Styling my way to new opportunities...
Today is the first day I’ve had a chance to catch a grip of myself!! Dublin Fashion Festival kicked off Thursday and I gathered myself together and went for a good old nose on Friday morning!
Before i divulge hilarious and inspiring anecdotes of the weekend let me share some amazing news with you all. I won! I won! I won! I won! (victory dance around the room, some ass shaking, air punching, funny face pulling and an effort at twerking that will never be repeated...)... What did I win I might hear you ask... Why I won the Stylathon... What is that I might hear you ask.... Well hang on a minute and I’ll tell you everything.
There were lots of great shows all around town as part of the festival, I spent the morning and early afternoon around Grafton Street and caught a show on the Luas (I’ll tell you more about that later) and then another one on the street across from the entrance to Stephens Green Shopping Centre with 98fm, the fabulous Jules Fallon and her beautiful 1st Option Models. Jules really got the crowd going she was hilarious! I then popped onto the Samsung Beauty Bus and the wonderful Therese from LA Academy gave me great cheek bones and beautiful purple and gold eyes. I headed from there down to Henry Street and into the Ilac Centre to see what was happening there... This is where the adventure began...
I wasn’t sure exactly what was happening in the Ilac Centre but I made it just in time to catch the first fashion show of the day with stylist Maria Kelly showcasing four great tartan looks all available from the Ilac Centre. I made a quick exit after the first show because there was a street show starting outside with 98fm and Jules again that I wanted to catch. Everything was timed to perfection though because it was over in perfect time for me to catch Maria’s second show in the Ilac, this time on floral trends for A/W. I hung about this time after the show, Maria did a colour analysis on a lady from the crowd and a lovely girl with blonde hair and a beautiful mint jacket, whose name I didn’t get and i feel bad about it because she was so lovely and helpful and only for her I probably would have ran to get my bus and not had all these fabulous opportunities, asked me would I be interested in hanging about for a style competition.
The competition was called Stylathon at the Ilac, basically you had to style yourself or a friend in an A/W 13 trend, Maria was picking finalists each day and the overall winner was to be announced on Saturday. The prizes for the winner were amazing!! If you won, you got a weeks mentoring with Maria Kelly, €1000 worth of shopping vouchers for the Ilac Centre AND A styling course in LA Creative Academy worth €2500!!! Luckily I was dressed in a 'girl meets boy' inspired outfit. So naturally i decided to hang around and enter! There was some great style there Friday and Maria put through four of us to the final the next day... there we are...
So I arrived back on Saturday at 4.30 and Maria gave all the finalists so far a quick interview onstage before judging Saturdays contestants. Four more got through from Saturday and we were all brought up on stage for the final!! I can’t imagine what those contestants on the XFactor go through every week waiting to hear their name, I know I can speak for everyone on the stage that day when I say our nerves were shattered!! I still can’t believe my luck to have won! The style and talent was amazing and i definitely went into shock when Maria said my name.
Thats Maria Kelly, stylist extraordinaire, Sara O Sullivan who came third with her scrummy Starbucks hamper, myself and my box of vouchers, Claire Jameson who came second and won a watch from Thomas Gear Jewelers and the really lovely Ann Sheehy from the Ilac Centre.
I am still on cloud nine, I am so happy and so grateful to everyone involved. I started working with Maria yesterday, I have a blog post on my day on set on the way, she is a really lovely person, great fun and so helpful I’m really looking forward to the next few days. Ann has been in contact with me since Saturday, checking in on me and seeing how I’m getting on, she’s going to keep a photo diary of my adventure on the Ilac Centres Facebook page, I really appreciate all of the support. Niamh from the LA Academy was talking to me yesterday, I’ll be starting my course in January and I really am so excited about it, its an amazing course and an amazing opportunity. Niamh also asked me if I would do a guest post on the LA Academy blog about my week with Maria which I’m delighted to do. So keep an eye on their blog for my post and keep an eye on my tweets @ZeeRailed to find out how I’m getting on. There’ll be loads more on here over the next while on what I’m up to so keep checking back. You can like my Facebook page for more updates too.
Onwards and Upwards folks... Chase your dreams!
I apologise for the lack of photos, I'm still waiting to get my phone back so had nothing to take photos with. I will get photos of my winning outfit with details as soon as I can.
Above Images from The Ilac Centre's Facebook page
