Clothes Show Live 2014

A few weeks ago on the 7th of December I visited Clothes Show Live, which has become an annual event for me. For those of you who aren't sure what the clothes show is, it is basically an event held in Birmingham at the NEC arena including a fashion show along with many stalls and boutiques where you can buy vintage and high street clothing. In addition they have a beauty area where there are a range of stalls including brands from the drugstore like Rimmell, BarryM and Models Own. They often have discounts or goodie bags that you can buy for an extremely good price!

 When my friend and I arrived, I decided to buy a clothes show goodie bag, which had a wristband and clothes show magazine. Apparently, this helped get discount off at certain stalls. It also included a map. Unfortunately, it didn't help me with discounts, but it was useful in that I had a guide of my way around, because with the NEC being so huge I didn't really know where I could find certain shops. It was expensive at £8 but I wouldn't say it was a waste of money as it did help me with my way around.

The show itself was phenomenal as always. Our seats this year were better than previous years and I had a great view of the show. To my surprise Jim Chapman (one of my favourite youtubers) was presenting along with a very good looking Rick Edwards. There was also a performance by Stereokicks to get everyone in the mood.

The show began with a scene in New York with very colourful, flamboyant outfits worn by the models, this then changed into a formal work outfit where the women wore faux leather white midi skirts which I adored! The screen at the back of the stage helped with setting the scene and the images were very vivid. There were a variety of colourful scenes, including a jungle theme, a theme park and a disco tech theme. I was pleasantly surprised with the music choices which were very lively and fitted all the themes perfectly. There were too slower scenes, one being a snowy wedding with "Empire" by Shakira being played and a contemporary dance scene with one male and female model. Not only that but all the models were beautiful with extremely chiselled features and my friend and I definitely appreciated the amount of topless models and the array of six packs.

One thing that was different about this year for me, personally, was that I saw a lot more celebrities. I managed to be face to face and inches away from Andy Jordan (from Made In Chelsea) and was next in line for a photo until he ended up dashing off. I also saw Dan Osborne, Lucy Mecklenburgh (both from TOWIE) and Jaimie Laing again from Made in Cheslea.

Sorry for the snapchat usage throughout this post

Onto purchases, I did find some amazing deals and bargains and contemplated buying almost everything, but I walked away at the last minute. Strangely, I was being strict with myself on buying things and I usually would have spent twice the amount I did. One thing I regret not buying was a pair of eyelashes from The Vintage Cosmetics Company. The packaging was so beautiful and I ended up convincing myself I only wanted to buy them because of the packaging, but infact the eyelashes were gorgeous and I didn't quite realise until I got home!

I have to say I spent up in Barry M. I ended up with 8 nail varnishes!! I did get a few other things from Barry M but unfortunately I can't post these because they're Christmas presents and I want them to be surprises.

From a stall named "Pepper Tree London" I bought a purple oversized jumper for £15 and I can tell already this will become a holy grail item, especially in the winter.

This has to be the item I am most content with and it was a skirt made from a shirt which sounds slightly odd. I'd never seen anything similar and it just appealed to me. It was £18 so not cheap or expensive.

After quite a bit of shopping, my friend and I found a photobooth which was inside a cute little car including props that cost £2.50 for a print out. So for a bit of fun we tried it out! Wow, these photo's are attractive.

Oh and if any of you are interested, I wore a high neck burgandy sleeveless top from Topshop, along with a check shirt from Tesco, my Topshop black quilted skirt and my black Dr Marten boots. I also did a classic red lip and curled my hair. Here's a rather moody selfie.

That was all for the clothes show this year. I did manage to see another catwalk on the Olympus Pen which was fun and worth the watch.

Thank you for reading! I would recommend the clothes show to anyone who hasn't been, just be sure to talk some money with you as you won't be able to resist the bargains!

Gina x