There is no doubt that the Cadbury Caramel Bunny has evolved over the years. She has always been demure, alluring and attractive; especially for a cartoon rabbit, but now her image has been overhauled completely! The fact that animated characters wield such attraction has always worried me slightly! I’ve been trying to think of a male cartoon creation that displays such overt sexuality but I’ve drawn a complete blank (let alone a male animation of the animal variety.) This strange allure of the Caramel Bunny has always intrigued me, along with our unquestioning acceptance of her attractiveness! So when I was recently contacted about a designer collaboration between the aforementioned bunny and Giles Deacon, I was slightly bemused! Even more so when I discovered that Mr. Deacon had designed a new dress for this wondrous creation to wear! We’ve seen designers create looks for the famous, the High Street and now we move into the realms of confectionery. I am interested to see what fruit this collaboration will bear and excited to tell you it may provide something of interest to you, although my lips are sealed for the moment! I shall keep you posted and hope it might result in a few Cadbury Caramel Nibbles for me!

Merci to all the gang at Independent Fashion Bloggers, specifically Jennine, for including me in their Links à la Mode section this week. Read on to see who else they deemed read-worthy…

(more…)

Two news items 1. You may have noticed the new image size – it’s a trial, fiddling with a few ideas! 2. I LOVE Vice & Vanity. Their new collection, Sinew and Strain, juxtaposes equestrian elegance with hard plastics and acrylics to create dramatic, eye-catching pieces. I wore their Brid necklace (pictured above right) to a few London Fashion Week events and counted the number of comments…there were 32! Sad as it is that I counted, I felt that I HAD to count as the lovely Vivi often sends me her gorgeous creations to gain a better understanding of the design. The touchy-feely approach of Singapore design duo Vivi Masturah Lim and Aaron Kao suits me well and demonstrates something that can’t be seen in their photographs – the quality and beauty of their pieces. Something I loved about wearing the V&V necklace to London Fashion Week was the appreciative comments. I email poor Vivi every time someone heaps praise on their designs. In a way, I’m sure they are glad to be based in Singapore as it they may find taking out a restraining order a burden on our relationship! Peruse Sinew and Strain on their website and let me know what you think, so that I can bombard Vivi! (I’d also appreciate any feedback on the new image size…too overwhelming?)

My blog thus far has been “anonyme” in the French sense. Above is the one and possibly ONLY image of me that the blog will ever reveal. The reason behind this apparent change of heart…Rankin. What started as a jovial tweet from my mate Juan, followed by a few emails, resulted in the above shot (I’m on the left by the way!) I would like to make one thing clear, this is not the normal me; this is the enhanced me, lit by death lamp and shot by a genius. The process itself was phenomenal. I toyed with the idea of puling out all week, as I have never been comfortable in front of the camera. The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane housed Rankin’s makeshift studio and stunning exhibition and once in, there was no escape. Hair and make-up was a treat, laid-back and WAY more fun than expected (I am possibly the only person in the world that pre-imagined that this would be torture!) I was first up, thank goodness, as if I’d seen another be “Ranked” my nerves would have increased ten-fold. Rankin breezed in, cool and calm with his team at his side and a suitably bold soundtrack to match. One element I really wasn’t expecting was the interactivity of the exhibition – there was an open gallery, I was being watched, there was a film crew! By now I was in robot-adrenalin mode, so just got on with it. I was about as natural as polyester in front of the lens but I learned a lot; for instance, I angle my head each time I smile, my cheese-monger grin produces more wrinkles than an Olympus can handle and blonde facial hair shows up like a rug under the death lamp! The main lesson I learned as an amateur faced with a camera, was that with the aid of an astounding photographer, extreme lighting and Photoshop, we can all, even mere mortals, be transformed.

London Fashion Week was a complete enigma to me….until last week. LFW blogger etiquette eluded me too; to be honest I didn’t know if such a thing even existed. Then the blogger community rallied around to my twittering call of HELP and showed me how to be part of the great British fashion institution. My first lesson learned – if you don’t ask, you don’t get. I emailed lots of press-officers in the vain hope of one or two replies. Not having received my press accreditation, I did panic slightly but as Style Slicker and Disney Roller Girl assured me, the events are very blogger friendly. So, some invites started to drip into my inbox and up to Londinium did I head…with a sense of palpable trepidation! With the help of some good friends, I ventured to the Hospital Club for Nova Dando‘s fashion week unveiling of the Rainbow Collection. La Roux triumphed live for the select crowd, House of Dangerkat wowed with their “moves” and the champagne flowed, all be it a little too freely! One of the most interesting parts of the night for me was experiencing first hand other people’s definition of “celebrity.” I was overwhelmed by the presence of some of my fave uber-bloggers, whilst a certain Radio 1 DJ impressed one friend….another’s only starstruck moment came from viewing Banksy’s Lady Di tenners! What impressed me the most was that the common denominator is our humanity – if you venture over for a chat, these well-known souls communicate in the same way as us mere mortals…all be it they may not wish to talk back to you. A joyous revelation was Monsieur Yvan Rodic, the Facehunter. We share a common language, le français, and he was most helpful, insightful and friendly; I’m not sure why I expected anything less really! So quite a few myths were dispelled for me this weekend – LFW is accessible to bloggers, the famous and I are of the same species and Nova Dando gives good party.

The rise of the über/power blogger over the last year has astounded me. It became even more apparent at the Arcadia blogger event last week. My conversations revolved singularly around the power-bloggers du jour and the reasons they wield so much influence – from the controversy and hype surrounding the youthful Tavi of Style Rookie to Scott Shuman’s respected first blogger publication. Susie Bubble‘s appearance at the event was met with great anticipation by most of the bloggers in attendance who proceeded to name-check her above all others there because of the kudos attached to her Style Bubble. Do not get me wrong, Susie was an absolute DELIGHT and seemed oblivious to the subtle furore surrounding her entrance, it is in the subsequent postings that her influence has been highlighted for me. So, it is on that note that I call all bloggers out there to showcase their blogs. I’m currently updating my blog-roll, a task I take very seriously! The big players will of course be there – Style Bubble, The Sartorialist, Facehunter and Style Rookie (name-checked as I used them in my montage photo above) but I’d love to highlight some new, up-and-coming blogs too. So if you would like me to take a look at your blog and possibly include it on my roll (if of course I love it too) comment on this post with your URL. I am currently sorting through the mountain of RSS fields I read daily but would love to see what else is on offer…go on…surprise me…!

Wednesday night offered a unique opportunity, a blogger event at Arcadia HQ to preview their winter collections. I will not lie, I was EXTREMELY apprehensive. Knowing no-one and ascending to the 6th floor with my oversized white puff-shouldered dress, I entered with trepidation. The night that ensued shaped this post, which originally would have been about ALL the cool bloggers I met (I will name check some later) and the amazing clothes. I feel that this post is better dedicated to the well-oiled marketing machine that is Arcadia and more specifically Topshop. They have harnessed a side of the publicity market that is still in development but offers them a phenomenal marketing opportunity. It could almost be summed up in an equation. Bloggers + canapes + booze + professional photographer + carefully selected clothes = marketing GENIUS! The event was soo well put together and soo much fun, everyone that attended couldn’t fail to gush over the brand. I also met some genuinely lovely members of the Topshop team, specifically Liz & Zoe pictured above. They worked incredibly hard networking and chatting but also seemed to truly enjoy themselves providing great conversation!

I loved meeting other bloggers too – putting names to faces and finding out these people were super-cool and interesting only serves to make me more appreciative of their work. Disney Roller Girl and Red Carpet Fashion Awards were really kind and chatty (Tavi cover of POP seemed to be the conversation du jour) It was also very enlightening to see the power of Susie Bubble – she was extremely in demand, very polite and lovely and obviously a very influential member of the blogger set. So well done Arcadia, this event was truly a success  and innovative and fun to boot!

So today sees the beginning of a little side-project with POP magazine. I feel very honoured to have been asked to contribute and hope I do a good job. It’s just another place to follow my antics; so I can now be found on Twitter and POP and right here, my favourite place of all. I’m not sure what guise my links with POP will take but I’ll be making a start tomorrow. Also, don’t forget you can follow my blog with bloglovin too.

A close second behind la mode or is that joint first with la lecture?…comes la musique. Refreshingly some true fashionistas have entered the world of music, where for me their style surpasses their musicianship. A prime example is the gorgeous Florence + the Machine – her look is truly unique and uncompromising, her innate talent undeniable, her music…is not yet to my taste (although I’m only 2 listens into the album.) Sometimes the hype surrounding these artistes is overwhelming, almost as if the industry cannot contain itself at the musical enigma it is presented with. They don’t have to manufacture anything, all the elements of success are there; beauty – check, talent – check, quirky fashion-forward style, check, hoards of equally cool fans – check! The album is then released and it’s good but not the equal to the phenomenon of the artist. The N.M.E. released quite a mediocre review of Florence’s album Lungs, that sums up what I said here in a far more scathing manner (which does make me sad as Florence’s voice is a joy!) Her style is breathtaking and so uplifting in an industry of complete fashion lemmings, so now I’m going to give her music a chance. Listen to Florence here and peruse her fashion magnificence everywhere.

Paris était formidable…comme toujours! The city draws me in, as always. It was expensive (more so as the Euro becomes stronger than the British pound,) it was busy and hectic but still something about the city gives me an inner serenity that I don’t find elsewhere. Big cities have a very obvious appeal for the tourist but the longer I spend in Paris and the more I get to know the city, I wonder if it could ever be a “home.” Am I deluding myself? Am I seduced by the appeal of big-city life, as seen by a visitor? I used to live in London and after a year I did become disillusioned and frankly lonely in a city of millions. Would that be the case in Paris….I will keep you posted.