I love working with “New Designers” - what’s funny is most new designers aren’t all that new - it’s more that they’re just not well known (yet!). Often you meet a designer who’s only 25 and they’ve been designing for the past 10 years. I worked on a look book shoot which went really well. There is so much planning involved but it pays off in the end when you have a great team!
I know I talk a lot about the team but the synergy of the team is essentail to doing a great shoot; it’s easy to do a good shoot and sometimes by fluke you can do a great shoot, naturally the more experience you have the better your work becomes.
It’s also important for the whole team to know what the look and feel of the shoot is about. You’ll have mood boards about hair and make-up, lighting and the looks so everyone can have a visual to work from and of course on the day things can change: something doesn’t work, you have a better idea, someone is sick - things change! Just be prepared - the motto I learned in Brownies always seems to be right!
Forward PR knows how to throw a good party - and I love a cocktail party! There were lots of delicious cocktails - Yum - Vermeer Chocolate & Rasmeers Martinis - the Martini glass gets me every time - the shape, the romance of it all! If something fruity is more your style Tapio - Raspberry & Rosehip with French Vodka! Delightful! We feasted on sushi and danced to music from Audio Sushi! Dance contest and awards for the best facial hair -men only ;)
Michele Obi editor of My Fashion Life & Jessica Bumpus of Vogue.com
Sabinje Von Gaffke wearing Betsey Johnson - great party dresses and a shoes designer with the tiniest feet in the world UK size1!
Jimmy Ho and the lovely Michele Paradise!
Me in my vintage £35 dress and Courtney Blackman of Forward PR wearing Aquascutum - dressed by her date Michael Herz, head of womenswear design at Aquascutum!
For more Party info check out the Glamour Party Blog!
Beyoncé knows how to work the red carpet and she’s one of the few truly glamorous women of her generation. Her bold choices are often either a hit or a miss, but she wears this dress extremely well because we actually notice the girl more than the dress. Few of us could wear a canary yellow gown but it looks gorgeous against her caramel coloured skin. The simple & sophisticated chignon with just enough bling looks elegant and timeless.
Doing a photo shoot with Olympic athletes can be great, they already have such a strong presence and are comfortable with lots of people running around; which they can just ignore and focus on the task at hand. All the athletes are sponsored by Team Visa. When you have young athletes doing there first fashion photo shoot you need a strong team behind the camera: photographer Joe Lacey and art director Simon Costin! The energy was great and you just know it’s going to be a fun shoot day!
Tom Daley is a diver and wore Vivienne Westwood.
Mo Farah does track and field and looked dashing in a Richard James.
Natasha Baker is an equestrian and wore an iconic Giles Deacon dress. Beth Tweddle is a gymnast wearing a bespoke Marchesa gown.
I love going to vintage fashion fairs. Many of the vendor have been collection and selling items for over 20 years so if you’re looking for something special just ask them. They might not have brought it with them but most of the vendors have hundreds of items stashed away!
I got two fabulous dresses for £10 each!
The key to looking through vintage is to really take your time. I look for fabrics that I like - I don’t really worry about the shape or cut as I know if I like the fabric I can remake the dress. Occasionally I’ll find a dress that fits perfectly!
The 20th Century Theatre
291 Westbourne Grove
Notting Hill
London W1
Quilted Knee Pad leggings - I think these are quite fun & cheeky! Lindsey Lohan has signed an exclusive deal with Fred Segal stores and her leggings will be available in August. The line is called 6126 in honour of Lindsay’s idol, Marilyn Monroe’s birthday.
I met with the super petite designer Ada Zanditon in her super sized jacket! Ada graduated from London Collage of Fashion in 2007. She spent four season interning with Alexander McQueen and in 2007/8 she worked with Gareth Pugh as a pattern maker.
These images are from Ada’s graduate collection. I love the oversized shapes and how everything feels bit like a super hero. Lisa Snowden and Joan Collins have both been photographed wearing her clothes! For her next collection Ada is using ethical/organic fabrics and she presently has a new eco collection available in Oxfam 245 Westbourne Grove, London W11.
You might have see some of her illustrations featured in the London Underground. This autumn Ada will be exhibiting in The Ethical Fashion Show in Paris.
I went to the opening preview of The Viktor & Rolf exhibition at the Barbican. It was quite amazing! I love the doll’s house - I think every girl loves a doll’s house. I had so many dolls when I was little, and my mum would make matching clothes for me and my dolls. I never had my own doll’s house and was jealous of one girl who had a German doll house. Viktor & Rolf’s doll house is 6m-high with three floors, endless rooms and it feels very luxurious and empty at the same time. There are 55 porcelain dolls living in the house. The dolls are only 2 feet high, with human hair and are made by hand by master craftsman Mr. B. Terrie. Each doll is designed & styled after the model who originally wore the outfit and the dolls have the same make-up that was worn in the catwalk show. The dresses are a true replica - everything is made to scale and even the original leather is used to make the shoes.
I keep thinking of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and everything that Nora felt. Dolls can be so beautiful but have a very scary side to them especially the porcelain doll. One of exhibits had a doll surrounded by broken porcelain. In Viktor and Rolf’s work there is lots of dark humour, and there is a lot of it in the way the models are displayed as porcelain dolls. It’s eerie and adorable at the same time!
Of course an exhibition like this attracts fabulous people. I spotted super stylish Roisin Murphy. She’s a true fashionista and a wonderful singer!
…and one of my favourite people: Gok Wan!
Girls in Viktor & Rolf
Ben Sherman and PPQ have collaborated on a new limited collection of dresses. There are only 175 dresses available in each look. There are 5 dresses and each one represents the look of the decade. PPQ has always been involved in the music scene and they even have their own record label 1-2-3-4. And of course Ben Sherman is known for supporting loads of bands.
The Story of The Supremes from the Mary Wilson Collection
The Supremes - Mary, Diana and Flo, and later Cindy Birdsong, Jean Terrell, Lynda Lawrence, Scherrie Payne and Susaye Green were glamorours, strong and sexy looking women. I can’t wait to see this exhibition, it’s on until October 19th at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London). I feel spoiled for choice living in such a big city - there are always so many exhibitions and event to see and it’s easy to put something off and see it later and then you realize that it’s gone…I do love going to see fashion exhibitions - seeing into someone else’s wardrobe and how they create their own style is very telling. I’d love to be a bit more glamorours. When I think of the Supremes I think of real glamour. You might say that there is still lots of glamour in the music world - but a lot of it for me is hit and miss, one day it might be really beautiful, and sensual and then another day it might be a bit cheap & tacky looking. Maybe modern glamour is more about making an effort - looking dresses up. Nothing beats old school glamour!
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.
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 9th at The Miller.
(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!
I’m not the kind of girl who wears a white shirt, but I’d like to. I do love the look of a crisp white shirt with a great black pencil skirt or even jeans but that all seems a little too predictable. If you’re wearing black and white you need to have a bit of an edge or you’ll look like a waiter - of course there is nothing wrong with looking like a waiter…
There is no one who knows better than Daphne Guinness on how to wear black and white. She’s one of my favourite style icons!
Even cities like Liverpool are having their own fashion week! You just know it’s going to be glamours, gaudy and great fun! You might not be seeing Erin O’Conner in the front row but Liverpool has it’s own fashionists that they love and adore like Abby Clancy and Coleen McLoughlin!
Celebrity in itself is a bit weird. I’ve met some people who just want to be a celebrity as a profession, like a dentist. A celebrity look-alike is weird but kind of fun and makes sense! We did a shoot with a Victoria & David Beckham, Ricky Gervais and Kylie look-alike. They were great: they really knew which angles worked for the camera, and they really worked it! It was a job for them, not a lifestyle - they didn’t seem like they were becoming their celebrities. The David Beckham look-alike has played him for over 10 years!!
This is the lovely Lara Bohinc showing her new collection in Paris. Lara has collaborated for Gucci and Lanvin, and she’s currently working as a design consultant for Cartier. Lara’s style is very recognizable, with her knot motifs and chunky jewellery. Her bags are gorgeous and I love using them in shoots.
Lara studied industrial design at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts in Slovenia and then did an MA in jewellery and metalwork at the Royal College of Art London. The following year Lara debuted her collection at London Fashion Week and won the New Generation Design Award!
Lara’s client base that reads like a who’s who: Madonna, Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz, Christina Aguilera, and Gwen Stefani. She’s just recently opened up a shop in London at 149F Sloane Street.
