Petersham Nurseries Café

The weather was looking good so my boyfriend and I decided to have a lovely day out in Richmond Park and planned to stop by Petersham Nurseries Café for tea and cake.

The café is just 5 mins drive from Richmond Park. We parked on the street behind the café and walked down a small alley to Petersham Nurseries. As you walk in to the nursery, homewares, antiques and ornaments are beautifully arranged with an inspired display.

The Café itself is divided in to two spaces, a restaurant and a tea house. We sat down in a nice and cozy area surrounded by beautiful potted plants and flowers, I ordered jasmine pearls green tea and orange cake, they tasted ‘delicate’.

If you love greenery and gardens, this place is paradise! They have plant nursery and garden shop, the prices reflect the quality.

Petersham Nurseries Café is a lovely and quiet place to spend your afternoon, it’s a perfect place to spend time with your family or catching up with friends.

One of my favourite places on earth. x

Petersham Nurseries

Linin X Cosmo Thailand

My amazing experience at London Fashion Week is featured in the latest issue of Cosmopolitan Thailand, thank you xx Happy 17th year anniversary!

Cosmopolitan Thailand

Linin Loves… Facebook

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Linin Loves Facebook

A Day in the Life of a Fashion Stylist

Working with music artists is something that I have always wanted to do. Now my dream has come true as I received a great opportunity from London College of Style, to assist Elvia Rietveld, a former LCS graduate who is now working with bands on shoots and music videos. 

It was for a press shoot of UK band ‘Exit Calm’, I knew this is going to be fun!

The day before the shoot I met Elvia at Oxford Street to do some shopping of clothes and loan garments from the PR agencies and press offices. This gave me the insight to how stylists work with the agencies, how to manage the loan letter and why it is so important to have a good relationship with all the brands. Elvia told me that working with music artists is always difficult. She said artists will only wear what they feel most comfortable in and they’re much more concerned about their image, rather than getting a model to wear what you tell them to wear.

On the day of the shoot we arrived at the location, a pub called ‘The Cellars’ in Stoke Newington. My job was to hang all the clothes and prepare everything for Elvia. She had chosen some really cool pieces. 1 hour later and the band arrived, they all had their own style and character, and just as Elvia had said, they were difficult to to deal with. They didn’t agree with some of the choices we had supplied but we managed to make them feel comfortable in the end. This is very important otherwise it will show in the images. Elvia handled the situation very well.

The day after the shoot, it was my job to return all the clothes. I went to 6 press offices and a PR company in London, dragging a 30kg suitcase on and off the tube, I have to say that it is not an easy job being a stylist assistant, especially in London, but I’ve learnt so much from it. I want to say a big thank you to Elvia for the great experience, and to London College of Style for the opportunity. x

Elvia Rietveld

Surgery PR

I visited the office of Surgery PR (just off Oxford Street, London) a few weeks ago with my friends at London College of Style, and was very excited to meet them as I wasn’t fully aware how this type of business works.

Their office was really cozy and all the staff were friendly towards us. We met Dee Kurttekin (Senior Account Manager), she helped explain what a PR agency is and how its business is run. It was really interesting, and I was surprised to hear that some of the sample pieces have to travel around the globe to various magazine shoots and their job is to manage that the garments arrive on time.

Apart from organising the garments and building relationships with brands, stylists and celebrities, you also need to have a sense of fashion and styling knowledge. Dee mentioned that as a PR Agency, you have to be able to present all the key pieces from collections to the client, you have to help them understand the fit, cut, materials and how it looks on the model. This really interested me.

Surgery PR’s office has its own showroom, when you first walk in, you are greeted by clothes rails and a big wardrobe full of the latest collections. I really liked the way they displayed all the clothing, everything was very well organised. They have lots of high street fashion brands such as Superga, Paul’s Boutique, Farah and The Frye Company.

It was a great experience to visit Surgery PR and I’ve learnt a lot more about this business, I have to say a big thank you to the lovely Dee kurtterkin and all the staff at surgery PR for being such a great help, and to London College of Style for the opportunity. x

Surgery PR

Mercat Gòtic Antique Market, Barcelona

I recently visited Barcelona, Spain for the second time. My boyfriend and I love it because of the great weather all year round. It’s a perfect winter weekend away from a wet and cold UK!

Looking to explore new areas, we walked through the alleyways of Barri Gòtic instead of the main tourist road, La Rambla. We found so many amazing shops along with the Mercat Gòtic Antique Market in front of Barcelona Cathedral.

There’s so many vintage items available - jewellery, clothes, books etc. I took my time to look around the stalls, they have so many nice pieces but it was fairly pricey too. I bought two pairs of gorgeous earrings which made my day. Hehe :)

It’s not a big market but they have so many interesting items even if you are only looking. You will see some very nice things and some really old designs.

Visit: www.mercatgotic.com 

Open every Thursday and on special occasions

Giambattista Valli Spring 2014 Couture

I’m a huge fan of botanical and florals, and Giambattista Valli always does it fantastically well.

Iridescent blue, fuchsia and aureolin contrast with pastel coloured gowns and mini dresses with embroidered three-dimensional blossom and prints that are absolutely beautiful.

Draped mini skirts are the highlight. They look super gorgeous and I think we will see this style on the high street very soon. I will be waiting for it! :)    

Another item that I’m so in love with in this collection are the oversize creased metal bracelets. I love arm swag! Big bracelets are one of my favourite things on earth and I hope to see a DIY project about these soon, I might even try to make this bracelet myself and if so, I will definitely post on here. x

Images courtesy of Style.com

Visit: giambattistavalli.com