Back in the big city

I' m backkkkk!!

Hey Shoena-nistas

How are you all??

I just wanted to write a quick post to let you all know that I am back after a truly UH-MAZING time in Thailand. I had the best time ever; the wedding was beautiful!! the bride looked stunning, the groom looked super cool in his tartan blazer, I ate way too much though but the food in Thailand is just too yummy!

I have lots of things to write about. So keep your eyes firmly peeled as I will be writing some juicy posts over the next few days.

But for now I will leave you with a picture of my view in Thailand, (sigh). Man oh man do I miss this view.

Hope you are all having a fab weekend! xx

Special announcement

So I have an announcement; after many, many hours I am pleased to announce that I have FINALLY finished packing, hooray!!

In a few hours I will be heading to the airport as I fly out to Thailand for one of my best friends beach wedding. I am super excited as I haven't seen the bride in the flesh for umm 2 years. Obviously emailing, texting is fab but it will be uhhhh-mazing to see my friend in the flesh if only to give her one of my hugs and annoying pinches.

I am also looking forward to catching some rays as god knows I need some vitamin D lol!

You should see my bridesmaid dress, ahhhh I love it!! oh and did I mention I am doing a speech, GULP!!

I should mention that I am the worst packer ever! I struggle as I want to take my whole room which is impossible but that's because I love to have options. Then there is the footwear dilemma, I will tell you I spent  hours reviewing  footwear options ( yes really), I know this might sounds crazy but well my nick name is Shoe-na.  In the end I narrowed my shoe count to 6 (including flip flops which is pretty impressive don't you think?

I then took my sister's advice and I set my self a challenge of really outfit planning to avoid my usual packing fluster and it worked, yay!

I will be taking pics for the blog and I might see if I can fit in a cheeky blog post whilst i'm out there. I will be back to blogging when I get back in 10 days time but for now I will leave you with this image.

xxx

An evening with China doll boutique

Last Thursday I jumped on a train (from South West London baby) and headed to East London for a exciting bloggers event, that was being held by one of my fave on-line boutiques; China doll boutique.

I first became aware of China doll boutique back in June last year (June 16th to be exact; my birthday) at a bloggers event called TOWIB (The only way is blogging) which I blogged about here. Since then I have to admit that I have become HOOKED so you can imagine my delight when I received an invited for this event at the Box park in Shoreditch.

The night was so much fun! it was packed with lots of cool bloggers (obvs), lots of yummy snacks, cocktails and uber- fabulous china doll products. As soon as I walked in I noticed the HOTTEST neon dress that I knew I HAD to have!!! I do not have a picture of the dress but fear not I will be wearing it very soon so look out for a post on here to see how I will style it up; hmmm i'm thinking a black chunky boot with a nice pink pout!

I then bumped into a faux fur gilet which was shouting at me to buy and as I am a sucker for all things faux fur lets just say it didn't take much convincing.

China doll boutique founder Nhuc (who is one cool-ass chick) was on hand to ensure everyone was happy and was wearing the sexiest pair of studlicious boots.I  also met the awesome Bunni punch who is cool as chips.

All in all it was such a great evening and I found myself on a high from my shopping fix, sugar hit, and the whole fabulousness of the night.

If you haven't already checked out china doll boutique  then I suggest you head over to the site or head down to the pop up shop at the box park (unit 33) immediately! A word of warning- you WILL spend some serious cash!!

Thanks Nhuc for the invite!  :)
xx

Take Two

This was me two Saturday’s ago;Saturday 9th to be exact, except I wasn’t in NYC, I was in North London standing with a suitcase that weighed way more than I do ( twice over) and my hand bag. Oh and I was rocking a faux fur leopard print hat with ears after the wind decided to destroy my umbrella, ella (sorry, I couldn't resist it),  frantically trying to hail a black taxi in HEELS (when will I learn).

After many failed attempts luck was finally on my side as a black taxi stopped for me (praise the lord),the driver kindly got out to help me with my over packed suit case, commenting on how heavy my suitcase was. The conversation then went like this:

Driver: “ Which airport love? 
Me:“ Huh? no, no I’m going away next month, today  I’m off to a studio for the 2nd shoot for my on-line shop”
Driver: ohh he said, how fancy”
Me:  “umm not really but can you please put a step on it as I’m in a mad rush lol”

The shoot
We used two different models from the first shoot, and they were just as gorgeous as the first models with that HOS vibe going on.

Models: Loannae Hamilton and Marinela Carvalha

We also had the help of a lovely Make Up Artist called Salma Patel who was a delight to work with!

We shot a few pieces featured in the I love Pacha fashion show that I blogged about here and a few new lust-worthy items recently added to the House of shoena wardrobe.

me striking a pose lol! Skirt- China doll boutique, bag- Beara Beara.

I absolutely love styling and working on fashion shoots and once I got over the hyper cat that seemed to want to be part of the shoot (FYI- Cats and I are not friends)I was in my element styling the models and munching on sushi (not at the same time, I must add).

We used the same studios (as its is like vintage heaven) and the same photographer; the fabulous Pete Fallan ( this guy rocks)  which resulted in another ridiculously  UH-mazing photo shoot. I cannot wait for HOS shoot number 3!

Thank you  to both models; Lonnae and Marinela for seriously wooorking the HOS clothes!!!! Pete Fallan for once again taking the most fab-tastic shots!! and Jake Bullough aka Mr Beara Beara for letting us use your studio and allowing us to play with your Ridiculously beautiful bags!! 

Note: All clothes (apart from my outfit) will be available on House of Shoena in a few weeks.

Faux furrrrrrlicious

Spring where are you? Man, I am well peed off that the temperature has dropped so much!!! it is  freezzzzzzing!!!!!!!!! This outfit is a bit of a faux fur overload but what is a gal to do in this painfully cold weather (FYI- I also had on a faux fur shaggy coat over my gilet).

What do you think of my electric blue faux fur hat? When I saw it I knew I had to have it, it was sort of screaming 'Buy me' so I did. I picked this up back in December at the clothes show live for a very purse friendly price of £5; what a steal!

This time next week I will be in sunny Thailand for one of besties wedding..... *SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!*
so I guess I shouldn't complain too much lol! in the mean time I will continue to wear all the faux fur that I can.

Keep warm peeps! xx

Outfit: Jumpsuit- River Island, Hi- tops, Rings- Miss Selfridge, Vintage, River Island, Gilet- Matthew Williamson,Faux fur scarf-Vintage, roll neck- Warehouse

Pure Jeanuis!

Happy Monday! Ha, I only say that as the sun is shining as I normally hate Mondays. Now don't get it twisted I am well aware that it is still cold lol but after weeks of London town being so damn cold; the snow and icy, annoying weather we had a few weeks ago and then rain before that or was it after?! it was nice to wake up and see the sun beaming through my window!!

Call me crazy but I took a chance and left home today with out a coat, but that was due to the fact that my meetings were close to home and that as I had a day off I would be back before the temperature drops.

I teamed my beloved black roll neck (which I have become slightly attached to lately) layered under  a sequin number, boyfriend jeans and a pair of kick- ass shoes that had there first outing today!!

You will rarely catch me in jeans but there are days, like today when I quite fancied wearing them.  Denim is set to be a huge trend for SS13 ranging from skinny to flare to slim leg. How will you be wearing yours?

Outfit

Shoes- Topshop

Jeans- Jasper Conran

Sequin top- Vintage

Hat-H&M

Roll neck- Warehouse

Bag- my mum's

Sunglasses: H&M

Happy LFW

Helllooo peeps,

Ahhhh I just LOVE fashion week season! The frenzy, the parties, the inspiration and of course the fashion!!

I tend to look forward to the same shows each season such as Sass and Bide, Henry Holland, Felder Felder, Matthew Williamson, Peter Pilotte, Burberry and Topshop Unique.

My favourite shows  from day 1 were Sass and Bide and Felder Felder.

Sass and Bide
It is refreshing to see a AW collection with pops of bright colours as 'typically ' AW colours tend to be dark and a little dull. I remember when I used to be a  fashion buyer (sign),  when we were planning our colours for our AW range we always went for oxblood, black, teal and a splash of red, so this is why I probably fell in love with Sass and Bide's collection as it included pops of yellow which is such a refreshing and uplifting colour. Although overall the collection was beautiful, so many stand out pieces such as the maxi knitted dresses and the Grecian maxi were divine!

Yellow trousers? yes please!

Stunning knitwear

Grecian goddess

Felder Felder
Hello slick leather/latex trousers! I have been swooning over the trousers in this collection since Friday and the velvet maxi coat. The collection had a sort of rock and rock vibe going on and it is definitely a very wearable collection. The Felder girls did well!

Other shows that  made me go wild were PPQ and Jean-Pierre Braganza ( from day 1)

Topshop unique and Preen have been my highlights from today and the Rihanna for River Island collection from yesterday. (post to follow)

What have been your favourite shows so far?