Friday 3 December 2010

Balmain for Less

Balmain has to be one of the most expensive labels out there, they charge way over any reasonable amount to pay for any sort of clothing, we're talking over £5,000 for a dress and hundreds of pounds just for t-shirts. Making it only affordable to those with more money than sense (Alex Curran) and those who are gifted it (lucky bitches...)

That's not to say it's not very nice, it is, it's one of my favourite labels, but still, I won't be buying any anytime soon.

But lucky enough, as Balmain is such a distinctive and desirable label, lots of high street shops do pretty convincing replicas. You'll see their signature statement shoulders, heavily embellished dresses, high hemlines paired with ankle boots and black and gold colour palette absolutely everywhere.

And that's where Peacocks come in.

They're currently selling this dress for £40 (with 20% discount):

Which bares more than a passing resemblance to this one from the Balmain 2010 Fall collection:



Here's hoping Santa knows how good I've been this year...

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Managing a Crisis on Social Media

Hello.

I’m doing a new sort of post today. If you didn’t already know I work for a charity on their social media, so I suppose that makes me fairly knowledgeable about how charities and businesses more generally can develop a presence online, which is something the majority really ought to be doing already for reasons I won’t go into right now.

One of the major motivating factors in getting a company to take social media more seriously and actively take part in it is the possibility that a crisis may erupt on social media, which they’ll need to deal with online. The Domino’s youtube fiasco and Nestle palm oil incident alerted companies to the damage a social media crisis can do to their reputation more generally and highlights the need for a social media crisis strategy.

So here are a few tips for how you can react when/if a social media crisis happens:

  • Decide what your company deems a crisis, an issue, and something which just needs to be monitored for now. How do you know when to pull out the full crisis management plan?

  • Agree on the line you’re going to be taking and the tone of voice you’ll be using.

  • Brief all your relevant employees on what this is make sure they stick to it!

  • If you’re getting a vast amount of comments and queries setting up an FAQ will help you be able to better respond to people. Similarly, a video response is a good way to put a face to your company and is more reassuring than impersonal tweets and messages. Agree on how you can set this set before it’s necessary.

  • Make friends before a crisis happens- if someone does start making negative comments about you, having a community of loyal fans may help silence them.

  • Listen closely. As soon as something hits you want to know about it as soon as possible. Only noticing an “I hate your company” group on facebook or bad customer service blog after two weeks of activity might be too late. Having someone responsible for monitoring online mentions of your company is the best way to do this.

  • Don’t be afraid to get involved. If someone has set up a blog documenting all your customer service failures, a “look but don’t touch” policy will do you no favours. Silence is possibly even worse than a bad response.

  • Prepare your response beforehand. It is possible, within reason, to have a good guess at the likely crisis’ you might face. Decide what these are and prepare “black pages” of your response which can go live on your web site if/when it happens, these will be useful if they can stop the flow of negative comments hours or days earlier than if you were working from scratch.

  • Similarly, you’ll need to work out the specifics. Who is responsible for reacting to a crisis which erupts online? Who do they alert and what do they do? Who replies to comments? If it’s really big you may want to have a team working exclusively on dealing with it. Who are they?

  • Do not disable comments. By switching off the ability to write on your Facebook wall or comment on your blog it suggests you have something to hide. Angry comments don’t come across too well, but an angry comment with an apologetic response shows that you’re listening, whereas silencing all your critics will only make them angrier and more determined to have their say.


Just a few bullet points there but hopefully someone will find it useful. Do let me know if you think I’ve missed anything out or have said anything stupid. Or if you think you have any better ideas!

*Note- That's not a real tsunami, all people are alive and well as far as I know...

Friday 19 November 2010

Gradient Nails

Showing off my nails. They go from light purple to dark purple and I did it by following a tutorial from Makeup Savvy apart from she made just one colour darker and lighter whereas I used two Barry M purple ones because they seemed to work.

Enjoy!

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Album Review: Mcfly Above the Noise

Yes, Mcfly are back! After a two year hiatus the band are yet again claiming that this album is the “album they’ve always wanted to make” The same thing they said about Motion in the Ocean, (and we all know what a disappointment that was) but this time they reassure us that they really mean it.

A lot’s been happening in those two years, they split with their record label, they went to Australia and wrote a few tracks which were all subsequently scraped, they got back with their record label, they went to gym and/or drunk a hell of a lot of protein shakes (Tickets to the gun show any one?) and it certainly appears as if they’ve hired some sort of stylist who knows that guns equal money in this fickle industry. (Naked photoshoot? Yeah why not)

And now they’re back!

Lots of words have been thrown about in describing this album- Twilight inspired- the video and mini movie for the first single Party Girl definitely had a vampire theme running through it and has set the tone for their artwork. Mcfly/ Mcfly’s record company certainly aren’t stupid; girls are going mental for vampires at the moment, and it’s a clever, if a bit unoriginal, bandwagon to jump on.

Rock-opera is also a phrase which has cropped up a few times, no doubt a result of the opening track End of the World which takes influence from War of the Worlds and throws in elements of theatrical drama which are later confirmed by Nowhere Left to Run.

In terms of the music itself, it’s good. It’s actually very good. But it’s hard to know whether it’s the 21 year old me saying that or the 16 year old me. But with the help of producer Dallas Austin (who has an impressive roster of clients including Madonna, Pink, Michael Jackson) and only a few naff songs, the majority is very listenable.

With I Need A Woman, a country inspired rock ballad and If U C Kate (Yes, when you say it it sounds like a rudey, we’ve seen both the Script and Britney Spears do exactly the same thing) but forget the crass title and for me it’s the standout track of the album, there’s no doubting that these boys are good at what they do.

Will this album turn Mcfly into credible artists, something I get the impression they’ve craved to be from the start, probably not, but will it boost their presence in the teen pop category after an extended gap? Yes, most definitely. A hollow victory, but one I’m certainly enjoying.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Chanel A/W 2010 Look book- Ice Age

At Paris fashion week Chanel's show had a very ice-queen slash native-American slash arctic feel to it. He went all out, even importing a 265 foot iceburg from Scandanavia and I'm sure I saw a photo of an actual Yeti... Think knee high fluffy boots, heavy fur coats and toasty tights with delicate dresses underneath and your Winter Wonderland is complete. Here's a few of my favourite pieces from the high street that go with this look.


As a side note, I'd sell my own mother for that fur trimmed cape dress or those feather boots. Literally, I would...


Faux Fur Earmuffs, Monsoon £16


Greta Square Toe Mary Janes, Topshop £60


Fur Trim Cape Dress, Topshop £80


Diamantee Pears and Feathers Hairband, Accessorize £40


Mesh Tube Dress, Rare £49


Curve Sequin Shift Dress, Topshop £120


Ivory Faux Fur Coat, Wallis, £85


Feather Cowl Back Jumpsuit, Topshop, £60


Scene Feather Boot, Kurt Geiger £390


Ivory Sweetheart bag, Debenhams, £30


Silver Look Diamante Cluster Ring, River Island £7.99


Stone Bird Studs, Topshop £8

Wednesday 27 October 2010

The Look for Less: Christian Louboutin Madame Butterfly Booties

It's no secret I'm a sucker for Christian Louboutin shoes. Is it because all the celebrities wear them? The red soles? The sky high heels which can't help but make even the wobbliest legs look fabulous? The ridiculous price tag? Who knows, but I like 'em and I want 'em.

Recently the pair to be seen in is the Madame Butterfly Bootie. 6'' heel, cute little bows, killer platform, what's not to love?

Christian Louboutin Madame Butterfly BootieAnd they've had their fair share of red carpet coverage. Keri Hilson and Emma Watson both wore them, Watson at the National Movie awards and Hilson at the BET Awards. Rhianna and Heidi Klum have also been spotted in them and Lindsay Lohan wore them to one of her court appearances (she always lowers the tone...)

Rhianna, Lindsay Lohan, Heidi Klum, Emma Watson and Keri Hilson in Christian Louboutin Madame Butterfly booties

As you might guess, these shoes don't come cheap. At £775 a go I'll be giving them a miss for this month. But, luckily enough River Island have just launched these:

River Island Black Double Bow Peep Toe HeelAnd at £64.99 they're not a bad alternative!

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Cheryl Cole- Messy Little Raindrops album review

Cheryl Cole, dubbed the nation’s sweetheart and possibly the most desirable female of the 20th century (actually she was voted sexiest woman in the world by FHM) but stunning and as close to being universally liked as you’re going to find, is releasing her sophomore album, Messy Little Raindrops.

My prediction, much like her first solo album 3 Words which went triple platinum and sold more than 900,000 copies, Messy Little Raindrops, will shift. But, again much like 3 Words, that doesn’t mean that it’s a musical masterpiece or even particularly memorable.

Upon first listening nothing really stands out. It’s no secret that Cheryl was never the voice of Girls Aloud, that was Nadine, and unfortunately her lack of vocal range isn’t disguised well enough by her master producer and BFF Will.i.am.

Never the less, there are a few passable singles on there, Let’s Get Down seems like an obvious single release, and her follow up single, the Flood, I’m sure will do well.

Something which irks me about this album though is how moping and glum the general tone is. Indeed we all watched as Cheryl cried her heart out talking to Piers Morgan about her failed marriage, being hounded by paparazzi and her close escape from malaria, but if this album is meant to be a new beginning from all that, it’s a poor attempt.

And indeed, the references to crying come thick and fast. In Happy Tears, Cheryl tells us “she’s never going to cry again unless they’re happy tears”, hardly shutting a door on her troublesome past. Similarly in Amnesia she tells us “things are too good to be true” and the thinly veiled Ashley digs don’t stop there, coming thick and fast from every angle.

I really did want to like this album, I love Cheryl, look at her for God’s sake, she’s got such lovely hair! And ever since she fixed her teeth it’s been a struggle to take your eyes off her, but I’m afraid it’s not enough to make me love what is at best a mediocre album.

If an unknown artist come out with this it wouldn’t have a shot at the top 10, but attach that smile, that hair and that lovely personality and it’s a hit. If you like this album, you’re more than likely to be liking Cheryl the TV personality, or Cheryl the clothes horse, not Cheryl the singer. If you want my opinion, I’d spend my money on the calendar or Cheryl branded eye lashes, not the album.

Monday 18 October 2010

“Goodbye first rate education, hello University of Lincoln”

Last Monday whilst watching The Inbetweeners, as I do every Monday because it’s a fantastically funny TV programme, Mr. Gilbert, the tyrannical head master who routinely tortures the four boys whose lives the show is centred around, threatened Will with a poor UCAS statement unless he told him who had rearranged flowers to say "we cum tit village".

His threat was worded as follows:
“Goodbye first rate education, hello University of Lincoln”.

His threat clearly did the trick as Will was terrified; he replied, “I’ve been to Lincoln, and it’s a shithole”

As a graduate of the University of Lincoln I feel the need to contribute my two cents.

Firstly, yes it was quite funny, I can take a joke, but none the less it was a bit misplaced. I’m not trying to say that Lincoln is up there with Warwick or Cambridge because, come on, it’s not. But still, surely it’s not so bad as to justify a very public and scathing slur?

For a start, the Inbetweeners boys themselves are sixth formers, so who’s going to be watching it? Tens of thousands of similar sixth formers and college students who in the next few months are going to be sending their UCAS forms off with their six chosen Universities. I’d hope that they’d know better than to let their choice be influenced by a programme which is mainly concerned with the inability of teenage boys to get laid, but we were all 17 once.

Secondly, the University of Lincoln really isn’t that bad. Yes our rankings aren’t fantastic, we place in the 70s out of the 120 or so UK Universities putting us in the middle third of the chart overall, however, these rankings aren’t the be and end all, something I’ve already written about. Firstly they’re based on what the Guardian and the Times deem important enough to take into account, not what you want from your University and your education, and secondly, a number cannot and will not be able to predict whether you or anyone else will have a good time at University and come out a better person.

Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that the subject specific league tables tell a very different story. For example for Business the Guardian puts us at number 33, we’re 29 for Media and Communications (my area) and even get up to the dizzy heights of 25 for Architecture, all in the top third.

However, there are two sides to the story; for Drama we’re way down at 84 and for History we’re a not so impressive 89 which is perhaps where the University’s reputation for low academic standards comes from. (Based solely on The Guardian University guide, because The Times one is a hassle to get access to)

And we haven’t even touched on the Universities trump card yet, student experience. Lincoln was ranked 34 out of 104, whatever that exactly means but it’s a low number so that must be good, and ever since the University’s communications people got their hands on that figure they’ve been telling anyone who’d listen, and even those who don’t care, repeatedly, with a verse of “improved six years running” and “most improved University 2009” thrown in for good measure.

In defence of the University and its students, the comment has stirred up a bit of a furore on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook as well as the blogosphere. With groups like,"Fuck you gilbert, i'm proud of my second rate education."

In sum, I’m not in the least bit angry at the writes of The Inbetweeners for dismissing the worth of my entire education in one foul swoop, in fact I think the statement put the University of Lincoln on a massive platform to speak to a hugely important group of people, potential students. It gave Lincoln the opportunity not just to dismiss this statement but also the chance to show exactly how wrong it was. So many people leapt to the defence of the University, including Fern Cotton on BBC Radio 1 and an army of loyal graduates and students who know exactly what the University is like beyond the tables, and hopefully between us all we’ve made enough noise to make it a whole lot easier for future students to be able to justify their choice of study.

After years of defending my choice of University, especially doing a Media course, easy target really, hopefully they will have an easier time of it than I did!

Friday 24 September 2010

Leather at London Fashion Week

Following London fashion week last week there is no doubt that the fabric du jour is leather.

Various collections incorporated it heavily in the form of trousers, skirts and jackets including David Koma, Burberry Prorsum, Holly Fulton and Marios Schwab. Celebrities of late have also been wearing it both to events and casually.

See, I told you:

Celebrities in leather

First: Kate Moss attending Alexander McQueen Memorial Service

Second: Whitney Port in NY

Third: Alexa Chung attends Yves Saint Laurent belle D'opium fragrance launch

Fourth: Twilight star Ashley Greene doing promotion in London

Fifth: Emma Stone at VMA awards (I've already wikipedia-ed it, she was Jules in Superbad and was in The House Bunny, she looks really different now...)

And on the catwalks:

Leather on the catwalk lfw 2010

First: Burbery Prorsum, there was a helluva lot of leather in this collection

Second: David Koma

Third and Fourth: Marios Schwab

Fifth: Holly Fulton, I love the canary yellow leather she used in this dress with the martini glass design, very different.

I like the skater skirts which were featured in Holly Fulton's collection, it makes leather look a bit less seedy than a tight pencil skirt would and is more wearable. There’s loads of leather available on the high street at the moment, my favourites being a black Oasis dress and a short faux leather skirt for just £20 from misguided.co.uk, bargain! I’ve created a couple of leather looks below:



Wednesday 22 September 2010

The Look Show- London Fashion Week 2010

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s London Fashion Week!

This basically means lots of flustered, chic fashion people running around London trying to get seats to the latest collections from the world’s biggest designers.

The Look Show is where you get to see the High Street fashion for this A/W, with the usual suspects, New Look, River Island, Next, M&S, Dorothy Perkins, Oasis, Monsoon as well as others all showing what we can expect to see in stores before much longer.

What was great about it is that it included Crystal Renn who was one of the plus sized models I blogged about ages ago who were featured in Glamour magazine, as well as Hayley Morley and Laura Catteral who caused that furore when they walked for Mark Fast a while back. So even if the high end catwalks aren’t taking plus sized shapes into account, at least the high street is embracing them!

Below I’ve picked out a few of my favourite pieces from the show, but it’s so hard to pick out just a few I recommend you head over to The Look Show micro-site where you can watch all of the catwalks and they have links for where you can buy some of the items, annoyingly lots are only available in store though, I always assumed everything went online but apparently not.

One thing I did notice though is that this A/W isn’t that different from last A/W. We were talking about leather (which there was loads of) in shorts and skirts and trousers and dresses last year, and they were prominent again this year. Stilettos and socks I blogged about earlier this year have made a welcome return, thigh high boots made a few appearances like they did last year, sequins are still about and so are fur coats. New trends however included the aviator jacket, camel and caramel hues, fur lined boots and shearling, the A/W maxi dress and a lot more loafers with a square heel as opposed to a stiletto, of which River Island have a very tempting pair of new in this week.




Marks and Spencer Limited Collection Crossover V-Neck Panel Dress £49.50

French Connection Samantha Sequins Dress £160

Dorothy Perkins Cream/black Bow Jumper £28

Next Stripe Shoulder Pad Top £32

Next Patterned Skirt £22

Next Brown Faux Sheepskin Aviator Jacket £75

Sunday 29 August 2010

The one where I go to New York


14th of August is my birthday. 13th-16th August me and my sister (Hi :)) went to New York. To sum it up as neatly as possible:




  • Saw the Statue of Liberty

  • Went to Central Park

  • Saw lots of dogs

  • “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  • Brief visit to Chinatown

  • Times Square

  • Rockefella

  • Empire State

  • V Day Kiss

  • Staten Island Ferry

  • Macys

  • Forever 21 do some very comfortable not quite denim leggings/jeggings

  • Walked miles

  • Achy feet

  • Didn’t get a chance to eat  a pretzel

  • Did eat a cupcake (yummy)

  • Did eat cheesecake

  • Why doesn’t England have a Victoria’s Secret already?

  • Carrie’s Stoop

  • Still don’t really understand the subway system (give me the underground any day)

  • No, I’ll have them as well as chips

  • 36th floor

  • Made a special friend in the lift


P.S. Ingenious title no?

[caption id="attachment_235" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="66 Perry Street, anyone recognise it?"]66 Perry Street[/caption]

Katy Perry- Teenage Dream album Review

Katy Perry Teenage Dream

I got hold of Katy Perry’s latest album, Teenage Dream, recently and it must admit it’s become a guilty pleasure!

Her first single to come from it, California Gurls, was an instant hit due to its feel good, Summer feel and it soon got to the top of the charts, helped by a provocative video,  with sales exceeding 6 million worldwide. And if that’s anything to go by, Teenage Dream will be just as big.

The second single and the title track, Teenage Dream, (officially out tomorrow, 29th August 2010) represents the general sound of the second album and of what we know about Katy, an album which compensates with well crafted tabloid liaisons what it lacks in substance.

Katy Perry never has shied away from promoting her product, her singles and albums, with other below the line tactics which take as much attention as possible off how simple and non-magnificent the product is.

Think back, for example, to Katy’s first venture onto the pop scene. Was it a well crafted piece of musical excellence, set for the music hall of fame? No, it was a title which alluded to lesbianism, I Kissed a Girl, with a gorgeous black-haired, red lipped stunner fluttering her eye lashes and giving long, intense stares down the camera. Add to that a high profile relationship with Russell Brand, an innate sexiness, and never failing to appear in public without a tight dress with a low neck line, and Katy Perry has proved that she most definitely knows how this pop game works.

And if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Songs on her sophomore album are just as full of innuendos paired with unoriginal catchy pop, perhaps the most unsubtle being Peacock in which she sings, and I quote, “Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock?/ What you're waiting for, it's time for you to show it off/ Don't be a shy kinda guy I'll bet it's beautiful/ Come on baby let me see/ Whatchu hidin' underneath”

Katy Perry sits on the same bench as many female pop stars before her, Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles, Rhianna, all able to perfect the art of remaining accessible to teenagers, producing catchy pop songs and being etched into the imaginations of the older gentlemen.

However, don’t get me wrong, I do like Katy Perry’s album. I like it ALOT. The songs are well produced, very listenable and catchier than Chlamydia. Particular highlights are FireWork, Hummingbird Heartbeat and Last Friday Night, any of which could easily top the charts and add to Perry’s continuing chart success. In fact, it’s hard to find a reason not to like her. She’s got the whole package, and unless you’re one of those people who have a snobby dislike of manufactured pop music, you’ll like it too. And if you are one of those aforementioned snobs, I wouldn’t bother; this album probably isn’t for you.

Saturday 28 August 2010

Leopard Print Nails

Hello,

There is no real purpose to this post, other than to show you my leopard print nails

Leopard Print nails

There they are. I used some nails inc. nail varnish which was part of the Diet Coke promotion, this one is the London one and it's a beige colour. There was also Paris, New York and Milan which were purple, pink and red. I used some black Konad special polish for the leopard print bit which was on plate number m57, and it took me a few goes to not mess it up! I think I'll try zebra print next. :)

Sunday 1 August 2010

Toy Story 3- My Review

[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Lotso Huggin' Bear shows Buzz around"]Toy Story 3[/caption]

One of the movie releases of the year I’ve been most anticipating is Toy Story 3. Anyone around the age of 20 will have grown up watching, and most likely, loving the Toy Story franchise.

We first met Woody and the gang in 1995, then again in 1999. But by 2010 those initial fans are likely to be a lot older and college or University students like me. This was something Pixar certainly did not ignore. In the US free screenings of 60 minutes of the film where shown to college students which they signed up for via the dedicated Facebook page. They were left with a cliff hanger ending in the hope that they’d return and pay for a ticket to see the remainder.

In addition, this age of viewer is also likely to blog or talk about their viewing on social networking sites, which would then create an online buzz about the film and get people talking, creating yet more anticipation for the release.

Alongside this, they also released three teaser trailers as well as gradually releasing character profiles of the latest additions online. My favourite trailer was an IM chat between Woody and Buzz but all are pretty funny and clever, and again likely to get people talking and excited about the film.

Having pre-booked my tickets for the first day of release (yeah a bit sad I know), 3D glasses in hand I sat down to watch the third instalment, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

This time around Andy is leaving for college and the toys are facing their inevitable expiration, much like the franchise itself. They end up in Sunnyside play school where they encounter a host of new toys, Barbie meets her Ken, and a strawberry scented fuzzy bear called Lotso Huggin’ sets a cruel agenda for them to live by.

Unusually for an animated sequel, or even a third instalment, this one actually bucks the trend and is really good! The new characters as well as the old are as good as ever (I particularly like a new dinosaur called Trixie) but there is a sense of sadness and finality which runs throughout.

A lot of high hopes were placed on Toy Story 3 but ultimately I think it not only lived up to them, up also surpassed them. Entertaining from start to finish, without a dull “nothing’s happened for a while, I’m bored” moment in sight and just enough twists and turns to keep you interested without losing you, Toy Story 3 is definitely one of the best films I’ve seen so far this year- although admittedly I never got round to seeing either Avatar or Slumdog Millionaire)

A stand out sequence has to be the gang’s ultimate escape from Sunnyside, as well as the inspired character of Mr. Pricklepants (a thespian hedgehog) and the adorably cute Bonnie.

The ultimate message is that although you may be attached to something, sometimes you have to accept that it’s come to the end and it’s time to move on. However, as we learn in the open ending of the film as one door closes, another opens. It’s a tear jerker but ultimately delivers all we expected and more.

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Sex and the City: Carrie's Halston Heritage Asymmetric stretch-jersey dress

In Sex and the City 2 Carrie wears about 4 dresses by Halston Heritage, everyone seems to be talking about the white V-Neck one she wears in the opening scene but I much prefer the pink asymmetric Jersey one she wears whilst in Abu Dhabi which Kesha has also been spotted in.

Inevitably lots of high street version have cropped up which are far more affordable than the Halston one which costs £216 from net-a-porter, which I happen to think isn't that bad considering it's in one of the biggest films of the year where everyone's eyes were on the clothes.

Even so, it's well out of my budget which is why the Topshop and Lipsy versions are so handy! The Lipsy one is a rather obvious replica which is being promoted as a copy cat version, with a picture of Carrie next to it. Still, the colour's very summery and it's only £35. (Also available in black and purple.)

The Topshop one is my personal favourite though and is a more original take on Halston design. It comes in black and white (although white's out of stock) and I think it would look best teamed with some gold jewellery and shoes.

Like this:

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Video of Miley Cyrus shows her dancing provocatively with Adam Shankman

In my original post just under a year ago following the scandal that Miley Cyrus 'pole danced' on stage at the Teen Choice Awards 2009 I thought it was all just a big storm in a tea cup. Yes Miley has lots of young, impressionable fans but her antics on stage were hardly akin to anything sexual and she was just enjoying herself.

BUT, the latest Miley Cyrus scandal has changed my opinion of the 17 year old. Today a clip has been passed around the internet with a girl, who I assume to be Miley Cyrus, dancing wholey inappropraitely with director Adam Shankman at a party to celebrate the end of filming Miley's film, The Last Song.

Wiggling her bum around the openly homosexual director's crotch she looks like she's having a splendid time... But I'm sure none the less a scandal will be whipped up, damning her for influencing her fans to place themselves on the crotch of any middle aged men.

Whilst the two incidents are completely different, appearing on stage there are completely different rules and codes of conduct compared to when you're at a private party, and it seems as if Miley is unaware that she is being filmed or that the video would end up on the internet but none the less her position in the media and her celebrity status means that this can only be bad news.

Yes, celebrities are entitled to do whatever they please, but when your every move is being watched and subject to scrutiny perhaps it's best to keep such antics behind closed doors. No it's not fair, she's not the only 17 year old girl to have been caught in such a compromising position, but the price you pay for fame is being watched, constantly, whenever and wherever you are and if you can't take the good with the bad possibly a the celebrity career path isn't the one for you.

I highly doubt that any child post seeing this video will then emulate Miley as good parenting should teach children that it's inappropriate no matter what Miley is telling them, but the debate still ensues. Was Miley in the wrong for doing it in the first place? Was the person who covertly filmed her in the wrong for passing his video around the internet? Am I wrong for passing it around further? What do you think?

*Edit: The video has been removed from youtube, if you really want to see you can get it here*

Sunday 9 May 2010

Topshop launch MakeUp



Last week Topshop’s range of makeup hit stores amongst a flurry of all sorts of in store and online promotion. The range consists of a core collection as well as a trend collection which will be updated each season. The collection certainly has the whole blogosphere talking about it as it seems to have been featured on all the blogs I follow. I like how Topshop have carried over their reputation for on trend fashion over to make up and the packaging and look of the products all represent Topshop’s trendy image.

On the Topshop web site you’ll also find things like a virtual make over where you can upload a picture of yourself and virtually try out the products. My attempt is below, I think it’s got a definite air of transsexual about it but is a nice idea none the less. You can then share your results on the Topshop facebook page which is another well placed bit of online viral marketing from Topshop.



They also have a range of video tutorials on their web site showing you the types of look you can create with the products which is a great idea. The makeup artist explains to you how to use the products to get the looks they promote on their models and given the prominence of makeup tutorials at the moment on youtube with people like Lauren Luke and Ricebunny it is a very clever way to promote their products. With the youtube ones they can come off quite amateur so by having the more professional appearing Topshop ones it shows you the potential of the products. I’ve seen hair care brand Aussie have done a similar thing with their products which is a great and authentic way to promote themselves on the Internet.

In the Oxford Street store they’ve also worked with the SHOW Studio.com project. At the makeup counter you can get a free makeover and then have your photo taken in front of the ‘Magic Mirror’ where over thirty top fashion creatives - including Lady Gaga's stylist Nicola Formichetti, Edward Enninful of US Vogue, make-up artist Hannah Murray and fashion's favourite illustrator Julie Verhoeven - dispense sartorial advice that appears written, as if by magic, across the mirror's surface. Requires a hell of a lot of bravery!
Image taken from Refinery29