Your browser (Internet Explorer 6) is out of date. It has known security flaws and may not display all features of this and other websites. Learn how to update your browser.
X

Archive for November, 2014

KIDSWEAR – AUTUMN SHOOT

Dress by Rachel Riley, Crown headband by H&M
Dress by Rachel Riley, Crown headband by H&M

I’ve always loved a redhead. It’s the nearest hair colour to gold or fire. But after my daughter was born with her Titian crowning glory it has almost become an obsession.

 

Photographer Katy McDonnell and I had talked ages ago about doing a redhead shoot and it wasn’t until this autumn that all the conditions seemed right. It has been a late glorious autumn with the trees not wanting to relinquish their leaves. The colour palette has been spectacular – gold, russet, burnt orange and saffron. So with this in mind I scurried around the fashion PR’s and collected a fabulous selection of rich Autumnal toned clothes for our shoot.

 

We decided The Downs in Bristol would be the perfect location with it’s leafy, rambling woods. The models were chosen from the aptly named Gingersnap Agency in the West Country and here are the results…

Sweater by John Lewis, Headress, Stylist's own.
Sweater by John Lewis, Headress, Stylist’s own.

 

Art clothes (left) John Lewis Finn clothes (right) Ralph Lauren
Art clothes (left) John Lewis, Finn clothes (right) Ralph Lauren

 

Clothes by Rachel Riley
Clothes by Rachel Riley
Dress by Marie Chantal
Dress by Marie Chantal

 

Clothes by Marie-Chantal
Clothes by Marie-Chantal
Dress by Rachel Riley
Dress by Rachel Riley

 

Wrap by Selfridges
Wrap by Selfridges

Behind the scenes…….

Photography, Katy McDonnell, Stylist, Becky John, Models, Gingersnap
Photography, Katy McDonnell, Stylist, Becky John, Models, Gingersnap Agency

TANYA BURR AND BLOGGING

 

TANYA BURR AT HER LAUNCH AT THE SANDERSON HOTEL
TANYA BURR AT HER LAUNCH AT THE SANDERSON 

 

I have to admit this blogging malarkey is new to me. Although I’ve worked as a fashion editor on magazines and newspapers for over 15 year, truthfully I hadn’t taken a massive interest in blogs.

 

Gradually my world is changing. So many magazines that I’ve loved and grown up with are folding and the ones that remain often don’t have budgets for fashion shoots. Today’s technology is spoiling us with choice. On a typical family evening in, it is not unusual for my 14-year-old daughter Lily to be ‘triple screening’. That is watching TV, reading a blog on her tablet and texting her friends on her mobile phone. My down time when I was her age was watching one of the 3 channels on ‘the box’ and perhaps flicking through a magazine or two. The only technology I knew was thumping the top of the telly when the reception was so bad we were reduced to a screen full of fast moving horizontal lines!

Tanya Burr for eye CANDY

 

So embracing technology I have started my fashion blog. And as I’m not exactly ‘Techy Becky’ it didn’t come easy. On a magazine, the fashion editor is responsible for styling shoots and writing the accompanying feature. From there you hand over the pictures and ‘copy’ to first a sub-editor who proof reads it and then onto the art department where they layout all the images to produce a beautiful fashion spread. On a blog you’re on your own and I was baffled to know how to start. So, one Sunday afternoon I sat at my computer and watched hours and hours of tutorials on YouTube on how to do a blog post until at last I had that eureka moment and took the plunge!

 

I know you’re probably rolling your eyes now thinking “we’ve been at it for years, where have you been”? Well I suppose I’ve been living in my own little fashion bubble. Mind you, now I’ve started there’s no stopping me – I’m obsessed. I’m constantly reading and devouring information about blogs. I can only compare it to having a new baby. It’s a lot more work than you expect but more rewarding than I ever imagined!

 

Anyhow all this in mind I jumped at the chance to meet the 24-year-old queen bee of fashion and beauty bloggers, Tanya Burr. So successful is her blog and vlog (with over 6 million viewers per month on YouTube) that this one time make-up artist was having her second beauty launch in The Sanderson Hotel. I was already very impressed with her Eye Candy lip-glosses and nail polishes especially the purple ‘Midnight Sparkles” shade which I wore on my toes throughout the summer. I was now very excited to try out the new luxurious lashes!

Bambi Eyes Pack

I knew this swanky launch would be overflowing with the young blogging and vlogging glitterati so was thrilled when my daughter Lily said she’d accompany me. She’s completely au fait with all things vlog and effortlessly navigated me around the room pointing out all the royalty – Zoella, Casper Lee, Marcus Butler, and Naomi Smart.

 

Tania and my daughter Lily
Tania and my daughter Lily

Tanya was lovely and friendly to us both. She was there with fiance and fellow vlogger Jim Chapman. She told us how she loved clothes and liked to keep up to date with all the current trends. This obviously is paying off as this season Tanya has been spotted on the front row of many a show at London Fashion Week. Lily and I had great fun at the launch, eating all the amazing cup cakes and trying on all the different styles of lashes.

 

Meeting Tanya Burr was really inspiring – she really has achieved so much at such a young age. So along with my new lashes I think I’ll continue to give this blogging world a little flutter….. you never know what might happen.

 

 

THE LITTLE BLACK DRESS

The Diana Dress
The Diana Dress

 

There’s only one thing I like more than a LBD and that is a bit of red carpet glamour. So imagine my total fashion frenzy at the launch of the brand The Little Black Dress ‘inspired by icons’ collection.

The dresses, all 20 of them, play tribute to fabulous women from the silver screen era right up to modern day. I flicked through the rails in the glamorous Café Royal – a venue befitting any film star. The Marilyn, The Jackie O, The Carrie and The Kristen LBDs  were soon sending me into a stylist’s spin!

The Audrey Dress
The Audrey Dress

 

Each dress plays a part in the LBD’s history. From The Coco, named after Chanel, the original creator of the Little Black Dress, to The Audrey, obviously called after Miss Hepburn, the ultimate LBD muse in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

 

The Kate Dress
The Kate Dress

Being a complete drama queen, my favourite dresses are the ones that caused the most fuss and scandal over the years. I have heart palpitations just thinking of The Kate dress. Ms Moss clad in LBD in the arms of the gorgeous Johnny Depp in Cannes back in the nineties.

The Rita Dress
The Rita Dress

 

But the dress that gets me all of a quiver is The Diana. That infamous dress that the late princess wore out on the town the night a documentary about her husband’s infidelities was being aired on TV. This figure hugging LBD caused a real stir in the media being on the front page of every tabloid the next morning.

I tried and tested this Diana dress out partying with my best girls. I didn’t make the papers but I believe it went down really well – so to speak!

 Cafe Royal Launch
Cafe Royal Launch

 

Anyhow, I think the Little Black Dress Collection is a brilliant idea – I only wish I thought of it myself. With research showing that a quarter of British women buy a new LBD every year I think they’re onto a winner!