Paris Fashion Week SS 2011 Revisited

Outside Chanel, October 2010.

Loving her knit skirt: it kind of reminds me of the Chloe cable knit skirt from this season.

Lucy for Grazia.it

Miss Lucy Williams for Grazia.it.
Head on over to Grazia for Lucy's interview and photos here.
So if you have been to London Fashion Week, or even if you haven't, probably you would be familiar with Lucy. She is one of those beautiful girls that everyone wants to photograph: all long blonde hair, cute hat, leather biker jacket and great big smile. Pick a street style blog, and a photo of Lucy will more than likely be on it (she has been on my blog numerous times). I even randomly came across a photo of Lucy on a wedding blog in the US! Lucy is a fashion and beauty assistant for Stylus.com (a new online design inspiration platform) and she also has a fantastic blog spilling over with beautiful, inspiring images called Fashion Me Now. Lucy doesn't really do posts on her own outfits but maybe you could convince her to do a couple now and then ;)
Lucy's leather jacket is from Topshop, as is her singlet and the wide leg trousers are from River Island. Her cross was a gift.
Lucy is one of those girls who manages to always look so effortlessly cool. When she opened the door to her apartment all tanned from a recent trip to the beach in Wales, dressed in a striped t-shirt and rolled skinny jeans, bare feet, and with her wrists encircled by Daisy chakra bracelets, friendship bands and other jewellery she has picked up on her travels- it was one of those moments when I was like um, hellllooooo, did I accidentally make an appointment to photograph Sienna Miller today?! She has that boho/hippy/rock-n-roll/whateveritiscalled look that Sienna, Erin Wasson and Kate Moss pull off so well.
One of my favourite pieces from Lucy's awesome and overflowing (with tiny denim shorts, black motorcycle boots, sheer dresses and tops) wardrobe was these candy-floss pink Isabel Marant shorts (you know the one's Gisele has on in the Isabel Marant advert's?). I loved everything about them including the ribbon lacing them up at the front- they managed to look cute, and hot all at once. Lucy teamed the Isabel Marant shorts with a sweater from Zara and boots from Kurt Geiger.
I couldn't let the shoot end without getting end without Lucy putting on a hat! This one is vintage. The black kimono top in the first shots is from Zara. Lucy's gold watch is Michael Kors.
Striped t-shirt (vintage), H&M jeans. Most of Lucy's jewellery she has picked up while travelling but she does recommend Indian Summer and Thailandia in Fulham, London for jewellery that looks like you have picked it up from a market in some exotic, far-flung location.


Love the black skull and white puppy on Lucy's window sill, and her collection of black boots.
p.s. you can click on the collages to make them slightly bigger.
p.p.s check out the little photo of Lucy in the mask which I made her put on. puwrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Paris Fashion Week AW 2011...Susie

Miss Susie Lau, aka Miss Style Bubble looking gorgeous in blue.

New York Fashion Week AW 2011

Paris Fashion Week SS 2011 Revisited

Rome

I was going to start another blog as a place for my travel photographs that don't really fit with what I post here. But then I barely manage to update this blog so I thought it a bit ridiculous to start another one. So, this is the start of my travel section where I get to bore you with what I take photos of when I am travelling :)

I took these when we travelled to Rome for a few days just before Christmas last year (and when the snow in the UK threatened to keep us in Italy for Christmas day). It was cold (but clearly not too cold for gelato!) and we had snow, hail, thunder and rain all in one afternoon! We stayed in a lovely little apartment in Trastevere and our friends stayed in another apartment nearby. I forgot to write down the restaurants and bars we found on our wanders but I will make sure I remember for next time.

Things I loved in Rome:
The walk from Trastevere up to Janiculum Hill (great views of the city) and then down to the Vatican City;
A Saturday afternoon stroll through the Villa Borghese gardens;
Sunday lunch at Giggetto al Portico d'Ottavia in the Jewish ghetto;
Espresso from Sant'Eustachio Il Caffe and Tazza D'Oro (clearly Italy has fantastic coffee everywhere but it is still wonderful to stand at the bar in these beautiful places. Just go early to avoid the queues);
Gelato from Giolitti (even on a freezing afternoon in the middle of December);
The views from the top of the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (which thankfully has an elevator so you don't have to walk up hundreds of stairs);
Antipasto at the tiny Buccone enoteca;
Aperitifs at the Caffe della Pace (I still haven't acquired the taste for Campari and soda but I love the colour of it. So pretty!);
Wandering around the Campo di Fiori while tearing off chunks of warm bread from Forno bakery.
Watching the snow fall while we stood in the majestic surrounds of the Pantheon.

Verity for Grazia.it

Miss Verity Pemberton for Grazia.it.
Okay, so you probably recognise the background of these photos from Cara Dawson's Grazia.it feature (I was hoping to be a bit tricky and pretend I hadn't photographed two girls at once but I suspect you guys would have figured it out.....particularly as the bottom collage is Cara and Verity together!).
Anyway, at the beginning of April (when the magnolia trees and cherry blossoms still had flowers), Verity invited me over to her family home so I could photograph her and Cara. You can find the full interview with Verity on Grazia here.

And I have to say I was absolutely blown away by Verity and her family- they are all so incredibly talented (I only met her three sisters but I hear her brother is equally creative). I had only ever spoken to Verity via email before so for her to invite me over, make me lunch (delicious roasted vegetable couscous) and let me photograph her (teddy bear and all!) was pretty cool. Verity has a fantastic blog called They Don't Know Yet where she describes herself as "Designer and Stylist who lives in a wardrobe, Likes shopping at 6:30 in the morning with a torch. Editor and Founder of Don't Know Yet Zine. Loves Fashion...A Bit Too Much- KAPOW!". You have to love a girl who says Kapow like she means it ;)
Verity is an Assistant Designer at Urban Outfitters and also a freelance stylist (she made Florence and The Machine's space costume for Bestival on the Isle of Wight, styled Daisy Lowe for the Topshop green issue zine). Oh yes, and she is also the editor and founder of Don't Know Yet zine. The little fanzines, which Verity started as a teenager, have contributions from Verity (styling, photography, illustrations), her friends (including the photographer Valerie Phillips) and sisters. Verity's blog is basically a condensed version of the zine: daily-ish snippets of inspiration about fashion, interiors, shoots she has styled and things that make her laugh (like sweets shaped like burgers!).
And Verity's personal style? Verity's room is filled to the max with so many amazing pieces, a lot of it vintage. You could literally go shopping in Verity's room! She loves hunting for pieces in car boot sales (hence the shopping at 6:30am with a torch- you have to get there early for the best finds) or on Portobello Road.
For our shoot, Verity wore dress by Peter Jensen, heels from Topshop, leather shorts (underneath) she made herself, and a leopard print hat from Urban Outfitters.

Her t-shirt is from Urban Outfitters, trousers vintage Missoni and most of her jewellery is vintage along with a Dominic Jones ring and a Low Luv ring.

Verity and Cara....um, up a tree! Clearly I have some odd ideas at times ;)
p.s. you can click on the collages to make them a little bigger.
p.p.s Verity's 17 year old sister Amelia makes the super cute dolls called Doobydolls which she began making at 12! Hilary Alexander, Florence Welch, Giles Deacon and Jane Birkin all have their very own doobydoll. This family is so crazy talented.