vogue |

As many of you may know, the good old northern city of Manchester hosted the UK’s Vogue Fashion’s Night on Thursday 10^th October.

I was lucky enough to pop into the city to witness the craze and madness of the high street stores and the Arndale shopping centre where people lined the streets and stores alike with a buzz that makes you feel alive.

I knew that an event like this, even though I wasn’t attending an invite only event, I had to dress and play the part alike. Why attend a widespread fashion event as a style blogger but dress mediocre? I was already desperate to wear my new New Look dress (which was an absolute steal for £13 in the sale) and I couldn’t help myself from pairing it with my Topshop Katz (will I ever tire of wearing such beautiful shoes? I think not), my (superb copy, we should just pretend it’s real) Mulberry Bayswater and my fringed faux leather jacket from Primark.

Again, excuse my face, I don’t even know how to act and the windy car park was really not helping in the slightest.

I’ll allow you the one from Tumblr too, generosity is key.

One thing I realised from this evening is that as a Brit, I am drawn to freebies, whether it be bags, samples, makeovers, flyers, you name it and I’ll probably want it because it’s there for me to take, free of charge. So I took advantage. Topshop had flyers and maps, I even nabbed some small cards with their logo on that is initially used to note down a product code but I figured I could use them for a collage somewhere down the line.

Somewhere along the way, it was actually after leaving BHS where a few girls were dancing to Madonna’s ‘Vogue’, that I parted ways with my mum for a while. Whilst I was excited to just explore, I’m so not as comfortable on my own.

With that, I wandered over to the large H&M store on the high street because it was so lively and loud, there was a red carpet leading up to the doors with two burly security men and golden helium ‘VFNO’ & ‘HM’ balloons adorning the shop window. There were photos being taken of people in front of a large board with the VFNO logo printed on but I was too shy to pose so I continued with my head down and meandered aimlessly. There wasn’t so much of an appeal once in there, mainly because I didn’t want my hair or make up done from the pop up salon in the centre of the store. I did however find a crowd of people around the DJ booth which filled me curiosity. By the time I approached the booth everyone had dispersed and I came face to face with the style queen that is Pixie Geldof. I won’t lie and say I wasn’t starstruck or shaking when someone asked me to take their picture with the sweetheart herself, because I totally did. I asked oh-so-sweetly for a picture and she asked if we should take a ‘selfie’, although I’m very short and I pointed this out to her, causing a laugh from her and a nice person waiting for Pixie took two pictures because she didn’t quite figure out my camera first time.

Aren’t we precious?

By some stroke of luck, as I was passing down the high street, I spied a familiar face, or rather two familiar faces of whom I know from Tumblr, my fellow style bloggers. Olivia and Ellie. It was crazy and unexpected as Manchester is not the smallest place and we had originally intended to make plans to meet and then we ended up not. So bumping into them was smashing and I’m so happy I did because they are absolutely lovely.

Shortly after, I ventured into Topshop (I’m sure you’re super shocked by that) and I noticed a large crowd near the doors. It turns out there was a competition there too, little cards were handed around with space for your details on the back and a blank side on the front. I found that I needed to put a coat of lipstick on (which the sales assistants where happily handing out, although I dread to think of the amount of people’s lips that stick had touched before it was painted onto my lips but nevermind), so I did and kissed the blank side of the card and filled my details in. It was then taped to a large wall with everyone elses entries, the competition was for a mini break to London. Truth be told, it was worth partaking anyway because I adored the lipstick and ended up purchasing it. I don’t have a picture but it was Topshop’s ‘Macaroon’.

I also couldn’t resist buying the official VFNO shirt from Topshop and this gorgeous textured a-line skirt.

I met back up with my mum, fangirled over my earlier encounter with Miss Geldof and ended up watching a bit of Monsoon’s fashion show, scoring some sachets of Redken shampoo and having our lips painted with Lush make up. Isn’t this board so amazing and colourful?

The downside is I fell in love with this lipstick, Lush’s ‘DRIVE’. It’s £14.50 and I don’t think I can quite justify spending that. It looks cute though, right?

Warehouse had a window display for a thing called Knit-Bombing so I stood in the window holding this ceramic sheep and had my photo taken in hopes of winning X amount of money, I’m not even sure what the competition was I just knew that by doing this I had the chance to win something. Note to self; find out full details before partaking.

As the evening drew to a close, we passed through Selfridges (luckily seeing as I was swooning over everything) and then popped in Harvey Nicholls who were also celebrating their 10^th birthday. It was so vibrant in there, with balloons, pop up nail bars and hair styling. It was like heaven.

I may have also gone a little overboard with my collection of the perfume test strips. I won’t lie, 80% of them didn’t even have the perfume sprayed on them, I just loved the card.