Avril Mair

Last night I came home to a wonderful hand delivered parcel – a preview copy of ELLE Collections Spring Summer 2011, hitting the newstands tomorrow.

Rather than a mere round up of the catwalk shows, ELLE Collections deconstructs the trends and makes the whole business much more fun and accessible.

The ELLE UK team bring an insider’s view of the shows, from the soundtrack at Chloe, the Prada snacks, the show scenery and all the pretty invites.

Pulitzer Prize winner and fashion critic, Robin Givhan, discusses the innate sense of glamour only achieved by curvy gals and rising Brit designers such as Peter Pilotto, Jonathan Saunders and Holly Fulton talk about the art that inspires their work.

Other visual delights include a month in the wardrobe of Anna Dello Russo, a who’s who of the front row and a montage of designers’ backstage inspiration placards – ‘think posh school girl’, was the pre-walk decree by Preen.

ELLE have even given us bloggers a helping hand with a calendar recording all of the important fashion and art events until November. I’ll definitely be scanning a copy to stick up at my writing desk (ripping the page out would just seem blasphemous).

Other fashion treat to expect in the 10th issue include:

224 Poodles
2,000 words by a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer
73 images by style blogger Tommy Ton
16 school photos of designers
10 awe-inspiring fashion moments
8 Hermes dressage horses
… and a DIY Prada banana

ELLE Collections is available to buy from 26th January 2011. For more info, visit: www.elleuk.com

Last week, I joined the ELLE team and invited bloggers for breakfast at The May Fair Hotel, to get the low-down on their first national campaign, Shopgirl to Stylist.

As part of their 25th anniversary celebrations, ELLE is launching a six-month long talent search to find the nation’s most style savvy shopgirls (or boys) – a kind of ‘fashion X Factor’.

Aspiring stylists must create a look from the high street and enter their work on ELLEuk.com. The winner will get the chance to style a shoot for an issue of ELLE, an internship at the magazine and some career-breaking mentoring from the ELLE fashion team.

The competition closes on 4th May and the ELLE judging panel will then select 25 semi finalists, who will then complete a styling assignment. The list will be cut to just 10 finalists and the five ELLE mentors (Marissa Bourke, Anne Marie Curtis, Stacey Duguid, Natalie Wansbrough-Jones and Carrie Gorman) with then take two finalists and lead them through the final stages.

The London final takes place in the first week of June, where the finalist’s intuitive sartorial skills will be put to the test with on-the-spot styling tasks, followed by a one-to-one interview with Editor-in-Chief, Lorraine Candy. During then next few nerve-racking months, Lorraine Candy will select the most promising stylist and the winner will be announced in the October issue of ELLE.

British style owes a great deal to the high street, as the majority of us turn to these stores for seasonal on-trend pieces, affordable designer collaborations and wardrobe staples.

The quality, craftsmanship and originality of designer garments can’t be disputed, but the high street has recently come leaps and bounds in interpreting catwalk trends and investing in new designer talent. Where else in the world would a high street store be one of the most talked-about shows at fashion week?

It will be interesting to see how the shop assistants make use of their non-designer resources and I reckon there could be some truly unique looks to be inspired by.

You can enter at elleuk.com/shopgirltostylist from Friday 5th March.

ELLE Collections 10th Issue

From Shopgirl to ELLE Stylist!