The Real Life of a Fashionista Part One...Top 10 Fashionista Injuries for Spring/Summer 2010

After two weeks swanning about in eight-inch platform pumps, wearing skinny jeans so tight they’d make a straight-jacket jealous, GRLmobile’s Fashion Maverick has confessed that coping with the numerous injuries sustained while being a fashionista-en-Paris can prove to be a genuine battle of wits and grace. We’ve realised that there’s a gap in the safety protocol and hereby declare that the status of ‘fashionista’ should come with its own OH&S manual. To get the ball rolling, here are our Top 10 Fashionista Injuries for Spring/Summer 2010, how to avoid them, and how to handle them if they happen:

Injury #1 The sky-high heel fall	How to avoid it… When descending stairs, think Princess. One hand lightly resting along the balustrade will guide you down safely. If you’re simply walking along, just be confident! And there’s nothing wrong with a bit of practice at home before you leave the house.	How to handle it… Grace and humour. A coquettish blush and gracious smile will excuse even the clumsiest collapse.
Injury #2 The push and shove at colette in Rue St Honore	How to avoid it… If you’re agoraphobic, shop from colette online.	How to handle it… Just enjoy it – you know we’re all jealous back home!
Injury #3 The bruised and bashed mid-calf, arm-band rings and welts from carrying too many large designer shopping bags.	How to avoid it… Buy less. Um, are we serious? Of course not. Hire a driver for the day, you silly girl!	How to handle it… Hemorrhoid cream will relieve the bruising fast enough to get you off to the front row without too much evidence.
Injury #4 The power-shopping amnesia, when you forget what you bought the day before.	How to avoid it… Use your phone to make a list of what you’re looking for and cross things out as you go.	How to handle it… That extra pair of Chanel clogs will make a valuable vintage hand-me-down for your daughter / niece / protégé in years to come.
Injury #5 The super-skinny jean suffocation	How to avoid it… Couple relaxed fit jeans with a t-shirt and tailored jacket and fedora for a real supermodel look.	How to handle it… Just deal with it. You look hot.
Injury #6 The short black coffees at the original Rue Cambon Chanel store for ‘the special clients’ (served by the Moroccan Chanel-clad waiter) that blows out your brain and you spend more.	How to avoid it… Don’t ask for decaf, as you may be shunned. Just drink half of it.	How to handle it… Handle that gorgeous waiter with the classic sideways glance from smoky eyes and a slight pout of muted, red lips. And hey, if you’re buzzing on caffeine, and spend more than you planned to, well, remember that Chanel will always increase in value (asset / investment / nest-egg)!
Injury #7 The arctic nest – suffering from heat exhaustion and severe sweat slick by wearing your bespoke Maticevski plumage jacket and knee-high Miu Miu boots du jour in unseasonably warm weather.	How to avoid it… Check the weather report before you plan your WHAM BAM POW outfit.	How to handle it… A handbag-sized baby powder is your BFF for absorbing moisture and creating a silky-smooth feeling throughout the day.
Injury #8 The paparazzi blinding as you arrive at the show	How to avoid it… Whip out your oversized sunglasses before you run the gauntlet.	How to handle it… You can’t avoid it, especially as long as you’re carrying that Chanel Cocoon puffy bag. Anyway, you’re a fashionista, dahhling. Your public needs you.
Injury #9 The ‘I just nearly dropped my…’ technology heart attack – when juggling the BlackBerry, phone, camera, handycam, iPod, notebook etc.	How to avoid it… Combine, combine, combine! Most devices now can to all those things in one package. But far be it for us to discourage you from using technology… we say BRING IT ON!	How to handle it… Oh, this is so easy. Dropped your phone? Your dongle? Your iPod? Log on to GRLmobile.com. We’ve got ‘em all at rad prices. And if you’re a GRLinsider, you get free P&H within Oz. Sweet!!
Injury #10 The credit card statement aneurysm	How to avoid it… Set your credit card limit to a level that you can afford if you max out.	How to handle it… VAT (value added tax) justification. The more you spend, the more you save. It’s simple mathematics. Don’t question it. Just go with it.

Bonjour, mes amies! ... Living vicariously through GRLmobile’s Fashion Maverick

We’re all aspiring fashionistas. Some of us are just starting out, some of us are well on the way there. And then there are the few who have actually made it. Full-blown, unadulterated, style-saturated fashionistas. The women who evoke fascinated stares and double-takes as they waltz by. Are they wearing that the Prada jacket I just wet my pants over in that magazine? Yes. Have they already bought the cuff that you just gushed over on the UK Vogue site. Uhuh. How do they do it? How do they stay so fresh? So evergreen…

Over the coming months, we’ve got exclusive footage, photos and competitions from Paris Fashion Week Spring Summer 2010, courtesy of our incognito fashionista, Fashion Maverick. Sure, she was papped by hungry photographers when she exited the Hotel Costes in Paris. Yep, she left the Rue Cambon Chanel boutique with a big camellia bag. To her, fashion jet lag is just part of life. Not that she shows it!

Our first instalment is an exclusive video from backstage at Collette Dinnigan’s Paris Fashion Week show. Exclusive footage? You know we’ve got it! Check it out at http://grlmobile.com/GRLtv/ and keep checking this blog and GRLmobile.com for more!!

Mwahs

From MissGRLmo

Xx

It’s not what u kno, but who u kno.

We’ve all had a friend who got us backstage to THAT show, or the pal who knew the band. That friend who makes you feel glamorous and special coz they seem to have a connection to everyone who’s anyone.

Well, we’re gonna be that friend. GRLmobile Insider is an exclusive club for every fashionista on the GRLmobile network, to reward them for using Australia’s Mobile Phone Service for Chicks. But GRLinsider is a far cry from your standard loyalty clubs. Yep, forget pointless point systems and disappointing discounts.

We’re all about LOTS of BIG benefits. So we offer you 20% bonus credit on every 3^rd top-up, and 10% bonus credit for online credit card top-ups. And coz we’ve got such a sweet range of goodies online, we also give you free postage & handling on all online purchases. We also have regular exclusive comps for you to enter.

But the hottest thing about GRLinsider is that we give you money-can’t-buy content. Yep, we’re talking backstage access to fashion, music, film and sporting events. Secret fashion info and tip-offs from our Fashion Maverick. She’s on the scene, not only from around Oz, but around the world! When it’s happening, she’ll be there. And what she finds, she shares with you. What are GRLfrnds for?

So if you’re not already on the GRLmobile Prepaid mobile phone network, it’s time you were.

GRLmobile Insider. Be part of the in-crowd.

Click here for more details.

No, seriously. Just get on the network!

Love from MissGRLmo

Xx

Rain, rain GO AWAY! ...My fake-tanned pins are going to waste.

Now I do know it’s been sunny in Queensland (my home town) for a couple of months now. I’m not sure about other cities in Oz, but I tell you what – it’s still bleak, wet and windy in good old Melbourne. Don’t get me wrong. I love wet weather, AND as long as I have a big scarf, two pairs of gloves, woollen socks, leggings, a jumper, a trench and beret, I also like the cold. But come on, it’s October.

I went and bought a new tube of fakey fakey last weekend, ready to bronze up for the summer I’m expecting will hit any day now… I only did my top half, knowing that I’m not going out in bare legs yet, coz honestly, it’s still chilly here. But last weekend actually brought out two days of glorious, glorious sun! And that was it. Off we cycled to our closest rooftop bar, where we swanned about, for no less than four hours, and lay back in deck chairs listening to Calypso music. The boots came off, the jacket came off, and (god forbid) the leggings even came off! It was like a dream. Except that I looked like a Top Deck chocolate bar.

I was rather embarrassed, but left my legs exposed to absorb as much vitamin D as possible. Suffice it to say as soon as I got home, I slathered two palms-full of fakey fakey onto my fluorescent white pins to ensure that the curse of the Top Deck did not recur next weekend! And since? Rain. Cold. Wind. Clouds. You wanna know the temp for this Sat? Yep, all of 17 degrees. That’ll be fun for the music festival I’m going to. So my stunningly Monacan-brown legs, thinner by that beautiful illusion of being TAN, are again swathed in woollen socks and leggings, shrouded by a cashmere blanket as I sit with a heater on under my desk.

Four seasons in one day? Um, no. More like two weeks of summer, two months of Autumn and ten months of winter. (:-<

Collette Dinnigan Paris Printemps / Ete 2010

An Alice in Wonderland mood

Our queen fashionista reports from the inner sanctum, backstage at Collette Dinnigan’s Paris fashion week show. In a gorgeously appointed salon of a Parisian hotel, artists pulled models’ hair into smooth and tight sculptures and painted faces with strong eyebrows, lightly smoked eyes and nude lips.

Collette herself, coping with a back injury sustained while disembarking from her flight, looked eternally graceful and relaxed. ‘I wanted the collection to be unexpected, to be playful. I wanted to play with colour, to play with prints and stripes and I want the evening wear to look nonchalant’, she said. ‘There is this Alice in Wonderland mood.’

The show was a stunning melange of fresh citrus chiffon, gothic romantic and summery, off-the-shoulder tiered floor-lengths. The clothes seemed to whisper to you, call you over to slip into them and wander into the daisy fields.

GRLmobile says merci to Collette for the invitation and félicitations for such a sublime showing. For exclusive behind-the-scenes pix, check out http://twitpic.com/photos/grlmobile and http://www.facebook.com/grlmobile, with more on the way.

À bientôt,

MadamoiselleGRLmo

Mois mois

XX

Do we still want it all?

In a recent survey, Marie Claire (our fave for style + substance) has found that the old adage of ‘I want it all and I want it now’ has lost its weight with modern Aussie chicks.

With only 9% saying they want it all and now, a whopping 64% have admitted that they would like it all, but understand that they simply can’t have it all NOW. This is definitely a far cry from the super women of the 80s and early 90s who were struggling to fit career, family, beauty, sparkling social calendar and Mr Right into one sharp-shouldered power suit.

Women who chose to have kids then were expected to work a full time job as well. These days, maternity leave is giving us the security that we can go off and be mothers, knowing that there’ll still be a job waiting for us when we’re ready to return. So although most of us still do want it all, we’ve finally got the freedom to take it when it suits us, and not have to fit it in all at once.

Yours,

MissGRLmo

XX

London Fashion Week SS10 - Embellishments. Bouffant. Sequins. Short, short, short!

September 30, 2009

London Fashion Week finished off last week with a puff of chiffon and a glitter of sequins. Yep, Spring / Summer 2010 is all about detail, embellishment, decoration, statement shoes, midriffs, tribal and short, short dresses. The eyebrows were thick and dark (finally!) and hair is big and teased. We tip our Headonistic hats to:

Y Jeremy Scott’s leather-jacket-clad tribute to the caveman

Y Paul Smith’s bright PINK suit for man with red hat, shoes and kerchief

Y Burberry Prorsum’s draped, ruched, bubbly neutrals

Y Sass & Bide’s tasselled geometric black & whites

Y Luella and Mulberry’s cute, girly love

Y Roksanda Ilincic, Kinder Aggugini & Danielle Scutt’s tribal cutaways and patterns

Y John Rocha, Louise Goldin & Jenny Packham’s textures and detailing.

Our ultimate best in show? Ashish’s full-sequinned pants and over-sized tees in 80s statement patterns and colours. Yes, I AM ready to wear balloon pants sequinned with palm trees on a bright blue background. I’m serious!

The A-list was represented brilliantly by Liv Tyler, Donatella Versace, Victoria Beckham, Anna Wintour (no surprises there), one of the Olsen twins (no idea which) and Joan Collins. Very exciting to see Pixie Geldof and Daisy Lowe walking for Vivenne Westwood and Naomi Campbell looking ten million dollars walking for Issa London. I think she’s still 25. Then they all got down to Massive Attack who were DJing at the event. Sounds like a regular party at my place.

Fashion is certainly a lot of fun and very feminine at the moment. And London certainly did not disappoint.

Mwah Mwah

From MissGRLmo

Xx

Deutz Swap My Style - Coz swapping is the new shopping!

25 September 2009

Last night, we headed on down to Alumbra at Melbourne’s Docklands to attend Deutz Swap My Style for a glamorous and fun evening of pampering, shopping, sipping and swapping!!

We were given Deutz bubbly on arrival, which was really lovely. We pretended to be supermodels as we sipped on our piccolos thru straws. Very runway-backstage. Got some extremely yummy pasta too (not-so-supermodel) that we couldn’t get enough of.

Everyone who’d brought items to swap registered them in. As the staff got everything ready, we swanned around, got our hair straightened and curled at Vidal Sassoon, our faces mapped by Dermalogica and our photo taken for a superimposed front cover of Famous magazine. We even managed to quickly grab a few bargains at the HUSSY pop-up retail store.

Guests were welcomed by Shaughla, and she introduced Melissa Hoyer, whose styling services we were offered free reign of for the duration of the event. Some secret styling tips were shared, then the event was open!

A sea of fashionistas surged into the swap room (elegantly, of course!) to begin their hunt. A select group, who had brought high-end items, were escorted upstairs to My Closet, where they could barter their designer goodies. Shoes, bags, dresses, belts.

The swap was an amazing success, with girls carting around shopping bags of their new finds. Proud and excited faces then relaxed with another glass of Deutz or two, until the night rounded off with a raffle draw for some fantastic prizes from Vidal Sassoon, Famous Magazine, Dermalogica and Deutz.

Next year? You can certainly count on us being there!! Plus we can’t wait for Girlfriend Love2Swap in Sydney next month! Loved it, loved it, loved it.

See ya GRLs

From MissGRLmo

Xx

GRLmobile at the AMI Awards

24 September 2009

Very exciting news and a little justification for our consistent raving about our beloved brand!

Last week, GRLmobile was awarded the status of NATIONAL FINALIST, New Brand Award for Marketing Excellence 2009 by the Australian Marketing Institute.

This is a seriously great honour. The awards are presented to organisations and marketers who’ve achieved great success from innovative and effective marketing. So GRLmobile, don’t you reckon?

As we’re just a baby, we entered the NEW BRAND category. This award is all about creating and launching a new brand and making it rock in the eyes of our customers (and people we want to be our customers!).

OMG so unbelievably happy. Fingers crossed for the national awards in Sydney on 28 October!! We’ll be tweeting from the event, of course, so stay tuned.

Thrilled,

Your mate MissGRLmo

XX

New York Fashion Week: All wrapped up & everywhere to go.

Ah Spring fashion weeks. Last week it was NYC. Some real stand-out collections for Spring 2010:

- Toni Maticevski, our favourite export right now. A reflection of light and dark. Intricate and ethereal with huge lace and net flourishes. Smoky patches and voluptuous skirts like dirty clouds.

- Davidelfin’s mint, aqua and Mediterranean mix of plastic finishes mixed with the silken smooth, draped and structured. Magnificent on the eyes.

- Michael Angel, Shaken, not stirred. Eclectic mish-mash of patterns with gold fingernails and huge gem block earrings.

- Alexandre Herchcovitch WOWS with a futuristic collection of BANG colours in plastic, crosshatch and satin. Plus some sheer neutrals and blacks and puff Puff PUFF SHOULDERS!

- Dianne Von Furstenburg is eternally divine and feminine. Animalistically African, Mediterranean, Moroccan. Comfortably layered, ruched, gathered in ombres and loud detailed prints.

Love, love, love!!

Stay tuned for our report on London Fashion Week. Coming soon!


Till then,

Mwah mwah
love from MissGRLmo
xx

Make Me Up

If I was very wealthy, I think one of my first investments would be a personal make-up artist for all the very exclusive red carpet events I’d be invited to. How better to look air-brush perfect and to stun the room with my glamour? Who would I choose?

Cathy G has been make-up artist to the stars for ages and in her post as resident artist for Project Runway, she’s really shown us her diversity. We’ve been lucky enough to catch Cathy G for a chat about all things make up. Check out www.GRLmobile.com/GRLfrnd/ and go to GRLglam for the convo!

The In-Crowd

It’s official, it’s HERE!!

GRLmobile knows we all wanna be a part of the in-crowd. So we’ve launched GRLmobile Insider. Anyone who’s already on the network is now automatically listed as a GRLmobile Insider, and is eligible for awesome deals like 20% bonus standard credit on every third top-up and free postage and handling for all online purchases (which is more than I can say for that popular online auction site – yeah, thanks for my 99c video + $17 P&H!!). It’s truly a fab offer. So we reckon that if you’re not already with GRLmobile, it’s prolly time you were!!

On another point, if you’re in NSW, get your good self to Castle Hill to check out GRLmobile in store at MYER. We’ve got some spesh deals there too – get a free fashmo pack with every GRLmobile phone purchase, and don’t forget to log on to http://grlmobile.com/myer/ where you can enter to win a Style+Dial pack (Nokia violet 2680 + mini BEGORGEOUS hair styler) PLUS a massive $500 GRLmobile credit. Super fab. GRLmo + Myer = mystore/myBFF!

Catchya!

Mwah mwah

Love from MissGRLmo

xx

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me!

2 September 2009

Well, we’ve just celebrated our FIRST BIRTHDAY here at GRLmobile, but like all good parties, it’s finished now.

(:-<

Now onto the somewhat more exciting task of seeing what the next year brings. We’ve got stax coming up to look forward to, starting with our Official Supplier status of the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. Very cool. We loved it last year. Ah, ye olde 2008, when guys were first starting to come out in their stovepipes, winklepicker shoes and black vests by the droves. Always a bevy of spunky monkeys to check out at the fashion festivals, even though most of the new-wave fashion set all seem to dress the same. We’re looking forward to Street by MelbourneStreetFestival.com and also ‘Marc Jacobs on Film’.

Whooo, that brings me to our Marc Jacobs Safari Pouchette comp. Oh dear me, this handbag is very yummy. It really makes you want to suit up in a billowy silk animal-print dress, chunky bangles and some insanely high platform pumps and take a wobbly walk across those wild plains. Alternatively, just wear it to the office. Equally fun and less insect bites.

Wanna be part of the in-crowd? Well watch this space! We’ve got something seriously HOT launching in the next few days for GRLmobile users. If you’re not already with GRLmobile, it’s time you were. You’ll see why…

Till next time,

Mwah Mwah

From MissGRLmo

xx

CHIXLUVLINX

Marc Jacobs Safari Pouchette handbag comp www.GRLmobile.com/competitions

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week www.MSFW.com.au

Melbourne Street Fashion www.MelbourneStreetFashion.com