Vogue Festival 2015

Little did I know when I was travelling to London for my first Vogue Festival (in its fourth year) that I would be upstaged by a doll. My friend Kris's style obsessed Barbie Lanacia Denise Jackson (follow her on Instagram) ended up accompanying me to both days of the festival, and grabbed all of the attention wherever she went!

The festival is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to get into fashion to learn from the best - fashion industry insiders give talks and masterclasses. Think Vogue writers, editors, photographers and stylists, as well as top designers. I'd been lucky enough to get tickets for two of my favourite designers, Jean Paul Gaultier and John Galliano's talks. Many other industry greats were present, such as Tim Walker (photographer extraordinaire), Balmain creative director Oliver Rousteing, Henry Holland, Roksanda Ilinic and Erdem.

Upon arrival on the Saturday I was greeted by a jolly Harrods doorman (the ever is sponsored by the iconic store), who was happy to have a selfie with Lanacia (dressed in a breton striped Jean Paul Gaultier T-shirt) ready for his talk. I had a wander around to get my bearings, it was like a veritable fashion playground - I got smoky eyes at Bobbi Brown and hoped to get my hair fixed at the Kerastase stand but unfortunately the queues were too long.

You could also get your nails spring ready at the Vogue Nail Bar, with Topshop's cool palette of spring colours. Anyone needing a boost after partying too hard could be revived at the Vogue Mini Spa and there were Harrods cafes on both floors of the Royal College of Art, where the obligatory champagne, reinvigorating fresh juices and a wide variety of snacks were available to keep the fashionistas going. I particularly loved the Harrods My Green Man cake pops and the green juice.

Lanacia getting Chanelled! 

  

Anyone aspiring to be in the fashion industry had a wide variety of talks to choose from - Breaking into Fashion Photography, The Art of Editing, Everything You Need to Know about Fashion Journalism to name a few. Talks and activities were spread across two locations - the Royal College of Art and the Royal Geographical Society, just five minute away past the Royal Albert Hall. 

All the colours of the rainbow - so many Vogue covers! 

My favourite activities were the Vogue Cover Shoot, where for £10 you had a makeup touch up with Chanel, then got to choose Chanel accessories before your close up with a contributing Vogue photographer.  On Saturday Lanacia and I both had our pictures taken - there were amazing bags, jewellery and sunglasses to choose from so I picked a monochrome bag in the shape of the classic Chanel tweed jacket and some orange tweed sunglasses. Lanacia ended up in the pink milk carton - surely the first of many covers for her! I wasn't too happy with my shot so I ended up going back on Sunday - I tried to play around and ended up grabbing a straw to drink my Chanel milk! 

Lanacia actually ended up in Vogue!

I also had a hard time not spending everything I have at the Vogue Shop, which had exclusive Vogue Festival products up for grabs (I particularly liked the denim shirt and yoga pants) as well as covetable fashion books (the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition book is beyond amazing). I ended up buying a Vogue subscription (you get to save 50% off the cover price annually) and got talking to Patrick, the Subscriptions Director who explained he had designed the limited edition gold and black bags given to anyone buying a subscription. I was getting Lanacia to pose in a bag and he came over to see what was going on. He kindly offered to make her own mini version which will hopefully arrive soon! There was also a giant version of the gold bag for photo opps - very surrealist!

It was difficult to resist the Vogue shop! 

I also enjoyed the Speed Styling section, where Vogue Editors and visitors got to choose outfits to create different looks, against the clock so no pressure! The customisation area was also cool, you could get your Vogue T-shirt personalised by top designers like Bella Freud.

For me the designer talks were the highlight of the festival - where else could you get so close to the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier himself?

Check out my next blog to hear what he had to say. I'd love to hear from you if you went to the Festival or if you've been in previous years!