London Fashion Week

A/W 2011 has landed in full force with its recycled and edgy tradition. Over the weekend, such shows from Topshop’s ‘Unique’, Mulberry, Matthew Williamson, Louise Gray, Vivienne Westwood, PPQ, Temperley and many more have graced the newly appointed location for the bi-annual fashion event with their coverted new designs.

As ever, it wasn’t just the designers fashion that were captured, quoted or dare I say tweeted, the celebrities that took to the front row of the shows, sometimes turned more heads.

Front row veterans such as Anna Wintour, Alexandra Shulman, Kate Moss and Philip Green, paved their way to the upcoming trendsetting starlets of today such as Emma Watson, Olivia Palermo, Fearne Cotton and Nicola Roberts.

Their flaunting style was ever short of shy, as they boldly wore the season’s stone and brown hues, ankle & middy length skirts, quirky accessories, satin floaty materials, and an eye watering amount of bright colours and patterns.

The trends of today have well and truly brought back memories and tastes of past decades. Patterns and cuts of materials hark back to the 70s, whilst the colours and stitch remind us only of the post war period, daring to challenge their beige hues for the outright bold.

No fashion week is the same without pining over the new collections, imagining your bank balance didn’t omit to the depressing potential of buying second hand clobber, and convincing yourself that your VIP invite to the latest shows ‘must have got lost in the post’.

This time around there is a definite glee of excitement, as we can already see the many garments on show that are waiting to be reborn in the wardrobe. Such items as your leather jacket, floral pieces, belted macs, military parkas, coral summer hues, maxi dresses, autumn browns and clogs are all making their re-appearance to A/W.

Simply adjusting your designs to fit the new trends will take little effort, and part of the fun is thinking of new ways to invent the clothes you have. For example, simply take your maxi dress, hitch up at the waist and fasten with a skinny (or woven) belt that will instantly take the length up to the ‘middy’ size of the season.

Layering as ever is a staple for A/W, so simply teaming your Camel Coat with the middy length skirt is the easiest way to bring last year to 2011.

By far the best place I have found to get up to date information of this week in London is the online fashion bible itself; www.vogue.co.uk. Their blog is also brilliant for snippets of the latest gossip, buys, shows and celebrity appearances.

FHM

After the fun of Zoo, I’m carrying on the trend and doing 2 weeks here at FHM! Literally a stones throw away but great fun as I already feel at home here, knowing the routine and area of Covent Garden well.

Similar duties include dealing with post, answering the phone and emails.

A big part is researching for the writers, looking for news stories and doing any tasks for them that helps things go smoothly for them.

A secret favourite task is going round Grazia, Heat, Closer and More, I just love seeing all the production team working away and having a chat with them.

Also making sure a leavers party on Friday goes smoothly so I have to pick up a few things!

Today and tomorrow I’m in the place of the Editor’s Assistant, so anything she deals with I have to answer to my best ability!

A little secret also is that I may be coming back to help in the Summer, but I don’t want to temp fate yet!

Overall it’s a bit surreal, I just wish I could come here after Uni and apply for all the jobs advertised in the Lobby.

Mini Eggs

So as ever January brought along the cold, the Christmas weight, the leftover food to eat, to scrounge every bag you own in hope to find some money, the self loathing of your inept ability to make new year resolutions and did I mention becoming fat?

Probably the most exciting thing to happen in January for me, is mini eggs to hit the shelf. Thanks to the shopping madness that brings out festive food whilst interrupting another current festival.

After scoffing enough mini eggs to put a Cadbury Battery Farm out of business, I find my best resolution which I do not subconsciously realise I'm doing, is just ponder over the past year, and do the whole "remember doing this today last year", seeing how different peoples lives change, realise mistakes, remember fun moments or appreciate the new friends in your life, or the ones you've lost.

This is where Facebook comes in real handy to illustrate my daydreaming, as I look back over the pictures taken and remember THAT time, and have a giggle over the contrasts... at this point in time I realise I have yet again eaten another bag of mini eggs effortlessly.

Probably the most exciting thing to happen this year for me is to picture where I'm going to be in the next, probably at the shock of turning 21 as my outlook on the future is exciting yet scary, as this gigantic career ladder becomes a bit easier as I watch my friends lives unfolding in new directions in the same manner as my own.

Only when writing this have I realised that this post is more about subconscious feelings rather than mini eggs, as I notice there is a long list of resolutions in my head (which I shant bore you with unless I get mass demand), but whilst resolutions might be traditional to make after New Year for people, it's traditional for me to keep them flowing and rather successfully complete them.

In case you haven't telepathically noticed, I'm writing this year's blog with long (for me) cared for, and prettyful nails.

Which is another thing I can cross off.

Also if your wondering who that gorgeous house belongs to, It is the new student pad for my third year along with 4 other beauts that I already live with. We accidently called the house Sophie, so expect a lot of 'shes' 'hers' and 'Sophie did this' in my blogs to come.

X

New York

It's mad to think that I have been to New York. I had such a giggle, and really enjoyed site seeing and shopping in the city that never sleeps! I could easily live there for a few months, to really soak it all up and do everything that I wanted to do! It was hard to fit it all in the short space of time that we were there! Best time of the year to go with the Winter chill and the Christmas lights, but my Fur coat warmed me up a treat along with a new pair of long socks and handmade woolly snood.

Few of my favourite pictures;

Emily's Camera

Emily dressed me up for her photography project, its fun to do, especially as it was pitch black, so its good to know good lighting can be achieved! I do love the warmth of the leaves and the lights in the background that make it quite haunting and a typical autumn appearance.

Afterwards she even treated me to a home made curry! Mmm!

BNTM Live

Working at BNTM live, involved lots of hard work, loud music, best selling smile, and many of chipped nail varnish.

The finalists of the show also came up to our stall which was exciting! We didn't get to see the catwalk show because we were busy bees, sure it went well though!

Diana Vickers perfomed about 3 times a day, which got tedious, but Alesha Dixon came on stage on Friday to talk about her beauty regime and X Factor, which was nice!

But overall, it was a lot of fun and giggles, and the promotion of So...? went very well!

Zoo!

Had a fantastic time at Zoo the other week. Great experience working closely with the weekly lad mag, which was more fun than it was work!

My main duties were to read through every paper that day and pick out quotes and news stories that would be suitable for the mag. I also had to deliver all the post to the relevant person in the office.

One of my favourite duties I did was the mag run, where I took copies of the latest Zoo up to Closer, Grazia, Look and Heat. It was so exciting to see the offices and seeing all the glammed girls at work, especially as I saw Lucie Cave as well! I received an email one day from Grazia's editor about a beauty sale they were having in the office. So wish I could of gone up there but my duties at Zoo told me I couldn't!

The surrealist thing I had to do was make packages for the armed forces in Afghanistan, as they wanted some T-Shirts and Posters to get them through. I also had to do some transcribing of an interview one of the guys in the office did when he visited the troops the other week. It was heavy stuff, with brutal true stories in the life of a medic and such.

One day we got a letter asking for a cheeky pen pal from a bloke in jail. We sent him a magazine instead.

Guinness World Records came in one day, as one of the guys in the office tried to beat the 'how many Jaffa Cakes can you eat in a minute' (but failed) as another model managed to set a record for the most amount of times a bra was taken off and on in a minute.

I also had to run around London a fair bit, collecting pieces for the upcoming shoots. I had to buy some luxurious sheets from Primark for Jodie Marsh's shoot, only the best!

Much fun all round, everyone was very relaxed and funny, and ultimately I managed to secure my next placement at FHM. I think a trend is occurring?

Oh and do by this weeks issue ^^^ you'll see my name in it!