Made in Chelsea: Frock Me, Saatchi Gallery, Little Black Jacket

Last Sunday I headed over to the Kings Road in Chelsea ... Not only was Frock Me vintage fair on at the town hall but there was some great shops and galleries to browse too. 

At Frock Me there was rails full of beautiful vintage pieces - it was great to see and catch up with some many of the stallholders who I have met through Anita's Vintage Fashion Fairs. I even picked up a vintage faux fur collar (pictured above) with a vintage brooch which I think will be perfect for the winter months.

Seeing so many people wandering down the streets with large rolled black and white  posters - I was intrigued and soon realised they were from the Little Black Jacket exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. Just a hop, skip and a jump down the road I headed into the gallery (which is free admission) out of he chilly weather to take a look at the displays. Split over several floors I firstly explored at the Out of Focus Photography exhibition which is currently on. It was really great to step back and take in the wonderful images... take a look at some of the examples below:

Gallery 1: Katy Grannan

Anonymous

A series of candid 'street style' portraits of various individuals in California. It had an intriguing underlining meaning and social commentary aspect to the image which were striking and bold.

Gallery 3: Sohei Nishino

Diorama of New York

2009

These spectacular series of photographed cites Paris, Tokyo & New York were cleverly collaged together to represent that today we are "over-mapped". Nishino reinvests cities with wonder (and not incidentally cites 18th-century cartographer Inō Tadataka, who also did his surveys on foot, as an influence).

Gallery 4: John Stezaker

She (Film Portrait Collage) V

The artist ransacks old bookshops for discarded images that still have some faint breath of life within them and meticulously pairs them up - marries the two strangers. Sliced magazines, postcards, books, shopping catalogues, manuals and publicity photographs to create a new composition.

Gallery 5: Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

Untitled series

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin revisited the photographic and documentary archive amassed of the Troubles in Belfast and seeked to reveal the truths in the turbulence of the near past. they chose images not with a curatorial eye, but rather with a throw of the dice: they would expose only what was hidden below the round stickers placed willy-nilly by the archivists on the prints. And as a way of revealing the strong feelings these pictures could unleash, they included images purposely defaced by the subjects themselves, obviously fearful of repercussions.

THE LITTLE BLACK JACKET

12 October - 4 November 2012

If you can - make sure you catch this travelling exhibition this weekend at the Saatchi Gallery in London before it  closes and moves on to Moscow, Sydney & Paris.

CHANEL's photographic exhibition dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld's latest book, 'The Little Black Jacket: CHANEL's classic revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld'.

Karl Lagerfeld photographed 113 various portrait shots of friends of the House, including celebrities, models, actors and musicians all in a classic Chanel jacket. Each personality adapted the garment to reflect their own inimitable style - worn as a cape on singer Lily Allen, draped around model Stella Tennant, or even transformed into a vest by model Edie Campbell. This exhibition showcases the versatility and timelessness of the iconic CHANEL jacket.

This exhibition is on from Friday 12th October to Sunday 4th November 2012.

Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York's HQ
King's Road
London, SW3 4RY

thelittleblackjacket.chanel.com

I ♥ HAUNT MAGAZINE

Haunt is a quarterly online fashion magazine. Where each issue see a different theme explored by young and upcoming creatives to create inspiring and fresh imagery.

I loves that Haunt aims to inspire and capture the moment whilst not taking itself too seriously and embracing the fun side of fashion.

These are a few of my fav shoots which can be seen on haunt-mag.com and feature some great vintage pieces styled to unique perfection.Be sure to take a look at Haunt Issue 2!

Let me know what you think...

London 2012 Olympics - Synchronised Swimming

Do have post Olympic blues already? I do ... cannot believe the 16 days of London Olympic Games has been and gone in a flash and wasn't it spectacular!
A fantastic celebration and Team GB really has made the country proud. I was lucky enough to experience part of the games in all its glory and went along to watch the Synchronised Swimming Tech team routines and cheer on my friend Katie Skelton in the Team GB of course!

It is a fascinating story of how "water ballet" (it's original name) all came about:

Berlin, 1932 Images & extract via Motley Glue

The Inventor of Synchronised Swimming:

Actor, swimmer, diver, ballerina and trailblazer Annette Kellerman (1886/7-1975)

Already famous in Australia, Kellerman achieved international fame when she swam almost thirty miles down London’s River Thames.

In an age where women were expected to swim in dresses, she championed the one-piece bathing suit; in 1907 she was arrested for indecency on Revere Beach, Boston. Later that year she performed at the New York Hippodrome in a glass tank; a landmark event in the popularisation of "water ballet"...

Hope that was informative brief history lesson, However more importantly, 

here is a mini photo diary of my day at the Olympic Park:

Arrive into the park at 11:40am - Excitement is building

Quick take a picture - I'm here! 

12:08 - at the Olympic Orbit - funny looking thing isn't it! 

13:05 - View of the Olympic Stadium while eating lunch

The Olympic park is getting busy - the atmosphere of the crowd is indescribable everyone is so happy!

13:50 My patriotic nails - which I did while waiting for the Synchro slot. 

13:54 - The time is nigh - we start to head over the Aquatics centre having fun along the way with the wonderful game volunteers - cheering and waving our flags. 

Forcing my friend Emma to pose in-front of the Olympic Rings

13:57 - Literally cannot contain my excitement as entering into the Aquatics Centre

14:13 - we take our seats (which we have a great view of the pool) and watch the teams warm-up

Aquabatix are interview prior to the start as the countdown begins... arrrg excitement! 

15:20 A few teams perform before Team GB take to the stage

- Really impressed by the incredible routines on show and the Spanish team's performance was incredible and cheered long with spanish fan who I sat next too. 

unfortunately you may be able to tell from my pics above that my camera wasn't going to provide me with any great images - so decided to give-up and purely focus on the performances - luckily there were lots of fab photos appearing after from others - so here is a selection of Team GB's amazing performance below: 

The routine I believe was based on sea creatures 

The amazing team swimming out to roars of applause at the end - it was so loud with the cheering in the aquatic centre I even started to get a headache - the atmosphere is nothing I have ever experienced before and was completely overwhelming! - so proud of my friend Katie Skelton and the GB squad! 

Lining up to be awarded their marks - it was really nice that my friend Katie (at the end of the line) spotted us in the crowd and waved to us all with our flags cheering. She did an incredible job - Team GB did a fantastic performance to which they should all be very proud!

15:46 - The final scores for the Technical Routine were in - Team GB came an impressive 6th overall and reached their ultimate target. Considering the team had not qualified for an Olympic games for close to 20 year - competing on the worlds stage beating some of the best teams in the world is a huge achievement! 

[The next day on 10th Aug (sadly I was unable to get tickets to be there): The tech scores were added to their free routine - which includes some tricky lifts scoring them 88.140 and meant they ranked 6th Overall - one of the best performances they have ever done - 5 years of hard work really paid off! Gold whent to Russia, Silver - China and Bronze to Spain (who I really think deserved to be higher as the artistic creativity was amazing to watch) - interestingly the positions stayed the exact same as they were the day before.]

17:52 - We explored the rest of the Olympic park and watched the amazing Nicola Adams bring home a Gold medal in the first ever women's boxing at the 2012 Olympics on the large Park Live screen - everyone jumped up in applause. 

The view of the crowds and the lake in the Olympic Park

 

Taking home a memory of the day in the Pin Trading centre - I brought a Synchro Olympic pin as a  treasured souvenir.  

18:57 - Sadly heading home - through Westfield Strafford with large banners of the man of the moment Usain Bolt. 

Our Olympic day was over but is one that will never be forgotten!  

What is your fondest memories of the London 2012 games? Did you watch any events?

Did you enjoy the closing ceremony? And will you be booking your ticket Rio 2016.

What a fantastic London 2012 Olympic Games!

My friend in the 2012 London Olympian

As some of you may be a little aware... my good friend of many, many years is competing in the 2012 London Olympics and I am beyond excited (can you tell?). I have been telling just about everyone... strangers on buses, trains and planes, people at work, hairdressers, postmen, people I meet at events, anyone who puts 2012 into a sentence I am proudly piping up that my friend is in "THE OLYMPICS".

Putting it just in a sentence is making me brew up with complete happiness. Katie Skelton has not only been an amazing friend but she is also an amazing role-model, she has dedicated near to a decade (if not more) to her passion of Synchronised Swimming. Her dedication and aspiration of her sport is truly awe inspiring. It puts my ‘drop out’ attitude to my early years of gymnastics and trampolinng club to shame.

Family and Friends show their support at Katie's pre-Olympic games send off! 

She has come an unbelievably long way with her sport and she has only had the determination to succeed and reach her goal. From school days Katie would Swim before school and after school and her schedule was so hectic – we always laughed that teachers would remark that she was nearly falling asleep in the dullest lessons, but boy could you blame her!

Trained at Reading Royals, which is, where I first saw her perform at their annual Christmas gala – she was absolutely incredible then so I know she will just blow my mind when I see her perform in the Olympic Aquatic centre.  ­

Katie at an awards ceremony with GB Synchro team mate Jenna Randall.

She has competed at European and World Championships and now is set to compete at her ultimate goal the London 2012 Olympics tomorrow on the greatest stage on earth. I literally cannot wait to cheer her and the GB girls on in the team technical event wave my Great Britain flag and experience a moment to cherish forever!

Words really don’t do it justice to express how pleased I am of all that she has achieved, she had to make big decisions to train for 4 years straight for the Olympics which meant 10 hour days Mon-Sat dedicating her life to her art form. She has been completely self motivated and watch her grow on her continuous journey has been truly magical.  

Team GB!

Looking back to primary school when we thought we “mapped” out our life – tragically we would marry Michael Owen & David Beckham live in a large houses we cut out from the property bit of the paper and would have a big families – yet who knew that it would end up 15 years later with myself going to watch her at the Olympic Games – beyond our wildest dreams!

Some of the Team GB girls in the Olympic Village with Bradley Wiggins 

Kitted out: Adidas Take The Stage

Team GB Synchro with Sir Chris Hoy prior to the Opening Ceremony 

How to get on TV at the Olympic Ceremony? - stand next to Tom Daley of course!

Featuring on the front cover of Stylist Magazine and a Olympic stars editorial in Fabulous magazine (to name but a few) team GB have been paramount in raising the profile of Synchro in this country and it is only set to continue.

Google Doodle Synchronised Swimmers

The Duet – Jenna randall and Olivia federici just showcased to the world their massive improvement by being the first to qualify for the finals in over 20 years and came an impressive and noteworthy 9^th a great achievement from their 14^th position at Beijing so watch out Rio team GB have arrived!

@SynchroKS @JennaRtweets @synchroD @KatieC_23 @Anya_Tarasiuk @AshaRandall @Olivia_Federici @VickiLucass @jknobbs @yvettebaker91 #teamGB

#GoTeamGB

#GoTeamGB

Cheer them on! August 9th and 10th at 3pm - Aquatic Centre. Available online and on the red button - watch your be mesmerised!  

www.london2012.com/synchronized-swimming

To find out more about Synchronised Swimming and where you can take part in this wonderful sport please see: British Swimming

Please Note: These are personal snapshots and come from various sources. Please do not re-print or use without prior permission thank you.