Last Friday Claire and I ventured up to the beautiful, big and bustling Birmingham NEC to take in the spectacle of The Clothes Show (all in the name of research of course). Luckily we were there on press day so it was no where near as manic as I had anticipated! The last time I visited must have been about fifteen years ago so it was a bit of a blast from the past for me personally and I can just remember it being awash with feisty teenage girls on a mission to purchase as many bargains as possible! So, after walking around in numerous circles for the first thirty minutes upon arrival and getting completely lost, we managed to clamber the escalator of fortune, leading us to the many halls which make up the show. First stop was picking up our VIP (yes, VIP don't you know) tickets, which gave us front row seats to the catwalk show in the 'Fashion Theatre'.
The theme of the show was 'A Night At The Movies' encompassing quite a few genres such as Fairytale Romance, Western Action, Sci-Fi and High School Rocks. I did get rather snap happy but unfortunately, and I totally blame the cold for numbing my brain, I forgot to equip myself with my trusty camera on Friday. So, the pics are iPhone-tastic, ie a bit blurry here and there with no flash or zoom. Apologies for that!
Rather than focusing on current or future trends, this catwalk show was entertainment first and fashion second, which is completely appropriate to the event. With the likes of The X-Factor, Glee, Dancing on Ice, High School Musical and various celebrity focused TV programmes influencing and inspiring the nation's young and trendies, the icing on the cake was the appearance of Lauren and Mark from The Only Way is Essex, causing quite a stir, especially with the girls sat directly behind us who were pretty enthusiastic about anything, particularly the scantily clad male models (who admittedly were rather eye-catching!).
I didn't leave the show completely inspired by the fashion, but was kind of entertained. I'm not a huge fan of High School Musical or Glee, and proud of it, so this type of show was not really up my street! My fashion high point was the dear-stalker hats, which I adore! xxx
