BLOGGING 101

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

(Photograph by Mario Testino) Kate Moss and her own personal army of fashion bloggers - laptops at the ready! 

Yesterday evening, a small group of newbie bloggers gathered in the Go Blog! Lounge at the Westfield Big Wardrobe for the first ever FEAL tutorial.

I was joined by Victoria Lan, Tayo Bello, Natasha Woodward, Anyi Hobson, Kat Nowakowski, and Debz Eastlake for an hours discussion on all things blog-related, including setting up a site from scratch, common obstacles that all bloggers encounter, and the benefits that a great blog can bring.

It all got very excitable, as you can imagine with a group of seven girlies all full of ideas! I thought I'd share some of our hottest topics with any other fledgling bloggers out there.

- Starting Out!
We agreed that it is crucial to decide on your 'modus operandi' before you start out; to work out the identity of your site so that you can create a consistent voice. The look of each blog is also crucial; don't feel that you have to follow the same mould as every other blogger with exactly the same template.

- The Techy Stuff
There is a definite divide between the Wordpressers and the Bloggers of this world! For those that are more clued up with HTML coding, it seems Wordpress offers more flexibility with site design - but it's best to find which one you find easier to use. Key words are also the bloggers best friend, along with linking your blog to sites like Bloglovin, to make it more 'searchable'.

I'm currently writing this on a neon 'Vaio' laptop in the Go Blog lounge - vibrant! 

- Content
Just like the layout, it's key to find your own niche; there is no point trying to emulate bloggers that are already successful because they will have cornered their own little part of the market. Whether your blog is image or word based, find what you are passionate about and post about it - and although frequent updates are crucial to achieve a good group of followers, on the flip side there is no point posting 'for post's sake'. Quality not quantity, and all that.

If you are starting a blog, your laptop/Blackberry/iPhone/iPad will become your closest friend...

- What's The Point?
With any blog, it's helpful to work out what you want to achieve from it. In our tutorial group, we had a mixture of writers, stylists and entrepreneurs who all wanted to start blogs for different reasons, and that goes for everyone. Whether it's to hone your writing skills, create a visual portfolio or promote your new business, blogging is the perfect platform to get your work out there. You can also choose to go on the 'blogging as a career' route; it will take a whole lot of hard work, but you with blogging, you really do get out what you put in.

That's just a taster of what went down during our discussion yesterday, so I'm looking forward to what's going to come out of the second session in a few hours. If anyone else has great advice or tips for newbie bloggers, please post a comment!



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TOP PICKS FROM THE BIG WARDROBE

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

It's Day Three at the Westfield Big Wardrobe, and I decided to have a snoop around each individual wardrobe and pick out the cream of the crop. If you are heading down this weekend, be sure to check out these beauties...

Ted Baker

Lovely summer brogues....

A stunning shift dress featuring the print of the season

Chelsea Girl

Enjoyable retro displays and fun shoes...

...along with this perfect lace summer dress with angel sleeves. Very Florence-ish. 

Pauls Boutique

If you are brave enough, green denim hotpants for when the weather decides to warm up! 

Firetrap

You can enter a draw at the Firetrap wardrobe to win £500 worth of their delectable denim

Or you could opt for the leather jacket of dreams!

Delicious!

DKNY

Super hot pink skinnies - must have item of the moment! 

French Connection

There are a lot of giggles to be had at the French Connection wardrobe - not only a lovely selection of clothes, but the opportunity to win the entire wardrobe just by entering a draw. 

Not forgetting the infamous 'cat's cradle game' as mentioned yesterday, where you have to complete an Eiffel Tower in less than a minute in order to win a beach bag. I tried it out....

And promptly failed. Maybe you can do better? Let us know if you succeed!!

There are loads of great things to see, do and shop - not forgetting the fashion show on Saturday, which will feature looks from Ted Baker, DKNY, Kurt Geiger, Coach, Accessorize, Oasis, Warehouse, Mango, Next and New Look. There will be all kinds of trends on show, including Seventies, Festival and colour pop styles, so come down for your summer inspiration! The first show is at 1.30pm on Saturday and if you scan the front row, you might just spot the Fashion Editor at Large...

FASH JUNIOR GETS A MAKEOVER @ THE BIG WARDROBE

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Working in fashion land generally means no two days are the same, which is great, but it also means that sometimes your job description can be a little...flexible.

Fashion Junior at Large: Blogger, assistant, part time model?!

I do love it when the Fash Ed comes up with one of her 'schemes'. So today I found myself in the Westfield Big Wardrobe, with my fairly distinct personal image entrusted to the hands of hair and make up artistes.

 The Go Style area at Westfield's Big Fashion Wardrobe

Before: do I look a little bit nervous to you?

Now, it's safe to say I'm a little picky when it comes to my look; in particular the hairdo that led Brix Smith Start to christen me 'Kandifloss'. What can I say, I enjoy a bit of backcombing. So I was a little bit afraid at the sight of many a GHD. However, the lovely Haf of the Ginger Group vowed to give me bubbly, voluminous hair that no tail comb could ever achieve, and she dutifully set to work untangling the crispy hairsprayed cobwebs that masquerade as my actual hair.

Work in progress...

It was truly a work of curl-tastic art.

About half way through the curling procedure we decided to go a bit mad and attempt a full on Sandy from Grease look, so the curls got steadily bigger. By this time a small crowd had gathered to watch the tongmaster at work as she produced platinum ringlets. The final look was definitely something I could never hope to achieve without her expert skills!

 The Make Up Store's vibrant eyeshadow selection: which to pick?!

Next up, I popped to the Make Up Store's multi-coloured stand for some seriously vibrant lipstick, an eyeliner touch up and some coral blush. The kind people at Firetrap loaned me a wonderful leather biker jacket (which, to be honest, I didn't really want to give back) and all I needed was a handsome bequiffed fellow to play my Danny...

Did somebody say Katie Waissel? 

 ...unfortunately, that particular fantasy didn't happen, but I did get to try out some Tyra-approved moves and work an imaginary red carpet, which was fun. Check back tomorrow for the finished results!

In the meantime, the photo area will be open until Sunday, so why not have a go yourself? Remember to 'smize!'

Also, if you want to check out the photo-finish of your fashion finds at the Big Wardrobe, don't forget to try out the Tweet Mirror too, which some of you may have seen in action on the Queen Of Shops 'Secret Service'. It's all good fun! 

PS I'm looking forward to meeting new friends from the blogosphere at the Go Blog! tutorials tomorrow. See you there! 

Photos: Mimi Richman

IN THS WEEK'S GRAZIA...

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

...read all about this season's high street hit, the Whistles Carrie Skirt. The most tweeted/blogged about item of the moment, apparently. And the frenzy surrounding this skirt looks set to get even more ferocious when two more colour variations are soon to hit shop floors!

WESTFIELD'S VERY BIG WARDROBE ADVENTURE

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

I have a lot of a soft spot for Westfield London. My other half  Mary Portas helped launch it, and during my time as fashion news and features editor at Grazia I came up with the idea the we move the office in there for a week to make an issue of the magazine. It was a mad idea - and we had a total ball doing it. It took popping to the shops during the lunch break to a whole new dimension. We also won a Campaign award for doing it!  As a result of all the Westfield involvement ( I was on site in a hard hat before launch, and live locally) I've spent more time than is seemly inside this wonderful behemouth of a shopping centre. And yes, I like it.

So I was happy to say yes to working on a project with the Westfield gang this week. The project, as evidenced by the above photograph, is called "Big Fashion Wardrobe". The location is the same spot Grazia built our very real working office, and it is there for fashionistas to have a deeper experience of shopping at Westfield. It is also rather good on the feet as it is all in one space.

Chelsea Girl is there at Big Fashion Wardrobe - flashback to the Eighties! I'm sure I had a phone like that when I was a kid and dreaming of being able to shop at Chelsea Girl

The idea of the Big Fashion Wardrobe is to get fashion conscious girls and women to come in and engage with some of the brands who have stores at Westfield - the bonus is the stores have exclusive product and special offers it would be unseemly to ignore. Reiss, French Connection, River Island (who are in the midst of reviving Chelsea Girl - what River Island used to be called back in the day) Jaeger, DKNY Jeans and LK Bennett to name a few have Wardrobes in the space.  There is also this attractive shoe wall.

I do like a multi-brand shoe wall.

A view across the catwalk to some of the wardrobes.

The view from above - you can see the various brand wardrobes and runway to the left and centre. On the right in the bottom corner of the picture is the photo studio and make-up area where you can get a makeover and have your 'cover photo' taken - George Langford my fabulous Fashion Junior at Large is doing this tomorrrow and reporting back for  us. Along from the photo area is the bloggers lounge where we will be later this week.  

There is plenty of fun to be had in the midst of all that retail therapy - we particularly love Daisy Lowe's lomography exhibition, all in aid of the British Heart Foundation, and the chance to win a bag at the French Connection wardrobe simply by achieving the perfect cat's cradle 'Eiffel Tower' in less than a minute. Now that's something we haven't tried in a while.  To finish the whole event with a bang, on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd April there will be live catwalk shows all through the day. 

Find out all the details by following @westfieldlondon on Twitter. Or click here. 

More from Big Fashion Wardrobe tomorrow when Fashion Junior at Large gets a makeover - I am looking forward to that!

STREET STYLE TREND ALERT: SEVENTIES BOHEMIA

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Here at FEAL HQ, each season we devote ourselves to analysing catwalk trends until we know them inside out. However, every now and then a certain style will become the look of the season, and have very little to do with the catwalk at all.

It has become clear that Summer 2011 will be the season of the Seventies, but not the colour-popping, grown up glamour of the Studio 54 styles that swished down the runway. Instead, there is a huge movement towards the scruffy, rocky, fringy, Stevie Nicks-y and maybe even bohemian-y look of the Seventies Woodstock chick. Yes, you did just see the word 'boho', but fear, we are not stuck in a 'Sienna Miller circa 2006' timewarp (a scary thought indeed). 

 

 The original queen of rock chick bohemia: Stevie Nicks

This is a decidedly darker, more mysterious take on hippy-trippy chic; we might be wearing flowers in our hair, but we'll also have thickly smudged black eyes and layers of leather, velvet and at least one item with serious fringing. Navajo details - turquoise, suede, beading - all play a key role.

Personally, I knew something was up when I had an uncontrollable urge to bid for this beaded, fringed kimono on eBay...

Now, you could blame this street style trend on our perennial love affair with free spirited music festivals and a desire to rebel against a frankly depressing state of affairs this year. However there is a more obvious culprit, who goes by the name of Topshop. Yep, the high street dictators have once again come up with the most covetable collections. What's more, they have seemingly gone against the catwalk grain - and it's working incredibly well. 

Topshop's 'Snake Valley' is exactly where we wanna be.

Smart people, those Topshoppers; they took the grains of Seventies catwalk inspiration, and have transformed it into what we all want to wear. Their behind the scenes film from the SS11 shoot sums up the Stevie Nicks feeling perfectly.

So it seems the scene has been set. Time to dig out those fringed kimonos, kohl pencils and snakeskin hotpants (maybe). No matter how you look at it, it seems bohemia is back.

Images: Stevie Nicks, Huffington Post, George Langford, Topshop