A little slice of vintage heaven!

Hello!! I know I have been very absent from the blogging world, I have been so busy recently with finishing my first year at university and recently getting another job, at Cath Kidston too which I am so thrilled about! But I have been doing a lot of planning and have many a blog post to come up on here and can't wait to share them with you.

I just couldn't wait to share this with everyone. I live in a small city called Sunderland, now at first I didn't think that much of it there was nothing for the creative types to do here and the shops were typical high street stores. Looks, however, can be deceiving al you have to do is look for the little treasures that hide within a city. This is what me and a friend did the other week, happened to stumble across a charity shop and inside it was absolutely blooming marvellous! 

As soon as you enter vintage galore, not your average charity shop no, no no. Having a place like this in Sunderland was amazing, but it wasn't the downstairs it was the upstairs that truly transformed the whole shop. It is a little slice of heaven, the charity is AgeUk and I was surprised usually Oxfam is the sort of charity to understand the need for vintage good not just with the younger generation but now the older too. 

When you walk up the narrow staircase you see a wall of mirrors, grand, all shapes and sizes which leads to a room filled with old SLR cameras and video equipment and photographers dream. Down the hall there were two rooms one set up as a 1920's-esque bedroom even with a mannequin on the bed! I had to get a photo of this....

You couldn't not have a bit of fun in this room! In the next room there were rails of clothes, big fur coats, tea dresses all glorious! Me and my friend were inspired we knew we had to come do a photoshoot here, so the next day that's exactly what we did, I wanted to share the photos with you so you can see just how wonderful this place actually is and if you're from Sunderland you need to go have a gander at it! Not only at all the wonderfully marvellous items but the fact you'll be helping a wonderful charity at the same time too.

And be sure to check out my friends blog http://helenalenny.blogspot.co.uk/ she's a pretty terrific photographer, I hope you like the photos! 

Nails, Nails, Nails

bored and don't know what to do?! There's always one thing to keep you occupied and you have a blank canvas to be as creative as wild as you like on, and that's your nails! Be it finger or toe nails, painting them can keep you occupied and you definitely feel happier when they're looking prim and proper.

But then what can you do with your nails? I can imagine a lot of you have an extremely large collection of nails polishes, (I sure do). This was a while ago but when I couldn't decide on one colour for my nails I just did them every colour, but they look pretty nifty. Ice cream colour galore!

More recently I have ventured into doing ombre nails as they're pretty easy to do and the end result is brilliant! Here are two attempts at it,

Above is when I went a bit crazy on my obsession with all things ginger, but ombre nails are incredibly pretty and so easy to do!

Basically all is needed is two colours, a white base then a clear top coat. Apply the white base, then once that has dried apply a few strips of each colour onto a sponge so the colours are side by side each other. Then dab the sponge onto your nails, it doesn't matter if it goes all over your fingers just use a cotton bud and nail varnish remover later. When you get the desired effect apply 1-2 coats of clear nail polish to make sure it stays in place for a few days and viola! Ombre nails ready to be shown off to everyone.

That's one way to keep you entertained if you find yourself short of things to do.

I hope they turn out alright for you as they did for me!

Katharine elisa x

Stag House Fashion Show in Newcastle

"Creating fashion shows to promote new and upcoming designers within the north and throughout the UK. Creating Opportunity."

Okay, it's been a week today since the Stag House fashion show which I have to say was amazing! With feature clothing from Apparel Polo, Rita Roushdy, Goldiva, Yeh Designs and it also featured Fitri Alamsjah, who is an amazing upcoming designer with a unique flare to their wonderful collection.


How the night panned out...
I went with a couple of friends from University who wanted to view the show for research on their own, and with them there it made the night all the better! It all started with a champagne reception (what’s not to love about that!) and after having a chat with some of the hosts and people viewing the show we entered the Chandelier suite of the venue to start the catwalk show. Now that room in itself was beautiful! A very historic room with low hanging chandeliers with a high ceiling was our view for the evening, very grand indeed.

The show was about two hours long and there was a range of entertainment acts in between including two singers and a dance act, we were spoilt for entertainment! The room was packed with friends and family of the designers which was nice to see all the support everyone was receiving.

The Designers...
The designers were all unique and each brought something different to the show. I have to say they did save the best till last the host of the show Apparel Polo stole the night the clothes were incredible, and having some eye candy definitely helped! From the velvet jacket, to the oversized bags so much work and effort went into this collection as did for the rest of the designers. 

Although all the collections each had wonderfully superb designs, I felt a lot lacked consistency with the outfits but some of the garments were amazing and the detail in them was incredible. It was altogether an amazing show and everyone involved should be extremely proud!
 

They say a photo says a thousand words so here are the snaps I took from the night I hope you enjoy! And watch out for the next Stag House fashion show that will be coming again soon… 

The last few images were captured by a photographer on the night but I had to include them as they show Apparel Polo's designs so well, and I had to share their amazing clothes with you!

Also this girl was amazing, I have never seen a girl with longer legs! I am sure my height would be the length of her legs, the outfit and styling on her was perfect as well.

And that was the night! If you ever get a chance to go to a fashion show even if it is just a small one, you must definitely go they're absolutely brilliant to watch and you will no doubt have a fantastic time. I have another fashion show lined up in a couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for the details on that!

Ciao for now! 

Stag House Fashion Show

First post on the new layout but as you can see my blog still has a fair way to go before I think it's complete! This post needs to be created though and I am very excited to talk about it.

On the 12th April (next Friday night) something very special is happening in Newcastle.

After much time of planning and organising for this event it has all come together and this event is the Stag House Live Fashion Show! This will be the first show I am blogging about and have to say am super thrilled to even have the chance, which is why I am telling all you lovely people about it. So anyone in the North East  needs to come over to this!

It is taking place in the Chandeilur Suite at the Assembly rooms, Newcastle between 7 and 11. There are various designers from all over the UK who will be involved and a designer from Indonesia is also taking part.

There is also a Champagne reception, 9 amazing brands, and entertainment acts throughout the night and a surprise still to be revealed on the night! And who doesn't like a good surprise?

This is how the night will pan out;

First hour of the show: there will be mannequin displays of an outfit from each designer, Look-books, and Champagne reception.

Second and third hour: Catwalk with entertainment breaks

Four hour: Pop up shops from the designers, so if anything catches your eye you can snap it up the very same evening. What is not to love about that!

So if any of you lovely folk are interested the tickets cost £10, and all the info to get tickets are shown in the poster below. So why not have some fun and see some amazing designs on the catwalk, not a bad way to spend a Friday night. But if you can't make it I'll be blogging all about the night, on the night and after so you won't miss a thing!

Revamp

I apologise for my complete uselessness at being able to do constant posts! I am currently re-vamping this blog and hopefully then it will give me inspiration to create more posts and get in the habit of doing them frequently.

It'll have more of a space theme if you can already tell as this is something I am completely infatuated with but I'll still natter on about the same subjects; fashion, beauty and all that jazz.

The blogging mojo will come back to me!

Fashion outfit #1

As so many other fashion blogs do I thought I'd have a whack at showing you my style and have my very talented friend Helena Codd to take photos of my outfits once maybe twice a week to show to you lovely folk! 

My style focuses a lot on vintage clothes, but I love patterns! Anything patterned I'll mix and match them together, paisley, polka dots, stripes, geometric, floral just everything basically.
On this particular day it was just ridiculously windy! The photos are amusing and the wind adds a comical factor which gives the images more character so I thought I'd share them with you, but wind and a short skirt definitely no not mix, ever. 

My outfit below is pretty much all from a charity shops, the cardigan, skirt, bag. The cardigan and bag from Oxfam in Liverpool and the skirt a nice little gift from my older sister. The pocket watch and rings are both from antique fairs, somewhere you wouldn't usually expect to look but they were such bargains! £10 for the pocket watch necklace, how can you say no to that.
Bargains can always be found if you look hard enough, so don't just look around all the retail shops get yourself to a charity shop you'll also be helping a good cause!

More will be posted throughout the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled for more, and hopefully it won't be as windy this time around! Also please have a look at my photographers blog, her work is beautiful! 

http://helenalenny.blogspot.co.uk/

Diane Von Furstenberg Fall 2013

Having finally started the fashion journalism module on my degree (which is brilliant!) we were shown a video of the DVF fashion show that happened earlier this week at Mercedes Benz fashion week and asked to write a catwalk report on it. This, bearing in mind, would be my first one! This is what I ended up with, which for a first attempt isn't that bad I'

It was in the 1970's where Diane Von Furstenberg first burst onto the fashion scene and won everyone over with her iconic wrap dress. Now with her fall 2013 collection she has gone back to her roots showcasing her original creation. Opening the show with the pounding remix of the song 'Love to love you baby' by Donna Summer playing in the background was a printed design on her iconic dress, paraded down the catwalk by jaunty model of the moment, Cara Delevingne.

'She is the rock star and muse of her own life; her clothes are her friends. Life is a party' was the tagline for this show. With Furstenberg injecting a touch of glam rock to MB fashion week. With pulsating disco on the soundtrack. DVF was filled  with slinky jersey dresses, colour blocked jumpsuits, halter dresses, skinny pants in "fetish pink", gold Lamé jackets and more pieces that could have felt more at home at Studio 54 as they will in the chicest hot spots of today.

Do the glam seventies have anything to teach us about how to dress today? If the prints have anything to go by then maybe. As bold, quite animalistic prints was a main theme within the show, with a bold mix and match, DVF calling hers leopard bark in the show notes for the way it combined fauna and flora.

Not forgetting the creations that she is well known for, the brown suede wrap dress looks as good now as it did 41 years ago. Although new ideas were not necessarily brought to the catwalk with this collection she has recreated old classics to show they are timeless pieces.

One of the best moments of the show happened when DVF strutted out onto the catwalk to take a final spin down the catwalk to the tune of Chaka Khan's 1978 classic "I'm Every Woman". Singing and dancing showing to the crowd that life is one big party.

Here are a few of my favourite creations from the collections. And it was also nice to see some of the models cracking a smile!

My fashion crush

I don't know about anyone else but Cara Delevingne is my ultimate fashion crush at the moment and I think you'll be able to understand why! She is an absolute beauty.

I first took notice of her when she was on the cover of i-D, which is an amazing photo. I don't think I could handle a spider crawling around on my face.

Her style as well is immaculate, I'd guess you could say she is effortlessly cool however cliché that sounds, it's true. And the fact she is only 20 and has been the face of Burberry's S/S 2012 collection has featured in advertising campaigns for other brands including H&M Authentic Collection (2011), Blumarine, Zara and Chanel. 

Not only that she is now on the cover of British Vogue, and she seems to be shocked by this! A truly modest woman Delevingne is. 

This is why I love her style. Her clothing choices are simple but work, this is a girl to watch the fashion industry has already fallen head over heels for her.
 If you haven't already you must, must, must read the latest issue of Vogue. Even to just have a gander at the interview with her but also the latest trends for this Spring/Summer.

This we must keep on top of!