Yesterday evening I was working with the Solihull BID at the Mell Square Shopping Centre and specifically, with House of Fraser. The photo above shows the seating area where I sat and chatted to my ladies. Put together by the interiors team, I would quite liked to have picked it all up and taken it home with me.
These were part of the team with whom I was working. Boy were they heavy (sorry ladies). Dressing these models was so tricky - their arms kept falling off, they wouldn't bend or move in the way that I wanted them too, I kept groping their boobs (and apologising to them)! I have so much respect for the VMs who work with them on a daily basis in the confined space of shop windows.
The models were to be dressed in work wear so I wanted to include a dress option and a trouser option, print on the top half, print on the bottom half, colour, texture, matching bag and shoes, clashing bag and shoes, open shoes and closed shoes, together with classic, and more on trend, pieces.
Model 1 wore printed trousers and a pale blue lace top from Warehouse to reference the pale blue in the trousers, a Ted Baker mac with Dune shoes and bag - very matchy, matchy - but they could easily be separated out.
I love Dune for their range of inexpensive but stylish bags. They have a lovely coral one plus some nice tan and black ones too.
The great thing about these trousers is that there are so many colours with which to work. I felt that the print of the trouser and the texture of the top demanded a simple, classic shape in a coat.
The shoes are black at the back. I like the closed toe for those who don't feel that open toed shoes are appropriate at work. Love the leopard print lining in the coat too!
The leopard print bag is from Biba. I fancied introducing a print as a black bag, whilst safe, was a bit too predictable. The patent shoes were from Kurt Geiger.
I wanted to break the neon pink up, so chose this large linked necklace from Karen Millen. I like this necklace for work. It's really versatile and has a good weight to it, with just a little bit of bling in the smaller links.
Model 3 wore a printed kimono style jacket from Yumi, a cream Warehouse top, Episode trousers, Dune shoes and a Jaeger bag.
I love the colours in this softly tailored jacket as there are so many different ones that could be picked up elsewhere in an outfit. It would also be great with jeans at the weekend. The Warehouse top has a slight texture to it and the necklace, which picks up the brown shades in the jacket, is from Ted Baker.
I love this Jaeger bag! It's as near as it needs to be to the shade of blue in the jacket and the shoes pick up the coral in the jacket. The shoes may be a bit high for work but maybe not. The trousers are a lovely fabric - nice and drapey with just the right amount of room in the leg.
Ladies, it was lovely working with you - even the ones that were rigid and not very chatty!
