Born and bred in London, obsessed with New York, fantasies about Paris; Jessica Hamilton is a cosmopolitan girl with timeless city style.
Founder of fashion and lifestyle blog Cocoa Chelsea, Jess first made waves in the fashion whirlpool in 2015 with her relaxed, low-key aesthetic. We caught up with the style-savvy Londoner to chat about her capsule collection must-haves and most treasurable designer pieces.
1. Name 3 words that best describe your style?
Relaxed ... Quite classic. Just every day low maintenance style.
2. What are your top 3 essential clothing items?
Jeans, jumper, leather jacket. All day every day.
3. If you could collaborate with any fashion blogger in the world on your blog, who would it be and why?
My favourite fashion blogger is "Something Navy". I love her. She's literally the queen of wearing slouchy jumpers, skinny jeans, and heels. So yeah, her. One hundred percent her. She's the first person I followed on Instagram.
I also really like "We Wore What", Daniella Bernstein. I'm obsessed.
4. If you could collaborate with any fashion designer in the world on your blog, who would it be and why?
I get asked this quite a lot, but I think I like certain pieces from so many different designers, that it's really difficult to choose one. But, I've got a really boring answer like Celine or Isabel Marant ... I just like different pieces from different people.
Obviously if I had one designer I'd love to do a collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld, because why not? Why would you not?
Karl Lagerfeld loves Chanel, and life!
5. Which colours and patterns do you wear the most?
Pattern wise, stripes. I wear too many stripes. All my clothing, all my tops are stripey. My sister's actually banned me from buying anything with stripes on it for the next six months.
6. What trends are you most excited about for the spring/summer season?
Stripes! They're back, I'm so excited! And backpacks. I know they've been around for a while but I think there's a huge new backpack trend. Just being able to carry a bag and a coffee and a phone without dropping everything.
7. Are there any trends you wish were never created?
Yes, but I used to wear it myself, which was cropped leggings with a denim skirt over it. I absolutely can't stand it now, I used to wear it all the time. And that's coming back as well now, with the skirt over jeans.
8. You blog a lot of luxury fashion, what are your most treasured designer pieces and what would you recommend to buy as a designer purchase?
My most treasured pieces are sentimental pieces. I've got this Vivienne Westwood teddy bear necklace that my mum gave me, so it's just a bit different and I love it so much. That's probably my most treasured. My mum's got a vintage Louis Vuitton weekend bag and it's black and I've stolen that.
What pieces would I buy designer? I don't really see the point in buying clothing like T-shirts, jeans. I wouldn't spend 500 pounds on a T-shirt from somewhere. I would always buy an investment piece.
My main thing about buying designer things is, if it didn't have the hype of the logo behind it, it didn't have the brand and the name, and everybody wasn't like, "Oh my god, your bag is designer!" ... if you saw that bag or that accessory in Zara, would you pick it up? Because there's so many times when someone's walking around with a Gucci handbag and you're like, "Oh my God, that's amazing!" But is it because it's a Gucci handbag, or because you like the style? So, always go for something that you'll like when the fashion pack moves on, and six months later they've got all their new handbags. Will you still like the one that you bought?