The Clothes Show Live 2009
Monday, 7th December 2009
The theatre show was especially brilliant this year, and we particularly loved the part where the models were dressed as wind-up children’s toys, and came down the catwalk in a robot style. Their brightly coloured and shaped patterned trapeze dresses, hot pants and military jackets were intense but fab. And of course, every lady in the audience loved the male models, and especially the scene where they came out in glitter hot pants and fairy wings – not leaving much to the imagination then! The dancing saw a mixture of contemporary, 60’s jive and disco dancing, and the costumes were everything from PVC cat suits to Santa suit inspired lingerie.
This year’s catwalk was filled with sequins, tailoring and faux fur, amongst other styles. The sequins were seen on mini-skirts, hot pants, dresses, waistcoats and leggings (even the boys were wearing them!), pretty much what you can pick up in any high street store or in our very own store at the moment. Sequins have been huge over the past few months, and show no sign of sitting in the back of the wardrobe yet. A real stunningly beautiful piece for us was the sequin encrusted cutaway leotard – gorgeous! Faux fur looks set to be huge this winter, and a certain retailer at the clothes show, ‘Furnatic’, seemed to be doing pretty well at the event. In the catwalk show, fur was worn by the males and females in the styles of hats and scarves, jackets (cropped and knee length coats) and gilets, as well as being used as trims on many other items. Faux fur is great, especially in the winter months as it will keep you snugly warm whilst looking fierce at the same time. And it is always a trend that reappears every few seasons, so you know you will get plenty wear out of a high quality piece. Of course, if you are brave you could try wearing the real thing; we hear rabbit fur is very popular at the moment, especially in cropped jackets. The tailoring (again, another trend which keeps reappearing) was seen in work-wear e.g. shirts, blouses, waistcoats and pencil skirts, shorts (mini and thigh-length), and of course the trusted blazer. We predict shirts and blouses will be very popular over this winter, worn under either a smart fitted jumper, a baggy cricket style jumper, and under baggy cardigans. A trend which can be worn casually, or for work-wear, depending on how you style it up.
There was a great range of exhibitors this year; some old, some new. A mix of high street, online retailers and small boutiques made up the majority, but there really was something for everyone. Similar retailers were put together, so it was easy to establish what you wanted and then shop around for the best price, some were even open to a bit of haggling. We loved the boutique stalls as they all sold different things, but stuff that you wouldn’t find in your average high street. The only disadvantage we found was that a lot of these retailers tended to have only ‘one size’ clothing. There was fitting rooms but how many of us could be bothered with the hassle?!!! We tried to investigate all of the stalls at the arena, but there just wasn’t enough time or space (soooo crowded in there!) to have a mooch around everything. We have made some great new contacts though, so hopefully soon we will be bringing you new selections of clothing. And if that’s not enough to tempt you, there could only be one other thing that could do it......CELEBS!!! No Clothes Show is complete without some young and trendy celebs, and this year was no exception. At ‘The Clothes Show Live’ in London back in May, we were treated to supermodel Erin O’Connor, Nicky Hambilton-Jones, Caryn Franklin, and George Lamb. This time it was the very fabulous Fearne Cotton (looking her usual gorgeous self in a nautical t-shirt and sparkly leggings, with thick black eyeliner and pillar-box red lipstick), Dave Berry, John Pickard, Carly Stephenson and from Hollyoaks (aka Dom, Steph and Darren), and Jeff Brazier. Who could top that next year?! Personally we’d love to see the gorgeous Holly Willoughby and Dermot O’Leary!!
We would definitely recommend a visit to ‘The Clothes Show’ for every young lady out there. It’s a great place to get some Christmas pressies, treats for yourself, and to have a sneaky peek at trends to come, and of course some fit male models and celebs for you to drool over!! Maybe next year we could do a competition for you guys to win some tickets (any cash saving before Christmas has got to be a bonus)! We hope you have enjoyed hearing about this great event, and we hope to see you there next year!!
Lots of love, Frock ‘n’ Roll xxxx
visit www.frocknroll.co.uk
Amy xx
