Last month Selfridges Manchester held a week long celebration of shoes to launch their fabulous new shoe floor. The impressive new department features high-end brands such as Jimmy Choo, Givenchy and Victoria Beckham, and boasts a number of luxury boutiques showcasing the latest styles from the hottest designers. Their ‘Soul of the Party’ week included a whole host of events dedicated to our favourite fashion accessory, including a visit from London Fashion Writer, and self-confessed shoe-aholic, Camilla Morton to launch her latest book ‘Make Life Beautiful’.
Camilla Morton’s special appearance at the store saw her officially launching her new book and signing copies for fans, as well as holding some exclusive workshops to teach you how to dress, act, walk and make sure you get the very best out of your day. A renowned lover of shoes herself, Camilla was impressed with the most recent developments at the city centre Selfridges store.
“The new shoe floor is great! This is my first time to Selfridges Manchester and I do love discovering new vibes and new ways of styling. Plus, shoes are kind of my thing – that’s why most of my books are about them! I think Manchester’s a really cool city and I’ve seen some really stylish girls around here. In fact I’ve seen better dressed people around here than some of the shows at London Fashion Week!”
After a string of successful publications over the last few years – including, an essential guide for the modern day girl, ‘How To Walk In High Heels’ and the ‘Fashion Fairytale Memoir Series’, a collection in which the real-life stories of our favourite fashion designers are brought to life through contemporary interpretations of classic fairytales – Camilla has now launched her latest work. ‘Make Life Beautiful’ features contributions from some of fashion’s most famous faces, all of which aim to bring a little bit of style and happiness into our lives. Camilla told us more about the idea behind the book:
“It’s a book of inspiration. I went to all the designers that I admire, and that inspire me, and gave them my brief – which was basically ‘turn off the internet, turn on your imagination’. If you had one night where you weren’t going to google what the Kardashians were doing, or you weren’t going to be watching and passing your critique on the Great British Bake Off, and you didn’t want to go out, what would you do? So with them, I came up with all these projects.”
Luckily, Camilla’s fashionable friends were more than happy to indulge their slightly wackier creative sides for this book. Despite them all being huge names in the fashion industry, its not often they deliver top tips on how to DIY. With the intention of creating a “sort of glossy magazine version of Blue Peter”, Camilla and her chums set about thinking of ways they could inject a bit of fun into fashion.
“I’m very lucky that my friends are very creative and inspiring people, and they all seemed to like the idea. There are a lot of crafty things out there at the moment but sometimes craft is craft and fashion is fashion and, weirdly, it doesn’t often cross-pollinate.”
The book contains offerings from an array of fashion’s finest, from Manolo Blahnik to Paul Smith, Michael Howells to Stephen Jones and Charlotte Olympia to Anya Hindmarsh. Each designer has put their own special spin on their projects, whether it be cookery or craft, to create a collection of unique and chic ways to put a smile on your face.
“They’re all kind of meant to be funny. Sam McKnight, he’s a hairdresser. Well he’s not just a hairdresser, he did Lady Diana, he does the Chanel shows, he’s the hairdresser for all of the Vogue covers – he’s like the number one! He loves baking, his Instagram account is all about baking and flowers, so I said rather than shortbread, do short-braids. Mary did Grin-ola because she said it’s not about Granola it’s about making yourself smile. With Paul you think of stripes, so he used that to customise a bicycle. It’s just getting everybody to have a bit of fun! So often people think those involved in fashion are too serious about things and they get a bit uptight about it – but actually fashion’s all about being creative and inspiring, a little bit quirky and unexpected.”
The projects range from short and simple to some needing slightly more skill, but she ensured that all of her projects were explained well enough for readers to at least consider giving them a go.
“They’re all fairly simple tasks, but then you get something like the Fabergé egg! Although that may seem overwhelming, actually, when they first started to research and make the really early ones they were all done out of silks and dried flowers, so it was stuff that you could pop down to the shops to get. So why not try it! Nowadays everything seems to be done in such a rush. I think actually if you’re making something, maybe to give to someone, it’s quite nice to spend a bit of time on it. It’s not always about what’s biggest or most ostentatious!”
The book contains almost 50 projects and Camilla’s enthusiasm for each one of them shines through. Flicking through the book, it’s obvious that she’s worked closely with her colleagues to make sure that all of them are both fabulous and feasible.
“I had a rule that there would be no more than 10 instructions for each project. I didn’t want to do things that lost people before they even got going. The Blahnik biscuits I love, but if I saw a whole 7 pages of detail on how to make them I wouldn’t even bother. I’m not the best crafter at all but I’ve actually made everything in the book. I had to test them all – to make sure the things actually worked, and then edit the instructions to make sure they were clear enough. Everything in the book is a bit different, it’s a book of unfamiliars, I hope! I want people to just open the book at any page and think ‘oh I like the look of that, I’m going to give it a go!’ It’s supposed to not be too serious, I wanted it to be fun!”
In addition to the launch of her brand new book, Camilla has also been keeping busy at both the London and Paris Fashion weeks. However her latest project, ‘Make Life Beautiful’, has certainly given her some food for thought…
“At the moment I’m actually commissioning books for some of the people who have contributed to this one. Curating this book and bringing all these different people together has made me think ‘you know what, you should do your own!’ It’s quite funny really, it’s taken me off in a slightly different direction.”
Camilla’s hectic lifestyle has her flying all over the globe and working with some of the most inspirational names in fashion. Luckily, she enjoys nothing more than meeting new people, exploring new places and being in the presence of such creative professionals. Despite her glamorous life, she still had a bit of style advice for those of us here in Manchester. Although Manchester has certainly been making it’s mark in recent years as a city of style, we haven’t been blessed with the best conditions. So how can we keep our lives beautiful when the weather just isn’t on our side?
“I don’t actually like the kind of muggy non-breathing weather where it’s all hot and flustery. I think when there’s a bit of a chill… black tights, biker boots, trench coat – you can’t go wrong!”
We couldn’t agree more!
‘Make Life Beautiful’ is available to buy now.
Visit www.camillamorton.com for more information on Camilla and all of her books.
Follow her on twitter @fashionlala