Kipling's 25th Anniversary Party

Sara Reverberi photos

On Thursday 26^th January I was invited to celebrate the 25^th Anniversary Party of Kipling and the new global artist project ‘Play with Bags’.  The party was held at the fabulous ‘Hospital Club’ on Endell Street and was attended by the talented and glamorous. Guests included Amber Atherton (Made In Chelsea), Charlotte De Carle (Dirty Sexy Things), Prince Cassius and jewellery designer sensation Miranda McCarthy (of London Bird).

Camilla Gleditsch, Chad Martin
Prince Cassius, Alex McDonald, Miranda McCarthy

Miranda McCarthy
(London Bird)

There were cocktails at hand on entering the venue, apple spritzers I believe they were, followed by strawberry beer. After this very warm welcome there was a free bar to ensure nobody went thirsty. We were also treated to gourmet burgers, chips and tiny waffles with chocolate sauce. I love being served with small, classic, British cuisine at parties- it really puts a lovely spin on the classic hors-d’ouvres.

We were entertained by celebrity DJs including T4’s Georgie Orkwell followed by Jade Williams and Sunday Girl. All-in-all there was a very eclectic mix with the DJs playing songs I haven’t heard for years- Brimful of Asha immediately springs to mind. I was heard to say ‘Oh my god, I love this song!’ on more than one occasion. Needless to say brilliant surroundings, free bar and great music guaranteed a buzzing atmosphere, lots of dancing and very happy guests.

It was an amazing idea to have a launch party collaborated with an art exhibition. Kipling has joined forces with eight artists; Belgian photographer Alex Salinas, Prince Lauder, Sarah Illenberger, contempory artist Li Wei, former French fashion stylist Vincent Gapaillard, US photographer Paul Graves, fashion photographer Rankin and Javier Mariscal who has recently been nominated for an Oscar. We were privy to some brilliant artwork which was definitely a talking point throughout the evening- everyone had a favourite.

On leaving the venue, we were presented with goodie bags which made me very happy. Inside them was a Kipling Classics purse/wallet, a box of chocolate Antwerp hands, a disposable camera and a lovely pink and white USB storage device with some Kipling information on it (which incidentally helped me write this piece).

Kipling’s 25^th Anniversary party was a massive success. Thank you Kipling and thank you Surgery PR for a great night. Here’s to the next 25 years!

PRS Music Foundation New Year's Party

On Wednesday 11^th January I went to the PRS Music Foundation New Year’s Eve party. PRS is the leading funder of music in the UK awarding more than £14 million to over 4000 new music projects. The Cargo venue in Shoreditch hosted the event where new music from the past year was celebrated.

 I met up with my beautiful friends outside the train station and we headed to the venue. After queuing for a fair amount of time, we headed inside. We saw there was a crowd of people outside in the courtyard, stood in complete silence, so went to join them. We weren’t sure what was going on and were shh’d a couple of times while we were trying to figure out what was happening. Turns out they were listening to The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, who were ringing from Shoreditch Church.

Chad, Alex, Ben, Prince,
Sue, Camilla and Miranda

Miranda, Rich, Alex and Liam

Directly after this performance, we went in to the venue room where we were welcomed with hors-d’ouvres and went to the bar with our free drink token.  There were a couple of speeches from the Chair and Director of PRS discussing the up and coming projects for 2012 such as; New Music 20x12 and British Music Abroad then a performance from the National Youth Orchestra. The orchestra was instrument free apart from their hands and mouths. They performed Anne Meredith’s New Music 20x12 composition, ‘Hands Free’.

Dry the River

The highlight of the evening for me though, had to be watching a great band called, ‘Dry The River’. I’m ashamed to say that this was only the second gig I've been to since moving to London in October. This is a massive change to the three or four gigs a week I’m used to, from working in a music venue- at the wonderful Bar 1:22 in Huddersfield!

Anyway, they were brilliant. I always think the test of a good band is if they can make you smile and I was grinning all the way through. Since seeing them I’ve been listening to them non-stop and I can’t implore you enough to check them out. The five piece, who include a violinist as well as two guitars, bass and drums have an amazing stage presence, beautifully written songs and not just one great voice but three!  My only disappointment was that they didn’t do an encore. From speaking to the band after the performance, I learnt the reason for this was due to the singer having a cold. If the incredible performance I saw took place when the lead singer was ill then I really can’t wait to see them on 'top form'.

Had a wonderful night with friends old and new, listening to great music, supporting a brilliant cause. Highlight of 2012 so far!

Check out ‘No Rest’ by Dry The River here:

40% off Sale at Chic and Seek

Er...sale.

As you may or may not remember, in November I went to the second birthday party of Chic and Seek at 35 St. Luke’s Mews, London. Chic and Seek is a beautiful store with beautiful handbags, clothes, accessories and shelves of shoes that reach the ceiling!

Shoes, glorious shoes!

The main point of Chic and Seek is that you are buying ‘pre-loved’ labels in pristine condition for a fraction of the price.  Pictures of all items are available online or, of course, you can go to the store and look at them for yourselves.

Chic and Seek's motto!

Just in case you get
tired looking at all the pretty things.

Now, after that brief bio, I can tell you the most important thing. THERE IS A MASSIVE 40% OFF SALE! To put this into perspective- Manolos (in perfect condition) which were already a bargain are now even cheaper! Same with Vuitton handbags, Alexander McQueen evening dresses, Chanel coats, Cartier jewellery- I really could go on but I’m sure you get the idea.

This sale ends on the 22^nd January. To get your 40% off all you need to do is type in this code ‘J891’ at the checkout. Here is the website www.chicandseek.com. Now, I bid you, go and shop until your heart’s content. I’m sure it is about time you spoilt yourself after spoiling all those other people last month.

Happy Shopping! xxx

New Year's Resolutions 2012

Think it is fair to say that I have made a very poor effort so far this year. My New Year’s resolutions are always very similar and I usually last about a month before I let them slide. This year, however, was completely different- I didn’t even start them. I thought about them and that’s about as far as I got. Don’t get me wrong I had good intentions. I bought a cross-trainer but so far that has been used as a clothes horse. I thought about healthy eating and drinking less but there was so much chocolate and booze left over from Christmas which I simply could not let go to waste.

Betty the bear guarder

Yum!

 The one resolution I made that I have actually kept up with is making more of an effort to send cards to my friends and family for Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries etc. At the age of 23 I feel it’s about time. But I’ve even failed slightly on this point, my poor cousin, Katie, whose birthday was 1^st January missed out… (I didn’t buy all my cards for January until the 3^rd). So Happy Belated Birthday Katie!

Birthday Girl!

The reason I’m writing about all these failures is because I intend to start my New Year’s resolution year from today and if I express this publically, I may have more of a chance of succeeding. So, I intend to...

- Use my cross-trainer for exercise, not an extension of my wardrobe

- No more weekly Pizza Hut’s or daily multi-packs of chocolate

- Continue sending cards

- Spend more time with friends and family

- Write more

1.   

My new, as of yet un-used
cross-trainer

Good luck in your resolutions, if you made any. Hope you haven’t been as useless as me and have a great 2012!

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 was brilliant. It was spent in my new flat; I was as stuffed as the turkey, spent it with the people who matter most to me and was spoilt rotten.

I received some fabulous gifts.

Our Christmas Tree

At the beginning of November, I went to Fashion Press Week. Here I met James Lakeland and saw much of his Spring/Summer Collection for 2012. There were so many beautiful clothes but there was one dress in particular that I fell in love with. Try as I might I could not find it on any website, which was indeed very sad. Luckily, I managed to speak to Head Office via Twitter (don’t you just love social networking) who found the dress I love and sent it to my closest store, which was just down the road. Thank you James Lakeland for making my beautiful dress and thank you Mum for buying me it.

Having slightly over-indulged over Christmas I’m not going to show a picture of me wearing my dress just yet, instead I will put this picture up of a model wearing it, so you can get a vague idea of how great I’d look in it, hehe.

Some girl wearing
my dress

When going shopping I quite often do something that you shouldn’t do. I have an idea in my head of exactly what I want but 9 times out of 10, I haven’t seen it anywhere- I just fabricate it. Therefore I am usually very upset that some designer out there hasn’t been able to read my mind, which I know is quite unfair.

Anyway, I wanted a brown leather jacket with a fur collar. I’d seen a few dotted about but none that I actually liked. My boyfriend and I went shopping to find something for him to get me for Christmas and lo and behold I found my perfect jacket within 20 minutes of looking (this never happens to me!). Not only that, it was in the sale! Needless to say, that jacket was under our tree come Christmas day.

My new leather jacket
from Oasis

On the lead up to Christmas, the boy and I went shopping on Oxford Street thinking if we’re going to find something for each other, we’ll surely find it there. We both walked into Swatch together and straight away I knew what I was going to get him. It was easy. I wasn’t aware that he had walked in there thinking the exact same thing. Christmas day came and we both had a swatch box. I got him a ‘smoky blue full-blooded swatch watch and he got me a light blue reel bangle bracelet.

My boyfriend's new watch

My new bracelet

Just before Christmas, I saw a handbag that I needed to get but it was a tad on the expensive side so for Christmas I asked for a contribution towards it. It is from Aspinal of London and is the Barbarella bag in purple patent. I haven't managed to acquire all the funds to buy it yet but will show you a picture so you can see how pretty it is.

Aspinal of London
Purple Barbarella bag.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, that you all got spoilt too and spent it with special people. Loves. xxx

London Bird

At the Austin Reed launch, I met the beautiful Miranda McCarthy, founder and maker of London Bird jewellery. Miranda looked fabulous, very Elisabeth Taylor-esque, dressed in black with red lipstick and wearing a beautiful necklace and bracelet. I’m a massive fan of jewellery (especially large, statement pieces) and I, perhaps, focused more attention and asked more question about them than is polite to do at a party surrounded by other guests. However, I very quickly discovered she created them and I got to try them on!

Miranda McCarthy

London Bird necklace
modelled by its creator.

Matching braclet.

Like most up-and-coming designers who dare to venture to new pastures, Miranda struggled to sell her pieces with vendors always stating that her designs were too big (which is ridiculous…as we all know bigger is better), therefore they would inevitably be too heavy and too expensive! Obviously, Miranda found a solution; creativity should never be compromised. She found ‘a genius in Italy’ as she calls him, who uses a technology usually reserved for making micro and nano scale metallic devices, such as computer chips. Thus making them hollow. Thus making them not super heavy or super expensive!…(apologies for my use of the word ‘thus’). Using this method, Miranda is able to ‘maintain the integrity of her designs and realise her vision’!

Miranda McCarthy, Prince Cassius
and Sade English

For those of you who haven’t already heard of London Bird, it produces award-winning jewellery and haute-couture pieces for the catwalk. She was first showcase in InStyle magazine in 2004, she has since been featured in Vogue and was nominated for ‘Jewellery Designer of the Year’ during London Jewellery Week, 2011.

All of the pieces at London Bird are either .925 silver or 18ct. yellow gold. All pieces are made to order and by private appointment only.

Check out London Bird for yourselves here: www.londonbird.com