The Company Style Blogger Awards!

Last night, style bloggers descended on East London en masse to attend the Company Style Blogger Awards. As I've probably blogged before, Company is my favourite magazine (especially since its recent makeover!) so to be able to chat with the team behind the magazine was, like, amazing. I genuinely felt quite starstruck!

What I wore to the awards (not looking quite on form as this pic was taken at the end of the night!) 

(dress - H&M, biker - Topshop, socks - New Look, boots - Charity Shop, tote bag - Topshop, belt - c/o F&F, goody bag - c/o Company!)

Everyone mingling over a cocktail or three:

Tweets with the #stylebloggerawards hashtag were projected onto the wall:

Company's editor Victoria White and Web Editor Theresa Caney announcing the winners!  

Carrie from Wish Wish Wish winning an award for best photography approximately 1 second after setting foot in the door!

Lily winning Best High Street Blog!

Myspace posing in a balloon - why not? 

My homeys: Kristabel, Jen and Lily!

Me with my award!! Well, AN award. I won diddly squat, but that doesn't mean I can't pose with Lily's award and pretend. Framed prints of this photo are on their way to my relatives as we speak - what they don't know won't hurt them! *Joke*

The stunning shoes on show! 

(L-R: Kristabel, Jazmine, Olivia, Jen, Lily)

We got to see some of the new New Look collection - adoring that dress at the front - very Diner chic!

Yeah, the 'pretend it's ME on the cover!' shot worked out better in my head...

Lucy getting some detail shots of Kristabel's shoes!

Jennifer from Style East showing me her EPIC feline iPhone case. Totally getting one of these when I upgrade in a couple of months. She told me it was only a couple of quid on eBay - scouting around I think it could be this one for £1.15! *Bookmark*

I had to get a couple of snaps of the nail art going on. Check out Lil's Topshop nail tattoos! Gorgeous!

Kristabel rocking some DIY pastel leopard print:

After the fash bash, we headed to The Diner for burgers, fries and 'soda' - American stylee! Yum! 

It was the best night I'd had in such a long time. And, in keeping with International Women's Day, I must tell you I felt very proud to be among so many women blazing trails in the world of print and digital media. Girl power! 

For maximum goss, you can check out who won the awards, what the bloggers wore to the ceremony, and the night in photos over on Company's website. 

Do you read Company mag? And what's your take on magazine blogger awards?

♥

#zomgbloggerbash

On Monday night I popped to the much tweeted #zomgbloggerbash - in IRL terms, this hashtag refers to the launch of the amazing collaboration between Zoe from The London Lipgloss and Rockalily Makeup. Because I was rushing about like a ninny trying not to miss my train, I forgot my camera, so here are the few snaps I caught on my mobile/stole from others! 

Some of the Rockalily range for us to swatch

Ms Rockalily herself, ReeRee Rockette, getting us to smooch and sign a canvas. The logic being that she can sell it if one of us gets famous and get rich! Or hang it on the wall to look pretty if she gets rich first! Needless to say, she was one hilarious lady :)

The gorgeous blonde model of Rockalily lippies (Banbury Cross) was at the event and did a burlesque performance! I had already disappeared off into the night by then to catch my train home. Boo! 

There was a mini photo studio with loads of wigs and pin-up style gear to try on! The wigs are made by Wonderland Wigs and actually looked SO real considering they, er, weren't! 

I think I had it on back to front, but here's me rocking the pink wig! I have sort of fallen in love with it. It's only £20 on the website, and there's a minty green one too! I am never bleaching my hair again so if I do want candy hair, a wig is the only way to go, really! What do you think..? (Thanks for the picture, Jemma!)

That's me wearing the ZOMG! lipstick in the last picture, too. Such a gorgeous shade! It will be available on the Rockalily site very soon...

It was a fun night, and lovely to finally meet Zoe and catch up with blogger pals, as well as make a few new ones! Always lovely to see bloggers getting involved in awesome projects with indie brands too. You go, Zo!! 

<3

Tescouture

Hey hey!

Bear with me tonight, I have a banging headache so I apologise in advance for any grammatical errors or general rabbiting. Apologies also for the glaring absence of Tuesday tips. In keeping with alliteration, for one week only, it shall become Thursday tips! And in the event of an emergency, Thriday tips!

Anywho, the reason I couldn't share any Tuesday tips was because I was in London for the day. I spent the evening at the preview of Tesco's new F&F Couture range. I literally didn't know what to expect as when I got the event invite, they wouldn't tell me what it was for, only that it was 'worth it'! I was slightly surprised when I got there to find it was Tesco. But I put my pre-conceptions to one side (as well as my fantasies that it might've been a secret 'Luella's back!!!' party or something... I have an over-active imagination.)

I went upstairs to the showroom to meet the team and check out the range, and was delighted to see some WAH Nails artists there, as I had been whingeing on Twitter about the state of my nails! Check my Twitter for a Twitpic, will post properly tomorrow! More on WAH soon, but for now, back to Tesco!



The big deal was that Tesco have launched a couture range, priced between £40-£140. The clothes were noticeably great quality, with silk and sequins being key themes in the collection. I'd say it was aimed at the 26-40 age bracket and admittedly it wasn't to my taste. Here are a few items:



Being a bargain lover at heart, I was far more interested in the F+F trend collections. I don't live near a Tesco that stocks clothes so it really was a suprise to see how cheap it all was! Dresses and playsuits were generally no more than £20 (except the cute silk dress below, which I just saw online), and most tops were under £10. There was a lot of nautical going on and I spied some cute Miami inspired pieces (for some reason I LOVED the green hotpants, but they aren't available online just yet!) The key new trend on the way is Ibiza inspired, so lots of fluorescent colours and bright prints.



It was a really good night, I enjoyed meeting some other bloggers including the lovely Fritha Louise from The Fish Tank, whose outfit looked super cool, Sherin from Hi Fashion, Tor of Fabfrocks and Jenny The Style PA. I also saw the wonderfulMarian Kihogo, but was deep in conversation & by the time I'd shut up, she'd gone, so I was sad I didn't get to meet her!


(Personalised cupcakes, Fritha & Jenny getting their nails did, me trying on the 'star' of the couture collection - The £140 Pagoda Dress! Note my soaking wet feet. Worst decision EVER to wear my hole-y suede brogues!)
To conclude... It will be interesting to see how the F&F Couture collection is received. Tesco as a brand is synonymous with value for money. People that shop there are looking for low prices, so whether they can attract the big spenders in the first instance will be their first test. I can understand them wanting to shake things up a bit and do something unexpected, and it's great that they're the pioneers of this supermarket couture concept. But time will tell whether or not Tesco has that covetability factor that will prize women away from the established quality fashion retailers.

As for F&F's main trend line, it does what it says on the tin - it's on trend and below budget. I didn't realise it was all available to buy online, so if you're like me and don't live near a big Tesco, it's definitely worth a click!

So what do you make of the F&F couture collection and trend range?

♥