Sneak Peak at one of the houses featured…

By Linda Gallagher

Epitomising elegance, glamour and sophistication White is a key colour trend for winter into spring and provides the perfect antidote to all the garish prints, patterns and embellishment that have filled the stores over the past few months. Alexander Mc Queen, Proenza Schouler and Peter Som were just some of the names who featured chalky hued pieces in their 2012 collections and this trend for all things glacial continues into Spring’13 with designers Stella McCartney, Simone Rocha and Chanel using a minimalist palette to create fresh and exciting new looks.

As with interiors white acts as a blank canvas and can either be worn from head to toe or accented with various colours. The monochromatic combination of black and white is a major look for summer as are icy tones teamed with cupcake pinks, denim blues and pale yellows. For the more adventurous pair your crisp whites with bright reds, zingy limes or mandarin orange. With the emphasis on tailoring and clean lines here are my selections that will keep you looking cool over the coming months.

1. DRESS:

Awear Closet Cross Over Flare Dress – £20

2. COAT:

Max Mara Studio white Rocco coat – £418 

4. SHIRT:

Steffen Schraut Claudine smoke sleeve white cotton tailored shirt – £103

5. JEANS:

All Saints super stretch Optic white denim skinny jeans – £85 

The stunning architecture, food and style in Paris has us all inspired here at ROCO. With spring around the corner we can’t wait to showcase some of our ideas in the magazine!

Happy Pancake Tuesday!!!

When IKEA Belfast sent us through this alternative recipe for pancakes we just had to share it with you.

We have been drooling at this picture ever since.

IKEA Pancake Cake

Pancake Day is always a great time to let your creative juices flow in the kitchen, be a rebel and don’t even think about grabbing the lemon juice and sugar, put down the chocolate spread! This Pancake Cake from our Swedish friends at IKEA uses ready-made PANNKAKOR (or, pancakes to you and me) which are available to buy frozen from the food market at check out, but of course you can use your own made up simply with flour, milk and eggs.

This is what you need (serves 4):

8 pancakes (1 package of PANNKAKOR contains 12 pancakes)

3 dl whipping cream

20 fresh strawberries

150 g SYLT JORDGUBB (strawberry jam)

½ dl icing sugar

1 sprig of fresh mint

This is how you do it:

Combine the milk, flour and eggs to make the pancake mixture. Pop a blog into a frying pan on medium heat, and let it roll out to form a circle. Flip once when bubbles start to show on the surface.

Alternatively, thaw the PANNKAKOR pancakes. Whip the cream. Rinse the strawberries, remove the leaves and stems. Cut the strawberries in halves. Make alternate layers of pancakes, whipped cream and jam. Put a lot of strawberries on top, sprinkle with icing sugar and garnish with a sprig of freshly cut mint.

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Image via pinterest