I recently met with the lovely Leon Bailey Green. He is an online marketing and branding consultant. He is also the director of marketing for OSOYOU.

OSOYOU is one stop shop which helps shoppers navigate their way round the internet. If you’re looking for a little black dress OSOYOU is going to give you a selection from many different shops - my search results gave me “18,947 items “! Of course this is a lot of dresses but it’s really only about 30 pages and I could have refined my search. So really it’s just not a lot of click-throughs to find the perfect dress!

Dawn Bebe is the Managing Director of OSOYOU and if it wasn’t for her and all her persistence and hard work we would not have Grazia!! She’s responsible for bringing Grazia to the UK! It’s one of my favourite weekly reads

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

On press days you see lots of cool people! If you haven’t seen SuperSuper magazine, you should. It’s very London.

It’s quite flattering when you see your work on designer’s site! Beatrix Ong is a lovely shoe designer. She studied at Central St. Martins, The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and Cordwainers College in London. If you think that’s impressive, she then went on to design for Jimmy Choo and has now been designing her own collection for almost 8 years. Sometimes you might think that a shoes is just a shoe - but a beautiful shoe is never just a shoe! We never really think about all the development and research that goes into shoe making. Recently it’s become a revived art form. There’s even a shoe museum in Toronto. So next time you try on a shoe think about art, fashion and function, and just how pretty they look on your feet!

Zink launches a Canadian edition!
Spring 2008

Zink Magazine was founded about 6 years ago in New York City by Canadian-born model Isabelle Sabourin, & her husband Sheriff J. Ishak, publisher and editor-in-chief. I first found the magazine at RD Franks, in London and I thought it was Canadian but then realized it was actually American. I bought this issue recently, when I was at the Calgary airport. Zink Canada was launched during Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal fashion week. Anyway, I’ve always liked their editorials, and I love that there is a Canadian issue! It will be a quarterly, from Montreal. The first issue’s theme is “Blame Canada,” - the South Park song. This issue focuses on Canadian talent - but not just for the sake of it, but because there are some genuinely very very talented Canadians! It’s great to have a magazine that celebrates the best of Canadian and international talent. As you may know Canadians are modest and don’t like to gloat or toot their own horn - but sometimes they need to, so here’s to “Blame Canada“!

It was great to run into one of my favourite Hannah’s - Hannah Almassi from Grazia!

A press day is when a PR presents the new collection to editors and stylists. Most PRs carry more than one brand and some brands are done in house. During the press day you can create a list of the clothes you’d like to feature in your up coming shoots for the next season. Everything we are looking at is autumn/winter 08. This might be the only time the pr has the whole collection in their showroom, as the clothes will always be coming and going to different shoots. For the higher end brands usually there are no duplicates so the one collection is shipped all over the world and used by all the magazines worldwide etc. Some brand have a press office in Europe and North American, they might even have variations in the collection to suit the different markets.

It’s the prs job to get the garment as much press as possible - but not just any press. I don’t really believe that all press is good press. Every brand has a list of preferred magazines & types of celebrities that it wants to be associated with, but of course many brands/prs can be very accommodating.

At these events there is always lots of chocolates and delicious things to nibble on! I may have had one to many flake bars…

Last season I saw Felder Felder (German twin sisters, Annette and Daniela Felder) at Vauxhall Fashion Scout and I loved their show. I thought their pieces would be great for some fashion shoots and I used several of them. I didn’t know much about the label but the audience was cheering away and you could tell that everyone just wanted them to do well. They’re Central Saint Martin graduates and their début collection was spotted by New York’s prestigious Gen Art who invited them to show in New York. This season they were awarded a New Generation sponsorship.

Annette and Daniela showed at Vauxhall Fashion Scout and the anticipation was even greater. I was really impressed with this collection, of course I’m partial to all things a little bit rock and roll and dolls gone bad. This collection felt grown up and in one season you could see the progress - I had the impression that they were really doing their own thing and on their terms. On some level it’s easy to do a strong first show, but to do a second season and exceed expectations takes a special talent and lots of hard work! I can’t wait to see what they do next!

Stockists:
UK
Selfridges–London
Joseph – London, Westbourne Grove
Iracema– London

RUSSIA
Podium – Moscow

GERMANY
A Substitude For Love – Duesseldorf
Fourstore- Berlin

Disorder magazine is mentioned in the new issue of Nylon magazine as one of the coolest magazines in the UK! No wonder, it has a team that doesn’t compromise, works 24/7 and are so unpretentious and they really really don’t care what other people think, so of course it’s no surprise that they are truly the super cool! Yeah!!!

Funkduplondon.com is about all things cool: they interview all different kinds of people like Jodie Harsh, Louis Mariette and even me!

Marie Proctor and Charlene Campbell of Annazbell. I went to a gathering at the Funky Buddha to celebrate the relaunch of Annazbell; I think it’s really hard to start an good e-zine but Annazbell has a head start and lots of experience as they originally launch in 2004.

Girls @bookings

Alyson - the model booker @Bookings and Felix Howes.

Me, Alexander and Alexia Somerville - birthday girl!

This club was on New Bond Street in London.

Designer Amechi Ihenacho, London editor of Flux Magazine


Girls having fun & being fabulous!

I love this necklace by Lara Bohinc!

This shoot was for Luxure Magazine. I was really happy to do a shoot for Luxure because I adore the Fashion Director, Alexia Somerville. She’s an amazing stylist and has a really good eye for spotting new talent. The shoot was about “The Ones To Watch” so we focused on several up-and-coming designers. The team is also so worth watching. Hamilton is a great hair stylist, he actually reminds me of a rock god (I think he is a rock god…) I ran into him back stage at Prince, and his client list is endless (Nicole Kidman, Linda Evangelista, Cate Blanchett…). Alex Babsky has made up every famous face from Naomi Campbell to Victoria Beckham. He’s a genius, and so generous with his make-up advice. I really loved the make-up he did on Poline, her eyes looked so amazing that I couldn’t stop looking at her! I loved her look, it was a cross between Cindy Lou Hoo and Sandra Dee! I’d been wanting to work with Carlos again for ages and we were just waiting for the right project. It’s important to work with someone that you really trust because you know whatever they do it’s going to be great!

One of the things I like most about my job is that I have the opportunity be in the company of such talented people!

Photographer: Carlos Lumiere
Hair: Hamilton @SLR
Hair Assistant: Graham Tilley
Make Up: Alex Babsky @Frank
Fashion Assistant: Io Takemura
Model: Poline Geereeva @Premiere

When I did the online chat yesterday for koodos.com the most frequent request was for suggestions for party dresses. Here’s my latest “Dress for Your Shape” article for Health & Fitness magazine.

I think the most important thing is to not be afraid of dressing up! It’s much better to be the one at the party who went all out and got really dressed up, than to be the person who’s not dressed as festive as everyone else, so it’s the season where you should really just go for it!

I contributed to this Celebrity Style piece on Lily Allen:

I love that fame hasn’t changed Lily’s personal style: she’s just expanded her wardrobe and slimmed down from a size 12 to an 8. This Chanel dress is perfect for her shape and shows off her curves. The sequence detail on the rib cage creates a slimming effect, the bow and halter neck are quite sexy. The red nails, red lips and Chanel clutch add a touch of glamour, reminding us of starlets of past decades. The star jewellery is fun and keeps the look youthful. This look is all about a girl with personal style and Lily’s got it in spades!

I write a monthly page called “Dress for Your Shape” for Health and Fitness magazine. Each month I focus on a different sport, and while it’s important to dress appropriately for each sport what’s really most important is that you dress for yourself!
There is so much great sportswear out there that you should never have to wear an old t-shirt to the gym. I love sportswear. I don’t tend to wear much sportswear outside the gym, but I do feel great walking to and from the gym in my kit; actually I feel a bit powerful! The gym is one of those rare places where you actually do something just for yourself. So if you’re going to feel good why not look good too?

Cate Blanchett is one of my favourite style icons - she looks great in just about anything. One of the most difficult challenges for an actress is figuring out what to wear to events before announcing to the world that you’re pregnant. You don’t want to look out of shape, but once you’ve announced your pregnancy the more your pregnancy develops the easier it becomes to dress. This grey column gown by Alberta Ferretti drapes beautifully around Cate’s neckline. The bejeweled shoulder detail and the metallic heels add just a touch of glam. And of course the dress hides any hint of a bump!

I like styling strong brands as they understand their image and even without using the brand name you know the product because of their signature look. Now that’s branding!

Photographer Jason Moore
Stylist Rebekah Roy
Hair Takashi Sano
Make-up Kate Hughes

Here’s a page from The Hairdresser’s Journal. I was asked to do a quick writeup on Jaime Pressly. Here’s the text just in case you find the image a bit small to read:

So is Jamie Pressly a style icon just because she has been voted one of the sexiest women in the world and she has her own clothing line? Jamie has a great figure (she was a gymnast for 11 years) and you can’t help but love her as Joy on “My Name is Earl” but as a style icon she just misses the mark with this look. The dress is not a bad choice, in fact it’s a good choice: the wrap dress is flattering on anyone with a larger bust and small waist. Satin can be a difficult fabric as it’s quite unforgiving, showing off every lump and bump, but this dress shows off Jamie’s figure fabulously! So actually the dress is good and the shoes and the bag are nice, but what we don’t really see is Jamie’s individual style, and that’s just a shame: it would be better if her look expressed how bubbly and fabulous she is!

The fabulous Alexia, Fashion Director of Luxure magazine, a brand new fashion magazine, which is now available in London at several shops like RD Franks and Borders. Interesting fact: the magazine is printed on wood-free paper, and the magazine feels so beautiful and luxurious it will practically give you a paper fetish!

Matching shoes!

Some fashion shoots are fast and furious. We started organizing and doing some prep at 9am as our shoot wasn’t going to start until 4pm. The team for Ebyan was coming from Paris and arrived quite late so we didn’t start shooting until about 10pm, and I didn’t go to bed until 5am! I was packing up all the clothes as we were shooting in a different location the next day. I think it’s good every now and then to be sleep deprived: the world looks so different, and somehow that’s a good thing. It felt like a shoot right out of Fashion Babylon.

We has lots and lots of clothes, so many beautiful dresses and such sexy slutty shoes!! It was great and Sarah Marshall was amazing, you just end up adoring her!