Always Coca Cola

On Friday I attended an event at the Design Museum to celebrate the 125th anniversary of iconic drink brand Coca Cola. You may be thinking, "What on earth has Coke got to do with vintage or fashion", but let's face it - brand survived generations and has been enjoyed in iconic imagery by the likes of Naomi Campbell, John F. Kennedy and Bill Crosby - if that doesn't make it a fashion icon, I don't know what does!

The event itself was very interesting, and reminded us all of just how much of an impact Coca Cola has had on the world over the years. The Design Museum was filled with coke bottles, advertising imagery and even the man who is draws the curly logo! To celebrate their 125 long years of drinkie-goodness, Coca Cola have also released an ASSOULINE book cleverly titled, "Coca Cola", which is chock full of their advertising genius. There are two versions of the book - one standard version and another super-special hard-bound limited edition version with colour plates that comes in a linen clamshell box with a complimentary ASSOULINE canvas tote bag, which you can buy here.









I was also lucky enough to enjoy the event with my two good friends, Reena of Fashion Daydreams and Nik Thakkar of KARLISMYUNKLE. We had such a lovely time we even made a little video - check it out.

You can view it bigger over on my YouTube page.

I will be back with some actual jewellery related posts soon - promise!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Britain's Next Top Model Live and Lived

Best. weekend. ever.

I could try to paint you a vivid word picture to describe just how brilliant the whole Britain's Next Top Model Live event has been this weekend, but instead I will show you my photo highlights!

Y'all ready for this?

My amazing model

I was lucky enough to dress and style the very beautiful, and not to mention lovely, Jessica P from Models1. Jessica is one of their "new faces", and after working with her this weekend I know she is going to be massively successful. But don't just take my word for it - here's the evidence:

Getting made up.

Getting the hair 'did.

Ready to go and born to do it!

This is why Jessica is a model and I am not...

My outfit

Natasha Bailie and I were each challenged to create a vintage outfit that embodies the whole Motorola 'Geek Chic' vibe to go with the super cool FLIPOUT phone. As I said in my post a week or so ago, I wanted my look to be 70s mixed with the relaxed elegance of Chloe. Here's what I did:

• When I was putting the outfit together, I knew for sure I wanted to feature this blouse. It's made from a really luxury satin fabric, and it screams Chloe to me - it's ultra feminine and very sophisticated. I also love the burnt orange colour, as it fits like a dream with an autumnal colour palette.
• To spice things up a bit and give the look a sexy edge, I teamed it with a nice fitted leopard print skirt. Leopard is a classic vintage print, so there are always plenty of gorgeous items to choose from.
  
• I was really happy to include this leather satchel with my outfit, as not only is it stunning, but it's also very unique and original. Let's face it - there's nothing worse than buying an item and seeing other people with the same thing! Vintage is all about feeling special, and this bag is just that.
• For the shoes, I went for comfortable but still very cool brown leather loafers. When the weather starts to turn, it's good to have a reliable pair of shoes that will still look chic around the office.
• To round off the look, I added some specs. They're the ultimate geek accessory.
  

So what do you think? I am personally very pleased with the whole look, especially considering it's my first proper go at styling for the catwalk. I would really appreciate your honest feedback, so please let me know.


Backstage

I'm not going to lie to you - while it was often rather hectic backstage, it was also a lot of fun. Why? Because I was surrounded by so many amazing people! Everyone involved, from my fellow stylist buddies to the wonderful people at Motorola and JCPR, was incredibly supportive and lovely. When we weren't running about find various bits and bobs and dressing our models, we basically spent our time dancing, singing and laughing! What more could anyone want from their job?

Me and my vintage styling buddy, Natasha Bailie

The High Fashion team, Matthew and Alize

High Street vs Vintage! Reena of Fashion Daydreams, Jenny of The Style PA, Natasha Bailie and I

The whole gang

I want to thank everyone who supported us this weekend - whether you were actually sat in the audience or you sent us a good luck tweet, it meant so much to know you were out there rooting for us. I should also have some video footage to show you soon, which should be interesting! Thanks for putting up with my constant blogging/tweeting/facebook status updating too. I promise I'll shh for a while now...

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Britain's Next Swell Model

I don't know about you, but I am a total sucker for the whole "Next Top Model" franchise. This years Britain's Next Top Model has definitely been the best season so far - the photoshoots have been more high fashion and, let's be honest, the judges were finally people who we could take seriously!

With my passionate love affair with the Top Model world in mind, I am extremely excited and overjoyed to be involved in Britain's Next Top Model Live, taking place at the London Excel Centre from 22nd-24th October. Not only does the event give you the opportunity to see the model girls up close (who doesn't love staring at models?!), but it also promises fashion, shopping and beauty brilliance.

And for some miraculous reason, the wonderful people at Motorola have invited the lovely Natasha Bailie and I to style the vintage section of what promises to be a pretty incredible catwalk show! We're going to be in great company too, as other stylists include the irresistibly dashing Matthew Zorpas, the beautiful Alize Morand, the stunning Reena Rai of Fashion Daydreams and the gorgeous Jenny of The Style PA. The theme of the show is "geek chic", in tribute to the super cool FLIP OUT phone (remember when I modelled for that? I still can't believe that happened!). The word "fun" doesn't even begin to cover it.

There will be a catwalk show every day of the event, so if you fancy the ultimate fashion weekend, why not come and join us? Not only will you get to see beautiful models in (hopefully) amazing clothes, but you'll also get to see all of us blogger types on the stage! If you're not sure who I am, look for the girl with fear in her eyes as she tries desperately not to cock up or swear...hold on, is "cock" a swear word? This doesn't bode well...

At the moment we're all desperately scrambling about to pull together our looks for the show, but I can exclusively reveal that Natasha will be dressing her model in delightfully quirky 50s chic, and I will be nerding up my model 70s style. If you come back next week, I may even show you a sneaky peak at parts of my outfit...sneakily. For now though, here's a little mood board I pulled together. This shows the kind of style and colour palette I'm going for. The inspiration has definitely been Chloe and the amazing colours that come with autumn.

(Please click the image to see the full size...Blogger is awkward)

So what do you think? Is 70s the way to go? Will you be attending the Britain's Next Top Model event? If you do, PLEASE come and say hello! I will be needing to see as many friendly faces as possible!

Until next time!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x

Blogger love, actually

On Friday I had the distinct pleasure and joy of meeting up with roughly 20 of my closest blogger friends at The Drunken Monkey in Shoreditch. I know it may sound a little strange to have blogger friends to some people, but I believe we have to accept that in this day and age the online world is fast becoming the key place to connect with others. Twitter in particular has introduced me to so many wonderful people that I am extremely proud to now call my friends, and I hope it continues to.

Dim sum was nommed, cocktails were drunk and good chats were in abundance. In short, it was an awesomely fun night. Here's the proof:

My one true love, Natasha Bailie, and I


The lovely Katie of London Plinth, Fiona of Save Our Shoes and Natasha


Alex of Alex Loves, Kate of The Fabric of my Life and Lira Leirner of The Portmanteau


Fiona and the beautiful brain behind Style East


The gorgeous Reena of Fashion Daydreams and I


Maria of mediacation, Mariana of Sketchbook Magazine, Kb of I Want You to Know and the dashing Nik of mediacation

It was geniunely a pleasure to spend the evening in the company of so many brilliant people, and I can't wait for the next opportunity to eat, drink and be merry with them all again. See you there?

In other news, the Motorola shoot went well! I've got behind-the-scenes photos, but I think it'll be better to wait for the final shots...tune in next week if you fancy a look!

Until next time...

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

Swell bloom

Hello everyone!

How have you been? I hope you've had a lovely week. Mine has been ever so busy!

On Monday I went to The Sartorialist book signing with the wonderful Reena of Fashion Daydreams - it was absolutely insane! Never have I seen so many immaculately turned out people in one room. Nor have I seen so many people queuing for a book signing! It goes to show how powerful and influential members of the blogging world can become. He signed my book to "Franke", which I thought was rather amusing!

My very clever friend Mark Pavey also popped over to show me the features of my soon-to-be live, newly improved version of my website! It's looking really, really good, and I can't wait to show you all. I'm even going to have my very own web shop, which I've very excited about. If you ever need any design work done, I highly recommend Mr Pavey. He's a bloody genius.

I've also been working on some new pieces recently. Here is one of my latest ones:




This corsage bracelet is made from a vintage brooch, linked on vintage chain. I'm really pleased with how it's come out - it's pretty bold, but so easy to wear. I've also found a great new place to photograph my jewellery in my flat! My housemate has this amazingly huge chinese cabinet, which is so easy to hang pieces from. I love the rustic background.

Oh, and I apologise for the extreme paleness of my skin. The sun is definitely not my friend.

Lastly, speaking of my flat and the sun, there was the most incredible sunset tonight:


I love living in London.

So what do you think of all of my pictures? I'd love to hear.

Until next time, my lovely friends! Have a great week.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

x

Swell Queens

Happy Monday, all! Wait...is there such a thing?

Did you have a lovely weekend?

I had ever such a good time at the IFB London Fashion Week party - Mademoiselle Robot did such a fantastic job! It was lovely to meet her as well as many other wonderful people, including the wonderfully glamorous Jennine Tamm of IFB and The Coveted, the adorably sweet Reena of Fashion Daydreams, the brilliant Gemma of RetroChick, the Daisy Lowe-a-like Holly of Never Love You More and the hilarious and chic Fritha of The Fish Tank.



Thanks to all for a brilliant evening! (above: Reena, Jennine and Gemma).

I am also very pleased/excited/overjoyed/delighted to announce that I am now a contributor to the wonderful website Queens of Vintage! If you haven't heard of this site, I highly recommend you check it out quick-sharp, as it's a wonderful resource for anyone who is truly passionate about vintage.

I have written my very first article for the lovely Queens, which you can read right here. It's all about sourcing vintage and antique parts to customise your favourite vintage outfit with or to use however you please! I hope you find it useful, and maybe even a tiny bit entertaining(?)

I really need to follow my own advice and get out on the hunt for new parts - all my good stuff has dried up! So no new jewellery to show you this week...but here's one of the photographs I took for my website (http://www.swell-vintage.com/) that wasn't used in the end.

I'm off on a mini-holiday from Thursday till Monday (a long weekend in London with my girls - very exciting!), but I will try my best to post before then. My new internet-tastic phone is due to arrive before then, so perhaps I'll even be able to do it from there!

Have a good week!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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