Vivienne Westwood x Melissa Shoe Exhibition

You can't deny that Vivienne Westwood knows a good shoe. Even people who have no interest in fashion have seen Naomi Campbell bite it in those infamous blue monsters. What were once avant-garde shoes arguably paved the way for the sky-scraping heels that are now the norm on a Friday night out for many a person. And don't tell me you haven't seen people everywhere still wearing those Pirate boots, you know the ones!
Melissa is presenting a surprisingly thorough retrospective of Vivienne's shoes, all the way from 1973 to the present day.
There are some really amazing shoes on display that have to be seen to be believed- it almost makes you feel sorry for the models. Almost.
I also can't put into words how good the Melissa and Vivienne Westwood shoes display smelt. Imagine the scent of those shoes, then times by ten. Sooo good. Someone seriously needs to bottle that pronto.

The exhibition will run from 6 August – 22 September at Selfridges London.

(all images me)

//Emily

World's End

This weekend I finally decided to go and visit Vivienne Westwood's 'World's End' store.
It was originally the iconic 'SEX' store opened by Vivienne Westwood in the 70s. The store was heavily involved in the influencing the Punk movement. The Sex Pistols often shopped there, and even auditioned Johnny Rotton in the shop! Sid Viscous also worked there...can you imagine!?
It was the first shop of its kind, known for selling what came to be known as 'Punk' clothes.



Vivienne still owns the shop today, selling her Anglomania range. When I think of World's End, I can't help but always think of the shoot from the Agyness Deyn issue of i-D...



When I got there (eventually, it was a LONG walk), it looked pretty similar to what I had thought from the previous picture. The first thing that caught my eye was of course the massive clock. The hands spun round erratically, making me think of a giant version of the white rabbit's pocket watch from Alice in Wonderland...



I had expected it to be little, but the shop was actually pocketsized! Compare the man walking past in the photo below and you can kind of see what I mean.

The inside was equally cute. There was a small selection of her clothing and quite a big cabinet with her jewellery. there was also some tall shelves with some of her bags. I was going to take some photos inside too but it was hard to be sneaky when you're practically bumping into the shop assistants.


I'd definately recommend visiting it if you can, it's really interesting to see up close!

(via the fashion spot, me)

//Emily

Twiggy, ring pops, pumpkins

I just finished interning for Beyond the Valley Insight, the promotions sister company to the Carnaby Street store. I've helped out on a couple on events, based around their 'Wish you were here' concept. This basically was where shops form the London Carnaby Street area swapped with shops from New York, and vice versa.

This equalled a lot of fun and of course American food.

My final day was spent preparing for the Halloween party a.k.a a good excuse to get pumpkin carving. If only I'd realised I only got one attempt I wouldn't have made my pumpkin look like it has manic depression...





In one of the two shops set up, there was a gallery space in the basement. They had some really cool stuff, my favourite of which was a giant dripping heart made from ring pops. It smelt amaaaazing. When I first arrived it was just heart shaped but over time the pops melted and made a big gooey puddle. I think the artist's name was Julia Chiang...











I also finally got chance to go to the Twiggy exhibition at the national portrait gallery. The mini-exhibition is kind of a visual timeline of Twiggy's career, with commentary from Twiggy throughout. I really liked it, but then I really like Twiggy so I'm pretty biased...









There were a lot more pictures but those were my favourites. Gotta love the old school Twiggy.

Sadly I missed out on sampling the skull shaped Krispy Kremes before Halloween was over and had to plump for the spiderweb one instead. Maybe they were just American? False advertisement!



In non food related news I also went to a Vivienne Westwood sample sale. Due to the fact that it was held at her Battersea studio and I live at the other end of London it was a traumatic journey to get there only to discover this massive crowd.



Okay so you can't actually see the crowd, but it was dark and my camera freaks out under low lighting. Let's just say it was BIG. As I didn't have three hours spare to brave the queue in lingering hope that the bargain hungry crowds would overlook something perfect yet cheap, I had to leave and hope that someday I can be just like Pamela and get all the free Viv I want. Minus being Pam.

//Emily

Halloween for the discerning fashionista

These outfits definately put my cardboard doughnut costume to shame...shot by Diego Uchitel for Black magazine he parodies some of the most high profile individuals in the fashion industry. I particularly like the Viktor and Rolf complete with chin fluff!

To see more by Diego Uchitel go here!