Friday 31 May 2013

150 followers giveaway! - Now closed.

This giveaway is now closed! Any entries will no longer be counted but stay tuned for future competitions here on Paige of Fashion. 

The winner will be announced shortly, good luck ladies! 

There's no word quite like "giveaway" to stir up excitement within the blogging community, is there? And after months of contemplating and considering I decided to finally host my first blogging giveaway to celebrate having 150 followers! I can't express how grateful I am to have all of you beautiful people following, reading and commenting on Paige of Fashion, you really do brighten my days. So this is the least I could do to thank you for the support you've given me!

Here's what you could win:


2 Nails inc glitter polishes and a Topshop varnish:



I'm a bit of a nail varnish addict myself, so I couldn't resist putting these beautiful colours up for grabs! Nails inc are notorious for their amazing glitter polishes and I absolutely adore these two colours - one is a pale pink and the other a fiery red. The last one I thought would go down well is this Topshop polish in "Cloak and Dagger", in other words "the most gorgeously glossy black". I'm a big fan of any Topshop makeup and their nail varnishes are certainly no exception!

Stila waterproof volumizing mascara:


If you haven't used Stila makeup before then you're truly missing out. Never fear though, this could be your chance! The "Stay all day waterproof volumizing mascara" does exactly what it says on the tube. It's successful in creating dramatic eyelashes that honestly do last. 


Helen E pink makeup glitter:


What would life be without a little bit of glitter? Very dismal indeed in my opinion. That's why I thought I'd put this shimmery number into the giveaway. It can be used in numerous ways and is perfect for you creative bunch that I know will be reading. Mix it with mousse eye shadows, dab it on after applying foundation, or generally shake it over whatever you wish to add a little sparkle!


Spheres and stars gold necklace:


I think this necklace is just adorable! It's a really dainty and simple chain with tiny little stars and spheres around it, that would go with literally anything. I'll be honest, I was tempted to keep this after I bought it because it's too cute, but I decided to go on as planned and put it up. You're welcome. 

12 month subscription to Company Magazine:






Perhaps the best prize of all is a year long subscription to one of my personal favourite fashion magazines. I get Company every month and one of the best things to do of an evening is give it a read with a cup of tea. If you win you'll get the opportunity to have twelve beautiful issues. Who could resist those rather impressive spines, let alone the pages they hold together that are full of fashion based perfection?

Here's how to enter in 3 simple steps:

1. Follow
The first step towards entering the giveaway is to follow Paige of Fashion using GFC or Bloglovin, or both if you're feeling really keen!

2. Tweet
Secondly, follow @PaigeOfFashion on twitter and tweet about the giveaway using the hashtag "#PaigeOfFashionGiveaway" with a link back to this post.

3. Comment
Leave the name you use for either GFC or Bloglovin and your twitter handle in the comments, because I will be checking ladies! So that I can contact you if you are the lucky winner, it would also be extremely helpful if you would leave me with an email address that you use regularly.

The competition will end two weeks from now on the 14th of June so any entries made after that will not be counted. The competition is also only open to people within England I'm afraid. Once all the comments are in I will use a random number generator to find our lucky winner to make sure that everybody has a fair chance. Don't forget I'll be checking you've completed all of the above steps!

Best of luck ladies!
Bethany Paige X

Thursday 30 May 2013

Get your ne-on

For years the word "neon" has sent shivers down my neutral clothing clad body. It's forced images of painfully pink tutus to swirl through my brain, with the memory of a time when a 12 year old Bethany went to an ice skating party wearing one. There was a point when it was considered "well cool" to wear such skirts and "geek glasses" (3D film glasses with the plastic pushed out) and it's an unfortunate truth that I seemed to fall in love with the fad! After later learning the somewhat disturbing error of my ways however, the idea of such shocking colours left a bad taste in my mouth.

Even last summer I refused to head in that direction. The neon nerve still all too raw, I steered towards the pastle colours of Louis Vuitton and Chanel and only occasionally into the rehlms of anything brighter than a pale hue. It was all rather reserved. After my 4 year intermission period, when I noted the reappearance of neons on the fashion scene, you'd assume I wouldn't be all too impressed. I'd assume so too. For some reason though, the collision of high fashion with my childhood regret has had quite the opposite effect on me. I can't be too sure, but I think I may be falling in love with neons.

This season has seen the sports luxe side of neons take the lead. Sheer white panelling over bright oranges at Stella McCartney, bright green patent trims at David Koma and a nod to the style with the visor floppy hats in greens and yellows at Chalayan. And not a single tutu in sight.

Stella McCartney:



 
 
David Koma:
 

 
 

 Chalayan:


 


Gone are the days when neon meant questionable leg warmers over ice skates and rainbow coloured net elasticated around waits. The negative connotations I personally attached to the word have but evaporated into a bright mist of sophisticated, sports inspired beauty, with a rather infectious effect. This summer I will be replacing the ice cream shade of 2012 with the less coy colours of S/S 2013.

How are you going to style neons this summer?

Bethany Paige X

Sunday 26 May 2013

Define: Perfection

“Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.” A rather ambiguous description of what seems to be the goal of every woman in the modern world – perfection. Unfortunately, the definition doesn't provide us with the characteristics required to achieve such flawlessness. No particular skin tone is stated, no clothing type mentioned and perhaps most surprisingly in our generation, the ideal dress size isn’t described.

Ever since fashion has been a part of human life, the idealist female figure of each era has run parallel to it. Clothes are either made for, or to create the image of, the “perfect shape”. It’s undeniable the perception of perfection is every changing though. From the bustles of the 1700s to the boyish look of the 20s, women through the ages have squashed, sucked and pushed out their assets in order to become what is seen as at the time as the ideal shape. 

Looking back through the changing shape of women it's clear that the idea of "perfect" is constantly shifting, but now that we lay in the 21st century with body dysmorphia at a high and the world at our fingertips, it's all to easy for women and girls to fall into a trap of body hatred. Unfortunately for my generation we've been born into a society in which publicity around what the perfect woman should and should not be is constant. In magazines, adverts and, perhaps most poignantly, online. 

The Tumblr generation: 








There's no denying that to many teens and young people, online social networking sites act as a second home. People are able to find solace from everyday hardships and it's easier than ever to find people with similar interests to you, even if that interest is staying thin. 

The past 10 years have seen the unstoppable rise of "pro ana" (pro anorexia) blogs on tumblr and websites online. They act as meeting places for people with eating disorders in which "inspiration" is posted to keep girls on the track towards skinny. Unhealthy eating and drinking habits are promoted and girls are encouraged to exercise as much as possible in essence, without fuel. The result is millions of girls being told that it's okay to starve yourself as long as you reach the ultimate goal - to be skinny. 
On less extreme scales girls often turn to thinspo. These blogs post pictures of thin women for girls to aspire towards looking like.

Unfortunately, the promotion of unhealthy habits lives beyond pro ana and thinspo. In recent years girls have been going crazy for the "thigh gap" and seem to view it as the pinnacle of perfection. Simply scrolling through twitter acts as an obstacle course of "thigh gap like this please" tweets, as well as girls lusting over the bodies of celebrities whom they wish they look like. Not only does this affect the person posting such pictures, but everybody that sees it. Even if subconsciously, it becomes forced upon the viewer that beauty comes in only one form. 

There's two sides to this story:





It's all too easy to only see one side of the body loathing story, we're almost constantly told about the prejudices faced by curvy women in society today and it's undeniable that in many cases it's true. Somehow though, people seem to entirely miss the other side of things. 

Some girls are naturally thin. They have smaller frames, smaller breast and smaller bums. But for some reason after years of being told that skinny people are constantly favoured, it's become apparent that sometimes it's quite the opposite. Purely due to body shape, people are branded as not being real women. Apparently, you can only be considered female if you are above a size 10 and are of a bra size C or above.

Flying through the twittersphere every day are pictures of curvy women, often captioned "bones are for dogs, meat is for men". It leads me to question the effect on the naturally slim. Despite the fact that many may envy your slight shape, others completely strip you of femininity due to it, implying that it's impossible to be thought of as sexy if you were born with a smaller frame.

High fashion: 




 

High fashion is often critised for being tightly linked to the rise of eating disorders over the past decade. The frequent use of painfully skinny models on the runway, clearly unwell due to eating habits, caused outrage throughout the 2000s. It seemed as though the world was getting thinner and thinner as a result. 

After such scrutiny aimed at designers and their models, it seems times may be changing. As much as high fashion is still kept within the realms of being thin, it's apparent that those acting as the faces (and bodies) of brands are getting healthier. Schemes have been put in place to abolish the use of models with eating disorders, due to the negative body image they provide. 

Whether or not the images that today's most famous models post on Instagram ring true and they do in fact chow down on big macs, is entirely debatable. It's clear to see though that what the clothes industry views as perfection is changing for the better, albeit slowly. 


Pop culture: 



 

There's no denying that the likes of Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea have made waves in the music industry due to their frank lyrics and catchy melodies, however both are perhaps more famous for something else - their bums! In contrast to the previously negative connotations connected to large behinds ("does my bum look big in this?") these two ladies have truly embraced their shapely butts. 

The two are idolised for their bodies and, as beautiful as they both are, it's questionable whether aiming for what is clearly unattainable naturally is harming women. To have such sizable assets there are two options, either opt for expensive and rather risky surgery, or invest in some padded underwear from Primark! Neither of which seem to promote being happy in ones own skin. 

On top of the blatantly unreachable standards that celebrities set, gossip magazines further amplify these ideas surrounding perfection. Every one of them seems to be speckled with new diet crazes and celeb exercise routine; of course none are healthy. 


Where are we now?

With a combination of all of these factors constantly being thrown at the modern day woman, and man in fact (who often seem to be forgotten), it's a wonder that any women feel confident with their bodies. When asking people how they felt with their figures the responses were overwhelmingly similar. A few nice comments among a sea of body hatred. 

Here's what was said: 

“Apart from those few days each month where every girl hates their body, I'm quite happy with my figure. The thing that is constantly top on my insecurity list is my lack of female features up top. I feel that no clothes look good on a small chest and because of this, I am conscious of the fact that my shoulders and arms look bigger against my chest.” - Emily

“I love all of me except my boobs. Pregnancy taunted me with beautiful D cups but then took it all away afterwards. I love my big bum as jeans fit me well, love my collar bones and shoulders, and  love my ankles. A lot of clothes just don't look right on me though because my bum is big but my front isn't!” - Katie

“I'm very comfortable [with my body] but I do have parts that I'm quite self-conscious about” - Georgia G-A

“I'm pretty okay with it, I think I love myself enough now not to want to change anything about myself physically” – Alice

“I made up a scale and on the scale I am a whale :) so not very comfortable” - Hollie

“I feel very insecure when I'm out like i don't fit in with the slim society.” – Lakeisha

“When I look at myself I think that I'm a good size and shape, but then I look at girls on Facebook and it makes me want to lose weight and wear baggy clothes. I feel like keeping up with trends and trying to dress for my shape is impossible” –Katherine

“Some days I feel relatively confident with my shape, but most days not. It depends what type of clothing you're wearing I guess, if it highlights my best features then naturally I'd feel a bit more comfortable with how I looked, but if it doesn't really work, or suit me, or I haven’t made much of an effort (eg jeans and t shirt) I feel much less comfortable within myself!” -Emma









The truth is, every single woman or girl that I spoke to is absolutely beautiful. They all posses enviable assets, but due to the nature of our current society, most have been bought up to only see the bad. There's nothing nicer than witnessing someone who's confident in their own body and it's unfortunate that so many aren't. Our bodies can do spectacular things, so why do we continue to scrutinize every inch of them for negative traits? 

It's unlikely that this post will make much of a difference in the world of body image, but I hope that I can at least covey my message to some people: Beauty is more than a dress size and perfection is what you make it. Comment bellow what your favourite aspect of yourself is. 

Bethany Paige X

Tuesday 14 May 2013

I'll be back

Exam season is officially upon us (cue collective cry of despair). Being only at the beginning of my long list of 21 exams, my days consist of what seems like a constant loop of revision! As you can imagine, this leaves little time for blogging. A very heart breaking truth indeed.

So, this is just a quick post to apologies for my current and inevitable lack of posting. Unfortunately in this instance Paige of Fashion is going to have to suffer a little. Never fear though, as soon as the summer holiday breaks on June 20th, I will be back in full force! Until then you can follow me on twitter for my fashion musings daily - @PaigeOfFashion - or email me with any questions or requests at paigeoffashion@hotmail.co.uk .


May mood board 

Thank you all for being so wonderfully patient! 
Bethany Paige X

Monday 6 May 2013

OOTD: Who run the world? Girls.

Today I thought I'd show you all an outfit that I wore on Saturday to one of the best events of my life. Trust me, as exaggerated as it sounds, I'm not taking this term lightly. If you follow me on twitter there's absolutely no way you could've escaped my bombardment of excited tweets throughout this weekend about the fact that I was going to see BeyoncĂ© in concert. Yes, you read that correctly. Among the hundreds of people that were disappointed with their attempts at buying tickets to the hotly anticipated Mrs Carter tour, I am one person that was not.
 
After seemingly hanging on to my calader for the past few weeks, counting down the days, hours and minutes until I got to see Queen B, the 4th of May finally came around. My friends Maria and Kelsie and myself decided not to waste the opportunity and spent the whole day in London.
 
The outfit:
 
 


 
I decided to keep my outfit pretty casual (especially in compasrison to some of the other concert goers) in flat shoes and basic denim shorts. As is often the case I also bought a 90s vibe to the ensemble with a collard crop top and plaid shirt tied around my wait. A mix of Travis and Cher from Clueless in one outfit! 

The concert:

As far as the concert was concerned, there's no other word for it than "spectacular". Her voice. The choreography. Her outfits. The atmosphere. Everything was truly spectacular. As well as pulling some well known BeyoncĂ© dance routines in the stand I sung louder than perhaps ever though humanly possible. Absolutely amazing!

Thanks for reading,
Bethany Paige X