--SCRUFFY--

In French they call this style 'déshabillée'. In English we call it 'caj'. Why are the French naturally about 12340 times more elegant than the rest of the world?

Personally I'm a big fan of the relaxed look when dressing myself. (Is that laziness coming through there? Why, of course not. It's obviously my massively pre-considered style ponderings which lead me to chuck on some leggings and a nice baggy jumper with blah hair (I don't chuck on my hair...that would be weird. I mean, I chuck them on and accompany them with blah hair.)(Still doesn't quite sound right does it? I'll get workin' on the whole 'self-expression' thing) as opposed to a desire for comfort and ease...) The world seems that bit more bearable seen from the safety of a snuggly jumper.

Still, you gotta have a bit of attichude to carry it off without looking like a lazy-ass slob. I fear that is where I fail, but I'm practising my pout and Little-J dishevelled eyeliner. (LOL jk, I do IB, clearly I don't have time for actual leisure activities. But when I eventually buy myself a new eyeliner pencil I might start amending my temporary aversion to any make up. At all. Even powder.)

(fashiongonerogue.com; studdedhearts.blogspot.com; benny-horne.com; fashiongonerogue.com; knighttcat.com; theones2watch.com; fashiongonerogue.com; harperandharley.com; fashiongonerogue.com; inafractionofasecond.blogspot.com; fashiongonerogue.com)

--ANOTHER ENDING--

And another week draws to an end. It snowed here (finally), although I haven't even had one single snowball fight yet! The trials of growing up...Hope everyone has a great weekend! I for one am planning to pig out on cookies and Haribo while reading 'Freedom', which my mum hid from me to prevent me from reading it late into the night. But I finally got it, haha!

(thecherryblossomgirl.com; fashiontoast.com; kthanksbye.blogspot.com; sandmer.se)

--ALEXA--

Just saw this video with Alexa Chung on style.com-what a gem. (Makes a change from the usual heavily accented backstage, "Zis season I woz teenking of laik a vairy byootiful wooman..."-Dolce and Gabbana, I love you, but just stick to Italian.) "Is he in MGMT, isn't he in MGMT? That's the sort of shit that goes down in Brooklyn." I've always idly liked her style, but her sense of humour is just such classic English self-deprecation, I love it. Guess who's stalking youtube for Alexa Chung tv shows? (If you can't get the answer to that one, well, just go home. You need some special time.)

--ON THE SHOULDER--

Garance wrote about this the other day. I keep meaning to wear my coat this way-slung over my shoulders (it's a great substitute for a cape)-but I keep forgetting because it's so cold I can't bear to do anything other than clutch my coat around myself and fold my arms against the wind. But I like the way it instantly makes you look sophisticated, yet effortless-so maybe when the temperatures rise a bit I'll road test my new style!

(carolinesmode.com; style.com; nast-magazine.fr; photodiarist.typepad.com; carolinesmode.com; vogue.co.uk; waynetippetts.com)

--SO CLOSE--

I did make that shopping trip in the end (at my own folly, as all I bought was a black t-shirt and some underwear, while losing 5 hours which could have been spent reducing some of my enormous pile of work. And that is no mere saying. I literally have a pile of books, files and loose sheets of paper stacked on my bedroom floor. I was woken from a distracted sleep at 3:41am by the whole thing collapsing, and spent 5 minutes grubbing around on the floor in the dark trying to stack everything back up again before realising, oh no wait, sleep is more important than a tidy room. Glad we got that sorted out.)

Anyway, I mention this shopping trip (yes, I did mention it way back at the start before that massive parenthesis) because I actually came across the perfect pair of faux-leather trousers . They were on a mannequin in the window of H & M (I did an embarrassing cartoon double take when I saw them), and inside the shop they were being advertised, larger than life, in the campaign shot below. Perfect, I thought, with double exposure they're sure to have the trousers in stock.

Apparently not.

This, my friends, is why you don't shop on a Sunday afternoon. I can't find them online either. Now, I feel that my life is incomplete without this specific pair of trousers.Help?

(dailymail.co.uk)

--FROM MY WINDOW--

I don't kid myself into thinking that I'm any sort of great photographer. Still, there are often times when I'm out and about and see something that I wish I could photograph-only, as I don't lug my camera with me to school every day, I rarely have the opportunity to actually cement the image onto my memory card. Things I've noticed over the past week or two are: a weather vane illuminated by golden evening sunlight against iron-grey clouds; a building-sized Beatles iTunes advert, with the sunlight falling just over Lennon's face; the sun setting on a freezing cold day, gradating from blue to pink in a cloudless sky. I can see these things in my mind even if I can't display them in photos.

The view from my window is something I take photos of often, even though it's really not very exciting. It's something that I always have time to snap a shot of before I get dressed; I like how something so familiar can still be new and interesting if you take a step back and really see it, instead of just looking.

(own photos-please credit)

--THE LEATHER LOOK--

I don't own any leather trousers/leggings (mostly because fake leather leggings look uncannily like the rowing lycra in which I spend an unhealthy amount of my time), but I'm thinking they might be yet another thing to add to my growing list of essentials which I feel that my life is incomplete without. (I didn't manage to go shopping this weekend-it's far too cold to contemplate going outside for anything not absolutely necessary). They seem to be a nice compromise between the warmth of thicker jeans and the tightness of normal cotton leggings. Plus they have that bad-ass edge which your favourite pair of skinnies just don't quite attain. (I bet all those indeh rockers were bummed when skinny jeans hit the mainstream-guys in tight jeans just don't quite pack the same punch any more).

(altamiranyc.blogspot.com; carolinesmode.com; ifyouseekstyle.blogspot.com; knighttcat.com; meijias.blogbus.com; carolinesmode.com; vanessajackman.blogspot.com; nyheter24.se; vintagemavens.com)

--ZARA'S LATEST--

These are my kind of evening outfits! Zara is outdoing Topshop in my opinion at the moment-their styling is impeccable. (I just wrote 'their' like 'they're', then realised my horrendous, despicably illiterate error and began berating myself out loud. I need this weekend so badly!). Hope you guys all have a great weekend!

(zara.com)