40s Glamour

Its been a busy week. It started with  interviewing Melissa Odabash  for my In the closet pages. She has one hell of a wardrobe and a body to go with it! I reckon she must in her late 40s but looks incredible for it! I couldn't stop staring at her legs!!! I've also been working on 2 different focus pages. the first was one about singers who are turning their hand to designing and the second was all about prints. My main project for next week though is to concentrate on my 1940s tailoring story i'm shooting on Thursday,  inspired by the likes of  Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth. They were all such glamorous women, a sort of glamour that women just don't seem to have anymore. I love everything about the 1940s, The Golden Age, and am really excited about this shoot.

For A/W 2012 pencil skirts are going to be a huge trend so ill be shooting a lot of these paired with chiffon blouses, fabulous hats and great statement jewellery. I might throw in the odd bit of fur (faux of course) as well.

Donna Karan

Donna Karan

Miu Miu

Ask away

So I went out with some of my girlfriends on Friday night and we ended up discussing my blog. They kept saying to me that they had loads of fashion dilemmas and questions but didn't know who to ask. So today i'm giving writing about myself a miss and instead its all about you guys- hit me with whatever questions you have and I'll do my best to think of solutions to those problems, find that right party dress or point you in the right direction of where to purchase the perfect jeans and if i dont have a clue then ill tell you! Today its all about you!

Crazy Times

First and foremost I want to say how awful it is about News Of The World-  because of the actions of a couple of disgusting, greedy people, 100s of others are now out of work. Fabulous was a great magazine and will be missed. Lets hope the rumours of a relaunched magazine are true.
Meanwhile on Wednesday I got to spend the day shooting a fashion story on a canal boat in little Venice. The weather has been so shitty I was a bit worried but thankfully for our 3 hour boat trip it managed to stay pretty calm and the sun even came out for a bit. I was shooting with the gorgeous photographer Gianni Diliberto. It turned out to be a really fun day. Heres a sneeky peak at what I shot:

River Island dress

Topshop sequin top; River Island shorts

French Connection dress

Warehouse top, Urban Outfitters shorts

And so the week begins

This week is going to be mental- not only have i been shooting today and also got a shoot on wednesday but my Editor and the fashion assistant Lindsay have headed off to Mauritius on a trip leaving little old me in the office!!!! Actually that's unfair Laura our intern will be in to help for 3 days and she's great so I cant complain.
So first and foremost a bit of shameless self -plugging. I got a call this morning to say i'd made it onto vogue.co.uk at wireless festival!!! I look slightly pregnant in the picture which didnt please me at all and they've got my Miu Miu sunnies down as River Island but other than that was quite chuffed to have made it on there at all-

http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/street-chic/2011/07/wireless/charlie-wells

I've spent the rest of the day shooting still lifes for my festival page and planning my shoot on wednesday as Im heading off on a canal boat through little venice and along regent's park. It should be quite a fun little outing. I toyed with the idea of shooting it quite preppy but figured that could look quite cheesy on a boat so instead i've opted for rock chic with a feminine twist- chiffon dresses and blouses toughened up with leather and shoe boots. In terms of hair and make-up its always quite good to collect as many tears as possible to show the make-up artist on the day so you're both on the same wavelength. I've decided I quite want the messy, easy going look for hair- a bit like at the Isabel Marant show and then more of a dramatic eyemake-up like at Julian Macdonald. Here are just a few of the tears I like:

hair ideas

hair ideas

make-up ideas

It's friday!!

Sorry for my lack of updates lately but its been a pretty hectic week and haven't had a second to myself! Yesterday I was shooting how to wear the striped dress 6 ways for my focus pages. I was shooting with the gorgeous Vincent Dolman. I haven't seen him for a while so it was good to catch up. These sort of pages are always much harder to style than a normal fashion shoot. Im not sure why but I suppose fashion shoots allow you to be quite creative and crazy with the clothes but these sort of shoots have to represent reality and what people would actually wear so you have to think that bit harder. Its a bit like dressing myself- I have no problem styling others but always have to consider what I myself put on so much more- probably not helped by the fact i'm not 6ft model! Anywhere enough rambling here's a sneaky peek from my shoot:

Vinnie

So this afternoon i'm off to Wireless with the wonderful Dorothy Perkins girls and i'm really excited. Im going with Antonia from The Daily Express too so should be a good laugh. We're off to have our make-up and nails done first. I had a few dilemmas over what to wear but finally settled on this red chiffon maxi skirt from Dorothy Perkins and this t-shirt from Topshop. The sun's shining so i've gone with my Accessorize embellished sandals my Miu Miu sunnies. 

Have a fab weekend, enjoy the sunshine and ill catch up with you next weekxx