Well this isn’t an image I ever thought I’d be sharing on the blog, and what a fab night we had too. This Wednesday evening (23rd September) we were invited to John Lewis in Nottingham for the launch of its Autumn Winter 2014 Private Label collection.
When the invite popped itself into my virtual letterbox, I couldn’t refuse. A chance to listen to, and meet the infamous Liz Jones, I think my reply was…HELL YEH!
From left to right – Amanda (me), Liz Jones, Jen (Love Chic Living) and Louise Galvin.
Liz Jones is the former editor of Marie Claire and Mail on Sunday columnist. A fashion expert, with a love hate relationship with the fashion world, recently having written a piece in the Mail on Sunday entitled ‘is John Lewis the new Prada?’
In essence, it was a real treat of an evening. Liz came across as an intelligent, witty, candid and both a little shy and self-deprecating when she spoke to the audience. She was dressed in a beautiful AW14 season dress from Alice Temperley, with a wide delicate vintage style lace hem. Teaming it with a black leather biker jacket and statement necklace, she looked amazing I thought! She talked through the catwalk trends for AW14, revealing the top picks for this season from Kin by John Lewis, Somerset by Alice Temperley and Collection by John Lewis.
She also talked about her life, and where her ambitions came from. In a word, VOGUE! The troubles she had had, and the law suits. We were each given a copy of her new book ‘Fashion, Fasting and Fleet Street’ which after seeing her speak, I can’t wait to read.
We were then treated to a talk from the hair expert Louise Galvin with an invitation to have a colour consultation from her and a makeup lesson from one of my favourite beauty brands Bobbi Brown.
So as you can tell, I’m a Liz Jones fan. I don’t read her column, as I have a passionate dislike of reading newspapers, too much bad news for me. Liz as a person though, I thought had a journalistic twinkle in her eye, and you could almost see the cogs working when you spoke to her. I like that. We even had chance to have a good chat with her at the end, where she revealed the plot line to the new novel she is penning. She took our blog business cards, as she wanted to have a read, which does worry me a little. Liz if you are reading, please be kind.
School Gate Style says
First up, it was so lovely to meet you on Thursday! You were a joy to chat to and between you and Jen, my head is filled with blog info I’d no idea about before! Thank you!
So I enjoyed this post because I actually am quite fond of Liz J too! She’s good at courting controversy in her column but people forget that she’s paid to do that. In any case, I was featured in the dreaded DM a few years back and Liz said she loved my blog so I’m a fan – end of 🙂
Looking lovely in that pic and wish I loved closer to come along to events with you and Jen. Avril xx
Amanda Cottingham says
Oh how exciting that she featured you, I’d love to have a read of it.
It was so lovely to meet you, after following you for so long, and I agree, I really wish you lived closer. Hopefully we’ll meet again really soon x
P.S the other plugin we chatted about was broken link checker. (It just came to me)
School Gate Style says
Thanks for that Amanda – just downloaded it! xx
PS my Daily Mail appearance is an old one – not featured by Liz but by one of her colleagues. But Liz then emailed me to let me know that mine was the blog she thought was the best out of all the school gate mum blogs – had to love her for that 🙂
Fritha Strickland says
Interesting to hear about what she is like in person and by the sounds of it quite different from how she comes across in her columns! I do think she is probably stuck in a trap of having to write controversial pieces although some of the things she has said are rather silly!
Sounds like a lovely evening though and I love John Lewis they have some great stuff! x
Amanda Cottingham says
It was great to meet you Fritha, hope the journey was OK. I agree, she needs to make waves with her column, and it must be hard coming up with the controversial topics all the time.
Me too, huge John Lewis fan!
becky says
Sorry I couldnt make it sounds…interesting! Journalists scare me a bit!
Amanda Cottingham says
Hehe, it was a little terrifying!
Jen says
It was a great evening and you’ve captured it so well! I look at bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights in that photo though!
Amanda Cottingham says
Oh, I like that photo. Great blogging memories hey 😉