Alice Rhodes

For those of you who aren't aware The Piece Hall is a grade one listed Cloth Hall dating from 1779 in Halifax. It has recently been refurbished with an aim to create a new cultural area within Halifax whilst preserving the building's original beauty. It's only just opened so me and my family went to have a look around. The building is totally stunning on a summers day and has such a relaxing atmosphere with children running around playing and eating ice cream from Blondin's Ice Cream Parlour, if you ever go I recommend the Biscotto ice cream as it was delicious! There was lots of independent shops to look around, small art galleries, cafes, restaurants and rooms containing more information on the history of The Piece Hall and how they restored it. As it has only just opened not all the shops have been filled and there's still multiple restaurants and cafes waiting to open however, give it a few months and I think it will start to fill up. 

We were lucky to go to The Piece Hall on a brilliant summers day so I decided to put on a summer dress and make the most of the weather. I recently found this stunning lacy, lilac midi dress in the Topshop sales for only £10, it just goes to show labouring your way through a sale rail definitely pays off as you can find some amazing clothes for less than half their original price! I paired it with some Clarkes gladiator sandals, a H&M silver handbag which was actually my prom clutch bag and an Asos embroidered denim jacket which I cheekily borrowed from my sisters wardrobe. To accessorise I wore some Topshop hoop earrings with a tiny star detail, a tiny H&M necklace with a little moon on and a Whitby jet ring from a jewellers in Whitby. I think this was definitely a winning summer look and the cut of the dress made the outfit classy and timeless. I've attached some extra photos of the dress I took at home because I didn't take many of my outfit when I was in The Piece Hall (sorry about the bad quality images). 

Being a lover of retro prints and 'girly' florals, monochrome isn't a style I have previously tried. However, having recently bought a gorgeous lemon yellow skirt (which has made an appearance in all my posts so far....oops!) I was playing around with ways of styling it and discovered a new passion. Monochrome. Specifically, an outfit composed of variants of a colour, like yellow, rather than an all black look which is still slightly too unadventurous to me. So here I am writing a post on how I personally styled out a monochromatic look.

Noticeably, I didn't wear exclusively yellow on my day out in York but the goal of my look was to have all main pieces be primarily a shade of yellow. The first piece I previously mentioned is my Topshop skirt. I got it for around £30 which is a bit expensive for a 16 year old's budget but I've certainly got my wear out of it and would totally recommend the cut to anyone looking for a denim skirt- it's majorly flattering! The jumper is actually a birthday present I asked for from my sister which I found in a charity shop for only £4.50 (total bargain!). It's really oversized on me so I push up the sleeve cuffs giving the sleeves a bell arm effect which looks quite original. These two pieces are what really sparked my interest in monochrome as I believe the one colour effect made the look much more chic and classic.

To accessorise the look I couldn't fully commit to monochrome as there's only so much room for yellow in anyone's wardrobe. I used my favourite tote bag which shows the message 'Art Makes  Children Powerful' and is part of a campaign for more art in education and public life set up by Rob and Roberta Smith. In my hair I wore a retro patterned scarf with yellow and orange tones which complemented the monochrome beautifully. To finish I put on my blue slip-ons from Primark as I don't own any yellow shoes! I kept my makeup fairly simple but put on a bright orange lip to match the head band.

I will definitely be seen in a monochrome outfit again. It had such and 'wow' and effortless look even though I'd carefully constructed the outfit so that each piece complemented the tones of the other perfectly, admittedly, I even put on my New Look 'pizza socks' so they picked up the yellow theme!  

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend a week in Corfu with my family. These are some of my favourite looks from my summer vacation, obviously most of the time I wore my swim suits as I spent the majority of the holiday by the pool or the beach! You can find out where I bought all the items below the photos.

The first two photos are from the first day, I'm wearing my favourite swimming costume from Next which I purchased last year, it has an extremely low cut back and tie-up details at the front. I adore the retro-style pattern which really flatters my body! Admittedly, I bought into the animal float trend,  but, rather than purchasing the ridiculously priced ones I've seen on my Instagram feed I found one for only £10 in Primark, what a bargain!

After a beach day we decided to do some exploring and hired a boat for the second day. We drove to Paradise Beach which was one of the most beautiful parts of the holiday with stunning clear water and towering cliffs surrounding an untouched pebble beach. I wore a Primark bikini with a tropical print that you can see in the third and fourth photo. The top has a really original cut which I haven't seen done anywhere else; surprisingly I didn't end up with a bad tan line from it, so it was a great purchase!

When we went to Corfu town I decided to try out the bum-bag trend with a tassel bum-bag I purchased for Leeds Fest last year; I have to say I'm loving the trend and I think I managed to put a more colourful spin on it with my lemon-yellow Topshop skirt and seventies print New Look top. Unfortunately, on the penultimate day my pale, British skin got burnt! In order to prevent more damage on the last day I opted to wear my Topshop 'Bad Habits' t-shirt over my Next swim suit and I think it looked pretty chic! 

Overall, I had an amazing time relaxing after a year of revising for my GCSE's. I hope you're having a great summer too, follow me for more outfit posts and check out my social media linked in the side bar!