The 20s are back on our radar as a swinging take on the stylish era sashayed off the SS12 runway and is headed straight for our wardrobes.

Inspiration: Think soft draped silks, blush hues, drop waists, and sequins and channel Clara Bow and Louise Brooks to really get this trend right. For a modern take on the vintage theme, make Rooney Mara your poster girl.

Rooney Mara

Catwalk: Runway shows championing the trend included Gucci, Etro, Ralph Lauren and Sonya Rykiel

Hero piece: Biba’s beautiful beaded dress is the jewel in the crown. Snap one up today to be ahead of the game.

Biba Dress

For more inspiration and great pieces , shop our Great Gatsby trend edit where you’ll find wedding perfect outfuts, pretty pastels and more

Dune Shoes

Kath Kidston Earrings

Lauren by Ralph Lauren Dress

Will you be wearing the Great Gatsby trend?

Trend Report: Great Gatsby is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

There’s nothing to make a girl happier at the start of the year than the prospect of a shoe wardrobe overhaul! And right now we can’t resist stocking up on boots, boots and more boots! Here’s our favourite picks from our brand of the moment, Dune.

A good pair of boots is every girls must have, especially at this time of year, we’ve all been victim to the unfortunate incident of the sodden ballet pump…hmmm squelchy! My favourites are these Dune Chelsea boots, perfect for daytime at work and a quick drink after! But if you prefer something more dressy these Dune ankle boots are fab under trousers.  I also love these Dune knee high boots over leggings paired with an oversized knitted jumper, a great way to dress up a casual outfit without too much effort on dreary days!

What are your winter shoe favs?

These boots were made for walking: New Season Dune is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

The new season is fast approaching so we thought we’d give you a sneak peek at the latest Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani campaigns featuring Bajan beauty, Rihanna.

Armani Jeans

Emporio Armani

What do you think of the collections?

Too hot to handle: New Rihanna for Armani SS12 images is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

It’s January, it’s miserable and money’s too tight to mention so that can only mean one thing…staying in is the new going out. So get the heating on and the bubbly out coz it’s time to get cosy and get comfy with our range of lounge wear from Dutch brand Loungelife.

This long sleeved dress is perfect to wear from the sofa to bedroom or throw on these tie side pants if your expecting company and don’t want to appear too ‘dressed down’.  I love this racer back tank as it doubles up as a great layering piece for cold days.

What’s your favourite thing to lounge in?

The Lounge Life is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

It’s January, it’s just after Christmas and the student loan has come and gone. Here at House of Fraser we know as a student you need all the help you can get so you can stay at the top of class in the style stakes each term! So we’re offering a 10% discount everyday for every NUS Extra Student card holder.

All you need to do to benefit from this fab student discount is like us on Facebook, this will then enable you to generate your exclusive code using your 18 digit NUS Extra number, for use on that day, then simply return the next day to retrieve your next one and so on. Remember to share this exclusive offer as well to be sure your friends don’t miss out!

Only valid NUS Extra numbers can be used. Each code is unique and can only be used once. Only one code can be generated per person per day.

So what are you waiting for?! Get your code now!

Terms and Conditions apply.

Students! Get your exclusive NUS Extra Student Discount is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

Hands up if like lots of lucky people you got engaged over the festive period! If you did, congratulations, you’re now counting down to your wedding. Whether you have just a few weeks or even a couple of years until the nuptials, you’ll be excited to start thinking about the details. Our Bride to Be blog is ramping up for another thrilling year of wedding dress wish lists, mother of the bride outfit hunting, beauty talk, flower focus and a whole lot of sharing, learning and listening to who’s doing what and where. We want to hear from you if you’re a bride to be in 2012. If you are, pop a comment below to let the world know a little bit more about you and your special day…

BRIDE TO BE IS BACK! is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

A good pair of jeans is a wardrobe essential, and what better way to brighten up dreary January days than with a bold and beautiful twist on this iconic style.

Coloured denim offers a contemporary way to transcend the seasons – who says coral should be kept for the warmer climes?! Nothing brightens up slouchy knits and simple jersey staples like an exotic jewel hue or a pretty primary colour.

Take a look at the A-listers… they are the experts when it comes to wearing coloured denim, throwing on this modern staple with effortless ease.

If you’re more of a wall flower there’s no need to worry – take inspiration from Miss Cotton with a cobalt blue or violet shade. This packs a little punch without overwhelming your ensemble.

Those that really want to turn heads, try a fluorescent pink or feminine fuchsia. As seen on Lisa Snowdon, this powerful hue looks fabulous with a basic tee under a vintage-inspired leather jacket.

So, which shade will you be selecting this season?

Rainbow Bright: Coloured Denim Hits House of Fraser is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

It’s our favourite time of year (other than Christmas) !! SALE! If you’ve had enough of the family, can’t bear to think about turkey and didn’t quite get everything you wanted have a sneak peek at some of our top sale picks and start spending your Christmas vouchers…

Picks for the girls

Mary Portas Utility shirt was £105 now £63

Karen Millen satin shift dress was £175 now £120

Planet Pea coat was £179 now £99

J’adore Dior gift set was £98 now £68.60

Biba lip palette was £24 now £19.20

Clarins Gorgeous Getaways was £44 now £30.80

Picks for the guys

G-Star denim shirt was £105 now £78.75

Jaeger merino jumper was £115 now £65

Mango jeans was £49.90 now £34.90

Picks for the pad

Cuisinart coffee machine was £150 now £75

Linea crystal glassware from £7

Panasonic 3D TV was £1099.99 now £749.99

Picks for the little ones

Uttam girls dress was £29.99 now £14.99

Timberland puffa jacket was £85 now £51

Little Joules t shirt was £29.95 now £20.96

Looking for something else? shop the rest of the House of Fraser sale.

Our top sale picks is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

We’ve trawled through all the fab entries and came up with our top 10.  Is one of them yours?

First Christmas gifts from my husband
It was 1997, I can remember it as if it was yesterday. We’d only been together for a few months. I unwrapped my gifts and the first one was an epilator. I thought maybe he thinks I am very hairy. Then I opened the second gifts he had bought me some pretty underwear, which is lovely except they were in size 18…..I was a size 10. I didn’t say anything but I was really upset and was very conscious eating my Christmas meal as I thought my then boyfriend thought my bum was huge and I was hairy. We laugh about it now every Christmas. To be fair the epilator was the best present ever because I still use now but I still can’t fit into those knickers.

Husband’s Gift of Love
We have all heard the saying, “You really shouldn’t have” and we usually mean we are touched by the kind thought or overjoyed with the prospect of having something wonderful bought for us. In my case, it was meant literally!

In 2005 my husband and I had just moved from a posting overseas, he working for the MoD and I now glad that I was back in the UK and able to work and earn some extra cash. I commented that, this year, we should spoil each other now that we would both be working and would have a little extra cash.

I shopped for weeks diligently looking for an ideal gift for him, and settled on a pair of silver mother of pearl cufflinks that he had admired on someone else. On opening his present Christmas day, he thanked me with a big hug and a kiss and I commented that he had complained to me he did not have any.

Now eagerly anticipating my gift, I untied the beautifully wrapped box with a big red ribbon, it looked so beautiful, what could it be, I had given lots of hints on what I wanted….so exciting…so exciting…to find a steam iron!

Darling he said, you complained for months that you had found it difficult to get the creases just so in my Army uniform, this will make it so much easier for you, and didn’t the lovely girl in the shop wrap it so beautifully, at no extra cost!

The Suicidal Goldfish
More than ten years ago, I was given a goldfish in a bag from a boyfriend; no bowl or food or any other accessories. I didn’t want a fish, but having been landed with one, as soon as the local pet shop opened after xmas I went out to buy all the kit as keeping in a bag or small bowl was too mean.
I left the goldfish in a large deep pyrex bowl, and went out and spent over £90 on a tank, food, weeds and goldfish type things. So, quite a costly gift for me. I set up the tank, pump, etc, filled it and went to collect my goldfish from his temporary bowl, but he wasn’t in it. I found him dead on the carpet, having apparently made a leap for freedom. It was too late to take the stuff back to the shop, as I’d set it all up, so I had to return to the shop and buy a goldfish for my tank.

Speechless
A number of years ago at my in-laws house on Christmas day my brother in law handed me my present and said that he had put the most thought and effort into my present out of us there. So while all eyes were on me I opened the present with much anticipation, to find a box that said “experience swimming with dolphins” and inside the box was a blow up dolphin! And an instruction leaflet of how to run your bath and blow up the dolphin. But that wasn’t all I got, I also received some blank cassette tapes!! Both presents completely useless. So I smiled and said thank you. While I thought I would hate to see the present he put no thought in to!

Worst present ever – and insulting too!!
A few years ago, my father-in-law (who isn’t best known for his choice in presents at the best of times), handed me an envelope-sized wrapped parcel over the family Christmas table. At first, I thought perhaps he had given up on the whole present buying thing and had instead gone for vouchers. Vouchers, incidentally, would have been much appreciated. I tentatively opened the gift, and prepared my ‘you shouldn’t have’ smile. Inside was a small sachet of hair removal cream “for legs, underarms and bikini areas.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, he then told me (excitedly) that it was “on offer at the chemist!” So rubbish, embarrassing AND cheap. And THEN…. after more present opening around the table, we discovered he had given the same to his own daughter and another daughter-in-law. They must have been on a BUY 2 Get 1 Free offer. Definitely a memorable present! (for all the wrong reasons!), but it makes me laugh now. Wonder what I’ll get this year – tampons, pile cream?

Happy Xmas and a skinny New Year!
A couple years ago I decided, after having put on a lot of weight, that I really needed to diet. I can’t exercise due to health reasons so it is really difficult for me to lose weight. My Husband gave me what he thought was an incentive to lose weight…….some sexy lingerie in a ridiculously small size and a framed photo of me when we first met (when I was a size 10). He put a note in the box which said “With a bit of willpower and determination you could look this good again”. !!!!! Not our best Christmas that year!

Meat the Mother in law….
I am one of those unlucky girls who’s mother in law doesn’t think I am good enough for her son, so a few years ago as my Christmas present she bought me a joint of meat with instructions on how to cook it the way her son liked it….which you may think seems fair but I have been married to him for twelve years and have four children, and I am pretty good in the kitchen!!

The gap really does count
My disaster was a present that I bought for my cat. I ordered a personalised cat bed from a charity catalogue. When I filled in the personalisation box I realised that my cat’s name only just fitted as there was space for only 9 characters. I therefore completed the box leaving no gap in my cat’s name (but figured it didn’t matter as my cat couldn’t read). However someone at the personalisation department realised a space was missing and very kindly left a gap, unfortunately not in the correct place. So my cat, Fat Albert, spent the rest of his days sleeping in a bed that bore the legend Fatal Bert

An unexpected extra
One Christmas morning I unwrapped a pressie from my Nan and as well as the expected gift of a nightie I found she had managed to wrap a pair of her own knickers in the parcel. At least they were new and clean but we still don’t know how she failed to notice them.

Brazil Nuts
When I was young we used to go visit my Great Grandmother Peggy at Christmas, in South End On Sea. She unfortunately was slowly succumbing to Altzheimers, so I always found it a strange affair and never really understood what was going on as I was too young. One year she had given my sisters and I (5 of us in total), a packet of opened tissues, this year however she seemed quite coherent and entertained us with stories of our Great Grandfather in the war. As we got up to leave, she kindly turned and gave me a small paper bag of her Brazil nuts which, whilst not an overwhelming gift, was better than an open packet of tissues. Later that day whilst at my Grandmother’s, I showed her what Peggy had given me (I’d eaten half the packet already) she turned to me and said ‘Put those in the bin, your Nanna Peggy buys Chocolate Brazil Nuts and sucks the chocolate off as she doesn’t like the nuts she leaves those’ I haven’t touched Brazil Nuts since.

And the winner is…

MY GRANDMA

No, I didn’t receive a grandma for Christmas, it’s the presents I’ve received from her over my life.

Now my grandma is very thrifty and a hoarder. When it comes to Christmas we usually have her and my grandad round for Christmas lunch and every year she brings the notorious ‘bag of stuff’. She doesn’t go out, buy a gift, wrap it, label it and give it to you. Instead she fills a carrier bag with random stuff from her house, this mainly consists of jumble sale finds, unwanted gifts she’s received and tombola/raffle gifts.

She’ll pull things out the bag one at a time and will continue to do so until you accept something as a gift. You HAVE to accept something and HAVE to seem pleased otherwise she’ll continue to offer you stuff. Last year my ‘gift’ was a mini bubble bath which had obviously belonged to a gift set at some point in time. Other gifts have included a miniature painting of a horse (covered in dust), a potted plant from her windowsill, a pink dog plush with no back legs and a mini beaded notebook with half the beads missing.

Occasionally she will have a specific gift for you, once I received a second-hand, stained, four sizes too large ‘George’ T-shirt. Not because she thought it was nice, or she thought it would suit me but because it had ‘George’ on the label and my name is George!

What’s your favourite story?

Read the rest of the ‘Oh you shouldn’t have’ entries.

‘Oh you shouldn’t have!’: Our top 10 stories and the winning story revealed is a post from: House of Fraser Blog

With Christmas in just over a week (!) you should be well over half way through that Christmas shopping…OK, perhaps that’s wishful thinking but at least the thought should be there?! There’s always those few that cause a bump in the not so often smooth road of Christmas shopping.  Whether it’s a difficult aunt, new beau or problematic parent we’ve come up with some fail safe options to keep anyone happy.  It may seem like a cop out but sometimes the most obvious gifts are the most well received!

For the new (or old!) girlfriend it’s all about indulgence. Winter is about getting cozy and feeling comfortable and there’s nothing girls love more than taking this to the extreme! These cozy PJs are perfect for lounging around in all Christmas day, throw in these sheepskin slippers and she won’t be leaving the house until Spring!  End the day with these beautiful bath melts, they look exactly like delicious cupcakes so she can really spoil herself without the guilt after all that Christmas dinner!

For those trickier members of the family or perhaps the in laws, you can’t go wrong with a hamper. Got a foodie in the family? This Cottage Delight Globetrotter hamper contains favourites from Jamaica to the Mediterranean so it’s sure to tantalize their taste buds after all that Christmas food.  More of a cheese and wine connoisseur? This Port & Stilton hamper is ideal, it contains a ten year old bottle of Tawny to perfectly compliment this finest English Blue Stilton potted cheese, the perfect accompaniment to those cold cuts for supper on Christmas day.  Perhaps you want to treat her to something special?  Show her you care with this divine hamper of champagne and chocolates, if you can’t indulge at Christmas when can you?!

For him it’s best to keep it to basic, useful gifts.  This expert shave kit from Clinique contains everything he needs to stay silky smooth with aloe vera shave gel, a face scrub, post shave healer and moisturising lotion, just in time for the New Year! This Howick jumper is great for Christmas day as well as months after and this Original Penguin pack of boxer shorts will be sure to last him until next Christmas!

Looking for more inspiration? Look no further than our Christmas shop!

What do you buy for someone who has everything? is a post from: House of Fraser Blog