Oscar's 2016: Best and Worst Outfits & That Gold Snakeskin Dress

I wasn't intending to blog about The Oscars but I consumed so much media about it yesterday, from the moment I turned on the TV and saw Red Carpet interviews over breakfast, to during the day, when every time I glanced at social media I saw 'That Dress'....the Gold Dress by Tom Ford, worn by Margot Robbie, which 'looks like an Oscar' itself. 

It doesn't just look like an award statue though, the gold snake print fabric she's wearing is not too dissimilar to the gold snakeskin dress I wore on the Red Carpet for the Asian Media Awards back in October 2015. Hmmmm....has someone been copying my style?

TRENDS

Pluging necklines were the biggest Oscars trend this year with the majority of women walking the red carpet wearing dresses that drew attention to their cleavage. Personally I think my own gold dress with less skin on show, is far classier. Not that I'm against showing cleavage, it makes you feel amazing when you have a decent dress and a bit of boob showing, but it is sad that so many women feel they had to do this on the one day they'll get photographed most in their life. 

It's a sorry state of affairs that women need to show their skin while the men are in dapper suits, to get noticed in their careers. The biggest reason it's so important to dress well at The Oscars is that an actor/actress gets noticed, and cast in their next role but why is baring skin so important for this? The Oscar's have been going for 88 years and still this is what women are expected to do. Women who wore outfits that weren't as revealing were told they look dowdy and old fashioned - because modernity is all about looking semi naked right?

Choosing what one is wearing to The Oscars is clearly a big deal. Everyone in attendance will have faced every fashion dilemma going when it comes to choosing their outfit ...but some made much better decisions than others.

I won't di-sect every single outfit (you can do that on Google, there's enough opinions and photos out there to see what people are saying,) I'm just going to comment on what I think was the best outfit and the one that was a real disappointment...

Dress: Armani Prive

BEST OUTFIT: Cate Blanchette

Cate's was more than just the best outfit, it's the overall look. Every single element compliments her, the hair and make-up are equally as important. The the dress has character and personality and the colour is original and suits her complexion. It's the perfect dress for 'Cate.'

Dress by Zuhair Murad

MOST DISAPPOINTING OUTFIT: Priyaka Chopra

I LOVE PC as an actress, she's one of Bollywood's finest. Previously a model, her early acting career was pretty bad, but she's grown so much into a natural, intelligent and creative actress who's give some incredible performances. 

Despite this being the 88th Academy Awards there is a huge lack of South Asians represented at them. (Don't even get me started on the fact Bollywood films don't make it into the international category).

Priyanka being at the Oscars wasn't just her elevating her career, whether she liked it or not, she was representing Indians on a global scale. Ok that may sound unfair but she does carry some responsibility as an ambassador, especially as she was on the stage handing out an award. Even though she identifies as being part-American - she studied there, launched her pop career there and recently starred in US serial Quantico - the biggest success in her career has been starring in Indian cinema. 

In that world there are some incredible fashion designers, and she herself has worn some absolutely gorgeous colourful couture work - the kinds of designs Western audiences don't get much exposure to.

This was an opportunity to show the best in Asian fashion to the world and she chose to turn up in a simple, safe white dress with hair pulled back into a pony tail - which to me is the opposite of Cate's look - bland, and with zero personality. 

Priyanka has never been the most 'stylish' of actresses but she looks sooooooo much better when she appears at Indian functions in India, her attempts to do Oscar's glamour in a traditional gown are for me, a real disappointment.

Dress: Elizabeth Kennedy

Mindy Kaling, the other female South Asian icon at the Oscars looked remarkably better than Priyanka because although she wore a classic black dress, the detail of the blue  bow at the back is what gave it some personality and the overall look suited her. 

I'm not saying in anyway that because someone is Asian they should wear Asian clothes - but in Priyanka's case she has access to the best in Indian designers, so her choice was a wasted opportunity.

As for what I would wear to The Oscars, well I recently bought a red carpet dress (above) which has a gorgeous shimmer to it. It's the only long dress I own and I bought it in the January sales from Joy because it was reduced from £120 to £28 and fit me perfectly so I took it as a sign that I had to own it. It's what I would wear if I had to pick something from my current wardrobe right now.....but if I could get dressed by a designer, hands down it would be Manish Arora, Indian designer and fashion visionary. 

I can but only dream about wearing a creation of his One Day....

For this particular blog post I had to use images found online which aren't credited because there are so many versions of them - so thanks to whoever took them, I hope you can see this is a wee blog and I just needed them for illustrative purposes. Thanks.

London Indian Film Festival 2015 My Highlights

Memorable moments from LIFF

If I could combine all my favourite pastimes they would come together and create the week that was this year's The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival (LIFF). An opportunity to lose myself in stories, meet inspiring people and get dressed up: it was as perfect as a week can get.

LIFF LAUNCH

Red carpet launch night (Pic by Calvin Chinthaka)

LIFF showcases independent cinema with a South Asian theme by curating a series of events, talks, Q&As and film screenings. This year marked their 6th festival and there were 20 films screened over two cities (London and Birmingham).  The festival opened with a Red Carpet event attended by filmmakers and film fans as well as many of the people involved in the selected films such as actors, directors and producers. Spot my lilac mop in the crowd? I covered the event for Asiana.tv, which you can watch here in this rather neat little video. More on who I interviewed later in this post...first I'm going to take you through the films I watched and reviewed, the Q&As I led, then later, touch on the outfits I wore (the most important bit!)

LIFF Films

The settings, characters and situations I encountered during the London Indian Film Festival had me feeling engrossed, emotional, shocked, happy, sad..captured in my reviews:

31st October A haunting account of a families fight for survival. See review.

Dhanak A sweet and tender reminder of why you should believe in your dreams. See review.

Khwada Step inside a world of solitude and sacrifice. See review.

One Crazy Thing London love, captured with humour and heart. See review. 

Tigers A compelling real-life account of the Nestle baby milk scandal. See review. 

Q&As

A still from Nachom-Ia-Kumpasar

The Q&A element of a film festival is what makes them such a special and unique event. It's one thing to watch a film, but something else, to hear first-hand about the filmmaking process. It's an amazing opportunity that few movie watchers get, and until now, I've been in awe of these sessions. It always leaves me inspired to hear from Film Directors, actors and producers - you discover such unexpected tales. So when I was asked to lead four Q&As for LIFF I was thrilled; I wasn't just one of the people sitting in the audience learning stuff, I was able to play a role in shaping the Q&As. Wow!

Nachom-Ia-Kumpasar won the Audience Award at LIFF and in the festival's history is the most popular film to have been screened with three sold out showings. The final one took place at Wembley Cineworld and was attended by the film's Executive Producer and his wife who flew in from France to attend the screening. The crowd-funded film is a celebration of the Goa jazz scene of the 1960s and it includes 20 hit songs in the Goan language of Konkani.

The movie's Executive Producer and his wife

The auditorium stayed packed for the Q&A, people stayed behind even though it was a Monday night and they had just sat through an epic 2.45 hour film. This was my view from the stage - it looks intimidating but it wasn't because I knew that everyone in the audience loved the film and with so much passion in the air, nothing could go wrong.

Full house for the screening and post film Q&A

Still from One Crazy Thing

The Q&A for One Crazy Thing was attended by lead actor Ray Panthaki and Director Amit Gupta. A British romantic comedy set in London town, my favourite part of this Q&A was that there were several people in the audience who had never heard of the film, they just turned up to watch it as it sounded like something different. This is the great thing about film festivals they bring films to new audiences who otherwise wouldn't watch. 

Me & actor Ray Panthaki

Director Amit Gupta

Chilling in the BFI Green Room

The experience I'll never forget though is leading the Q&A for documentary Meet The Patels with Director Geeta Patel at the BFI, the BFI....the actual BFI aka the British Film Institute. An iconic building in an iconic part of London, representing everything that's iconic about cinema in the UK, it's going down in history as one of the highlights of my life : )
A comedy-documentary, there was lots of laughter in the audience throughout the film which led to a fun and lively Q&A.

On stage at The BFI with Director Geeta Patel

Afterwards there was a chance to pose with the wonderful BFI LIFF team and Geeta, who flew in from the US just for the screening, and was shortly heading off to take the film about her family, to another international festival.

LIFF LAUNCH:

With cameraman Shevy Sandhu aka Team Green

I love a spot of Red Carpet reporting. It's mad, hectic, tiring but really fun as you never know who you'll get to speak to, when they'll turn up and how long you'll get with them. Best of all, the people who do speak to you are usually in really good moods. Having a cameraman and fellow #TeamGreen member (we co-ordinated as every great team should) who's cool, calm and collected like Shevy from Polar Bear Media helped too. 

The stars being papped on the Red Carpet

With Presenter and LIFF Ambassador Shay Grewal

A montage of some of the people I interviewed

The festival opened with the movie Umrika and I had a chance to speak to Director Prashant Nair and actors Suraj Sharma (best know for being the boy in The Life Of Pie) and Adil Hussain. The montage above shows some of the other  talented filmi peeps I also interviewed. Watch our video here. 

Festival Director and Founder Cary Rajinder Sawhney also guested on my radio show where we had a much more in-depth chat. The highlights of which you can read about here. 

LIFF SOCIAL:

The LIFF Wembley team

I love this photo. It's a reminder of the really lovely LIFF volunteers who help run the festival. Passionate about film and all so friendly, I had such fun working and chatting with them, especially the Wembley crew who I spent three evenings with.

With Fariha at the closing night for the screening of Death Of A Gentleman

Spotted! My hair twin, burlesque star Sukki Singapora

LIFF LOOKS:

It's not like I need an excuse to dress up, I do it for most occasions (aka leaving my flat!) but having a specific occasion is always must more exciting so just like the LIFF team curated the event, I curated my LIFF attending outfits. Considerations included tights:

....nail and bangle combinations

And numerous dresses! This was my absolute fave below. It was the first time I've ever 'borrowed' a frock, and ahem...I returned it with as massive rip in it..oops!

Find out more about it here...(a blog within a blog!)

Totally in love with my dress from Girl Meets Dress

For the launch night I had my make-up done, always a most luxurious of experience, especially when the make-up artist travelled across London especially for me. Thank you Fatin from Nina Ubhi Beauty & Hair Academy.

Beautified by Fatin from Nina Ubhi Beauty & Hair Academy

The rest of the week, I kept up the peacock theme. 

In fact I bought a new eyeshadow that I ended up wearing all festival.

Another make -up look

Told you it was a perfect week! 

Thank you to everyone I met over LIFF and to all the people who were involved in any capacity. It's a brilliantly curated festival. The only trouble is, now I want to visit India. Sounds like another trip is on the cards soon...

The Asian Awards 2015 - Red Carpet & Media Room Coverage

With cameraman Riaz Jugon waiting on Park Lane for the celebs to arrive

Last year I was invited to The Asian Awards as a guest, this year I worked there, covering the event for Asiana.tv. Sitting pretty dolled up at a table and being fed a five star three course meal is what most people were up to, but me and my crew spent three and a half hours freezing our socks off outside the venue awaiting the celebs to arrive then worked a further four hours in the media room again, all in the name of getting a story. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. Working at an awards ceremony is more fun than just attending one. Here's what happened...

Perfecting my presenting look

I planned my outfit the night before, an ensemble I created from various accessories I had at home, teamed with a dress designed for me by Birmingham based designer Sati for a previous event I presented at, but hey, I'm not one to not wear the same outfit twice, as long as it's styled differently!

My hair and make-up artist for the event was Naveeda but in order to get it done, I had to visit her on a boat where was was busy doing a photoshoot!

I love the rosy pink doll-like cheeks Naveeda created for me, it's one of my fave beauty looks

Shooting on The Golden Hinde II, the boat that is parked up by London Bridge (I've walked passed it so many times so it was surreal to be aboard!) Pic: Alex Pichon

Red carpet reporting

I recently blogged about what it's like working on a red carpet and this was one of the tougher ones. All the celebs arrived, got papped by the photographers then many headed straight inside. As I was stuck behind a barrier there wasn't much I could do, but I still managed to speak to some of the guests including...

I was at the end of the line of reporters, so on one side of me I had another journalist and at the other side is where the fans started. The space was packed with young girls - Zayn Malik fans awaiting his arrival; his first media appearance since quitting boyband 1D. Some were actually hyperventilating when he arrived! See more pics of that here.

Backstage at the media room

I didn't get to watch the actual award ceremony but once winners were announced they were led back stage to the Media Room where I was waiting for them! The biggest honour for me was speaking to fashion designer John Rocha, I have utmost respect for him (and although I don't usually wear trousers, I have one pair, designed by him, and they are spectacular!)

I recently interviewed Danielle Bux, the wife of football pundit Gary Lineker for a magazine article so it was nice to catch up with her again and with her hubbie this time!

The current sporting hero of our times, I also interviewed this cricket star, one of the billionaire Hinduja Brothers (he and his brothers are worth £14billion!) and Maya, the daughter of Dr Amar Bose of Bose technology fame.

I also managed to make Sanjeev Bhaskar giggle which is clearly an achievement!

And nabbed a word with presenters Sunny and Say who as ever, looked remarkable, I love their style as a pair.

Elsewhere...

Amidst the working, my colleague Fariha and I had our own Bond Girl moment with celebrity BodyGuard Yousaff Khan (who was looking out for Zayn Malik and Shah Rukh Khan on the night) but joined us for a dinner of lentils and rice (which is all us journos were fed!), got stopped by presenter Gok Wan, who told me I looked amazing, had a gossip with the lovely Bollywood ambassador Raj....

..and got to admire Shah Rukh from a distance (I wasn't allowed to speak to him!) One day eh?!

The video I made of the event is up on Asiana.TV and my You Tube channel so be sure to watch it! After finishing up post -midnight I had to hot foot it home to get ready to present my radio show in the morning where I also chatted about the event. 

As for next year...who knows if I will be working there or guesting there? Hmmmmmmmm!