Valentino Master of Couture- The Catwalk

Hiiii!! Hope you're all enjoying your weekend.  On Tuesday, I went with my friend Patrycja to the Somerset house to see the work of Valentino showcases over 130 exquisite haute couture designs.

Signs on the floor

The exhibition was divided into three sections. The photo above shows the first section that we entered. There were archives of his work; a few sketch designs of his work, fashion magazines that Valentino have appeared in, letters and invitation designs that he sent out for his fashion show.

On the walls were timelines of his personal archive. 

Moving on to the second part of the exhibition known as The Catwalk. This programme was given to us at the reception, it gives information about the 130+ couture on display. 'It reflects the convention for identifying designs in a couture presentation, first established in the early twentieth century in Paris and London. There's a twist to this section of the exhibition, visitors will be walking the catwalk to view the couture designs displayed on the seating area of the viewers. 

The picture above is taken at The Catwalk, there were loads of people as you can see. The mannequins are on both side of the "catwalk". Visitors weren't allowed to take photos but I sneaked a few lol. Below is a few pictures I took of the couture designs and I will give some info about them that was provided from the programme.

Don't remember which year this was made.

A/W 1989/90
White candy jacket and dress ensemble with silk embroidery and sheepskin trim at the collar and cuffs.

A/W 1967/68
Red crepe evening dress embellished with sequins and rhinestones.
This is one of my favourite, I love the pink. ^.^

A/W 1966/67
White crepe evening dress with beaded embroidery detailing
I love the back of this dress!!

Designed in the 1950s, realised in 1990.
White wool crepe day dress with cashmere leopard print cape

The animal print collection

S/S/ 1966
Zebra print cotton ensemble with crepe bow detail

Some very elegant red carpet dresses

Kate Moss' seat at The Catwalk

As you walk out of The Catwalk, there was a wedding dress worn by Queen Elizabeth II.

I couldn't take a good picture of it as there was a staff standing there. I was hiding my phone behind the programme. Lol

This is some cool outfit, but no one would wear this on the street. There were videos showing how this was made. Every stitch was sown by hand. I wonder how long it took them to make this. Anyways, that's all.  Overall, it wasn't that impressive, it was kind of boring. lol. The best part was the catwalk though.

Thumbs up to London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony!

Olympics Rings- Image from BBC

Hi everyone! Who DIDN'T watch the ceremony? I think its better to ask that way since I'm sure everyone's watched it. First let me just say my mum's prediction of this opening ceremony was correct, she predicted that it would involve a lot of singing and dancing as that is what Great Britain (GB) is known for.

I remember the closing ceremony at Beijing, what GB did was pretty rubbish to be honest. It seemed as if they rehearsed it the last minute. But they have topped their game up with this thoughtful opening ceremony. I know a lot of people said it's boring and rubbish. I think it's because a lot are comparing it with Beijing's ceremony so were expecting a lot more. I thought it was very British.

Industrial Revolution- Image from Imgace.com

Also, if you don't know about the History of GB you wouldn't find the part about Industrial Revolution interesting or even understand it. Same with the hospital scene National Health Service (NHS). I thought this scene was quite weird especially when J.K. Rowling was reading, then we see monsters and giant blow up dolls on the beds.

NHS-Image from Daily Mail

With all that dancing, singing, live bands and acting, did you guys think the ceremony looked like a musical that you would watch in a theatre? Paul McCartney performing at the end of the ceremony made it seem like a concert. lol .

Mr. Bean taking a photo from his phone-Image from Mirror Online

I liked how they put a bit of humour in it by having Mr. Bean in there. Talking about that, the composer in the Orchestra looks so much like one of the piano teacher in the secondary school I used to go to. I'm wondering if its him because he used to have that messy wind-blown hair too and was the composer for wind band and orchestra in school. Hmmm....maybe I should google that.

Image from Zimbio.com

Mr. Bean bored at the Olympics. Lol! I love that face. I wonder if that guy next to him was really playing the piano. 

Happy Glorious- Image from BBC

James Bond leaping out of the helicopter with the Queen! That was just unexpected, although it wasn't really the Queen who jumped but was funny. Did anyone wonder why was she so serious? She didn't even wave or did I miss that. That's not the usual her at all. lol. How did I know David Beckham was going to be in it? Just knew it! But they should have had him perform at least something.

They even gave us a bit of English weather in it; the part where the family walks into the house and the weatherman says there will not be a storm but ends up raining. Typical English weather! Lol!

China- Image from Zimbio.com

The parade was a good geography lesson for me. Lol. There were so many countries that I have never heard of. If you're wondering, I specifically chose China, Hong Kong and Sweden because of course I'm Chinese, and I was born in Sweden.

Hong Kong & Sweden- Images from Zimbio.com

Overall, I think it was great but wasn't wow like Beijing's opening ceremony. But still I liked it, it was very original and British; I felt that the singing and dancing made it very British. Everything they did had a meaning to it, celebrating all the good things of GB. I also liked how they showed the changes in culture and society of Great Britain.

Cauldron-Image from Evening Standard

Night out at Movida Club in Central London

Hi everyone! Hope you're all good. Did anyone celebrate 4th July on Wednesday? I went partying with my boyfriend, we planned to go to an event that one of my acquaintances organised at the club Movida in central London (See the ad below). The event was a fashion show by a young Chinese designer, Pan tong, and then an after party. I was really looking forward to the fashion show but the night didn't happen for us. Why? Keep reading to find out...

Promotion Ad of the event 

At the front of the house there were; a few security guards and 2 clipboard girls- a blonde (Girl A) and a brunette (Girl B). It were these 2 girls that ruined our night. Anyways, doors opened at 10pm and the fashion show was to start at 10:30pm. In order to attend the event, you had to be on the guestlist. Normally, if you're on the guestlist you would have the priority to just walk through. We arrived about 10:15pm and surprisingly there was a long queue. I told one of the staffs that I'm on Vanessa's guestlist for the fashion show. They just pointed to the queue and told to us to wait like everyone else- those people were also on Vanessa's guestlist. I didn't understand why there was a long queue, the show was going to start in 15 minutes. Below are a few rude and pretentious incidents. 

1. We waited in the queue for about 10mins and it hasn't even moved. I thought there were some delays with the show- my boyfriend works part-time in a club and he explained that they are just taking their time to let people in because it makes the club look busy. 

My boyfriend went to the front to speak to one of the security guards to find out if they were admitting people. The security guard seemed frustrated and told my boyfriend to ask Girl A. 

She walks over and looked at my boyfriend up and down and asked in a very rude tone. 

'What's the problem and who are you?' 

 'I'm a customer asking a question.'

Then she walked off. - My boyfriend wasn't even being rude or causing trouble in the first place so this girl had no reason to be rude. Is that how you treat your customers. What customer service do you call that?

While we were in the queue, I've been watching the 2 clipboard girls. They seemed like they had a bad day, fed up and wasn't enjoying the job- they probably wasn't. Their attitude to everyone was appalling, no smile and no politeness. When they asked 'Who's next?', they sounded so frustrated and impatient. 

2. After about 30 minutes of waiting (It was coming to 10:45pm, my boyfriend wasn't happy and I was thinking about the fashion show.) we were almost at the front. In front us, there were 3 Chinese girls. One of the girls showed her ID, next thing I heard was Girl B telling the her to step out of the queue. The girl was confused and asked what the problem was. They ignored her and just told her to step out. The girl got angry and refused to step out.  

Girl A says, 'You are refusing to step out of the queue when we are telling you to step out.'

'I showed her my ID and she just told me to step out. What is the problem?' 

'I do not want to dispute about this with you, you have to step out of the queue.'

Girl B then says, 'Can you step out because you are holding up the queue.'

Eventually she and her friends step out.- The next night, the organiser of the event told us that half of the people on the guestlist were turned away because they didn't have 'the look'. The Look? What look? I didn't see anyone dressed inappropriate, the girls in front were dressed lovely. How pretentious. 

3. After the girls, were us next. Again none of the clipboard girls had a smile on their face, both looked miserable. Anyway, I said to Girl B,

 'We are on Vanessa's guestlist'. 

'How many of you are there?'

 '2.' 

'Only you can go in because there are too many guys inside.' 

'So are you telling me to go inside by myself and my boyfriend will wait outside for me?'

 'That's your choice. I don't want to dispute with you, can you step out because you're holding up the queue.'

We step out and Girl A had a smirk on her face and whispered something into Girl B's ear. It was definitely deliberate, because Girl B looked at us when Girl A whispered to her. Probably also due to earlier incident between her and my boyfriend, Girl A decides not to let us in. O.k., lets say I'm wrong about that but telling us there are too many guys inside, that is a lie. The queue was full of girls. IF there were REALLY too many guys inside, you could at least tell us in more well mannered way. 

4. My boyfriend pulls Girl A to one side to speak to her, he explains that he asked them nicely if they were letting people in because if they weren't, we wasn't going to wait. I don't really remember the whole conversation. But I remember hearing my boyfriend calling her pretentious and then she goes 'most of the times I'm very good at judging people...you're not coming in.' 

Then she goes and gets a security guard to intimidate us him. The security guard didn't intimidate us him, he was nice and polite. The funny thing was when my boyfriend explained that she was being rude, etc, he was making a joke out of her, 'she's a girl, just let her off. You know maybe it's her time of the month.' - Just because she's a girl or it's 'time-of-the-month' it doesn't mean she can be rude to customers for no reason. 

Below is a picture of Girl A that my boyfriend took. LOL! He posted it on his Facebook and Twitter account complaining to Movida. When she realised he took a picture, she shouted, 'If you want a picture, you can just ask!'

 A positive message for this girl- although you didn't let us in but my boyfriend and I felt that you did us a favour because we had a great night at Penthouse. I told some of my friends about what happened and a lot of them said that Movida is a snobbish club, the music isn't very good and the place isn't very nice either. Judging from those comments, don't think we would have enjoyed ourselves even if we got in. Thank you missy! 

Finally, the organisers explained to us that the staff at Movida decided the guestlist was at full capacity when the club was still empty and organisers weren't allowed outside to talk to their guests. The organisers complained to management team but were ignored. A message to Movida- You are apparently London's multi-award winning night club and because of this reason people are hiring your club for their events. That also means they are bringing customers or possible repeat customers and money to you. Choosing to ignore the complaint doesn't create a good image for the club. Irresponsible. Just remember you are not the only VIP club in central London. It seems like you are known to be a pretentious club in central London. 

Videos of Fashion Shenzhen Catwalk show @ Vauxhall Fashion Scout

In my last blog I said that I helped out at the Fashion Shenzhen exhibition and will upload the footages I took at the catwalk show. Here you are, enjoy...

Fashion Shenzhen- Vauxhall Fashion Scout

Last year around this time, I was helping out at the China Image Film Festival and this year I helped out at the London Fashion Week. No, not exactly AT the London Fashion Week, hehe I wished! I helped out at one of the shows/exhibition at the Vauxhall Fashion Scout, the Fashion Shenzhen.

A little info about Fashion Shenzhen...
This is the third year that Fashion Shenzhen is taking place in London and the exhibition displayed lots of emerging brands and designers from Shenzhen, China. Read on and you'll see the pictures I took of the clothes.

What was I doing?
I was distributing leaflets outside the entrance to non-Chinese people (yep doesn't sound too exciting); I was told to aim at westerners in order to promote these Chinese Brands.When it was almost time for the catwalk show, I stood by the entrance directing people into the catwalk. I know doesn't sound too fun, it wasn't. I must say I enjoyed working at the China Image Film Festival last year more. But I still enjoyed myself because I enjoy meeting people and talking to strangers lol. And I saw some weird people, actually I take that back. I mean I saw people with some unique style lol.

These were the flyers that I had to hand out.

I had a look around at the exhibition during my break. Had some free food and drinks, they had finger foods like; prawn dumpling (dim sum), crispy spring roll, prawn toast, samosas, etc. Ok, I didn't go there for the food lol. But it was there and couldn't resist. Below are some pictures I took when I was at the exhibition.

Qi Pao- Traditional Chinese Dress

The dress above has a very Royal feel to it, probably because Chinese Emperors used wear gowns with these patterns/ dragon images on.

Other Qi Paos- the design wasn't all that but I guess they may look better once you wear them.

This looks like a maternity dress. If it's not one, I still think its a good dress for pregnant women if they were to attend some glamorous event/ red carpet event.

Dress from Lizzy

Out of all the outfits that were displayed this was the best one- in my opinion. This is a design from Lizzy, they had the best designs. But having saying that I wouldn't really wear their dresses because they were too over the top. More suitable for red carpet, proms, weddings, etc.

Dress from Océane

This is another one of the nicest outfit that was displayed at the exhibition. It's very sexy, sassy and glamorous. It will would perfect with a pair of black Louboutin or even silver.

Here's me at the exhibition posing lol. I was wearing a Julien MacDonald dress from the Diamond Collection, shoes are from Joy & Peace in Hong Kong. Don't think you can see my earrings; I'm wearing Rocawear earrings (yep, still into my hip hop brands lol). Without being big headed, I must say I think my hair looked quite nice that day lol. I didn't really style it, I was too much in a rush to do so. I just put a little bit of hair cream and just gave my hair a few scrunch. Less is more!

Posing again

Moving on to the weird people I said I saw there...
Some of you probably have seen this "lady"

Not the one on the left smiling lol, the one wearing a blue dress with the  big hair.

Not clear enough? Here's a closer view

Fixing up before going into the catwalk show since "she" will be sitting at the front row.

This is the closest picture I could get

The security guards there told me that this "lady" gets invited to sit at the front row of the catwalk shows every year. They said it's actually a man inside and every year he wears something similar outfits like this; the big hair. Have any of you guys seen him/ her?

I thought she looked like the character "L" from Death Note a Japanese Manga

The guy in the middle is "gangsta".  Love his shoes! LOL

I'll upload the pictures and footages I took of the catwalk show another time because the video takes time lol.

My first appearance in Chinese media!!

In my previous blogs, I blogged about the China Image Film Festival. I was just googling it again and I found some website that had my picture in it.

Left: Me, Pinkie, Director, Actress Li Jia, Angela

One is on the Sina website (the picture above is taken from Sina); Sina is like one of the biggest search engine in China.

http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/ent/film/sinacn/20101007/07211885417.html

Found another Chinese website

http://www.chineseineurope.net/cms/2010/1028/601.html

They both got the same picture and I know not particularly a good picture of me either, lol. I'm still trying to find websites that have other photos of the night and even at the closing ceremony. I look so much better at the closing ceremony.

My first red carpet experience!

I feel so honoured and grateful that I was chosen to attend the opening ceremony of China Image Film Festival on 3rd October as one of the representative of Miss New China and also as a hostess (if that's what you call them lol). Its not really a red carpet because there wasn't a red carpet at the entrance but the VIPs and celebrities did sign the poster. This night definitely gave me a really good experience of how an event is run as I attended the rehearsals and saw how the event director and other staff were operating. A real advantage for my career and this event is exactly the sort of event I want to be involved in organising. The most difficult thing was that everyone was speaking in mandarin, instructions were given in mandarin. But luckily, a few were from Hong Kong or knew Cantonese so I was able to speak to them in Cantonese. Met so many beautiful girls and some of them translated for me when they knew I didn't understand everything- thank you so much! But it definitely improved my listening with mandarin and boosted my confidence in speaking it- especially when one of the girls said to me that my pronunciation is quite good ^.^

I had so much make-up and hair spray on me that night. To be honest, I didn't really like the make-up because it was too dark (yes, I know smokey eyes are like that but there are lighter ones) and wasn't used to seeing myself looking like that. The hair was OK, if they could put my hair up a bit higher and the fringe more lower would have been better. It was my first time wearing those traditional Chinese dresses too, it was very pretty! It was also my first time wearing a black 5in high stiletto, I didn't even think I would be able to walk in them but I did! Oh yes, ladies a pair of black heels is a must have, a good investment in your wardrobe- a valuable tip from my favourite Tyra Banks.

Above: Me and Shen Yan before our make overs.



Above: Getting my hair done

I got to see Alex Su (Su You Peng), Li Jia and the film director, Jiang Wu. Me and the other Miss New China reps were told to take pictures with Alex, that was awesome! But I wasn't in the picture with the director because I walked away to get my bag (should of got it later!). I'm so glad that I wore those heels because the marketing manager was getting all the tallest girls to do most of the tasks. For those who know me know that I love to be out there and be in the limelight. I had the opportunity to be on stage and lead the guest to the lectern to do their speech. Yes, I know its something really little but to me its amazing!!

The closing ceremony is on 10th Oct at the BAFTA!! Can't wait for this opportunity! Below are some pictures that I got from the New China Times Newspaper.

Above:  Standing outside the Empire Cinema waiting for Su You Peng

Above: Other beautiful Miss New China standing on the other side of the entrance

Above: Director Jiang Wu and actress Li Jia

Above: Group pic with Su You Peng at the Screen



 

Above: Look at the left corner there 3 girls and I'm the one in the middle, lol

Above: Group pic with Su You Peng