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!!!!!!!

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!

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.

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!

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!

COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS AND GRAZIA ROCKING LONDON FASHION WEEK SS11 DAY 3

Filming and directing today for my company Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com was super fun and exciting today. We had lots of our film crews out shooting tons of exciting shows such as Julien McDonald, Vivienne Westwood, Antonio Berardi, Matthew Willamson and Basso & Brooke. I spotted the hottest model on the block Jessica Hart 3 times today and twice yesterday and she was sweet and chatty but had a look in her eye, as if to say is this film crew stalking me- but she was too polite to say it anything but sweet things. Blessssss. Check out our latest film from London Fashion Week, which I directed presented by the bubbly and super cool Lauren Murdoch Smith from the Grazia beauty team. Here are a few images we captured and the last one is my husband / co director of Couture Communications and I relaxing backstage at Matthew Williamson after a hard day filming at the shows!!!!!!!

Enjoy the Grazia LFW film I directed for Couture Communications............