Recently in Guest bloggers Category

BY GUEST BLOGGER KAREN PODESTA OF GEEK CHIC

Our impeccably stylish friends and TeaDance sponsors Silverberg Opticians had us round for a cuppa at their Whitechapel store earlier this week so we could try on our favourite frames. With over 2500 designer pairs in store I was in spec-heaven and stayed for hours, having fashion palpitations as I pulled pair after pair from the racks. I have to share some of them with you...

BY GUEST BLOGGER GEMMA ALDCROFT OF GEEK CHIC

While I was researching for Club Geek Chic's TeaDance (this Saturday at The Racquet Club) I of course went straight to YouTube and typed in 'Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers'. I found this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYHZh-xnqhE&feature=related

It is from the 1935 film 'Top Hat'. Isn't this just one of the most delectable pieces of film ever? The music, the dancing and the clothes make me hanker after a more elegant time, a time when people could talk to each other on the dance floor, when men and women didn't feel the need to down huge amounts of Blue WKD before holding each other close and when gentlemen could look manly rather than 'quirky' or 'alternative' whilst wearing a tailcoat with a carnation in the lapel.

Ok, so Fred Astaire is no Gerard Butler-style hunk (and I am rather partial to a bit of Gerard from time to time) but there is something incredibly sexy about a man who can sweep you around a dance floor like you're made of tissue paper.

And as for Ginger's clothes...well, obviously it doesn't do any harm that she's got a wonderful dancer's body but I think ladies really dressed to flatter their figures back then. How is it that, as in the above clip, Ginger could wear a dress made almost entirely of pink marabou feathers and not look overdressed? The bling back then was somehow more stylish than current fashions like on Katharine Hepburn's famous party dress from the 1939 film 'The Philadelphia Story'...

It's not subtle but it's certainly sophisticated!

I suppose what I'm trying to say is in the 1930s men weren't afraid to be charming and elegant and women could dress in an incredibly feminine way without appearing 'girlie'. Katie Hepburn's character Tracy was actually quite a ball breaker but she never stopped looking like a lady!

So this is what I will be bearing in mind when I decide what to wear for our lovely TeaDance event on Saturday. In order to look like a sophisticated lady of the 30s dress for your figure, keep the bling to a minimum but make it count and whatever you wear, wear it as if Fred Astaire is about to walk in the room, gather you up in his arms and sing "Heaven...I'm in heaven...".

There are still some tickets left for TeaDance at the Racquet Club this Saturday from 5pm when you will be treated to a spot of Irving Berlin and full afternoon tea amongst other things! Go to www.clubgeekchic.co.uk and click on the paypal link to purchase.

BY GUEST BLOGGER KAREN PODESTA OF GEEK CHIC

Hello readers Behaving Stylishly, and thanks Girls for inviting me to your blog! I'm Club Geek Chic's new Events Director and what a fabulous time I'm having already! As you'll find out in later blogs, Gemma and I have lots of exciting events planned for you all...including our fabulous TeaDance at the Liverpool Racquet Club this Saturday.

So here we are again in the midst of yet another British 'summer'. Lazing in the park one minute, running for shelter the next. What fun.

WELCOME TO GUEST BLOGGER GEMMA ALDCROFT:

Hello again stylish ones! How lovely to be invited back to the GBS blog!
After a break of seven months Club Geek Chic is back and tomorrow you'll be hearing from my new partner in chic-geekery Karen Podesta! And we hope to meet some of you at our wonderful TeaDance event at the Racquet Club on Saturday...more of that later in the week.
In the meantime I'd like to talk about something that fashion-wise is very close to my heart.

YOU may remember a little while ago we had the pleasure of Gemma Aldcroft, the woman behind Club Geek Chic, guest blogging for us.
Gemma held the first of her clever Club Geek Chic events, a bijou affair in The Italian Club on Bold Street entitled 'Words and Music' offering city socialites a sophisticated and intelligent nightlife, two years ago.

A big thanks to Gemma Aldcroft of Club Geek Chic for her week of brilliant guest blogs. Here's her final installment...

WELL girls, I've had a great week blogging for GBS. I can't believe the week has flown by so quickly! It's Friday and I'm sure most of you will be planning your weekend of socialising so, as the Creative Director of what I like to think is one of the more elegant and unusual nights out in the city, I thought I'd share with you my idea of the ultimate stylish night out...

Our guest blogger Gemma Aldcroft of Club Geek Chic shares her Hots and Nots...

I'VE noticed that in previous weeks the GBS chicks have done a couple of 'What's Hot and What's Not' pages so I thought I'd do one too....

HOT

Tea - These days a cup of char is far trendier than a skinny latte thanks to fab places like Brew off Old Hall Street and Leaf Tea Shop and Bar in the Contemporary Urban Centre. D'yer wanna brew?

Guest blogger Gemma Aldcroft, of Club Geek Chic, divulges some secrets...

Last Saturday I was on the lovely Neil Fitzmaurice's new Citytalk radio show and I brought up the subject of the new 'body sculpting t-shirts' for men, having read an article about it earlier that week.

The writer of said article described the difficulty he had squeezing himself into the top and oh! how we chuckled. What Neil and the other gentleman contributor sitting next to me didn't know was that I was at that very moment being held in by a pair of Spanx.

Over to our guest blogger Gemma Aldcroft, of Club Geek Chic...

I WAS reading a copy of Reveal recently (yes, yes, alright - I suppose reading a celeb gossip mag goes ever so slightly against the Geek Chic image but every girl has her vices...) and found an article about Victoria Beckham and her simply outrageous collection of very, very expensive handbags.

She has been spotted out and about with handbags by designers such as Chanel, Valentino, Balenciaga and, clearly her favourite, Hermes Birkin. These bags range in price from a 'cheap and cheerful' £700 to a credit crunch-tastic £9,000 for an ostrich Calle by Spanish designer Loewe (I'm sorry, who and a what??).

Our guest blogger for this week is Gemma Aldcroft of Geek Chic...

GOSH, I do feel honoured to be asked to be a guest writer for this blog. First of all to be referred to as a girl (I'm not going to reveal my age, of course, but by no stretch of the imagination could I be regarded as a 'girl'!) but also to be considered stylish. How flattering!

Well, I've been reading previous GBS pages and I must confess to feeling a little embarrassed at my ignorance on such matters as new and exciting fashion designers, cool TV shows and eyebrow shape trends. Don't get me wrong, I like to dress well and attempt to keep up with the latest fashions (although I thought trying to carry off wet look black leggings would be a bridge too far) but the geek in me likes to think that there's more to style than clothing and accessories.

Attitude, sex appeal, breaking the mould or just a certain 'je ne sais quoi' are all things that I bore in mind when I put together this list of 10 of my favourite stylish ladies (although I could have listed many, many more). If I could take a leaf out of all of their books I'd be on to a winner!

1. Katharine Hepburn - she could wear men's tailoring and still look all woman. And that famous swimming pool scene in The Philadelphia Story is the epitome of stylishness.