Wow, I've been neglecting my blog a little recently- sorry! To be truthful, I've had a lot on recently, mostly end of term deadlines and such like. And further apologies if this happens again sporadically throughout the coming year. I'm a third year university student now don'tcha know, and I've got a dissertation to write, a project to create as well as exams and all the trimmings; though I'll do my best to keep up with this little area of the world wide web!
Anyway, I managed to wangle myself a press pass to the opening day of the national
Clothes Show Live, held at Birmingham's NEC earlier this month.
I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed. The clothes in the retail section were much the same as previous years; though there were less stalls and the dubious market stall-esque section seemed to have grown a bit; too many diamantes for my liking.
The main bulk of the vintage offerings were to be found at 'Anita's Vintage Fair', which I recall was there last year. This section was great and the prices weren't too bad either.
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| Jewellery at Anita's Vintage Fair |
Alongside Anita's Vintage Fair was
Urban Village of Birmingham (who I've just noticed have a snazzy new website)- always nice to see familiar faces, and I was very very pleased to spot the
Blue Rinse stand.
Blue Rinse is one of my all-time favourite shops and originates from Leeds, so I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it.
I bought something from their re-worked range, but I'll talk about that another time.
The beauty zone was the same old thing too, but there were some good offers to be had. Brands like Barry M, Model's Own, Eyeko and Bourjois had some great deals.
I didn't really know what to make of the show itself. It was good, but definitely no better than those of the previous years. Perhaps I'm used to their little gimmicks; the male models in their pants, "everyone scream to win a goody bag", an unheard of band singing their debut single- the next big thing apparently? It was all too familiar.
These little things grated on me a bit during the show. I've heard the stories about the ripped-beyond-belief models being completely up their own arses and reluctant to talk to anyone backstage; and I now wince at the women who enthusiastically jump out of their seat, run around the arena screaming and practically stripping off to grab ...'s (insert 'best' celebrity available on the Clothes Show's budget- in this case Gok Wan, which wasn't bad, admittedly) attention so that they might just grab themselves a 'goody bag'- wow.
A bit of impromptu entertainment arose when the power went out around 10 minutes into the show; it was certainly amusing to watch the show's lackeys running around like headless chickens, shouting away into their walkie talkies. Eventually Gok was wheeled out, who sounded like an introverted mouse to the massive audience as his microphone wasn't working; after a while, the male model cartel bundled onto the stage, half naked and wielding, yes, more goody bags- it kept the majority of the audience happy for awhile anyway.
Bear in mind too that this was only the second show of the whole event!
The fashion aspect of the show was pretty good, some good outfits (though I'm not convinced that they were as high fashion as last year) and a bit of dancing was thrown in for good measure. The theme was 'night at the movies' and some of the backdrops were a bit sorry-looking if I'm honest.
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| Horror- one of the more impressive scenes |
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| Finale |
All in all, a good day- for free. I also heard a little rumour that the show's days at Birmingham are numbered and that the plan is to shift it to London permanently. I can't say I'll be sorry to see it go, as I'll probably be leaving Birmingham, my second home, after finishing my course in the new year. Sniff.
Oh and as I mentioned above, I'll do a post soon on the few things I bought at the show, plus another very exciting purchase I made recently!
Foxy
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