Play Hair

I've been working with the uber talented photographer Carly Wong rather a lot recently. A few months back she shot and I styled for a new Hair extensions company Play Hair, set up by stylist Mia Stronach.

Here are some of my favourite looks from the shoot; a young, playful image. Items from Miss Selfridge, Quiz and Oasis. Three highstreet shops I haven't been into for years, I was extremely pleasantly surprised!

Mia adding extensions to model Amy Burnett

 Here is a behind the scenes video of the shoot, made by the brilliant Joe Murphy

Reading Room: Made in India, Cooked in Britain, Meera Sodha

meera's book

Anna and I have a very talented new sister. Meera Sodha is my brother's fiancee and a rather incredible Lady. 

Meera, Anna and me

You have probably seen her gracing the colour supplements, cooking up a storm on Women's Hour, chatting away with her mum on BBC Asian Network, to name but a few. She is an incredibly modest girl who one day asked her mum for some family recipes to cook for her friends. Nothing had been written down as the family tradition was to cook by experience rather than written instructions. Meera took that as her cue to prevent these glorious recipes from disappearing into the ether and started to make records. The book wasn't intended to be published initially, but just to be a safe record of all the family food heritage. 

Meera and family

A year later, and here we are at the book launch, published by Figtree, Penguin. 

The official tag on her site is:

MADE IN INDIA: Cooked in Britain: Recipes from an Indian Family Kitchen is the essential book for anyone who loves Indian food and wants to know how to make it easily at home

Meera and Hugh

And that is just it. Both of my parents, incredible bastions of the leftovers brigade, have taken to this book so incredibly strongly, both have been serving up Meera's dishes on a daily basis without breaking into a chilli-induced sweat.

The book is currently number 5 in the Amazon charts...and that is the chart for ALL BOOKS. not bad huh. 

Fashion Fix revisited: Sailor Collar

The most popular Fashion Fix that ever made its way on my blog is the Sailor Collar. Its a real favourite of mine and it's awesome that you all loved it so much too. Recently I got an email from a reader asking for some dimensions of the pattern piece. The idea with the pattern piece is that you can scale it up or down to be whatever size you would like, but I have done a new one with the measurements I would use were I making it for myself.

For the full Fashion Fix project click here

I'm back

Dear Reader, I have been away on an extended period of leave from Fix Up Look Chic. I have had a few months refilling my creative store, and making sure I still had interesting things to say and tell you all about. I hope you'll all forgive me for the prolonged period of radio silence, but as a reward for being so patient I have been up to some amazing stuff for the past few months, things I can't wait to share with you.

So, let FixUpLookChic ride again! School's out, Summer is well and truly here.

My Favourites from the Met Gala

How many of you stayed up the other night, constantly refreshing twitter as the images dripped through from the Met Gala Ball Red Carpet?

Suki Waterhouse photo

Arizone Muse Photo

Blake Lively Photo

and for me, the winner had to be...

Taylor Swift Photo

Initially rather underwhelmd with the theme of White Tie and Diamonds, it did appeal to my sense of nostalgic romance with many a guest paying homage to Charles James.  I'm clearly an old romantic at heart, which seemed to come out when talking to Navaz (Disneyrollergirl) the other week with Mastered.com, my style as a stylist seems to come under the moniker of Modern Classic, Romantic and Pastoral. It might have something to with preferring the West Country to London, and I always feel more comfortable styling a Tim Walker esque, fantastical shoot. My projects always come back to a romantic yearning for the great outdoors whether it's flower topped wellies or practical outdoor embellishments. Anyway, enough about me...

Charles James Ball Gowns, 1948
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph by Cecil Beaton, Beaton / Vogue / Condé Nast Archive. Copyright © Condé Nast

Charles James: Beyond Fashion is a look back at the groundbreaking designer's work on ball gowns in the 1940s and 1950s, shaking off the mantle of the war years, where fabric had been at a premium and tight silhouettes were the order of the day to save money, James' voluminous yet mathematically structured ball gowns summed up the New Look of the day, alongside Dior's New Look Collection of 1947.

James approached the female form as an anatomical specimen, and aren't we the better for it!

More than ever, this has made me want to hop on a plane to NYC and drool over the exhibition's many sketches, fabric samples, technical drawings and, of course, the real thing!

Disney Roller Girl Day with Mastered.com

Disneyrollergirl

I spent the day with Navaz Batliwalla aka Disneyrollergirl as part of one of Mastered's online courses for modern creative development. 

some of Disneyrollergirl's work with brands

Navaz launched the blog in 2007 as an 'anonymous fashion insider' and gave her opinion on all things aesthetic and driving the fashion/art world. It was awesome to sit down with her, with just one year's experience of blogging under my belt, and talk about the next steps for FixUpLookChic. The chat was all in aid of Mastered's course about how to turn your fashion blog into a money making commodity and how to work with brands. Of course blogging is ultimately for the love of it, and is a place where a writer can empty their head and share their thoughts with the reader. 

with Frances and Navaz

No one can underestimate the power of the individual armed with a laptop and some high speed broadband in the comfort of their own home.

These days, that is all you need to take over the world, one post at a time, and why shouldn't it make you some money/contacts in the process? 

Also lucky enough to be a guinea pig like me was the lovely Frances who's blog Last Year Girl is a vintage fashion focussed blog, writing about Vintage books, exhibitions, styles and key items that have found their way back into our modern fashion psyche.

Fashion Fix 1st Birthday: Revisiting the Burberry Aztec Beaded Yoke

It's time to have a look back at some of my favourite summer fashion fixes of the past year. I've now been working on this blog for a year and as my readership has grown continually through the years, I know some of your newer FashionFixers won't have seen some of the gems that lie in the early end of this blog. 

Photo Amanda Thomas

One of my favourite trends of 2012 was Burberry's tribal inspired beaded yoke adornment on their Spring/Summer Collection. I really think this is a unique addition and surprisingly wearable in the everyday as the gorgeous Eva Lazarus models for us below. 

You will need:

• pattern paper
• 3/4 metre cotton fabric
• 3/4 metre lining fabric
• sewing machine and matching thread
• 1/2 metre matching ribbon
• dressmaking pins
• dressmaking scissors
• fimo in assorted colours
• oven
• needle and thread

How to do it:

1. Measure you collar size and add 5 cm, draw this circle on pattern paper. Measure out 17 cm from this line and draw a larger circle, fold in half, press and unfold again. Above the neck opening on the inner edge, measure out 2 cm either side of the centre fold and cut out a segment of the pattern. Cut down the centre fold below the neck opening  leaving you with half the pattern.  Lay onto the fold of the fabric, pin in place and cut out two collar pieces, making sure you include a 1cm seam allowance with both.
2. Sew ribbon onto both sides of one collar piece.
3. place the collar pieces right sides together, tucking the ribbons inside. pin in place
4. using a running stitch sew all the way around, 1cm from the edge, leave a gap at one end to pull through.
5. Pull the collar through, hand sew the opening closed.
6. Draw a template of your yoke on pattern paper and mark out your bead design. use this as a reference to make your beads out of Fimo. Make sure to score holes in the beads before you bake them. hand sew them on in thread that matches the yoke fabric

In the studio, working out the pattern after a night of Fimo baking!

Eva Lazarus modelling the yoke, shot by Amanda Thomas, Makeup Jo Williams, Styling Harriet de Winton