only been at this for about a week and it's so encouraging to know that there is such a friendly vibe within the fashion blogging world! 

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