Me chattin all things Norwich Fashion Week for the brilliant Wex Photographic.
Don’t laugh, I’m new at this talkin’ to the camera stuff.
The Vintage Show at Norwich Fashion Week
This city I live in is pretty neat. It has heaps of home grown talent in the field of fashion, and to totally indulge and celebrate that fact, there is this kinda pretty cool thing; Norwich Fashion Week! A brilliant week of events, parties, exhibitions and, natch, catwalk shows taking place in the city so everyone who enjoys fashion can come together to do some real big SWOONING. Norwich is abundant with skilled fashion designers, makers, tailors, photographers, stylists, retailers and hair and make up artists, so, there’s a huge pool of talent that teams up to create something really damn good. This year I was involved in a few projects; I, of course showcased some ridiculously pretty vintage dresses from my store in The Vintage Show, I presented a video for Wex Photographic, and, in a more personal project, I teamed up with my good friend Karen to curate a cute and quirky exhibition. ‘A Portrait Of Vintage’ is an adorable gallery installation of vintage dresses and accessories, and we’re pretty pleased with how it came out and the reaction it’s received, hurrah! There’s heaps going on for Norwich Fashion Week and this year it is mostly taking place at the superb and very huge venue of Open; a brilliant destination. Sunday was all about The Vintage Show; prep and rehearsal in the day and then a boomingly impressive show in the evening. I think it was way bigger and better than last year; the space, the layout, the stadium-worthy screen with a live feed and, a whopping loud 70’s soundtrack as the models walked. Ace. In the daytime I worked with Wex Photographic to talk about the show in a cute video, but also to chat on camera with Fashion Photographer Paul Bayfield who was there with 6 lucky Wex competition winners who got to hang with him for the day and learn the ropes of catwalk snapping! A whole heap of fun! Here’s my dresses on the catwalk, super cute right? All available in my online store, but obvs, with vintage, you gotta be fast otherwise somebody else might grab the dress you love, waaah!
Superb show, big thumbs up to all involved.
Brilliant images by kind permission of Paul Bayfield.
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Vogue 100: A Century of Style
This Monday I personally got my peepers on the Vogue 100: A Century of Style exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, goodness, so much beauty for my eyes to behold. Celebrating the 100th birthday of British Vogue, this is somewhat of an epic exhibition, I mean, maaan, where do you start when trying to curate an exhibition showing the highlights of 100 years worth of fashion and photography from the worlds most prestigious fashion bible? A magazine which has launched and defined the careers of so many models, designers and photographers. A hard task, the selection and editing must have been pretty intense. But this, is a stunning exhibition. Beautifully, simply and elegantly executed, with no gimmicks and no unnecessary pomp. It’s a big exhibition, I mean, it kinda had to be to do justice to the subject, but it doesn’t drag and it’s spaced to perfection so you can take in each image on it’s own whilst also enjoying the continuity and splendor of the exhibition as a whole; perfection. It gets busy and if it had been any busier we would have felt cramped but, it had a lovely atmosphere, all ages sharing the space together for an hour or two to soak up some mesmerizing talent and beauty. It is a little pricey, it costs £19 for a regular ticket which is definitely a little more than most exhibitions in the city, but is it worth it? Yes, I’d say it is, but only just. A few pounds cheaper would seem a better price. Shown in a reverse chronological order, we see the best images from the magazine now, and go all the way back, through the decade dedicated rooms, to it’s launch in 1916. My favourite section? It has to be the 1990’s room where we saw the start of Kate Moss’s career, the photography of Corinne Day and the familiar faces of Princess Diana and Posh and Becks in their heyday. My era. Loved it. Get yourself there before it ends on 22nd May and let me know your favourite era of this massive magazine.
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Five Tips For Choosing THE Perfect Wedding Photographer
Your wedding photography is one of the only things that’s going to last forever after your wedding, apart from your LOVE, obvs! The food, the flowers, and the decorations will pretty much only last the day. The dress, favours, and guest book will last longer if you cherish them. The photography is the only thing you can count on to last forever, and bring back the memories which are gonna make your heart smile. This means you really need to take your time finding the most perfect wedding photographer. A photographer that you think is perfect may not be perfect for somebody else, so the key is to make sure you know what you want from them.
These 5 tips will help you to find the perfect wedding photographer:
Know What Style of Photography You Want – There are tons of different styles of wedding photography. Checking out all about these different styles, doing some research and being able to choose the right one for you is super important. You can have really formal looking shots, arty shots, vintage style and even cool edgy photography, so many beautiful variations!
Set Up Meetings – When you’ve looked at different styles of photography, you can find the photographers who offer that service. It’s up to you to then set up meetings with the photographers where you can chat through the service they’ll give you, what you’d like, and anything else to do with the big ole’ day. This should give you an idea of what to expect and you’ll be able to compare services afterwards before you confirm who you’d like to book.
Check Out Full Wedding Portfolios – Don’t just look at the highlights the wedding photographer has to show you, make sure you can look at full wedding portfolios. This will allow you to see all of the shots taken at multiple weddings. You can assess whether you think they’ve captured the right moments, and whether they are in fact the right fit for your day. Weddings by JP say ‘there shouldn’t be any issues with you looking at a photographer’s full portfolio. If there are, maybe you should avoid them’.
Be Critical – Make sure you look at the portfolios with a critical eye. The pictures might look lovely at first glance ,but make sure you look closer. Have they missed important pictures? Are any elements of the shot blurry or out of focus? Do you feel like they are too posed?….eeek, that could be too cringey! You don’t need to tell them this, but you should make a note of it to yourself when making your decision.
Make Sure You Get Along With Them – Getting along with your wedding photographer is reeeeaally important. They’re going to take pictures on the happiest day of your life, and if you don’t feel completely at ease with them your smile might not be as wide, you might not feel like you can relax. Make sure they are somebody you can stand being around for a while and that you feel you wanna welcome along on your day!
Ready to choose your wedding photographer? Use these tips, get your gorgeous face smiling, and say cheeeeeese!
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Audrey Bored-rey?
Now, I LOVE a good photography exhibition. If it’s about fashion and iconic women, I’m there, standing as a wide eyed pedestrian, my gaze fixed on glossy captures of beauty. And, when I say beauty, I mean life, in all it’s glamour, gristle, realism and fantasy, it’s all beautiful and photography shows us that better than anything. When I saw that there was an exhibition of unseen Audrey Hepburn photos at The National Portrait Gallery, I figured I’d pop it on my list. The website said to book ahead as demand will be high and so, even though it’s not something I usually bother doing, in an attempt to be organised and to force punctuality upon myself I dutifully booked myself a 1pm slot on a Tuesday for £10. Most galleries suggest pre-booking as it creates the idea that it’s gonna be popular but I never guess it really means it, but, when I arrived a little early on the day, goodness, it was busy! It was in it’s first week, and there was another big free exhibition going on but ooof, it was heaving and they were crazy strict with time slots, all the slots up until 5pm that day had already sold out, so in this instance I was pretty pleased with my pre-planning. When the clock hit 1pm I went straight into the exhibition and it was as busy in there as it was the rest of the gallery, so busy you could hardly get to see the photos, jeepers! I couldn’t believe just how many people wanted to get their peepers on the portraits. Obviously Audrey is lovely and very pretty to look at but, crikey, what made this so special? Well, I still don’t know. The pictures were nice, many were very small and there wasn’t any which I felt were anything new, it all kinda felt like I’d seen it before. I assumed that it would get more magnificent as I went round, it was all very beautiful and a sweet insight into Audrey, but, I have to admit, I was a little under-awed. And then, it came to an end, after 3 very small rooms! A nice selection of images of a great icon, but, meh, I was left wanting more. I like Audrey, she’s not one of my most favourite girls, but I appreciate her and enjoy watching her, but these images all seemed a little stale. Maybe because I go to so many fashion photography exhibitions, my eyes have gotten used to bigger things, I like my photos in galleries to be huge, so big you feel small in comparison, so big you can see every eyelash and every pore of the skin, so you feel you’re getting something that you wouldn’t get if you just flicked through the accompanying book. I like to see a character in the images, a change from one image to the next, I guess maybe the simplicity of Audrey and her image alone is the beauty of this exhibition. I know these are portraits rather than fashion photographs, I just think I hoped for more fashion and variety in them. And they were all so small! I didn’t love this exhibition, but I did like it. I just felt it was a little over-hyped. The cynic in me thinks that maybe the estate of Audrey Hepburn needed a boost as many of the images were on loan from the family, and I see that there’s a new Audrey Hepburn cookbook hittin’ the book stores by her son with all her favorite recipes. Totally fair play, if Audrey Hepburn had been my Mama, I sure would be shouting about it all the damn time.
These shots were the ones that stood out to me;
- Audrey Hepburn by Philippe Halsman for LIFE Magazine, 1954 (above)
- Audrey as Ondine by Philippe Halsman, 1954
- Wait Until Dark by Howell Conant, 1967
- Audrey for Vanity Fair by Steven Meisel, 1991
Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of An Icon is at The National Portrait Gallery until 18th October 2015