I've seen those English dramas too.

Polkadot blouse: mum's, vintage Sarsaparilla. Leather skirt: £4, charity shop (similar here, and probably won't fall apart the first time you wear it). Two-tone flats: 50p, Russell and Bromley via ebay. Shopper bag: c/o Laura Ashley. Lipstick: Topshop Really Ruby.

Apart from the obligatory burger snaps, you may have noticed a few bloggers' instagrams had a slightly different backdrop than usual yesterday. Lucy, Kristabel, Carrie and I headed West to visit our pal Dina in her university city of Oxford. One of the most beautiful cities in the country, with undoubtedly some of the most awe-inspiring architecture around (yep, I'm the girl who walks round staring up at the buildings rather than looking where she's going), I couldn't wait to head back after my two years away. 

If you don't know much about the system at Oxford, applicants apply to a college rather than to the university as a whole, and each college has its own mini campus. Dina's at Lincoln, so we headed there first to have a wander around the quad and check out the Harry Potter-style dining hall (they actually filmed it down the road at Christ Church), which put my own university's carnatic halls to shame. We meandered around many of the city's colleges, including Magdalen (where my outfit photos were taken!), which has its own deer park, and New, home to some of the most colourful flower gardens I've ever come across. The location for our mandatory group shot (taken by the ever-patient Sonia) was underneath the bridge of sighs, which should probably be renamed the bridge of lols after the amount of failed jumping shots we attempted to take - you can't have everything, after all.

We probably needed the exercise after our lunch at Atomic Burger on Cowley Road. In true fashion, we piled in at peak time, and squeezed around a table with Dina's university friends. I sampled the Jake n Elwood (blue cheese, bacon, and onions), although I noticed a Messy Jessie and Bandit around our table. It's definitely worth popping into if you're in the area, even if only for the Barbie-themed toilets. We rolled (nearly literally...) into Pierre Victoire for dinner for something a little more refined, if that's how you classify eating with a knife and fork. Sadly we then went our separate ways into the night, after our day of being tourists. Looks like I'll be heading back soon though - we didn't even have time to go punting!

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And when he does his little rounds round the boutiques of London town.

Although my mother and I have our differences (namely about the definition of "late"), there are some things we have in common. Okay, the photos are very clearly of a handbag (from this post) and a bread bin, which don't often bear similarities, but they're both designed under the name of Biba. Today you can buy Biba from House of Fraser, but in my mum's day it was Kensington Church Street which housed the clothing brand.

When Biba was first around it was a bit different to today. To buy clothes that your mum wouldn't be seen dead in (soz ma, my skirt is that short), you had to get the train to High Street Kensington. You could walk down to Kensington market to get your Marc Bolan tees, but if you continued a bit further and turned right onto Church Street you'd find Bus Stop and Biba. Bus Stop, I am reliably informed, was filled with amazing tea dresses and floral blouses, but was ruled over by fearsome shop assistants who stood on chairs by the till to catch out shoplifters in the packed space. Further down the road, Biba was a kind of haven. It was a different world, where every item of clothing you could possibly want to own was to be found hung up in the corner, and you could go out on Saturday and never see anyone else in the same thing. From a boutique the size of a kitchen, it expanded into the empty Derry and Toms department store, and sold everything from ball gowns to, um, loo roll. I used to sneak into Waterstones and read the Biba book for the photos of the amazing art deco restaurant, because it sadly no longer exists as it expanded way too quickly for it to survive. My mum's favourite piece was a red satin jacket which she has since, unfortunately for me, donated to a charity shop, but you can always see original bits pop up on ebay all the time.

Although I could talk about Biba for hours on end (trust me, this is a very condensed version of the draft in my head), I'll just let you know about A Party With Biba being hosted at House of Fraser stores this Thursday 12th. There'll be a champagne reception in their Oxford Street store to showcase the new collection and there'll be a tote bag thrown in for purchases over £75. I've got my eye on this perfect Chung coat, but it's hardly like I need any more excuses to look like I've walked out of the 'sixties.

This post was written in collaboration with House of Fraser, but I do love Biba, that is an original, and I'm still crying over the loss of that jacket.

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Henrietta, we got no flowers for you.

Dress: £4.50, charity shop (similar here). Denim jacket: vintage Levi's, aunt's. Bag: vintage, from Claire's giveaway. Boots: Topshop (old). Flower garland: c/o Missguided.

Sunday is always the most relaxed day of the festival. We spent ours sat in the sun before the main stage and wandering around the stalls in the arena. I popped along to the Havens Hospices tent as they were the honoured charity this year. They were the charity shop where I took half of my belongings before moving house (and picked up this dress to make up for the extra space - more on that later). I then meandered along a couple of tents to find my friends in the shisha tent, only for my camera to be stolen by them to take artsy greyscale shots, ahem. Once my camera had been wrestled out of the others' hands and was returned to its normal settings, we had possibly the best pizza I've ever had by Pizza to the People, covered in chorizo and good stuff (my specs for a good meal, obviously) leaving us pretty full, and ready for whatever was going to be thrown at us that night. That evening we saw veteran Brownstock artist Beardyman (photographed below) threaten to eat our brains, and finished off with The Fratellis, who reminded my why I listened to their debut album constantly in year eleven - please tell me I wasn't the only one to have their own dance to flathead? The music may have been a bit of an odd mix, but that's the best thing about festivals!

Arguably the worst thing about festivals is the camping situation. However much I love being woken up by people falling into your tent, it doesn't make for the best changing room (although it does help being short enough to stand up inside). We tend to cheat a little and head to the local supermarket (and McDonald's...) to use their toilets in the morning, but there's nothing that's gonna stop my mane from turning a little wild. In true festival style, for the first and last time ever, I popped on a floral garland (I've nothing against them, I just find them a bit too cliché for my liking) and a dress short enough to have me thinking about laser hair removal costs, but you only go to festivals at least once every summer, so that makes it okay, right? Come the time the arena closed for the final time, we headed back to our circle of tents and sat with our neighbours (hi Neil!) for a good few hours singing everything but Wonderwall, before retiring for the last time. Striking camp is always a rather melancholy affair once you've got over your tent never actually fitting back into its bag, but now mine's stowed away in the garage, patiently awaiting next year's adventures.

I'd just like to end with a big thank you to the Browns for having me again at Brownstock this year, and providing me with a press pass (yes, there's an interview coming soon!) and a weekend of new nicknames and hearing chelsea dagger sung out of tune - I wouldn't have had it any other way!

This post contains a sponsored link. It paid for my cider over the course of this weekend, so that makes it relevant, right?

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The minor fall, and the major lift.

Baseball tee: free, American Apparel. Sunflower shorts: £54, American Apparel (similar here). Boots: £27, Topshop (old). Bag: vintage, from Claire's giveaway. Necklace: vintage. Sunglasses: 25p, charity shop.

Although most of you will have scraped the mud off your wellies and stored them away for next summer by now, my favourite festival has only just come around. For the past four years, I've been to Brownstock with my friends, and this year was on a par with its predecessors. There may have been a much smaller contingent of our posse to sprawl across the campsite with, but we had two ukeleles, a guitar, and enough cider to make it one of the best festivals so far, and that's saying something after travelling to the Isle of Wight Festival in June! A fair bit bigger than in previous years, we found that there was a lot more to do, and although we did spend a large proportion of our time sat around in our tents, we made sure we explored everything from the Good Shed to mussel beach.

Thankfully we were blessed with glorious sunshine, so I took that as my excuse to bring out the sunflower shorts again, and paired them with a plain tee and a bag big enough to fit my camera in (I finally got a new lens, so now it's not as big as the camera itself!). Add some ridiculous sunglasses, and a few old wristbands (no, I haven't kept them on for four years as I'm not fourteen), and you're ready to stay up till 2am with Mark Ronson, and then get to know your fellow campers into the small hours.

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When I get home.

You may have noticed, but this isn't an outfit post. Actually, what I'm wearing right now is a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a ponytail that probably has some leaves in it, so I think I'm going to save myself some BB cream and not document this one. The reason for the casual attire is that I'm (finally!) moving house after living here for over ten years, and I've just helped my mum to take down the swings in the garden. The past week has been a series of finding the ends of brown tape (the trick is to trace your nail round the roll, who says blogging isn't educational?), and going back and forth to one of the Havens Hospices charity shops with a fair amount of the clothes I've been lucky enough to receive from blogging. I know that It's Cohen is a place for me to share my sartorial disasters, but it is also a personal space, and this is a pretty big thing for my family. We'll be moving from this pretty thing to somewhere more normal, as this is the last thing tying my parents together (trust me, this is a lot more pretentious than we are, and doesn't reflect my family at all). I managed to escape last week to attend the boohoo wrapup party near St Paul's, and had some of the best cocktails I've had for a long time, not to mention a chance to meet Natasha, Shore, Shope, Alex and Lucy, which was an evening off I definitely needed! Post-move tomorrow, I'm off to my friend Amy's 21st birthday celebrations, and then it's time for Brownstock! I'll try my hardest to keep blogging throughout the transitional period, but here's my longwinded excuse for being rubbish at replying to tweets and emails, and a prayer for a good wifi connection in the new place.

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Shake it, break it, make it bounce.

Liquid eyeliner: £6.79, Bourjois Liner Clubbing. Concealer: c/o Benefit Fake Up. Lipstick: £14, MAC Ravishing. Eyebrow kit: £23, Benefit Brow-Zings, via Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazaar. Mascara: Soap and Glory Thick & Fast, free with Elle. Exfoliator: Boots Botanics Microdermabrasion Polish. BB Cream: £23, MAC Prep + Prime. Blusher: mum's Avon one from years ago. Cleanser: £15, Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish. Lip scrub: £5, Lush Bubblegum. Micellar cleansing water: c/o B01. Pore-reducer thing: free!, Benefit Pore-fessional. Lip balm: Vaseline. Shampoo and Conditioner: won in Duke of York Square's twitter competition, Liz Earle Botanical shine shampoo and conditioner. Base coat: Essei Rock Solid. Top coat: Essie good to go. Eye drops: £3.79, Optrex. Moroccan argan oil: £5, Organix. Final Shine spray and Straight and Smooth spray: c/o ghd. Day cream: Boots Botanics.

If I think I don't use that many products, then I don't understand how beauty bloggers can fit half their stuff in the bathroom! I tried (a long time ago) to do a review of liquid eyeliner, and I haven't been back since as I really don't think I know enough to give a reliable opinion. Although I love a bit o' cleanser (liz earle, I love you), I know what I like, and I stick to it, and the above photo is documentation of what I use on a daily (ish) basis. Whether it's something pretty like lipstick, or something basic like eye drops (no matter how good your lenses are, mine are from Optical Express, I think, never underestimate how much screens can frazzle your eyes), it's rare for new products to make it into my make up bag, and I rely on the few beauty blogs I do read, such as Kate's, to help me whenever I do decide it's about time to shake it up a bit. A while ago I got an email from Fran at Best British Bloggers who asked if I'd be interested in receiving a few hair styling products, and I thought I'd accept the challenge of creating a simple up do, if only to do more to my hair than wake up and flatten it with my hands. So, ladies (and gents, maybe), grab yourself a cuppa and a hairbrush, as I present to you the Iggy Azalea ponytail.

one brush your hair. If you're anything like me, then this is Big Deal. Once that's out of the way, spray some heat defence spray in, and wait for it to dry.


two straighten it. I personally work in layers from the nape of my neck till I reach the crown. Just make sure you get the bits that'll sit on the top of your head straight, so you don't have flyaways later.


three 2:13.


four flip your head upside down and smooth your hair into a ponytail on the top of your head. Once upright, use a brush or comb, whatever's easiest, to make sure it isn't bumpy. Secure with a hairband.


five cover that bad boy in hairspray. Don't breathe, for health and safety reasons.


six just add a touch of shine spray - it helps with the finer hairs that your hairspray didn't get.

Ta-dah! This is possibly the simplest style you'll ever have to "create", and I've been doing it since I was about six and able to hold a hairbrush.

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Dressed in black he walks alone, a shadow in the night.

Columba cut out bodycon dress: c/o Lashes of London. Leather jacket: The Kooples. Leopard print boots: Topshop (old). Broken bag: Topshop (old). Collar necklace: Miss Selfridge. Nails: Red n Black, Models Own. Lipstick: Kate Moss 107, Rimmel.

Make the most of these photos, because you're not going to see body con or cut out again for a while. When I saw this badass Lashes of London dress on their site, my inner Essex knew it had to make its way to my wardrobe somehow, not quite realising what a big deal it'd be for me to wear it. Then along came Amy, and her more dressed-down approach gave me more ideas for how to style it. Out came the leopard print booties, leather jacket, and other Amy's (from sixth form/Liverpool) lipstick that I borrowed stole from her last night, and I felt slightly more "me". This is definitely an after-dark outfit - all the best ones are! - and although I don't think I'll be in a rush to wear bodycon in the day any time soon, I'm slowly being brought round to its virtues. I do like a good LBD (little black dress, for those of you who don't use hip 'n' cool acronyms), but in future I think I'll be sticking to skater styles - more room for dinner! I'm planning to wear this particular one to Selena's twenty-first this weekend, but it's a bit different to my "just going to the pub" (and then come home at 3am) white tee and skirt combination. They do say that life is like a box of chocolates after all, just maybe they're liqueur ones.

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