Mars Bar Rice Crispy Cakes

I was feeling a little creative today so decided to make something scrumptious on a Sunday.

My go-to cook book for sweet goodies is The Complete book of Cupcakes, Cheescakes and Cookies by Australian Women's Weekly. I found it reduced to £5 at WH Smith (because I think it has a photo mis-print) about 6 months ago and have found the recipes surprisingly successful.

I wanted to make something simple, quick and indulgent so decided on the No-Bake Chocolate Cakes which are really just glorified Rice Crispy cakes.



This is how they turned out - pretty yummy I would say!

If you fancy making them yourself (they are super easy!) the recipe is below.

















Plus they store easily for a week in an air tight box in the fridge.


Maria
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A Lovely Little Day in London

Last Thursday I ventured into London for a few reasons. One, I was meeting up with a friend to pick up some Scandinavian magazines for our media analysis lecture on Friday, two, to go and buy more of said magazines and three - the most exciting reason - to go to the Manolo Blahnik book signing at Liberty.

My friend gave me Swedish magazine Café (similar to GQ) and SPORT (a sport newspaper) and I managed to find Bon international (Swedish unisex fashion magazine) in a little newsagents and Carl*s Cars (Norwegian car and lifestyle magazine) in a specialist magazine shop in Shoreditch.



On the way I also stumbled across Spitalfields market but didn't have time to shop so just took a few photos to show you.

















Next and final stop, Liberty. I joined my friend Elina in the queue and waited to meet Manolo Blahnik. At the till I impulsed and bought two books for him to sign, one is his new book, Manolo's New Shoes, and the other is Manolo Blahnik's Drawings. I'm not quite sure what to do with the second one yet but thought that whilst I was there I should seize the moment. It was a great opportunity to meet him, he was so kind and chatty, I was very glad I made the effort to go.












Maria
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Salt Magazine

For one of our assignments this year, we have to write an analysis on a magazine that we don't usually read or know much about.

We met our Media Analysis tutor at RD Franks just off Oxford St. It's a specialist magazine shop with lots of fashion magazines that I'd never heard of or seen before. (They also had Spanish Hola! which I got super excited about!)

I chose Salt magazine. It's a new publication by Swarovski and is, in the most part, one big advertising campaign. It's mainly made up of the different Swarovski collections, celebrities wearing Swarovski, events sponsored by Swarovski, Swarovski ad pages...well you get the idea but there is a good photography spread by renowned photographer Guy Aroch and a geological article about the largest crystal mine in the world. It also has some interesting collaborations with designers like Phillip Lim, Georgio Armani and Valentino redesigning the LBD and incorporating, you guessed it, Swarovski crystals. I think it's safe to say that Swarovski really have exhausted their contacts with this launch.





















I am yet to read it all but I'll keep you posted with the analysis.

We have another assignment for next Friday and we decided to (try to) kill two birds with one stone (we failed miserably) while we were in the area. In our groups we were assigned a particular area of the world (we had northern Europe) and we had to find 5 magazines from that area. The idea is to make a reader profile from each of them and present it next Friday. Sadly, we weren't able to find any magazines from those countries. Despite looking all over London, RD Franks, WH Smith in Selfridges, numerous newsagents around Marylebone high street and Covent garden, we found nothing. Aparently they don't sell northern European publications in London. We were exhausted after 4 hours of searching and down-hearted that we hadn't found anything so decided to call it a day. Needless to say our search goes on.

The day wasn't a total loss though, we did see some interesting things along the way. We stopped a guy in the street who was extremely well dressed to take his photo but by far the funniest was when we approached a man to ask directions and he stopped us mid-sentence and announced that he was crying because he'd just lost his job. Poor guy.

For more coverage on the day (and photos of the well-dressed man) click here and here for the other girls' blogs in my group.


Maria

Fabric Moment

Our most recent assignment was a "Fabric Moment" in the style of Colin McDowell. We had 200 words to write about a fabric of our choice. I originally thought of velvet but after hearing that at least 2 other people were doing it, decided I wanted to be a bit different. I couldn't think of an obscure fabric that no one else would pick so I emailed my fashion design tutor from last year. She came back to me with a couple of really interesting fabrics - coconut fabric which is quite a new development, bamboo fabric which is an enviromentally friendly alternative to cotton and Harris Tweed - my choice.

I've posted a photo of the layout below but since you can't read the text, I've pasted that as well.



Harris Tweed by Georgina Anderson

Harris Tweed is a luxury fabric, hand woven by the islanders on the Isles of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland using only local wool. The original name was tweel, Scottish for twill but the modern name came about almost by chance. In 1830, a London merchant was sent a letter from Hawick in Scotland about some tweels. The merchant misread the handwriting and understood it to be a name taken from the river Tweed which flows through the Scottish border. Subsequently the cloth was advertised and the name stuck.

During the potato famine of 1846, the Countess of Dunmore was key in the promotion of Harris Tweed. Recognising the potential, she had the family tartan copied in Harris Tweed. Proving a success, Lady Dunmore sought to modernise and perfect the production process. By the late 1840s, a London market was established which led to an increase in sales. When all other Tweed manufacturers turned to mechanical methods, the Outer Hebrides retained their traditional, hand woven methods. Production increased until 1966 when the textile industry in Europe started to decline.

However, members of the British royal family have worn Harris Tweed for generations and in 1987, Vivienne Westwood took this inspiration and created her Autumn/Winter collection using Harris Tweed. This once again accelerated the popularity of Harris Tweed and it’s still widely used today by designers such as Marc Jacobs and Thomas Pink.


Maria

The New ASOS Magazine

I was flicking through the new ASOS magazine and came accross a couple of spreads I really liked.

The first was an adorable fashion shoot with the cutest baby pigs in it (ok so maybe I just like the piglets rather than the fashion...) but I rather like the Michael Kors watch in the third photo and the tights in the second image.







Is it just me or does it make you want to have a piglet for a pet?

The second spread was an accessories spread on forever pieces. I love the Michael Kors watch in the first image but also the way it has been photographed. I love the idea of making it into a jigsaw. And on the other side is a wonderfully simple image of a classic Chanel bag. Because what's more forever than Chanel?




Maria

Barack Obama and Leather Shorts

So reading the Metro (a free, daily London newspaper) this morning I came across a couple of quite humorous pieces.

The first was a style piece on leather. Amongst several images of garments and accessories made of leather was a pair of shorts. And the caption underneath simply read, "If Kate Moss can wear them, we probably can't." I think this perfectly sums up both my (and probably most of the public's?) opinion on them. I personally can't see them lasting more than one season. Look at the leather t-shirt - that hasn't even survived the season it was born into.

The other piece was not fashion related nor really news-worthy but I just thought it was quite amusing and a great little insert to perk up your morning. It was a picture of Barack Obama peering over a lectern after the presidential seal fell off during his speech at a women's event in Washington. He then proceeded to say, as cool and unphased as ever, "That's all right, all of you know who I am."


The original article and video link are here if you want to have a look.

Maria

New Beginnings and Old Boots

So we are finally moved in and settled! It's taken a while to get internet too but I think we've finally got to the end of the initial job list.

I've also started university now. It seems like only yesterday that I was dreaming to study fashion journalism when I was about 13 or 14. Who'd of thought I'd actually get here?!

The course is a bit different to how I'd envisioned it to be. It's a lot more serious than I had imagined. Not so 'fluffy', which is actually a welcome surprise. It's not just the function of journalism and how it works but also the stuff behind it, culture and history from the last 150 years play a big part in our studies this term. I was always interested in history at school but was put off by the most horrid teacher so I am very pleased to have my passion reignited.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go to London Fashion Week but we had the most amazing guest lecture the week after. Fashion designer Jeff Garner, who, for the second time, showed at LFW this September, made the short trip to give a guest lecture at UCA. To say he is an inspiration is an understatement. I can say with some certainty that almost every woman in that lecture theatre fell a little bit in love with him after two hours. His brand is called Prophetik and it thrives on the key values they have. Namely, (to coin a cliched word) eco-friendly. All his fabrics are sourced ethically and all dyes are grown in his garden. The packaging they use is minimal and almost all biodegradable and his garments are designed and produced in Tenesee, USA by women who were previously involved in clothing production until factories moved to the far east. Although his outgoings are high, he manages to sell the garments for less than another designer in the same proposed price bracket, meaning he isn't producing fashion that is inaccessible to the mass market.

He doesn't watch tv, or pay attention to the media. He eats only granola and yoghurt, three times a day and in his spare time, rides his horses in the country which surrounds his home. So, where does he get his inspiration from? Nature. He observes the world around him, and doesn't focus on what most of us get sucked into but really pays attention to what happens naturally. The dark forest was his muse for A/W 2010.




S/S 2011 catwalk at LFW

He arrived wearing all his own designs. A cotton shirt, hemp waist coat and jacket and hemp trousers tucked into flaking leather riding boots that he's owned since the age of 12.

His designs are ethereal. They definitely have an air of Amish simplicity and are very reflective of the traditional dress of a south American farmer and his wife. Somehow he manages to take these theories and transport them to the catwalk in a very modern, wearable and present form.

I can confidently say that Jeff Garner is a designer to keep an eye on. His ideas and values are both traditional and revolutionary and I'm sure we are to see many more great things from him. From my own point of view, I defy anyone to sit in his presence and not feel a sense of comfort but also enlightenment and not walk away with intrigue and a feeling of real interest towards to idea of ethical fashion.

Maria