Rihanna, a style icon

Rihanna is one of those celebrities whose style has become iconic. With her endless collaborations with brands such as Puma, MAC and River Island, she has made a name for herself not only in music but also in fashion. As all fashion people know, every celebrity has a stylist and in Rihanna's case its stylist and Fashion Editor Mel Ottenberg. Rihanna's style is fearless, combining urban and high fashion influences "I love that she is completely up afraid of fashion" says Ottenberg. For me Rihanna would be a dream to style as she isn't afraid of new styles or standing out. The fashion world also loves her, having promoted for high fashion labels such as Dior, Chanel and Alexander Wang. I adore her recent style mixing grunge with  girliness as it resonates with my own aesthetic, but what I love most about Rihanna is that she can make any outfit look almost effortless.

Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting, ugly is human.

Miuccia Prada is the head designer for Prada and Miu Miu, my most loved and desired brands. Her approach to fashion is nearly unheard of, infusing ugliness and trashiness into haut couture. Self confessed leftist feminist, she struggled to find her place in the fashion industry. She is more interested in ugliness because she believes it is more interesting than what is known to be commercially beautiful, "the investigation of ugliness is, to me, more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty. And why? because ugly is human". She also claims that fashion is unlike other fields of art such as paintings and film where it is common to see ugliness. She wanted to introduce the trashy and ugly into the industry, although criticised for it. I think this is why I am so drawn to the brand, finding beauty in those things unconventionally beautiful. Art isn't supposed to be beautiful, it is supposed to make you feel something and after seeing new collections from both Prada and Miu Miu each season I am left with a certain feeling or looking at things a different way, even making me question what makes something appealing or beautiful. 

Miu Miu's SS16 collection has a good girl, bad girl vibe, combining classic and feminine shapes with vivid prints, colours and textures. The shoes were the highlight with disco/David Bowie inspired boots and ballet flats wrapped around the ankle featuring dangling charms. Models wore vamp lipstick contrasted with tiaras. I loved this collection as the models seemed moody and mysterious and the clashing Gothic, princess, 'nana' and disco styles are so contradicting but looked effortlessly cool. 

                       

First Photoshoot!!!

This Wednesday was my first photo shoot with the London College of style. The theme of the shoot was colour has no gender where half the class had to style a female model and red and the other half to style a male model in pink. I was chosen for the menswear shoot and I chose a 90's London chav style as my mood. I styled the clothes around a 90's shell jacket that I found at the brick lane markets in east london. We were so lucky to to have an amazing team of Photographer Jamie Kendrick, model Lachlan Wincott (Milk model management) and Cecily rose sanders for grooming. It was such a great experience to work with professionals and to have guidance from director Wendy Elsmore and stylist Kristofj von Strass. I also really enjoyed watching other students photo shoots and learning from their experiences.

Mood board