Home sweet home, I say as we land at Lisbon airport, bright blue skies and warm temperatures on an unlikely Autumnal day.

Having spent our teenage years here from the ages of 14 to 18 there’s always a sense of nostalgia and excitement to come back to the place that shaped and influenced the critical years of growing up. We spent four years in a place called Cascais (a coastal resort town 30 kilometers west of Lisbon) and it’s always lovely to go back to see old friends, familiar places and how things have changed and progressed from when we lived there.

In the past couple of years Lisbon has been destined as one of Europe’s coolest capital, not only for it’s beautiful architecture and quaint cobbled streets but it’s trendy night life heaving with great roof top bars that boast incredible views of the city. The cuisine has to be one of our favourites and what I constantly crave after too many roast dinners and Haribos!

 The typical Portuguese cuisine of bacalhau (dried cod) and fresh seafood is incredible, and whilst Lisbon has embraced its' traditional roots it has also adopted an experimental, modern and sophisticated cuisine that is affordable in it’s own right.

Our once unknown & humble little Portugal has transformed in recent years to a much sought after and talked about place amongst brits.

Now although Lisbon may be top of your list, we can’t stress how much more there is to see and do in Portugal!  Below I’ve outline some great things to do in and out of Lisbon if you’re over for a very short flying visit!

TO STAY:

PENHA LONGA RESORT

What a beautiful hotel, located in 545-acre national park on the southern Sintra Mountains, we stayed here for a night in the executive suite that had views to die for. The luxurious hotel, sits amongst a nineteenth century palace, 27 golf holes set within historic ruins and a stunning Spa and Wellness centre. This has to be one of the most tranquil and serene spots I have ever been to! It’s perfect for a little rejuvenation and down time. Loanne and I spent the evening on our roof terrace sipping on wine whilst watching a sunset that could only be compared to that of an African safari sunset as the whole sky lit a blood red orange!

We had dinner at a place called Arola one of the 8 restaurants within the hotel, a contemporary twist to Spanish tapas with contrasting flavours and textures! If you go you must order the ‘Copa Catalana’ similar to a crème brulee but with a twist!  It is hands down one of my favourite desserts.

DAY OUT:

SINTRA

This is where we rented an AirBnB this holiday. Forty minutes from Lisbon's main station (Rossio). It’s a time warped village located in lush, wooded hills surrounded by whimsical palaces that emanates an aura of mysticism and romanticism. Be sure to visit the beautiful ‘Palacio De Pena’ and 'Quinta da Regaleira' then afterwards stop off for a sweet Queijada at Casa Piriquita. If you're feeling adventurous get off the beaten track and explore the Sintra hills where witchcraft is rife! If you look hard enough you’ll come across sacrificial tombstones and red ribbon wrapped around trees where practices still occur. (Eerie)

BY NIGHT:

SKY BAR

The Sky bar is one of the best roof top bars in Lisbon and located on the roof of the Tivoli Avenida da Liberdade hotel with incredible cocktails, good vibes, live music and a panoramic view of Lisbon. Come here around 9/10pm for pre-drinks and make sure to ask the waiter to whip you up a pineapple Margarita, it’s not on the menu but they’ll do it if you ask and they are super scrumptious.

JNcQUOI

The latest contemporary restaurant to hit Lisbon, it’s comfort artisan food is modern and sophisticated just like the ambience and interior, the best feature is the dinosaur skeleton perfectly positioned in the middle of the restaurant, and don’t forget to head to the bathroom for a boogie where you’ll find a DJ spinning some tunes from a circular DJ booth! Cool or crazy, call it what you like… We loved it!

 LUX

One of the best Clubs in Lisbon, especially for house music! The venue which is divided into a club space, bar and terrace, is known for its stunning waterside location and regular appearances from international DJ’s. If you love house music make the downstairs area your party place, we didn’t stop dancing for 3 hours straight when we went! Order the luxtinis, a personalised cocktail that is as sweet as can be!  

BY DAY:

GUINCHO BEACH

This has to be my favourite beach in Portugal, not only because we spent most of our teen years on this beach surfing and sunbathing but it’s 800 meters of golden sand and shoreline is absolutely stunning and has the perfect surf and windsurf conditions. Be aware it’s very hit and miss in terms of wind! But when you have a calm day there is nothing more beautiful! It's 5km from Cascais and 33km from Lisbon.

 

 Shop the look:

Outfit 1

Pink silk dress | Bec and Bridge

Outfit 2

Polka dot dress | Zara
Yellow kitten heels | Topshop
Hat | ASOS
Sunnies | Ray Ban

Outfit 3:

Green Jumper | Weekday Stores
Jeans | Weekday Stores
Hat | ASOS
Silk Skirt | New Look
Beret | ASOS
Bags | Kurt Geiger
Boots | Kurt Geiger

Outfit 4:

Black Jumpsuit | Only Child
White Mules | Vagabond shoes
Sunnies | Ray Ban

Outfit 5:

Jeans | Weekday Stores
Green velvet Jacket | Weekday Stores

Outfit 6:

White Kitten Heels | Topshop
Black Skirt | Urban Outfitters
Top | All Things Mochi

Outfit 7:

White floral top |Zara
Denim shorts | Urban Outfitters

Outfit 8:

Blue bikini |Sea Folly Australia
New York Top | Topshop



 

Now London Fashion Week is well and truly over and we’ve finally settled back in to our weekly routine, we thought we’d give you a slight round up of our week in pictures and words.

We've done Fashion Week before and let's just say it was everything but smooth and stress-free. In all honesty it was quite overwhelming and involved a hell of a lot of rushing around from place to place. So, this season we thought we best prepare and learn from our past experiences so not to make the same mistakes! So this is our list of recommendations of 'How to do London Fashion Week. This season went a hell of a lot better and more smoothly than last time, so I guess we did something right! Hope it   helps :)

Accommodation:

It’s always best to find accommodation as central to the hubbub as possible! We live in Surrey quays so travelling back and forth from show to presentation every day is hectic and would take a while. Instead we managed to stay at The Trafalgar St James Hotel, in the heart of it all. Located right by Trafalgar square this beautifully designed, historic hotel was reborn this summer hosting 131 bedrooms including 15 exquisite suites, and a number of venues to eat, drink, work or play. Our room was beautifully designed with iconic wall art featuring the best of London’s music idols and an amazing en-suite bathroom stocked with Molton Brown toiletries. Dreamy!

Travel:

Another part of London Fashion Week that can be the most stressful part is transport. Getting from one show to another, running in-between presentations, changing outfits, it all can be a bit of a nightmare. So this time we collaborated with BUMBLE who offered us a Mercedes Bens G-wagon with our own chauffeur to drive us around from show to show! (BALLIN’) I know, I know, pretty swag! We’d normally make do with public transport or get an Uber but THIS was the ultimate way to do it! Stress free! Thanks Bumble!

Shows:

London Fashion Week can be so hectic if you try and squeeze too much into it.

So this season, we were quite selective and only did the shows & presentations that really appealed to us. That way, we got a bit of time in between to catch up on emails, shoot content and get changed for our next event!

Some of the shows we went to were DAKS, House Of Holland, Topshop and Julien MacDonald. I have to say Topshop was a highlight for us, it was the first time we’d been to a Topshop show and it was pretty epic. A great new collection and jaw dropping hotties modelling the clothes. All four of the shows were very impressive in their own ways. House Of Holland for its wacky designs, DAKS for its uber cool tailored suits and Julien MacDonald for the glam and A-list celeb cat walkers! BOOM!

Outfits:

From our photos you’ll probably notice a recurring pattern in our choice of outfits this fashion week. Yes! The tailored suit! My red suit is from H&M which I absolutely love. Jordan wore a similar red dress from H&M to match my outfit. Both absolutely loving the red this season! The cobalt blue tailored suit is from Topshop which Jordan wore to the show and is an absolute winner, such a great fit and what a head turner! On the final day I wore a grey, checkered suit which is a simple New Look number.  Smart and sophisticated and perfectly paired with some white trainers. For those of you who are familiar with our style you’ll know we’re more tom-boyish than girly girly so the tailored suits were a perfect match for us this season.

If we weren’t wearing our suits, you’ll have definitely seen us rocking an oversized blazer with our outfits.They just smarten everything up and are perfect for this autumn weather.

In terms of accessories, if we were’t rocking our amazing new Lulu Guinness clutch bags, you’ll have seen us in our new over the shoulder Karl Lagerfeld bags. Check out our latest blog post here to read more about them! 

We’re all about the boots this season as well. Small heeled boots, great for keeping those tootsies warm and elevating those short legs! Leopard pint, white leather, black, snake skin print, brown suede….you name it we’ll be wearing them!

Fun:

There’s no fashion week without a good party or social event right? So we made sure to break up our manic days with some fun events and night time soirees to wind down and chill for a second amongst the mayhem. One definitely worth mentioning was the LuLu Guinness afternoon tea. A group of us gathered at the Dandelyan bar at the Mondrian hotel to meet the team, receive some AMAZING goodies (check out the clutch bags in our photos!) get to know more about the company and of course indulge in some delicious canapes! It was a great way to kick off fashion week in style. Thanks Lulu Guinness! Another fun event we went to was the WONDERLAND magazine party, always sure to add a touch of spice, sauce and sassiness in to your fashion week which it sure did. 

 And what a fashion week it was! We already can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next one and I’m hoping we’ll have really nailed it by then. Cruising around from show to show, all dressed up and ready to go!

Until next season folks.

L&J xXx

Shop The Look

Outfit 1

White Blazer | Topshop

White T with red engraving | Topshop

Jeans | Weekday

Belt  | Topshop

Black blazer | Zara

White amour T | Topshop

Black cross body bag | Mon Purse

Cream clutch | Mon Purse

Outfit 2

Blue blazer + Trousers | Topshop

Ciao Bella T | Topshop

White shoes | Topshop 

Leopard boots | H&M

Black patent skirt | Topshop

White blazer | Topshop

Outfit 3

Red clutch | Lulu Guinness

Black polka dot shirt | H&M

Gold watch | Larsson & Jennings

Outfit 4

Biker jacket | Karl Lagerfeld

Pink clutch | Karl Lagerfeld

Black top | New Look

Black Culottes | Zara 

Black studded boots | Office

Tweed jacket | Karl Lagerfeld

White Amour T | Topshop

White shoes | Topshop

Jeans | Weekday

Outfit 5

Red dress | H&M

Red blazer and trousers | H&M

Outfit 6

Black boots | Karen Millen

Outfit 7

White Jumper | New Look (similar)

Red Skirt | New Look

Leopard boots | H&M

Check suit | New Look

White trainers | Kooples X Puma

Up until the beginning of this year, myself and Jordan have always struggled with our hair and achieving a look and style that we really want. We’re prone to extremely fine and straggly hair that breaks very easily and doesn’t grow past a certain point ( usually slightly below shoulder length).  Now, it would be easy to blame the whole thing on genes (My mum’s hair is also very fine) but we are both guilty of not looking after it as well as we should. Using treatments, heat sprays, brushing it with care, using sun protection spray were all quite foreign to our weekly hair routine and just something we never really gave much importance to.

However, at the beginning of 2017 we decided to change it up, no more straggly, split-ended, rastafarian-style hair. No, it was time to re-store its health and glow and make our hair something to be proud of rather than something we would shy away from and tie back at any opportunity. That is where the amazing Paul Edmonds comes in. We were introduced to the Salon in knightsbridge earlier in the year and literally have not looked back since! 

The salon itself is beautiful and the staff are all so warm and friendly. Expect a 5-star service when you go in, from the best magazines, to yummy juices and a selection of amazing food that is simply served to you whilst being pampered to the max!  We’d never had anything like it. My previous experience of hair salons was not far from just walking in, getting more of my hair chopped off than anticipated and then leaving feeling slightly deflated. Well, Not here!

Me and Jordan opted for extensions in order to achieve not only length but that thickness we had always craved. Our previous experience of extensions had certainly not been the best and most of the time ended up in either half our hair falling out or just a look that wasn’t very natural and quite obviously extensions. So you could say we were slightly hesitant to get them again however these ones were completely different. They were done by an amazing woman called Polina, who is without a doubt the absolute queen of hair extensions, with years and years of experience she is the one to go to! The extensions are ‘starworks’ and are coloured by the salons very own colourist called Jack Howard. He has launched his own range of balayage extensions which gives the hair its amazing colour! That beachy balayage look is one we’ve always wanted and the colour blends so well into our natural hair colour. They should last around four months by which time you should probably get them re-done again as you will notice that they may start to fall out. 

The extensions are pretty easy to maintain, just make sure to brush them often and make sure they don’t get tangled at the top. Weekly treatments are a must, we use a Kerastase treatment which you can just leave in for half an hour instead of conditioning. It leaves your hair feeling amazing and so shiny. We usually style our hair with curling tongs to achieve that loose wave look, so make sure to always use a good heat-cream spray before. We tend to use Maria Nila .

Achieving a look that we finally really love and one, ( I think) that really suits us, has motivated us to take as much care of it as possible and start treating it with the love, care and attention that it deserves! For those that are after a new salon or new extensions, we could’t recommend Paul Edmonds enough. It’s not just a hair salon, it’s a whole experience where you’ll leave feeling refreshed,  rejuvenated and confident again. I don’t think I’ve ever worn my hair down so much since going to Paul Edmonds and we’ve certainly never had as many compliments on our hair as we do now that's for sure!

So after all the mayhem, the buzz, the travel, the shows, the shoots,  London Fashion Week has finally come to a close. This was in fact the first official Fashion Week we'd done together this year, as last season I flew to Cape Town leaving Loanne all alone (sigh!)  So to make up for our previous absence we made sure to prepare everything in advance from our schedules to outfits, hotel stays and photographers!

As they say failing to prepare is preparing to fail and failing certainly wasn't on the agenda. 

So day four of fashion week ard our looks revolved around these iconic Karl Lagerfeld bags. We’ve always been a fan of Karl Lagerfeld’s bold designs and constant reinvention and his quirky bags have always been a winner for us! These shoulder bags are the perfect size, big enough to fit all your fashion week essentials but small enough not to worry about dragging a big bag around with you. They can also be worn as either a shoulder bag or clutch. Double tick! 

We’ve both opted for different looks here.

I went for a full black number to ensure the covetable blush clutch remains the signature piece! Made from smooth leather it’s striking silver hardware adorned with Karl’s signature makes it a statement piece without it being to OTT. As most of you know, Loanne and I are more into understated, classic pieces that don’t scream ‘look at me now’ so this bag works perfectly for the pair of us!

For my outfit I chose a classic biker style jacket from Karl Lagerfeld that has multiple zip details and coin pockets. The best part of this buttery soft leather style is the metallic silver trim under the collar! I paired it with some classic A-line culottes and a pair of studded black boots. It’s important to feel comfortable during Fashion Week especially if you’re running around from show to show. The clutch gives the finishing touch to my all black ensemble.

So Loanne went for a slightly more casual look made more sophisticated with the Karl Lagerfeld black and white blazer to match her black and white clutch. The blazer’s black satin collar and lapels create a sharp and elegant contrast. The jeans and T-shirt gives a sense of effortless, cool to the outfit which is perfect for a daytime outfit. The best thing about these bags is that they transition perfectly from day to night so you can rock them as shoulder bags during the day at shows then use it as a clutch for the after parties!

These are definitely one of our favourite signature clutches of Karl’s and their versatile nature means we'll be making a lot more use out of them.

Two weeks ago we were fortunate enough to have our first experience on a private jet! (Woohoo) We were taken out to Sopot, Poland with fashion brand 'Reserved' to celebrate their upcoming store launch on Oxford Street. It was a flying visit to learn more about the history of the brand and to get an exclusive preview of their amazing new collection ahead of the store opening. 

For those of who don’t know, Reserved is Poland’s most famous fashion brand, a Polish fashion chain that offers trend led fast fashion for men, women and children. It is classed as an affordable Eastern European clothing retailer with similarities to H&M and Zara for its on-trend pieces. If you live in London, I'd be surprised if you hadn't come across their Autumn/ Winter 2017 Global campaign which is dotted round the city's underground, billboards and buses featuring the one and only Kate Moss. Their store is now open on Oxford Street and it's pretty beaut, so I would definitely recommend checking it out!

Whilst in Poland, we stayed in the luxurious five-star Grand hotel which is located at the seaside of the Gdansk Bay, in the heart of the town and next to the beach. Who knew that Poland had a beach, and a pretty lovely one to say the least?! Unfortunately we didn't get to explore Poland too much but we heard through the grapevine Sopot really is the place to be! Renound for its health spas, sandy beach and its long wooden pier that extends into the Bay of Gdańsk! Hopefully we'll get the chance to revisit Poland and if so, we'll make sure to explore the beautiful city and all it has to offer.

So as most of you probably have seen, myself and Jordan made our second trip this year to Ibiza!

We loved it so much the first time that when Sol House Ibiza invited us out, we just couldn’t refuse another few days on the magical island!

Newly renovated, the hotel is stunning and has this new, modern white-washed feel throughout. It has an amazing pool on the rooftop and another one which opens straight on to the beach. So if you don’t fancy the pool all day, the beach is right on your doorstep. Winning!

Sol house ibiza mixed by Ibiza rocks is located in Punta pinet beach in the buzzing San Antonio, infamous for its crazy party scene. 

Our favourite part had to be the roof terrace; with a beautiful pool, sofas, sun loungers, a bar , great tunes and stunning views, it's the perfect chill spot in the day.At sunset this is where the DJs gather and play at the Sol sunset sessions where we fortunately DJ’d one of the evenings during our stay, which was so much fun.

Pool parties by day and Rooftop sessions by night, this is definitely a great place to go for music lovers and DJs. However, If you’re looking for a more chilled holiday with less party and preferably no kids, Sol beach house is located on the other side of the island and looks pretty beaut too! 

Hopefully our photos do it justice :) Enjoy! X

Shop the look

Red Headband |  Zara

           Red crop top | New Look

Blue pin stripe trousers | Zara 

Cream mules |  Vagabonds

White crop top |  Topshop 

Green pin stripe trousers | Zara

White costume | Ete

Dogtooth bikini | Asceno 

Sunglasses | Rayban

Red crop top | H&M

   Denim shorts | Urban Outfitters

Blue bikini |  Seafolly

Black swimsuit | Kamba swimwear