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? 

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.

Christmas Wish Wish Wish List

Wish lists are only fun if you have a few obviously unattainable items on there, so here are a sect few things I'd love to receive this Christmas:

1. Zara Reversible Knit Sweater 2. 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli Mini Satchel in black black 3. Zara Leopard Furry Coat 4. MISSONI 56 reading glasses 5. Alexander Wang Kori Boot 6. D&G Collection 3 L'Imperatrice EDT 100ml

Holidays are Coming

It's approaching that time of year again, the one you either love or loath - Christmas! And that can only mean one things, that all the department stores, not only along Oxford Street but across the country go crazy to have the best window displays to draw those customers in.

Harrods released its spectacular window display this week. Last year they had a Disney theme, which I thought would be hard to beat but never wanting to be left behind, they've pulled something great out of the back once again. The theme they have gone with is The Harrods Christmas Express, which features an impressive express train flowing through the entire window sequence, with some windows allow an insight to what's going inside a carriage.

I think this is a lovely a lovely display, and plays on the Polar Express, a typical Christmas film as well as making me think of the The Orient Express, which is an iconic long distance passenger train, running from 1883 to 2009 but you can still have a ride for price now if ya didn't know. What's your view of the windows - yay or ney??

Bright Lights, Big City

Bit of a lengthy post this one is, but wanted to share some of my snaps with you from my latest trip to the Big Apple! Literally got back this morning and had such an amazing time. This was my second time returning to the city, and I just love it. You can have to get past some of the occasional rude people you come across, huchum, the cabbies, but apart from that there's so much to do and see there, you can never say you've truly seen it all. 

The trip was my 21st birthday present so of course it involved a lot of shopping but I wanted to take in a few of the sites. I've done the typical tourists bits in a previous trip such as the Statue of Liberty (which I couldn't get in the crown because of the 9/11 attacks unfortunately) and the Empire State Building but mostly wanted to see things like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Public Library - to have my Cary Bradshaw moment of course.

Something I did take in a lot of was the huge department stores visual merchandising. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems there is a huge amount of spent on it. Every designer shop managed to catch my eye. This could be because generally all the stores windows, especially on Fifth Avenue, were so huge, but I found it really impressive. I'd never been into Saks or Bergdorf's which was a really nice experience. I don't know how I'd compare it to our Harrods or Selfridges, but the displays where definitely immaculate.

These really are just a select few of the hundreds I took, I couldn't possibly list all the good things to see and do as there are sooo many. Definitely do the most touristy bits and dedicate a couple of days to them and then days for shopping and other sites like that otherwise I feel I walked back on myself when I tried to cram in too much in one day. Any good recommendations of things to see and do in NYC that aren't the norm? Always wanted as I know i'll be going back, even if it takes me another few years to get there.