Birthday champagne | Birthday prosecco | Birthday slippers (seeing a theme?)
Lush event | Autumnal uniform | Loveheart-eye-emoji-inducing chrome nails
Decor deets | Debenhams’ #Glamoween event | Layering experimentation
Jess Wright X Ann Summers | Event
Urban Decay SS15 Event
#GrabAMakeover With Grabble
It’s no secret that Grabble are our FAVEY brand in the fashion biz, so when they invited us to their recent event we obviously booked our train tickets down to merry old London faster than you can say “er Mr Bossman, do you mind if we leave early next Tuesday?” (obviously he didn’t mind, in fact we’re starting to think our colleagues are actually relieved when they can get rid of us for an afternoon. Rude, but convenient so who’s complainin’).
Grab A Makeover was held at Andrew Barton’s celeb salon, which was packed with bloggers getting treated to loads of mini treatments including manicures, hair styling and massages. There was also pizza and alcohol, so I’m sure you can imagine what our primary concerns were…
We got the chance to catch up with some of our favourite people like Holly from i2Style and Katie and the rest of the Grabble team, and also finally meet some lovely bloggers including Jen, Courtney and Georgina. Here are a few snaps from the evening – yes I was wearing a fedora to hide my roots from Andrew, oh the shame.
God, was I jelly of Andrew’s tan.
The event was loads of fun, and the raffle also raised over £500 for the wonderful COSMIC charity which is a lovely extra. A huge thank you to the wonderful Grabble team for organising such a great evening, to Andrew for putting up with us all in his salon, and to everyone else involved. The goodie bag was obviously swoon-worthy too. Oh you guyssss.
Do you all love Grabble as much as we do?!
Company Style Blogger Awards 2014
So, it’s now the weekend and we have just about calmed down enough to be able to share you with our photos from the amazing night we had on Wednesday at the Company Style Blogger Awards, held in association with Missguided. What can I say, we get very excited when we’re allowed out of our house.
After getting ready and polishing off a couple of gins in our lovely hotel room kindly provided by Premier Inn for us for the night, we ventured out into Shoreditch where we met up with some fellow bloggers at the Queen of Hoxton’s rooftop bar for some pre-event cocktails.
We were reunited with the beaut Lydia from LydiaRose who we went out for dinner with a few weeks ago, and also met Abbie from Fashion Tatt, Megan from Pages By Megan, Atosa from My Bubba and Me, Leanne Lim Walker and several other lovely ladies.
We then ventured over to the venue, which was a huge airy space complete with a terrace area, barbecue and deck chairs outside and rows of champagne, a cocktail bar and Missguided festival area inside.
Needless to say, the event was packed with some of the crème de la crème of the blogging world and I had to try hard not to accidentally blurt out “Hello, I love you” at several points during the evening. Everyone was lovely though and the night was spent mingling, necking demurely sipping cocktails and listening to the frankly corking tunes provided by guest DJ and blogger Zoe London (any girl who likes that much Iggy is a winner in my books).
A huge congrats to Lydia who took home the award for Best Style Newcomer!
We had such a good night at the event, so thank you to everyone who nominated us so that we could get there! While we didn’t win, we’d also still like to say a HUGE thanks to those who voted for us and wished us luck beforehand. I hate to be a huge block of Edam but it really does mean so much to us that people read our drivel and have supported us over the last year, and it’s just amazing to even get to attend events such as this. Next we would like to be nominated for a Grammy. Thank you and goodnight. 
#JammingWithGrabble | Grabble Party
So tonight Lauren and I are off to the Company Style Blogger Awards, which we are TOO excited about (yesterday Lauren actually said the phrase “I’m so excited I want to burn my hair off”, which, while disturbing, I kind of understand), but I realised we still hadn’t told you about another stonkingly fantastic event we went to recently. What are we like, eh?! “You’re like really bad bloggers”, I hear you reply. Shh…
So a couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to be invited to #JammingWithGrabble, a party held by life-changing shopping tool Grabble in partnership with Jam Industries (the clothing brand of Made in Chelsea’s Andy Jordan). After a quick drink… or five… each… on the train down to London after work, we turned up to the proper groovy Hoxton Hotel where we were greeted by the lovely Katie from Grabble, along with more drinks (hurrah!) and a gaggle of exceptionally lovely bloggers and cool industry types.
The party had basically all of my top essentials for a night out: magicians, beer pong and gin. So much gin. On top of this, there were also performances from Andy himself (who yes, we did get to meet, and yes, I did behave like an utter tit and got him to do a live action replay of when he told Louise “I WISH I COULD DELETE YOU” because it was my have TV moment ever) and the uber cool Ivy and Gold.
It was also wonderful to finally meet some lovely bloggers, including Rach from Rachel Nicole (snapped with us below!) and Georgina from Notes La Mode, while also catching up with our beaut Holly from i2Style.
Because me and Lauren get overly excited at events and basically run around wanting to be friends with everyone, we usually forget to actually take any photos so most of these pictures have been shamelessly stolen from Grabble’s Facebook page. However, here are a few that we managed to get when we weren’t being total dorks.
Oh wait, clearly I was being a total dork.
For the event, I wore a H&M crop top, Primark trousers and my adored Garage shoes. Lauren wore a snazzy t-shirt dress from Missguided and some really expensive shoes that she bought from some really fancy expensive boutique (*cough*BIRMINGHAM MARKET*cough*).
A huge thank you to Katie and the rest of the Grabble gang for organising such an amazing event, and for supplying us with a fantarrrrrstic goody bag too. It was such a fun night that ultimately ended with us doing vodka shots with the barman. Well, you can take the girls out of Coventry…
If you haven’t checked out Grabble yet then I absolutely insist you do, as it’s a bloody genius tool that allows you to ‘grab’ fashion from all over the internet and save it to one big Grabble collection. Grabble also then lets you know when any of it goes in the sale, saving you loads of dollar – presumably so you can buy more gin. We like, we like very much.
Nuvo Masquerade Ball & Fashion Show
Last night we were lucky enough to be invited to a charity masquerade ball at Nuvo bar in aid of Birmingham’s Children Hospital. The event was organised by the wonderful girls who study fashion at BCU and featured everything from a fashion show and dancers to topless butlers, henna and a photobooth. Drinking on a work night? Never a good idea. But when it’s for charity? HELLO VODKA (just doing it for the kids, you understand).
The show was hosted by the beautiful Miss Birmingham 2013, Rachel Barker, who we were lucky enough to meet before at the fashion event at Lilly-Lou. She did an amazing job and it was lovely catching up with her after the fashion show – even if she is so glossy and tall that she makes us feel like we’ve just rolled round in a bin (which to be honest, we often have).
(It’s a hard job being Miss Birmingham, isn’t it Rachel?!)
The whole event was brilliantly organised and everyone had a great time. We got chatting to some lovely people, including Kirsty who you might recognise from this series of Take Me Out, and of course the girls from BCU. Drinks were flowing and the photobooth was used far too much.
Like the drunk Cinderellas we are, we needed to dash off by midnight to catch our train home – but luckily not before some of the winners of the raffle were called out. Errr, guess who bagged a little £50 Primark voucher?!
Yeah, so my new address is Smug Lane, ChuffedAsShitVille.
Overall the night was a huge success and a great amount of money was raised for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. A big thank you to the girls from BCU for organising such a wonderful event and for inviting us! You can follow their Twitter account @BricoleurEvents to keep up to date with their future fundraising efforts – then you too can do things like this and feel no sense of shame at all – because IT’S FOR CHARITY.
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Fashion Evening at Lilly-Lou
At the end of last week, Lauren and I were lucky enough to be invited to a night of glamour and cupcakes (FYI our favourite types of night) at the beautiful Lilly-Lou store in Shirley, Solihull. We were invited by the gorgeous Holly from i2Style, who we’ve been Twitter chums with for ages, and who works in the shop (which, by the way, is just as gorgeous – monochrome bling as far as the eye can see!)
Lilly-Lou specialises in all manner of evening dresses that are perfect for proms, weddings, parties or any other swanky occasion where you want to be looking smokin’ hot. There’s even a kids’ range with the most perfect princessy dresses for weddings or Communions.
(This picture is the only proof that Lauren and I were actually at the event; we came straight from a full day at work so were not feeling photo-friendly.)
Holly and the rest of the Lilly-Lou ladies put loads of effort into creating a really fun event for us all. Also attending the night was the stunning Rachael Barker, aka Miss Birmingham 2013. She looked absolutely amazing in one of the Lilly-Lou cocktail dresses, and was lovely to speak to as well. She also had one of the best heads of hair I’ve ever seen in my life, and has convinced me that I need to give nano-rings a try.
Also showing off their wares on the night was Annette from Tilly-Minx Vintage, who sells original vintage jewellery including necklaces, brooches and bracelets, and also hand crafts intricate combs, tiaras and corsages. There were also representatives from Always Charity, which is an amazing business set up to support the Lymphoma Association.
On top of aaaaaaaall of this, there was also champagne, cupcakes and a beautiful Christmassy performance by Megan-Louise and Keeley from Perfect 5th Events (Jingle Bell Rock was a personal highlight, though I had to resist the urge for a bit of Mean Girls-esque thigh-slapping). It was also attended by some other bloggers, including the lovely Emma whose blog you can read here, as well as others who we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to chat to!
Overall it was a lovely evening showcasing some brilliant local talent. The dresses at Lilly-Lou are absolutely stunning and the girls who work there are all lovely – I’m fully confident that anybody who goes in there looking for a dress will receive nothing but the best service and help. Here are the lovely ladies with Miss Birmingham:
A huge thank you to everyone at Lilly-Lou, particularly Holly, for organising such a fun event!
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Clothes Show Live | Fashion, Beauty & Half Naked Men
Hey there you sex bombs. If you read my outfit of the day post from Sunday then you’ll know that Lauren and I attended The Clothes Show Live in Birmingham at the weekend. We were grand masters of the blag and managed to nab ourselves press passes for the day, giving us access to the show, superb seats at the Fashion Theatre and free tea and biscuits in the press lounge (if you know us then you’ll know that was the bit we were most excited about).
Upon arrival at the NEC we were directed to the press area where we were given our fancy passes for the day. As you can see, they looked uber profesh and fancy…
Even if our blog name was spelled wrong on mine (Claire from Style Lingo still had a tip top day though)…
The press lounge was full of important folk with laptops and expensive photography equipment – and we were also lucky enough to bump into the lovely Nokhuthula from Crystal Cosmic Chic (hellooooo if you’re reading!)
During the day we attended the Fashion Theatre catwalk show, which was sponsored by Alcatel One Touch. Our press passes ensured us superb seats for this – we were almost frowing, except some berk with a camera as big as my head nabbed the seats before us so we ended up one row back. We decided to keep our diva personalities in check and resisted the urge to biff him with our handbags though. The show was extremely theatrical and impressive, with lots of amazing looks and strutting interspersed with uh-mazing choreography. And fit men. Quite a few fit men.
The main lure of The Clothes Show is obviously all of the amazing fashion and beauty brands that are there flaunting their wares and coercing us to part ways with our funds. On the fashion side of things there was a strong vintage and streetwear presence with bargains a-plenty, though there were also recognisable brands such as Glamorous. Lauren and I bought one or two bits, but in the interest of intrigue and suspense we’ll make you wait to see what those pieces are.
I think we can all agree that this is a great new look for Lauren.
A huge area of the exhibition is dedicated to the world of makeup and beauty. A lot of the big brands were there, including Rimmel, Bare Minerals, Barry M, Models Own, Fake Bake and so on and so forth, as well as the smaller brands that are big in social media and the blogosphere including Sally’s Glitz and Glam, Lauren’s Way and Jelly Pong Pong.
The main bargains of the show were definitely to be found amongst the make-up brands, a lot of which were offering goodie bags for around £10 that contained products worth up to the £60. These were being snapped up all over the joint, though we managed to show exceptional self control and run past these stands at a Mo Farah speed.
Other exhibitors also included universities, Select modelling agency (obviously our little 5 foot nothing bodies were signed up IMMEDIATELY) and a smorgasbord of other companies – which might be my way of saying I’ve forgotten who else we saw. Honestly, there was so much to take in that you can and do spend hour after hour browsing all of the aisles.
Throughout the day, there were also a number of other catwalk shows going on, from high street to designer to graduate shows. Overall it was a really fun day, and I definitely recommend The Clothes Show to anyone who hasn’t been before. At £28 a ticket, I do think it’s a tad pricey for essentially a day of shopping, but it’s certainly an impressive exhibition and the shows and TOWIE stars celebrity photo opportunities are all bonuses that give the event that little something extra.
Oh, and here some photos of half naked men for you to peruse. You’re welcome…
Have any of you been to The Clothes Show Live before? What do you think?
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The Young British Designers Event at RBH.
Yesterday, Claire and I (as well as our chauffeur, I mean boss, Gary) had the brilliant opportunity of heading over to RBH for the presentation event of Young British Designers. RBH is a creative agency based in the Midlands who have worked in connection with YBD since its launch in 2010. For those who don’t know (where have you been?!), YBD is all about championing the many talents of young designers in Britain and showing off collections from emerging British fashion designers.
And what a day we had! After sneakily re-applying makeup in the toilets at work and choking the office with Black XS, we were off with our really cool Perspex invites firmly in hand. Even though we didn’t win the YBD outfit competition, Claire’s loud ‘AH, GO ON THEN’ when we were offered a glass of champagne got the event of to a great start. We mooched about for a bit and met some lovely people before legging it upstairs to where the clothes were. I have about three words to say about this: beautiful neon bags.
![image[16]](http://www.vanityclaire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/image16.jpg)
There was a great mix of stuff from last season as well as current spring/summer pieces. My personal favourites were the spring/summer collection of shoes and bags. OH MY GAHD, I nearly died with love for a pair of wedges that had neon straps. I may have spent slightly too long staring at them with love and adoration, stroking them and declaring that I will never love like this again. I didn’t actually stroke them; I’m not a mad person. I am a young professional who can behave in a classy and sophisticated way and not drop cupcakes on the floor. ANYWAY, Claire’s personal fave of the day was a blue box bag and had she bought it, I’d have stolen it and claimed that the stray cat we occasionally let into our house (fondly named Snoop Catt) must have eaten it. Unfortunately, we were too poor to make any purchases (darn you payday, how dare you come a day late) but Gary bought a lovely bag for his mum.
Shop the Young British Designers collections here
After having a browse of the collections, we headed to the cocktail bar for a mojito or five and had a play with the tweet mirror (which was AWESOME, by the way). There were a couple of talks as well, one by RBH’s Debra Hepburn and one by Beverley Nielson. Beverly heads up the Birmingham Made Me Expo, which is really awesome and you should all check out. She’s also worked at Vogue in New York so all in all, a very interesting person.
For those who are interested, I wore a snake print midi dress from Missguided, my trusty black leather jacket from Miss Selfridge and a pair of teal heels. Claire went for a navy midi dress from Topshop, a chunky gold necklace and Kurt Geiger heels.
It was a fabulous day and we’re very excited for what’s to come with YBD.
So, big thank you to RBH (and the green bow-tied mixologists, of course).