My life as an early fashionista....

Fashion during the 90's, well lets face it, was hardly something to remember! Some 80's trends were still about with avengance seeking their way to make us poor people look horrific! 

Baggy sweats, huge shirts, floral lycra shorts, tracksuits and bumbags!. And i'll never forget the scrunchie! Ah the wonderful scrunchie!

I specifially remember from the 90's my love of lycra, and lot's of it! The lovely Mr Motivator, a GMTV morning regular, jumping about in his lycra one-piece. Seems to be charred into my memory!

Whoever thought it was a fashionable idea to wear metallic/luminous/floral lyrca shorts, needs to be checked over! Definitely a moment in fashion that should be forgotten!

I remember loving my tracksuits, more specifically, my Spice Girls pink and white tracksuit! I wore it along with my Spice Girls t-shirt! 

More importantly in the tracksuit trend were the Adidas popper pants. Cheeky boys would try to rip the poppers open up your legs! 

Bum-bags, again made famous by Mr Motivator were a huge trend on the 90's. They came in every colour you can imagine and every horrificly printed fabric you can imagine! All the cool kids had one...or many to wear at one time! 

Now they just adorn the hips on an overweight American! 

When it came to hair, there was no holding back! The bigger the better and the more things you could stuff in your 'do, the better!

I clearly remember wearing not 1, not 2, no3 but 7 scrunchies in one go! I'd start off with my hair in a bun, red bobble went on first, then a couple more, then a tartan one, a denim one and i'd finish the look off with my sunny yellow huge scrunchie! How i was ever allowed out the house, i'll never know! 

Another hair trend was to twist sections and secure them with a little glittery butterfly clip. I personally went wild for these! What girl doesn't want glittery butterflies in her hair?! 

One lesson learnt from the 1990's fashion scene is; never to repeat anything that was ever fashionable! 

Whatever happened in the 90's, can most definitely stay in the 90's!

Early days in the fashion journey

I've studied fashion for 7 years now, and over the years I've made a collection and different things along the way.

My biggest achievement was making my lace union jack dress, I was compared to Yves Saint Laurent in my interview for Northumbria University!

I wore this to 3 different fashion shows and each time I felt amazing and received so many compliments! It was the first proper garment I'd made too.

The following year I produced a mini collection of 4 outfits, they were based on luxury and glamour. So I used a lot of satin and spent 2 months sewing individual beads onto the mid-section of one of my dresses!

Myself and a dear friend on my college fashion show 

I'm currently in the process of producing my final collection for my degree. It's so exciting seeing my months of designing coming to life in some beautiful fabrics! 

I'll be updating soon with snippets of my collection.

The School Army

I've always been able to cope on my own. I was extremely shy at secondary school and always felt like i never fit in, so i always kept myself to myself. Unfortunately things never went my way....

At primary school, i loved it, everyone knew each other, we all got on amazingly and it was a good place for me.

It all changed with the big move.

Off I went to Heaton Manor. It was the scariest thing I'd done, all alone and no friends.

I felt like i settled in okay, i wasn't popular but i wasn't the unliked one either. I simply kept to myself and stuck in and got the work done. I was known as the class swot!

A few months later and then came the lovely bullies...

They called me all the names under the sun. At the time, it was awful, i had no one to turn to and had a mountain of abuse to climb.

It never got physical, which is one thing i'm grateful for. I did have the odd fight, which was a massive achievement to beat the bully!

Further into school i went, it got easier. I went invisible for a while.

Then it started again, the bigger group of girls, again mouthing of insults. It got me down, really down. I did silly things. But i wouldn't change it for the world. It made me stronger.

Off to 6th form i went, my so called best friends suddenly hated me. I hadn't seen then for the summer and they plotted against me. Made my life a living misery throughout the year. I thought people were meant to grow up once they left school? Clearly not. I dropped out 2 weeks before exams as i couldn't cope with the way they were treating me.

I took the summer off, then decided to go back to college, so i went to Tyne Met in Newcastle. Good choice, bad people!

The new class would once again, call me all the names under the sun, throw things off me, threaten me.

I kept at my work, and tried my best to ignore all their comments, to which i did, and i came out of college and was the only one out of that class to get into University and stick to it.

Bullies are people who have such insecurity and unlove for themselves they need to make someone else feel their pain. It worked for many years, but not anymore.

All those people who said all those things about me, where are they now? Nowhere, they're the invisible ones now.

It all came down the jealousy, I got on with it, i got the good grades and I got where i want to be. I've achieved my dreams and still am.

I'm a fighter!

Alone in the big wide world

When I was a teenager, I'd always been embarrassed and ashamed of my upbringing, worried that people would mock me or think indifferently of me. I wasn't like the others, always been different.

I was born Clare Butcher...

From the age of 2 I was placed into foster care by my parents. Their excuse was they couldn't cope with myself and my brother.

There wasn't just them being unable to cope, my dad was an alcoholic and was abusive towards my mother and the rest of us. I remember clearly the fights, the arguments and the screaming.

By the time I was 5 years old, I'd been back and forth to live with both parents and yet more foster carers ever moving house and ever changing places. The only place that was kept the same was school... It was my safe haven.

Once again though, they both got sick of us and placed us back into foster care. This time we were severely malnourished and dirty. Throughout the ages of 2-7 I was placed in and out of foster care 47 times. 47 families and 47 homes to deal with.

I finally got placed into a steady care home when i was 8 years old. This was my dream come true...a place that i could finally call home.

Throughout the next 13 years, I've had serious problems with both parents, I ended up cutting all ties when I was 15 and haven't spoken to them since.

My then foster carer and now my mam has been my absolute rock, she's my saviour and my true Mam. I love the ground she walks on and would do anything in the world for her. She saved my life and chose me.

So when I was 16, I took on the family name and have never looked back.

I am now, and forever will be, Clare Marshall

Welcome to a day in the life of me :)

I'll start off with a little about me...

I'm Clare Marshall

I live in Newcastle upon Tyne, but constantly get asked where I'm from, since i don't sound like a typical Geordie! Think of a Geordie, but posh!

I'm engaged to the most amazing man ever, he's my best friend and soul mate :) We've been together for 5 years and I've loved every minute of it! We moved in together after only 3 months, and everyone told us not to, but we've proven them all wrong and we're still going strong after all this time!

I'm studying Fashion Design at Northumbria University, in my final year...7 years studying! It's been a long slog, but most definitely worth it!

Since this is my first post, i won't drag it out too much but I'll be hopefully updating with my journey through my last 3 months at uni...maybe even a look into the making of my collection!

That's all for now xx