//Paul Smith AW 2013 Menswear Collection

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All I want to say here is: LOOK AT THIS JACKET. At the expense of sounding like a complete cheese ball, it literally took my breath away as I almost scrolled past it on Style.com (such a sorry amount of my time is spent on that website). The combination of the multi-coloured retro print with the fur-lined hood, and along with its general puffiness that reminded me of old school jackets, resulted in a shining beacon that attracted me in an instant. And once again, Paul Smith is still yet to disappoint me.//

//V&A: Fashion Festival

So I attended this event way back in December, but through all the Christmas to-do's and razzamatazz, and then going back to college so soon after the new year (sob), the all important write up I had planned to do completely slipped my mind!

It's an event that's been held annually for quite a few years now I believe, and is just a really relaxed day full of workshops and talks on everything fashion. Me and my cousin started the day with a talk on Visual Merchandising presented by a couple of people from Beyond Retro - it was fascinating to see where they get all their inspiration from for the monthly themes that Beyond Retro pride themselves on.

Next up was a talk by fashion journalist Hywel Davies, and I, being a budding fashion writer myself, enjoyed hearing all his tips and opinions on the industry. After popping into The V&A's lavish café, we headed back over to the auditorium where probably the most popular talk of the day was happening - one of my most favourite London designers, Mary Katrantzou, was in conversation with journalist Sarah Mower. She really is such an idol to me and has inspired my design work throughout college countless times. I literally can't express how awestruck I was throughout the whole talk!

Before rounding up the day with a talk from fashion photographer Peter Zownir, we also took part in a little workshop where we got a whirlwind introduction to fashion photography, organised by Anomalous Visuals. After about a 30 second lesson on lighting and cameras we were left to have a play around in their studio which was so much fun but annoyingly we weren't allowed to keep the photos we took.

The best part of the day, even though it was completely unscheduled, was talking with a really lovely guy who was a fashion writer, and he gave me so much great advice on applying to university and on writing and journalism in general. Talking to him reassured me that you don't have to be an über confident and obnoxious person to make it as a journalist!

// The V&A's café with it's humungous lights that fascinated us //

// 1. Visual Merchandising at Beyond Retro talk // 2. Looking down in the Sackler Centre where the festival took place // Mary Katrantzou being interviewed by Sarah Mower // Waiting for the fashion journalism talk to start //

The V&A Museum have always got a ton of events going on for young people. Check out what they have planned for the next few months here. As well as that, the museum has so many cool exhibitions on at the moment and even more coming up soon, so be sure to check them out here.

Did anyone else go to the Fashion Festival? Let me know what your thoughts were on the day, or any other events that you've been to at the V&A recently.//

//Little Girl Lost

A few months ago I shot an editorial style photoshoot for college, but I never got round to posting it on here. I had to choose a theme which took me foreverrr to decide on, but after much deliberation I landed on 'Little Girl Lost'. I really enjoyed creating and styling the shoot, and then the actual taking of the photos was hilarious (cue odd looks from passing dog walkers as my friend changed in the middle of a graveyard), and then afterwards it was really fun to play around with the photos in post-production.

So I did ever so slightly edit these to death, but all I really played around with was the contrast and the lightening/darkening of the photo and the finished look was this gorgeously tacky bleached out effect which I sort of love!

This one I went back and re-edited to look a little more editorial looking and sophisticated - something which I can't say comes naturally to me!//

//Designer Doppelganger

//Time for some new and exciting stuff!! I've been wanting to start a regular feature for some time now, but it's taken me a while to think up something original that hasn't been done a billion times over on countless other blogs. So say hello to 'Designer Doppelgangers'! I think it's pretty self explanatory, but essentially I will be featuring one piece of designer clothing that has been neatly plaster casted by the high street - don't you just love it when that happens? - or one designer catwalk look that I will recreate using high street clothing only.

//Source 1//Source 2//

So our first stylish doppelganger is H&M's tribute to Prada's AW12 geometric print silk trousers. Bar the difference in colour, these casual trousers are doing a pretty good job of a Prada impersonation. Slim-fit leg? Check. All over geometric pattern? Check. Ankle grazing length? Checkity check. I know for a fact that these H&M beauties are already a sell out item as every time I get on the train in Central London there invariably is a 20-something girl sitting at the other end of the carriage wearing them. Well, when they're bearing a £34.99 price tag compared to a £780 one, who can blame them?//