A few weeks ago I was invited to take part in test driving the BAFTA style suites at The Savoy Hotel in London. I, along with other esteemed members of the press, arrived on site ready to spend an afternoon being pampered like a movie star and what I experienced certainly did not disappoint. The suites are set up to prepare the A-list BAFTA attendees for a night of glitz and glamour. Not one stone is left unturned (no pun intended as we are about to discuss the precious stones at Asprey) and each of us left The Savoy feeling as if our next stop would in fact be a red carpet. In reality, my next stop was Milk and Honey in Soho where I got to show off my look to a very happy boyfriend and mates.
As the BAFTAs are this Sunday I thought this would be as good a time as ever to walk you through the whole experience from start to finish. The suites are truly extraordinary and so perfectly organized for efficient primping! My adventure began with Asprey where I was walked through all the sparkly bits on show. Diamonds…oh the diamonds. It is tough to concentrate when you are being shown such fabulous sparkles…
Now each of us was asked to select diamonds to wear to accompany our chosen attire. However, as I was so late to the show I was only allowed to look over the diamonds for a fleeting moment and then Asprey sadly had to pack them away before I was given a chance to show off a bit of bling in front of the cameras. I can definitely say that the lucky ladies wearing these pieces on the big night will be looking mighty fine and might need a security guard or two to predict the precious cargo around their necks.
After restraining every urge to diamond dash, I made my way into the Escada suite. For those of you unfamiliar with this legendary brand, slap yourself on the back of your hand right now. You should be ashamed of yourselves! Any educated and fashionable lady knows about Escada and the magic of the dresses they supply. Escada has been a personal favourite of mine and the women in my family for decades now and as I ran my fingers over the dresses on the racks I remembered exactly why I loved the brand so much. These are beautiful gowns made for women that live in the real world and want to look sophisticated and elegant on the red carpet. I was immediately at home. Although trying to fit into sample sizes on a few of the dresses was next to impossible, but that is my fault for eating too many Pinkberries this year! The dress I finally selected was absolutely perfect and of course will now have to be mine as it was so elegant and beautiful and most importantly for me…long enough.
Before I could put my dress on for my BAFTA debut, I had to dip into hair and makeup. We started with Charles Worthington in the hair suite. No, I don’t mean Worthington’s staff… I mean the man himself! That’s correct, the gorgeous man himself took on the messy tresses on this head. He wand-ed strands until I thought his arms would fall off and the result was a beautiful curl city! I also must note that Charles used his new Limited Edition Charles Worthington BAFTA Anniversary Collection Volume products, which I’ve been using at home and absolutely love!
It’s amazing how relaxed one can be when drinking champagne and watching as people scurry around you. Usually that’s me running around like a headless chicken. But not on this day. Today I was a super diva in the making. Such a shame it could only last for one night.
The magical transformation continued as I stepped into the Lancome suite where I would receive a makeover from a talented makeup artist. I had seen some of the girls come out of the suite before me and the transformation was truly remarkable. So I left my makeup entirely in their hands. I gave no guidance, I just said “give it your best shot.” And did they ever! Now here’s how you know you are in the hands of a great makeup artist… Instead of going crazy with an off the wall look, the talent simply gave me an improved version of what was already there. I didn’t look in the mirror and find something unrecognisable. I actually looked in the mirror and thought, “wow, I need to learn to do this myself on a regular basis.” The last thing anyone wants on the red carpet is a makeup victim. If you’re at the BAFTA style suites you won’t find yourself in this predicament! I’d say you’re in safe and talented hands.
So finally the moment had arrived to slip into my Escada gown ( if you look carefully you can see me being fitted in the mirror below).
The only thing left to do was to hand me the BAFTA award (which was so heavy it’s unbelievable…honestly ladies, if you think you’re going to win you might want to start doing some serious arm weights before making your way to the stage).
A huge thank you to the BAFTAs, Escada, Asprey, Lancome and Charles Worthington for such an amazing afternoon. It was certainly pampering at its finest and I can’t wait to see what you do with some of our favourite A-listers this weekend for the awards! Good luck and we’ll be watching and reporting live from the red carpet!
The Orange British Academy Film Awards hosted by Stephen Fry will be on BBC1 from 9:00pm on Sunday 12th February. The Orange British Academy Film Awards Red Carpet show will be hosted byEdith Bowman on BBC3 from 7:30pm. Exclusive video content will be hosted by Zoe Ball and can be viewed at www.bafta.org/film/awards
