Tag Archive | Miss Selfridge

Tale as old as time…

How many times have you looked in the mirror and thought, if only I were slimmer, younger, prettier? We all do it, more so as we are living in a society where the likes of Instagram have made everything about appearance, not to mention the fact that cosmetic manufacturers, diet guru’s and cosmetic surgeons make a living off the back of our insecurities. It is not until you get into your thirties though, that you begin to accept yourself and realise “Beauty is found within.” This may sound strange coming from someone who adores clothes, shoes and make up but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you dress someone up, their character and heart is what makes them beautiful, or not, as the case may be. Disney has encapsulated this thinking in Beauty and the Beast, whether you are talking of the 1991 Disney animation or the 2017 live action picture, staring Emma Watson with a fabulous enhanced soundtrack.

I always love a good Disney movie and the recent remakes have made me nostalgic for those times when I believed fairy tales came true. I therefore couldn’t contain my excitement when I heard that The Kensington Hotel was hosting a Beauty and the Beast themed afternoon tea. My excitement was short-lived however when I discovered that every date had been fully booked. Luckily for me though, they released further dates due to the popularity, so after almost a year’s wait, I finally got to go.

Upon arrival, we were ushered to our table, past a rose in the bell jar and each table had been dressed with a red rose and biscuits decorated with marzipan to look like Belle’s dress. Champagne was brought to us, along with tea and coffee.

The amount and variety of food at this tea was fantastic and they had gone to great lengths to theme as much of it as possible. The tea began with warm savouries which included bite size venison pie, beef ragu and saffron arancini and cheese souffle, served on a plate garnished with rose petals. We then moved onto sandwiches, which the staff were happy to replenish. Instead of scones, there were sweet brioche baguettes to fit in with the scene in the movie, where Belle goes to purchase baguettes from Marie.

The sweet tier of the cake stand, always my favourite, was where the theme really came to life and included, white chocolate mousse served in chip, vanilla and gold jelly complete with rose petal, and cream to garnish it, served in Mrs Potts, a snowball macaron and a chocolate clock tart.

What made the whole tea all the more Instagram worthy were the Cogsworth and Lumiere props they brought to the table. The only thing that let them down here was the fact that they didn’t have enough of the props to go round and therefore they took them to use for another table before the end of the tea.

I chose my outfit for the day to fit in with the enchanted rose element of the movie and wore a black midi dress with rose print from Miss Selfridge and completed the outfit with pink suede shoes from Oasis and a pink cross body bag. I accessorised with a beauty and the beast necklace from the Disney Store by Danielle Nicole. My hair was loosely based on a Belle hairstyle, that I found instructions for on YouTube. My perfume was a Beauty and the Beast one from Marks and Spencer.

Beauty boxes and subscriptions to them are currently very popular with Glossybox and Birchbox being two of the most famous. While I love the idea of getting a box full of beauty surprises each month, I am not keen on being tied into a subscription and also there will inevitably be products you don’t use. However last year when the new film was released, I couldn’t resist this one off, subscription free, Beauty and the Beast themed box from Latest in Beauty. The box included Burt’s Bees lipstick, Caudalie moisturising sorbet, a gold compact mirror, Gold Lust dry Shampoo, Soigne nail polish, Gatineau exfoliator and L’Occitane rose hand and nail cream.

There is nothing wrong with making an effort with your appearance and enjoying beauty products but always keep in mind that true beauty lies within. In a world where celebrities are idolised and body image is always a hotly debated topic, shouldn’t every young girl be reminded that beauty isn’t only skin deep? Let’s hope we all realise that and appreciate what we have ‘before the last petal falls’.

‘In fair Verona, where we lay our scene’

Jul2

The city of Paris has always been synonymous with romantic short breaks but next time you want a couples get away, why not consider Verona?

T-shirt Oasis and shorts (just seen) also Oasis

To the North of Italy, Verona sits on the Adige River somewhere between Milan and Venice. Those who paid attention in English literature, will know that Verona is the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It is no doubt on the back of this play that Verona became a tourist magnet, further aided by the successful 2010 film Letters to Juliet, staring Amanda Seyfried. Both certainly played a part in my selection of a city to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary.

The flight was a swift two hours from Gatwick and a bus takes you from the airport to the city’s central station for a bargain €6 per person. We stayed four nights at Hotel Giulietta e Romeo, which of course I picked out based on the name, but as luck would have it, it did turn out to be a wise choice. Rooms at the hotel were clean and staff friendly and the breakfast was a good continental offering. Located a mere stones throw from the Arena, it couldn’t have been better located. Watch out for gladiators wanting their picture with you outside the arena and don’t bother paying to go in as the best views are from the outside being that the inside is now a modern concert venue.

The main attraction of the city is Juliet’s house and balcony. As you walk into the courtyard entrance, the walls are covered with names and messages, to the point that you can’t distinguish one from the next. The focus of the courtyard is a brass statue of Juliet. Legend has it that rubbing her right breast will bring you luck in love. The queue to go up on the balcony was far less than I thought but that could have been in part as it was a weekday and perhaps also the admission charge to the house puts some visitors off. We added to the numerous padlocks bearing initials in the courtyard. Visitors can write to Juliet either by the traditional method of pen and paper or by email. Just like in the film, Juliet’s secretaries do actually reply. If you are still hungry for more monuments to the great play, head to the tomb of Juliet. I warn you though, there really is little to see aside from a quote from the play and an empty stone tomb.

Top and shorts both Oasis, bag Cambridge Satchel Company

Top Ted Baker, skirt Oasis, shoes LK Bennett and bag Cambridge Satchel Company

Verona has much more to offer than this fictional history, but before exploring that, we soaked up the Italian lifestyle and sunshine, stopping for an Aperol Spritz and some pizza in one of the many cafes that border Piazza Erbe. This is a great square to relax and watch the Italian hustle and bustle. A market takes up much of the centre square and a wonderful array of colours and smells tease your senses, from beautifully decorated opera masks to fresh fruit and pizzas. For a bird’s eye view, head up the torre dei lamberti. To get to the tower you will pass under an arch from which a whale rib has been suspended since the early 1700s. No one knows how it got there and the myth is that it will fall on the first truthful person who walks beneath it. It might not have fallen on me, but as I walked through the arch, my wedge shoes caused me to stumble and fall spectacularly! Style over function once again!

Some beautiful bridges take you across the River Adige, the most beautiful being part of the Castelvecchio, a wonderful example of gothic architecture. A walk over Ponte Pietra and a trip up on the cable car to the Castel San Pietro is worth it, just for the view which was just as well as the castle itself, was closed for renovation when we went. While we were up there, the weather took a turn for the worst and we took shelter in Re Teodorico, a bar half way down the hillside. Thank goodness it was there, as when the rain came down, it really came down. It was like someone had turned a tap on full blast. There was lightning as well as thunder that shook the window panes. It even started to rain in the bar! I was only really worried about my LK Bennett satin espadrilles, so thankfully it did stop after about an hour and we made our way back down to the town, with me tip toeing around puddles. Also on this side of the river is the Roman theatre and archaeological museum. The theatre is quite a marvel, set in the hillside and more great views of the city below are on offer. The archaeological museum on the other hand was not for us – you’ve seen one pot, you’ve seen them all!

Verona is ideally situated for a trip out to the Italian lakes. We visited Lake Garda and went on a terrifying boat ride across to Sirmione. Sirmione used to be a peninsula but is now an island. You are welcomed to the island by a beautiful medieval castle that overlooks the lake. Here we sampled the best gelato I have ever eaten. It was so creamy and sweet and the choice of flavours was monumental. I went for coffee, chocolate and tirimusi.

In order to really understand Italy’s love affair with food, we enrolled on a four-hour cooking class while in the city. Here we learnt the art of tirimusi and how to make tagliatelle by a very talented chef who has written a fair few cook books – sadly they have yet to be translated. Following our efforts, we sat and ate the food we had made, washed down with complementary wine.

No visit to any city is complete without visiting a couple of churches and Verona has plenty, I would highly recommend Duomo Cattedrale, a vision of white marble and Church Santa Anastasia, a thirteenth century church, which while nothing special outside, has a stunning interior.

Before leaving the city, I of course made time to shop, and was happy to discover Mauro Leone – an Italian homemade footwear chain, which I first came across in Milan last year. Much to my husband’s frustration, I came away with two beautiful pairs of shoes to add to my expanding collection.

Italy is a country made for me – sunny, home of beautiful footwear, the origin of the Fiat 500 and the best food in the world, not to mention the home of the aperitif – what’s not to love? Having done Rome, Milan and now Verona, I am hoping to persuade my husband to come on further explorations of the country despite his insistence at having seen enough. Some of Italian’s passion did rub off on him in terms of my anniversary gifts. Flowers and fruit are the traditional gifts for four years of marriage. He bought me a beautiful flower charm in Pandora, along with a heart engraved with ‘I love Italia’ and a new bracelet. During our walk around the city he picked me a wild red rose and later at dinner in Bistrot Mamma Mia in the Piazza Bra, he bought me a rose from a seller touting their business around all the local establishments.

The best meal we had by far was on our final night at L’Orologio on Corso Porta Nuova. The service and the food was second to none, I particularly enjoyed my favourite starter, caprese salad.

Dress Miss Selfridge

One of the lesser visited cities of Italy, Verona is not one to be missed – add it to your bucket list now! If it’s romance you are looking for, this city has an abundance of it, given it was the setting for the greatest love story of all time, and no one can deny the passion Italians have for style and of course for food, as our guide said “an Italian knows good food”.

Top Ted Baker, skirt Oasis and shoes Converse

Stylist Live

Jan7

As a London commuter, every morning I leave the station to be greeted by a barrage of people handing out leaflets, magazines, newspapers and free samples as well as the odd one collecting for charity, Sometimes it is an impossible task to walk at any pace due to this, lost tourists and people who cannot be parted for a second from their phone screens and thus get slower and slower.

Having said all this, by chance a few years back I did pick up the weekly free copy of Stylist magazine and was instantly hooked. I now actively look out for it each Wednesday and feel rather cheated if I miss out on it.

The magazine launched in October 2009 and is now the leading UK weekly fashion and lifestyle magazine. It’s target audience is women aged 20-40, who commute, and it is distributed in major UK cities as well as some major French cities (since April 2013).

In November, a friend and I attended the Stylist Live event which was held at Olympia London for the first time. This was the third of these festivals but the first in a new location and the first one I had ever been to.

For the day I wore a floral dress from Topshop with a pink shearling jacket from Zara, boots from Miss Selfridge and a tan bag from Accessorise. Now black tights wouldn’t have worked so I searched high and low to find some adult cream tights and finally managed to track some down. Unfortunately they were huge and I ended up looking much like Nora Batty for most of the day! Since, my friend has advised me to buy M&S age 13-14 ones and they are much better – great life hack Nina!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the day, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed. There were all manner of stalls to indulge the shopaholic in you. Among these were my favourite Swedish fashion brand – Kikki K, Lucy Love This, the Benefit Brow bar, Solely Original and Stella&Dot.

Lucy Loves this makes lovely prints based around different areas in London and I purchased my Mum the Putney one.

Solely Original allows you not only to design your own shoes online, but also ensure they are a bespoke size to fit your foot and they are a fraction of the price you might expect for something that is so customised. I had my foot measured so it can be kept on file for future indulgence!

A walk around the stalls called for some light refreshment. Now this was my only slight disappointment of the day, in that the only alcohol on offer was gin which I am not a big fan of. I did give the fruity, pink special a try as it was included in the price of the ticket and whilst I wasn’t a great lover, it was surprisingly refreshing and the bar and stand were fab.

Also included in the cost of the ticket was a manicure at the perfect 10 nail bar. I felt suitably pampered and chose a natural pinky Essie shade so as to not highlight the shortness of my nails.

It was then time for a bite to eat and I tried The Cheese Wheel, which is freshly rolled pasta, dunked into a wheel of cheese. This first came to the UK in March this year at Kerb in Camden Market and has really taken off. It was delicious and very filling.

The highlight of the day has to have been the fashion show. It was unfortunate that we were quite near the back but what I loved about it was it was all available on the high street and you were given a sheet, telling you where each item on each look was from. Shearling jackets featured quite heavily as did sparkle and stars.

More than just a day of leisure, my friend made the first step to a new career and signed up as a Stella & Dot rep. Launched to empower women to be their own boss, the reps sell accessories online and face to face at parties. The key is the flexibility which the company offers. I couldn’t resist this gorgeous clutch with the mantra every woman should aspire to, ‘I am strong’ printed inside.

Finally, we had the opportunity to mock up a cover of Stylist, featuring our good selves.

It was a fantastic day and I would highly recommend it to any fashion lover. 2018’s dates are yet to be confirmed, but it is looking likely to be 9-11 November at Olympia. Book early to avoid disappointment! I fancy a VIP ticket next year which includes a lounge, a bar and access to certain exclusive talks. See you there!

Two Decades of Music

Sep27

V festival celebrated its 20^th year this year and despite being hailed one of the most commercial festivals (the V standing for Virgin group who sponsor it) it is also one of the safer of the music festivals. Being that it has less of a rough reputation than other festivals, I was quite surprised to see the floor littered with balloons and capsules from ‘laughing gas’ and people openly doing it. I know it is a so called ‘legal high’ and maybe it’s my old age but I was disappointed to see the popularity it has gained in our youth culture when the dangers are still largely unknown. Ok rant over!

The festival is split between two sites over the penultimate weekend in August – Hylands Park Chelmsford and Weston Park Staffordshire with bands playing alternate days at each location. The initial concept of playing two locations in one weekend was the brain child of Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of the band Pulp. As with all music festivals, camping is very much a part of it, however I have never had the full experience of festival life in a tent as I have never wanted to get muddy and be stuck with portaloos and no proper showers! Perhaps I’ve missed out, but the older I get the more I like my creature comforts. It does amaze me how well groomed some girls manage to look despite spending the night in a tent!

This year was the third time I have been to V for the day at Hylands Park. Two of these times including this one, I was motivated to go by my desire to see Stereophonics who have performed at V an impressive 8 times. This time I dragged my husband along with me.

My outfit for the event was a nod to the boho trend of the season combined with a punk/rock edge. I wore studded denim shorts from Oasis; Stereophonics latest band t-shirt and a white crochet waistcoat from Miss Selfridge. Now as you all know by now – the most important part of any outfit for me is the shoes. Rain was forecast for the day so being that it was held in a field; I went for practicality (for a change) and picked some Dr Marten lookalike boots by Joe Browns from Debenhams. These made me feel quite rocky but the flowers gave them a girly edge. The bag I used was from Asos and reminded me of Chanel’s quilted bags. In true boho style, I plaited a small piece at the front of my hair and clipped it back. Then with Fudge Urban hair art in pink ink– I gave it a punk rock edge.

After a lunch eaten whilst the Proclaimers finished their set (you’ve got to love 500 miles) we browsed some of the stalls and I couldn’t resist a pink rose flower garland for my hair which I thought set my outfit off a treat.

It began to rain so we headed for the cocktail tent and then moved on to the only stage that was undercover, the sure arena. I hadn’t heard of the band playing there although they were reasonably good and I’m sure many people including us were just there for the shelter! The rain became more of a drizzle and we headed over to V media stage to see Ella Henderson.

More drinks were consumed whilst catching bits of The Kooks and George Ezra before we made our way further forward to watch Ellie Goulding. Her performance was outstanding, the energy she put into every song was really to be admired and I’d love to go to one of her gigs in the future. After having some dinner, we moved over to the MTV stage to watch firstly Clean Bandit being that one of their songs, ‘Rather Be’ we used in our wedding video as it was so popular last year; then finally it was time for the performance I had been waiting for, the Stereophonics!

As usual the Stereophonics didn’t disappoint with a fantastic set including stuff as far back as ‘A Thousand Trees’ from the Word Gets Around album in 1997, right up to their latest single ‘C’est La Vie’ from Keep the Village Alive album. I was in my element dancing away but sadly we had to leave to catch our last train just as they were playing my favourite song Maybe Tomorrow. That’s the problem with being a headline act – it means they are on last. I will just have to wait until I see them on tour at the O2 in December, or so I thought.

Little did I know I was to get to see them far sooner than that. My friend managed to get us two tickets for their album signing at HMV Oxford Street on 11^th September when their 9^th studio album, Keep the Village Alive was released. There were probably about 200 people there and we had to queue for over an hour but it was worth it for those few minutes spent stood in front of the band I have admired since I was 16. Other bands have come and gone for me but Stereophonics are the longest enduring band for my favour. My friend and I were like soppy teenagers all over again and it was quite a surreal experience. I got to shake hands with Kelly and Richard – the bands only remaining original members. I asked Kelly what his favourite Stereophonics song was and he said maybe ‘Local Boy in the Photograph’. I once again wore my Keep the Village Alive t-shirt which they all commented on. There was a limited edition CD for sale of them live at the Royal Albert Hall which I bought.

I got the latest album signed by all four members and I got Kelly to sign a publicity photo which I bought of him on line some time back. Over the years I have lost count of the number of times I have seen them perform – the most memorable ones being a gig at the Round House in Camden where I managed to get near enough to the stage to get a good photo of Kelly and when I starred in their ‘My Friends’ video, which was followed by an intimate gig for about 250 fans. On that occasion I got to put my hand on Kelly’s shoulder.

Last week Keep the Village Alive reached number 1 in the Official album charts – their sixth album to make it to the top. Just shows that even 18 years after they first came on the music scene, they still have what it takes.

Music is such an important part of my life and it sees you through the good and the bad times. Here’s hoping Stereophonics carry on for the next twenty years!