It’s been grey, wet and windy here in North Yorkshire for several days and after the sparkle and glitter of Christmas, everything seems rather dull. I’m sure I’m not alone in finding it harder to get motivated throughout January and for it to take a few days to get back into work mode. With snow forecast for the weekend, winter is still stretching out ahead of us and spring seems an awful long way off, but the lovely thing about “working” in fashion and writing for a magazine is that we’re always looking several months ahead. This week I started work on the March issue of Aspire and already stores and websites are launching their SS17 collections.
Tulchan is a brand that is based just a forty minute drive from me, just over the border into my home county of Lancashire. Those of you that have ever driven along the A65 near Ingleton (Falls), may have spotted the imposing blue warehouse building in Cowan Bridge that is both the flagship store and HQ. I went yesterday to take a look at the Spring Summer 2017 collection just ahead of its launch and to see what caught my eye. I have a lovely working friendship with Michele Needham the MD and I’m continuing my collaboration with the brand for the next six months, (and I hope sincerely for the following six months too, having been privy to the moodboards and samples for the AW17 collection).
A lifestyle brand, Tulchan is loosely divided into two collections, Town and Country, the colours of which are cohesive so facilitating an easy crossover. Spring’s palette is a fresh, clear one featuring coral, cobalt blue, baby blue and baby pink along with neutrals navy, grey and oatmeal. It manages to be upbeat and vibrant without smacking one between the eyes and the pieces work beautifully together or as pop of colour or an instant refresh to existing outfits. Stripes feature heavily and I know enough stripe-o-philes to know that this will be a winner. This season’s stripes are wider than they were last season (I wore mine here) which I prefer and I’m pleased to report that the outstanding quality remains the same.
I picked out my favourite pieces which we arranged into outfits, (one for each of the next six months starting in February), so keep an eye on my blog to see them in action throughout the year and head over to the Tulchan website to see the full collection which will be available within the next few weeks.
As you know, I love to wear a dress but I particularly like to find a dress for all seasons. The Boden denim shirt dress I’m wearing is one I’ve worn throughout the year with pink brogues in spring (see the look here), with tan leather gladiator sandals in summer and with leopard print ankle boots in autumn. On this occasion, I wore it with navy opaque tights and knee- high leather boots. The only disadvantage is that it does crease somewhat.
My jewellery is by Danon and these pieces are among the latest designs that I added to my website towards the end of last year. The honey bees are so pretty and the pineapples simply make me smile and think of sunshine.
The Danon honey bees are also available in silver, as is the pineapple jewellery (from Lizzy O, my jewellery and accessories website).
There is one thing though that I don’t look forward to about spring which is the speed with which the grass grows and it’s clear from these photographs that it already needs cutting. As does my fringe…
Love Lizzy x
Pineapple bracelet £27 by Danon at Lizzy O
Honey bee bracelet £27 by Danon at Lizzy O
Mini honey bee necklace £52 by Danon at Lizzy O.
Honey bee ring in matt gold (also available in silver) £24 by Danon at Lizzy O
(Do sign up to my monthly newsletter in the right hand sidebar of my blog for exclusive discounts at Lizzy O).
*Navy contrast leather tassel knee boots, £150, Kaleidoscope.
Denim shirt dress, Boden, past season
Photographs: Poppy Johnston
*Disclosure: These items were gifted. All opinions are 100% honest and all content is my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support What Lizzy Loves.