Wednesday 28 September 2011

Welcome to the House Of Fun




MADNESS; what absolute legends. Following Reading Festival ‘11, I am fixated with these retro, cane swinging, loud singing, back bending men who truly brought FUN to the stage. After narrowly avoiding being crushed to a pulp in the hysterical crowd, a lovely man (who was about 6ft5 – well he seemed that tall to me! Perhaps because I wasn’t wearing heels.. .) hoisted me up onto his shoulders and the stage came to life! I could finally see – I was very tempted to crowd surf but the security guards were definitely conforming to their tough guy, scary man stereotypes so I stayed put! Basically the point to this story is that MADNESS’ lyrics hit me as the perfect title for this post. Let me explain why. . .

My most favourite photographer ever, Sharon Cooper  http://www.sharoncooper.co.uk/texted me to say she was picking me up for a shoot at the Stevenage Old Town Charter Fair! First; excitement, second; what on earth do I wear??? We all know about this maaassive, inevitable question that is automatically programmed in any girl’s nervous system as soon as the word ‘event’ and ‘camera’ are mentioned!

After much deliberation, I followed topshop.com’s (my fashion fairy godmother) feature on the rise of eclectic style and so sequins, leather and wild vintage prints seemed the perfect fairground attire.

As I’m not completely accustomed to the whole public modelling thing, for me, shooting at first was slightly embarrassing to say the least! I was self conscious and felt that I couldn’t completely relax but then after we freaked ourselves out in the Haunted House and played on the ten penny arcade games (we so nearly won a fiver!!) I couldn’t stop laughing, feeling like a kid in a sweetshop!




As usual, Sharon was fun, creative, inspiring and wonderful to work with! I did feel kind of bad though, as I dragged her on to the waltzing tea cups . . . it wasn’t until she came off looking green that I realised she didn’t take to spinning at an insane pace very well!







Blouse and clutch - Flo's Place Vintage
Sequinned top - Mum's wardrobe!
Black leather pants and ring - Topshop
Earrings - French Connection
Shoes - Zara

So .. the famous leather pants manifest themselves. After sitting in my wardrobe since New Year’s, I have been, again, too inhibited to wear them but they were perfect for the funfair shoot. Following Kate Moss’ iconic biker chick style, the leather trousers have zoomed back into the fashion scene, creating vast envy over her amazing Isabel Marant cropped leather biker skinnies – I dream.
Mum’s sequinned top was a real find and paid homage to Miss Sui’s bedazzling collection of sequinned beauties.


In fact, this outfit is quite inspired by Anna Sui’s Spring/Summer collection of eclectic prints that are mashed together yet still manage to retain the soft ladylike feel of the forties, perhaps through the floaty, romantic fabrics on which her fabulous designs are displayed. 



Anna Sui’s Summer 2012 collection – all this blogging about fashion week has infected me – I’ve joined the hype!

My Sui piece is definitely this fabulous vintage shirt I bagged at the gorgeous Flo’s Place http://www.flosplace.co.uk/contact.html, a vintage haven, crammed full of retro wonders. And the best part. .. The blouse was 100% FREE! Another factor contributing to my love of thrifting.. . The insanely low prices!


The waltzing tea cups. . .

The helter skelter. . .

Me! A lovely fairground owner let me in his booth for a quick snap 

The haunted house. . .




Farewell to the Fairground!
Claire xo




P.S: We discovered that Candy floss + hair are like oil and water . . . .they don’t mix!!



                      

16 comments:

  1. this photography is so beautiful! Love 2p machines :)

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  2. yayy first comment! thank you, I would thoroughly recommend Sharon, I just love working with her, and they are so fun but so aggravating too! :)

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  3. O: your look is so behemian love it!!
    and your hair is so femme fatale I LOVE IT!!
    take care!

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  4. thank you Camii! occasionally it does get unmanageable big though aha! xo

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  5. omg! you look fantastic!
    would have loved to have been a part of this night.
    you look so genuine and chic.
    love.

    <3m
    www.themavenpost.com

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  6. thank you Marie! it was brilliant, if a fair ever comes near you, go for it :) I'll follow you lovely xo

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  7. gorgeous! thank you for the comment. the shoes are from carel van der meer, a dutch shoe store x

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  8. ooh will be doing some online shopping then! thanks for the comment :) xo

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  9. You're so beautiful, love the pictures and ofcourse your style!
    I'm following, I hope you can return the love :)
    Greetings from Chile.

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  10. thank you Kim :) will be posting next week so stay tuned! :)xo

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  11. You have such a nice blog! Also Ilove your hair, they are so beautiful :)
    Have a look at my blog and if you like it then why dont we follow each other :)
    Have a nice day ♥
    x

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  12. You are absolutely stunning Claira!
    SM x

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  13. thank you everyone! and of course I will be returning the love and follow your blogs :) happy posting xo

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  14. thank you Michelle, im in love with them :)x

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