Excellent Women: The Fashion Edition

Velvet Johnstone

There are always so many excellent women I'd like to tell you about, so this week I've decided to feature more than one, in a round-up of some up and coming female designers. Their work is fresh and original, and pieces are made with the love and care you won't find on the high street. Prices reflect the unique, handmade nature of their clothes, but are still possible to save up for. Invest now before these brands all become celeb favourites and we have to scour ebay to even get a look in.

Velvet Johnstone is one London stylists' best kept secrets - her pieces have already been worn by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Lorde, Alex Winston, Eliza Doolittle and Kelly Rowland. Cheryl Stephenson is the designer behind the brand, specialising in super feminine, luxury pieces. She's also used Velvet Johnstone to support the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaigns, producing special, limited edition designs for the charity.

Kelly Shaw

Kelly Shaw makes pieces that make you just want to throw on a dress and head to the beach. These two striped numbers are some of my favourites, epitomising the laid-back, comfortable nature of Kelly's clothes. Make sure you also check out her trademark slogan dresses and T-shirts.

Silken Favours

Crazy cat ladies look out! Here's a new designer you'll go nuts for. Vicki Murdoch makes the most beautiful silk scarves covered in animal, insect and fruit prints under the name Silken Favours. Her lookbooks are always an absolute joy. Look up her fantasy animal prints- who doesn't want a silk scarf covered in flying pigs? Also stay tuned for silk shirts and cushions - they're not on her site yet but if you follow her on instagram you'll see they're coming soon...

Here's a video with Vicki for Liberty London.

Beautiful Soul also works with prints, bringing florals up to date with gorgeous English-garden-inspired colours. Nicola Woods is the designer behind the brand - she worked in corporate insurance for 11 years before taking a trip which convinced her to trade it all in for a chance to embrace her childhood love of design. Her pieces have become favourites for alternative bridesmaid dresses, and also for celebrities when they're expecting, as they come with adjustable waists.

Ekaterina Kukhareva

Ekaterina Kukhareva makes knitwear, but not as you know it. There isn't a chunky knit in sight. Instead expect modern prints, exotic colours and streamlined silhouettes.

Lu Flux is a wonderfully quirky brand that embodies all your fashion nostalgia in one go. Designer Lu sources wonderful vintage fabrics to work from, making her brand an eco-lovers joy. Expect lots of embroidery, patchwork and knitting - she's just launched this gorgeous line of children's wear, entitled 'A mouthful of milk teeth'.

It's worth following all of these designers on Twitter or Facebook, or sign up to their newsletters as they often hold pop-up sample sales with great discounts, and a chance to meet the designers themselves. These are all lovely ladies who are happy to invite you to their studio for a cuppa to show you their wares or maybe discuss a commission you might have in mind.

For more fresh talent, I'd recommend checking out Not Just A Label and Young British Designers.

Shop in the Spotlight: Uterqüe

Did you know that Zara has a grown-up sister shop, Uterqüe? I didn't, until I saw them mentioned in Time Out this week. It's a secret the rest of the world has kept from the UK: there's branches all over the globe, but not yet one in the UK. However, their website is all set up for Brit shoppers, with a standard delivery of £3.95. Uterqüe specialises in sophisticated Spanish style without the endless shifting that shopping at Zara requires. If that's not enough of a selling point, it's an even better time to check it out at the moment, as there's a generous sale on.

Uterqüe is full of classy basics that are probably your answer to summertime office dressing dilemmas. There's an occasional quirky print worth making a speedy beeline for, or - in the case of this snail blouse, £49 - a more leisurely crawl.

There are plenty of pieces to help you try and pull off some European laid-back cool, such as this boyfriend blazer, £69.90. (You know, that kind of laid-back cool that's virtually impossible to pull off when you're stuck in the queue for the Zara changing room.)

The collection isn't anywhere near as big as Zara's, so it's really easy to browse and see if anything catches your eye. My eye caught on this easy, breezy looking leaf print dress, currently reduced to £54.90.

Uterqüe does some killer LBDs too - I love the vintage detailing on this embroidered silk dress.

But, although Uterqüe's clothes are undeniably nice, I think it's the accessories where they really excel. I'm a particular fan of their luxurious looking bag range: luxury without a too-ridiculous price tag. This suede city clutch, for example, is £69.90.

While this ball clutch bag ticks the glamorous accessory box brilliantly for £54.90.

The shoes are sexy: far sexier than the things I ever put on my feet. These mid-heel court shoes are as about as restrained as they come and are £54.90.

An unexpected bonus is their fabulous selection of patterned scarves, currently all priced around £30 to £40. Yes, I would like a toucan around my neck please.

I certainly didn't expect to find a bonkers collection of hats on a scarf design here. Needless to say, I love it.

While this triangular scarf oozes vintage chic.

Add some easy-to-wear glam with this octagonal resin bracelet, £19.90.

And top off the look with one of their selection of sunglasses worthy of film starlets. I plan on spending the summer behind these Carey maxi sunglasses, pretending that I actually am in Spain.

Friday Wishlist: Gorgeous things you'll want to buy RIGHT NOW

The perfect dress. £29.99 from Lindy Bop.

The perfect spoon sets. £7 for two from Urbane Hoylake.

The perfect love bird t-shirt. £25 from Oliver Bonas. (The summer collection is absolutely cracking.)

The perfect egg cup. £18 from Hop & Peck.

The perfect trousers. £65 from Reiss.

The perfect sandcastle bowls. £10 each from Hunkydory Home.

The perfect metallic shoes. £35 from Oasis.

Extinctly The Best: Brilliant Dinosaur Design

Happiness is a dinosaur cake stand. Seletti's new dinosaur range is the most wonderful thing. They'll be available at Made In Design from September which is OH MY GOD AGES AWAY. So until then, here is a whole bunch of other dinosaur goodies to keep you happy.

Dinosaur cookies! You'll need a gingerbread recipe to make tasty dinosaurs. Bite their heads off first.

Don't forget about the dinosaur rolling pin that we showed you earlier this week. (Robot rolling pins are also available. Damn thunder-stealing robots.)

I'll never, ever get bored of these dinosaur salad servers. They're one of my favourite pieces from Howkapow and they're £14.95. Look at them going for a stroll through the grass! Here's some salad inspiration for your hungry dinos.

It's a known fact that sandwiches shaped like dinosaurs are the best kind of sandwiches. They're even better than triangles. This sandwich cutter is just £2.99. That's a very small price for Jurassic carbs.

I know that woolly mammoths are definitely not dinosaurs. But they very rarely make it onto soft furnishings (or any kind of furnishings) and I think this scribbly little guy deserves a little promotion. He's in the sale at Ohh Deer (who also have some brilliant dinosaur cushions) and now just £19.95.

D'you think 'e saurus? I wish I'd had dinosaur wallpaper as a kid. I'm now really tempted to buy some dinosaur fabric and make a brilliant dinosaur dress. The paper is £50 a roll, the fabric is £80, both from Paperboy. Please tell me your favourite dinosaur in the comments.

What's better than dinosaur wallpaper? I'll tell you what, it's a short list of nothing much at all. Except Sian Zeng's magentic dinosaur wallapaper, complete with dinosaur magnets. Yes, that T-rex is eating a helicopter.

Here's unequivocal proof that kids get the best damn stuff. I really, really want a grown up version of this dinosaur rucksack.

I'm a bit sad that I don't own a dinosaur scarf. This one is £152 from Terracotta, via Boticca. This is the kind of thing that I'd wear to events when I'm meant to look professional.

I've really got a soft spot for this pterodactyl necklace, I like the skeleton element to it. It's by Designosaur and it's £25 from Hannah Zakari.

Fancy some dino earrings? Fragment does a whole bunch of mix and match silver dinosaur studs. I like the raptor and the hadrosaur. They (probably) won't eat each other. Nope, no idea why there's a tiny bunny in the photo.

If you don't want a pair of sparkly dinosaur sunglasses then I really don't think we can be friends. That much tacky brilliance deserves to be celebrated.

Seven Sexy Shirt Dresses

Shirt dresses are the easiest and laziest of the dresses. They look gorgeous on everyone and make dressing in summer an absolute breeze. Here are seven to choose from, so you've got one for each day of the week.

First up, how gorgeous is this green gingham dress? Am I getting older or is Boden getting cooler? We've been featuring them an awful lot recently, even though they're very expensive - this beautiful dress is £63.20 in the sale. I'm going to spend the day yearning after it.

More from Boden! This Linen shirt dress is now £55.30. I know, I know. White linen sounds impossibly impractical, but she looks like she's having the best holiday ever. Look at her, just laughing at nothing. She doesn't even have hayfever. That's the power of the Boden catalogue. I get lifestyle envy and immediately start planning trips to Santorini in giant floppy hats. Let's all pretend that zebra bag isn't there, ruining absolutely everything.

This pink shirt dress is exactly why I'm such a fan of the shirt dress. It's just the easiest way to get dressed in the morning. This 'yes I do always look this chic at 8am' dress in the Oasis sale and it's just £25. Look at her checking out her black and white shoes that shouldn't work with the dress but totally do. They're also £25.

Just ignore the belt on this red dress for a second. The belt is utterly vile but if you look past that what you have a really cute dress that's perfect for summer. And it's only £19.99. (Zebra print, Mango? What were you thinking?)

This yummy Miss Patina dress might not be very summery but it's so gorgeous and it's only £28.90. It's rained most of the weekend and this is an ideal 'no bloody idea what the weather is going to do' dress. The double collar is making me very happy.

Polka dots, gorgeous colours, classic shape. You're going to have to race me to this Trashy Diva Sweetie dress. It might be £99 but you'll be wearing it for years to come and it will still look as good as the day it arrived.

This pill popper shirt dress is my favourite piece from the Coco Fennell/Karen Mabon collaboration. It's £79 and it's got daytime chic nailed right down to the pointy collar tips.