Alice Rhodes

All in all it was the best way to mark the end of high school with my closest friends. I hope your summer is filled with good memories, follow me for more posts like this and check out my social media!

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!