If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll probably know that I spent my Easter Sunday at Essex Fashion Week, meeting the stars of TOWIE and photographing the latest ‘Essex Fashions’. I was lucky enough to be given two press passes for the event at the Ceme Conference Centre in Rainham by organiser Adam and so went along for the all-day all-night event.
I’ve never been to Essex before, so I meticulously planned the journey up there. Unfortunately, we missed our train to Rainham (from Barking) by a few seconds but managed to grab a taxi with the very lovely Louise Glover who was also heading to Essex to model for Kandi. I immediately recognised Louise, as I’ve seen her photographs numerous times before in the newspapers attending premieres and star-studded events. She is just as amazing in the flesh as she is in photos, so it was lovely to have a long chat with her about her ventures before reaching EFW!
My friend Jac and I arrived at the venue at around twelve, only to be told that the main stars of the show (ie: Amy Childs and co) wouldn’t be turning up until three. However, during this time we met some really lovely people, including Linzi Peel and her PR manager Lorna. Linzi (as you may remember) was part of girlband Lola, which was featured in the very first series of TOWIE. Linzi and her manager were really lovely, so I hope to be seeing them both again very soon!
We decided to wait on the red carpet to watch and photograph the arrivals until the fashion show began, which unfortunately meant three hours of standing in rather high heels. However, we were able to meet Kirk Norcross, Jeff Brazier, the girls from Desperate Scousewives, Jess Wright and Two Shoes. I also met up with the lovely Sue Moxley and Sappho from Sparkling Jewellery, who are both great friends of mine and although we mainly catch up on Twitter, it was nice to speak to them in person!
The catwalk shows started at about 3.15 and didn’t finish until about 7.30. I didn’t stay to watch all of the shows as it was quite tedious sitting in one seat for the duration, so we wandered about, had a look around the stalls and went on a search for canapes. I did sit around to watch Amy Childs’ new collection, Jess Wright’s new collection and the new Boo Hoo range – so I will be writing up separate blog posts about these in due course (otherwise this post would be extremely picture heavy and you’d all get very bored!). Having a press pass meant that we were able to sit in ‘The POD’ (yes, it sounds very ominous but it was really just a separate seating area where we could photograph the end of the catwalk). I did manage to get some really good shots, so despite waiting around – it was worth it!
Overall, it was a great day – despite a few hiccups. Personally, I wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t been invited on a press pass as I don’t think it would be the sort of thing I’d pay for. However, I did have a really good day and met some lovely people – including Zara from Gossip Drip. I follow Zara’s blog religiously so it was great to finally meet her in person! Keep checking back to have a peek at the collections on show at Essex Fashion Week in all their extravagance!
