Stylist Live
This weekend I headed to Stylist Live – a four-day festival of cocktails,
culture, catwalks and conversation hosted by Edith Bowman and Dawn O’Porter at
the Business Design Centre in Islington. Creator of the blog Halycon
Velvet and my good friend Sam
also came along for the ride and we had a ball!
We spent the few days before planning
our outfits because obviously this was a very stylish event, and also because
Sam tends to outdo me in the fashion stakes. What’s great about having a friend
the complete opposite of you (she’s tall, with super long legs, boobs and
straight hair, while I’m flat chested, hourglass and petite with a crazy mane
of hair) is that you can see different trends on different body types and learn
what suits what. Anyway, I digress. I wore an ASOS autumnal long sleeved
printed playsuit with a lace trim, Debenhams long black heeled boots, Miss
Selfridge fluffy gilet and River Island brown cross body handbag. Sam
went for super long black suedette boots from Primark, a quilted white dress
again from Primark and a George at Asda gorgeous cream trench coat. Her
boots got a ton of compliments with people refusing to believe they were
Primark. She’s a savvy shopper I’ll say!
The Morning
We were welcomed into the beautiful venue
with Dawn O’Porter and Edith Bowman handing us our event maps. Sam
and I then nipped off for a quick coffee and croissant before making our way
round the shop stalls to spot the merchandise on offer. Not only were some
great brands I love in attendance, Caudalie, Rituals, Oliver Bonas to name a
few, there were also a number of ‘makeover’ stands for brands to do their magic
and whip you into shape. Clarins had an amazing stand with facials and makeup
tutorials, and there were stonking great queues for the GHD masters to wave
their wands and make over your hair. Aveda and Rush were also offering some
great hair styling, as was the Tangle Teezer stand which I was in need of.
Benefit and Nars were very popular for make up help and tutorials, and there
were plenty of nail bars and manicurists around to tend to your talons.
But enough about how I had wished I had
turned up fresh out of the shower and just got the Stylist stands to sort me
out, as me and Sam also attended a number of the brilliant sessions available
to Saturday ticket holders.
We spent a number of 15 minute slots watching
talks at the Ford FiestaStylista Stage with our free glass of champers,
including Candice Bailey’s Celebrity Style Secrets, as well as the finalists
for the FiestaStylista catwalk show.
Then we had a mooch round the Stylist area
itself and met a number of lovely employees of the magazine including Fashion
Director Alexandra Fullerton, who besides having great hair and a fab outfit,
gave us some great advice on blogging and writing for the industry. Such a
lovely lady!
Social Media Revolutionaries
A stand out
talk was in the Culture Lounge area and focused on “Social Media
Revolutionaries”. I love social media and enjoy utilising it for my
professional and personal aspirations. However, I did not really realise the
power of social media until hearing from change.org Deputy Managing Director
Brie Rogers Lowery. I am a massive advocate of campaigning to help bring
change, and her stories of grass roots activism and how change.org is shaping
the world, particularly for women’s rights, was so inspiring.
Joining Brie
was the hilariously witty, charming and always right Caroline Criado Perez who
campaigned for fair female representation on the Bank of England’s bank notes.
A point I took from Caroline (apart from the fact that Internet trolls really
are d***s) is that 50% of the world’s population is female – so why was our bank
happy for all the faces on their notes to be men? I can think of a zillion
important women who deserve a spot for a start! Not only was Caroline a real
joy to hear from, she explained what the darker side of social media can be
like and touched on the awful tweets she had been sent about her campaign for
women’s rights.
Lucy-Anne
Holmes, the woman behind the ‘No More Page 3’ campaign also spoke on the
ridiculous keyboard warriors and how such words from strangers can affect your
confidence and abilities to keep going with something you are so passionate
about. I actually know someone, a model, who spoke in favour of keeping Page 3
so it was great to hear Lucy’s insights into how social media helped her
campaign gain the vital support it needed. FYI – I signed both Lucy’s and
Caroline’s petitions on change.org so I did fangirl a tad during this session.
The Afternoon
After a
delicious Anna Mae’s Mac N Cheese lunch (a stretchy outfit was a good choice)
we watched some Aveda hair demonstrations and a styling trends sess by Rush
Hair.
The Swarovski
stand was calling us over with all its glittering glory, as so we made an
hilarious 10-second video of us posing wearing Swarovski jewellery. In exchange
for an awful video we were gifted a bejewelled silver compact mirror which was
pretty awesome.
Then we
discovered the beauty stands, and I couldn’t resist creating my own Birchbox
and a special Stylist edition of a Clarin’s makeup bag complete with a range of
goodies. A blog on each of those bags featuring all the products is under
production right now.
Sam and I had
paid extra to go to the Stylist Inspires Stage, and for an extra tenner, it was
sure worth it. “The Secret To Being A Beauty Powerhouse” featured cult beauty
journalist Sali Hughes interviewing A-list make-up artist Lisa Eldridge. This
session offered a real insight into the business of beauty and what will shape
the industry in the near future (another blog will focus on this later on in
the week).
Stylist Catwalk
Throughout the day there were Stylist catwalks and our slot was the very last
one. After being bumped up to the FROW I was feeling pretty good about myself.
After an intro by Edith Bowman and some insights into the trends by Alexandra
Fullerton we were off. Here’s a quick summary on the top five trends Stylist
has picked out for this season:
5) Sweet &
Sour
I was most
excited by this one although a little disappointed it wasn’t number one! I love
dressing in a very feminine and brightly coloured way so a sugar sweet palette
with acid tones of green popping up was definitely my thing, especially when
you’re told so often pastels are for spring/ summer.
4)
Supercharged Tweed
3) Period Drama
I went through
an odd spell of having poker straight black hair and a nose piercing during my
teenage years so I guess I will always love a bit of gothic Victoriana. Lace,
billowing sleeves, high necks, brooches, velvet – just luxe at its best with a
high tea yet rock ‘n’ roll attitude.
2) Décor Dressing
Another of my absolute favourites as I love textured outfits. There was
baroque adorning the catwalk with structured sleeves and full skirts. The
colour palette was definitely autumnal but I feel décor dressing this season is
the perfect balance of femininity meets boho as most of the garments felt a
little more relaxed that past décor trends.
1) 80s Glam
Finally! Okay when I saw this on the trend paper in front of me when I
sat down on the FROW, I’ll admit I wasn’t happy. Maybe Alexandra felt the
apprehension because as she introduced the trends she explained this one wasn’t
all about shoulder pads and Madonna. I thought to myself, that Mum’s 1985
wedding dress wasn’t too bad, so maybe I could get on board with this.
Unexpectedly I actually quite liked it. The collection was very sparkly, full
of glittering skirts and thigh high rhinestone covered boots, but overall I
thought it was pretty great for the festive season and the silvery billowing
dress from Topshop at the end was something I might actually buy.
So there you
go! A great day out with a great friend and keep an eye out for more blogs on
Clarins, Birchbox and the two things that are changing the beauty industry.
Larissa x
0 comments:
Post a Comment