Vodafone London Fashion Weekend Event Review

This time last week I was packing my suitcase for a weekend away and boy, was I excited? Having never been to Fashion Weekend I was super-psyched to be heading out on the Sunday to Somerset House in London for the event...

 

Having never been to Fashion Weekend, but also knowing that it is one occasion where you really do need to dress to impress, I hunted through all of my clothes and finally settled on a mid-length graphic-print tube skirt from Topshop (which apparently magnifies my butt so it looks almost Kim Kardashian-esque *so says my mom*), a black peplum top from Topshop, and my sky-scraping wedges from (you've guessed it) Topshop.

As for my make-up on the day, I wanted to try something truly different, so took a leaf out of my friend Cara's book and got creative with my eyeliner extending it into three elaborate swirls on my temples. It worked quite well considering this was the first time I'd ever done it. I kept the rest of my make-up really quite simple and used my Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation because I find it keeps my skin matte throughout the day, which when you're trying to navigate the London Underground on a Sunday morning carting a heavy suitcase around you could really do with safe-guarding.

 

Now, onto Fashion Weekend itself.

As I was working on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I wasn't able to attend until Sunday, the last day. So I arrived at Somerset House on Sunday morning having strolled down the Thames in the rain. I was eagerly awaiting being indoors for the day. How wrong I was... Although everything for Fashion Weekend is technically indoors, you needed to go outdoors in order to access the different areas which when it is bucketing it down outside isn't fab. Within minutes my hair was frizzy, my feet were wet and my damp skirt was clinging to my apparently huge butt even more than it previously had. But I wasn't bothered, because LIFE IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL and you only live once. So I soldiered on...

After putting my suitcase in the cloakroom (which was free by the way) I headed over to the press desk, to collect a map and find out which areas I had access to. Sadly, there was no-one manning the desk so I grabbed a map and wandered aimlessly for a little while just trying to soak up my bearings. I checked the press desk again another two times during the day and there still wasn't anyone sat there...

Nonetheless, I soon realized what was what and was able to go explore the different exhibitors. I was expecting more of an exhibition hall layout like The Clothes Show in Birmingham, but found myself in a very different type of setting. Imagine a big huge mansion with loads of different corridors with rooms going off on either side, then the exhibitors are based inside those rooms. It was nice in a way because it felt like you were really in the designers own little pop-up shop, but everything was a bit chaotic as most rooms only had one door to come in and go out of so I found myself doing that awkward little you-go-first-no-you-go-first exchange multiple times throughout the day.

I'm sad to say that the exhibitors themselves generally weren't much to my taste... It was nice seeing Elizabeth Arden had such a large stall (being one of the event sponsors) but it wasn't quite big enough for me to get anywhere near it because there were so many people there! This was a huge shame really because I've been wanting to chat with an Elizabeth Arden representative about skincare for ages, so I guess I'll just have to head into Debenhams one weekend. benefit had a stall, but they weren't actually selling their products but just offering their services such as eyebrow threading and lash tinting, neither of which I was interested in. Diet Coke were giving out free cans (but I don't like Diet Coke), Kinder Bueno were giving away their new white chocolate bar (but there were none left when I was there) and Compeed were handing out free blister patches like they were sweeties. Apart from that, I didn't experience any freebie pushing or hard-selling all day which was kind of a nice break from what I experienced at The Clothes Show where if I so much as blinked in the direction of a stall I was pounced on and told about an 'exclusive offer' or five...

Other brands I was interested in browsing through included House of Holland, American Retro and VV Vintage. However, as much as I enjoyed having a look through their bits I didn't spot anything I was desperate to buy although I must admit the discounts available were really quite reasonable. Apart from these three, Elizabeth Arden and benefit I genuinely wasn't really that interested in many of the other exhibitors. Having said that, I was pleased to be introduced to a brand I've never known before named Lotus London which has a collection of Indian-inspired pieces (I'm a bit obsessed with Asia in general at the moment so I was automatically drawn to this brand) and another called Attiqueue which had some of the most reasonably priced vintage fur coats I think I've ever seen.

The only offer which I was drawn to all day *and then decided against* was that of Elle magazine who were offering 12 issues of the magazine for just £15 plus a free gift from benefit cosmetics worth £25. However, when I noticed that the Elle representatives were solely giving each customer two travel sized BADgal mascaras each and remembered that I only rarely pick up Elle I decided against investing. That said, I did invest in a £1 copy of their most recent issue. I kind of wish I'd spent the £15 now because I'm really enjoying the pieces especially the beauty pages... Nevermind.

I found bloggable fashion on the guests a bit thin on the ground to be honest... There was only one girl who I had a true style crush on but she breezed past me too quickly to grab a photo. She was wearing a shorts-suit which was in the most cutesy red and black focused plaid print you've ever seen with a white blousse secured with a black ribbon at the neck. Very adorable.

As for the catwalk fashion I found the best look on the Trend Catwalk Fashion Show to be the Lady Brocade look which is something I've been obsessed with for the past couple of years in fact. Its all about the vampy black and deep red colour mix, except its more grown-up than Twilight. Think structured silhouettes, stiff fabrics and a generally more professional approach. Obviously this is perfect for me because since gettinga job I NEED formal work-style clothes and I found this look really quite adaptable. The other two looks which where presented were Kitchen Chic and Sergeant Indigo but I didn't find either of them to be particularly ground-breaking.

 

I did manage to attend two of the talks which I wanted to see including the ELLE Beauty Panel and also the Sunday Fashion Panel, but I plan to blog about them in more detail in the upcoming week, so you'll just have to bear with me!

*£5.50 worth of cous-cous salad I didn't even want...*

When it was time for something to eat I was really quite disappointed with the lack of options and the price of food. I just wanted a simple ham sandwich and some crisps, but Tom's Deli only had posh salads and beef and horseradish sandwiches. I ended up with a cous-cous salad with melon and parma ham which was alright but wasn't worth £5.50 at all. Stinger.

Also, I know a lot of people will be wanting to know if I got a show bag but I have to admit I did not. In order to get one I was expected to part with twelve of my hard-earned Great British Pounds and after listening to a rather disgruntled 'goodie' bag buyer grumble about the fact that the only thing worth having inside it was a self-tanning mitt I very rapidly decided to keep my walled closed.

To conclude, London Fashion Weekend was a good day out for me without a doubt. Although the exhibitors weren't to my taste, the food options were terrible, the day seemed rather disorganized, there was no-one around to assist press and the goodie-bag was labelled a 'farce' by the aforementioned disgruntled girl, I felt that the two talks I attended were more than worth my heading down to London for the day. Plus the atmosphere *although chaotic to say the least* was amazing and it was fantastic to be able to soak it all up. Plus, I even spotted a couple of celebs...

 

*Fashion Royalty Hilary Alexander and TOWIE's Lydia Bright*

Did you go to London Fashion Weekend? What sort of exhibitors would you be interested in seeing at an event like this? Would you have taken advantage of the various discounts on offer?

Love and snuggles
GabriellaSofia

ps. I must add that I did select a blogger as the winner of my Press Pass giveaway, sadly she was unable to make it at the last minute due to family commitments so I was unable to invite my other entrant at such short notice. Only two bloggers entered and I was really shocked with the community that no-one bar a friend of mine re-tweeted the giveaway or showed any interest whatsoever really. Its like, when the prize is free beauty bits everyone enters, but when it is a prize which offers the opportunity for bloggers to actually have a bit of a networking opportunity where they have the chance to interact with the industry they can't be bothered. I understand that many girls won't have entered because they couldn't get to London, but I also know that a great deal more could have done if they'd been passionate enough to generate worth-while content for their readers, Really quite disappointed. On the flip-side I wanted to say a great big thank you to the two committed bloggers who actually did enter. I have a really deep respect for both of you since seeing that your passion for your page apparently puts you in the minority group that place good quality blog content above free products. Thanks.

The Clothes Show Live 2011 Birmingham Event Review...

The lovely people at The Clothes Show were kind enough this year to send me a free press pass for the event, and as a fashion and beauty nut who has always wanted to go to the event but could never afford it, I leaped at the chance to cover it in my blog! If you're a frequent visitor to this page you will already have seen my Clothes Show Outfit of the Day, my Clothes Show Hauls (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) and also my Video Highlights where I edited my best bits of footage together to give a general overview of the amazing Night in a Department Store fashion show. Now it's time to reflect on the event as a whole, and put up some photographs I've been wanting to share for a little while...

So let's get started! After battling with my hair for hours trying to get it into a doughnut ring, I was ready to head out and meet up with fellow blogger Vikki (at Victoria's Vintage). We strolled into the press office like we owned the place, despite feeling like total tourists... There was orange juice, biscuits, maps and free wifi available here (kind of made me wish I'd taken my laptop with me so I could do some on-the-job blogging, at least I know for next time!) The Clothes Show was selling a 'goodie bag' for £8 which I declined after realizing that all was included was a children's sized T-shirt, a map of the exhibition and a booklet of discounts. I would recommend buying this if you are with a child who's poured ice-cream all over its top and desperately needs a new T-shirt, have no sense of exploration and are prepared to spend enough money that it would justify an £8 spend on a bag of useless contents...

After declining to purchase this bag, me and Vikki headed into the chaos that is The Clothes Show. With over 500 stalls, it was definitely a challenge to tell the rubbish apart from the quality. And yet, I was able to find a handful of awesome stalls that made it all worth-while! My favorites were the Oxfam stall selling numerous vintage goodies including cameo jewelry, Christmas knit jumpers and 50's midi skirts (VERY on trend right now), Paperself false lashes and the Frost and Snow cupcake retailers.

As for beauty, there was a plethora of amazing brands selling fantastic goodie bags at discounted prices. The best deals in my opinion was the Barry M stall (my haul from Barry M can be seen HERE) and the Models Own stall (my Models Own haul is HERE). I also liked the look of the Bourjois, Rimmel and the benefit stalls although there didn't appear to be many good deals at these brands to me... I also loved the Carmex stall as it had a yellow taxi-cab as part of the decoration which I just thought was super-cool!

A handful of top magazines held host to a Clothes Show stall also, including the likes of Cosmopolitan, Company and Elle to name but a few. At these stalls you could purchase one of two mags for just £3 and included in the price was a goodie bag. However, I did find these goodie bags to be mildly disappointing so it's lucky I actually wanted to mags or I would have been gutted. The best goodie in any of these bags was a £20 off Kurt Geiger voucher given by Elle. However, I'm highly unlikely to purchase any shoes from Kurt for a while as I'm a skint student and even with £20 off, I still can't afford his beautiful shoes... Woe is me.

The fashion hall was quite disappointing to me. Although there were a few major brands such as David and Goliath, Superdry and Paul's Boutique. However, again, I'm too poor to buy things in these stores without planning for it beforehand, so I made it my challenge to find some cheaper more bargain-elicious brands which I failed at miserably. Most of the other stores had much of the same products as one another, in 'One Size Fits All'. This is NOT TRUE. You're telling me that my 34DD's are supposed to fit in a dress which is for all intents and purposes essentially a size 8? I'd like to see it. Are you a miracle worker??? I thought not. Furthermore, the prices weren't any cheaper than I could get on sale in the likes of New Look, H&M and Primark. Actually, speaking of Primark, Vikki actually spotted a dress which she knew to be currently on sale in Primark, for sale at The Clothes Show at it's original price with the Primark label cut out. It was at this stage I realized I was wasting my time in the fashion area and tried my luck with jewelry instead...

Again, there weren't many jewelry bargains and at one stage I found a long-chain brass necklace with a large clock pendant which was hanging from the £3 rack. Of course, once I took it to the till I found that it was actually £8. Despite being one of many hanging on that rack. RIP OFF. The sales assistant felt my wrath and I then stalked off.

Whilst I'm on the topic of hard-sell type techniques, I want to tell off naughty GLOSSYBOX. I've always been eager to try a GLOSSYBOX (a box filled with 5 'delux sample' sized beauty products, posted to your door for a price of £10 per month.) I actually didn't find their stall during my mooch around. However, my sister, who isn't even into beauty that much, did. She is 16 years old. Young and impressionable. Her and her two friends were pressured by the sales assistant into buying a GLOSSYBOX each for a bargain price of £5. This was the November box containing an Illamasqua mini Eau de Parfum in Freak, an Arbonne International Cooling Foot Cream, a bag of Dead Sea Spa Magik Bath Salts, a packet of Rock Cosmetics Nail Wraps in a zebra print, and finally a tube of Monu Revitalizing Moisturizer.

First off, I've only ever heard of one of these brands. Secondly, I don't like the idea of some sales assistant taking advantage of a group of young girls' inability to say, 'No' and capitalize on that by pressuring them to purchase. Thirdly, I will not be purchasing a GLOSSYBOX now, as I felt so bad for my sister that I ended up buying it from her and being equally as disappointed with the contents. Rant over.

After we'd mooched around all of the halls, it was time for the fashion show which was amazing. The theme was A Night in a Department Store, where the lights go down and the mannequins come to life. The female models were beautiful and the dancing was absolutely fascinating... I could have watched that show all day! However, I personally was there for the fashion, NOT for the naked men. I mean, I don't have a PROBLEM with inches and inches of toned, tanned male flesh, but I've never been the sort of girl to cry at the feet of a boy band, or stick up a copy of Mizz magazine's 'Sexy Shirtless Soap Stars' on my bedroom wall, or scream like I'm being stabbed at a fashion show, just because a group of guys have jumped into the audience. So I did find it quite off-putting that the male models seemed to be a major focus of the show. Especially when the production of the show, the fashion items modeled and the professionalism of the dancing would have sufficed perfectly well alone!

Whilst I loved the short but sweet presence of Grace Woodward, George Lamb, The Risk, Kimberly Wyatt and Jade Thompson I did find that the added Z-List celebs such as a bunch of the TOWIE crowd to lower the tone. They were on stage for a maximum of one minute, and may as well have not been there. It's because The Clothes Show Live needs to pay people like them that the price for a standard ticket is a whopping £27... I'd rather they weren't there and the price be £20.

The show included a ton of different scenes including women's wear, men's wear, street wear and more, but my favorite scenes were the lingerie scene and also the bridal scene. If this show is anything to go by, the two biggest trends in lingerie are total opposites; angelic, innocent virgin and bondage-inspired, fetishistic dominatrix. Sometimes at the same time! As for bridal wear, the looks I preferred were the floaty styles, reminiscent of ballet costumes, and also the more structured romantic mermaid-skirted gowns. Breathtaking.

Once the show had finished, I pretty much decided that I'd had enough and seen all there was to see... Plus, the show was so great that I wanted to end the day on a high note! My sister, her friends and I said goodbye to Vikki and headed off home.

My overall opinion of The Clothes Show Live is that it's a great place to go if you are planning on spending a lot of money on beauty products, are a big fan of fashion and love elaborate fashion shows, and have enough stamina to argue with rude shop assistants, hunt hard for a bargain and fight the crowds for the best deals. Personally, although I LOVED the fashion show, now I've been to The Clothes Show once I've decided that I don't think I would pay for it. This is only because I know that the main aim of it is to be able to shop a ton of great brands. As not many of the brands were to my taste, I know I would have a much more productive shopping trip in my local town center without having to pay an extra £27 for the privilege. I totally accept that this is a worthwhile event for most girls (and guys) out there, but it's simply my tastes which prevented me from seeing the value in buying a ticket.

On the contrary, I totally enjoyed covering the event as press and I would LOVE to be invited back next year as it's given me a ton of bloggable material. Thank you The Clothes Show Live, thank you very much :)

And as for my readers, have you been to The Clothes Show Live before? Were you there this time? What bargains did you find? I'd love to know, so please post a response in the comments below and I'll reply as soon as possible! Thanks for reading and for bearing with me whilst I was getting this review up... I just have so much to do!

Love

gabriellasofia

x

Haute Future Haute Haul... The Clothes Show Part 3: Miscellaneous Goodies...

So here is the third and final part to my three-part mini series on all of the goodies I bought at The Clothes Show at the NEC in Birmingham on the 4th December 2011. These bits aren't too exciting but there are a couple of gems in this haul like my Jemma Kidd lipgloss and my L'Oreal eye cream...

I'm still yet to post the event review and some footage which I actually recorded at The Clothes Show, so make sure you head over to my blog soon to check them out! Plus, I'm going to be organizing my first giveaway very soon, so make sure you hit subscribe and follow...

Please take the time to check out my other sites... I have a Twitter, a Facebook AND a Youtube Channel too and there will be a giveaway soon where you'll need to be following at least one of these to be able to be entered so don't forget to his follow, like and subscribe!

Please follow me on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/hautefuture

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Please rate, like, follow, comment and subscribe and I promise there will be loads of beauty, fashion, lifestyle, culture and gossip material going up on here each week :)

Thanks for watching, guys and I'll see you soon!

Love

gabriellasofia x

My Super-Top-Secret Beauty Professionals Feature...

I’m so happy guys! I can finally reveal my new feature which will a weekly thing... are you all ready for it?

Each week HauteFuture is going to be bringing you beauty tips and tricks from the people that KNOW what they’re talking about! These women know the ins and outs of the beauty industry, no exfoliating beauty pumice stone (rock) has gone unturned where these women are concerned, they have worked with the best make-up artists, beauty brands and products available at the moment. I am of course talking about the beauty directors and editors behind our favourite magazines!

This is super-exciting for me! Each week I will be putting your beauty questions to the geniuses who find the best products out there for us, and getting cold hard answers. These women are like beauty royalty. Trust me, they KNOW.

So which lovely ladies are onboard? Well...

Firstly, we have the beautiful Lisa Oxenham (also known as the Beauty and Style Director at IPC Media, host to the likes of Marie Claire, one of my all-time favourite magazines!!!) Having met Lisa a couple of months back at Marie Claire’s Inspire and Mentor Estee Lauder event, I knew that she was someone I wanted to know. She ran a short seminar on the new season looks including hair buns and red lips, and the whole time the audience was captivated. As well as clearly knowing her stuff, this lady has a great stage-presence and perfect hair. I was overjoyed when she agreed to work with me in order to bring my readers the best beauty knowledge there is out there!

Next up is Sarah-Jane Biggs, or the Beauty Editor at More! magazine. This is a name I’ve known for a while as she held top beauty positions in the magazines of my teenage years... Any Bliss magazine fans? Sarah-Jane was the Beauty Editor. Heard of a little publication called CosmoGIRL! magazine??? Well, you’re going to be able to put your questions to one of their past Assistant Beauty Editors. Sarah-Jane has made a great career so far of studying the products, technology and techniques which make beauty beautiful and she’s on board to help bring what she knows to HauteFuture readers. I’m chuffed to have her!

Thirdly, Laura Bacharach, freelance journalist and fellow blogger at The Beauty Edit caught my eye when I noticed just how knowledgeable she is about all things beauty. I automatically knew that she was the ‘Real Deal’ in the beauty writing industry and I was hardly surprised that on closer research I found that she’d worked as Beauty Editor at both Cosmopolitan and Look magazines, followed closely by time spent as the Beauty Director at one of my ultimate favourite mags, Company. With years of experience, I genuinely feel so privileged to have her as a part of this!

Deputy Beauty Editor of Stylist magazine, Samantha Flowers, really caught my eye quite recently. After scanning a Stylist mag in the break-room at work, I had a mooch on the beauty section of their website and found a couple of postings where Samantha had answered the beauty queries of readers. She is so thorough in finding a solution for each reader’s problem that I knew I had to ask her to be involved, and happily she accepted my invitation. Thank you Samantha!

Last but DEFINITELY not least, with a CV including top beauty positions at Conde Nast International, Tatler magazine and Stylist magazine whilst currently holding the role of Beauty Director at ELLE magazine how could I not ask the wonderful Emma Smith??? What really caught my eye about my ultimate skin-crush beauty professional were ELLE magazines Top 10 Autumn/Winter Beauty picks. Emma featured the likes of Bobbi Brown, Clinique and YSL amongst her favourite products for the season and I automatically knew she was my kind of person! She gives as much importance to skincare and nails as she does to cosmetics and hair-care and I need that thorough knowledge on-side if I’m going to allow my readers the best advice possible. I still can’t believe I have names as big as Emma Smith on this project.

So I’m trying to act really cool, but deep down we all know I’m beauty-star-struck right now! To have such names agreeing to help me here. But I must be cool. I must focus on the project in question. So without much further ado, I’d like to know your number one Winter Beauty Related Question. Each week, I will select that which I believe to be the ‘best’ question, that which will help the most people and will simply ask the professionals for a brief answer.

So, now you know my secret blog project which I’ve had to keep under wraps for the past few weeks, what are you waiting for? Pop your questions in the comments box below and I will interview the panel of Beauty Genius and report back!

Thanks for reading guys, hope you’re as excited as I am!

Love

gabriellasofia x