By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
17 November 2009
This article is proof that could make a Grazia style writer one day. After the week I've had putting corsages on Christmas trees and writing about handbags I really need some beer, steak and football.
SHE'S living proof that it can pay to get dressed to the nines for an afternoon stroll.
When Megan Cunningham pulled on her leather-look leggings, strappy shoes and exclusive Alexander McQueen scarf for an afternoon's shopping on Princes Street, she turned some very influential heads.
The 20-year-old hairdressers' receptionist from Morningside has just been voted one of Britain's most stylish women, following a chance encounter with women's magazine Grazia.
The glossy sent a team of "style hunters" to 11 UK cities in August, and Edinburgh hunters were won over by Megan's bold but understated style.
Megan, who works at Cheynes hairdressers in Bruntsfield, said: "It was completely random. They just came up to me and started asking questions about my look, and taking some photographs.
"I thought it was just market research but I was surprised when they called me two months later and said I'd made it through to the regional finals of a competition and had to get people to vote for me.
"I didn't expect to win. People always say that while I look really glamorous I wear too much black, but I think it looks good on me."
The former James Gillespie's girl was inspired by her mum Donna, 46, a Standard Life receptionist, particularly in the shoulder-padded Warehouse top she was sporting on the day.
She said: "I love shoulder pads. I used to laugh at pictures of my mum in the 1980s but they're totally back in fashion.
"The rest of my outfit was quite simple.
I like to call the bag I'm carrying 'vintage Warehouse' because I bought it so long ago but I still use it all the time.
"I did get some really negative comments on the website about the leggings. A lot of people said they looked trashy and cheapened the outfit, but everyone's got different tastes, I suppose.
"While most of her outfit is high street fashion, the genuine Alexander McQueen scarf would normally set you back more than £350.
Megan added: "My cousin brought it back from the States. It was only £120."
The 11 winners of the first Grazia Style Hunter Awards are featured in today's Grazia.
Grazia's Editor-in-chief Jane Bruton said: "We were overwhelmed by the number of super-stylish women we discovered and Megan is an outstanding and well-deserved winner."
Showing posts with label Annals of Fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Annals of Fashion. Show all posts
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Monday, 19 October 2009
FEATURE: The dark side of fashion
Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
September 14, 2009
A TOP city model today warned of the downside of the industry, revealing she was the victim of a stalker as a teenager.
Lauren Tempany, 26, who was first spotted at a Clothes Show roadshow in 1997 and had three top modelling agencies fighting over her at the age of just 14, has revealed she also attracted some less welcome attention.
The model, originally from Linlithgow, admitted to being too candid in press coverage that accompanied some of her early model shoots and her comments came back to haunt her.
She said: "Some of the early interviews I did revealed a bit too much about my home and family life, and someone was able to trace where I lived and began making loads of dodgy phone calls. We had to change all of our phone numbers.
"I've always tended to just blurt things out when I'm talking to people without realising some of it might make it into the papers, but I've now learned to be a bit more careful."
Miss Tempany's revelation comes just days after Indian-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander - who dressed a number of celebrities including Paris Hilton and Mary J Blige - was sentenced to a minimum of 59 years in US prison for sexually assaulting aspiring models as young as 14.
Several former models have since stepped out to criticise the industry, including seventies star Robyn Peterson
and model-turned-filmmaker Zara Ziff.
Miss Tempany got her first modelling job at 14 for So...? perfume, a fragrance aimed at the teenage market, but she's since gone on to model for Alexander McQueen and Giles Deacon, featured in Vogue and Harpers, and shared a catwalk with Kate Moss.
However, she insists that there is nothing endemically wrong with the model industry, and that becoming a model at 14 does not automatically make you a target for obsessives.
She added: "When I was first approached at the age of 14 my family were a bit dubious, but they did their research and discovered they were all legitimate agencies.
"However, I would advise aspiring young models to only sign for big modelling agencies because it's tough getting jobs.
"The smaller agencies don't get a look in and there are some people who are out to exploit you, but get nasty people in all professions though, not just modelling.
"The industry comes in for a lot of unfair criticism but I've met some fantastic people while modelling, and my experience over the last 12 years has been overwhelmingly positive."
Edinburgh Evening News
September 14, 2009
A TOP city model today warned of the downside of the industry, revealing she was the victim of a stalker as a teenager.
Lauren Tempany, 26, who was first spotted at a Clothes Show roadshow in 1997 and had three top modelling agencies fighting over her at the age of just 14, has revealed she also attracted some less welcome attention.
The model, originally from Linlithgow, admitted to being too candid in press coverage that accompanied some of her early model shoots and her comments came back to haunt her.
She said: "Some of the early interviews I did revealed a bit too much about my home and family life, and someone was able to trace where I lived and began making loads of dodgy phone calls. We had to change all of our phone numbers.
"I've always tended to just blurt things out when I'm talking to people without realising some of it might make it into the papers, but I've now learned to be a bit more careful."
Miss Tempany's revelation comes just days after Indian-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander - who dressed a number of celebrities including Paris Hilton and Mary J Blige - was sentenced to a minimum of 59 years in US prison for sexually assaulting aspiring models as young as 14.
Several former models have since stepped out to criticise the industry, including seventies star Robyn Peterson
and model-turned-filmmaker Zara Ziff.
Miss Tempany got her first modelling job at 14 for So...? perfume, a fragrance aimed at the teenage market, but she's since gone on to model for Alexander McQueen and Giles Deacon, featured in Vogue and Harpers, and shared a catwalk with Kate Moss.
However, she insists that there is nothing endemically wrong with the model industry, and that becoming a model at 14 does not automatically make you a target for obsessives.
She added: "When I was first approached at the age of 14 my family were a bit dubious, but they did their research and discovered they were all legitimate agencies.
"However, I would advise aspiring young models to only sign for big modelling agencies because it's tough getting jobs.
"The smaller agencies don't get a look in and there are some people who are out to exploit you, but get nasty people in all professions though, not just modelling.
"The industry comes in for a lot of unfair criticism but I've met some fantastic people while modelling, and my experience over the last 12 years has been overwhelmingly positive."
FEATURE: Role Model
Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
September 5, 2009
PAUSING for a moment as she pouts in front of the mirror in a glittering butterfly embroidered top, blue satin skirt and six-inch heels, Lauren Tempany reflects on a life that's taken her from lanky Linlithgow Academy tomboy to sought-after fashion idol in the space of just over a decade.
Back in Scotland to model for the rebranding of swanky George Street clothes store Cruise into an exclusive ladies boutique, she's at the height of a career which began when she was spotted as 14-year-old at a Clothes Show roadshow - but she already has her deep brown eyes firmly focused on the future.
At the still tender age of 26, she's clocked up 11 years of touring the fashion capitals of the world and, with an awareness that her star will soon be eclipsed by younger models, she's making plans for her post-model career.
"Modelling really is a young person's game," she says. "I don't really have a clear idea of where I'll go after this but I'd quite like to get into film and costume, working in the wardrobe department of movie productions, but right now I can't ever see me turning down a job. I'll probably still be doing granny catalogues when I'm 60."
The last time she featured in the Evening News, she was a schoolgirl being courted by three top model agencies and still more comfortable slouching around in oversized Champion sportswear or sporting matted hair and wellies
From Page 13
down at the stables with her horse, Levi, than in high couture on the catwalk.
"I have no idea what made me stand out at the Clothes Show," she adds. "I don't think I was wearing that tatty Champion jumper but I think I had something equally horrendous on. I have bad memories of a silver bomber jacket that I'd rather forget.
"I didn't have any aspirations to be a model when I was younger - I wanted to be vet because I loved animals.
"I was 15 when I got my first job for So...? perfume, which was aimed at the teenage market. I'm sure every girl of my age will have had a bottle or will at least remember it.
"The job was fantastic. I was taken to Disneyland in Paris and I got to stay in the Disney hotel, which is every young girl's dream."
However, living the dream at such a young age can provoke resentment, and despite her model looks she was still singled for mean schoolgirl taunts by the "pretty crowd".
"I was very lucky in that I had a great group of friends who used to stick up for me when girls said I must be stuck-up or anorexic because I was a model.
"I was neither, but I was definitely not one of the 'pretty crowd'. I was tall, and skinny and a bit of a tomboy, and all of my friends were tomboys too.
"My first big professional modelling trip after I left school was to Sydney, where I stayed for two months doing campaigns for Q Catalogue and Sass & Bide jeans, and photo shoots for Australian Vogue and Harpers & Queen [now Harper's Bazaar].
"I moved to London when I was 19 and when I arrived I thought it was awful. It was busy, and noisy and dirty but I made good friends and eventually moved in with a boyfriend and managed to settle in. After about a year I discovered that I was actually beginning to like it.
" I loved being a full-time model because I got travel all over the world shooting for magazines, commercials and catalogues."
The list of countries Lauren has been to are almost too numerous to list. She's been to Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Germany, shot for Italian Vogue, rode horses in Guatemala, before moving to New York for a year to swim with the "big fish" of the fashion industry.
"I blew all of my savings on this really nice apartment in Soho," says Lauren. "That's the kind of thing you do when your 23 years old and living in the middle of the fashion capital of the world though, isn't it? Modelling can be very well paid and it's not unheard of to be paid GBP 100,000 for two days' work, but I seem to keep missing these jobs. I always seem to be second on the list."
She's modelled for Giles Deacon, Nicola Farhi, Margaret Howell, Julian McDonald, sashayed on the catwalk with Kate Moss, and hung out with Agyness Deyn and model turned TV presenter Alexa Chung.
"Modelling at the top level is a very tight-knit community and you tend to see each other at all of the same events," she says.
Her most high-profile modelling job to date was spending several months as "muse" to rebellious British designer and l'enfant terrible Alexander McQueen.
"Alexander McQueen and I had a great working relationship but after a while I started to get really fed up with all of the travelling.
"The work was really demanding and I'd have to travel to Milan twice a week, which sounds really glamorous but it didn't seem that way when I was standing alone on a Eurostar platform at midnight waiting for the train."
Based in London, having recently purchased a house there, Lauren is already making plans to return to Scotland and is presently flat-hunting in Glasgow with her art curator boyfriend.
She says: "It can be exhausting travelling around all the time and I'm starting to think that I'd like something more settled.
"I'm sure one day I'll get tired of living the city life and want to settle somewhere a bit quieter.
One day I might come back to Linlithgow to settle for good."
The new Cruise ladies' boutique is now open on George Street with brands including Prada, Vivienne Westwood and Miu Miu
Edinburgh Evening News
September 5, 2009
PAUSING for a moment as she pouts in front of the mirror in a glittering butterfly embroidered top, blue satin skirt and six-inch heels, Lauren Tempany reflects on a life that's taken her from lanky Linlithgow Academy tomboy to sought-after fashion idol in the space of just over a decade.
Back in Scotland to model for the rebranding of swanky George Street clothes store Cruise into an exclusive ladies boutique, she's at the height of a career which began when she was spotted as 14-year-old at a Clothes Show roadshow - but she already has her deep brown eyes firmly focused on the future.
At the still tender age of 26, she's clocked up 11 years of touring the fashion capitals of the world and, with an awareness that her star will soon be eclipsed by younger models, she's making plans for her post-model career.
"Modelling really is a young person's game," she says. "I don't really have a clear idea of where I'll go after this but I'd quite like to get into film and costume, working in the wardrobe department of movie productions, but right now I can't ever see me turning down a job. I'll probably still be doing granny catalogues when I'm 60."
The last time she featured in the Evening News, she was a schoolgirl being courted by three top model agencies and still more comfortable slouching around in oversized Champion sportswear or sporting matted hair and wellies
From Page 13
down at the stables with her horse, Levi, than in high couture on the catwalk.
"I have no idea what made me stand out at the Clothes Show," she adds. "I don't think I was wearing that tatty Champion jumper but I think I had something equally horrendous on. I have bad memories of a silver bomber jacket that I'd rather forget.
"I didn't have any aspirations to be a model when I was younger - I wanted to be vet because I loved animals.
"I was 15 when I got my first job for So...? perfume, which was aimed at the teenage market. I'm sure every girl of my age will have had a bottle or will at least remember it.
"The job was fantastic. I was taken to Disneyland in Paris and I got to stay in the Disney hotel, which is every young girl's dream."
However, living the dream at such a young age can provoke resentment, and despite her model looks she was still singled for mean schoolgirl taunts by the "pretty crowd".
"I was very lucky in that I had a great group of friends who used to stick up for me when girls said I must be stuck-up or anorexic because I was a model.
"I was neither, but I was definitely not one of the 'pretty crowd'. I was tall, and skinny and a bit of a tomboy, and all of my friends were tomboys too.
"My first big professional modelling trip after I left school was to Sydney, where I stayed for two months doing campaigns for Q Catalogue and Sass & Bide jeans, and photo shoots for Australian Vogue and Harpers & Queen [now Harper's Bazaar].
"I moved to London when I was 19 and when I arrived I thought it was awful. It was busy, and noisy and dirty but I made good friends and eventually moved in with a boyfriend and managed to settle in. After about a year I discovered that I was actually beginning to like it.
" I loved being a full-time model because I got travel all over the world shooting for magazines, commercials and catalogues."
The list of countries Lauren has been to are almost too numerous to list. She's been to Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Germany, shot for Italian Vogue, rode horses in Guatemala, before moving to New York for a year to swim with the "big fish" of the fashion industry.
"I blew all of my savings on this really nice apartment in Soho," says Lauren. "That's the kind of thing you do when your 23 years old and living in the middle of the fashion capital of the world though, isn't it? Modelling can be very well paid and it's not unheard of to be paid GBP 100,000 for two days' work, but I seem to keep missing these jobs. I always seem to be second on the list."
She's modelled for Giles Deacon, Nicola Farhi, Margaret Howell, Julian McDonald, sashayed on the catwalk with Kate Moss, and hung out with Agyness Deyn and model turned TV presenter Alexa Chung.
"Modelling at the top level is a very tight-knit community and you tend to see each other at all of the same events," she says.
Her most high-profile modelling job to date was spending several months as "muse" to rebellious British designer and l'enfant terrible Alexander McQueen.
"Alexander McQueen and I had a great working relationship but after a while I started to get really fed up with all of the travelling.
"The work was really demanding and I'd have to travel to Milan twice a week, which sounds really glamorous but it didn't seem that way when I was standing alone on a Eurostar platform at midnight waiting for the train."
Based in London, having recently purchased a house there, Lauren is already making plans to return to Scotland and is presently flat-hunting in Glasgow with her art curator boyfriend.
She says: "It can be exhausting travelling around all the time and I'm starting to think that I'd like something more settled.
"I'm sure one day I'll get tired of living the city life and want to settle somewhere a bit quieter.
One day I might come back to Linlithgow to settle for good."
The new Cruise ladies' boutique is now open on George Street with brands including Prada, Vivienne Westwood and Miu Miu
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