When Charlotte met Maia has moved...

Make sure to check out my new home at www.whencharlottemetmaia.com

xx

Black, White and a Little Sparkle

These jeans are another creation from the Customisez moi collection, I spent hours slaving on hand-stistching every sequins, my hands were so shot afterwards!

I hope you are enjoying our fabulous couch as well as our equally fabulous new Saarinen stool that my BF brought home the other day, we have a pair of them and they are just too cool... I needed to share.

I stole his shirt again as well as his cufflink which are, funny enough (or not), a gift from my mother that she found at Retro Paradise, the place is an endless pit of amazingness...

And this is a wonderful expression of my balance.... By the look of things I should definitely start doing yoga again!

And this is how I actually styled them for the competition, the dress has been seen before in this post while the jacket is my mighty jacket from The Jacket Challenge

The funky effect is totally on purpose to highlight the jeans... or I keep telling myself that!

When Charlotte met Maia Jeans

Borrowed Shirt

Cheap Monday Tee

Modern Vintage Shoes

Dorothy Perkins Necklace

White Collar Shirt

This is another piece from my 'collection'. The inspiration from the collection was masculine codes and so I wanted to give a play on the white collar shirt.

These removable collars act like necklace changing the feel of a plain white vintage blouse.

What do you think?

When Charlotte met Maia Shirt and Collars

Snippets

So excuse my long silence, I have been beyond busy with my new job and the competition 'Customisez moi'. It's a Belgian competition where you have to show a 10 piece collection of customised garments and if you get selected you get to show in Brussels in front of loads of very cool people and you can win a very exciting prize... I thought I would take part as, I don't know if you've noticed, but I customise a lot...

I'm not sure I have a shot because the people taking part a real serious people who go to fancy schools etc but I have to say that it was quite challenging and exciting to create a more or less coherent collection...

I will show you the outfits a bit later but I wanted to give you a snippet of one of the outfits tonight...

I hope you like it and cross fingers for me!!

This is the side detail quickly taken with my Blackberry

 When Charlotte met Maia Dress

When Charlotte met Maia Cardigan

Modern Vintage Shoes

And this concludes the first week...

When Charlotte met Maia Jacket

New Look Shirt

H&M Trousers

Primark Necklace

Carvela Shoes

BTW do you follow me on Facebook and Twitter?

C'est Jeudredi

Went for dinner with old housemates from university and realised that we finished uni way too long ago... 

Hope you had a good evening and enjoyed Vogue Fashion Night Out! x

When Charlotte met Maia Jacket

Silence and Noise Trousers

Primark Top

Carvela Shoes

Necklace from Retro Paradise

From Office to The Proms...

... with a change of bag

Cos Dress

Zara Blazer

When Charlotte met Maia Bag

Modern Vintage Shoes

Necklace from Retro Paradise

2nd day in the rain...

It now really feels like Autumn as it was pouring in London.... This meant that the trench and the boots made their comeback. I was also sporting a massive blue KPMG umbrella, it was a good look!

Anyway, another day, another When Charlotte met Maia piece!

When Charlotte met Maia Cardigan

H&M Shirt

BDG Jeans

Zara Boots

My First Day

When you were in school and it was a new school year, have you ever had that feeling: 'Right this is a new beginning, I will have a new haircut, I will exercise more and be healthier, read more, I will work harder and overall be a better version of myself, etc...' Well this is how I felt today, it was my first day at my new job!

It took me forever to figure out what to wear but I ended up wearing my 'when in doubt' outfit (do you have an outfit that is your failsafe?) I found the dress at my beloved Retro Paradise in Brussels and wore it with a When Charlotte met Maia belt for good luck (do you remember it? It's my 'boxer' belt seen here)

I was also wearing a light bolt necklace but I seemed to have lost it on the way home... How useless is that?

I will try to wear one When Charlotte met Maia garment every day this week, hopefully it will lead to a good first week!

Anyway, I have to admit that I have already failed on my new regime and didn't wake up early this morning to work out... better luck tomorrow?

The shoes to wear when commuting...

The shoes to wear in the office

 Vintage Dress from Retro Paradise

Zara Blazer

When Charlotte met Maia Belt
Converse 

Carvela Shoes

C'est la rentree!

The end of Summer is here and it is now time to start a new job!

Goodbye to the shimmering pool...

When Charlotte met Maia Sequinned Top (seen here)

'Borrowed' Shirt

My First One, Part Deux

Do you remember this skirt? It was my very first post and as we slowly approach the 6 month mark, I thought I would reiterate it...

I just paired it with one of my bf's shirt. I don't know if you've noticed but I like to 'borrow' his clothes... it is so bad that when I lived in New York and he was still in London, I asked him to mail me one of his old pair of jeans because I desperately wanted loose cut-off shorts! 

I hope you appreciate my ridiculousness! 

When Charlotte met Maia Skirt

'Borrowed' Shirt

Chloe Shoes

Sweet Memories of the Holiday....

The past week was just pure bliss, I went to the South of France with the whole family. Except for tanning, eating and catching up on all my Harlan Coben/Michael Connelly 'literature', I did very little...

I made this kimono a few weeks ago but I thought it would look perfect in the holiday setting! On top of that, I wanted to take advantage of my sister's camera and it's fancy objective to take better quality pictures that what we're usually used to on this blog... (my next investment will be a camera with a fancy objective too)

This kimono was originally a maxi dress found by said sister in Retro Paradise in Brussels, I was just obsessed with the leopard - too awesome!

Coming back to rainy London was a bit of a shock this morning but at least I still have a couple more sets of pictures from the holiday, did you have a nice summer?

With the shape and colour, it was just too tempting not to end up in the pool!

When Charlotte met Maia Kimono

H&M Dress

It all fits in my pocket

So I have been working on a few accessories lately... 

When my boyfriend and I moved in together we were looking for furniture that we could 'up-cycle'. As I was visiting a charity furniture shop, I found this really awesome brown suede. I used some of it to create this pocket. The zipper is also 'vintage', it was part of my grandmother's sewing kit that I inherited (I also inherited the most amazing old school pedal operated sewing machine, I will show you when I finally move it to London).

Here are a few of my 'bag essentials': my Shanghai Tang wallet which was a gift from my sisters, my beloved Blackberry, the Marc by Marc Jacob keyring that I think everybody has, Vaseline lip balm for the day and Anna Sui lipstick for the night, a mirror that my best friend's mum gave me, it says 'Kate Moche, Moi Belle', for those of you who don't speak French, it is a play on word on Kate Moss which means 'Kate Ugly, Me Pretty'... When you need a pick me up...

I am finally going on holiday with my whole family next week and I have been working on When Charlotte met Maia Homeware for my sister, which explains the lack of posting... but I will make up for it when I am away as I plan to take full advantage of the holiday scenery (and the tan) to take new pictures...

Have a good week X

When Charlotte met Maia Bag

Shanghai Tang Wallet

Blackberry

Marc by Marc Jacobs Keyring

Vaseline Lip Balm

Anna Sui Lipstick

My New Bracelet

As a good girlfriend that I am, I offered to shortened my boyfriend's suit trousers. Too kind I know...

The cutoff hem just happened to perfectly go round my wrist twice, I just added some studs and voila, a new bracelet! Saturday night DIY project...

I hope you also like my new nail polish, it is from Nails Inc and it is called Chester Terrace and it has this really cool mat finish that I love!

Which One is your Favourite?

Saturday (Should have been Friday...): Party Time

So I messed up last night... I had planned to go for after work drinks and then post when I got home, but.... after-work drinks turned into dinner and more drinks and I got home way too late... so I hope you forgive me for the day late post! Pretty please?

Anyway, for this outfit, the idea was a girl coming home from a party, her hair is dishevelled and her make-up runny, she kicked off her shoes and she borrowed her boyfriend's jacket because she was cold... Hope that makes sense and that the outfit conveys it!

Have a great weekend!

When Charlotte met Maia Jacket

Joseph Dress

Thursday: All Black Everything

I. LOVE. WEARING. BLACK!!

That is all.

When Charlotte met Maia Jacket

H&M Shirt

Sequin vest found in Hell's Kitchen flea market

H&M Leather Leggings

Modern Vintage Shoes

Wednesday: One of the boys...

Third outfit of the week and I am embracing my masculine side... or my Michael Jackson side whichever!

I just really love how the colour of the shirt (and the lipstick) pops against the sea of grey and blue that is my lounge... (which incidentally gave me inspiration for new lounge furniture but that's a whole other story...)

Anyway, I hope you're not suffering from the mid-week blues (get it?)

See you tomorrow!

When Charlotte met Maia Jacket

Shirt found at Traid

American Eagle Outfitter Jeans

G-Star Raw Shoes

Zara Hat

Can't remember where the scarf is from...

Tuesday: A little bit of Everything

Did you enjoy Yesterday's outfit?

Today's outfit was again born from unearthing the forgotten pieces of my wardrobe, I just kept on adding stuff on...

I bought these shoes for my cousin's wedding. They are an unusual choice for a wedding but I just fell in love with them and after a lot of debating decided to get them... They are 15cm high and remarkably comfortable, I wore them all day, which included walking, standing, dancing, etc and did not take them off... (or maybe for a few minutes during the cocktail party...)

When Charlotte met Maia Jacket

Trifted Army Jacket

Villa Tunic

BDG Jeans

Aldo Shoes

Gifted Red Necklace

Kookai Silver Necklace

Monday: My skirt is way too long...

So here we go, this is my first outfit including my mighty jacket!

I made this skirt (entirely from scratch - there was no vintage involved) when I was in Brussels for a few days before I moved to London. I was in a rush to pack and didn't actually try it on and then I forgot about it! When I was trying on my whole wardrobe this weekend, I found it again and realised that it is way too long and actually way too large... But never mind, I like the overall look of this outfit!

When Charlotte met Maia Jacket

'Cam-Made' Skirt

Primark Top

Made at Topshop Cuff

Modern Vintage Shoes

The Jacket Challenge

Do you remember when I bought this suit jacket at Oxfam?

Well this is what I did with it... I removed the sleeves and cut it so it's shorter at the back.

I was trying to find the ideal outfit for it and I ended up with most of my wardrobe on the floor as I tried every piece of clothing I own with it. I thus decided to do 'The Jacket Challenge' this week. Everyday I will make a new outfit with this jacket... So make sure you check in!!

Let it Rain

The return of the rain in London has warranted the return of the Trench. I bought this one ages ago at Zara and I love it so much! It is absolutely perfect! Although in this outfit, I look a little bit like a flasher...

At least, it ends up revealing something good! I have to admit that this dress is one of my favourite 'When Charlotte met Maia' creation! Although, I love the first version (see here) downplayed with Converses, this is how I wear it when I go to work.

 When Charlotte met Maia Dress

Zara Trench Coat

Belt from Retro Paradise

Carvela Shoes

H&M Ring

The Good Girl Shirt

I was instantly attracted to the adorable lace collar of this shirt, so cute and innocent!

I had to contrast all that goodness with some 'roughness'... I used the same ribbon as I used in my first ever post (here), which use do you prefer?

I also had to add some studs, I mean the shirt was begging for them, no?

I just love the outfit... it so easy going without being boring. Also by doing my hair and make-up like that, I feel like a rockstar! I have always wanted to be a rockstar but I cannot, for the life of me, sing... ask anybody who knows me!

Good Girl...

Rockstar!

When Charlotte met Maia Shirt

Diesel Jeans

G-Star Raw Footwear Heels