I have possibly had the most fashion-led day in the history of my fashion career. This is my diary of the day.
6.30am - Woke up, got dressed, ate a bowl of cereal and gone-off milk.
7am - Set off for House of Fraser, Oxford street.
7.40am - Arrived at HOF for the first round of interviews for Mary Portas' new project with House of Fraser where they are looking for a shop manager, stylists and runners. I applied for the stylist and runner roles. The whole process is also being filmed for Channel 4 so that just adds to the pressure.
8.20am - Chatted to a lovely lady from recruitment about my CV, experience, inspiration etc etc. I also had to take an item along which I think represents me. I took my pointe shoes and she seemed impressed at my creativity.
8.45am - Got the bus to Burberry headquarters at Horseferry House.
9.30am - Arrived at Burberry and started the arduous process of checking all 1500 tickets we've prepared for the menswear show in Milan next Saturday.
12.10pm - Got a call to say I had been successful at the interview and was asked back for a further interview this afternoon. Apparently they went from 420 applicants to seeing 70 in the morning and then just 35 this afternoon.
12.15pm - Picked up beef salad and smoothie for lunch.
12.45pm - Got on the bus back to HOF. Whilst eating said lunch I splash tomato pesto on my white shirt.
1.20pm - Arrive 5 mins late for the interview due to traffic but am lucky as the rest of the applicants hadn't gone in yet.
1.30pm - About 10 of us are led into a large room and sat in groups of 5. It's explained to us that we will be given a brief and as a group we'll have to create a look using the clothes they have displayed on a rail. The client is a 40+ woman so we set about creating a profile for this woman and building an outfit. It all feels very "The Apprentice".
2pm - After 10 mins our time is up and we have to present what we've chosen to the assessors. We chose a pink and grey floral, chiffon pussy-bow blouse, dark blue boot leg jeans, a grey leather jacket, pink suede pumps and a jewelled necklace we used as a bracelet. All is well until we find out that Mary Portas will be coming in and we'll have to do the whole presentation again infront of her.
2.20pm - Mary Portas comes in with her entourage of camera crew. We present again and explain the outfit. She doesn't like the shoes or bracelet - oops. The challenge is over and we are told we will hear back within 5 days as to whether we are through to the final round where we'll have a one-on-one interview with Mary. I'll let you know if I get through or not although after the shoe thing, I don't think it's very likely.
3.30pm - Finally arrive back at Burberry after more nightmare traffic. Finish shipping all the invites to Milan.
5.30pm - Leave Burberry for the day and walk to Green Park station to meet Ayesha Mustafa, creator of Fashion Compassion (mentioned
here) who I will be doing a feature on very soon.
6pm - We sit in Starbucks and chat about her business and what she does and she brought along some samples to show me. We exchange info and promise to keep in touch.
8pm - Finally get home and eat a big steak sandwich and tiramisu with fresh strawberries.
9.15pm - Watch Glee in my pjs.
