Monday 18 November 2013

Isabel Marant Pour H&M

Evening all,

Last Thursday saw the launch of one of the biggest collaborations in 2 years for H&M, and for the fashion industry…Isabel Marant Pour H&M. Now when this was announced i screamed with excitement, checked every known forum possible to check i wasn't be fooled and quickly went to twitter to tweet my excitement. Yes I LOVE Isabel Marant that much. I have been a Marant fan for a firm few years, and I ove to play the "Who will H&M collaborate with next" game. I won this round as it was only in passing a few days before i had said to my friend it would make a fabulous collaboration.


On the lead up to the launch of the collaboration Marant hosted events to celebrate her collection. A collection she has prided herself with maintaining the quality of her own mainline and it's side line "Etoile". This was a key point she wanted to make clear. Why? Well we all know that H&M collaborations retain the quality of the store (Don't get me wrong the quality can be amazing but sizing is never the best for the Swedish brand). Remember those pleated skirts from the Versace collaboration? My size 16 skirt still doesn't fit me because it's a 14 in reality. But hey, I am not complaining, once I'm in that bad boy it will be deemed vintage but back to Marant. Through press days, the collection had a good feedback, sizing was good, quality was to the Etoile standard and those tasselled boots were to die for. SOLD.



Every woman who lives, breathes and eats fashion always says "Oh I won't get involved with this collaboration, the one before was awful, the sizing is awful, the queues will be manic, the website will crash". Does it stop us? Nope. I think it drives us more insane, the mass consumerism, the hysteria made my social media and the general media. Seeing a blogger you absolutely love with the pieces you convince yourself you don't need or will be crap…it's a drive to do anything possible to get your hands on. 

My drive was sold instantly before all these thoughts and this time I had that burning fear of "What if I don't get anything?" Flash back to my semi melt down with the Lanvin collaboration. It wasn't pretty and I was living in Wales and Cardiff was my closest store. I cried. I went on Ebay. I paid stupid money for a dress i wore once. NEVER AGAIN. 

Thanks to my amazing friend Jools, I was able to get my hands on everything i wanted and more with a ticket to the Vogue & GQ Pre shopping event. 


Here was lil old me thinking the event was going to be civilised and calm and put together, It wasn't. Thanks to the Boyfriends wisdom we turned up a little over and hour early and got into a queue with 40 people already ahead of us and the security telling us that the maximum capacity expected was going to be 800 people. Gulp. As soon as were allowed in, we were directed to part 1 of the shopping area. Mayhem began. I saw women running, snatching, swearing and pushing. I tried not to stoop low, all I did was grab my bits and moved along. I was a lucky so and so. I ran up to the men's floor before that got busy and grabbed my pieces and set up shop to try on my bits. Oh and to the waiter who I've met at Miu Miu and Chanel events, thank you for having my back and also for the giant laughs over where you knew me. Too sweet. 

I was extremely lucky that my boyfriend Alan used his brain and suggested waiting early because I would never have been lucky and would of been one of the people who approached me to have my bits (some cheeky enough to try and grab my items). After paying for our  clothes we decided to relax and enjoy the music, the food and the bubbles on tap. We found our lovely friends we made in the queue and had a good old laugh and a bit of a dance. 










So here are the bit's i managed to get my hands on…









I am so happy with my buys. I even made sure I wore my long hooded knit cardigan on Thursday which impressed a lot of people. 

Cinema date wearing: 
Wool black and white jacket- Isabel Marant
Jeans- Topshop
Boots- Chloe
Bag- Chanel Boy Bag
Beanie- Marc By Marc Jacobs.


Day Look:
Denim Shirt- Topshop
Leather Trouser- Dorothy Perkins
Wool Cardigan- Isabel Marant Pour H&M
Boots- Chanel
Bag- Chanel Boy Bag.

I am sad i didn't get my hands on the tasselled boots…
They were the first to go along with the beaded jacket. 

I must say the experience H&M put their online customers through this time was quite shameful. On my quest for the boots and jacket I got caught in the Online failure. The site managed to breakdown in a record breaking 2 minuets. Originally scheduled for 9am, the online store resumed service at 10:30 still with server problems which encouraged customers to use the over the phone service. I hope with whatever collaboration H&M have planned next they will be more prepared. Especially if it had the same buzz as this Marant collection which is the most wearable collection for a while. 

Now the hysteria has calmed down and everything is triple the price on Ebay, I would love to know what everyone managed to get there hands on? 


Again…Thank you Jools. You really did make this lil lady happy. 

Lots of Love 

Nadia 




Monday 11 November 2013

Welcome to The Louis Vuitton Town House.

Evening all,

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mine was nice and quiet minus social media and my phone. It was lovely but i can't lie i really did miss it.



So last week was the grand opening of the highly anticipated Louis Vuitton Town House in Selfridges. I can honestly say the wait was well and truly worth it. WOW. This project has been over a year in the making, with deadlines for opening moving from July to now, it couldn't of come at such an amazing time for the brand. Only at the start of last week LVMH confirmed the new Creative Director for Louis Vuitton- Nicolas Ghesquière. You all probably heard me scream with excitement because for me this is an amazing paring. As much as i have loved Marc Jacobs (I genuinely teared up when he announced his leave before his SS14 collection) I love Nicholas. He truly is a creative genius and coming to LV will be a challenge for himself and a change for the brand. It will be exciting to see what he will produce for the AW14 collection come February.




Back to the launch of the new Town House. The exclusive opening party saw the LV maids welcome a sea of A List guest, high fashionistas and the best of the best bloggers to celebrate the opening. The new space is perfection, in comparison to the small little corner dedicated to the vast amount of LV bags, trunks, scarves and accessories, this is any fashion lovers dream. The "Town House" has 3 floors, starting at ground floor. You can enter via the normal side doors or even through the new dedicated floors. Ground floor holds All of the accessories with each corner dedicated to different sections (Scarves and knits, exotics, trunks, classics and seasonal pieces) and you can also have your pieces monogrammed on site.














Some Valentino and Dolce & Gabbana in Louis Vuitton.



Taking you up to the second (Mens) and third (Women's collection which is directly in front of the shoe gallery) floor is the first Revolving transparent lift. And yes on your first trip it does give you a funny tummy but it is too fun and ahead of it's time, something Louis Vuitton is renowned for. The women's ready to wear section is simply to die for. It is soft, plush and carries a modern vintage touch. With the current AW13 collection spralled everywhere it's hard not to want to buy the impeccably made lace dresses or the wool cape. 






As you can see my partner in crime Doreen accompanied me in our quest for the exclusive to Selfridges and Bond Street Cruise pieces that were launched for the opening. We were not disappointed at all. If anything we were overwhelmed and living a Damier Azure dream. On our list initially was the new pouchettes. 


I can confirm they are super dreamy in real. 






We found out that there were other designs in the new Azure colour for Cruise 2014 inspired by the great Charlotte Perriand. You come in for a pouch you leave with a new bag. That's the Louis Vuitton affect. No regrets though, the refreshing new colours are rich with beauty and adventure. These are the colours me and Doreen walked away with...


This is a very special purchase for the both of us as we really wanted to buy matching bags for Doreen left for Malaysia. We had a lot of ideas for what we wanted, first it was identical Philip Lim bags, Fendi 2jours then the impossible though of 2 of the same Celine bags but i really think this was a blessing, we got the same bag but in colours that match our personalities. 

We went to celebrate our purchase with lunch at Aubaine.



Here are some close up of the bags...








I really have to thank the amazing Italian Daniel who gave us the best service in Louis Vuitton along with Liz. Thank you Daniel for making mine and Doreen's day complete. Please take me to Miami with you. 




What do you guys think of the new Town House, has anyone else been? What do you all think of the new bag collection?

Thanks for reading guys.

Lots of love

Nadia.