The BN1

Saturday 18 January 2014

The scent of Gucci Première

Inspired by the glamorous hollywood sirens of the past, the astonishingly lovely Gucci Premiere has been on the scene since 2012. As an avid patron of cocunut based scents I have some what neglected the deep heady scents; as they have often reminded me of ageing starlets draped in 50 year old furs cloying with old perfume (YSL's Opium anyone?!) Yet after stumbling apon Premiere by accident by way of a tiny tester bottle I was officially hooked. Alas, it won't make you look like stupidly good looking front woman Blake Lively, but it still makes me smell (& feel) pretty damn good.

The Bottle

I'm a total sucker for anything shiny and gold (hence a bedroom full of useless trinkets and pieces of tat that caught my eye) so this bottle was a total must for me. Totally encased in resplendent gold, its a welcome edition to any dressing table. With the signature Gucci horse bit draped around it's neck, the bottle speaks of it's glamorous 70's heyday where icons such as Rita Hayworth bedecked themselves in the label. Apparently inspired by the Gucci gowns at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, the fragrance has a suitably glamorous feel. Frida Gianni describes the perfume as such - “For such a successful woman, something equally remarkable was required. Gucci Première is womanly, intriguing and as seductive as the perfect couture gown.”

The Scent

As a self-confessed perfume novice (hey I just go for the pretty bottles) I don't pretend to know the first thing about what makes up a scent. I would definitely advise popping in to your nearest shop and having a quick spritz because I can't begin to describe how rich and yummy it is. Here's what the website had to say about the actual scent -

TOP: bergamot, orange blossom; The fragrance opens with the luxury and exuberance of a vintage champagne. A burst of effervescent bergamot fused with feminine and celebratory orange blossom.

HEART: white flowers, musk; At the scent’s core nestle the brilliant white flowers of an intense bouquet, laced with a magnetically sensual modern musk

BASE: leather, wood; The fragrance’s warm and indulgent foundation rests in a beguiling cocktail of subtly smoky leather and creamy balsamic woods that epitomises absolute glamour.

Overall, it's a beautiful, deep scent in a gloriously pretty bottle. What more can a girl want?!

Gucci Première eau de parfum from £45

http://www.gucci.com/uk/category/f/fragrance/gucci_premiere_eu

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Shop Focus - My Flash Trash

As many of you probably already know, worst kept fash secret myflashtrash.com is the absolute go to site for quirky trend-led jewellery. From cute pendants, to ethnic inspired statement necklaces and rings just crying out to be layered up, there are pieces to suit any style tribe here. Here are just a few of the bits and bobs finding themselves on my wishlist.

I promise you, it's an addictive site: you'll soon be checking out the new arrivals on a weekly basis! Shop all these beauts and more at www.myflashtrash.com.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Catwalk Focus = Dior Haute Couture Fall 2013

Couture Fashion Week is always a welcome break from the relatively drab mid season summer break. Fashion's final hurrah before the stressful September collections, Couture represents a step back to the intrinsic nature of fashion itself. RTW tends to dictate the following few seasons for both other designers and the rest of us on the high street, so in Couture the designers have much freer reign, relatively unconstrained by advertisers and commercial worries. As a result, these collections seem to go back to the soul of the house and tend to explore more radical shapes which won't be focused on the hard sell but instead on creativity.

Raf Simons third couture outing as creative director of Christian Dior was one of my personal favourites. The past two seasons have seen Simons cement himself as Dior man through and through, demonstrating to show his mastery of classic Dior styles and intrinsic knowledge of the house's archives. This collection sees him move slightly away from traditional Dior styles. Yes the silhouettes and aesthetics are still fundamentally Dior, but the look is very much modernity personified, something Simons excels in.

Here is just a small cross section of the 53 styles:

As you can see, it is a collection of variety and experimentation. You can see the heavy influence of mid twentieth century styles - the cinched in waists, heavy silks and demure strapless styles. But this season, Raf wanted to experiment with the idea of 'Global Fashion Culture'. This is evident in the delicate textural shibori fabrics, transforming a relatively simple silhouttes into beautifully intricate dresses. The jewel like colours and mixture of aztec prints help cement this feeling of Paris meets Africana. My personal favourite is the ombre grey to blue to orange glass fringe dress. A piece that really shouldn't work, yet Simons grasp of both the new modernity and the very niche Dior Couture customer makes this piece (and the rest of the collection) work all too well. This is the new Dior, styles that hark back to the golden age yet embrace the future whole heartedly.

The other interesting aspect of this show was the multi media aspect - viewers were confronted with huge screens with images collated from the greats of fashion photography of the models in their looks pre-show (think Patrick Demarchelier & Terry Richardson). The increasingly multimedia nature of fashion is shaping the landscape of fashion itself, and I for one, perhaps because I work in Social Media, am super excited to see the result.

So, to sum up this fabulous concoction of cultures and aesthetics - think chic africana, subtle shapes, impeccable craftsmanship, unusual colour combos and texture clashes. Elegant and creative couture at its finest.

http://www.elleuk.com/catwalk/designer-a-z/christian-dior/couture-aw-2013

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/autumn-winter-2013/couture/christian-dior

Monday 1 July 2013

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I've just heard on the grapevine that all of my lovely followers via google will be disappearing soon! Thanks for that google plus. Really super helpful to all of us bloggers who work so hard to build up a follower base!

Make sure you follow me via blog lovin instead to get lots of new content and shiny amazingness.

Tah!

Friday 28 June 2013

Shades of Blue Dress

Today was payday. That can only mean one thing- some SERIOUS shopping. Luckily for me I had my eyes set firmly upon one dress, so when I received my monies I knew exactly where to go.

Thanks to Lucky Mecklenburgh debuting this style in Marbs this style has proved spectacularly popular. I tried resisting this dress as it was a tad out of my price range (I buy alot of dresses so I need to seriously budget) but seeing it again on a lass in Brighton last weekend I just had to have it in my life. So then I started to justify this purchase, and ofcourse my Birthday is coming up in a few weeks, providing the ultimate dress occasion. Perfecto I thought, so I waited for it to be restocked at 4pm today (telling myself that this was again fate telling me I HAD to buy this dress) and nabbed it as soon as it came online. Queue flustered entering of details and much air pumping in the office once the purchase confirmation had came through.

So anyways, very very exciting times for me. I can't wait to receive it on Monday, fingers crossed they manage to find the office okay in posho Richmond. I will definitely be returning to Three Floor, such an original brand - still wearable but altogether sleek and completely on trend. With echoes of Alexander Wang and Celine, its worth paying that little bit more for well designed pieces like this.

Shop this dress here (Quickly before it goes! Although more stock will come on the 5th of July phewwwww)

Shades of Blue Dress

£168

from Three Floor

Friday 10 May 2013

Jeff Koons at Brighton Museum

If you are down in Brighton for the May festival, or popping down for a sunny/dirty/hen weekend in the Summer, do pop in to the Art Gallery to have a look at the Jeff Koon's exhibition. Me and my mum joined the Brighton Museums and Art Gallery (so middle class I know), so we got invited to the private view tonight. After our initial shock that one had to pay, yes PAY, for wine (not even Champagne) we got to look at the exhibition.

Showcasing some of his most prolific works- from the Inflatable series and the winter bears, to the New Hoover Convertibles and animal mirrors, the pieces show the true breadth of his work in a succinct collection. My personal favourite is 'Winter Bears'. To me, the sculpture really encapsulates Koons' attitude towards our current obsession with consumerism and all things commercial. At first glance, the kitsch grinning animals seem to represent a youthful exuberance- with hopeful beady eyes and cute clothing. Yet as you continue to gaze, a vaguely sinister undertone peeps through the thin gauze of the superficial. The bear's smiles are frozen, their eyes are empty, you realise that the whole portrayal is wholly insincere. They become a bushy tailed wide eyed stereotype; a parody of the Disney juggernaut that shapes the children of this generation. The bears represent a complete culture of consumerism; when even the complete innocence of childhood is not beyond corruption. Here, Koons' suggests that much of our culture, and indeed our inherent systems of belief, are indeed shallow artifice which mask a much harsher reality.

The best thing about his work is that it invites comment and extrospection in its honest, apparent simplicity. The work is completely subversive in its nature. Take the animal mirrors; they very literally force the viewer to become the viewed. The artwork becomes active, the viewer passive; forcing a questioning of the piece itself. The best shows are ones which are the loudest, I love hearing 'what does this mean?!', conversation and opinion is what keeps art vibrant and truly alive.

It opens to the public tomorrow and carries on till September the 8th. Fabulous!

Read this fab article on Koons and also info on the exhibition:

http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/jeff_koons2/

http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/WhatsOn/Pages/BMAGArtistRoomsJeffKoons11mayto8sep2013.aspx

Wednesday 17 April 2013

This summer, interiors go global

With the seemingly imminent arrival of our fabulous British summer, it seems that everybody is embracing a very new style of interiors- a world away from this spring's fling with light florals and pastel shades. Influenced in part by catwalk mavericks and print obsessives like Mary Katrantzou and Peter Pilotto, combined with the start of festival season and a current cultural obsession with exotic lands; bright bold prints that take inspiration from far flung continents and abstract cultures are starting to seep in to the world of interiors.

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This emerging trend for all things global is a mixture of different cultural aesthetics, colours, prints and textures- combining to form a riotous celebration of interior design. Perhaps as a backlash to the clean simplicity of the recent trend for tonal whites and scandinavian design, this bali-esque chic is anything but dull.This trend is one that truly embraces the feelings of summer: with one part festival, a smattering of different cultures, a mish mash of print, vibrant colours, textural materials, all tied up with a vintage feel- this trend is very much one of the global traveller. Taking influence from the textiles of India, Aztec prints, the bright zingy colours of the Morroco, the Bali Vibe, and the artisan crafts of Africa, this fashion is completely cross cultural. Combine all of this in a curated and considered manner (you don't want your front room to look like an explosion in a textile factory) and you will have the aesthetic down to a T.

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So how does one achieve this cornocupia of styles you ask? Luckily, with a style this bold, it is relatively easy to embrace your inner nomad; just add some eclectic, vibrant new pieces and you'll be on trend for the whole of the summer season. This trend for all thing global requires minimal output but achieves a bold statement. Now for the ultimate in traveller chic, you'll have spent decades jetting off to far flung exotic villages collecting authentic handcrafted pieces. Luckily for you, and your credit card, there is one website where you can pick up all of these items with just a click of the mouse. www.notonthehighstreet.com is a veritable treasure trove of unique pieces- from sumptous bedding, to innovative wall art, this is a site you simply cannot leave without snapping something up. These instantly lust worthy items will lend your home a hint of global chic, or you can go flat out nomadic traveller, its up to you! Happy shopping.