A Very British Summer, Mulberry Style

Yesterday evening I had the lovely honour of being on the guest list of the Grazia and Mulberry S/S '12 evening at Mulberry's Spinningfields store in Manchester. Having been to their A/W '11 evening with Stylist magazine I was keen to go again and was thrilled when I found out I was.

The S/S '12 campaign for Mulberry is based around the British seaside and they couldn't have styled last night any more fittingly. A Mulberry ice cream van to greet guests (these should be obligatory at all seaside resorts, non?), helium baloons, a 'grab a bear' machine and a tombola (the prize? A new bag worth £1000...I didn't win. Hmf.)
Even the food and drinks were in the same vain - mini fish and chips, mini hot dogs, pink lemonade and raspberry champagne. Ok, the last one's not so seaside-y but who can turn down fresh fizz in a stylish martini glass? Not I!

The new collections looked incredible - the aptly named Travel bags are beautiful -  a sort of updated Alexa and available in brilliant colours and fabrics. There is also a new collection called Cookie which is more a new finish on the old classics - a scalloped edge to the Bayswater and Lily styles, mostly.

(the Travel day bag - and the website still as my photo wasn't the best)

I went with a colleague who also joined me at the Emu event I attended a few weeks back so I knew she was as much into the goody bag side of the evening as I was but we'll get to that..

I'd like to show you how lovely the drinks looked. I can only assume the 'Ding Dong' signs dotted about were to indicate the level of hotness of the male waiters handing out said champagne because, oh my, were they.
I'd have tried to sneak a photo but I felt, after several fizzy glasses, that my stealth photo skills would have been about as ninja like as a cow with concrete boots on. Shame - real David Gandy-esque stunners.

When we left the event I went to my favourite restaurant in the area (Chichettis) and pored over the contents of my canvas S/S '12 bag. Happily they were equally fabulous to the A/W '11 contents.

They included some lovely Mulberry stickers (I almost wish I was 17 again so I could cover a school folder in them) and some very on trend Revlon makeup. The nail varnish (Sweet Tart) is a cross between and hot pink and a neon pink and has really brightened up my mitts. It doesn't go on brilliantly and took 4 coats to even out but it's worth it for the end effect. The lipstick (Fuchsia) is again, a great colour and feels great on my lips - soft and moisturising. There's nothing worse than a lipstick that's a great colour but dries your lips to within an inch of there lives. Barry M, I'm talking to you!

There was a plethora of other goodies but the list is too long so I'll just pop a pic on of a few. (New Grazia, postcards from the S/S photoshoot, 'Mulberry' rock - yes rock, lookbooks etc...)

You might remember at the last Mulberry event they gave out fox masks in their goody bags so I was excited to see what head wear we'd have this time, and I needn't have worried. Super British word glasses. So I'll leave you with them (and me (left), and Vicki)...Enjoy.