London Fashion Weekend, Thursday 25th September.

We caught some of the London Fashion week action at the London Fashion Weekend event, held in South Kensington.

Aside from the opportunity to grab ourselves one of the money can't buy goodiebags, given away as part of our golden tickets bundle, we also wanted to check out all the latest creations in the world of clothing, shoes and jewellery from upcoming British designers and those who are already established.



If this wasn't enough, the ticket also included entry to an exclusive autumn/ winter 08 fashion show sponsored by Samsung and Estee Lauder.

Some of the key trends that were being showcased on the runway were folk, gothic and also the highly popular plaid.





Everything from wet look leggings, lace and leather completed the gothic look with extremely smoky eye makeup and slicked back or in contrast backcombed big hair. I love love loved the lace up boots which are a must have for the Autumn and particularly Winter look. Patent black is always a prominent material in footwear and bags.




The folk look is a lot more fun, but i have to say a lot harder to pull off. It is easy to look like you have got stuck in the hippy era, but in a bad way. I wasn't particularly keen on all of the trend from the catwalk, but the sheepskin thing is definitely working for me and i have to get one of the Autumn must have chunky knits as soon as i spot the right one.

Some of the dresses were particularly pretty, lots of thick winter fabrics and lashings of bright colours.

After the catwalk, we dashed around the two floors of stalls and guess what i didn't buy a thing. I was totally strong, but will definitely be saving for the Fashion Weekend 09 in February. Vivienne Westwood coats, Armani dresses and PPQ jumpers here i come.

Freewheel London Bike Ride, Sunday September 21st

Last year, the third Sunday in September was spent at the Hovis Freewheel bike event in Central London. This year I thought i would do exactly the same.

The whole concept of Freewheel is to promote greener living, getting out your cars and cycling for the day.

All the roads in Central London, mainly by the River Thames have been closed off for approximately 7 hours so budding cyclists, students, adults, kids and granny's alike, can dust off their bikes and join in the fun.



Now, i don't even own a bike so it's always a case of sourcing one right in time for the event. Sometimes actually on the day.

This year my first lead fell through, so it was up to our trusty friend Paul aka the bike collector to supply me with a bike for the days fun. I was a bit weary of borrowing one from him as he owns some seriously heavyweight bikes, some metal plated and giant sized choppers. I didn't think i'd be able to lift a bike up let alone ride it around central London all day. Luckily he lended me his Schwinn. It had to be the coolest bike i'd ever seen.With a green and white body, pink handle bars, a quirky horn and really light body work, it was most definitely a bike designed for me.




We all met outside Paul's pad in East London and carefully (it has been a year since i last cycled) made our way to the course at the Tower Hill end of the route.

There were a total of 49 thousand cyclists taking to the streets for the event and boy did some of the coolest characters come out for the day. We saw Victorian cyclists, uni cyclists, cyclist drummers, custom bike cyclists, ballerina cyclists. You name it, we saw it.

This years event was sponsored by Sky Sports and was much better organised, though lacking the free sandwiches that Hovis provided in 2007.

We even got a glimpse of the Olympic heroes Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton cycling around the perimeter of St James' Park.





The course took us down Tower Hill passed the Towers of London, up The Embankment, around Trafalgar Square and up the Mall.




We spent at least three hours on the coruse, riding around until they re-opened the roads at 5pm.

It was a brilliant day out and i will definitely be back next year.

Tiger Translate, Saturday 20th of September

I went down to Tiger Translate last week, a campaign to celebrate the journey that each bottle of Tiger beer makes across the globe. The concept - A merging of East and West.

The event, taking place in a disused car park in East London was the finale of a sequence of events around the world to help promote the Tiger Beer brand through art, food and a general fusion of cultures.

Artists from as far afield as Mongolia had be whittled down to a handful and flown over to the UK especially for this East meets West night.


A lot of the entertainment on offer was on a performance basis, so acts like The Patchwork Pirates and Reeps 1 got things pumping. In terms of the art, the highlight for me would have to be the Secret Wars, East meets West wall.

Different to the usual format of a Secret wars, each team had to incorporate their own ideas about East meets West in their artwork.



The battle drummed up the usual interest with camera crews, photograph sand general crowd members all fighting their way to the front.

On the left wall, was Monorex homeboys MR K and Teck 1 and representing the East on the right was Ben Q and Conzo.

The battle progressed really well, with a clear difference apparent in both walls. Would the crowd go for the cleaner lines of Teck 1 and MR k, or would they vote for the more sketched work by Conzo and Ben Q.
When the time was up it was time to call in the judges to cast their vote on the two walls. Judges, Pure Evil and Addict Jay both did there thing, but the result was left up to the crowd.

After a belter of a cheer, the ultimate winner was the East. Their Manga, comic book sketch really turned the crowd on. Some people even queued up for photos at the end, something that i haven't seen before.

Reebok Showroom Launch, 17th September

Oops i was a naughty member of Focus last night. I missed my own Fashion week party in place of a new swanky showroom launch for Reebok footwear. Converse Century were holding a free booze, gig fest down at Rough Trade, Bricklane to follow on from the 2 day press launch.

All intent with going down for a social and a networking session alongside my colleagues, i thought i would take up Terry's offer for a quick drink beforehand, at the brand spanking new Reebok showroom on Great Eastern Street, East London.




The crowd was a mixture of particularly arty farty PR and media types so i fitted right in, though Terry and his gang weren't so keen. However with drinks flowing we all soon got a bit carried away, getting snaps in most corners of the showroom, dancing about, having a bust up and yes you've guessed it, missing the Converse bash.

It was a pretty eventful night. The showroom looks really slick, some of the shoes on display were really cool and the curved walls and alcoves added a certain special something to the building.

Rainman @ The Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue, 15th of September

Rainman the movie has to be one of my favourite films. It touches all the right buttons in an emotional stakes, through it's tale of two brothers re-introduction after decades apart.

I grabbed my friend Tracy down to the theatre production of the film, at the Apollo Theatre in Central London.

Of course, you could say a certain Hollywood actor is also one of the reasons i rushed to book my tickets, and yes you could be right, but the film impressed me so much that i had to see what director David Grindley, would do with the theatre production.

Seated in out upper circle seats (hey they were on sopecial offer) we got a good view of the stage. The set was a slick as can be, scenes would change instantaneously. Josh played a great Charlie Babbit, but his role was too reminiscent of Tom Cruises take on the character in the original screen play.

Adam Godley played an excellent Raymond, and performed the role perfectly, if you had never seen the original. Nobody can compete against Dustin Hoffman's rendition.
There were laughs, tears and much swooning as Mr Hartnett even takes his top off!!


Hugely satisfied with the whole production, we dashed to the back of the theatre after the performance for a glimpse of the actors and get some autographs for the collection. I didn't get to meet Josh Hartnett, but i got mighty close. We did get a snap with Adam Godley, who was undoubtedly the star of the show.

It was definitely an amazing Monday night and i would say go and see it before the final curtain on the 20th of December.

Thames Festival Sunday 14th of September

We went down to the Thames Festival on Sunday the 14th of September to take a look at all the entertainment going on. The first thing we saw was the night Carnival. Though it was still light outside many of the floats had a glowing feel about them. The highlight had to be the Samba float as scantily clad lovelies gyrated there bottoms to the drum beat.

We headed over the bridge to the Southbank for some scrummy Moroccan food, and then the extremely long wait for the highly anticipated firework display.  An hour in, and with every bone in my body frozen the fireworks began. They were the best display i have ever seen, in all my years of displays on November 5th, and my travels to Thailand and Mexico, the display by the Thames beat them all. Mainly because it was a double display, each firework in unison on two sides of the river. Wish i got a video, but maybe next year. 

Bestival 2008 5-7th September

This years Bestival or washout as it should be re-named should not be described as nothing short of a mudfest. Despite the drowned rat look being rocked all over the campsite and around each stage, the festival was still a success, though it only took me and the group i was with about a day to get into vibe. The rain nearly,  but didn't dampen our spirits. 

All that said, we managed to catch a glimpse of a few blinding acts over the space of three days, well actually two as we couldn't face going back to the mud on the Sunday, even though i wanted to see The Coral, a carvery in a warm pub and a good old Isle of Wight tour seemed right up my street. 

For me, my overall festival favourites would have to be Santogold in the Big Top on the Friday night. That girl New Raved the house down and despite her M.I.A-esque charms, she performed a blinding set that did me and all my soggy friends proud.

Oh i nearly forgot to mention that we got to the site on the Friday, full clad in our uber cool London gear. I myself decided to brave a white wind runner ensemble along with the festival staple, wellys and leggings. As soon as we arrived, to our bad luck, fellow revellers took it upon themselves to make us fit in e.g muddy. Some drunkards decided to lob a hand full of Isle of Wight mud at us (that's me and the Tel-myster) as soon as we got to the troops (Terry's bro and numerous pals) camp.  I was not impressed, but after a quick wipe off i was ready to brave the main area.

Hot Chip were definitely another fav for me, getting us all pumping on the Saturday night. They followed Shlomo and DJ Yoda who also had a fun set using visual DJ tools, definitely worth a see. 

The last act on the main stage on the Saturday was Amy Winehouse. She literally looked the worse i have ever seen her, and oh, was an hour late. I felt i needed to stay and see her perform at least once in my life, as i get the feeling that there might not be many opportunities left to see her. She really is an amazing talent, but we all thought that she didn't really sound up to scratch until nearly the end of her set, but quickly overshadowed that by forgetting her band members names. Who knows maybe she will come out the other side OK,  but i just thing she needs to get some rest and sort her health out as she looked a mess. Not the Amy that i picture when i hear her music, just a lost soul. 

Glitter clad we mingled through the throngs of fish fingers, mermaids, divers and various other '20,000 freaks under the sea' fancy dress entries to grab some munch and take the 10 minute walk back up to the car park for a lift to our accommodation for the weekend. It only took us 35 minutes and was literally one of the funniest moments of my life. Everyone was stuck to their knees in mud. Strangers had to cling on to one another just to stay upright, was funny, but doubt the casualties who fell in were very pleased, but i guess it's all part of the fun.

Would i go back next year? Most definitely, well only if i can ensure it's dry. 

New Job @ Focus International 27th August

I have just started working for an amazing company based in Camden. Focus International is the brand house for a number of cool brands like Converse, Jack Purcell, Sergio Tacchini, Le Coq Sportiff, Ecko and Zoo York. Our offices are a cross between something out of a Carlsberg TV commercial or an episode of Cribs. It's a great place to visit everyday.

My day to day job is assisting the sales team and also PR and Marketing. It is a move away from direct entertainment PR, which has been my path for the last year, into the field of fashion though we still have loads of opportunities to meet cool people in the industry.

Converse in particular puts on a host of events, in particular, music events throughout each year so expect to see a whole lot more Focus talk from me throughout the next few months.

Part of the role is to help place some of our brands on peoples back. Not just any old people but people who are going to be walking bilboards for our product, influential, successful and of course hot, this is the part of my job that i'm bound to enjoy. I have only been there a week and already the Rugby player Danny Cipriani has visited. Ahh this is the life.