Tuesday 29 June 2010

Tale of Two Cities (Manhattan and Brooklyn)....


We are back from a mammouth shopping, press and partying trip in New York.
Here are some of the highlights brought to you by Jess, VA's shopgirl, attemping 'Holly Golightly' chic in 40 degrees..


Shop girls at Fille De Joie, Brooklyn's most beautiful vintage shop, (you have to check out the competition)...


Nolita @ 7pm.


Window Dresser Lauren, of the world's most chic charity shop; City Opera Thrift Store. The sales of the shop support the costume department of the New York City Opera, so this is the donation stop of choice for all the opera attending upper east side ladies. Imagine racks of eighties glittery numbers and lot's of water marked satin...

Below are some of Lauren's genius window displays.




NYC we miss you already...

Saturday 19 June 2010

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams are Made of...



Although we love our little corner of Notting Hill, VA are taking a buying trip stateside.. Keep an eye on the blog to see what we get up to, and more importantly what we buy....

Friday 18 June 2010

Class Act 2010

Last night VA attended the Central Saint Martin's Ba private view, paying particular attention to the Fashion Communication and Promotion pathway, (a few of us here at VA are ex-students of the course). The studio was sweaty and packed with giddy hope for the future, relief that it's finally all over, and the smell of Cobra beer, (the evening’s generous sponsor). Each student in the class of sixteen had to produce their own magazine and a portfolio of fashion and styling work.
Rachel Crowther used her knowledge gained assisting set designer Anna Burns to create a visually heavy magazine focusing on interiors and fashion. Samuel John Weeks brought together his love of sport and menswear, and developed a magazine, 'I DO AIR', artfully combining the two elements. Jessica Sekington chose to focus on girls in music, profiling the likes of Marina and the Diamonds, in her magazine 2020, which can be downloaded as an I-tune app.


Vincent Levy

One of the stand-out magazines was Vincent Levy’s Pygmalion, an ode to the girls he grew up with on a council estate in Hounslow. A comic book obsessed child, Levy’s love for fashion was born form frequent trips accompanying his mum to the local hair dressers in Hounslow, "I would read the magazines because I was bored, I remember staring at a picture of Naomi Campbell, I didn't really understand what she was, I thought she was a comic book hero.”
All the girls in Levy’s magazine have a raw quality, their eyebrows are painted on,their upper-lips are pierced. “I’m more interested in how real girls dress, than fashion people, my school friends take so much pride in the way they dress, I was in awe of them growing up.” Levy’s unique flair for styling is a perfect example of the talent harboured on the FCP course, headed by fashion writer Hywel Davies. We look forward to seeing more of Levy, and the rest of the class of 2010 in the future.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Nice Threads

Fitzrovia is one of central London’s best kept secrets. This tiny gallery hidden away on Well Street is the perfect example of the understated gems in area. Only minutes from manic Oxford street is the covert Diemar/Noble Photography gallery. The current exhibition, Threads is by no means new, in fact it’s been open since May, ( but you have until 11th of July to visit), and pulls together the ‘Six Masters of Fashion Photography’, according to Diemar/Noble they are; Erwin Blumenfeld, Guy Bourdin, William Klein, Helmet Newton, Norman Parkinson and Edward Steichen.
Highlights include Guy Bourdin’s infamous ‘Chapeaux-choc' and some rare Polaroids by Helmet Newton. For aspiring fashion photographers this exhibition will teach you everything you need to know.


Helmut Newton


Guy Bourdin

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Picture This

Image sharing website weheartit.com is the perfect site for inspiration and procrastination. Just enter a word into the search and pages of beautiful images similarly tagged appear. Founder of the site, web designer Fabio Giolito kindly agreed to answer some of our questions. There was only one way to do the interview - in pictures of course.

What can you see out of your window right now?



What gave you the idea to start up We Heart It?



How did you feel when you realised it was a hit?



Who is the typical subscriber to We Heart It?



What’s your next venture?



Thanks Fabio! Now time to do some work....

Monday 14 June 2010

Make Mine a Guinness




The Christies auction of Isabella Blow's Waderobe, due to take place this September has been cancelled. The news has just broke that Daphne Guinness has bought the entire collection. She told The New York Times, "It’s Issy — it’s her DNA — it should not be scattered to the four winds....I want it to remain as a monument.” - Daphne Guinness we salute you.

Friday 11 June 2010

We Were Under The Influence

Fashion and Art magazine Under The Influence, launched it's new issue last night in East London. The free bar opened with Pink 47 gin, or was that 47 Pink Gins? Each. It seems like it now... We weren't the only ones enjoying being 'in the pink' - together with fellow partygoers, we had drunk the gin bar dry within a couple of hours. Lot's of people, lots of drink and a great band that had Velvet Underground aspirations. We think... But the highlight of the party was you could smoke inside - how 2006.



DJ Bishi on a roll



A sofa



Why we all have hangovers.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Stop making scents...?


It is with jaw dropping horror we read in FT at the weekend that by August this year the International Fragrance Association (IFRA), the perfume industry's governing body, will be restricting the use of oak moss (contained in Guerlains's Mitsouko scent among others); jasmine (most famously in Chanel No 5) and ylang ylang.

So Chanel No 5 but not as Marilyn knew it.

According to the chairman of IFRA 'Consumer health is becoming more and more important. We do not do [the regulation] for the pleasure of preventing our creators [from making their scents], we do it because we want to be responsible.'

Oh please.

And this is not the first dictat from the IFRA, they have been at it for 'decades' Mitsouko by Guerlain and Joy by Jean Patou are known to have already been reformulated.

They still let us drink alcohol, they still let us smoke. As far as we know, no-one has ever cited 'Joy' as a cause of death....

In The City


Spot the shop... Yes that's right, our beautiful shop on Ledbury Road was the venue for this shoot in City AM of our good friend and fine jeweller, Lauren Adriana.
So pretty!

Wednesday 2 June 2010

VA IN VOGUE




What a lovely surprise we got this afternoon when browsing Vogue.com...

Yes, Sir Paul Smith has blogged about the VA and Lauren Adriana event that took place last week!

How lovely!

http://www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/fashion-designers/paul-smith/100602-message-in-a-bottle.aspx