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

Annabel Lewis is the founder of the celebrated trimmings and ribbon shop and every stylist’s favourite haberdashery VV Rouleaux! Annabel was giving mini demonstrations as part of the Viktor & Rolf exhibition on bow making. She gave everyone a long wired ribbon and showed us how to make the perfect rose and Christmas tree bow!

My rose!

To read the rest of this post go to Drapers on Line

Update:
Designers of New Couture do not copy other designers work - they have the ethics of a fine tailor; they are not like the typical dress maker who will copy a garment.

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 love shops that have that old world feel to them, you just know that there is something extraordinary inside and I love antique jewellery. Bentley & Skinner specialise in fine antique jewels from Faberge and silver to an array of diamonds. They have been buying and selling jewellery for over 180 years.

Much of their jewellery is from private auctions or purchased privately. Jewellery and accessories are key to creating a personal style, and by adding an antique piece of jewellery it helps to create a more personal unique look.

8 New Bond Street, London W1

Fashion has become very fashionable and there’s something comforting and fun about working in a virtual world especially if your only 10 years old. I think I would have liked games like this when I was little. Fashion games for girls is a huge market so it’s just not surprising that Koei have created a game around Japanese Street fashion. Japanese Street fashion has been so influential - Photographer Shoichi Aoki’s books  Fruits &  Fresh Fruits are so popular that Aoki’s been credited with introducing Japanese street fashion to the rest of world!

In the world of Pop Cutie players will start the game as an independent designer with a small shop at a flea market - like so many real young designers.  As players progress, they’ll move into larger boutiques. The competition against rival shop owners culminates in a ‘Fashion Battle,’ where a panel of judges will decide if a player’s style has enough cute or enough cool to become all the rage.

The game involves running the boutique, hiring staff and models, and decorating their shops. It also involves fashion design based on capturing and combining “images” from kids on the street. Two-player “Fashion Battles” are also possible with a friend who has a copy of Pop Cutie.

I like the concept of the game I’m just not sure if the characters are cool or fashionable enough - when someone says Japanese Street Fashion the expectations are high. Anyway when I was little, like so many other Canadians, summer holidays involved a long, long road trip - I would have loved to have a super cool fashion game to pass the time!
[resource Game Press]

I can sit around for hours and read books like these: Taschen’s The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute

I’ve spent the last week in and out of fabric shops and I can’t imagine not having access to ribbon, lace and trimmings. I feel so happy when I’m in a haberdashery or lovely fabric shop! It’s a great place for a designer, stylist or fashion student to look for inspiration. You never know how much a particular piece of lace or ribbon is going to inspire or influence your work!

I went to the Links of London press day and they were offering illustrations by Sophie McElligott and in less then 5 miniutes she drew this illustration of my fashion assistant, Stephanie!

The event took place at an art gallery on London’s very fashionable Dover Street. Links of London is very popular for it’s charm bracelets. I notice girls wearing them all the time. I’m particularly fond of clock faces - not so much the watch itself but really the face, oh and I love keys!

Sophie has been drawing since she was little - her parents didn’t like her to watch TV so Sophie drew instead. She went to art school in Italy and did life drawing and then studied fashion at St Martins and Middlesex.

It was so much fun to be drawn by someone, you feel a bit embarrassed but bit special too! I love this image, I feel like a cool villain in a video game!!

I love it when my work takes me to cool places. I got to go to Abbey Road Studios!

We’ve all heard of Abbey Road because The Beatles, recorded 90% of their recordings there. In April 1969 they recorded their final album Abbey Road‘  with the iconic cover of the zebra crossing. On the Abbey Road Studios site there is even a real time web cam so you can see anyone on the zebra crossing!

Abbey Road Studios have been around since the 1930s. Some of the best people in the world have worked there: Fats Waller, Fred Astaire, Glenn Miller, Oasis, Nick Cave, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Snow Patrol, Primal Scream and hundreds of other very talented people!

I saw this pillow on Cult Beauty. I’ve always wanted a silk pillow case. I’ve read that it’s suppose to feel very nice again ones skin and protect the skin from developing more lines or deeper creases.
No pillow lines! It’s kind of funny that we spend all of this money on skin care - which I’m admit I’m a bit obsessed with and while we are sleeping and our bodies are supposed to being rejuvenated I am sleeping with my face buried into my pillow embedding wrinkles into my face.

For many designers function versus fashion is optional.

- But if you’re making a watch that’s going to outer space, this is function at it’s most extreme. Somehow Seiko has manage to create a watch that displays the most accurate time in the world in outer space that looks cool! The watch maybe the only piece of jewellery that we wear that serves both as function and fashion. Seiko celebrated the launch of the Seiko Spring Drive Space Walk at one of London’s tallest building “The Gherkin”. This watch is deigned to keep accurate time during space travel and a space walk! As a fashionista I’ve really never thought how does one keep time in outer space? Hmmm, it’s actually a huge question. Just the pure mechanics & the weather, how do you keep time in extreme climates -20C to +70C? You can’t wear a battery operated watch for safety reasons and a mechanical watch can’t retain it’s accuracy in these temperatures. So Seiko created a Spring Drive that has Tri-synchro Regulators.

In October 2008, Richard Garriott, the renowned video game designer and adventurer, will become the sixth private space explorer. This is an image of the Spring Drive Spacewalk as Richard plans to wear it when he goes into free space!

Things to know when you’re designing a watch that will be worn in outer space.

This was the most amazing view and as close to space as I’ll ever get. It’s really important to think about locations for a press launch and how the location represents the brand. This space couldn’t have been more ideal for The Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk. At the very top of The Gherkin there is a reception room and of course it’s high in the sky like a glass rocket. You feel amazing and just lucky to be in such a unique space.

For those of us not going to the moon I like the Seiko Kinetic watches. I just like the idea of kinetic watches - it utilize the power from the human body to keep the watch running! So what happens if you take the watch off for a while? Well Seiko Kinetic have a 6 month power reserve. So there are no excuses for being fashionably late!

I’m not a sparkly bling kind of girl - but it’s something I do love in a shoot. If you’re looking to customize a garment Swarovski Crystals are the way to go. It’s worth a visit to the Swarovski Crystallized Cosmos & Lounge, 24 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1

Customizing shoes and garments is such a unique way of giving an item some personal style and making it unique!

Swarovski Crystallized Cosmos & Lounge, 24 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1

The Shop Bluebird had a party last night to celebrate Aquascutum’s Women’s AW 08 collection.

Michael Herz - Aquascutum’s Womenswear Designer with the very charming Jasmine Guinness

Aquascutum is 155 years old and they still make all their core products in Northamptonshire. There are so many challenges for a heritage brand - how do you keep what’s unique and special about your brand while moving forward? When I think of Aquascutum I tend to think of menswear. They have a long prestiges history of menswear: in 1854 during the Crimea war British army officers wore Aquascutum coats, even Churchill worn Aquascutum. Over the years many fabulous women have also worn Aquascutum: the Vintage collection includes pieces worn by Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, and Sophia Loren!

Spring Summer 08 campaign with Gisele Bündchen!

One of the coats that I love is the Indra Coat with Paralia hat. it’s very classic but modern at the same time and I love the print.

Courtney Blackman, Michael and Louis Mariette - milliner and Jessica Moor of Cult Beauty

This is the original skit shown during the 1996 VH1 Fashion Awards, which was then used as the basis for the movie, Zoolander. It was half written by Ben Stiller and off-screen interviewer Drake Sather, and half improvised on the set by all involved.

Doorways, hidden paths, secrets & stories. Images like this always inspire me with ideas for shoots. Doors have always been magical: “Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.” -Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll