Stylist Live

Alright I've been off with a cold and done nowt on my blog for a week but I'm back (phew I hear you all say). And what a week to come back to, you’ll be hearing about all sorts over the coming days but first it’s the Stylist Live event*.  An occasion which not only made me consider joining a political party, but also gave me a free Swarovski crystal note book!

@GirLRunningLate and I arrived at the Business Design Centre and grabbed our free glass of bubbles. While GRL made a beeline to get her hair all glammed I mooched over to the Stylist display.  Past cover images, quotes from previous editions and a mock-up of a worker’s desk - a bit Tracey Eminy just less of a mess - were shown. I wasted more than a little time imagining it was my desk and it was I that had the best job in the world.

When I was done with fantasyland I ascended the stairs and joined the first queue I saw. Luckily this was the Swarovski crystal free gift queue and nail files, candles, scarves and notebooks were all available to us just because we were there.  I probably could have left right then happy I’d got my money's worth... but I didn't.  

Good job too as I would have missed coffee scrubs, places to design your own shoes and have them moulded to your exact foot measurements, cute new lifestyle magazines and bargain priced clothing galore! 

Emerald Street gave us a place to charge our phones AND nab some free pick and mix but one of my favourite stands was Spry. Selling chic candles in an array of scents the fragrances were enticing and burned clean for, I'm told, between 20 – 50 hours depending on the size of candle bought.  

The fashion show was, after a small hiccup with the music, both interesting and professional and I fell for some of the period drama and 80’s trends we were shown.  The fast pace and slamming tracks were perfect for the occasion. I've been to fashion shows recently that are literally HOURS long and which lost their way 15 minutes in.  Kind of excruciating... in a seriously first world problem way.

In the interest of balance I do feel it only fair to add a few notes on what didn't work but I’ll make it brief as I don’t want you to dwell on this too much.

• Ticket Purchase Problems – Thursday being a half day should have been cheaper than the rest of the event. They obviously realised this after we had bought tickets - good on ya Stylist - but then offered either a partial refund or a glass of fizz on arrival.  Seeing as we all got said fizz anyway I'm doubly glad I went for the refund!

• Water Stations – these were few and far between, actually I only saw one and in a warm setting with overexcited people being given free shizzle this seemed a little short sighted.

• Directions – the learning labs and talks were not well signposted.  Several of those manning stands didn't seem to know where the talks were and by the time we had found some of the labs many were already full.

All that aside and cutting them a little slack, it is their first go at an event like this, my time at Stylist Live was well worth it with the highlight being the Caitlin Moran chat**.  She was so comfortable and engaging.  So eloquent, able to back up her arguments whilst adding more than a little humour to her points.  The slightly obsessive part of me didn't feel like I was in a public talk at all, she has that knack of making it feel like we're all just chatting down the pub.  I thoroughly enjoyed how she imparted her wisdom and could have listened to her speak on masturbation, abortion, the state of the world and how she blew her chance at being friends with Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift all the live long day.  She's even inspired me to look into joining in this lark we call politics by seeing what The Women’s Equality Party is all about, a feat no one else has come close to accomplishing.  Plus she’s done it all with a sense of joy and positivity that is positively contagious.  I’ll climb down out of her backside in a moment but may as well finish off by admitting what you probably already know. I seriously love her and wish she was my friend.  

So I'm off to discover more about The Women’s Equality Party and try not to doodle images/made up conversations I would like to have with my new BFF in my new sparkly notebook.

If you went to #StylistLive let me know your take on it below.

*bear with me it’s gonna be a long rambley one!

** I wrote that  bit whilst queueing to go into the Moran chat because I knew it’d be awesome sauce and it was!