tomorrow!!!

Come to the wrap party for the Sketchbook magazine pop-up studio, and see our lovely wall we have made with Supermarket Sarah...

6-9pm Kingly Court Carnaby Street

Supermarket VA

This coming Sunday VA are collaberating with SUPERMARKET SARAH to create a beautiful wall at SKETCHBOOK magzine's interactive exhibition at Carnaby Street's Kingly Court. Our wall is on display from 6 - 9pm at the Sketchbook's venue,there will live photoshoots, art, and bands. Please come along! It's going to be wonderful. Everything on the wall is for sale, and will go live on SUPERMARKET SARAH's amazing site very soon....

And The Neighbourhood Watched...

Our Summer of Love Party...


Clare Nicholls welcomes guest Michael Hoppen, still wearing her neglige...



The Bench shot



VA Founder (and birthday girl!) Clare Nicholls with Bruno Lial

















Lovely Lauren


Hash Cakes..


Retrovius boys - a VA party staple






Birthday girl



Why Neighbourhood Watch called and left a very polite message....

We All Had a Wonderful Time

Masked parties, Savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Wild West parties, Russian parties, Circus parties, parties where one had to dress as somebody else, almost naked parties in St John’s wood, parties in flats and studios and houses and ships and hotels and night clubs, in windmills and swimming-baths, tea parties at school where one ate muffins and meringues and tinned crab, parties at Oxford where one drank brown sherry and smoked Turkish cigarettes, dull dances in London and comic dances in Scotland and disgusting dances in Paris – all that succession and repetition of massed humanity … Those vile bodies …

SUMMER OF LOVE

Don't Rain on my Parade

WORD UP

Last night we left Notting Hill and went to Shoreditch to The Tatty Devine and Supermarket Sarah party... We are now desperate for a set designer who can make a giant 'V' and 'A' for us please...

Crowning Glory

Can't concerntrate today, so very distracted.. Keep thinking about having a beautiful crown like one of these!

First Wednesdays

Tomorrow evening from 6- 9pm, VA are taking part in the Notting Hill based community project; First Wednesdays. Galleries, boutiques and restaurants in the area open there doors later than usual to launch new collections, projects and offer discounts. We were a little late joining the proceedings so havn't got anything offical to launch, but will have some prosecco, 15% off everything instore and a Prince soundtrack... so please drop by!

Flower Power

The peonies just expelled it's petals all over the shop. It was very poetic.

Kisses and Knickers

Last night VA went to east London’s most glamorous knicker shop - Bordello, for kisses, poetry and cocktails…

Lana Citron, writer of the salaciously sweet book “A Compendium of Kisses” was joined by wordsmith Salena Godden and cult muse (of Westwood)turned writer, Sara Stockbridge for a poetry reading.

Here is the beautiful Cecilia, who we first met at the V&A’s preview of the Grace Kelly exhibition, we met by mutual appriciation of each others dresses..



She makes animal masks that sell in Coco Der Mer, collects taxidermy and likes to dress like a cat.
Bordello
55 Great Eastern Street London EC2 3HP

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...

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....

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.

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

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....