My Photography

Pastel theme shoot, shot around Trafalgar Square...

Fashion's Night Out

Tomorrow night London, among other countries across the globe, will be hosting Fashion's Night Out events in stores all over the capital. You can visit the Vogue website for full details on all events but here are some of my highlights...

Acne - Swedish music and Absolut Vodka cocktails

Burlington Arcade - Beadles Burlesque, a circus evening curated by The Last Tuesday Society, will entertain shoppers with acrobats, showgirls, stilt walkers, a silhouette chair, candy floss, chocolate fountains and a marching band.

Hotel Chocolat - Prosecco sampling and mini chocolate tasting.

Jimmy Choo - A top London DJ and cocktails will be in store. Guests will also have the chance to become a Jimmy Choo Stylemaker by having their photograph taken for the brand's Stylemaker site www.choo247.com

Libertys - Jonathan Saunders will be running a live photobooth, Richard Nicholl will be working with his muse and mannequin for the evening, Jade Parfitt and Roksanda Illincic will be signing hand drawn sketches of her AW collection for customers.

Matthew Williamson - The store window will be transformed into a poolside party photo booth, Nails Inc. will set up a mini manicure station and Vita-Coco will be providing drinks.

Cruelty Free International

Have you heard about Cruelty Free International's campaign? You can sign up for email updates at http://crueltyfreeinternational.org/mailinglist.  It only takes a few seconds and means you'll hear all the latest news on their campaign to end animal testing for cosmetics worldwide.

Animal testing for cosmetics still happens. Over 80% of the world allows animals to be used in cruel and unnecessary cosmetics tests and these animal tested cosmetics can be purchased in every country across the globe.

Animals, including rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats are routinely injected, gassed, force-fed and killed for cosmetics testing worldwide. Cruelty Free International believes this is ethically unacceptable and unnecessary.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

I was kindly invited to the Bodhi Desert Rose Rejuvenating Face Oil bloggers launch where I got to try out the new face oil plus some of the existing products from the eco-luxury skincare brand.
Desert Rose Rejuvinating Face Oil has a unique blend of natural ingredients including Morrocan Argan Oil, Rose Hip Oil and Rosa Damescena. I massaged a couple of drops into my skin after cleansing, my skin felt soft soon after I had applied it and it evened out my skin tone. I applied a small amount of moisturiser before applying my makeup and it didn't leave my face looking shiny as some oils and serums do. This product is best used on normal to dry skin.
The oil comes in a beautiful black glass bottle to help preserve it and is packaged in a cardboard box with a pink ribbon so it would also make a perfect gift.
Plus none of the products or ingredients are tested on animals and they're vegan!

Desert Rose Rejuvinating Face Oil

Bath and Shower Therapy and Body Moisturiser products

Merry Christmas!

We're only halfway through August but today was the Ben Sherman Christmas press day. It was a little too early to be eating mince pies but it was great to see the new Autumn/Winter 2012 collection and gift ideas. The new range is full of great quality, smart tailoring and classic designs with a modern twist. Accessories include scarves, braces, bow ties and an iPhone case, perfect for stocking fillers.

Sane Communications Press Day

Another press day today, this time it was Sane Communications representing brands such as Fanny & Jessy, Kirsty Ward, Maison Scotch and Simon Preen. Here are some pics of my favourite collections:

Fiona Paxton

 Kirsty Ward

 Maison Scotch

 Thanks to Sane Communications for these amazing Urbanears Platton headphones in cream, polkadot Happy Socks and a quilted Union Jack laptop case from Lavenham!

She Said Beauty

Today was the launch of SheSaidBeauty.com, an online beauty network where people can research, discover and share their passion and interest for beauty. The website is really simple to use and has a great design featuring over 30,000 products from over 1,000 brands and counting. It's easy to connect with friends, bloggers and industry experts to stay on trend and up-to-date with the latest beauty news, reviews and tutorials.
It's also free to join and you can connect any existing social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest to SheSaidBeauty.com. This is a really exciting website and I haven't seen anything like this for the beauty market yet.

I was pleased to find some brands that do not test on animals in the goody bag such as Green People, Erno Laszlo, Mary Elizabeth, Tin o' Tint by Miners and Layla D among others that I'm waiting to find out whether or not they are cruelty free. I will write more about those brands soon as I'm planning an article on products that are not tested on animals :)

London Fashion Weekend

If you can't get any invites or blag your way into London Fashion Week there is always London Fashion WeekEND to get ahead of the trends of Autumn/Winter 2012. 

LFWeekend takes places between 20th and 23rd September. A new addition this season is the Designer Highlight Shows adding a new dimension to the ever-popular catwalk shows. Each day, a great British brand will take to the catwalk to showcase their current collection. 

Issa London has been announced for the runway on Friday 21st and Twenty8Twelve will be showcasing on Sunday 23rd, designers for Thursday and Saturday are yet to be announced.

Visit www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk for more info.

My Photography

Here are some shots from a shoot I did in the woods at Alexandra Palace, London

Vivienne Westwood A/W12 Campaign

I love the new Vivienne Westwood A/W12 campaign, shot by Juergen Teller and inspired by 17th century artist Diego Velazquez, featuring Stella Tennant!!

LFW Show Schedule

Click here for the London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2013 show schedule!

Hatwalk

PHILIP TREACY and Stephen Jones are among 21 milliners giving iconic London statues a headwear makeover. The Hatwalk initiative, which launches today, brings together emerging and established headwear designers - each of whom have created bespoke headpieces to sit atop landmarks such as Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
The campaign was commissioned by the Mayor of London, in partnership with the British Fashion Council and the London 2012 Festival, and is part of the Surprises entertainment group.

The Tanks

InTRANSIT Festival

Bailey's East End

David Bailey is one of east London’s most famous sons. Over the past 50 years, he has regularly returned to the stomping ground of his youth to photograph the streets and their inhabitants. This personal collection, set in an historic industrial building in London’s Royal Docks, sees him return to Newham at a time when the world’s focus is on east London. These photographs document the changing physical and social landscapes of the area from the early 1960s to the present day, with streetscapes, characters and scenes of east London life. Some famous faces appear, but they are nestled amongst the wider backdrop and characters of the area. David Bailey’s East End features many previously unseen photographs and provides a rare opportunity to witness London’s transformation through the lens of a local icon.

 6th July - 5th August, Compressor House, Royal Docks, London, E16 2QD

These are the Days

This is the UK premiere of Bruce Nauman’s seminal work Days, a sound installation which presents a continuous stream of seven voices reciting the days of the week in random order. Fourteen flat panel speakers will be installed in the lower gallery, one voice emanating from each pair of speakers as the visitor passes between them.
The work invokes both the banality and the profundity of the passing of each day, and invites reflection on how we measure, differentiate and commemorate time. Nauman’s work constantly tests rational systems of language, spatial and bodily encounters, the passage of time and psychology, through constructed environments. His pioneering work spans more than five decades and encompasses a wide spectrum of media including sculpture, drawing, site-specific installation, sound pieces, neon, photography, film, video, performance and text/language.

Gucci Menswear SS12

Vivienne Westwood Menswear SS13

RCA Show 2012

This year, the Royal College of Art’s annual summer show will include work by the greatest number of graduating students in the College’s 175-year history. Show RCA 2012 is to take place simultaneously in six buildings across the College’s two campuses in Battersea and Kensington.

Show RCA 2012 offers visitors – some 40,000 last year – a unique opportunity to experience the very best of emerging contemporary art and design practice. Nearly 500 art and design postgraduate students from more than 40 countries will exhibit work of exceptional quality, imagination and technical skill.

The exhibitions are free of charge to the public, with much of the work for sale or commission – ranging from paintings to prints, glassware to jewellery and furniture to textiles. Buyers have the opportunity to invest right at the beginning of an artist or designer’s career, with 15 per cent of sales going towards the Royal College of Art Student Fund.
Open to the public: 20 June – 1 July (closed 29 June) 10.00am – 5.30pm daily; late opening to 8pm Saturday 23, Wednesday 27 and Saturday 30 June
 

Invisible Art

Invisible Art brings together works from the past half century that explore ideas related to the invisible and the hidden. The exhibition includes work by some of the most important artists of our time as well as younger artists who have expanded on their legacy.
From the amusing to the philosophical, there are works you can observe and others you can take part in, such as Jeppe Hein's Invisible Labyrinth. From Yves Klein's utopian plans for an 'architecture of air' to Robert Barry's Energy Field (AM 130 KHz) from 1968 - which encourages a heightened awareness of the physical context of the gallery - this exhibition spans diverse aesthetic practices and concerns.

Artists in the exhibition include Art & Language, Robert Barry, Chris Burden, James Lee Byars, Maurizio Cattelan, Jay Chung, Song Dong, Tom Friedman, Carsten Höller, Tehching Hsieh, Bruno Jakob, Yves Klein, Lai Chih-Sheng, Glenn Ligon, Teresa Margolles, Gianni Motti, Roman Ondák, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol.

12 June - 5 August 2012, Hayward Gallery, London