November 2013 • ceriselle.org

Being so active on Twitter means I talk to a lot of people, many in Bristol. It never ceases to amaze me how talented the people I know are – one of these Bristol based talented people is Ani Stafford-Townsend. Ani is a milliner who has just opened her own shop in St James’ Arcade, Broadmead and she’s selling her own work as well as some carefully chosen pieces by other designers – there’s hats, fascinators, jewellery and handbags for sale, so if you’re looking for the perfect accessories for a special outfit, you’re sure to find something here!

(I took most of these photos around Hallowe’en because I am an awful blogger these days, so if you visit now, it probably looks quite different!)

You can see more of the items available for purchase on the Milliners Guild website and you can ask any questions to the @UKMillinerGuild Twitter account.

The reason I’m posting this now is because this Saturday, Ani is organising a pop up Christmas Market in the Arcade which will have lots of lovely gifts for you to buy as Christmas presents for yourself or others – I know that Black Heart Creatives will be there, with some awesome festive pieces (I already have a little shopping list…) so do visit if you are braving Broadmead on a Saturday before Christmas.

A few weeks ago, I was sent a press release about the new Metropolitan collection from London Retro and offered a pair of my own to review. I was undecided which pair to choose, the play-it-safe Eliza, the slightly-different Victoria or the totally-crazy-yet-awesome Babs (Bethany makes them look awesome in this blog post!) so decided to use MyOptique’s StyleAdvisor feature. Basically, you upload a photo of yourself (I used the one from this post which I’ve been using as my profile picture elsewhere) and answer a few questions about your favourite colours, brands, and even what you’d take to a desert island so they get an idea of your style. The three that came back were the Victoria, the Soho and the Bakerloo. I went for the Bakerloo…

They came about a week later, in a pretty box…

…and in the box was a case (and a cleaning cloth, so often forgotten)…

…and in the case was a pair of glasses (obviously)

They’re a lot more purple in this photo than in real life, and are just the right size (well, I think so anyway) so I can have the nerdy glasses look, but they’re not crazily oversized on my face. When they arrived at the office, I put them on straight away and wore them all week – you know how sometimes when you get new glasses, and they’re a bit weird for the first few days? Not these.

This outfit is one that I seem to wear at least once a week at the moment. I bought the top at the Fox+Feather menswear launch in September (which I keep meaning to post about. I blame that other website of mine) – I love it because of the balloons, and the pretty little Peter Pan collar. Balloons are a very Bristolian thing, so this top makes me happy when I wear it. It’s a weird (but amazing) city.

Top: Sugarhill Boutique* | Jeans: F&F* | Shoes : Primark

Archives for November 2013

Latest from Instagram