Do What You Love

It is always a pleasure to be invited on a show to discuss fashion. This time, an invitation on The Sporah Show to talk about London Fashion Week, the fuzz and loves! Backstage is always exciting because I get to talk to different people and get an insight into why they've come on the show in more than 5 minutes. As you know, there is little time for so much to say and do on air. Backstage gives a different yet realistic background to people's story. 

I met two lovely ladies who dedicate their times to animals. They organise charity and fundraising events  in support of animal welfare called- Black Nose Day. They are planning a campaign to make Black Nose Day official in the national calendar just like Red Nose Day. 

Would you be supporting?

Later, I met a gentleman by the name John, the organiser of Kigali Show with an inspiring story of his challenges he faced organising the show with the aim of putting Rwanda back on the map. 

It got really exciting meeting with Ethel. Although I am not a huge fan of her fashion style, I think she's doing what she loves and I admire her for that. Ethel is a Afro-beats singer who performed on The Sporah Show after she was hypnotised. Yes she was for her fear of Spiders. Quite funny to watch!

We talked about fashion and weirdly drifted to celebrity gossip. OK, that was really freaky. I do not do celebrity gossip! There are way too many important things to discuss than some self-egoistic individuals with no purpose of direction.

Think-

"The fashion industry is a really competitive market, if you don't work hard to grow and broaden your network, you will limit your success"- Eighteen Forever

Ethel and I backstage at The Sporah Show. 

                                                     Spiky necklace from New Look

Coral-reef midi dress from Topshop 

Spiky ankle boot & the rings

Photo credit: Eighteen Forever 

Brand Launch

I am happy to announce that EIGHTEEN Forever will be an official Fashion Brand after it is launched on Saturday 4th May at Modo Bar in Liverpool, 4-7pm.

It is has been over a year now working on this clothing line. Here is it is..

EIGHTEEN Forever is an emerging online fashion brand with exceptional unique prints in modern design for women. The brand with a social aim of creating a platform for developing machinists to earn sustainable income through satisfactory designs and collaboration with the brand.

Tickets for the fair are available here: FREE PRESS PASS 
Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.eighteenforever.com
Eventelephant: www.eventelephant.com/eighteenforeverbrandlaunch

Alternatively, you can email Fashion Editor- eighteenf@gmail.com

See you there!!

Flyer design: Vive Designs

Fashion Weekender

Keeping it stylish and trendy with a 3/4 bright colour blazer from H&M. Carefully teamed with mid-length black dress and a Zebra-like high heel shoe. Flying high with my Tab..what could go wrong? Welcome to the weekender!

Photo credit: Eighteen Forever

London Fashion Week to Spring

After a bitterly cold winter, all you need is a bright colour jumper to keep you energised and fashionable in Spring. The perfect bright colour and easy to style is Lemon. Yes! Lemon. Lemon is quite admissible to Emerald, one of this season hot colours according to Pantone. What more you could you possible want? It is easy to go wrong with it because it doesn't compliment everybody's skin tone. Olive and Dark skins have more complimentary texture with Lemon more than lighter skin tones. However, your eyes and hair colour can be a great factor to determine the suitability of Lemon for you.

How do I wear it?
Well, you can find many items in lemon- accessories, tops, jackets and even shoes. Be careful with mixing too much colour with Lemon. It can make you look like Pete the drag Master. Wear lemon with black or white. Keep it simple, chic and classy. I styled this Sloane Crew jumper with sleek black and gold. The gold gives it a glamourous look perfect for a night out.

All items styled at asosfashionder

Bright colour jumper

Bering Ladies Ceramic Black Rose Gold Watch £199
Small Black Sloan Quitted Shoulder Bag by MICHAEL Michael Ko £220
Tailored Crepe Suit Trouser £119
Pele Black Boots £129
Sloane Crew Neck Jumper in Citronelle £105

Bright colours are not the only fashion forward styles for spring. Taking fashion to a whole new stage is this Sporty Luxe outfit. The statement jumper, pencil skirts, white hat and of course, a chance to walk down the street with confidence with this earmuffs. Add some knee socks!!

Sporty Luxe

New Look Barney Backpack £19.99Tailored Crepe Suit Skirt £119White Hat from asos £35KN561A Medium Grey Neon Lip Sticks Knit £305Great Jones Wired Earmuffs £75Teramo £190
Alexandra meets Darling

Don't ask me why I call it "Alexandra meets Darling". It just fit. Perfect Madame, yet renaissance. The earings add some fetish twist with the spiders on them. I bet you didn't notice. The shoe has been spotted on Beyonce at this year's Grammy Awards (more on the Grammy's later)

Asos Jewel Beetle Earring £18Goat Hair Jacket £499Black Mesh Bodysuit £11.99Megan Park Patchwork Skirt £351.07Flis Flower Embellished Bag £129Chloe Clever Black Courts £129
 Printed dressThe biker jacket makes it rock n roll. The printed shirt makes it bold feminine and the andro shoes are totally different from the latter, but it works! What is fashion without fun and risk!! 

Snake Frame X-Body £32Asos Astonished Leather Ankle Boot £60Black cropped Leather Look Jacket £35.99Graphic Print Bodycon Dress £8Mirrored Lens Classic Silver Aviator Sunglasses by Rayban £118Image credit: Eighteen Forever**Please ask for permission before using the images**

What I'm Wearing

Welcome to the first post of this year. It has been a wonderful break from blogging. I am happy to be back on the scene for hot new fashion trends and gossip. Being away from blogging was not necessarily away from fashion! I was working on Eighteen Forever new fashion project which is a clothing line for modern and fashion conscious women. I cannot wait to unveil this project to you all. It is a vision to reality project, considering the huge financial bearing and long hours of research and writing. Eighteen Forever fashion shoot will take place on 2nd February in London. For more information, please contact Editor via email: eighteenf@gmail.com

In the midst of all things fashion, it was great to take some time out and create an outfit fit for Autumn but created in winter. Colour is never out of the detail where creating an outfit is concerned on this blog, but this time, creating an unusual modern look with two bright colours and zebra print is highly daring.

What I'm wearing:

LS White shirt £14.99- H&M
Jumper £14.99- H&M
Black & white leggings £9.99 H&M
White & black dotted ankle sock- £2.99 H&M
Pink ankle book £39.99- Very

Chanel bag $1,200 (on sale)

Photo credit: Eighteen Forever

Thank you for visiting!!

Iconicity: Independent, Heritage, Ready-to-Wear

Iconicity Fashion is taking African inspiration and luscious prints and fabrics to the forefront of up and coming independent designers in both the ready-to-wear line and bespoke dressmaking. A culmination of two sister’s love for fashion, their African heritage and London, Iconicity Fashion was born In the summer of 2012 in South West London. Using an intrinsic balance of creativity and business, together Beatrice and Kelly have worked diligently and harmoniously to develop the extremely successful campaign ‘Africa is on your street’. Having harvested their technique and gained a strong following of clients, Iconicity Fashion is heading to full bloom with the launch of their new website ‘www.iconicityfashion.com’ along with their already established blog, ‘the social affair’.  

Silk, crêpe, satin, sequins, cottons, Vlisco, Mitex and Julien Holland wax prints

Iconicity Fashion designs unique clothing, hand stitched and created especially for you. It is important to us to emphasis exclusivity; we create limited numbers of our designs. Our garments are a celebration of individuality and loving production that we want all our customers to share.

Iconicity designs have appeared on the Sporah Show followed up with an interview with the resident blogger, Katherine Wong. Iconicity established a strong reputation by dressing many prominent members of the UK African entertainment community, such as Theodora Ibekwe at the Women for Africa Awards, Miss Victoria Chi-Chi Okafor , Jacqueline Matovu and aspiring model Fashwa Luke.

Iconicity has also designed African inspired costumes for beauty pageants such as Miss Uganda UK, Miss Cameroon UK, Miss Congo UK, Miss Ghana UK, Miss West Midlands and Miss Black Africa. Recently, Iconicity has been asked to feature in the Styleafriq show in Birmingham for Fabafriq Magazine, visiting Calgary, Canada for the Afrikadey! Festival to show the latest ready-to-wear range and lately the  AMfest 2012.

Although still emerging, the designs have also been showcased at London's Fashion's Finest, Kenya's Young Achiever's award and published on All Africa Fashion. Iconicity has recently been featured in the Hounslow Multicultural Festival at the Paul Robeson Theatre.

The Iconicity office has also opened in Hounslow, London for bespoke consultations.

For more information contact Iconicity:

tel: 07833306476

email: iconicity@ymail.com

website: www.iconicityfashion.com

Photo credit: Iconicity

Sequins, Glitters and Sparkle

Glitters, sequins, spikes, studs are all part of AW12 top fashion trends. Sparkles and sequins are distinctly favoured on this blog. Predominantly, sequins and glitters are perceived as what I call the 3Cs- cheap, cheesy and cherazz. You avoid the 3Cs at all cost. During my research on the history of fashion, sequins, glitters and sparkles were not recorded to any era. They evolved through different styles and accessories. However, post 2000 saw a transition of sequins, sparkles and glitters from 3Cs to chic courtesy of high fashion designers during fashion weeks in New York, Milan, Paris and London. Main designers during this era were Alexandra McQueen, Karl Lagerfield, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Vera Wang and Christian Louboutin.

Sequins are perfect for festive season party wear, and it is that time of year- with glamour, family, friends and the endless Christmas or new year night out. Choosing an outfit is electrifying, but for some a great act of despair  It can be the latter if you're not fashion conscious  The first step is to always vision yourself in an outfit, then focus on creating something unique with it either with accessories, your hair or even make-up. For my recent outing, I opted for Silver Primary Hue Bodycon Velvet Dress from Topshop £40, Miss Selfridge Shoe £55, Necklace from New Look £12.99, tight from River Island £10. What is festive wear without a hint of colour- Na da! This make-up took 10 minutes. I used L'Oreal Hydrating Moisturiser  Witch Primer, Gosh BB Cream, MAC Foundation and Sleek Lip Stain.

Photo credit: Eighteen Forever