GB Catwalk Début!

Friday to Sunday just gone equalled non-stop awesome-ness. These were the 3 amazing days that was the Top Model / Fashion International show!

Ok so let's talk about the big stuff first: Saturday saw GingerBread's catwalk début!! Fifteen hats, from collections old and new (plus a few brand new hats made especially for the show), got to do their thing on the catwalk. They were shown off by stunning models, and complemented perfectly by fantastic make-up and hair. The whole experience gave us such a buzz, both during (I think I told the models 15 times how fantastic they looked whilst they were waiting to do their walks!) and still now afterwards.

Photos will follow soon, but if you can't wait and want to see some some of the other gorgeous clothing collections shown, nip over to the Top Model Facebook page. Also check out Colin Chau's website. Colin was the man behind all the official photography for the show(s), so we have him to thank for the amazing images that have been released so far (oh, and the incriminating evidence from the pre-event party). He's also a super nice guy to boot – I think the show may have OD-ed (or least should have sugar crashed!...) on the amount of sweet and awesome people involved.

Winners from 'Classics' category. including Tracy Caswell in one of our brand new designs. Image taken from Top Model Facebook page

I was also privileged to be asked to help judge the 'Commercial' category finale on the Friday night! It was surprisingly difficult to judge who I thought had the most potential as a full-flung, professional model - many of the finalists were incredible! (also didn't help that the designer parts of my brain kept wanting to focus on the great designs instead!). It was an absolute honour to do it though, and so moving when the overall winner for the category announced.

Big thank you's go out to all of the TM team for allowing us to be part of such an amazing event, Greasepaint for their great hair/make-up skills, and to everyone else we met (you know who are!).

Now to wait patiently for the photos.......!

Ange xx

GingerBread does the TopModel 2011 VIP Preparty

So, I'm told regularly the blog needs more sales-y market-y type stuff, that it's always “art art art” and needs a little glamour injecting. It's hard though; by nature I'm not a “glamourous” type. Ange's head art has always had glamour enough for both of us.

So here it is. My attempt at something a little more “glamourous”.

Hmmm, how about models. Models are glamourous, right?

What else? Parties? Everyone loves a good party. We'll have one of those.

What's that? Exclusive hire of one of London' most (in)famous Soho clubs? Oh Geoff, I rather think that may do the trick.

So on Saturday, GingerBread's finest were rocking it up at the Shadow Lounge after being treated like royalty by Fernando and the Soho Salon team along with all the designers and models for this year's Top Model event. To say we had an incredible time surrounded by industry leading and upcoming talent in some of the finest locations that London had to offer would be putting it mildly. Geoff Cox of TopModel certainly knows how to throw a party and the effort, enjoyment and enthusiasm showed by everyone was out of this world.

Everyone was incredible, but special thanks for us have to go out to Geoff Cox, Colin Chau, Fernando Leon and the Soho Salon team and, of course, our lovely, gorgeous and stunning Classics.

So check out the pictures, leave us a comment on facebook, drop us a line and, if you can, see us at Top Model next weekend.

Just don't ask about the pole. Really. You don't want to know.

Top Model Fittings! (a.k.a the day we DROVE though Piccadilly Circus)

If you wanted to describe Chris' version of hell, having to drive though the sights and sounds of London is probably pretty up there....... well, guess what we're doing bright and early on Sunday morning?! (thank you Geoff – thank you. - Chris)

It was all, we discovered, in the very worthwhile, fun and fantastic name of meeting the lovely 17 'Classics' models who will wearing GingerBread creations at the Top Model / Fashion International catwalk show on 26^th March.

The fitting session took place on Old Street in London, so cue 50 minutes of myself, Chris and a whoooole lot of hats making our way across London, and spending the second half of the journey looking in semi-horror as we drove past the likes of Harrods, The Ritz, Hyde Park, with the iconic signs at Piccadilly Circus adding the final icing on the cake of 'we sooo should not be driving through this!!!'. I think I now owe Chris a mansion for asking to drive through such testing waters.... At least it was wasn't a weekday though (mmmm, London commuter traffic.....), and other designers, models and Top Model staff had to travel much further than we did, so really we were lucky to be so close.

Being in transit anywhere near the Piccadilly Circus signs = wrong, just wrong....

Doing the fitting for the hats was amazing. As we unpacked the hats in preparation for it, lots of people - models, other designers, TM staff – were really kind in their enthusiasm and compliments for the hats – thank you guys!! The 17 Classics models were all utterly gorgeous, and it was great fun and a real privilege to be asking them to wear the GingerBread hats. There was a range of looks across the models, which worked out perfectly with the range of hat styles we had brought. Chris was also totally on form helping match up models to hats (and also discovered the Top Model official photographer is an exact clone of our good friend Steve!....).

A couple of other designers were also at the fitting session, so we got to see sneak peaks of what they will be showing. The outfits were beautiful!! We spotted glamorous evening gowns by Frank Usher, amazing detailed garments by Courting Lily, along with gorgeous, slinky wedding dresses.

I also need to give a lot of gratitude to Geoff and his Top Model team. They ran the fitting sessions (and all the preparation for the event so far!) extremely well, were really helpful, friendly and of course we wouldn't be doing any of if it wasn't for them!!

The day has got us looking forward to the big show itself even more – bring on the 26^th!!

Ange x