Company Fashion Forum

Last Thursday I attended Company's Fashion Forum in Manchester. Yes, I know this post is a little over due but better late than never ey?

I have to admit, without sounding big headed, I wasn't sure how much I'd take away from this evening besides a fabulous goodie bag. After all, there's only so much a person can tell you about how to make it in a certain industry before you just have to go and find out for yourself. And the amount of time I sit in bed on my laptop researching careers is rather staggering. But I was pleasantly surprised to come away from the evening with a few more great tips!

After much trekking around parts of Manchester I'd never seen before, we finally found the venue! The density of fashionable girls hanging around is a good clue that you're getting close.

It's a good idea to take a note pad and pen (or an iPad if you're fancy like that) so that you can make notes. It didn't actually cross my mind to bring any paper, but thankfully I ended up going straight from college which turned out to be a God send.

The event was kicked off with all the panel members introducing themselves, and then editor Victoria White took the reins and briefly interviewed each person individually so we could learn more about them and how they came to be where they are now. It was quite refreshing to hear that one of the panellists had a very strong regional accent, showing that you don't need to be based in London to make it in fashion. In fact, about half of panel were located outside of London!

Vic then handed it over to us fashion wannabes to ask the questions we'd be dying to know. Now I'm not the most confident of people so putting my hand up and asking a question in front of all those people was a no go for me, but luckily we got the opportunity to go down to the front and speak to them privately at the end. I took this opportunity and ran with it, maybe a little too far?  I felt like I was hounding those poor women, but maybe it came across as enthusiastic. Let's hope!

All in all it was a great evening. I came away with a bag full of goodies (including my favourite moisturiser that I had almost ran out of at home) and a bunch of great advice. I'd really recommend this event to anyone who is unsure of going. Being only a lower sixth student meant I was probably one of the youngest people there, with most girls currently at uni, but the advice was still invaluable, and you might even bump into someone who is at the university you want to go to, so take the opportunity to ask them about their course!

Here are the top three tips I took away from the evening:

• Magazines etc get hundreds of emails a day and yours will probably be sent to the spam folder, so be different and hand write a letter!
• Don't spend too much time in education. Get your degree and get out. Yet another qualification is yet another year away from your dream. Get some internships instead. Experience is key in this industry!
• Never ever throw away a contact! Keep in touch (professionally or personally) with everyone. The people you study with at uni may end up being the assistant of the person you need to impress.

It's a tea party!

You know those people? Those who can walk into a vintage or charity shop and pull out tonnes of gorgeous items, and only pay £7 for the whole lot? Those people you're insanely jealous of because their wardrobe is twice the size of yours and probably half the price? I'm not one of those people.

My luck with charity and vintage shops is fairly non-existent. Admittedly I've gotten a fair few things off eBay for pennies, but I'm no bargain queen. So after longing for an adorable little vintage tea dress for quite some time, I am happy to see that they are very on trend this season, meaning that most high street stores will be stocking them, making them a whole lot more accessible. But probably more expensive!

So here's a round up of my favourite tea dresses this season, from the 'ooh, I could probably afford that' to the 'if only Christmas was nearer'.

So this first one is probably one of my favourites, and you can find this at River Island for £28 (or River Island @ ASOS), which I don't think is a bad price! I love that it has buttons all the way down. I don't think a tea dress is really a tea dress without a few buttons.

This next one is from Motel for £40, but students can get 25% discount at the moment which means you could snap this one up for £30! Annoyingly, the models hair is in the way of the neckline, but it's v-neck, wrap style dress.

This Nishe dress can be bought from ASOS for £50. The Nishe collection has a quite a few tea dresses with a very similar cut to this one, although this pattern was my favourite.

Moving up the price scale a little, we have this number from Urban Outfitters for £52, and you can save 20% at the moment. This one has to be my favourite because of the dark colour and delicate print making it very easy to wear. It also has those buttons all the way down which I love!

And finally, this adorable silk dress with a beautiful subtle print in a gorgeous pastel colour - which is perfect for SS13 - is from ASOS. It costs (unfortunately) £252. Oh well. I can dream.

As you can see, my idea of a tea dress is very specific; cap sleeve, buttoned front, but that's just what I like. There are many other kinds of tea dresses out there that still hold the feminine, vintage feel that are perhaps more suited to your taste.

Good luck to everyone with your SS13 wardrobe!

The birth of my blog!

So I have decided to start a blog. And while you may think the hardest part of starting a blog is ‘what do I write about?’ or ‘will anyone care about what I have to say?’, for me it was choosing a name.

I saw this task as very similar to naming a baby. There are many things you need to take in to consideration.  Number one. People must be able to spell it. Having the name Aderyn means I have felt the wrath of this situation, and I can tell you now, it’s not pretty. But why name your blog something that nobody can spell? The time consuming task of writing down the name of my blog, rather than just saying it aloud, made me think twice about swapping that ‘y’ for an ‘i’.  

Number two. It also needs to be fairly sensible. Too many celebrities nowadays are announcing the birth of their new born child Princess or Fifi (how these women get their husbands to agree to these names I’ll never know!). Albeit I probably thought these were great names at the age of ten, by the time you give birth you really should know better.  Similarly, for those of you who made a Hotmail account when you were twelve and inappropriately called it ‘s3xy_kitten-xoxo@hotmail.co.uk’, you’ll understand the embarrassment of having to recite this to people five years on.

So with much thought and consideration, and many many missed blogging opportunities, I decided to be brave and just pick one! So as I sit here, five days before my coursework deadline, telling myself that although this isn't what I'm meant to be doing it’s still productive, I present you with my blog. Hopeless Whistler!