Highlights: Asiana Bridal Show & Catwalk 2014

It's that time of the year again when I get to blog about the Asiana Bridal Show (which took place yesterday). For the initiated it's an annual wedding show aimed at Asian couples and features four catwalk shows during the day featuring the glitziest, most sparkling outfits you'll possibly ever see.

I fell in LOVE with the catwalk as soon as I saw it! I have a thing about lights and the colour red but this combination designed by decor company Maz of Leicester hit the spot and set the theme for a Moulin Rouge-Bollywood-Dhoom 3- Ram Leela inspired extravaganza.

The gorgeous hair for the show was styled by Aamir Naveed who also did my mop, while the make-up was provided by Ambreen and her make-up team. They also had their own catwalk segment, pictured above. Despite the fact I am happy with my current cropped hairdo, it did give me a pang of jealously about having long hair. Still, I've not ruled out having extensions one day! 

I arrived at 8.30am when catwalk rehearsals were underway...

...as was hair and make-up. My first task was to track down, with the help of fellow lifesaver Amna, breakfast for the models. (Yes they do eat crossaints and most amazingly they even eat fried toast...and fruit and healthy stuff like boiled eggs or course!)

Then I got mic-ed up and set to work! My task was to present the official Asiana Bridal Show video, a role I also took up last year. (Was rather sweet that so many members of the public stopped me to say hi as they recognised me, bless them!)
My crew was from Kat Films and together we got through 40 interviews over 4 floors...all whilst wearing heels. OUCH!

It involved stopping by some of the major exhibition stands including make-up artist Ambreen who was demonstrating her skills on some of her previous real life brides.

Like this one. In the photo behind is the bride on her wedding day and here she was again several months later, having the chance to wear her wedding outfit and get her make-up done again!

The catwalks shows were chockablock - and inevitably the entire audience were snapping away throughout!

In true Asiana style, it wasn't just fashion on the runway but some rather chic entertainment too like a hot male fire eater...

...and even hotter models carrying a gorgeous floral canopy. I saw it afterwards back stage, it was made by Flower Escent and it smelt divine as well as looked lovely. 

They also created stunning floral umbrellas too which aren't really captured well on my camera, if I can find a better photo from someone else I'll share later.

Being with a film crew also gave me special access backstage where I was amidst the crazy world of stying, last minute touch-ups and rail upon rail of gorgeous clothes. 

Anisha Vasani, pictured next to me, the Editor of Asiana Wedding Magazine was the Creative Director of the show. She styles incredible fashion shoots, one day I'm going to blog about some of my fave as they really are works of art; her vision for the catwalk was just as mind-blowing. It's great being able to work with such inspiring colleagues. 

The full catwalk line up was:

Kyles Collection
Frontier Raas
Frontier Bazaar
Khushboos's By Chand
Sona's Couture
Bibi London
Ziggi Studio
Ahsan's
Stuush Studio
RDC London
Monga's
Amir Naveed and Ambreen MakeUp Artiste

When the official photos are up on Asiana.TV I'll share the links. In the meantime here's a peek at what happened in a short video by Implausible Blog. Enjoy!
p.s my GORGEOUS dress is from Jones & Jones my fave dress designers!

The Poush Mela in West Bengal

At any given point somewhere in India there is a Mela going on; as I discovered on my recent travels. It's no exaggeration that there was a community celebration going on every single day of my trip from energy companies sponsoring live concerts to religious devotional marquees erected in town centres to kite flying and illustration festivals in parks. In West Bengal, the biggest event of the year is the Durga Puju where the state celebrates a five day holiday. The second biggest celebration (although Christmas in Kolkata is a close tie) is the Poush Mela, held in the region's cultural centre Shantiniketan (which is a three hour train ride away from Kolkata.) It too takes place over Christmas (24th-26th December) and sees thousands of families turn up in their finery to enjoy the following:

Markets 

Essentials like gifts, clothes and toys can to be picked up at bargain prices, including posters of your favourite celebs.

Music 

Poush Mela is known for attracting Bauls; wondering, travelling musicians who entertain visitors with their impromptu folk songs. Once one begins to sing, crowds gather round and it turns into a frenzy of live performances, where you can slip between sets or join in with by showing your appreciation in the form of hand claps. There are also various stages and marquees set up where you can take a seat and get hypnotised by poets and speakers.

Theatre

Performers are everywhere, as are costume clad folk ready to pose for snaps and take your cash (kids especially), but this particular man was happy just scowling at my camera.

Food

Dining, naturally, is big business with catering set up inside tents serving everything from curried crabs to deep fried sweet corn. But if you're more into snacks, street treats are aplenty. My fave, the stall endorsed by Bolly star Sunny Deol.

Crafts 

It's possible to observe and shop for all manner of handicrafts, but not just during the Mela. Shantiniketan is home to hundreds of cottage industries from basketry to illustration - but more on those to come in future blog posts. 

 Games 

You can't have a Mela without a few games. Here's one I didn't see anyone win, which sounds ludicrous as it looks easy but actually was ridiculously difficult. The aim was to  throw a small metal hoop so that it landed directly over a packet of biscuits that you get to keep. Sadly I did not take a packet home with me.

Funfair

By day the traditional fairground looked rather quaint...

... yet by night it had come alive with lights as magnificent as the Blackpool illuminations

The Mela itself was HUGE taking over hectares of land almost becoming its own mini town for three days and nights. Family friendly, cow friendly and filled with colour, it was a great place to spend a day, but it's repetitive nature meant you wouldn't want to spend all three days here, especially when the surrounding area is so interesting. Best to combine it with a trip to visiting the local sights which include a prestigious university campus set up by the legendary Bengali poet Tagore.  

The one thing I'll never forget about Poush Mela was the aisle of bargain stalls where everything cost 10 rupees; the equivalent of 10p. The quality of the products was what you'd find in your local Pound shop but the amusing part was the loudness of the stalls with audio blaring out like a London cockney market stall exclaiming 'dosh taka, dosh taka, dosh taka', and with accompanying voiceovers of a couple discussing the benefits of the rock bottom prices. It was constant, loud and hypnotising and reminded me of the annoying nature of slot machines. Inside each stall sat a shopkeeper, whose ears I can only hope, were filled with plugs. 

Wondering around the Mela was of course thirsty work and thankfully there was fresh sugar cane juice being squeezed all over the site.
Despite its size and brief mention in guidebooks I didn't see a single Western tourist at the Mela, but I did get to experience a real sense of community spirit and happiness. There were all ages at the festival from elderly folk through to kids and all of them were mesmerised by the love and laughter in the air.

The Poush Mela takes places every December in West Bengal, India

Starting the new year on a high

I've just returned from the biggest and most exciting expedition of my life. I took a few weeks off to go travelling; visiting India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Every day was a highlight from riding vintage trams in Kolkata, going for afternoon tea in Darjeeling, embarking on a sunrise boat trip in Pokhara and meeting rickshaw artists in Dhaka.

I have so many tales to share over the coming weeks on my blog and I'm working on a travelogue where Ill be sharing my travel diaries.

In the mean time above is the photo that sums up how I feel about my holiday and how I feel about the coming year. 

I always like to mark the New Year by doing something out of the ordinary.

For January 1st 2014 I decided to take a private jet flight through The Himalayas. It symbolises taking a leap of faith, seeing the world from a new perspective, discovering a new found confidence and reminding myself that I can be whoever I want to be. 

My Birthday Dress

It's my birthday today - so I made a dress to wear for the occasion...

Front of dress

Back of dress

Close up of pocket

Shoulder details

Belt tied at front of dress

Bottom of dress

Side 1 of reversible belt

Side 2 of reversible belt

The dress is extra special as it's the first thing I've ever sewn on an industrial sewing machine. It was a very different experience to the domestic machines I'm used to but by the end of it I was hooked on the speed!

It took me two sessions to cut out and prepare the pieces and three sessions to assemble it. I sewed it on Saturday mornings at HEBA, a women's training and enterprise project who run drop-in sewing sessions on Saturday mornings in Brick Lane where you can get help from the amazing sewing tutor Anjum and can use their space and equipment. 

The gorgeous fabric was bought from this stall at the Knitting & Stitching show in London which I visited in October. The most difficult part of the dress was choosing how to use and match up the patterns on the fabric. With Anjum's assistance I cut it out by picking the areas I wanted to be on the front, back, sides and pockets. It was a bit mind-boggling but this level of effort is what makes my new birthday dress look so designer!

It's just a shame it's made of a soft cotton and my birthday is in December. I think I'm going to get very cold today!

Feeling Smug: A sunday afternoon sewing session

So you know the camera I use to take the photos for this  blog? I'm ashamed to say until now it didn't have a home. I'd been carrying it around without any case or protection...crazy considering it cost me £150! But alas things have changed and it now has a wee denim drawstring pouch that I made recently at a Sunday Crafternoon session at Smug.

Smug is a lifestyle shop in Islington. 'Lifestyle shop?'

Its sells lots of lovely things for your home including gifts that are very smart, chic and design focused...far more appealing than you'd see in a high street department store.

Having said that, it does have four floors, one of which has just turned into a Christmas shop. Recently the store also enlisted the help of designer A Alicia (who I met at Crafternoon Cabaret a couple of weeks back) to run Sunday crafting workshops. So far they've had wall hangings and Xmas decorations, I was invited to try out the bag making. 
It's a smallish space, enough for a very cosy group of crafters which means you get good one-to-one attention and can talk to everyone.

The most exciting part of the workshop was that I finally got to use one of these mini sewing machines. They're the ones that are sold in John Lewis for £50. They are very cute but I've often wondered if they are just for show...do they really work?

It was the slowest sewing machine in history but it did the job and I was sold in terms of it being a great machine for children, small jobs and public workshops. 

We all managed to do some hand embroidery too - I was totally fixated by this mini hoop. I've seen them but didn't know what they'd be like to use - it turns out they are so much more fun and easier to use than big hoops and are great for adding details on to clothes.

I also got to use my first ever pom pom maker. Again this is an invention I used to think was pointless, not that I'm a cardboard donut person, I like to make my pom poms by wrapping them on my hand..but alas once again I was impressed through the sheer joy of using it. 

And here it is - my new drawstring camera bag. Made in under two hours on a weekend afternoon with help from a very lovely tutor in a nice sociable space. 

Ladies who stitch! A group shot taken by Anna.

If you're passing around the Angel area of Islington, Smug is worth popping into. Expect some drooling and also 'oohs' and 'aaahs' while you're in there.
You can also check out their website for news of future workshops. 

Learning how to make a rag rug with The Amazings

Being a craftaholic I've had the pleasures and pain of trying and testing out many crafts over the years, but one I've been eager to master for a while is the art of rag-rug making. It's the ultimate textile recycling craft, is affordable, as creative as you want to make it, and doesn't require owning unwieldy equipment like a sewing machine.

Over the summer I was given the opportunity to learn this  skill under the guidance of Jenni Stuart-Anderson a master rugger based in Herefordshire with over 25 years experience in the craft. I travelled down to her quaint cottage with a film crew from The Amazings to film an instructional video about how to make a rag-rug, which you can  watch online now....but more on that later!

Some of Jenni's beautiful designs

The Amazings? 

Their passion is enabling elders to share their skills i.e all those incredible retired people who know lots of incredible things; making sure they are not forgotten about, giving them a platform in which to showcase what they do, and know. 

The method has changed over the last couple of years (read up on the story here), but in their current incarnation they film on-line tutorials led by these talented over 50s which anyone around the world can watch and learn from, for a small fee, some of which goes directly to that awesome elder who stars in it. 

I was invited to collaborate withe The Amazings to help make one of these tutorials. It started with meeting rag rugger extraordinaire Jenni in London at The Amazings offices to get to know a bit about each other. Two weeks later I headed over to Jenni's home to film the class, and of course learn how to make a rag-rug.

It was a glorious sunny couple of days so we filmed in her garden. 

The motif I chose to make was based on the eye of a peacock feather and all the fabrics I used to make it were from my exisiting fabric scrap. I also used ribbons and yarn.

Rugs can be made from any materials apart from towels as these fray - but cottons, fleece, jumpers, bedsheets are all ideal.

Jenni showed me two techniques which require different tools, progging where you use fabric cut into equal size strips and hooking where you loop a continous strip of fabric into the hessian backing.

Our online masterclass Make A Colourful & Cosy Rag Rug is available to buy to watch now. It costs £20 and lasts 73 minutes. It's split into 11 bite-size chapters to make learning the craft easier. Once you've paid up you're enrolled forever - so you have a resource you can keep going back to and watch at your leisure. Take it from me, rag rugging is an incredible craft but even I have forgotten the technique a couple of times, so watching the video back has been very useful now I'm making another rug as a housewarming gift.

Jenni with her rugs at the Knitting & Stitch Show earlier this month

Just think about where else £20 could go, it's far cheaper than any class you could physically go to and what's more, this is a craft that has very little expenses. You can buy the tools direct from Jenni (or other craft stockists) and then all you need is some hessian (a tote shopper or coffee sack is good), old clothes/fabrics and a pair of scissors.  

My finished peacock rug

And if rag-rugging doesn't appeal there are loads more online tutorials you can buy instead like machine embroidery, needle-felting and quilting. 

ALL classes (including mine) have a free trailer you can view before buying so check them out too!)

Happy rugging xx