Come Back!

I apologise to everyone for not blogging for what is near enough a year now! I have genuinely been extremely busy (if not a little lazy too). But now I have decided to make a come back and grace you all with my fabulous updates once again. In the coming weeks I will be posting a few special projects from the past year that have taken place as well as some more exciting things that are currently on the horizon.
As this was initially going to be a flying visit just to let you know what was to come in the next few weeks, I thought I would share some fashion high street 'must haves' that I have recently purchased and emotionally caused me to hit my over draft once again.

Firstly I would just like to say that River Island have stepped it up a gear at the moment. When I lived back at home I would always walk past River Island and admire what was in their window displays, enticing me to go and have a look around. But I was always greatly disappointed with what was actually on the rails. It wasn't until the last couple of months that I have been venturing inside again (as this seems to be one of the only places that my boyfriend will buy his jeans from) and have discovered some little gems hiding away in the corners of the store.
After a recent trip to the new Westfield's in Stratford (which I must say was a complete anti climax and hyped up a lot more than it should have been) I did indeed come out with these garments...


Black fairisle midi tube skirt - £20
I'm not usually one for tight fitted clothes, but this simple body-con tube skirt caught my eye straight away! With it's cool aztec inspired print and high waisted fit, it was the perfect piece to dress up or down. I've pretty much worn it to death at the moment, with a shirt tucked in and some brown brogues and tights for drinks with friends or the more formal occasions. Or with a jumper, leggings and some nikes (and it even goes well with my swanky HMV uniform for when I'm at work). I genuinely suggest everyone invests in a piece like this!



Cream owl embellished sweat top - £30
Another piece that I did buy from Westfield River Island was this GORGEOUS Owl jumper. Everyone who knows me will know that I absolutely love owls. From the tattoo on my foot, to the gold owl pendant I wear around my neck, I adore them. Well, as soon as I spotted this hanging on the rail I grabbed it. There wasn't even any need to try it on. Even if it didn't fit, I was going to keep it anyway. Like the previous skirt, both these pieces are featured in the 'River Island Loves' item on the website and I can definitely see why. When I went to the tills to pay for this particular jumper the sales assistant couldn't stress more about how she was waiting to finish her shift so she could buy this jumper, and that it had only come in a few days ago. The embellishment and beading is amazing and really brings out the whole design against the light beige colour of the material. This is the perfect winter jumper, and everyone should own it!

GUESS Press Day.

A good friend of mine was invited to the GUESS press event for their new Spring/Summer '11 collection at their Knightsbridge store yesterday and I was the lucky girl who was asked to go along with her (heck out her amazing blog! http://becausewearingblacklooksmysterious.blogspot.com/). As this was my very first PR event I was exceptionally excited to see what it was all about and how this side of the fashion industry worked, and I can say now I was not disappointed one bit!
As we walked in we met the lovely Charlotte and were given some press wristbands, we were made to feel extremely comfortable and can definitely say that the GUESS PR team are some of the nicest people I have met in the business. We were quickly given a lovely glass of champagne (even if it was 3 in the afternoon, I was told that this was more than acceptable so I wasn't complaining.) After standing around chatting for abit we were given a make-over and then got a little souvenir photo of ourselves wearing some GUESS jewellery, this included one of the pieces which I instantly fell in love with. A gold chunky watch, resembling something that would traditionally worn by men, but with my masculine look that I was rocking that day it definitely fitted right in and I did feel sad parting with it after our photos were taken.

We then had the opportunity to go around and have a look at what the new collection had to offer, and to my surprise amazingly reasonably priced! Another few of my favourite pieces included these new friendship bracelets which are very in at the moment, like the others we have seen before they have their simplistic look but with the kitsch fun look that GUESS always provide with their collections.


After meeting yet more wonderful people and looking at the rest of, what can only be described as a classic but fun new collection from GUESS it was time for us to leave, we had spent alot more time there than we thought we had which just shows how much there was to look at and what a good time we had.
As we left we were given some GUESS press goodie bags, not only was this incredibly nice of them, I was also crazily surprised at what they had given us inside.


A gorgeous pink quilted clutch bag along with a dainty daisy necklace on a silver chain, it has the GUESS name across the front and small dimonte's around the edge of the flower. This piece reminds me of being young with the small flower motif, which again gives that fun yet classic a grown up look. There was also a pair of hanging earrings, rounded with stones around the edge and a kind of bronze colour in the middle. I'm not usually a huge fan of earrings, but these are something that I would look to find in a vintage shop which is, for me, really appealing. And lastly is a gorgeous silk GUESS scarf, with the famous motif that is easily recognised covering it. The quality of it is luxurious and could be used to accessorise in a number of ways, as a head scarf, around your neck or even tied onto a bag. I definitely felt incredibly lucky when we left!





Our little souvenir photo from the team! Thanks for a great day guys! :)

Style: Past, Present and Future.

I have finally finished editing my photos for my latest project at uni.
The project, called 'Style: Past, Present and Future', consisted of every student being given a music icon from the 40s through to the 80s/90s and portraying them within a styling shoot for a chosen magazine.
My icon was Frank Sinatra, and my chosen magazine 'Fantastic Man'. When I first got my icon I was really against going for the typical hat and suit look that most people recognise Sinatra for. But after a lot of research and stress I realised that this was going to be the best way to show what I wanted without going too far from my original idea.
So i previously posted a few images that I loved before editing, but I submitted my final image to be processed into the uni book so I thought I'd post what I came up with...



The photo was inspired by photographer Richard Avedon who used the slightly contrasted black and white look and also the dark black border.

Stylist: Samantha Potter
Model: Danny Hilbert
Photographer: Samantha Potter

R.I.P?

It's the place that all fashion lovers flock for all their fashion magazine needs, whether it be regular monthly titles or specialist annual or biannual issues. But as I discovered recently after a well needed trip there for some new magazines to indulge myself in, R D Franks is closed! (as the photo shows above).
Is the fashion magazine specialist gone for good? After doing quite alot of research online noone seems to know the answer to this question. On November 1st at 4:37pm their final tweet states: 'R. D. Franks is now closed until further notice. Kindest regards to all our lovely customers.'

But, I am sad to say that these suspicions are unfortunately true.



I hope that has cleared things up for some people.
There is a book shop in Covent Garden that sells some unique fashion magazines called Magma, so I would advise you to give that a go. And if you know of any other amazing fashion magazine shops do let everyone know.

Recent Shoot.

I thought I'd post up some of the photos that I took from my last styling shoot.
The whole concept was based around the musical icon Frank Sinatra, at first I didn't want to copy the exact look but while putting the outfit together I realised that Sinatra's look was so iconic it would be a shame to move too much away from it. I styled in a way that would be aimed at an editorial for 'Fantastic Man' magazine as I saw a recent piece in there with David Walliams which I really took inspiration from.
These are just a few of the photos that I liked the best, obviously they are unedited but I thought I'd get some feedback from them.



Stylist + Director: Sam Potter
Model: Danny Hilbert
Photography: Sam Potter


I'll post the finish photo up in a week or so. The finish photograph will be going into an exhibition at the university and also into a book of photographs of musical icons which will be available to buy soon..!

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