So one day during form time my tutor approaches me proffering a leaflet. A chance to ‘Be the face of The Luxe’ I read, how intriguing… After jotting down a few ideas I had a clear vision of how to portray what gives me the Luxe factor and after including parental consent and great photography by my best friend, Lydia Boorman, my competition entry was complete.
A couple of days later, you’d never guess what, I’D WON =D I was so excited! July the third could not come quicker.
On the morning of The Day a car had been arranged to pick me, my mum and Lydia up and we glided importantly along in a Mercedes until we reached our destination, Selfridges. There waiting for us was Sophie and Hannah from Penguin and I was whisked off to the Armani make-up counter where Nada gave me a flawless complexion and Jason at Cobella transformed my hair.
After getting changed into the magnificent pink Luxe dress I undertook the mission of getting back downstairs to outside Selfridges for a photocall with the media. The lifts at Selfridges claimed to take the weight of twenty people, but due to the sheer amount of material a warning light flashed; the lift was overloaded! When I eventually got outside I met with Charlie Shearn, a professional photographer, and the amount of attention I got from passers-by was astounding, although to be fair I did look like I’d just stepped out of the 1800’s =D
Most of the time I had a horseshoe of onlookers, some tourists filming the vision in pink, others asking which famous actress or model I was! It was crazy and I loved it but eventually I had to retire back into my own clothes and off we headed to Penguin HQ. When we arrived we ate some delicious sandwiches after which we took the lift to the tenth floor to wonder at the amazing views, from the same spot that Winston Churchill watched the bombs fall during World War Two no less!
It was then time to kit myself out in The Luxe gear again and off we trotted to Embankment Gardens where Charlie took some amazing photos, Lydia assisting him, and taking some of her own too. Penguin employees had also been invited and they ooh-ed and aah-ed and asked me if I was standing on a box. I wasn’t =D
The next task was to get onto Waterloo Bridge. The path we took was up some stairs, a mission and a half with so much material but with teamwork and an unlady-like gait we eventually got there! The gale force winds were tugging at my hair and billowing out the dress even more, at several points I did question my ability to keep from flying away =D But it was O.K, I survived! From here I had the picturesque backdrop of the London eye, Big Ben, Westminster Bridge and of course the Thames.
We then made our way along Strand to Trafalgar Square getting accosted along the way by a magician who managed to produce playing cards from the folds in my dress!
At Trafalgar Square I was leaning delicately against a wall when security guards interrupted us and advised Sophie that although we had permission for a photoshoot here it did not cover the use of the wall. Consequently I had to step about a metre away from the wall and there we continued happily creating more interest and successfully publicising The Luxe!
After seven hours the day was drawing to an end and I took the dress off for the final time back at Penguin HQ =( A car had been called to take us home and whilst we waited we had some refreshments with Sophie reflecting on the day… Once we were in the car on the way home the heavens opened and we all realised just how lucky we had been for the weather to have stayed so nice. I had had a wonderful time and I wish I could do it all again!
