Fashion Voyeur

People will stare, make it worth their while.

Categories: Fashion, Uncategorized

On Trial: The iPhone XS Camera

When it comes to cameras, I’m one of those Bloggers who uses a cellphone for everything and there are a few reasons for that, the main one being that my EDS and Fibromyalgia just don’t like lugging round more equipment than the bare minimum.  These days with cellphone cameras packing a pretty decent punch, they’re keeping people like me pretty happy when it comes to taking decent pictures and building in edit-ability.  The front runners as we know are always Samsung and Apple (Apple fangirl over here) but Huawei are coming up trumps with their latest offering and the camera capability is even being compared to that of a DSLR.

With Apple now churning out two Key Notes per annum and with it that usually means two specs of iPhone, one on the “budget” end of the Apple spectrum and one more high end, products have never been more accessible.  For 2018 Apple have focussed more on the iPhone X spec and scrapped its previous fascia for this new edge to edge design.  When Three UK invited me to East London to take an iPhone XS out for a spin I jumped at the chance to photograph some of the most vibrant street art in the UK, after all, where else does the art change as quick as the staircases in Hogwarts?

Arriving at Old Street I was given a quick tour of the new functionality in the iPhone XS, basically if you shoot in Apple’s Portrait Mode (a Blogger’s staple) which blurs the background and sharpens the foreground – nine times out of ten, the iPhone XS floods this mode with light and allows you to sharpen or thicken the level of blur enhancing the effect.  Pretty neat right?  It’s a small change, and it’s the only change, but trust me, it makes a huge difference.  Just the amount of light that makes it into the shot is worth it.

The iPhone XS also seems a little more intuitive when you ask it to focus on something too, obviously the iPhone X was almost a prototype for Apple, it was completely new technology and as an iPhone X owner I’m a fan, but having used the iPhone XS I can see those refinements in action and see how well they work.  What the iPhone XS is good at doing is picking up depth and both perceiving and translating that into an image.  It’s also able to filter light across an image to great effect in the same way you might use it in a selfie to create a halo, by splitting the colours like a rainbow.

Shooting with the iPhone XS as a point and shoot camera is a dream.  There’s no facility to shoot in raw like there is with the Huawei P20 Pro or Mate 20 Pro so it comes down to weighing up what you use the phone for in its entirety.  Personally I’m an Apple fan girl through and through and I’m not sure anything could make me part with any of my Apple products; even when I’ve hated them, I always end up loving them.  Apple’s choice of apps and ease of use far outweigh those of the Android platform for me.

The iPhone XS though is one of those that you just click with, the absence of the home button might frustrate legacy iPhone users for around two hours, then you’ll forget you ever used one.  Editing images is easy within the camera software itself, however if you’re an avid photographer caught without your camera and find yourself shooting on this device, you can always shoot on raw via the LightRoom app; something photographer (and now mate) Rob Percy taught me.

Basically if you’re wondering whether it’s worth an early upgrade then it comes purely down to affordability.  I loved it and the ease of use and slick new touches were great, it’s less of an upgrade and more of a refinement, to me, it’s what the iPhone X should have been when it was released last year.  If you can afford it go for it, if you can’t then wait, there might be something better round the corner when your upgrade is due.

Pixie

Categories: Fashion, Uncategorized

Kicking off the Festive Season with Mulberry Lights

Is it just me or does it feel like Christmas has snuck up on us out of nowhere this year?  I think with every year that goes by, I feel a little less ready, and a little less prepared – which I’m sure  is the exact opposite of what life experience teaches us.  Anyway, this year for most of the last few weeks I’ve been up and down to London working on a top secret project meaning that I’ve been to lots of different and exciting events whilst I’ve been in the capital.

In the run up to Christmas London is an exciting place to be, first up I got to go to #MulberryLights.  It’s a festive light installation from Mulberry (yes the English heritage brand behind the bags), they’re a brand I’ve worked with quite a bit over the years, from the days of Emma Hill, right through to Johnny Coca and that period of uncertainty in-between.  A few seasons ago Mulberry even created my own custom backpack for me which is still one of my favourite pieces for travelling.

So, #MulberryLights.  A completely new concept for Christmas 2018 tapping into the art market, it’s basically a series of illuminating interactive experiences that celebrate how light, colour, shapes and people come together to create a modern British Christmas.  It was a celebratory event that kicked off the festive season on Regent Street right before the Regent Street switch on which saw those gorgeous fluttering angels make a return to the shopping district.

The series is basically a giant sensory room using light and music as one big art installation.  Eerie readings from Dr Seuss’ The Grinch are performed over 90’s trance music to light projections at 100 Regent Street.  It’s a pretty amazing sight to behold, but one that’s very difficult to explain, basically, I could have spent hours and hours in there, it’s completely transfixing and sadly one with a super limited run.

The creative in me loved everything about it, the concept, the modernity and the fusion of fashion, art and inclusivity.  With Mulberry’s direction still not fully realised, perhaps this is a hint at a new market for the brand.  With share prices at an all time low it’s about time this English stalwart tried something new.

Pixie

Categories: Uncategorized

Photographing Shoreditch The Street Art Capital with the Huawei P20 Pro

The streets of Shoreditch are far different these days to how they were when I lived in London fifteen years ago.  In fact, I’m not even sure Shoreditch was on the map back then, it was just another East End non-place that people avoided.  Now though, it’s a whole different story, Shoreditch is literally THE place to be.  If you’re one of those people who stalks the ‘Gram looking for insane backgrounds to shoot against, then you’re guaranteed to have seen at least one small square frame of Shoreditch somewhere on your timeline.  It’s bright, it’s busy and it’s an absolute mecca for street art.

Armed with the Huawei P20 Pro, I took a day out of my Graduate Fashion Week Schedule to get to grips with this awesome part of London.  Shoreditch feels completely different to the rest of London from the minute you jump ff the tube, it’s extra-urban and super cool, people here walk slower than literally everywhere else in London and there are actual smiles on peoples faces.  The change of pace is welcome after a crazy week and the weather is amazing so I got off to a great start.

Pixie Tenenbaum standing in front of some street art angel wings in Shoreditch with a smaller street art caption in thre foreground which reads "Daddy I want a Fucking pony"

Wandering the streets of Shoreditch is easy, it’s a place where yes, it’s easy to get lost, but people are willing to help and there’s always something interesting around the corner which will make you want to eep walking despite having no idea where you are.  I’m getting better at finding my way around this urban district, so with that in mind, I set off on a meandering tour of Shoreditch with no particular goal destination in mind, just an aim to find some really awesome street art and locations to photograph.  The insane thing about the street art here, is that is changes and evolves constantly, just like the staircases in Hogwarts, it’s never just the same.

I took the tube to Old Street for this particular task and took the long route into Shoreditch, you find a different type of artist skirting around the edges of Shoreditch, there’s a definite point where this street gallery changes and becomes bigger and more vibrant.  On the outer edges the spaces are smaller and more challenging and require a different kind of artist.

As you get closer to the epicentre of Shoreditch and it’s epic BoxPark, the art gets bigger and more elaborate, this is where you can see change day upon day.  I was back in the area just a week later and a lot of this street art had been painted over with bigger and better designs.  That’s the thing about this area, the pedestrians, the shoppers, the real people, they’re fans.  They gather here and line up waiting to post with pieces created by their favourite artists.  Remember iconic 80’s movie Mannequin with Kim Cattrall and those amazing store windows?  This is the 2018 version and it’s most definitely worth the visit if you’re in London with a few hours to kill.

From really grand and awesome art pieces that have to be viewed from afar to be appreciated, to tiny, almost hidden art pieces, Shoreditch is undoubtedly the home of the street artist.  It’s a borough where street art is appreciated rather than covered up and hidden, it’s imposing 80’s style buildings provide a canvas freely available to daub, and it’s top of the agenda for every blogger visiting the Capital, looking for an awesome background to give them that unique shot.  If ever there was a match made in heaven, it’s Shoreditch and a camera device.

As a tourist it’s pretty easy to feel intimidated by what you might have heard about Shoreditch.  Is it full of hipsters?  Yes, but hispters are way nicer than city folk, they sit and drink coffee with their pets watching the world go by, you don’t see so much of that in the West End.  The fashion is cooler, the sidewalks are bigger and the pace is slower, you can’t ask for more than that in a city that moves at a million miles an hour.  There are less chains, more independents and never ending pop ups supporting and championing new and established businesses.  Shoreditch is a pretty cool place to be, and I’ve got the pictures to prove it.

P x

Categories: Fashion, Lifestyle, Uncategorized

iPhone X & Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus Cameras on trial

If you’re thinking of upgrading your phone, the chances are you’re looking at something produced by one of the two big leading cellphone manufacturers, Apple and Samsung.  If you’re anything like me, you’ll already know their release schedules and most of the expected features before the key notes take place and the releases are even announced and the chances are, you’re more interested in the camera and social media gadgets than the ability to make calls.  Sound familiar?  I was asked by Three UK to take the current new releases (at the time of writing) from both brands to test out the camera functionality, after all, who doesn’t love a good selfie these days right?

Where’s better to test camera functionality than the tourist trail in London?  Nowhere!  Armed with the iPhone X (pronounced 10 to mark the tenth anniversary of the iPhone) and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, I hit up the vibrant Bermondsey Food Market to see what I could capture, before moving along the South Bank via Tower Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe.  It’s worth me mentioning here that I’m an Apple fangirl.  Ever since I jumped on the bandwagon with iPhone 4, I’ve been a devout returner and my home is kitted out with Apple gadgets galore.  iMac, iPad Pro, iPad Mini, Air Pods, Apple TV, AirPort, you name it, I’ve got it – I kind of feel it necessary to declare my potential for bias before we move on.

Ok, so, under the guidance of my photographer friend Rob Percy, I started learning to get to grips with the latest Android offering from Samsung.  The S9 Plus is a big phone, bigger than any of the iPhone models and has an edge to edge screen meaning it’s easy to line up and snap pictures.  It is however pretty hard for an iOS user to get a handle on, to me the phone set up felt clunky, in comparison to the iPhone X (more on that later) it takes more clicks to complete each task, including unlocking the screen, which I found super frustrating.  Yes, both phones have facial recognition, but the Samsung still requires some extra faffing to get into where as the iPhone reads your eyes and unlocks instantly.  Let’s look at the merits of each phone and its respective camera individually:

SAMUNG GALAXY S9 PLUS

It’s a slick looking phone, clean lines, massive screen with a cool little curved edge that looks and feels expensive.  Not quite a point and shoot if you want to achieve the best photographic results as this particular phone allows you to shoot in raw format.  Be warned, this takes some mastering, it requires a lot of post production and manipulation but might just be worth it if you’re looking to ditch the DSLR.  Images created on this device are sharp and the light is automatically adjusted and refocussed in automatic mode – the more you’d select for ease and speed.  Editing is a little more tricky on this device if you’re moving from IOS to Android, I’d need way more than a day to get to grips with it but if you’re already using a Samsung phone and planning on upgrading, I’m assured the tools for image capture are the same as the previous model so you’re all gravy.  The S9 (as with other Samsung models) has a built in virtual assistant called BIXBY, and i hated its constant patronising, like an overbearing parent.  “Are you sure?” Yes I’m fucking sure BIXBY, Samsung are a million miles away when it comes to competing with Apple and Google in the VA arena, however, BIXBY does have some benefits in camera mode; if you point and shoot using BIXBY mode, the camera will highlight points within your screen capture to focus on and then provide more information, an awesome feature for travellers and tourists with a thirst for knowledge.

What you really want to see is the camera footage though right?  I’ve got to admit, the camera is insane.  It’s an amazing piece of kit packed into a cellphone and when you think about the cost which is around £800 (at the time of writing) it’s in the same ballpark as a mid range DSLR but has way more benefits than just being a camera.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 PLUS Front Facing Camera
SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 PLUS Using straight lines to train the eye
SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 PLUS Demonstrating depth of field
SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 PLUS Bermondsey Food Market
SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 PLUS Bermondsey Food Market
SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 PLUS Food mode

One of the things Rob and I discussed during this camera trial, is that screen variation matters.  There’s a little bit of understanding of inception required for this bit; the pictures above were taken using a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus which has a particular type of screen optimised for that device.  When you view them on that screen you see them as they were meant to be, all crisp and clean and vibrant.  However when you take those images and view them on a different screen, as you’re doing right now, you dilute some of that quality as your own screen perceives, translates and displays them within the limitations of your own device.  Still with me?  Basically, they look the best on the device they were taken on and that goes for any device, what you see when you look through another screen shifts the parameters a little, to illustrate my point, here’s some third layer cellphone inception for you, an image I took on my iPhone X, of an image I took on my Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, viewed through the screen of whichever device you’re holding right now…..  Mind.  Blown.A test to illustrate the importance of screen variation in cellphones. The image of of a selfie which has been taken on a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus and viewed on screen, then an image of the cellphone displaying that image has been taken using an iPhone X

iPHONE X

The iPhone X marks a departure from the expected format of cellphones from Apple.  Since the first iPhone, things haven’t changed that much and apart from size and internal features and functionality, the phone itself has largely remained the same.  That is until now.  The X marks the tenth anniversary of the iPhone and a brand new luxe take on the iPhone.  The home button and headphone jack are gone in order to make the phone more streamline (it actually looks very like the Samsung model) and there’s a new edge to edge screen to play with.  It doesn’t take long to get used to the missing home button, I’ll admit, the first 15 minutes were frustrating but it’s plain sailing and feels pretty natural after that.  The controls are simple; simple enough that my mum could use it with ease and that’s a pretty good guage for user testing.

The camera is a simple point and shoot and is optimised for use straight away.  According to Apple it’s a big step up from previous iPhone cameras and is the first phone in the line up to utilise Apple’s new technology and dual lens mechanism.  This means that the Portrait mode that is available on the iPhone 7 and 8 Plus models that every Blogger loves, is now available on the front facing camera too.  Just let that sink in.

Editing images in post production is easy, I’m not talking photoshop, FaceTune or filtering images with colour washes, I mean editing the settings to bend light, or enhance shadow within the image; real editing tools to make images strong and bold.  Simple slider functionality is available to edit each image as you wish and there are downloadable apps such as LightRoom if you do want to shoot in raw or using pre-set editing tools.  But what about the images?  Well, they’re crisp and require very little in the way of manipulation, however I’m going to say something a little controversial, I have both the iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X and in all honesty, I think the camera on the iPhone 8 Plus is better.  *Gasps*  I know right?  Definitely a shocker but I’m not disregarding it, having Portrait mode available when you’re shooting selfies or anything else front facing is invaluable and therefore a winner.

iPhone X Selfie using front facing camera
iPhone X using lines to train the eye
iPhone X Depth of Field, The Shard
iPhone X The Dickens Inn
iPhone X Depth of Field St Paul’s
iPhone x Tower Bridge

You can see from both sets of images that a selfie looks different, the one taken on the Samsung uses light to blur out imperfections and highlight more vibrant colours, whereas the iPhone image offers a more HD style perspective, leaving you to correct anything in post production.  Both have their benefits and uses, and both are super smart, intelligent devices that will no doubt sell in droves and with only £100 between the two, cost isn’t really a deciding factor

THE VERDICT

Both phones are great, my honest opinion is that the majority of sales will come down to upgrading from a previous model by the same brand.  Generally speaking if you’re in the Android camp then you’re rooted there, and the same goes for established iOS users.  I liked the Samsung’s camera but hated everything else about it, it felt slow and clunky and not as slick as the iPhone.  It feels weird for me to say that because I’m also a Samsung fan, my TVs, refrigerator and washing machine are all Samsung, but they just haven’t done enough for me to leave Apple and rely on the device as my lifeline to the world.  Way too many clicks to do anything and despite the camera coming up aces, I’ll be passing on this one, sorry Samsung.

The iPhone X is a no brainer for me, I’m a fangirl, we’ve established that, Apple have stepped away from the usual release model with the X and I like it, it feels slick, it’s definitely heavier than previous iPhone models but it’s more compact than the 7 and 8 Plus models, with a bigger screen.  Yeah you guessed it, I bought it, but i’m betting you knew that was coming didn’t you?

Pixie xo

Categories: Fashion, Models, Uncategorized

Up Close & Personal at Victoria’s Secret

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a huge deal in any fashion lover’s calendar, it’s become an unmissable fixture owing to its unobtainable glamour, its Angels old and new and those world famous wings.  The show has come a long way since it made its debut in New York showing little more than affordable basic pieces to the full blown spectacle it is today.

1997
1998
2012
2013

Whilst you might be familiar with the show itself and be able reel off the names of its most famous assets, did you also know that some of those famous costumes are actually available to view up close and in person?  I was invited along to the newly refurbished and extended Victoria’s Secret Bond Street store in London to find out more.

The costumes and wings that aren’t repurposed and made into new pieces are held in a secret ‘Trophy Room” before being put on display.  Each piece is fitted to a mannequin in its original form before being adjusted for fit (some of them have to be made bigger to fit classic mannequin proportions) and assigned a tag which includes details of which show it was featured in, its wearer, and their home town.  These pieces tour the few flagship Victoria’s Secret stores for fans and wannabe Angels to visit and they’re only in each location for a limited amount of time before moving on to their next temporary home.

VS Traveller
VS Bejewelled

If you’re looking to feast your eyes on the best outfits from the most recent Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in person the you need to head to the flagship store on Fifth Avenue, New York.  With it’s secret Retrospective museum that tales up the whole third floor of the store, it’s the next best thing to a front row seat at the show.  In there you’ll find not only the outfits but a roster of every model to ever walk the show, and a set of ‘wall wings’ for your very own turn as a VS Angel, on Instagram at least.

Currently the Bond Street store is home to the show stopping outfits shown in Paris as well as a few other famous pieces from years gone by, if you’re looking for the Fantasy Bra section however then you’re headed for disappointment as these multi million dollar ensembles are put up for sale for a period of twelve months and if they aren’t sold, they’re broken down and repurposed.  Yes really.

Worn by Bella Hadid in Paris 2016
Worn by Bella Hadid in Paris 2016
Worn by Karlie Kloss in London 2014
Worn by Taylor Swift to perform in London 2014

So, what can you see at the Bond Street store?  Well, sadly you won’t be given access to the Trophy Room but in store you’ll be able to view iconic pieces from the Victoria’s Secret Hall of Fame such as Bella Hadid’s jewel encrusted two-piece with wings from the 2016 Paris Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and Karlie Kloss‘ controversial Tinkerbell wings from the 2014 show in London.  You’ll find Taylor Swift’s iconic Union Jack performance costume from the 2014 London show as well as some London themed accessories which were crafted specially for the show including white gloves and some fabulous “crown jewels” that you might have otherwise missed.

Gilded Angels 2014
2014 crown Jewels
VS Loves Kimono

If you’ve already visited the Bond Street store, you’ll know that the windows are filled with some of the more iconic (but less valuable) creations to appear in the show, these are moved once a year and no matter when you choose to visit, you’ll always find someone there photographing this awesome collection of bespoke, one of a kind couture.  Because that’s exactly what it is.  These pieces have been worn for a super limited number of times, and aren’t likely to be worn again, unless Ed Razek is planning some sort of Victoria’s Secret Greatest Hits / Alumni show at some point in the future – now how awesome would that be?!  I think I might be on to something here Voyeurs….

Pixie