Liverpool ONE presents

GRAND

FASHIONABLE

So I trotted over to the lovely Home on School Lane last night to a little soiree hosted by the gorgeous team at Think Publicity and Liverpool One. The great and good of Liverpool's fashion press had been gathered together in the former 19th century antiques warehouse that boasts great food and drinks in distinctive spaces such as a canteen, lounge and living room to meet the judges for this years Ladies Day - Best Dressed competition. Exciting!

This year the peeps at Aintree have decided to take the competition up a notch in the fashion stakes (much to my delight)and have instructed three of the country's top fashion blogger's to be the judges of this years competition. 

So lets meet the judges....

Prince Cassius

Blog: http://www.princecassius.com/ 

Prince Cassius is a fashion blogger, presenter, fashion icon and all round gorgeous guy. He graduated from the University of the Arts London in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Cultural studies and went on to do a masters in media. He’s well known in the fashion industry for his unique, iconic and fabulous personal style.  As well as being named in the top five GQs best dressed men in the UK in 2010 he has also featured in many publications such as The New York Times, Italian Vogue, The Sunday Times, Tatler and The Daily Mail to name a few.

In 2011, he turned his attention to television and was part of BBC3's fashion documentary “Kill it Cut it Use It” and directly after that a Red carpet presenter at the Cannes Film Festival for Fashion TV.  He also appeared on Russia’s Next Top Model as a guest judge and after a stellar performance he was asked by the show's producers to be a guest Judge on the finale show.

He also has experience for the role as he is a regular Judge for 'Austin Reed & Newbury Racecourse' annual style challenge where he scouts and crowns the best dressed men at the race.

Naomi Rowland
Blog: http://www.twoshoesonepair.com/ 

Naomi is one half of the fashionable duo behind the nationally popular fashion blog Two Shoes One Pair. Not only is Naomi a fashion and style guru (see photos above for proof) but she used to be one of the top stylists in TopShops wonderful flagship London store and is now one of the online creative directors for the super vintage brand Beyond Retro.

Lydia Rose
Blog: http://www.fashioninflux.co.uk/

Lydia is an English Graduate from Sheffield whose personal style blog started as a hobby but now reaches a massive country wide audience. The girl have over 30,000 followers on instagram alone! Lydia's style and look is extremely coveted and has seen her partner with various fashion brands including Miss Guided. 

The guys were introduced and interviewed by the lovely Emma Hill, Editor of His and Hers Magazine and told us all about what those of you who are attending Ladies Day this year should be wearing if you want to catch the eyes of the judges and maybe win the competition!

Naomi couldn't make it to the press conference but joined us by video link. 

Both Naomi and Lydia advised that this year, ladies should remember the occasion and dress appropriately but still have their personal style shine through.  Both girls recommended popular spring summer themes such as pastels, florals and graphic prints and advised that this year entrants should be inspired by  the late Isabella Blow and go big and bold with their hats.  Naomi even mentioned buying your hat first and the rest of your outfit around it, "make the hat the focal point"  

The girls also advised that footwear should be comfortable but fashion forward with Prince Cassius supporting the statement by adding 

"We want to see elegance, we don't want to see any shoes being carried, it just aint cute"    

Prince Cassius informed us that the boys should be looking for double breasted suits this year and make outfits pop with clever accessories such as pocket squares or a coloured sock. He also advised that if the weather is fine enough he would also  like to see a tailored short or cropped trouser on the boys.

The event was attended by the great and good of the Liverpool Fashion Scene including Luke Trevaskis (above) Men's style editor from His and Hers Magazine who looked fabulous as usual. 

The event got me excited for Grand National weekend again and gave me hope that maybe this year we can steer away from the stigma of the past (bad tans, bad frocks, train wreck photos) and push Ladies Day towards being the sartorial showcase that it should be.  

This year the dudes at Aintree definitely have the best team for the job! 

Oh and this weekend Liverpool One are offering a number of discounts just for the occasion so if you are attending one of the Grand National meets get down there and take advantage....

Happy Shopping!  

Bloggers Heaven at Harvey Nichols

The blog shimmied over to Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazaar on Friday afternoon for a private QA event with three of London's top Fashion bloggers, Prince Cassius, Jamie from Boy meets Fashion and Leroy of Diary of a Clotheshorse.  To say we were excited was a bloody understatement! All three of the guys have reputations as three of the most prominent fashion bloggers in London, the UK and beyond, and have even featured on GQs best dressed list and fashions top 10 insiders on twitter.  Leroy from Diary of a clotheshorse is also a stylist for Warner Bros and has styled celebrities such as Stussy and Michael Buble.  

The event was organised by our fabulous friends over at Think PR and was a chance for us to pick the brains of and have a general gossip with some of the industries true insiders. 

The questions started with one attendee enquiring about the boys personal styles.  Prince Cassius (for those of you who don't know, the guy with the GLORIOUS FRO)explained how he had been bullied in school and had been extremely introvert so when he started college he felt the desire to stand out and not be part of the 'crowd'.  Therefore he started to hone his individual style by taking affordable garments from the high street and customising them in his on way by maybe removing buttons, adding badges and embellishments and wearing them with a homemade bow tie or pocket square.   

Leroy from Diary of a clotheshorse certainly was straight to the point and fabulously direct, we could have listened to him for hours.  When asked how he felt about London Fashion Week and the street style worn by those in attendance he certainly didn't hold back.  He told us how he thought street style at the shows had become ridiculous and is simply just a cry for attention rather than a display of style. "I mean when you see a girl wearing a pork chop in her hair just to get noticed by the street style bloggers then you know something is seriously wrong." Leroy also went on to tell us how he thought the whole dandy look on guys was sooo over and how guys seriously needed to move on! (seen as though the two bloggers sitting next to him and some male members of the audience were, well, quite dandyish we thought this was delightfully catty and couldn't help but have a little giggle, well this is fashion!)

The boys went on to discuss their own inspirations and fashion idols. Leroy explained how he admire David Beckham's style, but more importantly how he had grown into his style and thinks dressing age appropriately is very important for a man. Prince Cassius explained how he was truly inspired by vintage fashion and his style was definitely of a vintage persuasion.  He also added that Michael Jackson was one of his style icons. (we would just like to add here how we thought that PC was in fact the very image of a young MJ but with much nicer teeth!) Jamie from boy meets fashion told us how he was inspired by woman in fashion and their use of bold colours and patterns. 

Prince Cassius spoke about how his blog had given him a portal into TV and how he was currently working for MTV as a presenter and landed a stint as a judge on Russias Next Top Model, "Who knew I big in Russia, the blog has done amazing things for me, things I never imagined when I first started." 

One of the attendees asked  Prince Cassius a very important question - How long does it take to do the hair? To which he replied 5 HOURS!!! Luckily he doesn't have to do it every day, could you imagine!

We finished by having a lengthy talk about Liverpool Fashion Week and how we all thought it could do with improvement and a refreshing change.  This was a tres tres interesting conversation and we will fill you in on the juicy details eventually - we promise!  

The event was a great success and we truly can say that we learnt a lot of valuable information and advice about the crazy world of fashion blogging whilst having one of the best chats ever with three very very friendly and fabulous guys.  We here at DiscoFashionArt think you should take a look at the guys blogs if you haven't done so already.