27 Jun 2013

Graduate Fashion Week - The Northern Connection



Cartoon Graphic Prints
 
I was lucky enough to see some of this years London graduate fashion week on my door step at a viewing at UCLAN in Preston which is currently ranking amongst the top four most prestigious Universities to study fashion. I thought some of you might like to check out the talent. Last year UCLAN fashion students scooped four awards at London Graduate Fashion Week including the Zandra Rhodes textiles award. After my initial minor embarrassment of my sharing my appreciation of what I thought were baked bean head dresses with my neighbour when they were in actual fact plaits that had been photographed I recovered quickly and got visual goose bumps as a some incredible pieces whizzed out from behind the curtains. I was fascinated by the edgy cartoon graphics and quality street wrapper inspired pieces.The skill and talent of the students was evident as models sauntered down the runway wearing inspirational cuts and heavily embellished collections that with out doubt Susie Lau of Style Bubble would trade some of her coveted wardrobe for, you can read her coverage here and check out some much better images too!


Quality Street Wrapper Colours
 
Mexican Mash Up
 
 

Peruvian Inspiration  

Cartoon Retro


China and Metalics

Plaited Head Dress

Mexico and Lots Of Beading



80'S Does Jocky Strip For Women?

Metalics And Menswear

 Inspiring Menswear




 
 

25 Jun 2013

The Making Of Harry Potter - Warner Bros Studio Tour, London

 
 
 
 I think there is one occasion when it's pretty acceptable to proclaim your a geek and confessing that your an adult fan of Harry Potter is it! I finally managed to get to see the making of Harry Potter at the Warner Studios in Leavesden, after first reading about it through Jen at Little Bird Fashion in 2012! It was worth the wait, I often get goose bumps listening to music but rarely about visual things but in this case I did!
 
 
 I liked the fact that the tour was not full of bossy tour guides and that you were free to take photos when ever something caught your eye, which was a lot!
 
 




 The detail and the talent that goes into making the Harry Potter sets is breath taking, I was a little worried the tour might take away from how special the films I have seen are, but in reality it was the exact opposite, seeing everything close up in all its detail was an incredible feeling and very magical.

22 Jun 2013

DIY Festival Attire

                 diy festival top hat upcycled from a large brimmed straw hat
 
diy blanket clutch upcycled from a stripey wool blanket
 
 
upcycled T-shirt using plastic goggly eyes
 
cardboard tube and other craft materials
elvish staff made from cardboard tube and clear rubber ball then painted
 
Lately I seem to have been involved in overseeing a fair amount of festival packing for friends, but I have to confess to feeling a little bored with what has become a bit of a uniform. So I went in search of some stylish fashion DIYs that reflect my approach to statement festival dressing, they should have an element of fun but be cheap enough to allow you to cavort with wild abandon with out worrying about damage to your fashion purchases, at the same time I wanted to find unique pieces rather than copies of expensive fashion lines in magazines, these type of fashion DIYs are often of the up cycled variety and lean more to style than trends.

14 Jun 2013

Get The Customer Service You Want



 

Getting The Customer Service You Want


From parcels that don’t turn up, to cleaners that damage your garments, to dentists that terrify you and drs that belittle you, In my world service is service whatever angle your coming from and how little or many initials you after your name, if your seeking help and advice or a product, how people deal with your needs as a customer or client or patient either on or off line should be just as important as the outcome.
Although A teases me for acting like the queen and never carrying hard cash I don’t believe that I’m particular demanding as a person, I’ve have been known to embarrass friends by helping clear plates at restaurants when I have seen the waitress struggle. I've done my fair share of plate pushing so if I can help a sister out I will. Good service makes your day go smoothly bad service can ruin at least a couple of hours of your day, statistics show that we human beans (this is not a typo) remember the bad things for much longer than good, so I guess there's an argument for business and services to help make people feel really cared about, special and help them achieve what they need to with minimal effort and when something goes wrong to see it as an opportunity to win back your confidence quickly.

 I hate with a vengeance when the speed and pleasure of purchasing on the Internet is undone, if something goes wrong with a product and you have to spend hours and hours of time on the phone being passed from one person to another before things can be resolved. This is an area where buying in store can be a better option. I've experienced my share of the good, bad and ugly sides of customer service,  I thought it might be useful to share some of my experiences and some advice on how to get a better result when things go wrong.

9 Jun 2013

Antidote To Bloggers Block - Refinery29


 
The jig is up I have been suffering from the dreaded bloggers block, but holy Krispy Kreme doughnuts Refinery29 has bust me out of the block and all it took was tangling with some of their souped up accessories and in particular a bright purple scuba shoulder bag, although I would probably go for apricot, the apricot tone works so well in this dusky squishy funky fabric. It's very satisfying when one happy story leads to another and as I skipped merrily down the path to the perfect underwater handbag, I ran into the label & Other Stories, it's rare I find a handbag shop where I could quite happily stage a love in with every handbag on offer, so thanks Refinery29 I owe you!

2 Jun 2013

The Ultimate Symbol Of Embelishment

 

tatooed men stand with a young women
image courtesy of Madame KuKu

 
 
I’m talking tattoos today and my distinct lack of them, a close friend of mine got her second recently and it made me consider why I have still not taken the plunge, most of my friend's and family members have taken a trip to get inked and given how much I love the art of embellishment I’m a little surprised at myself, am I perhaps making too bigger deal of the ultimate symbol of embellishment?