Go East....

Tonight I was lucky enough to bag myself the hottest (or coldest as it turned out) ticket in town. When I first heard about the Studio East/ Bistrotheque dinner I was desperate to get in, and when, at 5.45 the amazing Melanie Rickey managed to get me on the list (thank you a mill Mel) I could hardly re-tie my topknot and slap on another layer or mascara quick enough…

The low-down…
Studio East is ‘a cultural initiative to identify and support emerging talent’ launched by Westfield Stratford East i.e. East London's soon-to-be brand spanking new retail nirvana on the Olympic site. A committee of 8 cultural bigwigs (from Erin O’Connor to Tom Dixon) chaired by Mary Portas, have been scrapping it out for over a year to choose their respective mini-me’s in the categories of Fashion, Art, Product design and Environment.


The party…
Was fabulous, if a tad cold (London in June + being on a roof + a temporary structure + only 3 heaters = Roksanda in her husbands coat and the rest of us with icicle fingers). In fact, I was so cold that at one point I seriously tried to figure out how I could insulate myself with one of the giant plastic curtains (seen above)...answer was I couldn't, but the fact is the desperation was there! On the plus side I think I managed to drop a stone shivering. Ace! Apart from the chill it was a party to remember for all the right reasons. Guests were whisked by train from the Champagne bar in St. Pancras to the Westfield Stratford East building site. We were then ushered onto the roof Big Brother/ 24 stylee, and then wined and dined in plush make-shift surroundings with the rest of London’s most fabulous and influential people (Tracey Emin, Roland Mouret, Roksanda Illincic, Mary Portas, Mandi Lennard, Brix Smith-Start…the list goes on).


The food and drink…
Were amazing. Patron cocktails (I never thought I’d drink Tequila in a civilised setting), and coffee flavoured Patron over vanilla ice cream (aka. dessert heaven), rocked my world, whilst the roast beef and horseradish made me wish I was all alone so I could scoff uninhibited by beautiful people and polite company.


Massive congratulations…
To the incredibly talented Julian J Smith, who won the fashion prize (seen here celebrating in admirable style). I had the pleasure/ luck of sitting next to him at dinner, and can honestly hand-on-heart no-word-of-a-lie say that he is the most lovely, down to earth, friendly bundle of joy and modesty you could ever wish to meet; his win filled the whole roof with delight! Julian will now be designing the uniform for the Westfield Stratford staff…forget going freelance, I’m gonna get me a job there!!!


Anyway - I've had one to many nightcaps this evening, been on one too many modes of transport, and have been blogging for, um, well, far longer than you'd think by the quality of this post....off to bed before I'm late for work a-gain!!!

TTFN xxx