My Red Magazine Photo Shoot: The Clothes - Part I

Last month I was part of a photo shoot for Red magazine. They had put a call out on Twitter for people to test detox diets. I tested the 4-day 'My Detox Diet' package which consisted of 4 days worth of specially balanced meals, which were designed to detox the body and help lose weight.

The magazine organised for a photographer to come down to Cardiff to take my photo for the magazine. If you know me at all, then you will know that I am not a big fan of having my photo taken and will generally try and hide at the back of any group photos that I am in. Therefore my friends thought that it was hilarious that I had volunteered myself to be part of a photo shoot.

I only had 6 days notice of the shoot, and was told that I'd have to style my self. This induced a bit of a "I've got nothing to wear" style crisis on my part and I sought advice from some of my favourite ladies on Twitter: Sam_Bottega, Donna Ida, and Penny. As three very stylish ladies who have been in a fair few photo shoots themselves, I knew that they would have plenty of sound advice. However, I was blown away, when Sam offered to lend me some pieces after we'd had a style consultation via a stream of Twitter DMs!

I was eagerly anticipating the delivery of the items to my office, but was ecstatic when the parcel arrived, and I discovered that not only had Sam sent me 4 jackets, 3 pairs of jeans, 4 tops, and a variety of accessories to style up the outfits, but she had also given me 2 sides of A4 of styling notes to help with outfit options. A fashion Fairy Godmother, if ever there was one!

Maison Scotch Tuxedo Jacket

Maison Scotch 'Chanel-style' Jacket

One Teaspoon Velvet Blazer

American Retro Corduroy Blazer

Sam sent me a great selection from a range of brands that she stocks in her boutique, Bottega, in Tarporley, Cheshire, which was recently selected as one of the Top 50 Boutiques outside London, by Stella magazine. I won't reveal which outfit I settled on for the shoot (to be blogged about in a future post), but I wanted to show the pieces that Sam sent me, as I loved them all, and it was great to discover some brands that were new to me. I didn't want this post to be too picture-heavy, so I am going to post the photos over two posts.