Wednesday 24 September 2014

London Fashion week and London Vodafone Fashion Weekend

Hi,

As most of you will probably know, not so long ago it was London Fashion week (It is Paris fashion week now and before that it was Milan fashion week  and before London FW was New York FW and Milan Fashion week!!!). It is a pretty exciting time as it means lots of designers showcase thier new, exciting designs and ideas (for SS15 this time) and if you love sewing clothes and interesting pattern cutting like I do the fashion weeks= fun and excitement!  :)

My mum and I were lucky enough to be in London on one of the days of LFW and we saw some pretty cool stuff. First, all the banners in Oxford Street (one of the bustling hubs during LFW as all the designer shops are there):
 
In the middle of Oxford Street a photo shoot with a model was happening!  I don't know who for but it was cool and I managed to get a snap:


I also saw the beautiful shop windows of Burberry,  containing thier AW14 hand painted coats, shoes and bags which I had seen in all my vogue,  marie claire and Elle magazines- They look just as beautiful in real life- which is impressive!:



Burberrys was by far my fave shop display in the whole of Oxford Street. I only window shopped down Oxford Street as everything is too expensive!  

For a while now Vodafone have hosted LFWeekend
the weekend after LFW. This September (there are two a year) was the first time I have ever been as it is only in the last year that I have studied the fashion calendar to work out when all the exciting stuff happens!

VLFW takes place at Somerset House (another hub during LFW as some catwalk shows do take place there). My mum booked for us too see both the catwalk shows on the day we went- designer and trend... On the front row!!!!! (Or F'row as it is known in the biz. Lol! )
It was so cool - like being a celebrity and it was the first time I have ever seen a fashion clothing catwalk before.

Here was my view from the first show:

The first show was a trend show(what you should be wearing now :p AW14). I won't waffle on, I will let the clothes speak for themselves. But I will say that the catwalk was arranged by outnet.com so if you see anything you really like you can go to thier site and pick it up :p:







The last look was an Oscar De Larenta  dress, very pretty I thought:


The next catwalk we saw was a Nicholas Oakwell Couture show. I will definitely be letting these clothes speak for themselves as they were amazing!  Couture means 'high sewing' and relates to pieces which can take hundreds if not thousands of hours to make due to highly technical construction and or lots of intricate hand sewn embellishments. I felt very lucky to see such things in the flesh moving past me- not behind museum glass as they usually are:








Amazingly technical beading went into this dress!:






And the designer himself came out at the end! :D He was very interesting to listen to and he told us about how detailed his design process was down to him even imagining the perfume the lady he is designing for would wear!:


Here is the entry to the catwalk:

Hehe,  and here are the queues outside of it:


Another cool thing I got to do at LVFW was get a models headshot done :) and try a 4D virtual reality experience to see what it was like to be a runway catwalk model! I put these big goggles on then when I turned my head I could see photographers etc.. to the sides of me etc.. and you walk on the spot whilst you see the runway and everyone to the sides of it- it was very fun and super realistic but kinda hard to explain :p

The tote bag for this year was designed by Lulu Guinness. It came full of little goodies which I have been using and enjoying:


I think that is about it for my account on VLFW :)

But... I still have one last thing.... You have made it through my post so I thought you deserved a treat.....

*****A GIVEAWAY*****

To let a special winner get a slice of the action of VLFW I am giving away a selection of goodies from the day!!!!!!:


- An essie 'Naughty nautical' nail polish
- Maybeline 'Great Lash' mascara
-A catwalk guide from the day with pretty pictures and more explanations on the trends
- And 2 pretty picture cards/business cards too :)

The giveaway is open to anyone anywhere. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below- let me know your fave fashion magazine for fun If you want and if course some way to contact you if you win!

To get two extra entries post a link to this giveaway or my shop via your twitter or Facebook or a blog, anything really! Also if you buy anything in my shop you will also automatically be given 2 extra entries :)

The giveaway will close on Friday the tenth of October and the winner will be announced on the same day.

Well done for making it all the way through this super long post, I hope you enjoyed the flurry of fashion and good luck to all those who enter the giveaway :)

See you all soon,

Bye xxx





Saturday 20 September 2014

Feeling all bridal part 2


Hilooo, 

last week I finished my two week Bridalwear course at the London college of fashion that I mentioned and showed pictures from in another post. Today I bring you the rest of my snaps!

Here are some different pictures of my finished bodice which I designed and made :):




(It doesn't quite fit the stand as I made it to fit myself, but you get the idea)

Here is the internal corset which is inside the bodice (under the CB):


Neck strap and gem detail:

And then here are all the buttons and roleau loops down the CB:


And here a pictures of my fishtail skirt design toile:



There are a few ways you can create a fishtail shape but my design incorporated godets at the sides and a central shaped flared pointed panels CB and CF:



We also learnt about bias cutting, veils, draping and twisting and bridal wear business tips so it was a really comprehensive course!

I absolutely loved it- I Wish I could do it all over again :D All the ladies on the course (Including me :) do get to visit the tutor Christina Sesays Bridal boutique as long as we bring treats to share :p so I am excited for that day!

I am off to get ready for bed as I have a big day tomorrow-  me and my mum are going to Vodafone London Fashion Weekend!!!! :D I GET TO SEE FASHION CATWALKS!!!! I am sooo excited. I will of course do a post of all my london fashion week and VLFWeekend news!

Speak to you again soon, hope you are well! 

Bye xxxxoooxxx


Friday 19 September 2014

And the winner is...

Hi,

The entries are now closed for the vintage/antique style giveaway and the winner, as chosen by random number generator is.........

MEL MAKES!

Congratulations Mel, you are the lucky winner of all these goodies!:

I have left a comment on your blog but if you could email your address to me at iitki@hotmail.co.uk then I can get your prize on its way to you ASAP :)

As usual don't worry if it wasn't you this time as there is lots of good stuff in the pipeline!

See you all soon for the news of the 2nd half of my bridal course! :-)

Byeee xxx

Wednesday 17 September 2014

You may notice some changes...

Hi everyone,

You may have noticed that some changes are taking place on the blog...

I hope you think they are nice changes as I would hate to upset you lovely readers, just as I have mentioned before I like my blog to grow with me, so as I feel the main content of my blog start to shift, i.e. from knitting, to Kawaii crafting to fashion, costume and bridalwear, I like to update the look and style of my blog.

I like this approach rather than starting again, as what has gone before is my history and the growth of my knowledge and interests as a person- not things I want to delete and remove or sweep away to be forgotten!

I hope you will stick with me and follow me further on my journey as I enjoy talking to you all,

speak to you again soon!

Bye,

Jordan xxx

p.s. the blog address will remain exactly the same, and please do leave comments of what you think of the revamp below :)

P.p.s the giveaway enrty deadline day for the recent vintage style giveaway is coming soon- don't miss out! Enter it now if you haven't already :D Good luck!

Byeee xxx

Monday 15 September 2014

It's my Birthday! :D

Hi,

Well, it was actually my birthday yesterday :P But I am bringing you my birthday post today.

First up has got to be my amazing cake, of course lovingly baked and crafted by my lovely dad. This year my cake was ice cream themed (because it is one of my fave desserts!) resembling a giant tub of ice cream and an amazing huge ice cream cone!!!!:



The ice cream cone is not even hollow! It was a moulded chocolate cone my dad made which he then added chocolate fingers to to strengthen and filled with homemade fudge sauce, cakes and biscuits before coating in white chocolate and broken wafers. Here is a cross section:

It is all soo tasty (as usual) and I am very much enjoying snapping bits off my giant ice cream cone and nibbling on them!
THANKS DAD :D 

My brother also got me some amazing gifts including a grumpy cat cuddly toy and a star wars jawa figure (an in joke with me and him :p) abd yummy american candy and spreads- my favourite! My parents got me some chocolate too:


I love grumpy cat!! (I am not sure she loves me though! :p)

I got some cool fashion books and bits which I can't wait to start reading and using!!!:


My family are always so generous to me I feel so loved and lucky to have them and love them very much. I couldn't believe how many gifts I had- I think everyone went mad because it was my 20th :p look at all these cool food makers I now have to try:


I am trying to be healthy so am starting with the ice lolly maker :-)

My love for Hamsters wasn't forgotten either!:


And look at these adorable softies.


THANK YOU TO MY FAMILY!!!

I also want to say thank you to my friends for
 Sending lots of birthday wishes and a lovely parcel of gifts from a college friend in the post and a knit your own boyfriend kit from my secondary school friend :p It is so nice to know you all and have you as my friends :)

Speak to you all again very soon I hope you are happy and well and thank you for reading my blog and being my friends too!

Bye xxx

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Feeling all bridal...

Hi,

I hope you are all happy and well! Today I bring news on my bridalwear course I am taking art the London College of fashion.

I am absolutely loving the course, it is absolutely brilliant- I have learnt so much from the lovely tutor- Christina Sesay, who has her own bespoke bridal business (like what I hope to have one day :)

I have not quite finished my bodice yet (I will be done by friday) but here is what I have so far on the stand. It is boned, fully lined and lo has an internal corset to pull the bride in that extra bit more if she wishes. The design is all mine and it was lovely to see something I had imagined coming to life in front of me through all the new skills and techniques I had learned:


As well as bodices, we have also been working on some skirts, just as toiles. I will have a fishtail style one to show you all soon, but for now here is the draped front skirt with integral train:




This one is so interesting. I am enjoying working on skirts as these are something I have experimented less with compared to bodices and tops.

I better go now though as I have to go there now for day 3 of week 2! :-)

Speak to you all again soon,

Bye xoxoxo