Dublin Fashion Festival 2011 Preview

Hey All,

As you’ve probably heard, the 2011 Dublin Fashion Festival kicks of in a matter of hours…  I’ve picked a short-list of must-see events over the 4-day festival (Sept 8th – 11th) on RTÉ’s TwoTube / RedRadar…

What Whisty Wants you to Witness at DFF 2011

Warning!! Dublin is being taken over! An absolutely fabulous celebration of all things stylish is being brought to the city by way of the Dublin Fashion Festival. This 4-day celebration will see the most sartorially savvy people in the country brought together to chat, show-off and share their knowledge and experiences of all aspects of fashion. From Ireland’s top fashion designers to its most respected journalists, from make-up artists to fashion bloggers; they’ll all be converging at the old Waterstone’s building on Dawson Street, which has been transformed into the Dublin Fashion Festival HQ. If you can’t make it to all the events, here is my list of what’s not to be missed….

click here to read the rest of the post!

A style consultation with Brendan Courtney

Hey All,

Last Saturday I went to a jeans fitting session in the Jervis Shopping Centre, Dublin. I’ve never been to style consultant, I’m pretty confident that I know what does and doesn’t suit me, purely through trial and error. Still, there is always a small notion that you could be missing something fabulous that you’ve never tried before.

I met Brendan Courtney at 3pm, and I knew that if I learned anything that afternoon, it was that he is a genuinely sound bloke. I left myself in his hands as he showed me my personal do’s and don’ts of wearing jeans.

Firstly, what not to do… never wear high-waisted light-wash jeans. See image below, (photo on left…) Because I have a short torso in relation to my legs, this style of jean basically made me look ridiculous. Brendan Courtney‘s advice was that instead of accentuating my waist, these jeans hid it. So if I did want to go high waisted, the only way to do it was to go extreme and try a pair that incorporates a wasp waist.

I then tried a pair of dark wash skinnies; simple, chic, classic, a jean for every day. I loved the colour…

Left: High Waisted Topshop Jeans… “Oh that’s where my waist went’. Right: mid-rise, ONLY skinny jeans give me a better leg to torso ratio.

…and skinnies are fine, but I wanted to push the boundaries, try something new. Brendan then suggested I try a light-wash stretch Topshop denim flare.

They fitted great, (I like my jeans to be tight-ish). But when Brendan took a quick snap of me and we reviewed the photo…well, our faces in the shot below speak volumes.

Literally, without a second thought, he went to back to Topshop and returned with the same jean in a dark-blue wash…

…”They’re a bit Scooby-Doo, totally on-trend 70′s and kinda freaky, I love them”, we’re the words he left me with; I have to say I’m inclined to agree.

A massive thanks to Mr. Courtney for his patience and for sharing all that knowledge with me.

As part of the Fashion Movement, the ‘Jean-ius Jeans’ style station is a FREE JEANS FITTING SERVICE, running every Saturday and Sunday until 10th September, at the old Waterstones store, Jervis Shopping Centre, Henry Street, Dublin 2.

Also a big auld thanks to Fafs for taking the snaps.

Yours,

Whisty Xx

RTÉ new online Style show

Hey All,

Happy Saturday!

RTÉ have recently developed on on-line style site called RedRadar. It features articles and videos by Ireland’s bloggers, talking about trends, outfits and fashion in general. This week Whisty is on the RedRadar and it would be too good if you’d check it out! There’s a little outfit dilemma on there too if you fancy getting involved?

whistyredstyle from REDradar on Vimeo.

Yours,

Whisty Xx

Pretty Woman vs Dublin Man

Hey All.

I had a rather unusual day last Thursday. I went to meet the film makers of Rent-a-Friend for RTÉ‘s Storyland, to film a promo for their episode.

It was a parody of a scene in Pretty Woman… when Vivian wreaks revenge on the snooty bint in a posh Beverly Hills boutique, who refused to serve her. Except instead of a glamorous Vivian, it’s a dude, in jeans, looking to rub the sales assistants nose in his shopping haul.

Image via: cinema-fanatic.com

We filmed in stylish vintage boutique, Horse & June on Drury Street, and yours truly stood in as the film’s snooty assistant.

Owner Zoe took a few behind the scenes shots:

I was in the shop earlier in the year to have a snoop about:

And this is the final video. It’s pretty darn funny (nothing to with me you understand, I’m just standing there being awkward )…

(Because of stupid licensing laws (love you Roy Orbison), you might not be able to watch it here but it works fine in youtube…)

If you think it’s a bit of a giggle, see the actual Rent-a-Friend episode HERE and vote away if my unashamed plugging hasn’t got you all riled up!

Yours,

Whisty Xx

As Seen in: RTÉ’s RedRadar Blog

Hey All,

It seems the extraordinarily in-the-know people at RTÉ have embraced Irish bloggers with gusto and asked us to contribute to their new alternative fashion and music blog, RedRadar.

Today, Whisty joined the list of great bloggers, Angela Scanlon, Blaubushka, A Chick Named Hermia and The Style Strutter by contributing a few words.

TRANSCRIPTION:

It used to be, that buying from charity shops was an absolute no-no. But now-a-days most in-the-know shoppers wouldn’t dream of passing a charity shop without popping in for a browse. The same goes for vintage boutiques; both offer a chance to find unique and fabulous second-hand pieces. The main difference is simply price.

Charity shops are cheaper, but you often have to go on the hunt to find the vintage pieces. Not all charity shops sell vintage, so you really have to know what you’re looking for. However, it is becoming more common to see specifically dedicated rails to all that is chic from a bygone era.

Vintage boutiques on the other hand, display everything with detailed descriptions including make, style, fabric and most importantly what era it’s from.

TOP TIPS

• TRY IT ON: Sizing has changed a lot over the years. If you are a size 10 in today’s shops, you might find that size 12 fits better in vintage.
• ACCESSORISE: If you’re unsure about buying from charity shops, think accessories. Jewellery, scarves and hats are a great place to start and you can easily incorporate them into your current wardrobe.

The photo is me and one or two of my better vintage finds:

I’m posting this photo from the HerApparel post because you can just see my new Carvela for KG shoes (from BT‘s).

Yours,

Whisty Xx

AWear SS11 Highlights

Hey All,

Continuing the new season collections review – Hard when there is a hurricane blowing outside, I know – AWear have launched their latest offerings. I was in store on Monday and had to stop myself buying a fantastic pair of ‘peg-leg’* Chinos let alone anything else.

Their major trend  is a kind of soft Safari-Chic. All subtle animal prints and pretty neutrals; think tan, beige, cream and Khaki It’s been launched with RTÉ‘s The Model Scouts winner, Tabea Weyrauch (IMG). Click here for AWear‘s behind-the-scenes blog post on her shoot.

In case you missed it the first time… and if I could’ve tried anything on at all, it would’ve been this skirt (€35)… I haven’t seen anything like this so far on the High Street this season.

‘70′s Glamour’

‘Festival Festivities’

See that stripey jumper? That’s GOING to be mine…

Yep, there are definitely a few pieces there that blow my skirt up, so to speak. Oh and their shorts…

Yours,

Whisty Xx

*You know the kind, high-waisted with a tapered leg that ends just around or above the ankle.

Best Designer Award Went to John Rocha

I dropped in to Off The Rails Live at the RDS amid a biblical rain storm on Friday night. Mock ye not dear stoppers-by because, from humble bloggers to big name designers, it was a darn high-fashion event. I absolutely would not give up the chance to sit at the same catwalk as Mr. John Rocha, and it was a pleasure to see him accept the award for Best Designer from Jodie Kidd. Who incidentally was wearing possibly the flattest shoes in the world and was still taller than everyone else, including the models in heels who wore some of Rochas designs. (pictured).

It was the following fashion show, however, that blew us all away, produced by the insanely talented Lee Lapthorne, the show was a visually vibrant affair. Themed around the 6 senses, the show was presented against a backdrop of light displays and each ‘sense’ was interspersed with dancers. It was one of the most impressive fashion shows I have seen in Dublin; to be honest I was expecting the usual array of House of Fraser pieces and maybe a touch of high street. Although this was the case in part, the rest was so much more than that.

From independent Irish boutiques like Liberty Blue Boutique and NC Kilkenny to on-line boutiques like mytights.com and Bitching and Junkfood; From well-known Irish designers like Tim Ryan, Kate & Ava, Joanne Hynes and Aideen Bodkin to international designers like, Bora Asku, Rachel Freire, Avsh Alom Gur and Manish Arora. All the elements came together to create looks that were fiercely fashion-forward.

What really made the show for me was the inclusion of pieces from this year’s collage  graduates; Katriona Flynn, Gerard Hancock, Joanne Power, Suzanne Acton, Clare Geraghty, Demelza Buckley, Tammy Larkin, Lynn Allen and Heather Finn. Including incredible, pieces from Ireland’s fashion future made the show the stand-out event that it needed to be. With fashion hierarchy present, it would nothing short of shameful had the show not included such vibrant, thought-provoking creativity. I loved it oh, and if anyone knows where I can buy a pair of Lion King leggings please, do holla.

It’s a TG4 / RTÉ Television Fash-off.

This evening, both RTÉ1 and TG4 are showing Irish fashion shows at 8pm. Which is incredibly frustrating as there is so little programming based around Irish fashion on TV as it is, so, way to go there, scheduling people. But anyway…

Last week TG4 launched their re-formatted fashion make-over show, Stíl na Réalt, into a 6-part series mixing the makeover concept with celebrity style. This new format sees two teams challenged to re-create celebrity looks for a non-celebrity, €200. The teams each get 4 hours to put together both an evening and daytime look representative of  a celebrity style icon. Tonight’s episode (September 30th) sees Dublin contestants attempting to recreate Kate Moss’ style.

“The series is presented by Céara Ní Chuinn who is joined each week by a panel of expert judges, including Dublin’s famous tailor Louis Copeland, image consultant Fiona McKeon, TV presenter Bláthnaid Ní Dhonnchadha and model / fashion writer Emma Jane Power“.

RTÉ however are launching their latest series of Off The Rails, tonights show sees Brendan Courtney and Sonya Lennon make-over a busy single mum who works a 60 hour week. Plus they will be showing viewers this years autumn / winter trends and how they have translated from the catwalk to the high street.

If you are planning to stay in and watch TV this eve, I would say watch Stíl na Réalt as it airs and then Off the Rails on the RTÉ player. That thing is awesome!

Kelly Osbourne Sparkled on Tubridy

If you get a mo, try and catch a re-run of Kelly O on The Late, Late Show with that Tubridy fella. If you didn’t like her before (why not!) you certainly will after you watch this, she comes across as honest, charming, self effacing and very sweet indeed.

She chatted openly about her addictions which were a result of the terrible slating she received from the ‘media’; as well as her love for her parents, they “come first”, her fiancé “my baba” as well as her hatred for her tatoos. “I hate them; I have a keyboard on my arm and I don’t even know how to play the piano”.

I just like her because she is smart as well as frank and open.

Carrie-Anne Proves she’s an Irish Gem

RTÉ’s The Model Agent winner, Carrie-Anne Burton, proved exactly why she won the challenge on this shoot for Irish home and gift-ware company Belleek. The company saw huge potential in the Belfast model and asked her to become the face of Belleek Living Jewellery 2009. See the website for a proper look at the gorgeous jewels! These are pics from the shoot; this is my favourite…

For blogs on the Show click here