fashion: Step into summer; It's official, this summer romance and femininity are back on the fashion menu. Holly Medwid gets a summer makeover, as SUHAINE STEVENS reports

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), June 7, 2008

Byline: SUHAINE STEVENS reports

YOU can feel unashamedly girly in beautiful floral prints, chiffon blouses, patterned wedges and cute matching handbags this summer.

We met up with Holly Medwid, 19, who is originally from Canada, but is living abroad for a few years and soaking up the British way of life.

Holly lives in Gateshead and works as a hostess for the Tup Tup Palace and their dining, drinking and dancing area - the Loja.

Holly was nominated for a pamper day by her colleagues.

We started the day off at Soul Hair Salon on Saville Row, where Stylist Kim opted to create glamorous curls in Holly's hair.

For a dramatic, funky makeover we decided to use MAC cosmetics. Holly has deep brown eyes so we decided that creating smoky eyes in bronze tones would be both flattering and sophisticated.

Holly has a keen interest in fashion and loves trying out the latest trends. We headed along to Miss Selfridge in Eldon Square, where the latest range includes cute 50s inspired blouses, shorts with a retro safari feel and figure-hugging ruched dresses.

For our first outfit we selected a blue and green cotton top and a pair of bleached skinny jeans. This is an easy way to create a stylish yet casual look that can be dressed up or down. We added a cute pair of silver heels.

Romantic ruffles are a key look this season - whether on feminine blouses or fun ra-ra skirts. For our second outfit Holly models a blue ruffle dress with thin spaghetti straps. We added some sexy gold heels and a waist cinching snakeskin effect belt.

Animal prints are back on the high-street this season and range from the chic and subtle to the bold and funky.

We spotted a gorgeous leopard-print dress with a sexy plunging neckline. All we had to do was accessorise the outfit with a chunky gold rope necklace, a black clutch bag and some retro gold sandals.

Holly loved all of the outfits but her favourite was the little blue dress.

Holly said: "It was a really fun girly day and it's made me feel very summery!"

Thanks to: Kim and Andrew at Soul Hair Salon, Saville Row, (0191) 230 2135. Sarah Gardner from MAC Cosmetics, Fenwick. Shiels and all the staff at Miss Selfridge. The staff at the Tup Tup Palace, St Nicholas Street, where the photos were taken.

CAPTION(S):

OUTFIT 2 - Holly wears blue ruffle dress pounds 35, belt pounds 18, gold shoes pounds 35; OUTFIT 1 - Holly wears top pounds 25, skinny jeans pounds 35, silver shoes pounds 30; OUTFIT 3 - Holly wears a leopard-print dress pounds 35, accessorised with a necklace pounds 12, gold shoes pounds 3