Hello I'm Paul Smith

The Paul Smith exhibition at the Design Museum opened last week. It offers visitors a deep insight into the designers work and life. Curated my Donna Loveday, Head of Curatorial at the Design Museum; she hopes it'll be as ever popular as the Louboutin one, which broke all previous visitor record - wow. I went to see that one and must say, it's a tough act to follow.

The retrospective is set out in the stages of his life, starting with the starting up of his very first store - a compact 3m/3m space opened in Nottingham in 1970 which visitors can walk through to get a feel for what the original store was like. It'll also features a makeshift version of the designers office, full of curious objects he's collected on his travels and plenty of artwork.

The exhibition seems cute and quant, providing an in depth insight into the designers private world. In true Design Museum style, it's full of content, yet finally laid out in a simplistic manor. Even if you're not a fan of Paul Smith, I would go see it as part of a day out between Christmas and March. You can book different time slots via Ticketweb, with night showings available as well. Tickets start at £13.27 for adults and £8.40 for students, booking fees may apply.

The Beckham's Give Back

Victoria has rightly so earned her place within the fashion industry, with pure hard work and determination - even if she does say she doesn't have a nanny help her with Harper, huc hum...

Her and the glorious David Beckham have been a golden couple since the early 90's and have been seen in some cracking outfits that have become iconic. Amidst the recent tragic Typhoon in the Philippines, the Beckham's have decided to give a little back in the way of fashion.

They're donated a range of these iconic outfits to the Red Cross charity, more than 20 boxes to be precise, with proceeds going to help people affected by the typhoon Haiyan.

Shoes ranging from Jimmy Choo, to Manolo Blahnik

Of course everyone knows Victoria is also known for her rather slim frame, and with the average size of a women in the UK now being a size 16, women are hopeful to attempt to fit in some of her garments. Thank god for shoes eh. But I guess the whole point of it would be to just own something that has been in the graces of the Victorias presents of even just in her wardrobe; that's how I'd see it anyway. 

The queue for the Kensington Red Cross branch where the garments were donated was humongous, as desperate buyers waited to hopefully buy a piece of the celebrities. It's such a shame to hear though that people were lucky enough to have bought items, listed them just hours later on eBay, to pocket hundreds of pounds potentially from them. The act of donating is sort of lost by doing this, and I'd feel very disappointed if I were these people. I guess it is hard to crack down on eBayers in this sense, as I know this happens a lot with sold out Zara items that 'bloggers' have.

A rather 'Saturday Night Fever-esq' suit worn by the one and only David B himself

Did you manage to get anything?

Battle Of The Brands

As you know, Isabel Marant has collaborated with H&M and Kate Bosworth was relived by Topshop. But it hasn't seemed to stop there. Topshop have now endorsed their 4th designer collaboration with Meadham Kirchhoff! The high street brands are really going at this Christmas to get shoppers out of other brands and into theirs - and rightly so, it is the season for good will and all that, but nothing wrong with a healthy bit of competition is there...

The collection is just 'cooky' to say the least, with goofy monster faces on knits to flaming headbands. If you would describe your style as minimalist you better stay well clear. Topshop has had many a success with its designer collabs in the past and I'm sure this one will follow suit. Whether you'd pick your office Christmas party outfit from the range? I'm not sure, but there's certainly a market out there for it. On the Topshop website, it describes the collection as 'kitsch' and kitsch it is.

So who did it best? Isabel for H&M of Kirchhoff for Topshop? Personally, I feel Kirchhoff will do better, sales-wise, but Isabel is more my style. What do you guys think? 

Lush Ft. Vivienne Westwood

I recently did a post on Vivienne Westwood collaborating with The Cambridge Satchel Company and other heritage brands. She has now decided to dip her toe into the skin care industry-

Lush, the cosmetic brand who pride themselves on using all natural ingredients in their products used to use paper to wrap up their goodies for customers. That however is all about to change. Westwood has designed a range of scarves Lush can now use to wrap up their products to cut back on the use of paper to help support Vivienne's cause Climate Revolution. In this time of good will and giving, enough wrapping paper is used to going around the world, wait for it.... 9 TIMES! That's just staggering. So these scarves are to help promote saving the environment and that it's not about the wrapping but the gift inside.

So the aim of the game is to look out for the environment. So you gain a nice smelly bath bomb this christmas with a Viv Westwood designed scarf. I know I'm definitely popping down my nearest store to get one, but are you?

For more info visit her site: http://climaterevolution.co.uk/wp/

Model Moment

With the British Fashion Awards fast approaching (8 days time to be precise) and one of the main awards being model of the year, it got me thinking about who my favourite models are and one of my recent obsessions, Suki Waterhouse, I just think she's so stunning, and I wish my hair would look like that, le sigh. She also has major female envy since nabbing Bradley Cooper. So here are a few of my fav snaps of suki, enjoy!

Fashion That Cares

In a mist of brands co-endorsing collections for fashion brands more than ever recently, we've also had an influx of brands and good causes. One prime example is MAC cosmetics and their Viva Glam collections. One of the most recent ones is Viva Glam Nicki, which features Nicki Minaj fronting a selection of lipsticks, with a different packaging to the iconic MAC black bullets where all profits go towards women, men and children living with HIC/AIDS. The colours are totally original and separate from MACs own mammoth lipstick range. This I think was a clever ploy on MAC's behalf, as any loyal make-up brand follower love anything limited edition as it's something that not every will have. They also feel less guilty when purchasing it as you think 'well, I'm technically giving money straight to charity therefore it's acceptable to spend £15 on a lipstick..' They also have a matching lipglass along side the lipstick going for £14. Now they're back with the original RuPaul, who MAC first featured back in 1994! I just love the tackiness of it I've got to say.

Another brand targeting AIDS is Maison Martin Margiela with their printed tees. Similarly to MAC, MMM started producing t-shirts for the charity 'AIDES' a french charity fighting to help those living with the virus. Each year they change up the colour and print the same logo on each. They're slightly more steep on the price compared to MAC going for €75, but it's all for charity eh.

Kim Kardashian has also put a load of her clothes on ebay to go towards the Philippines Typhoon Haiyan aid more recently, but it comes with a big however. It has been revealed that only 10% of the earnings ACTUALLY goes towards the help! This is a total cop-out on Kimmys part, a women reportedly worth 40 million, she's not exactly strapped for cash! So when there's some brands out to look after their image and help good causes, there are also some people who just, aren't. Shame on you Kimmy K.

Alexander McQueen & Damien Hirst Scarf Collaboration

When I first heard about this collaboration, my head nearly fell off with excitement! McQueen's scarfs are iconic and anyone blind bat would be able to recognise one from a mile away so I just knew a collaboration of some sort as going to be coming soon. Damien Hirst is one of my favourite artists, and after visiting his exhibition at The Tate earlier this year, it just reaffirmed my love for his work so you can't really blame me for being over the moon when I hear he's joining with also one of my favourite british designers.

His butterfly pieces are so known and glorious in the flesh, it seems only right they do a mash of of this with the skull print. I don't think a sheep or shark in formaldehyde would make much of a good print to be honest...

With his silk chiffon skull scarves starting from £165, these could not be further from that - the starting price for these one off's is £315, going all the way to a steep £715. It definitely confirms they'll be forever on my wish list. I'm yet to visit them in the shops but they're almost sold out online after being out a mere 3 days - surprise surprise.

The advertising via Youtube is stunning and captures the image beautifully and only makes me want one more - check it out below.

Moving Up For Marant

Isabel Marant's collection H&M has been massively anticipated for months and it finally hit the shelves last Friday and it has sold out so fast, H&M's online site over-sold it. It's continuing to over-sell to its costumers, many of them have received apology emails as they've had to cancel their orders. Well if there was any doubt that the collection would fair I'm sure it has faded, and fast.

I myself wasn't too fussed about the collection seeing the lookbook before the release, but after hearing about the sell out, it's made me want to revisit it. I've seen an overside black and while fluffy coat on a few women out and about which I wasn't crazy about to start with, but after seeing it on someone, it's definitely growing on me. The sequin trousers had me for a second also, but maybe after I've dropped a couple of pounds haha.

However, this internet glitch may have cost them not just on internet sales, but in store sales also. Costumers are reportedly so disappointed in the brands e-commerce they're calling it a 's*** show' and boycotting the whole collaboration altogether! This just shows the power that brands have by having an online presence these days; people no longer want or have to push their way through crowds of people when they can be in the comfort of their own home and still be able to access brands collaborations. Fair enough, you're not the only one having the same idea by waiting up till late to be the first on there, and even then sites can crash if they can't cope with large amounts of traffic. However it still doesn't stop people sitting and refreshing for hours on end.

What did you make of the collection? Any stand-out pieces for you?

GFW 2014 Venue Confirmed

Graduate Fashion Week is fast approaching, but with Earls Court set to be demolished and the events usually being held here, the new venue has been highly anticipated. The speculation is now over however as today it has been confirmed that one of the most important dates in students fashion calendars is going to be at the Truman Brewery, London E1.

Ingenious or stupid? We discussed this is a previous lecture at uni the other month and some would say it seems odd to have such an event in a brewery of all places. It doesn't particularly bother me but maybe the sheer fact it's in 'fashionable' Shoreditch is one of the selection reasons. What do you make of the new venue and if you're showing at the next GFW how do you feel about having your work showcased here?

Inside the venue