Tickets went on sale yesterday for this year's Vogue Festival, taking place in the Southbank Centre on the weekend of March 29-30. This year, the style bible will be welcoming another amazing selection of fashion industry insiders to share their experiences and wisdom with fashion lovers. The list of speakers reads like a dream closet: Valentino, Phoebe Philo, Manolo Blahnik, and Mary Katranzou, to name just a few. I have yet to attend a Vogue Festival, and every year when it comes around, I always wish that I had purchased tickets. So, could this be the year? I may not be able to stretch to a Celine tote, but I am sorely tempted to purchase a ticket for the Phoebe Philo talk, and that's just for starters!
A slightly delayed post, but I thought that I would share some of my photos from one of my favourite social media platforms, Instagram. I love how it gives people the opportunity to take beautiful photos, even if they aren't the best photographers! The Instagram filters and I have become firm friends!
Clockwise from top left:
I went
for a run in the fields behind my house and was really struck by the
intensity of the colours. If cross-country had been like this in school
I am sure that I would have been more inspired to do it!
Cardiff University where I work has some beautiful Portland stone
buildings surrounded by magnolia & cherry blossom, I couldn't resist
taking a photo on my way back from a meeting!
My new mantra after following Natalie Massenet's talk at the Vogue Festival.
At the start of the month I (and 500 other people!) took part in
Goodnight Walk around Cardiff to raise funds for Tenovus Cancer. The
route was 10 miles but it seemed to go really quickly as I was lucky
enough to be walking with two of my lovely colleagues.
This month I have been all about the statement necklace. I dug out this
one from last season that I picked up in H & M. What do you think?
For the last two weeks I have been enjoying the many delights of Italy: working my way through my ‘to read’ pile in the sunshine; beautiful scenery; shopping; delicious food (and wine), and spending time with family. I had a fantastic time, so therefore it was a bit of shock to the system returning to British shores, to be met with grey skies and the all too familiar rain. My holiday has given me a lot of food for thought for future blog posts, but in the mean time I thought that I would share some of my holiday snaps with you.
Top Row (L-R): Monterosso, Cinque Terre; Velva; Portofino sculpture park
Today's blog post is from the lovely and very stylish Penny, who I met on Twitter via a shared love of all things Chanel. I was in awe when she revealed that she had an archive of Vogue magazines, going back over 30 years, and was delighted when she agreed to write about it for my blog.
My interest in fashion began many years ago
when I was a small child, playing dress up with the beautiful clothes and hats
that my mother and grandmother had magically stored in their wardrobes.
There were always loads of magazines around the house too, and I was about 10 when I started using my pocket money to buy more. Then I got a holiday job in a bookshop, in the magazine section of course! That was when my addiction really began - 40 years ago, and since then it's been 'Vogue UK', 'Harpers & Queen' and 'Tatler', every month, with loads of other titles coming and going over the years.
Back in those days of course there was no
internet, no air freight delivery, no Facebook and no Twitter! Fashion occasionally appeared in the newspaper and on the TV news, but mostly we had to wait for the magazines to arrive by sea, usually 3 to 4
months after they were published – and that was the first time we actually got
to see the Royal weddings, the new collections, the models, the parties , the
new seasons ads etc. It’s really hard to think back to those days now
as I sit here watching LFW 2012 live streaming on my iPad and reading my
e-version of the current Sunday Times Style magazine.
40 years x 12 months x 3 titles is a LOT of
magazines! I’ve moved house 6 times
since I started collecting them, the last time only 1 year ago and believe me
it takes a long time and a lot of car trips to move them all – and there is
very little appetite from anyone else to help pack up the boxes and lug them
down and up the stairs.
People always ask me what I do with the
magazines and I can honestly say that I still read my back copies all the time.
I am working on a project currently to photograph every British Vogue cover in
my collection by month and Tweet/Instagram them along with some highlights from
each magazine. I love the memories and the responses that I get from the Twitter
sphere with new followers and friends appearing every week.
My father’s catchphrase when he was called
upon to help me move the piles of magazines was “You’d be much better off with
all this money in the bank” but he was definitely wrong. Those articles and
pictures were the stuff of dreams for me when I was young and before I was able
to visit London and Paris regularly and see all that magic for myself. Now they
provide the material for the constant planning of the next trip and make the
distance between New Zealand and the fashion world ALMOST disappear!
