Recent Venture and realisation.

Recently i have been doing some alteration work on the side working with an over 50 client. Who says "Life Doesn't end at 50!" But with in the media and the fashion world you would like it would as there is very little fashionable clothes out there that caters for the over 50's market and for the bigger busted lady. 

Between juggling a full time job working in a clothes store and doing alterations at night. i have realised what a problem this is becoming for women, but also there are brands out there that are trying to cater for this age group you just need to know where to look. 

From chatting to my client i have realised what the over 50 women looks for in there wardrobe:

-Staple pieces you can wear over and over again

-Something to cover up your arms

-Comfortable, breathable clothing often natural fibres

Betty Jackson, Clothing women would wear however worn on young models

These women are said to be a niesh market within the fashion world, however these are the women are half the british population, whom have the money to spend on clothes, many have had children and  are in good jobs and have money to play with. But not many people have cracked this market yet.

However one person who i think has nailed it on the head is Mary Portas (i know not agian, but i am her biggest fan). I think Everything Mary does is just great. But by not only pairing up with House of Fraser to launch her brand "Mary" last year she has collaborated with many well known quality brands such as underwear with Playtex, Shoes with Clarks and Tights and Armery with Charnos. Armery i must say is a savour for women concise about there arms. But many women don't' know it exists or that that was the market mary was trying to target. But i think i may have persuaded two women today to invest in a set of Armery - the famous Sculptwear for the arms. 

Mary and the Mary range including the "no brainer dress" a must have staple in you wardrobe.

Other brands that are attempting to cater to these markets would be Hobbs, Pepperberry and Whistles. However many of the high street are still charging £150 for a dress that you may have thought was 100% wool however they are squeezing in synthetic fabrics and still charging the same amount for it. So you may buy a staple pice for your wardrobe, but the poor quality of the fabric means it doesn't last as long... 

Let me know your thoughts on this ?

Ashley J

For the History Books!

It has been a very emotional few days for the great british dressage team winning a team and individual gold and a individual Bronze. The team was made up of three very talented riders 45 year old and team captain Carl Hester riding Uthopia who is also the trainer of the ultimate olympian Charlotte Dujardin and part owner of her fantastic horse Valegro, And of course the very talented Laura Bechtolsheimer trained by her father riding 17 year old Mistral Hojris. 

British Dressage team winning Gold

Each of these talented riders proved there ability to be representing team GB by gaining fantastic scores which lead them to win the Team GOLD. Carl Hester: Uthopia (80.571%), Charlotte Dujardin : Valegro (82.162%), Laura Bechtolsheimer: Mistral Hojris (77.873%). Each rider showed Rhythm, Precision and Elegance with great fluency through each movement. It was Team Germany and Holland that was chasing team GB for the gold, and they have also been watching the british horses very carefully, as we used look onto then to get olympic level dressage horses; now the tables have turned and we are the one's producing well bred dressage horses. 

As said By Olga Corbet an olympic gymnast 1972 who also does a bit of dressage herself “its very piece of cake” 

And as for the Individual round it was that. with all 3 riders placing in the top 5!! Charlotte Dujardin riding Valegro won Great Britain's first Dressage individual gold medal in one hundred years of Olympic equestrian history. She and Valegro finish their first Olympic Games with two gold medals and put their names down in the history books. Even more impressive she only started riding at grand prix level only just 18 months ago at the beginning of 2011. the 26year old riding one of the youngest horses in the competition, Valegro at only 10 years old is an amazing achievement as it normally takes 6-7 years alone to get a horse to this sort of level by time you teach them all the movements. However Carl has always had great belief in her and has always said to her "Some people wish it will happen, Some people think it will happen and your going to make it happen." He thinks Charlotte is an unbelievable character, every since she first turned up for a lesson with him, charlotte and Valegro has created a fantastic relationship. in which has let her compleat a grand prix special and a grand prix freestyle which has to contain at least 33 movements and some movments are required.

Charlotte Dujardin and Valergro 

Charlotte performed a very patriotic test with music created by Tom Hunt, which created a very emotive atmosphere containing the Big Ben chimes, showing off her lovely canter pioettes and beautiful extended trot. The light hearted emotive music was used to harmonise Valegros expressive movements  scoring and outstanding 90.089%. Charlotte Dujardin is an ultimate Olympian.

Charlotte Dujardin winning Gold

Laura Bechtolsheimer executed a very moving performance on Mistral Hojris hitting every beat of the music which was the light hearted and comical Hakuna Matata. She finished the test in tears knowing she had done well and that her 17 year old horse Mistral Hojris had performed a powerful round. The horse and rider were just in tune with each other finishing with 84.339% shooting her into first place with two rider still to go. However finishing in Bronze place it was a fantastic achievement and also a very emotional one for the rider.

Carl Heston in his 4th olympics also performed to dramatic music showing off the horses highlight of his extended trot and lovely piaffe the 11 year old stallion scored 82.857% and finished in 5^th place. 

This was a moment of history not to have been missed in the equestrian world gaining medals in all 3 disciplines: showjumping, dressage and eventing. The most successful Olympics so far since 1908, and we are still sitting in 3rd place for the most amount of medals overall, makes a change from nil point. A great achievement from Team GB!!

Ashley J

Going for Gold!!

On day 10 of the olympics we did a tremendous achievement on gaining a TEAM GOLD for the Equestrian Show Jumping!! The British team was lead By Nick Skelton (52) Riding Big Star, with a fantastic team around him; Ben Maher on Tripple X, Scott Brach on Hello Sanctos and Peter Charles on Vindicat. Winning Team GB there 17th Gold medal of the home Olympics and the first gold medal in Show Jumping in 60 years since 1952, and our first medal in show jumping in 28 years. The Home crowd is certainly paying off this year especially within the equestrian games. Now having won 2 Golds and a Silver medal. With that electrifying atmosphere which is just pushing the team to be the best they can be, and its been working so far!

The Team winning a Well Deserved Gold!

The rules of the show jumping course is you must jump a course of between 500m-600m long containing 12-16 jumps/combinations. The lowest score wins so you need to avoid gaining penalty points from knocking down jumps or a first refusal which can cost you 4 faults. Also the time is very tight in these courses so for every 4 seconds you go over the time you gain 1 fault. 

Bob Ellis an international course designer was behind this makings of this tasking course, giving all the riders and horses a run for there money. it was defiantly an olympic course full of twists and turns 1m90cm spreads withs jumps at 1m58cm which is astonishing thats the same size as me if not slightly bigger!! The whole course had a London/ British theme to it, the water jump for example was based on the white cliffs of Dover which was 4m 30cm Wide!! there was a Darwin Jump, a London Montage and even a Stonehenge combination. 

Nick Skelton one of the older team members is lucky to be here competing at the olympics or even to be back on a horse, as he also like Mary King broke his neck in 2001 and was in a neck brace for a long time, he is lucky to be walking never mind winning a Gold for Britain. And he almost won the individual medal as well however he just missed out on getting placed by getting 4 faults. He did a great job on landing 5th however still thrilled he got a gold for the team as that is what he came for to get a gold after 6 olympics and 52 years. 

Nick Skelton Jumping the London Montage

The team played a Good competition with the nail bitting finish in the jump off against the Netherlands. A very Close competition with the two countries being neck and neck through out most of the competition. But Nick Skelton put the pressure on as first out in the jump off getting a fast clear round and from then on it was in the bag. Winning the well deserved Gold medal with 3 clear round and 4 faults from the Jump off the final member of the Netherlands didn't even had to go out as team GB had already Won. Ben Maher a very elegant rider on his home bred horse, Peter Charles who originally competed for Ireland but decided to change nationalities to Great Britian, and of course Scott Brash from Scotland and the youngest member of the team all contributed to this fantastic achievement  for Team GB that will go down in the History books. 

Scott Brash Jumping the Darwin Jump

Ashley J

Olympic Dress

Keeping with the Olympic theme, I am now going to give a brief idea about the fashions at the Olympic village. As it has turned into battle of the fashion designer, Stella McCartney, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Hermès and Salvatore Ferragamo are designer names associated with the catwalks of Paris, Milan and New York. These designers are responsible for the all the looks you will see while watching the 2012 Olympics. Here is brief description of the team GB clothing extracted from online.

Giorgio Armani, who has designed the Italian Olympic team’s official kit, recently declared that London 2012 would be “the most fashionable Olympic Games ever”.

And it’s all Britain’s fault. As host country, we fired the starting gun on the style stakes a year ago when it was announced that Stella McCartney would create the official range of garments for Team GB.

It is slick, patriotic - and at times extremely tight-fitting: the kit in which Team GB will go for gold at this summer's Olympic games has been revealed. The unmistakable angles of the Union Flag are the decorative seam that runs through this enormous collection, that encompasses everything from "Techfit" skin-hugging swimwear to bulky BMX helmets. Designed by Stella McCartney and produced by the German sportswear company Adidas, the official Team GB range caters for 900 British Olympic and Paralympic athletes competing in 46 sports. In a project that has been in development for two years, McCartney has designed 590 different items of clothing, all created to maximise the athletes' efficiency in their various disciplines.

Yet McCartney, 40, said that form has been just as important a consideration as function as she planned the kit. The athletes, she said: "turn around and say 'If i feel that I look good it will enhance the way I perform'". She added: "I hope I have managed to do Great Britain proud, and hopefully the nation will like it."

The red has been removed from the red white and blue of the Union flag, and used instead to provide an emphatic trim to necklines or as a striking block of colour in shin pads and shoes. The identifying flag emblem on the chest of the athletics kit is rendered in two shades of blue, with a subtle pixelating grid running across it. Purely aesthetic touches included a loose belt at the waist of women's off-duty, Olympic Kit jackets to give the usually lumpen lines of a tracksuit top a flattering silhouette.

McCartney said: "it is one of the most beatiful flags in the world and it was important for me to stay true to that iconic design but also to modernise it and present it in a contemporary way. Ultimately we wanted to athletes to feel like a team and be proud of the identity we created."

Ashley J

Olympics

The hot topic just now has to be  the Olympics....on 24/7 on BBC, However is this a bad thing? I am actually really enjoying the olympics supporting Team GB. Makes me feel so unfit sitting watching it however it can be exciting, I have particularly enjoyed watching the Eventing and the Gymnastics. 

3 Day Eventing: 

The 3 day eventing was on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I never watched it all as I was been working but fairly enjoyed watching the snippets I seen and the Showjumping. I thought we had a great team for TEAM GB (William Fox-Pit, Kristina Cook, Mary King, Zara Phillips and Nicola Wilson). The team did a fantastic job winning a team Silver for Team GB. 

Which I think is a Fantastic achievement considering Mary King (51) who is one of the oldest team members, this was her 6th olympics having ridden 5 different horses and this is the first olympics she has jumped a clear round in the show jumping, riding Imperial Cavalier. Mary is a Strong contender with masses of dedication as she broke her neck in 2001, after a schooling accident, which she then had to receive surgery and the went on to win a team silver in Athens in 2004. Amazing! a true athlete and proving that in the horse world it doesn't matter how old you are its the experience that counts.

And Tina Cook as well, did a great Job. Tina has had a very emotional year as her dad passed away in February and her horse Miners Frolic almost died last year and had 3 blood transfusions but here he is winning a silver for team GB. 

Both Mary and Tina were also in the run for the individual medal however they both unfortunately knocked down the two same fences, costing them the individual medals a great disappointment, but also proved that Zara Phillips did such an impressive performance in her round for the individual medal getting a clear round!! after dressage, a day of cross country and two rounds of show jumping, a great Achievement. And it was great to the Royal family there in the audience Supporting Zara, and Zara's Mum Princess Anne awarding the team there well deserved Silver Medal.

Gymnastics:

Gymnastics also did a great job with the mens team winning a Team Bronze!! Although the team GB woman's gymnastics did not win any medals. It was a great watch, seeing team America winning team and individual Gold, with Gabby Douglas aka the flying squirrel on the un-even bars amazing and it was a great achievment for the Americans. Gabby gained her first gold and became the first african american to win an all round title and only at the age of 16.

Ashley J