Monday 27 September 2010

DOLCE & GABBANA MILAN FASHION WEEK SS/ 11












I woke up with butterflies in my stomach the day of the Dolce & Gabbana show, I felt like I was a kid and it was Christmas morning. But instead of running down the stairs and seeing a Christmas tree with loads of presents under it,  I was whisked backstage to the Dolce & Gabbana show at the chic Metropoli in Milan. This was a real honour, as they have not let journalists and bloggers backstage before and given so much exclusive access, so I was really thrilled to be asked. I was also to meet and interview one of my make up heroes- Pat Mcgrath, who was creating the make up look for the show. 


In the beauty industry Pat is our Mick Jagger. She is a legend who transcends make up and turns it into art. She is super skilled but it's her ideas, inspirations and concepts that make her so interesting and why I love the beauty industry. It's not just about lipsticks, it's about a mood, channeling characters from history about being that feisty bitch rocking a red lip and owning it (word). Make up can help you become, express and unleash sides of your nature, which both empower and excite you and that's beauty to me and Pat Mcgrath is the high priestess of this school of beauty. All great artists tell stories and they tell them really well whatever the medium be it film, music, fashion or make up and the Dolce & Gabbana show didn't disappoint. Backstage was the most organised and most chic backstage I have ever been to. It was all clean black and white lines, security guards with presidential style radio mics and ears pieces in D& G black suits and patent leather shoes politely saying please move back and wait for your pass Signorina. Even the bottles were lines up in an very pleasing and OCD manner (at LFW you'll be lucky to find some overturned red bulls and half eaten Pret a manger sandwiches). I said to myself, "you're not in Kansas anymore Ateh".  Lovely Chanel Iman was backstage and I said hi to her bless that girl she was so sweet she remembered me from LFW!


Pat was brilliant and created a make up look every women in the world aspires to a glowing, simple, clean chic and polished look with a nude to red mouth depending on the girls. Pat said the collection was mainly all white and that Domenico and Stefano wanted the girls to look sensual and gorgeous. She said the guys were inspired by white lace and the make up had to be natural and very peaceful, which it was. Pat has been working with the guys for 12 years and said it was a joy to collaborate with them and you could really see the relationship between the beauty and the clothes. 

Pat used the Dolce & Gabbana make up line she created and used the eyeshadow quad in nude in the crease and just under the eye with lashings of black mascara on the top lashes only. She lined the eye with the chocolate pencil but also said you can wet black/ dark brown eye shadow to use as a liner to give the eye definition. The top of the cheek bones were chiseled using a silver ish highligher, which made the girls look like angles and a caramel blush was used on the cheek for a slight sun kissed yet sophisticated look. My absolute favourite backstage product was the new lip jewels! The packaging was blinging with a giant ruby on top and it housed a quad of creamy lip colours in Dahlia, Devil, Ultra and Nude. Pat said she was mixing the colours together for some girls and using them separately on others, which was fab. The palette works well on all skin tones (no BS) and was too delicious


Eugene Souleiman who is a super creative powerhouse of a session stylist created the hair look for the show. He is also a complete sweetie! Both Pat and Eugene had to prepare 50 girls for the show but like all people at the top of their game, they both had time to talk me through the look with no diva drama or hissy fits. He said the guys wanted the hair to be romantic, soft but without looking like wedding hair, so he created a loose raw chignon with some structure at the back but with fly aways. He blowdried the hair at the roots to give the hair guts before twisting and pinning it. It was very dreamy and covetable hair.


Before I knew it-it was time to leave and go and see the actual show. The waiting area was v glam and they served amaretto sorbet, which stopped me in my tracks and almost made me trip on a stair, it was so good. Ice cream, beauty looks to die for and amazing fashion to come, I was in heaven and having some sort of out of body experience. Inside Kylie, Naomi Campbell, Anna Wintour, Suzy Menkes and Hilary Alexander were all excitably waiting for the show to start. Giant plasma screens showed us all the hussle and bussle that was taking place backstage, which felt very interactive and cool,  as we saw the girls having finishing touches applied to their hair and make up before hitting the catwalk. 


The show started with a huge projection of images of Sicily with old women making lace, of beautiful Monica Bellucci types cradling their beloved little first born boys and white washed church staples, which was quite emotional as they were really drawing from their past and personal heritage. Then out walked a succession of beautiful girls some with tits and ass (model tits and ass, so that's a size 8/10 to you and me), which was quite shocking but fantastic to see. The clothes told a story of a Sicilian woman on her wedding day with beautifully crafted white lace dresses. Then this woman made her way onto the beach with flirty white romper suits. Then all of a sudden the colour palette changed from brilliant white to that of black adorned young sensual widows dressed in curve clinging black power suits. The final florish was that of embellished blinging white dresses, which made me gasp they were so fabulous and made parts of the audience burst into spontaneous applause they were so overcome with the beauty of the white dresses and shimmering diamante


I left on a high and then was grabbed outside by a Dolce and Gabbana camera crew, as they wanted to interview me about my blog and what I thought about the show, which really was the most glam ending to a fab time at the show. I could see people looking at me, as they were spilling out into the street  thinking that Oprah's aged well but her weight's gone up again. Oh well. Thank you Dolce and Gabbana and Pat Mcgrath for a fantastico time in old Milano! See you next season Ciao bella!

LONDON FASHION WEEK SS 11 COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS AND GLAM MEDIA

Hi guys,
As you know London Fashion week was a crazy and exciting time for me and my company Couture Communications. We had four crews out filming all at the same time! Please check out this fab film we produced for Glam Media!

p.s. check out my hand in shot as I shamed myself getting various celebs such as Sienna Miller, Tracey Emin, model of the moment Jessica Hart, L'Oreal Paris' James Kailardos and MAC's fabulous Gordon Espinet to give me some sugar and fashion week tips!




VOGUE ITALIA 3D PARTY IN MILANO SS/ 11 FASHION WEEK









Hi guys. You will never guess what's happened! London Fashion Week was a blast as I was filming all day and writing all night, to bring you the backstage gossip from the shows. I then got a call from Dolce and Gabbana's "people" to say that they had seen my blogs and had requested I come to Milan and go backstage for their show. WTF. So here I am in Milan and the fabulousity has been cranked up to 10. As soon as I touched down I was whisked to a Vogue Italia party, which was also an exhibition of Steven Miesel's 3D photo shoot with Miranda Kerr. From the moment I stepped into the sprawling Palazzo Citterio, with it's majestic courtyard scattered with the 3D art installation with it's neon lights and stunning mix of 14th Renaissance old world feel with a modem New York loft- I felt right at home.


The courtyard featured 3D art (we were all given rather jazzy 3D felt glasses to wear) such as a blown up vanilla ice cream sundae (it made my mouth water) and the picture next to it was of an 18th century couple dancing in an orangery what was really fabulous. The whole thing screamed beauty as well as art, as there were dozens of scented candles strategically placed around the courtyard to give your senses a tickle, as vanilla wafted in the air as you looked at the sundae, which just made my mouth water chased by mind blowing orange blossom.


The inside of the exhibition was an homage to all things Miranda Kerr and in 3D it really worked as you felt you could see the wind machines blowing in her hair (very Beyonce/ Sasha Fierce I loved it)! The place was packed wall to wall of the fashion set such as IHT's Suzy Menkes, American Vogue's genius Creative Director Grace Coddington who stole the show from Anna Wintour in 'The September issue'. I had a chat with her and she really is a ethereal romantic artist. I told her I was a romantic too, as she mentioned we were a dying breed in the documentary, she was super sweet and told me that was very nice dear in such a charming English school ma-am/ great aunt sort of way- I did love her even more for that. It's a great feeling when you meet your heroes and they live up to the hype. As I said my goodbyes to Grace in walked Miranda herself and baby daddy/ husband Orlando Bloom she looked amazing with killer high heels on. The whole room gasped as she stumbled on a random ramp on the floor but she didn't fall ! Her 5 month bump was non existent- I looked more preggers than her after  a plate of pasta Ragu ( the food is so good here it brings tears to my eyes literally- I get emotional and my husband thinks I'm a freak and laughs at me with every teary mouthful). Orlando looked cute but quite slight and his mop of curly brown hair looked very well conditioned and defined- top marks I notice stuff like that. He was very loving to Miranda and always caressing her back blesssssss, it was time to go and grab some rest as tomorrow was the biggie going backstage at Dolce and Gabbana then my interview with the legend that is make up artist Pat McGrath!!!!!!!

Friday 24 September 2010

THE FIFTH AND FINAL DAY OF LONDON FASHION WEEK SS 11 AND COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS













The fifth and final day of London Fashion Week for me started with a bang, as I was backstage at Marios Schwab. There the 70s, a major trend for Spring/Summer was revisited again, as the lovely Luke Hersheson channeled Joan Jett, Courtney Love and all things rock and roll with his lived in and sexy cut, which were all wigs! There Nichola Joss, celebrity beauty expert (she works with Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman and Angelina Jolie) and all round sweetheart was using St Tropez to sculpt and highlight the girls skin. She applied a cream highlighter onto the skin down the arms and across the decolletage - body finishing is a going to be a huggge trend- you heard it here first! The make up by Petros Petrohilos was glam rock as well with a worn smudgy kohl pencil with a little vaseline on the lids to make it crease. The lip was really simple but effective with a berry stain pressed into the centre of the lips which looks like it was the end of a wild night and the girls had been necking down bottles of bordeaux. Tres cool.


Then it was onto Burberry where I spotted Sarah Jessica Parker backstage before the show and lovely Lauren from Grazia got to interview both Wendy Rowe who was working on the new face for Burberry make up model de jour Nina. The make up was totally wearable and how real women love to look polished and sexy. The burberry lip was creamy and pink and the blush was worn low of the cheek to give the face a more sultry look. The fabulous Neil Moodie who created the hair look described it as  if the girls were on motorcycles with helmets on and had jumped off and shaken their hair out so it was a bit flat on the top. He used tongs to put a slight curl and wave in the bottom of the hair and smoothed down the centre parting. He used Bumble and Bumble prep spray on damp hair to give the hair guts. As always the most simple looks take the most work and effect, so it's pretend helmet hair -there's no use sticking a bicycle helmet on your head this will not achieve the look- trust me!

While backstage I had a lovely chat with Jourdan Dunn who was so down to earth and warm and looked amazing in the show. As we posed together for pictures I got a little too into it and was giving my cameraman my best Zoolander blue steel/ 90s Linda Evangelista supermodel moves next to Jourdan. When he said he would like to shoot more film I said, "how do you want me" ? He said, "errrr Ateh do you mind if you move out of the shot, so I can shoot just Jourdan", she literally pissed herself laughing and I screamed, "what do you mean you don't want me in the shot, you're telling me you only want to shoot the supermodel who is actually in the Burberry show- what the hell is the world coming too".  Blessssss him he was so embarrassed.  I really do think some days I suffer from high self esteem. Oh well.  That was a great way to end a fantastic London Fashion Week. Thank you so much for all your fab comments and emails. I'm off to Milan for fashion week and will keep you all posted on all the gossip!

Thursday 23 September 2010

COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS AND GRAZIA ROCKING LONDON FASHION WEEK SS11 DAY 5



















Hi guys,
Here is the last day from backstage at LFW. After 3 hours sleep a night and living off adrenaline all week we finished our Couture Communications Grazia LFW filming going backstage at Marios Schwab and wait for it..... Burberry. We were given exclusive access backstage at Burberry and the security there made the Pope's visit look like a national coach trip. Here is the backstage film from the final day of the fabulous London Fashion Week!!!!!! Enjoy. I'm off now to Milan for Fashion week and will be blogging my heart out for y'all.



Wednesday 22 September 2010

COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS AND GRAZIA ROCKING LONDON FASHION WEEK SS11 DAY 4













Here is my next directorial offering from backstage on Day 4 of London Fashion Week. We saw beautiful beauty looks backstage at Peter Pilotto, Christopher Kane and Giles. There were wall to wall celebs at Giles with Kelly Brook, Chanel Iman, Abbey Clancy, Stella Tennant, Agyness Deyn with Kerry Katona on the front row!





COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS AND GRAZIA ROCKING LONDON FASHION WEEK SS11 DAY 3















Hi guys!
Our latest backstage beauty film comes hot off the press here at day 3 of London Fashion week. I directed the bubbly Lauren Murdoch Smith from the Grazia beauty team at Antonio Berardi (chatting to make up artist Gucci Westman for Revlon), Vivienne Westwood and Matthew Williamson where we chatted to nail expert Andrea Fulerton and spotted Sienna Miller and Matthew himself!

p.s. Can you spot me behind Pamela Anderson at the Berardi show??? I'm trying to tell my cameraman to get a shot of Pamela without screaming shoot her- shoot her and getting taken down by her security but we did get the shot for the film in the end!





Tuesday 21 September 2010

LONDON FASHION WEEK SS 11 COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS DAY 4




















So it's day 4 of London Fashion Week and it was another crazy fun day on planet fashion.  I spent the day filming again with lovely Lauren Murdoch Smith from Grazia with my beauty and fashion consultancy company Couture Communications.As a beauty girl I'm all about the hair, make up and nails but do love the fashion too, which was an explosion of colour. The first stop of the day was back to Waterloo the Old Terminal for Eurostar and Peter Pilotto where I had a chat to the charming and elegant Olivia Chantecaille. The girls had fabulous pulled back soft hair using John Frieda new volume range into an messy yet intricate bun, which was very wearable and fab. The clothes were also delicious with a palette of sky blues, pale blue and navy.

At Christopher Kane he was  'aving it large with his neon yellows, orange and pinks with rocking mind blowing techno beats blasting in the background and being in what I can only describe as an East End lock up- it did feel like the chicest rave party in history. I did bust some big box little box hand moves, which didn't go down that well with the hungry (as in they don't eat) hoxton posse that were there, oh well.

I also spotted model of the moment Jessica Hart again where I did tell her I swear we are not stalking you. She is so well brought up, patient, warm and giving and totally cool and an excellent example to all models you don't have to be a diva to get on (I'm talking to you NC).  Hilary Alexander was also running around backstage as well as French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld. You know me once I spotted her, I went to say hello and told her I loved her style and also got her to give me a wave for the camera for my filming crew.

Now power players like Carine are either scary The Devil wears Prada ladies or sweet teddy bears who are warm and lovely -there is generally nothing in between. I can tell you Carine was a sweet heart and super friendly and talented! Outside the Giles show ( was in an East End abandoned warehouse which was very Sweeney Todd)  I spotted Chanel Iman the latest Victoria Secrets model. I grabbed her to say a quick hello ( ps never have your picture taken with supermodels if you can help it,  I'm 5'6 1/2 and I still look like a black oompa loompa, it's days like these I thank God for my Nigerian genes and teflon skin) I have interviewed her before and she is super chatty, bubbly and cool. She said she was in London to visit a friend who has moved here and she was having fun and enjoying shopping and LFW. Bless her! Giles was a hugggge celeb packed show in the run though and backstage I spotted Stella Tennant, Kelly Brook (whos bangers were on amazing form and looked twice as big next to the other models and it was great to see her representing us big boobed ladies on the catwalk), Jessica Stam, Abbey Clancy with no bump at all in sight, Chanel Iman and Agyness Deyn. I loved the clothes at Giles whose colour palette was that of Neaploitan ice cream. Kerry Katona, Pixie Geldof, James Brown and Zanna Roberts were all in the audience and were all given heat reflective blanket to keep warm. Random!!!!! The strong theme of the season so far seems to be that the 70s are back from the soft romantic flicked out fringe at Giles with Glam Rock harlequin glitter make up to the Joan Jett inspired hair created by Luke Hersheson for Marios Schwab today. That's me over and out people for today. Am having a cup of tea and a biscuit and am then heading out to Burberry in 20 mins. I will tell you all about it later today!
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