Style with Blanaid Hennessy 2nd Feb

This is a first look at the style page for this Wednesday. It is, yes, you guessed it, a make up shoot!

The three local models, Rebecca, Emma and new model, Laura, came straight from a hockey match for the shoot. Oh the dedication!

Emma also showed her skill as a budding make up artist, creating the look on Laura, second from left.

Full text and details in this Wednesday's paper.

INTERIORS TEXT FROM THE WEEKENDER FRI 26TH JAN

You should all be recieving your Weekenders on a more regular basis now as the distribution has been reallocated. I have style and interiors pages in this Friday free sheet, yet I very rarely publish any of the stuff from that here.

So, here is a piece from the interiors/ property page I had last week. I did have a little rant, but hopefully it will start some sort of debate on this topic.

I hope you enjoy it....or read it!!



FORGET LOCATION...TRY NEGOTIATION

Relocation, relocation, relocation…when commercial rent becomes too much.

Commercial rents in the city centre are, quite frankly, ridiculous. Rents are high here because of location, they say. That’s a given, considering the state of most of the buildings. But what happens when you are not keeping an eye on the market, and business people realise that the location factor is slowly slipping away form the allure of renting there. Let’s all have a little think, for a moment, on the future of our city centre.

1. Landlords, who roam unregulated, hike up prices to multinational company level, but can’t provide the storage or access a multinational company would require.
There is also little, if any, car parking for loading or unloading, which means customers and businesses alike head for the industrial estates.
This makes location null and void for businesses who need space.

2. High Street is renowned for it’s good looks and charm, but most buildings have only one access point, which is the shop’s front door. This restriction alone stifles cheaper rents for offices or services that don’t require shop frontage , and stops the ground floor business from easing it’s expenses through subletting.

3. Location location etc, but businesses don’t close because you try to charge too much rent, they just take themselves elsewhere. In an age of new media, location isn’t everything.

4. I understand if a landlord must cover their own mortgage, but, unfortunately, rents covering the mortgage amount will soon be a thing of the past. There is a slow down coming to the property market, investors will be dumping a lot of their holdings in the Summer, so all of you landlords with places sitting empty and idle because your rents are too high now, just imagine how long they will be sitting empty when surrounded by a deluge of competing properties.

5.You may think that people should pay for the privilege of a nice location, and charge accordingly, but remember, that businesses also need to pay rates, wages, suppliers and service providers, and still make somewhat of a living.

6. Recognise the reason why people continue to rent in the city centre, footfall. When those feet are spread out amongst the new shopping centres, and driven out to sprawling industrial estates, then all you are left with is sentimentality, and a business who pays extraordinary rent for the reason of a sentimental location, will not be a tenant for very long. They will not be a business for very long.

7. I’m all for survival of the fittest, I don’t think we should mollycoddle and massage little businesses that are then unprepared for the real world, and fold quick sharp. Don’t think I’m here asking for leniency, and a little helping hand etc. What I’m saying is this, you can’t attract the big boys to play on High Street, Rose Inn Street, William Street, John Street, James Street, Kieran Street, any street in the city, so stop charging like you can. Let them go and pay the exact same money for a unit four times as big , modern and equipped as the one you are offering, half a mile outside the city. You need to recognise that your market is changing, and ask yourself, are you ready to negotiate?


The fact is, unless something is done soon to entice good, strong, long term businesses to our city centre,
before the new shopping centres or expanding estates do so, Kilkenny City Centre is going to become a ghost town. It’s not up to me to try and fix it, I’m just here to point it out to the people who can......

(A little note to businesses who wish to rent, you would never offer the asking price on a house for sale without negotiating, so why accept whatever the landlord wants without trying to work on the price. The new rule of property, forget location, try negotiation.)

MODELS

A quick note for all of the models, writers makeup artists etc that came to the career evening, we are still working our way through you all. Please don't think we have forgotten about you. We aim to feature as many of you as we can, and will be in touch soon.

We are currently completely revamping our business, which doesn't help, as we are between studios, but trust me, it's for the best. We will hopefully have a brand new studio very soon.

As for the style fair, well, it seems like we will get it done, but there is a lot of work involved, and it isn't easy. I will keep you up to date here.


Thanks for your patience.

x

Goodbye Liadán Carrickshock/Liadino Carrinido/ Leah Carri

Very sad day for many of us in Kilkenny, as Leah Carri, a blow in from Waterford, is blowing further afield, and relocating to Australia.

Leah, a newsreader in KCLR96fm, film critic for the Kilkenny People, part time Mexican, has somehow been swayed to move to a beautiful hot country to be with her buff, succesful Australian doctor.

Tough call.

We know it's not like many years ago when people tripped off and never returned and couldn't afford to call. We know you can come back, we know we can go over there, I am aware of emailing, texting, skype and all the biz, but we will still miss your little head around the place.

Still though, you cant stand in the way of true love. Mental high five on the hot country factor.

See you dahn undah.

xx

Emma Holohan for Style

SHARP SUITER Wednesday 24th of January
Black Jacket - €67.50 (sale) Bel Air in Goods
White Shirt - €90.00 Coast in Goods
Pencil Skirt - €45.50 (sale) Bel Air in Goods
Black 60 denier tights - €2.50 Penneys
Satin pumps - €40.00 (sale) Faith
Lace Gloves and hairpiece from a selection in H&M.


Styling Hair and Makeup : Blanaid Hennessy
Model : Emma Holohan
Photography : Eoin Hennessy

********STYLE QUESTIONNAIRE******************************

I have devised a leeeeetle questionnaire, all about you and your style. If you would like to appear in the Kilkenny People Weekender, and are comfortable with writing all about yourself, then please fill in the Q&A.

All you have to do is text me your email address to 083 303 8133, or email it to me at blanaid@ehp.ie.

I will then send you the questionnaire via email. Fill in, return, with photograph of yourself for publication, and that's it!

Look forward to hearing from you,

B

On the subject of tracksuits......

As I mentioned in “Make time for colour”, I have a special type of tracksuit, which is black. As for tracksuits themselves, I leave them for the gym. I am not going to give out about tracksuits, as I know there are women who would be lost without the day time equivalent of pyjamas, and I don’t want to make you feel bad.
However.
There are so many beautiful clothes and designers in the world, so many fits that will suit your figure so perfectly. When I feel like tying the duvet around me and rolling into work, instead of reaching for a tracksuit, I pull on a pair of flat boots, and my special camouflage clothes. No, I don’t mean horrible combats and jungle gear, I mean clothes that feel nice no matter how crap you feel. The can be loose or layered, black or dark green or any subtle colour you like, but they don’t make you feel over or underdressed, but decent.
One of the main reasons women wear tracksuits is that they are too tired to make any effort, so would rather make none at all. In their mind, it would be better that someone just thought they looked rubbish , rather than make an effort and for that person to still think they look rubbish.
A lot of people also don’t want to be noticed at all, and a tracksuit becomes an imaginary invisible force field that makes them blend into the crowd.
Just stop now, enjoy yourself, get into a different kind of tracksuits, find clothes that suit your shape, enjoy the fun of dressing up a little, and your confidence will grow.
The funny thing is, that with a little practice, you will know when you pass your old tracksuit wearing pals, that it took you as much effort to look lovely today, as it did for them to roll into that tracksuit.
That’s a nice feeling.

Make time for colour

I have discovered the joy of black, which is a terrible thing. It is the stylist’s equivalent of a tracksuit, when you have a fairly hectic day of path stomping, fittings and meetings, a selection of black will always look good, no matter which way you throw it towards your body.
However, black can become addictive. In your wardrobe, it seems as though all colourful clothes creep behind their duller counterparts, pushing forward the darker shades for your selection. I have to break the cycle, and 2007 is the year to do this.
I’m not one for trends, but if they are decent, then we must succumb, and this one is very much okay.
We will definitely see a return, a burst if you like, of colour on the fashion scene come Spring/Summer, and, although we are a little fearful of the black being peeled form our back, it will be time to accept a little brightness into our lives.
The secret to adding colour is this; easy does it. Don’t go from soft muted shades to dazzling brilliance, if you are a soft muted shades kind of person to begin with, it will feel completely foreign and wrong. Look to New York, where ladies of a certain standing have hectic yet stylistically competitive lives, learn from them, see how they wear lovely basic colours, nudes, tans, creams, browns, greys and blacks, and then add interest with oversized red beads, a turquoise bag, a dinky yellow hat and so on.
This is the secret to not only colour, but dressing.
Invest in beautiful basics, the capsule wardrobe. White shirt, black trousers, tan pencil skirt, cream coat, black coat, little black dress, little tan dress, white vest, tan vest, black vest, beige jumper, plain, simple, classic and effective.
Now the colour, invest in one dazzling coat, a tapestry of colour, and wear it with your black dress and a giant red ring.
Pair your decent black work suit with a green satin shirt, mix a little chunky turquoise with your tans and browns.
You see, you can go a little crazy with colour, but you don’t have to look like a Sony Bravia ad. Restrain yourself, while indulging little, but remember, too much of anything, whether black or colour, is never a good look.

Local Sales Versus National Sales

I used to love the sales, the thrill of grabbing bargains, the change from a tenner for a top. Alas, the more I shop, the more selective I become, and after a wee trek to the capital city, I feel that sale season there has been an utter disappointment.
Department stores and chains swap rot amongst each other, stuffing their rails with seconds, returns and stock from so many seasons ago, they are almost back in style. They should be paying us for making room in their stockroom, instead of us paying them for the privilege of owning some tat we will never wear.
Some of the chains do make an effort, reducing last season’s stock by thirty per cent, with reductions continuing as we roll toward February.
Local shops are definitely the way to go at this time of year, they don’t have a sister store in some backwater where they can hide the detritus, they must get rid to make room for their brand spanking new supplies. With boutiques chopping as much as fifty percent off good quality pieces, this is the time to pick up some classics and create a good relationship with your local business people.
The Kilkenny sales are good, honest, proper, no messing around, lets clear the air and store bargains. So, support your own this Sale season, and I bet your wardrobe will thank you for it.

Behind the Scenes at Style

As we head into a new year of style and shoots and pages, it seems to be a good time to take a look back at how and what we have been filling this space every Wednesday in 2006.
So how do we think up and get the pages out week after week? Well, it helps to have a great and easy going photographer in the shape of my brother, Eoin, and a seriously helpful new Style Assistant, Michelle Moran.
We also use good models, who are eager to assist, genuinely pleasant and fun.
The local shop and service owners we deal with are fantastic and very much into what we are trying to do with the page, which has always been to feature and support Kilkenny businesses.
A big part in maintaining the quality of the page is that I’m the only one that decides who or what appears on the page, I never use people who expect or demand to have their product featured.
I have broken the shoots down into five areas : Concept, Models and Clothes, Hair and Makeup, Shoot and Digital Art.
CONCEPT
The concept for a shoot can be decided four weeks or four hours prior to the start of the shoot. Generally I will have an idea of whether the style of clothes I want to show, or the store I want to feature, and then plan a way to show them to their best advantage. The ideas are added to a list on a white board in the studio. I then draw out the idea for the shoot with notes about the models, poses, makeup and hair styles, which is known as Story Boarding. This is the only way of laying down and remembering the fifty million ideas you may have every day.
MODELS AND CLOTHES
The models are chosen for their look, or their ability to pose. All of the girls are unique in their beauty, we need models with identity, whether edgy, innocent, bohemian, stunning or pretty.
They also need to be able to leave their inhibitions at the door, follow direction and work the camera, as well as be pleasant and helpful on the shoot. As you can see, we generally have good craic on the day of the shoot, especially when mucho Lucozade and sweets drive us a little hyperactive!
The clothes are always from Kilkenny, which can seem limiting, but is quite good if you were able to play ‘Pairs’ when you were little. Do you remember the card game, where all cards were upside down, and you had to match one to where you remember turning up it’s partner? Anyway, it’s like that with the shoots, I will see a beautiful dress in Coast, then picture the coat in Tempted that would match it perfectly, with those shoes I saw in the Pink Room, and that hairpiece from the Butterslip.
You also pound the pavements all week, and meet with business owners to discuss upcoming events or incoming stock. Everything you see and hear is filed away in your brain for use in future shoots.

HAIR AND MAKEUP
I generally do the hair and makeup for all of the shoots, but occasionally we will enlist the help of a make up artist. I always concentrate on a good clean base, with strong eyes and full glossy lips. Photographic makeup is much heavier than normal makeup, but the more perfect you apply it, the less airbrushing, if any, you have to do in the Digital Art stage.

SHOOT
Shoots can be quite crazy and hectic, I direct the shoots, Eoin works the camera and lighting. Most shoots are on a Friday, starting at 10am. This is when the clothes and concept are finalised. The models generally arrive at 11.30 or so, and we then hit the shops to collect or choose the clothes for the shoot.
Lunch is ordered into the studio at 1pm, after which we get down to business. Makeup is applied to one, while the other models organise and try their outfits.
Shooting is generally ready to start at around 3pm, and can continue til 7pm.
The outfits and prices are noted, and everyone helps to clear up the clothes and re-bag them for their return.
We are definitely perfectionists when it comes to the pose, Eoin can take up to 200 photos of one set up, and all of the models know that a shoot can be one of their best workouts!

DIGITAL ART
This is one of my favourite jobs, the layout and design of the finished photographs. I use Photoshop as part of our general photography business, and have found it invaluable when trying to create unique backdrops, as it is not always possible to go on location, whether due to weather, budget, organisational or time constraints.
Photoshop is where I retouch gently, as I can’t stand overly airbrushed photographs. If you have set up your lighting and composition correctly, and applied good makeup and posed the models well, there is no real need for actual airbrushing.
I also the set ups and backgrounds in Photoshop. It can take a long or short time, depending on how detailed you wish to be, or how off the wall your idea is, but it’s great to have that kind of control over the look of your page.

And Finally….
All I have to do then is write the text, send that to my editor, Tess, in the Kilkenny People, get the images off to Damien in page makeup, and chat with him about the layout.
Then all that’s left is to repeat the process for the two pages in the Kilkenny People Weekender, set up the next shoot for the main paper, and try, just once, to make my deadline!