This is the funniest play I’ve ever seen. You should totally go and see it.

One Man, Two Guvnors is now on at the Adelphi Theatre. If I were you I’d get tickets now because this run of the hit play is pretty much guaranteed to sell out – I’ve already got mine booked for February next year.

I suffered an epic theatre fail last week. I was supposed to go and see One Man, Two Guvnors at the Adelphi Theatre on Wednesday. I had booked it as a surprise for my boyfriend and was really excited about it. But then a reminder email from the theatre on Monday revealed that I had erroneously booked the matinee performance instead of the evening. Cue a huge facepalm and a trip to the box office to plead, or so I thought, to return the tickets. It turns out I just had to pay £2 per ticket to transfer them, but because the play is so popular the earliest date I could get was 13^th February 2012. So a pre-Valentines date it will be.

How do I know One Man, Two Guvnors is so funny if I haven’t seen it yet? Well, actually, I have. Thanks to Theatre Club (we get discounted tickets through work) I saw it during the original run at the National Theatre in September. I don’t want to overstate how good it is, because invariably that leads to disappointment, but, basically, if you’re in possession of a sense of humour you should go and see this play. Set in 1960′s Brighton, it’s the story of Francis Henshall, the man of the title, played by James Corden, and the shenanigans that ensue when Francis lands himself with two bosses and has to juggle secrets, suitcases and a lack of sandwiches. What’s that, you find James Corden intensely irritating? So did I, until I saw this. He is brilliantly funny, as are all of the cast, with my favourite performance being the ancient, quivering, half-deaf waiter Alfie. The production has been getting five star reviews all over the place, but this isn’t some highbrow theatrical drama that happens to have a few pithy lines, it’s an out-an-out slapstick LOL-fest. There’s one bit where an audience member comes on stage and I still can’t work out whether she was an accomplice or not, because of what they did to her (I don’t want to give anything away, but it was hilarious). I’m hoping I can work it out on my second visit. You should go too. Seriously. It’s so good.

One Man, Two Guvnors is at the Adelphi Theatre until the end of February 2012. Book tickets on the Adelphi website.

SAMPLE SALE! Finders Keepers, Cameo, Pink Label and more!

Good news folks, the lovlies at Greene & Sheppard PR are hosting a sample sale on Thursday 15th December, and you are all invited!  With 20% profits also going to charity, this is a perfect opportunity to get your hands on some designer clobber at rock bottom prices.  With the likes of Finders Keepers, Muubaa, Cameo and Pink Label London, along with many more, featuring in the sale, it would be somewhat fashion sacrilege to miss it. 

With doors open from 10am-7pm, it would be wise to try to pop over earlier (before I take EVERYTHING), as well as sharpening your elbows for muscling your way to the best stuff!  Just remember, cash only peeps!  And for more information on the brilliant charity Greene & Sheppard are supporting from their sample sale,  please visit Eaves website here, who support vulnerable women with quality housing and campaigning against violence against women.

See you all there!

 

Christmas Shopping Ideas | Vogue.com Online Fashion Week

My advent calendar’s up and has now become a constant reminder that I have 21 days and counting left to get all my Christmas presents bought, wrapped and smugly piled under my (as yet non existent) tree.

Coming from a rather sizeable Indian family, this time of year is never kind to my bank account, given that there are twenty people in my immediate family alone. So this year I have made myself a promise, namely that it is ALL going to be done online and everything will be bought, stuffed and dressed two weeks before Christmas day.

Now, for fear of sounding a bit like a Tesco advert, every little helps – and this year the team at Vogue.com have come up with the brilliant idea of an Online Fashion Week.

Following up on the huge success of the global Fashion’s Night Out phenomenon, the Voguettes announced back in July that they will be organising a scheduled week of exclusive online offers and events – take a look at the schedule here to see just how many brilliant online retailers and shops they have managed to get on board.

Given my personal promise of refusing to negotiate the crowds in bustling department stores, this is a veritable godsend. With brands like Topshop, Matches and Mulberry involved, Vogue.com editor Dolly Jones and her team have hit on a stellar idea for the time-poor woman who wants to bag a bargain in the run-up to Christmas. I know I’ll be logging on tomorrow morning to do a bit of digital splurging.

British Vogue’s Online Fashion Week begins Monday 5^th December at 9am. Check out the schedule here, and tweet us if you are taking part in the online extravanganza yourself!

You are invited to Common People – a charity exhibition of new London artists – Friday 9th Dec

All you lovely Style & Then Some readers are invited to Common People – a charity art exhibition, curated and organised by Sophie Charara with desserts by our own culinary goddess Sophie Caldecott and featuring work from Style & Then Some photographers Helene Charara and Faraz Pourreza-Jorshari.

The rest of the Style & Then Some team will be out in force next Friday, 9th December at The Studio, 55 Leroy Street SE1 4SR. The nearest tube stations are Borough (10 mins) Elephant and Castle (15 mins) and London Bridge (20 mins) or get a bus to Old Kent Road and get off at the Bricklayer’s Arms stop.

Other young artists, photographers and designers showing their work on the night include: Samantha Meachin, Lily Dunlop, Tom Peet, Emma Goodman, Ismahan Rashid, Doug Stewart, Andy Shrubsole, Scott Taylor, Rosie Caldecott and Frances Ives.

The £4 entry donation gets you a free drink, gorgeous canapes and dessert plus music all night. All profits will go to Amnesty International and the Disaster Emergency Committee and most of the work will be for sale if you want to start your collections early.

COME AND BRING YOUR FRIENDS

Poster credit: Samantha Meachin

Going Dutch: Vogue Netherlands set to Launch in 2012

It is with giddy anticipation that I write these words:  Vogue is going Dutch!  That is, to be more precise, the power house known as Conde Nast has decided to launch the Fashion Bible in the Netherlands, thus giving Vogue its 19th international edition.

Why am I so excited?  Only because some of the slickest styles and emerging brands of late happen to be flooding out of Holland and its neighbouring countries (and into Britain no less, with Cheap Monday and Monki both setting up shop in Selfridges this year).  So it makes perfect sense that Vogue will muscle its way on to the stands of every news agents and the shelves of every stylish woman in that part of the world next year.

With Dutch Glamour’s current editor jumping ship to take the reins at the newest Vogue, all eyes will be on Karin Swerink next year.  Maybe it would be wise to consult French Vogue’s top dog, Emmanuelle Alt, for tips on dealing with the Conde Nast pressure after she seamlessly replaced Carine Roitfeld as editor-in-chief earlier this year.

With 18 editions already available worldwide, do you think Vogue Netherlands will stand out as much as I am hoping?  And which Vogues do you, our darling readers, prefer?

VIDEO | Deadmau5 live in London – as seen from my flat

Last weekend I could see something being projected on to Millbank Tower, a skyscraper on the bank of the Thames near Westminster that I can see from my flat. I couldn’t work out what it was, but all was revealed on Monday night when it turned out Deadmau5 was playing a set there with the gig projected live, apparently in 4D, on to the building, to mark the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows phone.

It started at 9pm and watching from my balcony I couldn’t see much that looked anything more than 2D, let alone 4, but then in the last five minutes it suddenly got really cool and I got the last three minutes on video on my phone – check it out below. This tiny little video isn’t amazing quality, but, as one YouTube commenter pointed out, I had a pretty great view. If only someone could tell me what song was playing at the end I could add another video to post beneath so you don’t have to listen to mine and my boyfriend’s inane comments as we watched it.

Now, I’d like to point out that this is in no way a sponsored post, but as it happens I was given a Nokia Lumia 800 last week. It was thanks to my blogger friend Jamie of Boy Meets Fashion, he recommened me as part of a scheme called Nokia ‘into insiders’, a way to promote the phone in a market dominated by the Blackberry and iPhone. So while this is purely coincidental, I think the Nokia people will be pretty pleased that they got this self-confessed iPhone-aholic to blog a video of an event that is basically a large-scale ad for the Lumia, that I videoed on my Lumia. How meta is that?

A guide to the perfect Advent weekend

Advance apologies, I’m going to be shamelessly schmultzy and as oozy about Christmas as a hyper active kid (let the fact that I’m listening to Michael Bublé’s Christmas album on full blast give you fair warning). So this year I’m spending Christmas in America with my boyfriend, and it will be my first Christmas away from my family. I guess it’s only when you know you won’t have something that you really start to appreciate it, but I’ve been getting really into all the Christmas traditions this year – did you know that Americans don’t have Christmas pudding, or crackers? These are staple things that I always took for granted, but apparently they are massively English traditions.

Stir Up Sunday is the last Sunday before Advent starts, and this is the day when you’re supposed to make the Christmas pudding. I did it a week late, and I’m sure you could do it a few weeks late; it doesn’t matter, as long as it has a few weeks before Christmas to sit and soak up all that alcohol. I’m going to take my pudding with me to America. I’m just hoping the fumes don’t make the sniffer dogs at the airport go crazy.

To start your weekend of getting into the Christmas spirit: first, decorate a wreath of pine with some pine cones, cinnamon sticks and little stars – you’re supposed to put four candles in the wreath and light one for each of the four Sundays of Advent. Then make some cranberry sauce to put away in jars for Christmas dinner. You can buy packets of fresh cranberries at most supermarkets. Pour a packet into a sauce pan, add 3 tablespoons of water, 120g caster sugar, the juice of one fresh orange, a generous teaspoon of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg and plenty of ginger and then heat very gently on the stove for about half an hour, until all the cranberries have popped and turned jelly-like. (By now, your fantasy about being in a sleigh with Michael Bublé should be well under way.)

When it’s ready and you’ve given it a good stir, let it cool before putting it in jars and storing it away in the fridge for the big feast.

I always assumed making a Christmas pudding would be incredibly difficult, but it’s the perfect Advent weekend activity to get you in the mood of the season, and you’ll appreciate it all the more on Christmas day because you put so much effort into making it. It takes a while, and you need two days to make it because it needs to rest overnight and then spend quite a while steaming the next day, but it’s definitely do-able. I used Delia Smith’s recipe, which you can find here.

I’m naturally a Summer person – I hate the cold, and I feel like the grey skies just drain me of energy – but getting into the spirit of the season really helps dispel the Winter gloom. Try it and see – it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, after all.

Bid on a Bag to Save a Life

The Bag to Save a Life auction is now open online – nab a designer handbag at a bargain price and support Save the Children at the same time.

Bag to Save a Life is this year’s Save the Children’s Christmas campaign. Launched last Friday, fronted by UK supermodel Erin O’Connor, the appeal lets fashionistas bid to get their hands on bags from Christian Louboutin, Mulberry, Jimmy Choo, Miu Miu, Prada and many more in an online auction through www.savethechildren.org.uk/bagtosave.

Many of handbags were donated by celebrities, and we’re talking VERY stylish ones at that. Tilda Swinton, for example, handed over a really chic Chanel bow bag. Others came straight from designers – my favourites have got to be the two-toned Jason Wu ‘Miss Wu’ tote bag and the futuristic Christopher Kane PVC clutch, pictured above. I’ve wanted one of these ever since Sophie and I went to his London Fashion Week show in February.

The starting price of all lots will be set at around a quarter of the bags’ recommended retail price. Save the Children is also urging the public to show their support by donating and dropping off unwanted bags at any of their Save the Children stores around the UK.

The Bag to Save a Life auction is open until Sunday 4th December so get bidding now at www.savethechildren.org.uk/bagtosave.