New York Fashion Week: Elie Saab

Now for those people who aren't into fashion, and more specifically fashion week, this may not be something you're enthralled to read about. For me, as a fashion student, it's an integral part of my course for inspiration and ideas on new trends to aid our assignments and as a general part of research. 

Recently, were were asked to create moodboards on London Fashion Week,which is coming up in the next few days, so for inspiration we looked into New York Fashion Fashion Week, and as it comes to a close this week, it's the perfect time to look for ideas of the next trends for the autumn/winter period. 

The designer who stole my heart from the whole week, was Elie Saab. The Lebanese fashion designer with whimsical designs and intricate embroidery. The extravagant dresses went from beautiful pale shades of blue, yellow and pink to striking grey and black hues. But the dresses that ultimately made an impression, and totally stole the show, were decorated with hundreds of butterflies and flowers, crafted with a gorgeous intricacy. Many of the other dresses were detailed with tiny feathers, giving them movement and life. 

This show was truly breath-taking, yet so unusual and unique- it was definitely my favourite and will stay in my mind for a long time. 

Personally I can sometimes find Fashion Week overwhelming and hard to digest, with so many designers and collections vying for attention, it's hard to know where to even start! Yet the Saab collection was such a pleasure to look at, I could sit all day just watching the amazing dresses being shown, in my opinion, it was a triumph. 

Chloé

xo 

Granny's Vintage Tea Room

Anyone who knows me, knows I love all things vintage, the music, the fashion, the history of the era, it's just so fascinating to me. So, when I went to this beautiful tea room on Friday with my mum, I fell in love.

Granny's Vintage Tea Room is a gorgeous old fashioned little cafe run by a mother-daughter duo, in the small village Todwick, Sheffield. As I live really nearby, I'd driven past and not usually thought much, simply thinking it was just another cafe trying too hard to be 'vintage'. but I was totally wrong! 

The place is decked out in the most lovely old fashioned furniture and crockery all around, with pictures and other items such as radios making an addition. It's such a nice spot for some afternoon tea, or for lunch like me and mum went for.

Although it was just a cafe, there actually seemed to be a lot of choice in terms of the menu, with a vast choice of sandwiches, toasties, jacket potatoes and salads so there's definitely something for every taste, all the food is home-made too which made it even nicer! I went for the mozzarella and pepper toasted sandwich and mum went for a tuna mayo which got a thumbs up from her, as for mine it was lovely and I'd definitely have it again. 

We then got a pot of tea to have with scones which was delicious and a great end to the meal, and although we seemed to have quite a lot all the food was really light which meant you didn't leave in a food coma! 

Overall I'd totally recommend this place if you're ever in the area, as its a really quiet and underrated little spot, all in all a fabulous lunch!

Chloé

xo

The Ever-Growing World of Bloggers

Recently in my course, we had a lecture and seminar by marketer Mark Brill, who introduced us to the power of social media, and the influence this has on the fashion industry. This is something I personally found fascinating, and actually happen to be choosing to research in my next assignment. More specifically, I'll be researching and writing about blogging, and the increasing influence that bloggers, such as Zoella, PointlessBlog, Tanya Burr and BeautyCrush (just to name a few) have on young women, such as myself. 

Blogging has been going on now for more than a decade, and in recent years has totally blown up, with 'normal' girls suddenly turning into celebrities, and having higher esteem than (oddly) most journalists within the fashion industry, even having preview fashion shows just for bloggers! For me, I find it fascinating how young girls can suddenly be more famous than models and writers, and how they have more influence to what and where people buy fashion than fashion magazines and websites. 

One of the main examples of this, as I'm sure you're aware (and if not you will be soon), is Zoella. She seems to be literally everywhere at the minute, having released her own novel, and her own beauty range. As a fashion and make-up lover myself, I've been following her blog and YouTube channel for a number of years, as well as other names within the blogging world such as Fleur (FleurDeForce), Sammi (Beautycrush) and Tanya (Tanya Burr). 
Now for those of you who aren't into the world of blogging and 'vlogging', I'm sure you aren't really captivated by this post, but the thing is, these girls are becoming famous celebrities, and can't be ignored. Whenever they go out, they're mobbed by fans asking for photos and autographs, and they even have events specifically tailored for bloggers to meet their fans, such as AmityFest and DigiFest. 

In terms of Zoella, she now has the 59th most subscribed YouTube channel in the world, with over 7 million subscribers, and more Instagram followers than Cara Delevinge, one of the most iconic high fashion models in the world. I personally find this quite amazing seeing as Zoella doesn't have any particular talent or skill, such as being a make-up artist or fashion designer, she's simply a young girl who blogs and vlogs, but who's become so popular due to being relateable to girls all over the world. Her videos, which focus on beauty and lifestyle, all have over 1 million views, within a week, and in 2014 she was the most searched for person on the internet!

So, all in all, blogging and vlogging is now becoming one of the most sought after career goals for young girls, who want to be famous for doing pretty much nothing apart from recording a video of themselves talking about make-up and clothes. It's a concept I find slightly odd but also really interesting, and in my opinion, will only continue to grow within the next few years. 
I hope you found this post thought provoking, as it's quite a hot topic within the fashion and celebrity industries. 

Chloé

xo

Monday Musings; My Spiritual Home

Hello, welcome to my blog and thank you for coming along for a read. 

Now I know most people usually start off with one of those introductory posts, talking about them and what they aim to get out of blogging, well frankly I find those boring and cliché... 
So I'd rather get straight into the blog with my first post, but if you would like to learn a little about me, my name is Chloe, I'm an 18 year old fashion marketing student studying in Nottingham, and originally from Sheffield. It's really northern and un-glamorous, something not all that attractive for your average bloggers usually from London with fabulous fashion sense and a knack for writing. But, please, if you can get past all that, I'm hoping you'll enjoy my blog anyway, so let's get on with the show. 

A few weeks ago, at the beginning of January, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to New York with my university course, and I have to say it was probably the most amazing experience of my life. Now this is coming from someone who's been to France probably over 100 times in her life, and who went to Hawaii when she was younger, so it was pretty hard to beat in my books. 

But in short it was totally fabulous, and as you can see from the title I'm naming it my spiritual home, in the hope I can one day go back for either a holiday, or -of course- to live. 

This picture is from the day we went up the Empire State Building, and it was utterly stunning, I remember walking up to the huge lifts, ascending higher and higher until the top, the 86th floor. As we got out into the viewing area, I was completely lost for words, I was literally stood there gawping at the view, it had always been my dream to go to New York, and I can only say that it was mesmerising.

One of the things that amazed me, was that even though it was all commercialised buildings or expensive apartments fitted with the conference rooms and minimalistic furnishings, there was something oddly beautiful about it, almost perfectly imperfect. 

Everyone who says anything about the city is right, whether that be positive or negative: a historic, yet romantic place that never sleeps, and works harder and longer than anyone else in the world. It's fascinating and addictive and I never wanted to leave, there's enough sights to fill your time for a month, and enough food to satisfy even the hungriest of appetites. 

-the big apple stole my heart like no other-

Chloé

xo