Beautiful and Bizarre

Kimono is a Japanese word which literally means "a thing to wear". In Japan, Kimonos are a part of everyday life, women wear them on their wedding day, at tea ceremonies and the Japanese bury the dead in Kimonos, changing the cross over from left to right,to right to left.

However, after designers such as Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, L'wren Scott and Diane von Furstenberg featured kimono jackets in their collections, it was only a matter of time before the eastern influence hit the UK High Street. You can believe us when we tell you, it has definitely hit and it has caught on like wildfire. Every shop we went into had some sort of kimono-style top or jacket and we were both quite happy to snap some up. 

Jesse is a lover of all things Japanese and has now got herself quite a collection of Kimono's, we will feature some of these here, but in order to keep the loading time down and bandwidth free, we will post links to the others.  To start us off, here is when we wore our Kimonos to go shopping for shoes to match our graduation dresses (which will become another post at some point). 

Kimono - River Island
Black top - New Look
Jeans - New Look

Shoes - New Look

Necklace - Forever 21

Kimono - Penneys/Primark
Black top - Primark
Jeans - Peacocks
Shoes - Primark

Jesse's Other Kimonos Include the two following, both also from River Island. Actually, I'm pretty sure all of her kimono's are from River Island, haha.  (Jesse: nearly all Sami I do have one from Tokyo :p)

The top one is like a peachy pink colour but it's hard to see in the picture.  She also has, the same top as the 2nd picture in plain white from River Island, as well as the kimono here, here and here. She also bought a navy blue floral one today which is not available on the website at the moment. There is also a gorgeous white kimono here, we recommend you go and snap any of these up asap! They sell out fast! The third one is an actually yukata from Jesse last visit to Tokyo.  (As you can tell Jesse is obessed with Japan :p)

Sami's other Kimonos are as follows:

  A simple search on any of the websites such as New Look, River Island, Topshop, Asos and Ebay will produce some good results with a variety of kimono jackets and tops. Some of the websites also list their Kimono style tops under 'Oversize tops' and a lot of One-sleeved dresses have Kimono-style sleeves such as this and this.

As far as we are concerned, kimonos are definitely a trend we are on par with. Adding a kimono top or jacket to your wardrobe is an easy way to brighten up a boring outfit and you can even add them to a little black dress and match your shoes for a night out, or for a nice dinner. I know some of the ones from River Island and ASOS for example can be rather expensive for a floaty jacket, but Primark is in on this trend and you can get yourself a nice cheap one for around £10. So get into girlies and get one of these babies into your wardrobe!!

Now that we've discussed kimono's, of course we couldn't go into town without buying a little something, so here is what we bought:

Jesse bought these two rings, the first one is from New Look and is two claws coming together, this is definitely our bizarre item of the week! She also bought the heart knuckle duster from Internacionale. The ring she has on is a Snow-white pick-axe ring from Disney couture, who can't spell Jewellery we discovered:

A lot to be said for disney couture, they do some beautiful items. We will definitely do a jewellery post sometime in the near future, promise!

We should also do a post on nail polishes and nail art, Jesse owns pretty much every colour of nail polish from Collection 2000. She bought these four new shades called Fruit Loop, Lemon Soda, Milkshake and Angel Wings. We also both bought this Barry M Crackle Nail Polish, which if you paint over your nail it crackles it in a cool style, this has definitely taken off throughout the blogsophere, it's a lazy way of making your nails a little funky. Jesse demonstrates here:

The light blue nail polish that Jesse has on as a base coat is also for the collection 2000 hot looks set called button moon.

 Jesse also got two free lipglosses from Collection 2000 as it was buy any 2 items and get a free lipgloss, since she bought four nail polishes, she got two. She also bought the Rimmel 2n1 Mascara that she uses, a make up post will need to be done too, you guys have a lot to look forward too from us!

 Jesse was also wearing her forever 21 Koi fish necklace, but the chain was too short so she used it as a bracelet which I think works better! It looks really cool!

As a side note, I know it says that Bracelet was £8, it was actually only £4 as everything was 50% off due to the closing down sale. 

I can't wait to try out some of my Jewellery and see what people think, I never get to wear anything cool and stylish! I could even pair some of it with some of my kimono's!

We hope you are enjoying our blog and as we've promised we now have jewellery, make up and nail polish posts coming up, as well as our graduation outfits. You have plenty to look forward to, so please, keep reading and forward our link on! Also if you want a link on our nice little links bar on the side, please let us know, as long as you are willing to link back!

Also, if you are reading, please feel free to leave us a comment, we really would appreciate some! And if you have any questions or queries, you can always contact us via email at beautifulbizarre@gmail.com 

Hope to hear from you soon!

Hey Guys,

Yesterday, we adventured down to Dublin via the train, we were hoping to find dresses for Sami's graduation ceremony, after not having any luck in Belfast or online. So we decided, we might as well make the most of it and see what we could find for you guys whilst we were there. 

Let's start by showing you what we both wore, we call this 'Practical but Pretty' as we needed to be sensible for the weather forecast predicted Rain and we were walking about on our feet for the entire day:

Top - Exhibit
Shorts - Asos Curve
Cardigan - New Look

  

Top Picture: Jesse's Jewellery
Homemade necklace using a Japanese Yen coin and some material. Ring is from Accessorize and Bracelet is from Newlook. That is also a Japanese Origami Crane Incense Burner.

Sami's Jewellery
Both Pearl Bracelet and Butterfly bracelet are from Internacionale.

So clothes wise, we didn't really find anything interesting. I tried on a one-sleeved Kimono like dress which was white and black, but it was completely see through and for privacy purposes I am not going to post here. Instead, we found lots of pretty interesting shoes from New Look.  Here are some pictures:

 These Denim sandals we both really liked, they were designed by a student from one of the fashion Universities in London. Jesse bought these on the day. They are also available in black. Click Here to go to the New Look website and check them out.

We both really liked these Polkadot High Heels which are also available in Grey with red polkadots. We liked the funky and summery colours of the yellow and blue though. Neither of us purchased them but Sami is still considering it. Again, available here on the New Look website.

We also found many interesting accessories, the most interesting of which was this Mohawk inspired hat, which Sami couldn't resist trying on:

While neither of us found what we were looking for (i.e. a dress for graduation), we did manage to spend some Euros on the following:

 Alongside the Japanese Crane Incense Holder, Jesse bought Cherry Blossom Incense and Matcha Green tea.

All in all, the day was pretty fun though quite exhausting as we hadn't slept the night before and we were walking everywhere. So if you are ever going to Dublin, either stay over, or sleep the night before and get yourself some decent walking shoes or an all day tram/bus ticket which will hopefully take you where you need to go.  Make sure if you're planning to shop to bring your own bags as the paper bags they give you aren't very good in the rain, as we unfortunately found out.  Running in the rain with an arm full of clothes and shoes down Grafton Street not so good.

 We had a good day, but now the hunt is on again for dresses to wear to graduation! 

We seen some Beautiful and Bizarre things yesterday and we know that fashion changes very quickly, so we'll keep our eye out for more.

Until next time,

**Title Story: We were told to keep walking until the tiles turned red and then we'd be on Grafton Street. So if you ever are looking for it, keep walking until the tiles turn red ;)