A BIG thank you to all those I love and adore...you made 2008 fantastic!

With the last day of 2008 coming to an end I decided to say thank you to those in my life who I have thanks to give too (and also because i have had too much time on my hands this week( when i wasnt shopping) so i thought hell why not!!!). When one reads the following they will know which thank you's are directed towards them.

WARNING: it is ridiculously sentimental but hey thats me in a nutshell (lol).

THANK YOU…

For being my rock through the good and the bad, the tears and the smiles.

For being there and not asking questions, but instead being there for me by taking me food shopping at Waitrose.

For lending me money when i drunkly misplaced my purse while in Paris- silly me!

For the shared giggles on the 29 and 253 bus back and forth between home and the outside world.

For coming with me for the midnight strolls to Tesco for my must have junk food at 2am.

For your encouragement in helping me in NY in taking the much needed baby steps that were way overdue.

For showing you cared by making my 23rd birthday special by buying me a cute Gap dress to wear and dragging me out kicking and screaming about old age for a night out on the town.

For the great times we had on our 2 movies and dinner nights out that was regular back when.

For finding the time to come and pick me up from whenever I needed someone to be there when you were at Kentish town.

For the day at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, your wise words helped me clear my head.

For the now catchy phrase "you are terrible Muriel" it will forever remind of the good times.

For always listening to my whining and problems and never letting you have a word in edgeways

For phoning me every day and making sure I was all right when times were bad or when the good times rolled by

For the 6 hour chats through the night and into the early hours.

For all the Ribiena's you always have to feed my addiction!

For that great summers day in NY, when we sat on a step in Greenwich Village for hours with a watermelon each complimented by great conversation.

For helping me furnish my flat, something I will always be grateful for.

For including me in your passion- music- even though you might think I do not appreciate it.

For letting me know the secret to your fab spaghetti Bolognese sauce even though you are yet to teach me how to make salad dressing.

For showing an interest in my future, but please worry not marriage will happen at some point in my lifetime!

For looking after me in DC, you really bloomed that year and I was so proud of you.

For all the advice you offered through the "him" Saga Those were some long nights of dissecting each issue piece by piece.

For putting the husband quest in motion.

For being my sister. You are my rock in so many ways. I cannot ask for anything more than that.

For being my friend. We have seen the best and the worst together and I hope that we will continue to be the best of for a long to come.

For being the best parents a girl can ever wish for. I know no matter what you will always be there for me and I hope to make you proud.

Lastly Thank You…for the memories and for being you! Now roll on 2009

Gros Bisous

Champagnista M

WRITTEN BY ME TO THANK THOSE WHO ARE VALUED IN MY LIFE!

Princess lifestyle on a budget

Ahhhhh i was thinking today that life sure has changed. Gone are the days when i used to call my dad up and say "Daddy i need money", or "Daddy did you get the bills i posted to you to be paid". I know, i know i sound like i was spoilt (note that I am talking in past tense), but you know what i look at it this way, I was my dads little princess and he liked to tell me that whatever his precious daughter wants she gets!

Ok i am sounding like one of those spoilt brats on "Sweet Sixteen" programme on MTV, but do you know what, I was admittingly slightly princess like. My father paid my rent and bills, my mum popped into London to pick up my washing and then drive back to London to drop it off.... okay i can so hear you tutting and shaking your head in disgust and thinking what a spoilt cow, what the hell is she whining about. Well there is a point to this blog entry and here it comes...

I left my job as Editor Assistant, a job straight out of University, back in 2004, after lasting 2 months. I hated it! When i left to say that my mum and dad were disappointment is an understatement, they told me that if I leave i would have to learn to financially support myself. With my stubborn streak in full force i took them on the challenge and told them i can support myself, after all I was 24, and it was then that my life lessons began!

I started to learn to look at prices when food shopping, I found out where my local launderette was, and the word budget came into this ex-princess vocabulary! Admittingly I found it hard, but i must say after nights spent eating at home rather than going out, taking the bus instead of cabs, was worth the penny pinching because it made it easier to accept and accommodate the one thing in my budget strict life that could not be changed and that was my love for clothes, shoes and luxury food shopping! I found it hard to utter the word "budget" when it came to shopping for shoes but I did learn the words "window shopping"!

Okay have i made my point, probably not! But do you know something? I am happy my parents took the harder road and enforced some independence on me because I am quite happily living the life of a princess on a budget that is set on my terms (instead of my parents who had held the purse strings). I guess my mother was always right, money doesn't grow on trees- and what a way to learn that fact!

Gros Bisous my darlings,

Champagnista M

x

You Forgotten? Never...

Ahhh yes it has been a while since the last post, but with Champagnista V out of the country and me at my parents in the countryside I must confirm that we have not forgotten you my lovlies but when one visits the family it is all hands on deck and all contact to the outside world seems to be disallowed.

So now that I am back in London and feeling happy to have survived my beloved family's love and demands i will be posting a little something very soon.

Otherwise I hope that you had a great Christmas and that you are looking forward to celebrating New Year in a way that every fashionista should- with panache!

Champagnista M

xx

IMAGE COURTESY OF www.cartoonstock.com

SS09 Burberry Ad Campaign unveiled

Christmas is all around at the moment; stars in the trees, giant snowflakes all over Regent street, candy apples, yule logs in glistening bakery windows, cheesy carols in pubs, it is all so sweet and forcedly cheerful, it makes me slightly sick: I cannot wait for the arrival of Spring.

Fortunately I caught a glimpse of it today with the first images of the new Burberry Spring-Summer 09 ad campaign, and it gave me hope. Imagined by Christopher Bailey and photographed by Mario Testino, the ad campaign was shot in a greenhouse on a grey day, and reflects the brand in all its British romanticism.

The colours are understated in an elegant way, playing with beiges, golden khakis and dim taupe pinks, and the edit of clothes and accessories is a surprising yet skillfully managed choice of city and gipsy natural style, creating this sort of wakeful nostalgia you feel sometimes on crisp wet April mornings in the English countryside, when translucent verdure is uncrumpling in a shiver over the bark coloured mat of leaves left over from the past autumn.

The models are fierce, and for a quick break-down of the new Burberry gang: the new Agyness Dean is Eden Clarke, the aristocratic dark haired blue eyed English beauty who made the cover of November Vogue. She shines in the rest of a charismatic group with attitude counting Lily Donaldson, photographer Emily Hope, Actor Alex Pettyfer, musicians George Craig and Sam Beeton, and models Alexina Graham and Richard Wyndham.

A little Spring poetry in the heart of this cold winter.

Champagnista V

And a little more on LOVE

Back to fashion... This last post drained me and I am not going to write like this in a few... well in some time.

On the subject of love, have you ever wondered what the word meant exactly? Because I think I have felt it and never looked it up.

Here are a few wise words from wikipedia on the theme:
'Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersnal attraction ("I love my girlfriend"). This diversity of meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.'

So it comes to sense that when Nicholas Coleridge decided to launch a new Conde Nast fashion magazine, the crew he put together should come up with 'LOVE' as a title. What a perfect word for a luxury and knowledgeable artistic fashion magazine. If you cherish fashion like me, you will be looking forward to see their first issue, which will be coming out in February.

Katie Grand, who launched Dazed & Confused in 1992, will be at the head of the editorial team and the magazine will be a bi-annual. I am hoping for a high-end English version of W with a quirky twist.

Champagnista V

Psst...

Psst- news just in my fellow Champagnista's, well actually I have known for a few days but due to the shock of it all it took me a while to process.

So the news is that following the meeting two rather fascinating individuals- Pamela Anderson and Vivienne Westwood at Westwood’s spring 2009 show in London in September 2008, it has magically led to Pam being asked to front the Westwood SS09 campaign.

I do have a sneaking suspicion that it was the inflated one doing the asking or shall i say doing the begging " please Viv can I"for Miss Pam to be given the much coverted role of being the face of Vivienne Westwood's SS09. Which leads to the question of if this is true then how many glasses of something something did it take for madame Vivienne to agree?- ok I am being rather mean so i guess as they say just slap my bum and call me cynical Sally.

Champagnista M

Supermarket snobbery

VS

For the past week the paper (well the free London Paper that I grab when I am heading home) has been reporting about people deciding to go downmarket when it came to their food shopping- you must have heard about the swapping Waitrose for Lidl.

Well all I can say on that is “I don’t think so!” No matter how much change I have left in my purse you will not under any circumstances find me bargain food shopping in Lidl. I mean come on people, is the credit crunch really that bad? Am I deluding myself by continuing to shop in the well lit, rather pricey Waitrose, rather then popping into my local Morrison’s with the rest of the money saving shoppers? Well am i? Because I truly believe that I am not wrong to continue down my supermarket snobbery and I will explain why.

A while ago my friend and I went shopping at our local supermarket in Holloway. There is a Morrison and a Waitrose down there. As we gossiped en route, I found myself quickening my pace as I walked past Morrison before realising my friend was calling me back as she stood in the entrance. Walking back towards her I said “what are you doing?”, and she said “I thought we going food shopping”, and I just stared at the rather unattractive entrance, and suddenly feeling like a toddler I felt a tantrum coming. Building myself to scream “I don’t think so honey”, I noticed she already had her basket in hand and was looking through the fruit and vegetables. Dragging my feet I followed her around like a sullen teenager as I took in the bad lighting, the screaming snotty kids, the sweaty workers, the uncovered bread, the scuffs in the floor, the screeching of mothers to their children and even worse the reduced table crowded around by the most vicious of bargain shoppers the OAP’s.

Feeling way out of my comfort zone I kept repeating the question “are we done yet?”, to which she would tut as she tried to decide whether to take advantage of the buy 1 get 1 free offer, or to grab a free taster from the bakery first. Finally we headed to wards the checkout, where to my annoyance we had to stand behind 10 other shoppers waiting to pay for their trolley loaded with monster munch, 19p fizzy drinks, and ready made meals. I kept thinking when will this nightmare end, as I watched the woman standing in front of us in her stretch leggings, baggy t-shirt with the words “I love England”, hair scrapped back and held with a scrunchy plus her 5 screeching kids- OMG if that is me in 10 years time I will surely slice my wrists.

Any who, 25 minutes later we made it to the front of the queue, my friend paid and we walked away having saved £2.16 on her shopping- whoopee I thought! As we walked, the fresh air hit me and I smiled for the first time in an hour. Then we crossed the road over to Waitrose, well actually I literally skipped over leaving my friend behind as she straggled under her Morrison shopping bags.

As I entered Waitrose, the bright lights and cheery music made feel like I have arrived home- yippee. As I was handed a basket by a Waitrose worker I took in the clean atmosphere, the fresh looking fruits and vegetables, and great food on offer. As I shopped in complete euphoria, my friend followed me with a sullen look on her face and making comments like “89p for a bottle of water, are you crazy?”, “what do you mean that bread cost £1.20, I will bake you a loaf for Godsake”, and “who in their right mind would pay £4.50 for a chicken that has been sitting there all day, I got mine for £2.45 at Morrison”.

As we headed home 30 minutes later, me with my Waitrose shopping and her with her Morrison bags, I knew then that I certainly suffer from supermarket snobbery. For me shopping is an experience that should be enjoyed, you are buying something that you are putting into your body so why not spend a little extra money on a loaf of bread. I mean come on the credit crunch has made me give up my crème de la mer, my Coco Chanel, halve my clothes budget and made me get the bus instead of the tube, but I will be damned if I was to start going down market when it comes to my food, I mean is that asking too much Mr Credit Crunch?

Champagnista M

Drum roll please....

BFC NEWGEN WINNERS FOR AUTUMN/WINTER 2009

This season, BFC NEWGEN sponsored by TOPSHOP continues to showcase all that is new and cutting edge about London's designers. Their catwalk shows and space at The Exhibition at London Fashion Week are not to be missed. Check out the must-see talent for February, and get a sneak preview online with full profiles of each winner, including interviews and biographies www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/newgen

CATWALK SHOW

Danielle Scutt House of Holland Louise Goldin Mark Fast Mary Katrantzou Meadham Kirchhoff Nasir Mazhar Peter Pilotto

EXHIBITION - ACCESSORIES
Anna Vince Borba Margo Fred Butler Nicholas Kirkwood

EXHIBITION - READY TO WEARCooperative Designs Craig Lawrence David David Emilio de la Morena Felder . Felder Hannah Marshall House of Holland Kokon to Zai (KTZ) Krystof Strozyna Louise Gray Mark Fast Mary Katrantzou Meadham Kirchhoff Peter Pilotto


LONDON FASHION WEEK FEBRUARY 2009 CATWALK SHOWS: FRIDAY 20TH - TUESDAY 24TH EXHIBITION: SATURDAY 21ST - TUESDAY 24TH Provisional catwalk schedule: http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/admin/e_go.asp?TransmissionID=727&URIEnc=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5sb25kb25mYXNoaW9ud2Vlay5jby51ay9jYXR3YWxrc2NoZWR1bGUuYXNw&User=X9G4%2BE1w


London Fashion Week is organised by the British Fashion Council.
http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/admin/e_go.asp?TransmissionID=727&URIEnc=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5sb25kb25mYXNoaW9ud2Vlay5jby51aw&User=X9G4%2BE1w

Sleeping Beauty

Sorry, sorry, a million times sorry for having neglected you: I have no excuses. Blogging is a commitment and it should be a golden daily rule, but my head was boiling for the last 2 weeks and I just needed to disconnect for a few days. Which I did quite well, judging by the messages I got on my voicemail when I turned my phone on this morning after leaving it off for three days.

I would quite like to tell you how blissful an out-of-the-world experience it was, but the 13 (doomed number) messages from my family I had to listen to on my way to work at 8am were not too far from spoiling it for me. That, and the hungover on hungover on hungover...on hungover I had to wake up through since last wednesday morning.

It is Christmas though, so no real way to escape feasty enibriation, and it is indeed a lot more fun than Christmas in a loving crazy family that has the miraculous privilege to drive you up the wall faster than you would be able to say 'anticonstitutionnally'...

I like Christmas when it is very scandalous, very unreligious, and very unconventional... so I will fondle this memory of the office drinks I had on Thursday, beginning with pub wine, minglixing with vodka orange, and ending with sambucca shots and beautiful colleagues passed out over the edge of a club's leather sofa arm, hair brushing the floor ever so delicately in the wavery fidgeting of early hours' drunkenness...

Since Friday was not a lot wiser, and I made it to bed on Saturday morning at 8am after about 6 hours of sleep in 3 days, you will understand why I woke up at 8pm on the Saturday night, and am now quite thoroughly jet-lagged without having had to go through the marvel of a cross-ocean flight.

Anyway, it is time to talk about more decent matters, least you might start thinking I am a drunkard, so I will tell you about the experience that came closest to my fashion senses during the last few days: Kenneth's MacMillan's adaptation of Tchaykovsky's Sleeping Beauty at the Coliseum on Charing Cross Road.

I had never been to a proper traditional ballet before, apart from the (very proper) ones I enacted myself when I was a clumsy kid who liked the tutu, the ballerinas and was the nightmare of my dance professor Madame Dame who found me way too remarkable in the midst of all her beautiful and gracious candy-haired pupils.

I had seen contemporary dance ballets and Russian ballets in the past, but a real 19th century romantic one, never, so when my flatmate offered to take me as a belated birthday present, I was so thrilled I never actually thought of asking what the performance would be exactly.

Consequently when the first bars sounded in the dim light of the theater, my first reaction was to try to figure out what Walt Disney universe I had suddenly fallen into. I would have never thought in my wildest dreams that 'Once upon a dream' was actually a Tchaykovsky composition, and still now I wonder how many times the poor man flipped on himself in his casket at hearing the shrill voice of an enamoured 5-year-old singing along Aurora and her Philip of a Prince Charming in a middle-class pinkish cozy living-room.

Past that, I will confess I fell totally in love with the social space because for once, instead of being full only of middle-to-advanced-aged cultured grown-ups as theaters usually are, the audience was scattered with very silent children, mouth ajar and eyes big like saucers, who took over the 2nd floor bar performing unlikely arabesques come the intervals. It helped me get back into a child's mind, and I think this is partly the reason why I enjoyed Sleeping Beauty so much.

However, ballet is quite an abstract experience compared to theater, and especially this one, in which I felt only the second act was truly dramatic and gripping. Maybe it is just because of all the thoughts that keep going round and round my head at the moment, but while a play can take my mind over completely from the first line to the last, this ballet found me weighing the oddest and most matter-of-factly things in my head (example: if you drink too much alcohol, do your fingertips get dehydrated?... I believe mine do).

Not quite enough action.

Nicholas Georgiadis's costumes were an absolute delight though, and I really liked the introduction of the languid jazzy booted cat couple and the tiered dress of Riding hood pursued on stage by a fur-headed pervert woolf. The first two acts were full of seventeenth century corsets with waspish waists and lacy decolletes, flowery half hoops brimming with pastel rose blossoms, and richly embroidered court dresses; in comparison the third act plunged you in a set dark with unfulfilled love, with black 18th century high collared dresses, haughty powdered hair and even higher top hats.

Three things that will stay with me for a long time: the untellable harmony of golds, peach, pinks and creams declined in the most incredible degrade on stage in the closing act, the wicked performance of the male Carabosse and her (his?) 4 humped servants, and the flirty ballet of virginal Aurora commanded to take a husband: I had no idea Sleeping Beauty was such a slutty flirt... I like her a lot more for it than I did the golden-haired Walt Disney princess!

Champagnista V

Champagnista Christmas Party at Maddox, more photos

Emilio de la Morena with team

Photos by RJ

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Johnny Loves Rosie accessories

The past 12 months have been a whirlwind for Johnny Loves Rosie. As an accessory brand that has been going for the past 16 years, they have managed to cement themselves as the go to accessory brand for anything floral, quirky and different.

At the beginning of the year Johnny Loves Rosie was in its final preparations for its launch into Topshop Oxford Circus, with a selection of hair wear. The 4th of February was D-day for Johnny Loves Rosie and soon enough they found themselves in high demand as their concession stand became the go to for stylists and fashion assistants who needed something quirky, different, on trend and affordable.

Soon after launching in Topshop Johnny Loves Rosie was requested to provide more than hair wear, so Johnny Loves Rosie bags, floral and jewellery where introduced into Topshop. By London Fashion Week, Johnny Loves Rosie’s floral accessories where being used in the Luella cat walk show as they where preparing to launch Johnny Loves Rosie in a further 5 Topshop’s- Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Dublin and Cardiff.

With the local press covering their launch, they were ecstatic that Johnny Loves Rosie was getting a great approval from the public. The appreciation of Johnny Loves Rosie continued through to celebrities such as Tamara Mellon who wore their AW08 crystals to the MET ball in NY, Amanda Holden who adorned them on Britain’s Got Talent, Zoe Ball, Pixie and Peaches Geldof, Helena Bonham Carter and Leona Lewis who was recently papped with a Johnny Loves Rosie bag.

Shortly after London Fashion Week, Johnny Loves Rosie launched its couture range to the fashion world. The pieces are hand made in house at the London studio; they are innovative, statement pieces that have recently been used by British Vogue, Tatler and Grazia. Only six of each design are ever created- making them exclusive must have pieces. It is these pieces that can now be found exclusively at asos.com.

Asos.com, the online store that recently was voted “Best online store” by Company magazine, and described as having “an eclectic mix of high fashion, designer pieces and A-list inspired outfits” by Grazia magazine has been embracing the Johnny Loves Rosie brand and enjoying the exclusivity of being the go to for Johnny Loves Rosie GOLD accessories.

So what does the future hold Johnny Loves Rosie? Well with their AW08 collection doing well they are now looking forward to seeing their accessories in the upcoming French Vogue and to launching their SS09 to the public.

Champagnista M

Photos courtesy of asos.com

Whet your appetite this New Years Eve with an ICY night of intrigue!

Want to do something a little different this New Year that doesn’t involve the usual sweaty clubs and even sweatier men who always try and kiss you at the strike of midnight? then I recommend celebrating your New Years Eve event at Belowzero- ABSOLUT ICEBAR LONDON.


This is no ordinary place, it is a space that boasts being Winner of "Best New Bar" at the London Club & Bar Awards and they continue to climb the ladder of success with ease. Their next must attend party will be their ‘CASINO ÉTRANGE’ night- on the 31st December 2008 to celebrate New Years Eve with style and panache.

The whole venue will be themed as a fantastic Moulin Rouge-inspired Parisienne casino lounge. As a guest, of what is shaping up to be ‘the’ place to be, will give you the opportunity to play at a selection of casino tables where you will get the chance to win an amazing grand prize of a trip for two people to the world famous Ice Hotel in Northern Sweden !

So is your appetite now whet for something a little different this New Years Eve? Want to see 2009 in a place that will leave you wanting more? then come to the cold side of fun, fabulousness and intrigue and have a New Years eve to remember.

For more information please email Mark at mark@belowzerolondon.com .

Is this the photo that will make you Champagnista famous???

I have decided that instead of writing about the Champagnista Cocktail party that took place last Thursday 4th December 2008, I will instead show you just what a great success it was through the fantastic photos taken by Joana Patterson.

Let me just say, don’t forget to take in the laughter, the alcohol fuelled giggles, the cheesy grins, the yummy canapés, the dapper men, the pretty girls, the fashion movers and shakers, the fashionistas and of cause us.

So enjoy the great mixture and jumble of fabulousness that was our party and just follow the story told by the photos ...and see if you can spot your fabulous self!

By Champagnista M