Monochrome Mini

Dress - Blanco, blazer - Stradivarius, pumps - Primark

With the unpredictable weather at the moment, it's so difficult to get dressed in the morning. This outfit actually started off with black tights and patent black heels but with the arrival of the sun I whipped off the tights and slipped on these flats instead.

Wrap-a-round bracelet - Burberry, watch - vintage, ring - vintage (my Grandmother's), necklace - Tiffany & Co



I had my final stage interview for the Mary Portas/House of Fraser job today. Unfortunately I didn't get it in the end but they have said they might be able to employ me somewhere else in the business so we'll see what happens with that.

However, I actually have another job lined up anyway. It's with a luxury retail agency who send you out on temporary contracts with companies like Chanel, Fendi, Prada, Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, Dior etc etc at places like Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols etc so that should be pretty exciting and I start next week. I hope it'll really help to boost my CV and give me a lot of experience with a whole range of luxury brands. The agency are constantly looking to employ new people so feel free to contact me if you are interested.

Fashion ComPassion

Last week, I met up with the beautiful Ayesha Mustafa - founder of Fashion ComPassion. We chatted business, fashion and empowering women over coffee so I could feature her exciting, new venture on Maria's Gaga.

Fashion ComPassion is an ethical fashion company which only represents socially responsible brands. It was launched in November 2010 by Ayesha and it provides a much needed platform for skilled and creative women in the developing world.

The brand helps to develop communities by giving socially oppressed women a chance to be somewhat independent by earning their own money and utilizing their valuable skills. It aids in enriching their lives - giving them a purpose and sense of worth - by enhancing their talents and giving them a percentage profit of the products that are sold - opportunities which are rare for women who are essentially seen as second class citizens. This in turn helps to combat poverty in places like Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Ayesha's dream is to change attitudes to women in these countries by giving them fair pay for the work they do. In the last couple of years, with the exposure of shocking slave labour to produce the cheap products we buy in droves in the West, the fashion industry has had a lot to answer for and with the public's increasing demand to know where an item of clothing has come from and that the worker has been paid a fair wage, Ayesha's business venture couldn't have come at a better time.

Each company which Ayesha represents is hand picked to ensure high quality garments, made ethically and that fit with her concept. Each piece is then produced to order so each one is completely unique.

Currently Fashion ComPassion represents two brands - Beshtar and Palestyle - and has now taken Bhalo and Lost City on board too. Beshtar is an exclusive design atelier of clothes and jewellery, made from materials sourced in Afghanistan. The fabrics and other products are hand made by skilled artisans, combining traditional methods with contemporary designs. The money raised by selling the pieces is donated to the Zaher Shah Foundation and other charities that help Afghan people by providing micro- finance, vocational training and employment opportunities.

Livia Firth wearing the Burka dress to Vogue's pre-Bafta dinner

Palestyle is a mix of high fashion with a traditional Palestinian flavour (distinct embroidery and warm Arabic culture). It encourages Palestinian refugee women in Jordon, Lebanon and Palestine to utilize their creative skills and embroidery heritage to benefit themselves and their families by giving them an income and a percentage of the revenue from sales.

Distinctive clutch bags

Bhalo is not only an ethical brand but a green one too. Their women's clothing and accessories are hand woven using naturally dyed fabrics. They travel to rural villages in Bangladesh, for both sampling and production, where they work with a collective of local fair trade producers who manufacture using foot pedal powered machinery, hand loomed, chemical free cotton and hand printed silk.

The Shipbreaker dress and olive and violet gather round top

Lost City is a New York design house engaged in creating products that utilize vanishing crafts and dwindling livelihoods in third world cities throughout the world. Lucknow, India was once a thriving fashion city but due to the West's increasing demand for fast, cheap fashion, their art culture has almost disappeared. Lost City is now working with traditional embroiderers to produce fabric, pillow cases and most recently scarves and clutch bags.

The painstakingly hand sewn sequin clutch and scarf

Since launching last year, Fashion ComPassion has already featured in Vogue, Grazia Middle East, The Observer, The Guardian amongst many more publications and the highly sought after Beshtar Burka dress was worn by Livia Firth (Colin Firth's wife) to Vogue's pre-Bafta dinner.

The collection will soon be available to buy on Ayesha's new website (the link I'll post on my blog when it launches) but for now it is only available to buy from events and fayres - see the Facebook and Twitter pages for more info on those. Alternatively, you can email Ayesha at info@fashioncompassion.co.uk to request a look book.

Shellac

First of all, I'll tell you a little bit about what Shellac is.

Shellac is a product for your nails that is applied like nail polish but cured using UV light. It dries instantly and rock hard and lasts for at least a week and a half, if not more on the hands and months on the toes without any scuffs or chips. Hard to believe - but it's true. It also stays super shiny for the whole time you have it on and is easy to remove by holding your nails in acetone for a few minutes to remove the polish (which you only have to do when the cuticle grows out).

The products also come in hundreds of colours which can actually be mixed to create hundreds more colours.

My very special friend Sarah is a highly esteemed beautician working on the Costa Del Sol (if you ever visit the Marbella area give her a call - you won't regret it!) who kindly applied Shellac on me. Visit her Facebook and website where you'll find her price list and any other information you need.

I chose a pinky gold colour (created by blending dull gold and nude colours) for my hands and a deep red for my toes (to match the red soles of my Louboutins which I'm wearing to a wedding next weekend).

These are the results. This photo was taken a week after she applied it so you can see that the incredible shine really doesn't fade. Another positive is that my nails which usually split and flake have grown stronger and longer underneath the protective layers plus I've saved myself hours not having to do my nails 3 times a week!



It's a little pricey to have done here in the UK but for a holiday or special event it's really worth it. Check out the Sweet Squared website to find a salon near you.

BBQ Ribs

I had a day off yesterday so decided to make something tasty for dinner.

I've been meaning to make my Mum's BBQ sauce recipe for a while so decided to cook some ribs to go with it.

Technically this is my own recipe but it only exists with bits and bobs of recipes from other places (including my Mum's cook book!).

Ingredients for the BBQ sauce:

1 onion - chopped finely
1 clove garlic - chopped finely
1 oz butter
5 0z water
4 tablespns tomato sauce
2 tablespns worcestershire sauce
1 tablespn brown sauce
1 tbspn vinegar
1 tbspn sugar
1 teaspoon french mustard
Shake of black pepper
1 oxo cube or 1 teaspn of bisto to thicken - optional

Method:

Fry onion and garlic in the butter, cook til soft. Cover with water and add tomato, worcs, brown sauce. Stir well.
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for a few mins. If you want the sauce thicker, add oxo or bisto.





Method for the ribs:

I bought a rack of pork ribs and cut them in half so they fit in a metal baking tray. After cooking the sauce I marinaded the ribs (in the tray) in half of it for a few hours and put the other half of the sauce in the fridge.

To cook the ribs, turn the oven to 160 degrees. Pour about 1cm of boiling water into the bottom of the tray and cover completely with tin foil. Put in the oven for 1 hour. Take off the tin foil, carefully pour the water away and coat the ribs with the rest of the sauce. Leave in the oven uncovered for another 15 mins.

I served them with a beetroot salad (recipe to be posted later in the week) and new potatoes.

Thoughts on Friday

This happens to be my second "Thoughts on Friday" post (read the other here). Accidentally it may become a bit of a regular. Sometimes I have bits and bobs I want to mention, nothing big enough for its own post but something at least worth blogging about.

I'd first like to talk about Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's shoot for July's edition of Elle UK. A typical composition for Elle photo shoots but it just works time after time. Soft lighting, plain background, no props, classic silhouettes. Simply stunning. But it also helps when you have a stunning model. It seems it's Rosie's time to shine. Since becoming a Victoria's Secret model and replacing Megan Fox in the Transformer films, her career has sky-rocketed with acclaims such as the top spot of Maxim's Hot 100 list to grazing the covers of both GQ and Elle in July to winning the Editor's Special Award at the Glamour Women of the Year awards this week. It seems the sky's the limit for her at the moment.






Secondly, I finished at Burberry today and after such a great week it was sad to leave that amazing building and the amazing people I got to work with. However, as a totally unexpected thank you, they gave myself and fellow intern Jennifer a little gift. I am totally in love with my new bracelet and being such a classic piece, I'm sure I'll wear it with everything I possibly can. The dress it's sitting on is my new geometric print dress I mentioned on Monday which I wore today and it conveniently goes so perfectly with the bracelet.



Have a great weekend!

Holiday Looks

Finally my brand new, fully-functional camera cable arrived today so I've been able to upload my Spain photos to my computer.

Following on from this post, I've been dying to get them on here so without further-a-do, here are 3 of my brief getaway outfits (number 4 was just a bikini!).

I bought this dress from Zara that day so paired it with my new Zara heels for drinks in the evening. I kept the hair and make-up simple, with just a red lip to keep the look clean.



I wore this ensemble to visit my old college to see what the current fashion design students were up to. The top is from Tkmaxx, skirt from ASOS and sandals from River Island (also mentioned here and here).

This final outfit was for a relaxing day by the pool. Easy to strip off with my black Vitamin A bikini underneath (see here and here), but making a bit of a statement with the super bright skirt. Top - H&M, skirt - ASOS, sandals - River Island

8th June 2011

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.