Fantastic Gentleman

So I wanted to share with you a recent and favourite photo shoot I did in my first semester of third year, this was a menswear brief based on the magazine Fantastic Man. We had to choose a new and upcoming designer or brand which is 5 years old or less and create an advertorial for this brand which initially would be published in Fantastic Man. I chose a UK designer called Nasir Mazhar, the reason I chose this designer is because he has quite a sporty aesthetic within his designs such as tracksuits, box peak caps, trainers etc. I really liked that he is also influenced by the UK grime music scene and artists such as Skepta have worked along side him to create soundtracks for his catwalk shows but has also walked in his shows. I felt that his designs were very much what I am into to and I could relate to him in many ways, I knew by choosing him as my designer that I would enjoy learning about his influences and his designs, I would say this has been my favourite brief and photo shoot of my whole three years of studying. I named my advertorial 'Fantastic Gentleman' as throughout the images he is seen doing gentlemanly things such as holding the door open, choosing flowers and so on. I love the contrast of the sportswear/streetwear with the sophisticated locations.

Photographer - Naomi Graham

Naomi's Instagram - @naomigrahamphoto

Model - Ellis Mckeown

Ellis's Instagram - @ellismckeown

Styling Assistant - Georgia Rose-Garside

Georgia's Instagram - @georgiaalfie

Styling & Editing by me -

My Instagram - @lsh_fashionstyling

FISHERGATE FACE OFF

I wanted to share with you a very recent LIVE brief I am currently a part of at university, as some of you may already know, I am a final year student studying at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and I am studying Fashion Promotion with Styling.

Every year the course does a Fashion Show module, for the last 2 years this brief has been a LIVE brief, working with a local Shopping Centre called Fishergate.

This year the show is called 'Fishergate Face Off', as well as the show we are also holding a MODEL COMPETITION in association with Boss Model Management. The models will get the opportunity to win a modelling contract with the agency, on the day we will have a panel of judges making the decision but we have also set up a voting page for the models for people to cast their vote for their favourite model.

VOTE HERE: https://www.facebook.com/Fishergate-Face-Off-1506684949646340/?fref=ts

Each of us in the class were given a role which we each had to create a proposal for, the tutors then assigned people with their roles based on our proposal's. I chose the Music Producer role, and guess what, I won it! Again, as some of you may know I absolutely love music, so to be able to combine my two favourite things - music and fashion, I was over the moon.

I feel it hasn't been particularly stressful for me, I have absolutely loved every minute of it, what better way to spend your day than searching for tracks that the audience will absolutely love. I feel I have chosen a great track list and I cannot wait to play it at the show.

I am not going to reveal the track list before the show as I obviously want to keep it a secret until tomorrow, but I will happily share it after. I will be continuing on from this post with images of the day and also the tracks which some of you may not of ever heard before - it's always exciting hearing a new song. Well it is to me anyway ha ha.

We have numerous exciting things going on, with local companies also bringing along drinks, food, as well as other bits and bobs. It will be a great evening - and why not get involved with

our raffle too. There is plenty going on and it is all for free!

So join us tomorrow, 6:30pm at Fishergate Shopping Centre - Preston, for an evening of fun!



All I Want For Christmas Is BABY-G

These fun and cheeky images have been created by scene-stealing queen from Made in Chelsea, Phoebe Lettice, and Vice Fashion Editor and stylist-to-the-stars Kylie Griffiths to celebrate BABY-G's festive season, as the original Pretty Tough Girls, they have worked together to create a series of images to celebrate the bright and colourful watches.

 The images tell a story of a BABY-G Christmas morning, exploring the kitsch, girly side of the brand but also brings to life BABY-G's Pretty Tough ethos which celebrates young, creative, successful and trailblazing females.

I absolutely love these images, they are bright and playful, the styling is a great reflection of Kylie's style. I've always loved Phoebe's work and these images are everything BABY-G stands for. It is a really nice way of showing how their type of customer would wear and style the watches. - I think I will definitely be putting one of these watches on my Christmas list!

I love the 90's feel to this brand and the range of colours they have to offer, I've always been a fan of Casio and would not buy any other brand - only the cool kids where Casio watches! BABY-G put their own colourful, fun and quirky style into the designs, creating the perfect wrist accessory.





As one of the most iconic style statements of the 90s, the Jelly pack is available now in an updated design and brand new colourways retailing at £65-£70. The Sneaker pack also features in the imagery; their chunky, bold, casual style with a 3-dimensional face, it’s the BABY-G that adds colour pop to everyone’s Christmas wardrobe retailing at £100. And finally the classic Retro Square with a brand new 2015 make-over. The face has been updated this series in fresh new colours with contrasting bumper bars retailing at £70.  

My Top Picks from the BABY-G collection

Left: BG-6900SG-1ER

Right: BGD-501-4ER

www.baby-g.co.uk

BABY-G TURNED 21 IN JULY

CHECK OUT THE CELEBRATIONS HERE: https://player.vimeo.com/video/135038624



Best Of Britannia (North) 2015

UCLan degree shows: BA (hons) Fashion Promotion & Fashion Promotion with Styling installation.

http://bestofbritannia.com/events/bob-north-2015/

"In line with the Best of Britannia Mission Statement the BOB team are thrilled to announce BOB North. Working with the fullest support of Marketing Lancashire, Creative Lancashire and Preston City Council we are continuing the ethos of BOB and taking it to the heart of a county renowned globally as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The BOB team are delighted to be breathing new life into the former Central Post Office building in the historic Flag Market where we will be creating our unique pop-up department store experience as well as replicating the buzz of our food and drink courtyard by utilising the wrought-iron Victorian grandeur of the adjacent covered market."

FASHION ‘KITCH’EN

DISCIPLINE: FASHION

DESCRIPTION: UCLan fashion promotion and styling are taking over the ‘heart’ of every home. The ‘Kitsch’en' has cupboards full of packaging delights that shows off the creative talents of both fashion promotion and styling students from UCLan. Be ready to find out about what type of biscuit you are with the help of apron clad tutors and students, there may even be a delight to take away.

BEFORE:

Here is our space before we transformed it into The Kitsch'en

 The transformation process..

Hannah stacking the shelves 

 Me wallpapering some of the students work to the wall

Some of the girls from Fashion Promotion with Styling adding the finishing touches

Lancashire Tea Bags attached to the wall with a Blackpool tea towel

Kitsch'en utensils handmade by UCLan

Fashion Promotion with Styling student Hem having fun with the blow up Banana's

Blackpool rock VS UCLan rock

Which biscuit are you?

The Exhibition starts tomorrow (Friday 15th May 2015) and continues over the weekend until Sunday 17th May (2015), we look forward to seeing you there!


Lauren x

Fashion and Food Brief - Food Styling & Botanical inspired cocktail recipes

Still life covers all areas within fashion and is used as a valuable marketing tool for all designers, labels and brands. As part of the main advertising strategy for growing or established labels, it is visual information that is paramount to to any successful advertising campaign. 

For this project we had to create a 4-5 (I did 6 because of the title page) page still life fashion and food editorial for a chosen magazine, my chosen magazine being Lula.
We had to do a lot of food research and development including a research trip to London which is where my idea stemmed from. I went to a bar and restaurant called The Folly: www.thefollybar.co.uk
which is a botanical inspired restaurant with a garden lounge and flower shop too, it is a gorgeous place with a great atmosphere. From this botanical theme I created my food trend pages, I took inspiration from botanical diagrams but incorporated food and fashion into them instead of plants and flowers. Along with my botanical theme I also researched into organic and healthy foods to help me decide which food I was going to use, I used a range of herbs and spices as well as fresh fruit and vegetables.
Instead of using garments for this brief we were told to only use accessories, the accessories are inspired by the Spring/Summer 15 ready - to - wear collections. The accessories I have labeled with the designer on my trend pages are the designers which I have taken inspiration from and chosen my accessories very similarly.
I wanted to make my work look as organic as possible, which I think I have achieved well. I really enjoyed this brief and it was a brief that was completely out of my comfort zone, so it was a great challenge. I think it is so important to always look around you, read books, look online and just generally keep inspired because its those inspirations that keep you excited, enthusiastic and full of ideas.

Along with this botanical themed post I have some great botanical inspired cocktail recipes which are perfect for the summer season which is approaching fast, in the UK anyway! You can create these cocktails using ingredients from your garden, grown by yourself.

The first cocktail is Lavender Lemonade, easy to grow with a beautiful aroma, if you are fed up of your average lemonade recipe then this is a great alternative. 

Ingredients: 

Lavender sprigs 

Lemon juice 

Sugar and water

Step by Step: 

- Bring one litre of water to the boil in a large saucepan until 1 ½ cups of sugar have dissolved.

- Squeeze the juice of about six lemons into the mix, before sprinkling in some fresh Lavender flowers

- When it cools, the drink can be served with ice and garnished with lemon slices and Lavender sprigs for decoration. 

The perfect drink for daytime, with a meal, or in the evening is Elderberry Sparkling Wine.

Ingredients:

Elderberries 

Water

Honey

Any sparkling wine of your choice 

Step by Step: 

-  The drink needs to be set for at least 24 hours before you can give it a taste

-  To make the Elderberry syrup, boil 1 cup of water with ¼ cup of dried Elderberries on the stove, covering the pot and leaving to simmer for 20 minutes. 

- Once it has cooled, strain the berries, pour the liquid into a bowl and stir in ½ cup of honey. 

- Simply add the cooled syrup to your favourite sparkling wine for a sophisticated summer treat.

And the final cocktail is Rosemary Gin Fizz which is a great choice for a garden party as it only takes a few minutes to make.

Ingredients:
- Fresh Rosemary
- Lemon juice
- Honey
- Gin
- Sparkling water

Step by Step:
- Cut the fresh Rosemary into three one-inch sprigs, and mix together ½ teaspoon of honey and the juice of one lemon in a drinking glass.
- Pour in the gin and sparkling water, give it a stir, and add some ice.

These recipes have been put together by the team at Best4hedging, they specialize in hedging, topiary and trees.
https://www.best4hedging.co.uk/


I will definitely be trying out these recipes myself so I will let you know how I get on, please feel free to let me know your thoughts on my still life fashion and food work too.

Lauren x