Shopping at the Clothes Show

The shopping at the Clothes Show is always exciting. With new brands and stalls added this year, the shopping floor seemed even more packed with fashion around every corner. The area where the stalls are is huge and if there were a fashion maze - this would be it. Having to use what little sense of direction I have, I tried not to get lost as I wandered around browsing and wanting to have a look at everything. Whether or not I managed to achieve my goal of looking at absolutely everything however is debatable, as the N.E.C is a humongous space. I also found it quite difficult to take photos because there were people everywhere -  standing still caused a human traffic jam and it was impossible to take a good ol' landscape shot without someone walking straight in front of the camera. Therefore, I had to be selective and probably a good thing too, because my trusty, borrowed Olympus Pen camera would've been stuffed to the brim with photos of every aspect of each stall.
  There were stalls for everyone - beauty, fashion, vintage fashion and quirky little stalls! My favourite stall, however, was in the ASOS Graduate Marketplace. Instantly catching my attention was  Molly Trubody's stall. Cute, colourful and so unique, Molly's stall was my favourite by far. In fact, I think I fell in love with her fleeced Teddy bear two-piece outfit - super cosy and super cute. Sparkling with tinsel, the stall was decorated with a collection of Molly's accessories..those tinsel earrings would definitely be on my Christmas list if only I had my ears pierced!
  Obviously, one of the main reasons that everyone loves the Clothes Show apart from the actual clothes, is the celeb spotting! I know that Alfie Deyes and Fleur De Force were also at the Clothes Show but sadly my timing sucked and I missed the two during their interview on the Image Catwalk and their meet ups - gutted! However, I did manage to sneak a picture of Alfie while he was meeting some fans...

This year the Clothes Show had so many celebrities and more importantly - so many Made In Chelsea celebrities!

I spotted Andy, Stevie and Proudlock marching out of their VIP suite (which just so conveniently was next to the Blogger's Bar and Press Area). With a herd of girls chasing and screaming after Andy and Stevie, I wasn't prepared to run fast enough to catch up with the boys (or compete with their ultimate fans chasing after them) in order to snatch a photo. Instead, I opted to hustle my way to Proudlock (who was equally surrounded by screaming, excited girls, but who had come to a stop relatively close by due to the mania). After greeting him quickly and receiving a big smile, I asked Proudlock for a photo. I felt slightly guilty for joining in with the pestering, but he was more than happy to take a photo - result! In addition I managed to snatch a photo with Spencer! The boys were really cool and it was amazing having the chance to meet them after watching them every Monday night on Made In Chelsea.

So, that concludes the Clothes Show 2014! To be honest, I'm already excited for Clothes Show 2015 - it seems to be getting better every year! But right now, I should probably focus my attention on upcoming events (e.g. Christmas - eeeep!). I'd also like to say a massive thank you to the Olympus Pen camera team at the Clothes Show for helping me with the camera and lending me one for the day so that I could take all these amazing shots! The Olympus Pen camera is awesome, with so many cool features. I loved trying it out yesterday and it's definitely something that will be going on my wish list for the near future!

Clothes Show Live 2014

Happy December everyone! One of the best things about December is obviously Christmas - no other month can compete with the fantastic festive spirit and happiness that Christmas brings. The Clothes Show, held early on in the month, is another reason why I love December. Last year was my first visit to the Clothes Show. I fell in love with the Clothes Show last year - the shopping, celeb spotting and of course, the extravagant, breath taking show itself. In fact, the only thing that made getting up at 6am bearable yesterday morning was the knowledge that I'd be experiencing all of that again this year - I couldn't wait.
  Arriving at the N.E.C in Birmingham after a total of two and a bit hours of travelling meant that I was more than ready to get into the Fashion Theatre. After collecting my Blogger Pass and grabbing a biscuit (or two) to fuel my energy, I was buzzing with excitement and sugar. A few weeks ago at the Blogger's Breakfast, the Olympus Pen team talked to the bloggers and vloggers about their new camera. Designed mainly for females and bloggers/vloggers, this camera is cute, compact and quite frankly an amazing creation! I got the chance to borrow the camera for the day and what better way than to try out a camera in the ALCATEL Fashion Theatre, snapping pictures of the Clothes Show Live?!

The show was absolutely amazing. The theme this year was New York and the fashion was totally inspired by the American theme. I loved the outfits and the combination of high street and designer styling was effective. It was exciting to be able to appreciate and fall in love with the clothes and the styling and have the possibility in the back of my mind that I could actually purchase a few of these affordable pieces! I thought that the theme was really fun and energetic and, like last year, fuelled with some insane dance routines to break up the fashion strutting. The atmosphere in the ALCATEL Fashion Theatre before the show began was literally buzzing with excitement. The excitement continued to increase and many screams could be heard from around the theatre during the show inspired by the topless male models (obviously). Although the models were of course, gorgeous, flawless and perfect, the clothes in addition were definitely something worth screaming for. The clothes and styling were all themed suitably to the American vibe - bright colours and fun upbeat music was injected throughout the show.

The Image Catwalk was also very exciting. Hosted by Jamie Laing and Antonia O'Brien, it held competitions and showcased even more fashion. In addition, Alfie Deyes and Fleur De Force made appearances on the catwalk! Unfortunately, due to my frantic whizzing around, I missed a few of the events that were held on the image catwalk, but it isn't humanly possible to cover everything there. After taking over 300 photos at the event, I thought that I'd divide my posts into two parts like last year - my shopping experience and the fashion show. I'll be uploading more pictures later today so watch this space! As part of my reminiscing from yesterday, I've inserted a clip of Taylor Swift's, 'Welcome To New York', partly because they played it during the show yesterday and partly because I'm obsessed with it anyway..