When Alice DJ'ed at Wonderland...

The other weekend, I was transported into a fabulous adaptation of 'Alice in Wonderland' at the Solstice, Peterborough, to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the novel. I was honoured to be asked to curate a series of tracks to set the mood throughout the daytime and night time activities. 'Wonderland' was a collaboration of over 20 artists, including the nationally toured 'Circa69' and their virtual reality experience, 'The Cube', as well as live painters, acoustic artists, dancers, bands and spoken word performers. Local musican, Paulo Morena was also one of my highlights, he entertained everyone by playing several instruments at once, and I thoroughly enjoyed some of the other acoustic performances throughout the day. In addition, we were fortunate enough to be treated to some visual delights at a 'Mad Hatters BBQ' installation, curated by some very talented artistic interns as a part of the local youth arts network, 'Emerge', and my friend and professional actor, Ross O'Dell. And who did I go as? Alice, of course!

The Emerge installation was a key point for me, as I have been working with them in my day job in our city centre incubator centre. We recruit three artists on a paid contract every 6 months as a part of the 'Peterborough Presents...' Arts Council funded programme, where my role is to then support them to work in an established arts placement relevant to their practice (usually outside of the city in bigger cities, like London). We also deliver a bespoke business training programme to them, to assist them on their journey towards becoming sustainable artists. Generally they can be from any artistic background, but this time we've recruited three visual artists, so they were all put to the task of creating some impressive displays!

Musically, this was a real challenge for me, because using new styles of music that I am not used to means that learning how to work with it and create something can be hard to master straight away. A few months ago I encountered a similar experience when I was asked to DJ a 1920's Gatsby party. To be honest, initially I had no clue how to do this, as as great as 1920's style music is, I didn't think it would get this particular crowd onto the dancefloor. I used this as an opportunity to learn and open my eyes to new types of music that would work. Electro swing anyone?

For this particular request I decided to create several mixes to fit the ambience and theme of the day, ranging from trip hop, to electronica, tech house and glitch house music. Check out one of those mixes below!

Overall I think the organiser, Nucleus Events did a fantastic job and it was amazing to see a local event that had more to it than just the usual run of the mill activity produced by the 'Peterborough Presents..' project.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your feedback!

Highlights from Cambridge Style Week 2015!

I was really pleased to be invited back again this year to DJ for Cambridge Style Week!

CSW really celebrates the quirkiness of Cambridge, and all its shapes and styles. They have been gradually perfecting the formula of mixing up catwalks from bigger brands in the city, alongside carefully chosen talented emerging designers. This has really enabled CSW to carve out a strong identity, which sets it apart from other fashion events in its own right. This year we were treated to even more acts and performers in between collections, that fit alongside the themes of each show. This really helped to round each event off perfectly for me.

The location this year was at the Quy Mill Hotel, which is situated just outside of Cambridge city centre. First impressions certainly make a difference, and the Quy Mill Hotel really rose to this challenge. Visitors were greeted with fire lanterns lighting up the red carpet, as well as a champagne reception whilst they browsed pieces from local designers before and after each show.

Obviously being in the DJ booth, I had a fantastic view of the catwalk, though for this post I've used photos from the paparazzi present (credited of course) who were situated in the perfect position at the front of the catwalk to capture all the action.

I DJed for two out of the four shows this year. Here were my own personal highlights!

Opening Show:

Jose Hendo: Fresh off the catwalk at LFW, Jose Hendo was certainly the perfect choice for the opening of the first show this year. Jose Hendo's motto is 'reduce, reuse, recycle' which she certainly does in imaginative ways. As a big fan of sustainable fashion,  I absolutely loved the way that Jose Hendo took to the stage and talked us through the background and context to her work, explaining her innovative use of bark cloth in her collection. Jose uses off cuts in new and exciting ways, and works with unusual materials to play with texture and pattern. I particularly loved the dress below, the arms of which opened out in a crotcheted, billowing fashion. Jose Hendo's work is clearly inspired by the wider world, and her experiences come across in a very distinct way.

Charles Davis Photography

The catwalk also featured collections from Dogfish and Cloudberry shoes, Boudoir Femme (a firm favourite local boutique which dazzles the catwalk year after year)  John Lewis, Cambridge Market Traders, Kairee, and Triumph, a lingerie brand which certainly got everyones attention to say the least!

Triumph Lingerie UK

The show was also supported by singer Kez Miles, who warmed the crowd up beautifully.

I chose a few songs that I thought would compliment the designs, including some house hits like Mat Joe, Betoko, Oliver Heldens and Natema to ensure a strong beat on the catwalk.

For the more vintage inspired brands, like Boudoir Femme, I opted for artists such as Tube and Berger and the Gotan Project which had a slower, sexy beat.


CSW Catwalk Show, with the Ottoman Empire

The second show was unlike any other I'd ever been to before, with special guests including the Turkish Royal Family themselves! 

For the first half of the show, I chose upbeat house and dance songs like Max Manie, Imany and a Philip George remix of 'Dancin'  to match the individual colourful, bright designs.

I-Unique: I loved the range of jackets on display from I-Unique, each one tailored differently to suit different sizes, all of which absolutely oozed individual style, through the use of various textures and patterns.

Image taken from CSW 

Leigh Rawlins: I loved seeing Leigh's work on the catwalk, not least of all because I realised I'd met her four years before, when I organised a fashion show at The Junction in Cambridge, and we featured her work as an Anglia Ruskin fashion student! She was always one to push the boundaries then, and it seems her designs are even more bold and interesting than ever before.

Image taken from CSW Twitter

Image taken from CSW Blog

There was also fab jewellery on the catwalk in the form of KFD Jewellery.

The second half of the show was absolutely fascinating to watch. It featured the Fashion School of Turkey which had some absolutely incredible, intricate designs, which really emanated the exotic vibrancy of Turkey and it's colourful and artistic culture. The show opened with a Turkish dancer, who whirled and glided around the stage to Mercan Dede, so much so that I couldn't take my eyes off him. I nearly missed my cue! It was also accompanied with entertainment from various classical musicians.

We chose Turkish music to accompany the second part of the show with a slower beat, matching the solemnity of the designs whilst still being powered by a powerful drum, resonating and highlighting the bold patterns.

Patrick Anderson

Images taken from CSW website

By far my favourite catwalk of the evening was Yasemin Biricik, who as well as stunning the crowd with her highly intricate pieces, ended the show with a head turning wedding gown, accompanied with models holding candles. You could just hear everyones breath being taken away as the show culminated in its final carousel walk.



In terms of the catwalks themselves, the models were just on point this year. The backstage manager, Kim Able, and the rest of her team did a fantastic job of making things appear seamless (despite how crazy things must have been!)



I had a great time this year and can't wait for CSW 2016. The Director, Nicky Shepard, is absolutely clearly so passionate about what she does, and this comes across in all the hard work and attention to detail that goes into every show. In fact, it's not often you come across such a dedicated team of people in general, and CSW just delivers on this every single year. If you didn't go this year, put it in your diaries for next March! You honestly won't regret it.

Fashion Thursdays Launch - Mixing Music and Fashion Shows

So I've been a little quiet lately as I've been doing a bit of traveling, which I can't wait to post about! But the two days I had in between coming back from Romania and jetting off to Portugal, I launched a new event called 'Fashion Thursday' back at home in Peterborough, in the UK, which I both organised and DJ'ed at.

About a month ago, I came up with the idea with a friend to mix in fashion shows with a club night, to showcase local brands and generally just have a good time. We chose a local haunt, Monroes (named after Marilyn!) which had a cool vibe and great cocktails - all the ingredients needed for a good night out.





Having not organised a fashion show in a while, it seemed a little daunting to do so in under 4 weeks, especially with a full time job and weekend DJ work, but I'm certainly not one to shy away from a challenge! I was really impressed with the professionalism of all the models, makeup artists and hairdressers, who worked so hard to help me to make this event a success at such a short notice.








We showcased two local retailers, 'Niros', who sell high end menswear, and 'Asylum', a funky high street store which stock on trend alternative and vintage styles. So a bit of a contrast, then! We generally don't have many events like this in Peterborough, so I thought this might be something new and refreshing. Needless to say, I think the experiment proved successful!

Huge thanks also goes to Moses Kambele, Josh Daniels, and Tom Gates who's photos are featured in this post!


Asylum

I was lucky to find some fabulous makeup artists and hairdressers, Eloise Wilson and Jenner McKenzie on the makeup, (below) and lovely ladies Mollie Walker and Laura Stringer working tirelessly on hair.

Niros Peterborough

Here are just a selection of some of the Hugo Boss and Armani suits worn by some fab models!

The night wouldn't have been the same without the two brands who came down to help out - Niros who were amazing helping us with rehearsing the routines and Asylum who just partied hard and made the atmosphere great!

 I of course worked really hard all night (with the occasional cocktail in my hand for good measure)

 And I wasn't the only one enjoying a cocktail or three!

It was such a fun night! It took a lot of overtime last month to get this sorted on a budget of almost zero, but with a lot of support and such a great team gathered in a short space of time, I think we did a great job.

What do you think of the pictures? Have you been to any fashion shows recently? I'd love to hear about it!