Thursday 29 November 2012

Current girl crush

My current girl crush is the super stunning model; Charlotte Free.  Just look at that pink hair and those metallic lips? LOVE!

This picture is from the December issue of Marie Claire. She is also one of three females fronting the ASOS Christmas campaign (the other two are  Alezlia Banks, and Elle Goulding)



 Check out the rest of the pics below.

I love how fearless she come across in her photos and interviews. She just ooozes confidence! My kind of girl!

What do you think?













Sunday 25 November 2012

20 mins to find a 'Bed' outfit


Hey peeps,

Hope you have all had great weekends!

Friday night I went out with the lovely girls from Wish Want Wear. After a busy work week I was SO looking forward to dancing the night away and of course catching up with the girls. I opted for my black sequin cut out dress and a purple feathered beaut thing that I recently 'found' in my wardrobe.

Then  at 6.55pm ish the funniest thing happened, as I got off the train I had several messages from my friend who had arranged the night out; there was a slight problem. It turns out that my friend had found out that the club we were going to were throwing a themed night that night, the theme being bed/sleepwear and that we all had to dress for the occasion. Now I love a theme and I love getting dressed up BUT to be told at 7pm on the night is enough to make any girl break out in a sweat lol! Especially as I was meant to be meeting another friend at 7.20 for a catch up before I met the wish want wear girls.

With my bank balance on the thin side (pay day; where are you?) and time against me my options were very limited and at that point I realised there was only one shop that could save me; PRIMANI. I ran down oxford circus in my high heels like a crazy woman, making my way to the sleepwear section in the primark on Tottenham court road. I grabbed the first thing I saw which was a long, slinky red dress and teamed it with my feather beauty and a bright red lip!









I pulled if off, the outfit went down a treat. Although this is not actually what I would wear to bed but keep its shhhh

All in all great night, great company!

I don't have any pics of me wearing this though which is a shame, I really must get in to the habit of taking more pics of me lol!










My Bargain of the Week

Last week something happened that is quite unusual for moi; I ran into a shop to return a faulty top and came out with a pair of.... TRAINERS! Well actually they were a pair of high tops. Now those that know me will know that I was born in heels and I NEVER EVER wear trainers apart from when I am at the gym, Zumba or Kick boxing. I do own four pairs of flat shoes ( a pair of brogues, ankle boots and two ballet pumps) but apart from that I am all about the heels (all different heel heights though). I do love a wedge too but I do go weak at the knees at the sight of a fabulous-fierce heel. Yes, yes like many woman I do have a serious shoe addiction.

So anyway, back to the high tops well I first developed a crush on the high top back in Summer when I came across a cute floral pair in Topshop. (See below)








I flirted with them for a hour or so and tried them on but when it was time to confront my crush I chickened out. I walked away from my high top crush and I opted for a  pair of  Jaw-dropping, yellow snake skinned heels that my eye in the corner instead. See I figured that I would wear the yellow beauties a lot more as its what I know best, whilst even though my high top crush was very cute (and made me blush) I feared that they had a higher chance of being dumped in my bedroom shoe corner as I would 'forget' about them and at £85 this would be a waste of  hard earned fashion cash.

So what changed? Well on my day off from work I found myself running London like a crazy woman with a long list of mundane errands that included meetings, paying bills, returning back a faulty top blah blah I noticed that my 'run around' Chelsea boots that I always wear on days off/weekends (due to their comfort but still coolness ability)were seriously in need of some TLC; they needed to be re heeled. The guy in the shoe re heel place was quoting all sorts of Central London prices and it burned me to pay this as I know the guy in the shop down the road from my house charges half the price. Without sounding tight I really did not want to pay OTT Central London Price that I had been quoted, I told the guy that I would come back later. 

I ran into Primani to return a faulty top, standing in the very long returns queue I found myself umming and arring about what to do. On one hand even though the Central London quote was steep my right boot needed a new heel. I decided to just grin and bear it pay the  price, that was until I got distracted by a black pair of pleather high tops. Without even thinking, I sacrificed losing my place in then returns queue and I ran over and grabbed these high tops. It was a good thing I acted fast as there were only four left and one in my size. Plus there was a group of girls standing around the high tops. Well as they say all is fair in love and shoes. I tried them on and loved how they felt, looked and of course the price.... SOLD.

So with out further delay let me introduce you to my bargain of the week

So what do you think of my  bad-ass high tops?

At a very purse friendly price of £18 these bad boys are a  bad-ass steal.
Primani, once again I take my oxblood floppy hat (which I am wearing as I write this) off to you.


Primark, £18





Primark £18



Tuesday 20 November 2012

The face behind the branding

One of my BFF is a gorgeous and incredibly talented graphic designer called Maryam.




We have been friends for yearsssss and she pretty much knows me inside out and has been SO supportive with my blog and all things  "Shoena" So when I needed a design for my business card for my blog, I knew just who to contact. I gave maryam just a small brief which was that I wanted a design that represented me and the love of my life; fashion. I sort of threw in that it would be cool  if my cards were in the form of a mini collage, made up of all the things I love, That was pretty much it and the result was just so damn
 FAB-U_LOUS



My business cards


So again when I needed an AMAZING logo for my shop; "House of Shoena", I texted Maryam (of course) Immediately. We agreed that the logo had to be in line  with my blog and business cards as ultimately I am trying to create a brand (well I want to be the next Kelly Cutrone lol). All she said was "leave it with me" so I did. The next day I woke up to this:




When I saw  the logo I screamed, jumped and then screamed (in that order) as YES I was (and still am ) SO in love with it!! Not only does It sum up what my shop is all about, its ties in nicely with my blog and business cards and represents my taste and style.

As you can see  Maryam is an incredibly, inspiring freelance graphic designer!!!!

She kindly gave up some of her time so that I could interview her for the Tha-One.com ( a site that I write for). Read it here tomorrow.

Check out her website here 



House of Shoena goes to Pacha

So as I mentioned a few blog posts ago, I am launching a small on-line shop called 'House of Shoena’ (HOS),  due to launch the end of the November 2012.

My shop will stock  LIP-SMACKING  one off samples and  vintage products that I have sourced  and also pre -owned products (previously owned by me). HOS will also stock lovely products from emerging brands/designers.

2 weeks ago something AMAZING happened; I was approached by a cool woman asking if I could feature some of my products in her fashion show that she was organising to support emerging brands/designers . It seems she saw a picture from my photo-shoot and fell in love with the gorgeous Ox blood fur jacket that the hot model  was rocking very well!!





I STILL can not believe it (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh). I agreed obvs and the fashion shoot is due to take place on December 21st in Pacha night club.


You can buy your tickets here



Hope you can come down and show me some love!!!!
It would be Fab if you could spread the word and tell your peeps too J

Now I need to start working out what I’m going to wear… hhhhhmmmm
 Logo designed by Maryam Javaid, check out her website here



















Wednesday 14 November 2012

Mad love for the ORA

You've got to hand it to Rita Ora, not only can she can SANGGGG, but boy oh boy does she have some serious style-swag!!! I was recently paid a HUGE compliment, which was that my style had a "sort of Rita Ora" vibe going on. Well this is all good as I LOVE Rita O!!! she is one of my style icons!! love how she flirts with fashion, and just is just so fearless with fashion, which is what I am all about!!

Did you see what she wore to the EMA's the other day? I would SO wear both outfits.

What do you think?





Tuesday 13 November 2012

OMG!!! I am Woman of the week!!

After a stressful morning getting into work today (FYI- I took the wrong bus from the station to work, well it was the  right number but it was going in the wrong direction in my defence today is day 2 at my new job so I am still getting used to the route). Anyway so I frantically ran into the office feeling hot and a little stressed, then 'bam' A message came up on my phone telling me that I had been named "Woman of the Week"!!  I wanted to scream right then but I didn't as I was sat  at my desk and I don't want my new colleagues to think I am a nutter, so I ran to the ladies and screamed there lol!

I am SO pleased with the write up, and feel SOOOOO honoured.
Check it out here:


Friday 9 November 2012

House of Shoena Photo shoot

So last Friday was the photo shoot from my shop 'House of Shoena' (H.O.S) and .... it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!! now I will admit that I was shaking in my stilettos, as I boarded the hot tube to head to the shoot in North London. Ha, you should a have seen me I had a ram jam suitcase, a rucksack and  my day bag. I was shaking not because of all the luggage I had to carry that probably weighed the same as me but because I was nervous abut the shoot, excited too.
Anyway I am pleased to say that shoot went really well and was one of the best days ever, hands down again and again!

The two models that I selected were UH-MAZING!! fun, fearless, quirky with that edge that I love and of course gorgeous. It was important that the models embodied all of the above as these words describe my style and my style main icons (FYI- Solange, Rita Ora, Ri Ri,Julia Sarr-Jamois, Fearne Cotton, Elle Varner and Gwen Stefani). As HOS symbolises a house of all things that represent my style, then it makes sense that the models that I use also do.

So enough of the talking, here are some photos from the shoot.

Oh, one more thing... the Warehouse/ studio was SCH-MAZING (yes, this is my new word courtesy of the stunning Nicole Scherzinger). It was filled with lots of Vintage products which is right up my street.

Last but not least I want to say a massive thank you to the following people:
Fab, fashion blogger Marsha of style of a london tall girl for popping by
Super duper cool and  incredibly talented Photographer Pete Fallan for taking the snaps
The 2 Hot  models Ancuta and Siha for agreeing to model and making the shoot fun and fabulous
AND to my lovely buddy Jake Bullough (who is also a great designer) for kindly letting me use his warehouse/studio. Check out his beautiful bags here www.beara.beara.co.uk http://beara.beara.co.uk and have a read of my interview with Jake here.



















House of Shoena will be launching in less than 3 weeks. :)

Thursday 1 November 2012

Rome wasn't built in a day

Hellloooooo, sorry for the lack of blog posts this week!! This week  has being a cray, cray one with my best guy friend over from the US of A and 'stranded' due to Hurricane Sandy, meetings, work has been busy but all good AND  I have been (and I still am) preping for my photo shoot tomorrow. If you do not follow me on twitter you will not be aware that I am launching a little on line shop called H.O.S (House of Shoena). After a few set backs I am pleased to announce that my shop is still happening and tomorrow I am shooting some of the outfits on 2 gorgeous models. The rest of the products will be cut outs. I will admit I am super excited but also super scared/nervous, GULP!!

Check Twitter tomorrow as we will be tweeting from the shoot :)

Oh and next week I will be blogging about the the concept behind the shop and how it all came about.

As it stands we are due to go live 30th November, ahhhh!!! You only get one launch date so we are working hard to get it right.... as the saying goes,  'Rome wasn't built in a day'.

Check out the logo (below)  for H.O.S designed by one of my super cool BFF.