The London 2012 Olympics goes out with a bang!

If I mention The Spice Girls, Take That, Pet Shop Boys, Fat Boy Slim, George Michel, Russell Brand & Eric Idle in one sentence, you will without doubt know I’m talking about the 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony line up.

The stadium was electric as the crème de la crème of British talent gathered to perform the greatest show on earth. Closing ceremony director, Kim Gavin, made sure the Olympics left London with a bang. With his recent works including Concert for Diana in 2007 and Take That’s latest stadium tour he was sure to impress.

Intertwining the best of British music, fashion and stage design, the ceremony showcased performances spanning from Liam Gallagher to One Direction, Madness to Jessie J and Pet Shop Boys to Eric Idle, alongside stage design by Damien Hirst which provided the perfect catwalk for top British models, Naomi Campbell, Lily Cole, Erin O’Connor, Kate Moss and Georgia May Jagger as they flooded the enormous union jack catwalk.

Focal points of the ceremony included holograms of John Lennon and Freddie Mercury, a street party performance from Madness, Spice Girls arrival from iconic light up black cabs and ‘dad dancing’ from Boris Johnson.  

The incredible event came to a close with the symbolic extinguishing of the Olympic flame as Big Ben struck midnight, with each nation to receive one of the caldron’s 204 petals. The extinguishing was accompanied by my favourite performance of the night from Take That who sang hit single, Rule The World.

If like me you were following the event Twitter trend, you will have seen the waterfall of tweets that flooded twitter. Twitter revealed that the spectacle generated more than 116,000 tweets per minute, overtaking Usain Bolt’s 200m final win!

An incase you haven’t seen, yesterday Adidas released a brilliant video of Team GB athletes celebrating their success with their own version of Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. Check it out if you haven’t already! 

Ellie xx

Top Brands Confirmed For Boutique 24!

We are delighted to announce a bounty of brands have confirmed to exhibit at Boutique 24. For one day only during Cheltenham Fashion Week, the designer shopping day will transform luxury boutique hotel, Cowley Manor, into the most exclusive shopping address in The Cotswolds.

Twenty-four top names and labels will form mini boutiques in each of the luxury bedrooms. Guests will be welcomed into the hotel to share company with fabulous fashion designers and retailers from across the UK, including Jo Loves, Harvey Nichols, Jimmy Choo & Laura Mercier.

The Garden Room and ground floor of Cowley Manor will host an array of fashion, hair and beauty styling workshops from industry professionals such as makeup artist, Sophie Everett, and hair styling from Stuart Holmes of The Stuart Holmes Hair and Beauty Spa.

If you’re a great lover of online shopping, my-wardrobe.com will be bringing their online store to life in one of the pop-up-boutiques. Two of the rooms will host top luxury labels from the website such as Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Chloé, Acne & Philip Lim.

And if that’s not enough, local fashion label Kelly Thorne and The Gift Atelier will also be transforming another of Cowley rooms. Other brands also include Law & Company, Juno Says Hello, Polly Ollie Annie, Stella & Dot, One Piece and Holland Cooper. 

Following a huge hat trend set by the Duchess of Cambridge; the British School of Millinery and Milliners from the CFW event ‘Who Wants to be a Milliner?’ are to host rooms showcasing the hottest hat styles.

Tempted? Tickets are priced at £12.50 when booked before the event or £17.50 on the door and are available to purchase alongside other Cheltenham Fashion Week events at www.cheltenhamfashionweek.co.uk, by phone 0844 8808094 or from the Cheltenham Fashion Week Box Office on the first floor of the Regent Arcade. 

Ellie xx

The Giant Shoe is Featured on Cotswold TV!

Our giant fuchsia stiletto is currently located in the gleaming Mercedes-Benz of Cheltenham & Gloucester showroom and is looking right at home next to the polished cars.

Whilst there the Cheltenham Fashion Week Giant Shoe has made its television debut, with local station Cotswold TV.  Presenter Rowena Perkins and Colin arrived at Mercedes with equipment in tow, ready to capture Sam Bawden’s enthusiasm for Cheltenham Fashion Week on film.

Sam spoke of the many Cheltenham Fashion Week events - ‘Boutique 24’ at Cowley Manor, ‘Who wants to be a Milliner?’, the two student shows among many other events.

Her interview was followed by a short piece of filming with Mercedes Cheltenham & Gloucester sales manager Paul Simpson. He told of how proud Mercedes-Benz of Cheltenham & Gloucester are to be a headline sponsor of Cheltenham Fashion Week, as there are such tight links with Mercedes-Benz and London Fashion Week.

Cotswold TV had soon captured all they needed, and here is the video itself for you all to see! Thank you Cotswold TV!



And as Cheltenham Fashion Week gets closer and closer, the buzz surrounding the fantastic events just gets bigger and bigger! One event we are particularly looking forward to is "Boutique 24" at Cowley Manor - check out the exhibitor pack below for a little taster of what is to come...

Esther x

Boutique 24 Exhibitor Pack

Celebrities & Competitions!

This week The Giant Shoe has been snapped socialising with some local fashion faces. Last week we were joined by the lovely gents from Emmaus Gloucestershire, who lent a hand helping us out to moving The Giant Shoe! The Giant Shoe Crew took the shoe to see some beautiful countryside in the Cheltenham outskirt of Stroud, also the hometown of Loose Woman and The Bill star, Lisa Maxwell.

After a quick photo and a rain shower, the shoe moved on to drop in to Gloucestershire College where she caught up with the Gloucestershire College Girls, Sam and fashion designer, George Davies.

We are delighted to have Gloucestershire College as our official education sponsor. Gloucestershire College's curriculum leader for fashion design, Sarah Clarke has joined the Cheltenham Fashion Week team as Educational Director and has been busy organising our Student Education Show - a key event in the Cheltenham Fashion Week calendar.

Co-sponsored by international fashion designer, George Davies, the Student Education Show, takes place on Tuesday 18th September at Gloucestershire College Cheltenham Campus. The event will showcase pieces from young fashion designers at primary, secondary and tertiary level from across Gloucestershire. Outfits are to be judges by an esteemed pannel who will select the winning pieces straight from the catwalk; alongside George Davies himself local fashionista Nell Gifford of Gifford Circus will join the panel.   

  

The College will also host three Fashion Seminars on Monday 17th, Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th September at the Cheltenham Campus. To book tickets to these event and other in Cheltenham Fashion Week visit the Cheltenham Fashion Week Box Office on the first floor of the Regent Arcade or  www.cheltenhamfashionweek.co.uk or phone 0844 088 8094.

Also this week we have launched the second of our two exciting competitions 'Design Your Own Shoe!'. In association with Upper Street, Cheltenham Fashion Week are offering one lucky winner the chance to have their fantasy footwear creation made. So get designing for your chance to have a one-of-a-kind pair of unique shoes! And if like me you're not so nifty with a pen and paper but the ideas are all there in your head, Upper Street have done the leg work for you. You just have to pick your favourite patterns, prints and pointed toes and your creation will appear on screen before your eyes! 

To get your fashion juices flowing, check out our very first entry from Blaise Dyer!

Simply visit the link below and get designing!

http://www.upperstreet.com/features/shoe-design-competition-cheltenham-fashion-week-terms/

Ellie xx

The Giant Shoe Tour Hits The Big Screen!

Behind the scenes of the Cheltenham Fashion Week Giant Shoe photographic day! An enormous Thank You to everyone who has helped with The Giant Shoe Tour!

Cotswold Style & Competitions!

With just over a month to go until Cheltenham Fashion Week, as you can imagine things are really heating up here at Cheltenham Fashion Week HQ!

The August issue of Cotswold Style went on sale yesterday. Pick up your copy to check out The Cheltenham Fashion Week launch party and the latest oh so glamorous Olympic themed Cheltenham Fashion Week photoshoot entitled ‘The Sport of Shopping!' 

We have also announced our iPhoneography competition run by local mobile photographer, Nettie Edwards. Whether it’s your beautiful cookery creations, a fabulous night out with the girls, or your favorite feel good outfit we want it! Show us how much creativity and style Gloucestershire has to offer. Get inspired, simply snap an image with your Smartphone, iPod or iPad and enter our competition!

To enter, upload your photos to your Instagram feed and the important bit, tag them #cfw_photocomp and @CheltFashionWk. Please ensure your photos are correctly tagged otherwise we won’t be able to include you in the competition.

After you’ve sent us your masterpiece, tell us more about your photo, where and when it was taken, who or what it is of… Simply add some extra tags to share your photo story.

And don’t stop with just one photo entry! Enter as many times as you like the weird, the wild and the wonderful.

The prize…a bounty of Superdry goodies!

What more persuasion do you need - get snapping!

T&C’s The boring bit…

This competition is open to everyone living or working in Gloucestershire. All entries must be shot and processed on a mobile phone, Smartphone or mobile device such as an iPod or iPad. Photographs may be creatively processed using apps other than Instagram but we ask that you do not enter photographs taken with cameras or processed with computer software such as Photoshop.

Entries DO NOT have to be shot with the Instagram app but they may only be submitted to the competition via Instagram and tagged #cfw_photocomp and @CheltFashionWk Sorry, but we will not be able to consider untagged photographs. We will not count photographs of photographs as these will infringe the copyright of other photographers. There is no entry fee and you may enter as many photos as you like. You retain copyright of your photographs but by entering them into this competition, you agree to allow Cheltenham Fashion Week to use them in future publicity campaigns, in print, online and live events. The winner will receive some fantastic Superdry goodies! The judges’ decision will be final. 

As Cheltenham Fashion Week draws ever closer, don't miss out on the hottest ticket in town this September. Available at 0844 088 8094,  www.cheltenhamfashionweek.co.uk or from the Cheltenham Fashion Week Box Office on the first floor of the Regent Arcade, Cheltenham. 




Ellie xx

A Silver Ball Intern On Cosmopolitan

Last week my article, "Getting your foot in the door: how interning can help you get a job", was published on Cosmopolitan.co.uk addressing the benefits and importance of interning in such a competitive graduate market.

Internships, like the one me, Ellie and Esther are fortunate enough to be doing at Silver Ball PR, allow students to gain vital hands-on experience in a field they are interested in and providing amazing opportunities that they may otherwise not have been presented with.

Using internship sites such as the ones mentioned in my article helped me to find the position Silver Ball was advertising, so it shows just how easy it is to stumble across a worthwhile opportunity if you know where to look!

You can view the article, and hopefully feel somewhat inspired, here: http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/campus/student-life/the-benefits-of-interning-career

In other news, our Giant Shoe Tour continues and is now currently located at Mercedes-Benz where it will be until the end of next week. If you have seen it around Cheltenham so far and have managed to snap some pictures of it, remember to tweet them to @Cheltfashionwk for your chance to win 4 tickets to our fabulous "Boutique 24" event!

Alex

xx