SS11 Press Days: ASOS

My first stop last Wednesday was the ASOS press day. As someone who has never bought anything from this retail giant (as I can't quite get over not being able to touch fabrics, inspect quality and most importantly try things on), the press days are especially important as each and every season they show me in absolute terms why I should be shopping there, although I do think they should consider opening an outlet, for internet clothes shopping phobes like me. Don't get me wrong, I'll buy the world and his wife online, just not clothing, or at least not yet.

 From the BLACK collection (above ), I love the luxe and light fabrics. Gorgeous dresses with a chic colour palette and alluring cut-out detailing, embellishment and draping. In the SALON collection (pictured below), I love the playfulness and variety of embellishments on display (demonstrating a lot of time and skill) and I especially like the vibrant yellows and greys.

From the WHITE collection, standout garments include the blue and white dress and the luxe charcoal silk top complete with yellow zip detail.

Each season I'm especially keen to see what the ASOS AFRICA collection - in collaboration with SOKO Kenya - will throw up, and once again I wasn't disappointed. With vibrant patterns one might expect of such a great nation, the SS11 collection is peppered with deep oranges, browns and blues (much like the REVIVE collection, with accessories deftly created from diseased wood, putting nothing to waste.

It was great to see a small capsule collaboration with Jessica Ogden. I absolutely love the red and white take on traditional sailor gear, with bows and little rope details highlighting every piece.

On the accessories side of things I love these boxy structured handbags and love the bright colours, especially the greens and yellows, which remind me very much of the early 1970's.

 As you'd expect from ASOS, high heels were plentiful so I've picked out my absolute favourites below.

 On the menswear side of things I really liked the cut out detailing on the leather lace-ups and especially liked the tan leather woven moccasins (below, right).

I've tried to keep all of the pics relatively in order in terms of which collections are which, but just *incase* I've made any oversights, rest assured everything you see will be on sale somewhere at http://www.asos.com/ next SS.