LFW 2014-15: The Best Bits

This fashion week was great, whilst taking street style photographs for the wonderful stylist Hope Von Joel, I also assisted her by going to some shows and covering them on the blog and social media. Here is a little update of my favourite shows by day.

Day One: Romantic, dainty girls at Bora Aksu 

Day Two: Reminiscing English seaside holidays at Markus Lupfer 

Day Three: Beauuutiful embroidery at Temperley London...

Day Three: Fun cowgirls at Ryan Lo

Day Four: Glamour and shine at Huishang Zhan

Day Five (Last but definitely not least): Louise Alsop, Helen Lawrence and Ashley Williams put on a great show at Fashion East...

KTZ was full of AMAZING monochrome and gold embellishments...

Finally, my favourite London designers Meadham Kirchhoff closed LFW perfectly with a collection full of metallic seventies disco mixed with Chanel style tweed 

LFW Street Style

For this fashion season I had the pleasure of assisting the wonderful stylist/art director/designer Hope Von Joel; this included shooting the beautiful show goers in all their glory and also attending shows. Here are my favourite street style snaps from the week!

Girls, Girls Girls:

Crazy and Colourful Accessories:

Wonderful Chunky Shoes:

Familiar Faces:

Louise Gray at the Fashion East Show

Daisy Lowe at the Topshop Showspace

Sarah Harris at the Burberry Show

Susie Bubble at the Topshop Showspace

Susie Bubble (again) at the Burberry Show

Laura Mvula at Somerset House (The best colour blocking EVER)

Eliza Doolittle at the Temperley London Show

 Amber Le Bon at the Temperley London Show

Hilary Alexander at the Temperley London Show

Peaches Geldof at the Temperley London Show

Boys, Boys, Boys:

Most Stylish Couple:

 Cutest Kid:

For more street style photos and LFW show reports visit Hope's blog here!

Layla x

CSM WOW OH WOW!

So another year has passed and another crop of majorly talented BA design graduates from Central Saint Martins have shown us what they have to offer for their AW13-14 Show. What an amazing bunch! 

Here's my favourite looks from the jam packed show. I seem to be enjoying pastels, texture and layering at the moment!

New Love Club Lookbook

For a recent live university project, I was asked to choose between a number of fashion brands and to then create and style a new lookbook for the chosen fashion company. I chose the brand New Love Club as I found their printed t-shirts very interesting and believed that they suited my way of styling the best.

I personally thought that the brand's current lookbook did not portray to the consumer well enough that the clothing is unisex. As well as this the interesting colours and shapes on the printed garments were not displayed to their full potential due to the use of black and white photography.

For this shoot I was very much influenced by hip-hop gangs of 1980's New York, urban cities and androgyny. The shoot took place around the colourful Shoreditch in East London, as this is where the brand began in 2009.

Styling - Layla Abounour
Photography - Nienta Nixon
Make-up and Hair - Louise Hall
Model - Helen S @ M&P Models

It's Been A While!

Hello hello!

I have been very bad over the last few months and have not contributed much to the old blog! I've really missed it! It's been a crazy second year at university, what with overlapping film and pr projects, an internship at Dazed and Confused magazine, taking on the role as Fashion Production Assistant at GEIST magazine and preparing my dissertation for my final year. It has all been very fun (most of the time) and I can't believe it's now the summer holidays. So long UCA for 4 whole months! I'm just waiting for the sun to come out now...

Here's a few lazy Instagram snaps of what I have been up to recently...

1- Jazzy new kimono, 2- Henna fun, 3- Moonrise Kingdom, 4- New shoes!

5- Beautiful blossom, 6- Celebrations, 7- Hangover tea, 8- Reunited,

9- Broadway Market, 10- Maisie Willis, 11- Remember these!?, 12- CUTE.

Givenchy AW13-14

WOW is how I am feeling about Riccardo Tisci's latest collection for Givenchy. I haven't seen a collection so new and interesting in a long, long time. The shapes, patterns and styling all work so well together, which consequently creates a very successful new look for AW13-14. 

What I appreciate the most about the collection is that it seems so real and wearable, but in an extremely fun and unique way. No one would look at you only once when wearing something from this collection.

Tisci took inspiration from the idea of borrowing men's clothing, an idea which has been recycled over and over again, but nothing about this collection seems repetitive or obvious. Gypsy and Victorian dress styles were also major influences for Tisci when designing this collection, two very different styles merged into one to create a stunning collection.

Layla x

Winter Kate Fashion Film Project

Winter Kate was launched in 2009, by celebrity designer and television personality Nicole Richie, with SS10 being the brand’s debut collection. The brand has a signature relaxed, bohemian style which is influenced by Richie’s admiration of the late 60’s and early 70’s era and her Californian upbringing. 

For a recent university project, Grace Wood and I worked together to create a promotional film for the clothing brand. The main inspirations for the film came from the whimsical, bohemian nature of the clothing. After researching heavily into the Gypset lifestyle, (a mix of the words gypsy and jetset) and the popular bohemian era of the late 60's and early 70's we then also decided to add a feel of transformation and travel to the film. This was done through the use of nature focused projections.

I hope you enjoy the film!

Layla x 


Styling - Layla Abounour & Grace Wood
Model - Helena Asquith
Hair & Make-up - Katy Glayzer
All Clothing - Winter Kate courtesy of Emslie Creative PR

AW12 Trend: 70's Disco

Over the summer, I had three university projects to complete to progress onto year two. My favourite project, as always, was the styling one. I chose the film genre 'classic musicals' and was then inspired by the seventies disco themed film, Saturday Night Fever. After some extensive trend analysis, I began to see a common thread of seventies inspired prints, colours and shapes for AW12.

I then looked further into some accessories, make-up, locations and other possible styling accompaniments for the shoot. It was not necessary to actually carry out a physical shoot due to funding etc, however making the mood boards was enjoyable and some fun ideas were produced.

Layla x