Primark’s sales are increasing and throw away clothes and fast fashion are just part of our every day language. So the timing couldn’t be more perfect for the BBC to launch the on-line magazine Thread in conjunction with the programme Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts.
I love fashion and I want to feel good about any of the purchases I make whether it’s food or cleaning products and especially clothing. I think it’s hard to wear an items of clothing knowing it’s harming something or someone. Fashion is something that I want to feel good about. It’s just difficult to find out what’s true and what’s important. I think any info about the latest eco-friendly fashion is a great idea. Thread addresses a range of issues that the fashion-conscious wrestle with: what damage is sustained by the environment due to irresponsible and unethical practices, what is the impact of the fashion industry on human and animal rights and what fair trade practices are in place. They have a list of eco designers, an A-Z guide of fashion terms and cool fashion shoots. We are finally starting to have a choice; we don’t only choose clothe that are fashionable and eco friendly. Long gone are the days when ethical clothing meant boring and plain!

I decided on a whim to get my hair styled at the Hershesons Blow Dry Bar in Topshop. It was quite fun as it’s the sort of thing that I don’t normally do but now I find myself with an addiction to big hair.

There are 8 different looks to choose from and each look is trend led but incredibly wearable. All you need is long hair. I decided to go for the Bardot - it’s an updo that involves some back combing and it’s very similar to the “B-52″ the only difference is the “B-52″ is half up, half down. The Bardot is their most popular request. I went in with clean hair although, I’m not sure how important it is, but since you only have a 1/2 slot they don’t really have time to wash your hair.

Last Halloween I really wanted to dress up as a pekingese and with my hair like this I realized I probably could resemble a fluffy little dog. I’m not a big haired girl and never thought I could be as my hair is fine and poker straight.

The staff at the Blow Dry Bar are second and third-year apprentices from the Hershesons’ Conduit Street and Harvey Nichols salons. Alex styled my hair, she’s been there for just under a year and loves it!

Daniel and Luke Hersheson opened the Hershesons Blow Dry Bar in December 2007. The father and son team have a salon in Conduit Street, opened by Daniel in 1991, and a luxury hair spa in Harvey Nichols. Their client list reads like the Who’s Who, but they don’t rest on their laurels as they really seem to be more interested in what they do, then who they do. The concept of the Blow Dry Bar was inspired, in part, by coffee bars, so after each purchase you have reward card and after your 7th styling session your 8th is free!

Fur Coat No Knickers is a tiny shop in Kingly Court just off Carnaby Street. The owners Laura Thomas and Emma Cascarina both have a back ground in theatre costumes which is obvious when you walk into the shop as the selection is well thought out, everything is beautifully placed and the more you look the more there is to see. Fur Coat No Knickers specializes in vintage wedding dressing; they’ll even close the shop and do special fittings for their brides to be.

Laura & Emma have already done all the hard work for you. You don’t have to go digging through boxes or scouring the markets as they’ve already selected the most interesting or valuable pieces. I love how they have decorated this stand with all the lovely broaches!

With a little bit of notice Fur Coat No Knickers offer tech-boxes in the form of roll along trolleys which they’ll deliver and collect from the theatre, film set or fashion shoot. (A tech box is a selection of items, accessories, costumes etc that a wardrobe mistress might need for technical rehearsals or fittings.)

Pattern Cutter, JP with Courtney Blackman and Jaime Cooke - the Director of Muks!

The Muks Fashion Soiree was a great success! We drank cosmopolitans and mojitos and danced until the early hours of the morning. Michel Herz, head of womenswear design at Aquascutum with Coutney Blackman.

Catherine McColl, fashion editor and her the team from Amelia’s Magazine.
Alexia Somerville (middle) and fashion designer Karen Brost (far right)

Amechi Ihenacho (on far right) with other happy partygoers!

Stylist David Bartlett & a cute actor!

On the far right Justin Cooke, Managing Director of Fortune Cookie.

Update:

Muks’ Soiree on Glamour.com!

Mitsukoshi is a great restaurant: lots of kaiseki course meals, shabu-shabu and sukiyaki, and sushi. Downstairs they have a magazine shop; you can find lots of inspiration there!

14-20 Lower Regent St, London SW1Y 4PH

I love Ann Demeulemeester’s menswear. Demeulemeester is part of the group of young designers who emerged from Belgium during the 1980s. She studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and launched her line in 1985.

These images are from her Spring Summer 2008 collection and it’s very rock’n'roll. All of her clothes have such an edge and they are very wearable!

Models go on castings on a daily basis, the rest of us make up artists, hair stylists, photographers and stylists go on appointments. It’s hard to make the time when you’re busy shooting but it’s important to meet new people and show your work. You’re basically going on mini interviews all day.

What’s great and not so great is that you might be running all over the city while going to appointments. So I generally use this opportunity to check out any cool shops or cafes. Near Dalston Station there are two Oxfams quite close to each other - one for clothing and then just a few doors down an Oxfam book shop. It’s huge and all the books are 99p!

Cyprus Crocs are the focus of their new ad campaign “What a Croc!” I laughed when I saw the ad. It’s great to see humour in advertising. I didn’t really like the original Crocs. I like comfortable shoes but there is a line I just can’t seem to cross. Anyway it’s likely that this ad campaign can turn Crocs into a fashion brand rather than just a trend.

The company was founded in 1999 and changed its name to Crocs, Inc. in 2005. It’s based in Niwot, Colorado and has 29 shops and 174 retail kiosks world wide. They sold 50 million pairs of Crocs around the world in 2007 - pretty good for a trend!

London is the world’s CCTV capital. Britain has 4.2million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people in the country. The average person is filmed on camera 300 times per day. -Dress for it!

Victim is one of my favourite shops. Most of Victim’s dresses are one of a kind, so they are very distinct and recognizable. They are made with vintage silks and lace: you feel very sexy and feminine when you wear them. Everything is designed by Mei-Hui Liu, a dear friend of mine.

Peaches Geldof was in Mei-Hui’s shop Thursday after shooting at Concrete - another very cool shop on Marshall Street. As reported in The Sun, The Mirror and The Daily Mail, after Peaches left Mei-Hui realized a dress was missing and called Peaches’ management. The dress was later returned and then paid for and a receipt was given. The dress was originally the feature piece for an upcoming fashion show.

I feel quite flattered that I’ve been tagged by one of my favourite bloggers LibertyLondonGirl!
The Rules of Tag:
1) you link back to the person who tagged you.
2) post these rules on your blog.
3) share six unimportant things about yourself.
4) tag six random people at the end of your entry.
5) let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs

I’m to share six unimportant things about myself, here goes:

1) I played field hockey in high school.
2) I drink tea every morning.
3) I like gum.
4) I wear socks to bed.
5) My desk is full of papers & debris.
6) I have a toolbox.

I tag:
Style Bubble
Michele at My Fashion Life
Disney Rollergirl
Fred Butler Style
Queen Michelle Kingdom of Style
Final Fashion

One of the things I like about Tuesdai Leigh is that she can’t be bothered to be pretentious. She just loves to sing and she’s a natural performer.

I went to see Tuesdai Leigh perform and she’s the real thing. She has a huge voice and she sounds like a gospel/soul singer. Her influences range from Etta James and Aretha Franklin to Tracy Chapman and Nirvana. She lives on a tough North London estate and had no resources to make any kind of demo so she took things into her own hands, started making acappella recordings on her home Karaoke machine and sending them out. Fortunately, songwriter Jules Kleiser heard her recording and they started working together. This is just the beginning of The Tuesdai Leigh Experience, so I’m looking forward to her next show. Tuesdai Leigh is playing on the Friday May 9^th at The Miller.

MAYFAIR BOUTIQUE
IV Burlington Arcade
Mayfair
London
W1J 0PD
T: +44 (0)207 499 4089

WWW.BEATRIXONG.COM

(Photo by Bauer-Griffin)
I was a bit shocked to see Lily Allen as a blond but the more I look at her, the more I like it.

I have never been a blond and with my olive skin tones I don’t think it’s for me. I’ve had all sorts of colours in my hair. When I was at university every time I dyed some fabric I’d stick my head in the vat, it was mainly pink and orange. I tried to dye it navy blue once but the colour didn’t really stay in. Recently I had a friend who bought some hair dye from Boots and she didn’t do the 48 hour dye test - how many of us really do? Anyway she had an allergic reaction to the hair dye - her whole face was completely swollen! It took a couple of weeks for all the swelling to go down. So either do the test or go to the pros!

I love this picture of Lily with the Chanel sunglasses. These glasses are fab, they are the Chanel round retro style frames with the quilted temples, style 5120.

Dying your hair is great fun and it changes how you look completely. Did you ever wonder why most make over programmes wait until the last moment to show the hair and make up? I’ve always felt that hair is your biggest accessory: a good cut is essential and colouring your hair creates an instant change - a brand new look!

Stonefoxx performed last night at Embassy Club in Mayfair.

Who is Stonefoxx? They are a relatively new pop band. I met them about two years ago when they first started working together: Gem Allen, Stacy Burton and Lizzy Williams. They are super fun, cool and hard working. I adore them! They are managed by James Merritt (also very cute) of Kiss 100 and they’ve worked with some very talented people such as Richard Stannard, Shaznay Lewis, Stuart Crichton Georgie Denis & Remmee. For a new band they’re doing quite well; they won the BT Broadband Search for Talent 2007, and the Songpeople Award for top new act!

Me, Stacy, Gem, Lizzy and their choreographer, Nikki Trow! Nikki has worked with Blue & Kylie Minogue.

Me with Sam Hosker the make up artist and Alex Foden hair stylist extraordinaire!

Brian Rennie (left), Gant’s new Design Director, with Stefan Lindemann, Grazia’s Shopping Editor.

Last night I went to a fabulous dinner at Sketch to celebrate Gant’s new creative director. - Brian Rennie.
Brian Rennie was previously the designer behind legendary fashion house Escada. Brian is charming and you can’t help but adore him, not just because of his accent but because of his gentle demeanour. Brain and his partner had just finished building their dream house in Scotland, he was looking forward to enjoying a long, quite life there. Yet, somehow he couldn’t resist the temptation to work with Gant - he truly envisioned their potential and now finds himself living and working in Stockholm.
The new collection has some wonderful tartan shirts - influenced by Rennie’s Scottish heritage - he’s originally from Dundee. He’s added a long dress to the Cruise Collection, the whole collection has been updated creating a luxury lifestyle brand.

Gant History
1914, Bernard Gant left the Ukraine to go the US
1941 The Gant family starting making shirts for Brooks Brothers, Manhattan Shirts and J. Press.
1949 Gant designed shirts with buttons on the collars, creating the first button-down shirt.
1967 the family business was sold and was owned in succession of American companies
1980’s, the Swedish company, Pyramid Sportswear, obtained the master license for all over the world except the US.
1999, Pyramid and the majority of Gant shares has been bought by Maus Frères S.A., one of Switzerland’s largest retail groups.
2007, Brian Rennie, joined Gant as their design director.

The triangular shape (A -line) dress has been around since the early 50’s. It was originally designed to be worn with low heels and bouffant hair - it later transformed into the baby doll dress during the 60’s.
Vintage 1960 trapeze dress, $126.

The trapeze dress has proven very popular over the past few seasons as it’s fun and easy to wear. The modern trapeze dress looks great with the highest of heels and it’s important that the dress fits well on the shoulders. This style looks best with bare legs as it’s important to create a balance because the dress hides your shape. Many designers have lots of different takes on this dress.

The Osman Yousefzada’s dress has more of a sheen, a satin feel and in pink it’s very in keeping with the 60’s baby doll dress!
Osman Yousefzada, trapeze dress from Spring/Summer 07, Stockists: Selfridges, Liberty, Podium and Fred Segal, Saks 5th Avenue.

I love Hannah Marshall’s dress, which is in silk chiffon and has many layers.
Hannah Marshall trapeze dress from Spring/Summer 08, £1,299.00 at Nina and Lola.

The high street’s take on the trapeze dress is more A-line, is may not be as exciting as the trapeze dress but the shape is still inspired by the trapeze dress.
Topshop trapeze dress £45.00.

Littlewoods swirl trapeze dress, £49.00.

Spotted at the Hospital, a private members club for people in the creative
industries: Courtney Blackman, Director of the Fashion Business Cub and Brook Taylor of Aganovich!!

There are lots of rooms at The Hospital: studios, a gallery, a roof terrace, a cinema as well as bars and lounges. In London there are quite a few members’ clubs. It’s hard to know which one to join; they all seem to have an industry-specific clientele. I must do some research and check them out!
They seem to have some great events!

I’ve always liked pets and animals. I think it’s an important trait that as a human being, we like to look after other species. So when I heard about the Cat Cafe Calico, I thought what could be better! In Toyko there are now 3 cafes were you can rent a cat for about £3 for an hour or £9 for 3 hours. Takafumi Fukui is the founder of the first and very popular Tokyo’s Cat Cafe Calico. There are 14 very clean cats to pet - they are shampooed and brushed regularly and you must have a thorough hand wash before entering the lounge. It’s very difficult to have a pet in Japan so the cafe offers a very unique and relaxing service! How cool is that!

I like seeing animals out and about, especially when I see a dog sitting comfortably on the floor at a pub or outside a cafe. While dining out in Paris, I was trying to enjoy my dinner but at the table across from me, a women had her small dog on the table, eating from her plate -that didn’t really work for me, but the Cat Cafe Calico sounds purrfect!
Source: Reuters

Vivienne Westwood’s press day took place up stairs in her shop, on Conduit street in London. I love her accessories. There was a diamanté bone necklace and bracelet - very cool and the menswear is beautiful. Aren’t the shoes just amazing!!