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Showing posts with label Mailbox. Show all posts

28/10/2013

An Evening With Nicky Clarke

Luxx Mint, Nicky Clarke, myself and Alev from What's On
Those of you who have wandered into the Mailbox in Birmingham recently may have noticed a few changes happening. One of which was the opening of a new Nicky Clarke Salon on the top level of the complex.

A few weeks back, I went along to check out the salon and take part in an exclusive Q&A session with the man that started it all off in the first place, Mr Nicky Clarke himself.

The legendary (in my eyes at least) Nicky Clarke was the one hairdresser 'to the stars' that always stood out to me from a young age. The styles he created were the epitome of style and glamour and I could only dream that one day I might have the opportunity to meet the man, let alone have him work his magic on my own hair. And well, the latter is still to be achieved, although he did do a couple of quick demonstrations on how to make the best out of my naturally curly hair (see photos via the link below).

Nicky and one of the hair stylists from his Birmingham salon doing a demonstration during the evening.
Listening to hair related issues and questions from myself and the small gathering of fellow Birmingham bloggers and media (including Fashion Mommy, Luxx Mint, Style Birmingham, Lucy Kite, What's On and Birmingham Mail) Nicky handed out advice, tips and tricks to each of us in the way only a true expert can. Whatever we threw at him he answered instantly, offering up effortless demonstrations and showing his skills at transforming anyone's hair within a matter of minutes. Well, he's not built his empire and reputation on being mediocre has he!

A snapshot of the Glossy magazine covers for which Nicky Clarke has done the styling, displayed in the new Birmingham salon in the Mailbox.
I have to admit, not usually one to come over all star struck (after all, I have drunkenly fallen off a stool in the presence of the Stereophonics before, much to the embarrassment of my friend who was working for them at the time and had invited me along) the little girl in me that used to burn bright red in embarrassing or overwhelming situations came back with a vengeance on realising that "oh, Nicky Clarke, the hairdresser I've always admired over any other is actually touching my hair". Yes, a moment of 'fangirling' hit me for a couple of minutes and my chest turned red and blotchy. As I'm sure my face did although I'm hoping my make-up was doing its job and hiding that. Sigh.

To see a few photos of the salon, Nicky and the guests during the evening, go HERE.
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04/09/2013

September means Style in Birmingham


September is always a good month for the style queens and fashionistas of Birmingham, and this year it's going to be bigger and better than ever.

 We have Style Birmingham Live taking place towards the end of the month, the Bullring and its iconic Selfridges store celebrates its tenth birthday (which also makes me feel old as I was a student working in a store there when it opened)... but first up is something I always look forward to: the Harvey Nichols Birmingham Autumn/Winter Fashion Show.

 Once held in store with just a rejig of space, the event keeps on getting bigger and bigger. It's now become so popular that the Spring/Summer show earlier in the year had to be moved to a huge space in the Old Post Office building within the Mailbox complex, where it will be held again this time.
Set to showcase the very best in designer collections, the catwalk event will be staged this coming Tuesday September 10 and will feature striking new season ranges from Christopher Kane, Kenzo, Stella McCartney, Gucci, Markus Lupfer, Christian Louboutin and Philip Armstrong.


Always an event that manages to pull out a few well known faces from the football world (and, of course, their 'WAGs'), for this event the luxury store has gone one step further, teaming up with Professional Player – the magazine delivered to all UK professional footballers. And quite frankly, they might as well - the number of Guccis and Louboutins these so-called WAGs - and no doubt the footballers themselves - are rumoured to splash out on, they'd be missing a trick if they didn't make it an official partnership!

Harvey Nichols have, incidentally, also recently announced their expansion plans for the Mailbox site, so the catwalk show should hopefully give us a taste of things to come.

Richard Vickery, General Manager of Harvey Nichols Birmingham commented: “This will be our biggest show to date in such an amazing venue.

“We are expecting the most exclusive front row yet – it certainly will be the event to see and be seen at.”

That's good enough for me! Roll on Tuesday!

INFO:
Tickets cost £15 and the evening will kick off with a Champagne reception at 7pm. Following the show, guests can enjoy an exclusive 15% discount in store. There will be a charity auction, hosted by TV presenter Nick Hancock, with money raised going to the footballers’ charity XPro.
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09/07/2013

Fancy a cocktail?


Summer has finally arrived! Hurrah! So what's on our minds? COCKTAILS of course.

Well, to be quite frank, I'd happily consume a cocktail at most times of the year. Bar Christmas where it's Champagne for breakfast, wine for dinner and any of Tia Maria on ice, Baileys on Ice, a wee dram or a little drop of Port to end the day. I do eat as well, by the way.

But back to cocktails. I live not too far from Birmingham's fabulous Mailbox complex, brimming with restaurants and bars, many with a lovely sun terrace at the front overlooking the canal. As it happens, most of these restaurants and bars serve an array of cocktails. Fancy that! So residing nearby it would obviously be rude not to take advantage on occasion.

When I was asked to try out a few cocktails alongside fellow cocktail sipping bloggers and journalists alike (pictured), I chuckled to myself "try cocktails at the Mailbox? I'm practically part of the furniture - I know what's there already", but naturally I went along with it.

Beginning with an Argentinian wine tasting session held in the Project Emerge installation currently on the lower floor of the Mailbox, I was running a little late from work and had to play catch up. How often do you arrive somewhere and someone hands you a glass of bubbly and a wine at the same time and tells you to hurry up and taste them because they're on the third already? This evening was starting well (I am a self confessed wino, for those who don't already know).

I have to 'fess up now, I have no idea what the wines were, but they were all delightful. One was a Malbec - the creme de la creme of reds in my opinion. Not for a hot sunny day though unless you want to end up slumped in a corner with a woozy head.

Following this we headed to Epernay for my favourite type of cocktail - champagne! I tried an orange based cocktail which wasn't actually to my taste as I'm not a big fan of anything orange (aside from the colour), however, that flavour aside, I believe they were all rather delicious. This was quickly chased up by a creamy lemon meringue cocktail. Yummy, but rather rich and I daresay, too many and you probably wouldn't be feeling so clever!

Next we headed to steak restaurant Miller and Carter. I actually had no idea that this had a bar area you could just head up to for drinks, so this was a nice surprise. Ordered to "choose any cocktail on the menu" I naturally went for another champagne cocktail (again, cannot remember what it was, but it was a delight), before we were moved onto Malmaison for a cocktail demonstration and making workshop; a lot of fun. And no, I definitely cannot remember what my cocktail was at this point - we were shown a variety, all of which I've forgotten, but I'm terrible with names anyway (at least that's my excuse).

In honesty, we only sampled a fraction of the cocktail and culinary offerings available at the Mailbox. Any more and I'd have most definitely ended up on the floor. As I was going to see Aswad at the Jam House after this that would not have been a good move! (Aswad were AMAZING by the way).

The Mailbox have incidentally launched a cocktail app for Facebook that should help you find where to go for your favourite type of cocktails, and in this weather, there's most definitely a need for it! They're also currently running a competition whereby if you upload a photo of your favourite cocktail to the page and it receives the highest number of votes, you could win a very nice little prize.

Need anymore excuse to sample a few cocktails? No, didn't think so. Head over here to check out what other people have been drinking, then go check it all out yourself!
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