Happy Halloween! Frightful Costumes and a Spooktacular MCM Shoot Video.

My second favourite day of the year has arrived! (the first? Christmas Eve, obviously). However due to it being inappropriate to drink on a Sunday night, my pals and I decided to celebrate Halloween last night. Most people in our local town had not, unfortunately, had the same idea, as we had mistakenly assumed they would. So we were in the minority of costumed-up people, but hey, we got a free drink for our efforts.

Dictionary definition:
Glitterbird: will dress up for alcohol based rewards (but doesn't really need an excuse).

Clockwise from top right: George the Witch, Jena the Dead Eighties Soap Star, Adam the Killer Werewolf and Kevin the Psycho Lumberjack.

We ended up at our friend's house in Bognor Regis (yes, it does really exist) where we met up with a larger gang of ghouls - best costume went to my new Australian friend Chris, who had come as a Dead Steve Irwin, complete with poisonous ray sticking out of his chest. Fun times were had by all, and far, far too many Haribo Tangfastics were eaten. I do not attempt to hide my penchant for super childish sweets. Tonight, I hope everyone is enjoying a Halloween that is filled with treats rather than tricks.

Back in real life, where fake blood and bat necklaces are not part of my uniform, and the lovely people at MCM have posted the first behind the scenes video of our bloggers shoot. Everyone looks really cool, and I'm in it too. Enjoy!




GL

London Life: Saucy Grannies and Stingy Councils

It's been a while since I shared a Tube anecdote, and to be honest, this one really tickled me, so I hope it brings a little smile/smirk/mind feeling of amusement to your otherwise irritatingly long Friday afternoon!

Halloween has officially taken over my life, as it does every year, so I decided to get in the spirit a little early yesterday. My outfit was a slightly more respectable take on Taylor Momsen's slut chic - she is, after all, a Halloween costume just waiting to happen.


Obviously, I opted for actual clothes as opposed to holes with bits of string between them, but I felt that I suitably captured the essence of Momsen.

(When I left London and returned to my homeland of country-ville last night I was greeted by my Dad's display of four pumpkins and lots of candles in our living room. He is the one person I know who loves All Hallows Eve even more than me - so blame him for my obsessiveness).

Anyway - back to the outfit story. The piece de resistance of my take on Momsen was the House of Holland rip-off New Look tights with pretend stocking effect. Lovely.


I thought they looked alright. I put them on and thought yeah, I enjoy these. So I got on the Tube with my usual stressed out face on and sat down in a grump, only to be further irritated by two old ladies sat opposite pointing and whispering about me.

They looked a bit like this:



I took it in my stride at first - they were probably just having a normal old lady reaction to my questionable junkie-esque look. Whatevs. HOWEVER. The next thing I know, one has lent over and the following conversation went as follows;

Old lady: Excuse me! Excuse me! We were just looking at your tights. They are not stockings are they?! We thought they were! We thought when you got on the train that you were wearing stockings, outrageous!"

Me: No, they're tights. It's too cold to just wear my stockings.

Old ladies: We think they are lovely!

Me: Really??!

Old lady: Yes, I was just saying my husband would go MAD for those! Where did you get them?

Me (cringing just a tiny bit): Oh right. Well, they are just from New Look.

[At this point, the old lady gets out her notebook and writes that down.]

Old lady: Brilliant, thank you ever so much dear.

Well that was one of my weirder Tube experiences I have to say. Nevertheless it brightened up my morning.



On a darker note, this week I received some seriously bad news. Having never been to the Oxford Street Christmas lights switch on ceremony, I decided that this was the year I would go, as a proper Londoner now. So I Googled the event, only to discover that Westminster council will 'just be holding a simple ceremony this year, with no celebrity performances.' WHAT?! No X-factor rejects or failing Hollywood star? Seriously?! What is worse, my hometown of Chichester aren't having Christmas lights AT ALL, because of budget cuts. I know, I know, the recession is generally making everything shit, but when it's starts messing up Christmas, I'm going to get really annoyed.

I'm off to Asda to buy as many fairylights as I can get my hands on. I take my seasonal festivities very seriously, in case you hadn't noticed.

Happy Halloween y'all :-)

GL

Image from Playle.com

Happy Haute Couture Halloween!

I have been umming and erring about Halloween costumes for the past week - as per usual, I have left it to the last minute to decide and everything I think of is too complicated!

Thankfully, my pals Zoe and Cressida at Motilo slaved away all day yesterday - we take Halloween very seriously - to create some brilliant, haute couture inspired costumes.

Why not? A girl can dream can't she?

Prepare to be inspired!

http://magazine.motilo.com/wicked-witch-alexis-mabille/

For make up ideas, come on, nobody does it better than M.A.C. Obviously.

http://magazine.motilo.com/halloween-imagined-m-a-c/

Amy Winehouse for Fred Perry: The Verdict

(A version of this post is orginally found on Motilo.com)

When I first heard that Amy Winehouse was going to design a collection for Fred Perry, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, it made perfect sense because Amy is seen wearing Fred Perry polo shirts in every paparazzi shot of her stumbling around Camden, so the brand might as well get her on side. But on the other hand, it is hard to ignore her troubled personal life and somewhat ambiguous sobriety. I want to believe that she is totally sober, but sometimes it's tricky when you see photos like this:

Oh Amy.

It's also hard to believe she is 100% healthy when a friend of a friend stumbled across letters from a hospital that would suggest otherwise, but without literally spending 24/7 in the girl's company, how could anyone decide what is true and what is not. (I would actually like to spend at least 24 hours in her company, just to see what she is really like.)

It would take a brave/completely insane PR executive to tackle the reputation of this troubled lady. Which begs the question: if she hasn’t been able to record an album for three years, how the flip has she managed to design a capsule collection? I'm reserved judgement for the clothes themselves.

Fred Perry unveiled the collection yesterday. My personal faves are the trench coat and knitted silk polo shirt: both classic Fred Perry, just styled up to be a lot more girly and – just maybe – sexy. The number of cleavage revealing buttons to leave undone, a la Winehouse, is totally up to you.

Amy Winehouse modelling the Fred Perry trench from her collection

Even as a fan, I can see that Amy’s personal style has become something of a parody of itself over the last few years – but no matter what, it’s still hard to tear my eyes away from this captivating car crash of fashion. She says herself that she dresses “like an old Jewish black man. I still dress like it’s the 1950s.” Nothing wrong with that, in my humble opinion.

Amy looking hawt.

The Fred Perry homepage today is a homage to Amy’s girly, retro style – the collection certainly captures the essence of her own wardrobe (minus the kittens and discarded drug paraphenalia, obviously).

At just eighteen pieces, it’s not an enormous selection, and more of a capsule collection, however a pink, grey and black colour palette throughout makes it easy to swap around the seperates, and all are slim fitting, feminine and fun. Although we doubt the House of Winehouse was involved on every level of the design process, whoever was in charge has definitely incorporated her personal look. It’s not ground-breaking stuff, but it will certainly appeal to die-hard Amy and Fred Perry fans, of which there are many.

Bowling shirt, £60

Fred Perry is enjoying yet another popularity revival with help from everyone's favourite Channel 4 programme This is England ’86, as well as a general retro 1960s feeling running through autumnal fashion, and Amy is attempting to stage a comeback. Knowing her changeable loyalties (she recently slagged off Mark Ronson, to whom she owes at least part of the success of Back to Black) I wonder whether this will be a long term relationship, but just for now, both parties are looking sharp.

Judge the collection for yourself here.

All images: Fred Perry

Just Your Average Thursday Evening

Prior to the Dita shenanigans last week, I mentioned that I had agreed to take part in a bloggers shoot, organised by Mademoiselle Robot and DeVetta PR in order to promote a luxury brand called MCM. I had picked the last time slot of the day, and the other blogging-types (Kit Lee - Style Slicker, Alexandra Vanthournout - Alex Loves and Kristin Knox - The Clothes Whisperer) had all thrown their best shapes before I got there.

So, with quivering legs and sweaty palms (nice) I dragged myself to the studio in Hackney, where I gratefully met a lovely team from MCM and DeVetta PR, who did their best to put me at ease! I basically regressed to my 7 year old self when I was shown into a room of lovely bags and told to play dress up. I've always been more of a shoe fetishist than a handbag obsessive, so MCM had escaped my radar until last week - but they have been creating beautiful bags since 1974, when the company was founded in Germany ('Mode Creation Munich').

After much, much deliberation - I'm not famed for my fast decision making when confronted with too much choice - I picked two bags to play with. The red because I am drawn to anything scarlet and granny-bag shaped, and the snakeskin just because I thought it had a touch of the Dynasty's about it, which is never a bad thing.

Gow Tanaka and Adam De Cruz took one look at my bedraggled self and plonked me in the make-up chair faster than you can say 'Laura Mercier'. I felt like a blank canvas being painted on, which was odd, but strangely fun. There was some straightening and powdering of the hair involved - I was told off about my hairspray addiction and have never had so much attention lavished on my candyfloss barnet before. One deep breath and we were off!

So, here are the results. No pointing and laughing at the back please.


Don't worry - I have no delusions about being a model, but I'm not going to lie, it sure was enjoyable to pretend for an hour! I'd like to thank God, Rui Faria (photographer) and the wonder that is Photoshop. I was also pretty grateful to have a faceful of magical makeup when I rushed off straight after to meet my idol Dita. I was also extra super grateful to have been allowed to take home a very gorgeous, very grown up handbag too. Does this mean I have to be ladylike now?

All in all, a very surreal evening!

Right, back to doing my writing thing again.

GL

All images: MCM

Oh, Hey Dita von Teese

I need to b r e a t h e. My heart is racing and my head is a mess - there is a good chance I could burst into tears at any inappropriate moment. Last night I received a last minute invitation to a Cointreau event being held at Selfridges, and hosted by the brand ambassador...Dita von Teese.

Dita. von. Teese. My idol - my entire university dissertation was inspired by her, and I wrote approximately 5000 words on her meteoric impact on the burlesque scene, and the subsequent influence that had on sexuality and femininity in fashion (14000 words later and I had managed to make my point!)

So the thought of being in the same room as this person who had literally been the sole focus of my attention for three months of my life was a little bit daunting. By 'little bit', I mean that I was trying not to just keel over with excitement.

A mad dash later - I literally ran all the way to Selfridges - and I arrived in the personal shopping suite, to be greeted by a luxurious room filled with beautiful trinkets and delicious Cointreau cocktails (with feathers decorating the stems of the glasses!)



The gorgeous cocktail modelled by my gorgeous pal Melanie Hick - who may look cool in this pic, but who was equally as excitable as I was. When a certain woman stepped into the room, Mel was digging her fingernails into my arm, but I think that is acceptable in the circumstances.

There was a noticeable moment of silence as Dita, vision of loveliness, entered the soiree. She is TINY in both stature and figure, poured into a supernaturally beautiful purple silk gown with the most immaculate hair I have ever seen.

Standing frozen like a rabbit in headlights, I gazed at her, finding the whole experience really surreal. Next thing I know, Mel Hick has downed her drink, grabbed me and forcibly planted us next to Dita, before interrupting the conversation she was having to say "Hi, this is George, she is a huge fan and has written 5000 words on you. I think you need to chat." I nearly died.

But Miss von Teese turned around to chat to me. She has a really sweet, quiet, Texan accent, which I wasn't expecting (even though I know that is where she is from). It is the voice of a young girl, not a 38-year old femme fatale.

Yeah, she's 38. There is hope for all of us!

I talked to her about my dissertation theories on burlesque and the sexuality of women, and she explained that as she has been doing this for 17 years, her act has changed a lot, to feature less 'chi chi' cutesy silliness and more grown up glamour. We also laughed about the fact that she is due to play Erotica next month, and the first time she did that, the police came to check her act was above board! Because of laws about removing your clothes in public, she had to go behind a screen to remove each item during her act, which turned it into something of a farce!

I asked her if she gets a chance to go and watch other burlesque performances while she is in London, but she said no - she doesn't like to steal attention away from other people. She also indicated that she doesn't get a lot of love from the other burlesque queens, which is not surprising as it is a notoriously bitchy business and Dita is very much at the top of her game. She was dignified enough to simply shrug her shoulders when I said they were just jealous!

Instead of going out drinking, she prefers to stay in, and practise her performances. I don't think I have ever met anyone more dedicated to their chosen craft and lifestyle, but boy, has it paid off. Her shows are nearly always funded by sponsors now - she has been working with Cointreau for three years and finds it very easy to talk about a liqueur that she loves! She has no intention of stopping her performances just yet and her next show - the Opium Den - is her most complicated act to date.

*Lifetime ambition: see Dita perform. It's gotta be done!*

Anyway, I didn't want to impose on her precious time, so reluctantly wrapped up the conversation. Not before I had been a complete fangirl and asked for a picture, of course!

(I don't know why I would want to pose next to the most beautiful woman on the planet but I just wanted to be able to prove to myself that it really did happen!)

We spent the rest of the evening floating on a bubble of happiness and admiring the rest of the party set up. The shindig had been organised to celebrate another Dita/Cointreau collaboration, 'My Private Cointreau Coffret'. It's would be the most delectable Christmas present... exclusively stocked at Selfridges, naturally.


A special dressing room had been designed with a very Dita-esque dressing table and an area to pose for your very own pin-up picture. So yeah, I got involved!


What a twit. The cocktails made me do it. What a truly amazing evening.

GL

In Other News...

At the moment I am doing the press day rounds, which means minimal computer time and maximum pounding the streets of London.

Full on ranty Gbird post coming later on, but in the meantime, I have been singing the praises of The Like for Motilo - they are seriously, seriously cool.

http://magazine.motilo.com/love/

I really enjoy the fact that they look this good and are super talented as well. It gives me something to aspire to on a daily basis. Have you seen more perfect 60s hair? Just looking at them makes me want to wear about four pairs of false eyelashes.

It's a little in the past tense now, but I was also interviewed for MyBag.co.uk, a new website for all you handbag fetishists.

Tomorrow I have agreed to participate in a photoshoot too - god knows why, as I am no Alexa Chung, but maybe it will be fun?! If the results don't hurt my eyes I'll post them up.

Another very worthwhile distraction - a certain boy I mentioned previously has got me addicted to a new band: Best Coast. Have a listen, they will brighten up your day. Our favourite lyrics; "I'm lonely, I've lost my job, I wish my cat could talk." It doesn't get better than that!

Anyway, back to work, I just thought I'd let you know I'm still alive.

GL

I'll Live Off Beans To Achieve My Dreams

and it seems that I am very much not alone in thinking like that. On Wednesday, Levis hosted a very inspirational evening for young women starting out in the creative industries.

The panel, hosted by Annie Mac

It's got a bit chilly in the evenings now, and part of me was reluctant to drag my tired bones to another fashion event on Wednesday. But I am so glad that I did - because this was no promotional, show-offy, 'buy our product' shindig, it was the start of a genuinely brilliant project.

This project is snappily entitled 'Shape What's to Come', and is basically a website community for young creative laydees to be able to communicate with each other, as well as to receive mentorship from some brilliant ambassadors. This is actually a pretty inspired idea, because whether people study anything arty/creative, or simply try and teach themselves the necessary skills while working a 9 to 5, starting out in this sector of industry is ridiculously hard (I might have mentioned that a couple of times on this blog before. Possibly.)

Having this kind of access to interact with your contemporaries, as well as getting advice from people who know what they are talking about, will be invaluable, in my humble opinion.

Anyway, so this is how the evening panned out: a group of bloggers, writers, entrepreneurs, stylists and film makers showed up to the Levis store on Regent Street and picked up our name badges and a bottle of beer (you are not going to get cocktails from Levis, are you? It's all about brand image.)

We all milled about looking sheepish, before sitting down for a debate hosted by the very curly of hair Annie Mac (seriously, it was out of control! I love her, but she looked like she had been electrocuted. In a trendy way, obvs.) She was a brilliant host, and introduced the six Ambassadors who had come to tell their tales and dish out advice:

Justice Williams, an entrepreneur from Birmingham who had got a criminal record at 21 and has subsequently turned her life around, receiving an OBE last year.

Anna Murray and Grace Witteringham, who launched their own company called Patternity, an agency and design project which looks for pattern everywhere.

Iconika, one of the handful of female DJs making waves in the world of electronic music (she was extremely cool. Coolness was just oozing out of her. I wish I could DJ. Anyway, back on track)

Kathryn Ferguson, a self taught film director who works for the Birds Eye View film festival and who has filmed Lady Gaga as well as producing fashion films for the world's most exciting publications. She is quite shy, but a pretty amazing woman all the same.

Kristen Knox (plus Butters her pet dog/little scrawny thing with tufts of hair. It was like a cartoon dog.) A full time fashion blogger who goes by the name of The Clothes Whisperer. I have to say, I didn't warm to her and Butters at first - especially when she told us Butters has his own blog as well - but she actually seems like an intelligent, dedicated person. She's got a Masters of Philosophy in Classical Languages and Literature, after all.

We were sat on wooden benches, enraptured by the inspiring tales these women had to tell. I'm just going to bullet-point some of the advice we received, because I enjoy a good bullet-pointed list at the best of times:

Justice: When trying to get a project going, focus on one thing 100% of the time, so that you can give it 100% of your effort.
Patternity girls: Keep a theme running through your work and ambitions in order to stay focused.
Kathryn: Don't compare yourself to other people and don't put pressure on yourself.
Kristen: Don't allow yourself to be boxed in, say yes to everything, and don't set yourself rigid goals.

I thought that last point was extremely relevant for now - in a world of uncertainty, it is hard to stick to original plans. When I was younger, I wanted to be the Editor of Vogue, but by the time I am old enough/experienced enough/finally smart enough, who knows whether Vogue will even exist anymore?

I love a good debate, me, and always have to stick mt two penneth in (just ask the girls at uni, who wanted to sellotape my hands to my chair to stop me raising it in lectures). I asked the panel what they had sacrificed to achieve their dreams, and if it was worth it.

Kathryn took a massive pay cut, but now loves her job more than life! Iconika did a year in a retail job, hating it, to try and save up enough money to record her album. Kristen confesses to living off the 'champagne and canape' diet in order to save money (with you on that one, lady). Justice really made me laugh - she sold her car, invested her savings and lived off jam and toast for every meal for three months, and hasn't been on holiday in six years. She shut her eyes and said she could 'feel the sun on my face!' from her last trip to a beach!

After all our serious chats, the Noisettes performed a flipping BRILLIANT acoustic set. There really aren't many better frontwomen than Shingai Shoniwa out there right now. She probably thinks I'm stalking her, because we always seem to be at the same events, but what can I say, I just think she is super duper talented. And beautiful. It's just disgusting.




Afterwards she did a little interview with Annie, which made us all giggle. She too, did her time in a shop job - getting "sacked from Oasis, then going to OddBins for a bit, which was good for the discount!" She told us all about the festival in Malawi she and the band, along with many other musicians, were flying out to play this week. They are taking school supplies for the kids and hope that it is going to be the most significant gig of their lives. And they ain't scared of no mosquitoes, neither. *Ahem-Chez Cole-ahem*


All in all, a brilliant, brilliant evening, which reasserted my faith in all things creative. The site launches (for tech-speakers) in Beta form on Monday:

www.shapewhatstocome.com

If anyone would like a code for the site, let me know - I have 10, so first come first served.

GL

Writing Round Up Part III

Made in Dagenham - flipping brilliant.

I do have a professional hat which I wear when writing for other people. It's shiny, fashion-y and (I hope) makes me look a little bit like I know what I am actually talking about. I put the hat on and somehow fooled the people at Motilo to let me write about things. It's going ok so far, and these are the results:

Last weekend I saw Made in Dagenham, which was amazingly brilliant and great. Not least for Rosamund Pike's awesome wardrobe.

I wrote about it here:

http://magazine.motilo.com/dagenham-in-style/

I also had a go at writing a beauty article (I'm a girl, I know about makeup, right? How hard can it be?)

http://magazine.motilo.com/trending-futurist-flapper-girl/

And, in homage to my uni course leader Deborah Lampitt, I wrote about Eyes of Laura Mars - which she told us about on my first day, and being a massive geek I went and rented it from the university library. Faye Dunaway as Laura Mars has been a style icon ever since, even though I would never actually try and achieve her level of polished-ness. I will look at capes and silk blouses appreciatively, while continuing to rock the 'hygienic tramp' look, as I saw it referred to on Vice.

Anyway, so if you are a classy lady, you might enjoy this one too (it's a good movie, you should watch it!)

http://magazine.motilo.com/iconic-inspiration-eyes-laura-mars/

GL

If All Else Fails...Smile

Sometimes a girl just needs something to cheer her up. As I clutched a mug of green tea this morning and got my head into work mode, I spied some decidedly cheerful and cute jewellery, which really did put a smile on my face.




Who knew that the raving 'Smiley' logo was actually a copyrighted symbol? The company which owns it has collaborated with Disaya to make this range of enamel cuff bracelets. They are kitsch to the extreme but when has that ever been a problem?! What's more, having tried a few on, I realised they are a little bit of wearable PMA - which is always a good thing.

You can get your own bit of Smiley-ness at ASOS and Kibiri, if you wish.

GL

Love, Paris, and the Truth.

Before you run screaming to the hills, afraid of an T.M.I. moment, don't panic. This is not about to turn into a self-confessional outpouring of Leona Lewis-esque faux emotion. But something I have always believed, since I started writing seriously, is that the basis of all writing is truth, and without that, we lose the whole purpose of creativity. Truth, beauty, freedom and love, and all that jazz.

So this is why I have been AWOL. I did not think that writing a happy, jolly post about fashion while my mind was taken over by the compulsions of a broken heart was very honest. I am no Karley Sciortino (the writer of Slutever blog, which you really should spend a few hours on, reeling from her tales of screwed up love, sex and life as a London squatter - she is the greatest raconteur, if unbelievably blunt.) I am not going to recount the gory details of my romantic crisis, and will say only this;

There is a boy.
He gave me the nickname that is the title of this blog.
He is the love of my life.

Unfortunately it's a little more complicated than that, but I have realised that real, unbreakable love is complicated, and painful, and frustrating, but also something that is worth waiting for.

Everything good in my life has come as a result of my writing. Here's hoping he comes around to the idea of forever.

So now you know.

In other news, I was lucky enough to make a one day trip to Paris this week (I know, the irony.) In between fashion activities, I managed to get a taste of what the city is really like, and now as much as I will always be a London girl, Paris won me over, just a little bit.

Paris is a very peaceful place. I'll be back...one day.

GL

Everybody Loves Barbie...

What a pose. Legend

...but no-one more than me.

To the point that when I looked at the SS11 collections from London Fashion Week , I could see one thing and one thing only: Malibu Barbie.

Read more about next season's muse here:

http://fashioneditoratlarge.blogspot.com/2010/10/malibu-barbie-new-style-icon-for-ss11.html

Enjoy

GL