Judy's Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair hits Manchester's Town Hall

Christmas has landed at Manchester Town Hall and so has vintage. Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fashion fair is in its sixth year and now visits over thirty cities nationwide, returning to Manchester this weekend (Sunday 20th November) for a Christmas spectacular.

Starting as a small event in East London, the fair now boasts the title of the UK’s biggest vintage fair, alongside being featured in prestigious publications such as Vogue, Elle, Grazia, Marie Claire and Stylist magazines. Founder and ex Selfridges personal shopper, Judy Berger, described this title as a “great feeling.”

Speaking of what made her start Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fashion fair, she expressed her desire to “make vintage accessible and affordable.”

“I wanted a fair that everybody would be able to buy something from, from a poor student to somebody in their 30’s, 40’s and beyond.”

But what makes these fairs so popular? “People really like the fact that there’s going to be lots and lots of different stalls there from all over the country. It’s almost like if you shop in a department stall or online, so you’re getting maybe the best picks of things from all over the country without having to go round the country.” And the event definitely did that – from jewellery to bags and gowns to jumpers, there was something for everyone and every budget.

Judy recognises the importance of staying affordable especially in these tough economic times, through rigorous price checks for consumers and employing young people. “Maybe they’ve got families at home and can’t have full time nine to five Monday to Friday jobs and then we’ve got quite a few people who have been made redundant so they’ve decided to go all out and follow us round the country. So they will do two fairs every weekend, week in week out and that’s their full time job. It’s brilliant, it’s innovative – its how this country has to make a living during a recession.”

With plans to expand to one day festivals, Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fashion fair looks set for even greater things. “In a recession, people want a party and they want something that’s going to be affordable so we’re thinking of opening up everything we already do which is bringing in more bands, more DJ’s, putting on big one day parties that go on into the night where people can then dance to the music, wear the clothes, shop...just do everything.”

For the full interview, watch the video below: 

To find out if Judy's Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair is at a location near you see the map below. For event listings, click here and find the fair on Facebook and Twitter. 

View Judy's Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair in a larger map

For more on this story, click here. 

This post was written by Stacey Ford. You can contact Stacey at: SFord1@uclan.ac.uk

Dozens of bloggers swarm to London blogging event

Eager bloggers from all over the country came together on Saturday 15th October to The Only Way is Blogging, an event run by Hayley Carr. TOWIB as the event has come to be known, was set up as an outreach to bloggers and in a bid to build on the blogging community through the sharing of advice and tips.


The day saw an array of events including make-up demonstrations from FashionistA and VIVO:

Faye Marie, blogger from All These Pretty Things ran a HTML workshop giving tips and tricks to improving your blog: 

The Only Way is Blogging: HTML Workshop by staceyjmford

The day wrapped up with a photography workshop by Zoe from blog London Lipgloss and a question and answer session with established bloggers, Lily Melrose from llymlrs, Kate Johnson from Ghost Parties and Hayley Carr from London Beauty Queen. They were asked what they think makes a good blog: 

Left: Zoe from London Lipgloss gives a photography workshop to the bloggers. 

(L-R) Lily Melrose, Kate Johnson and Hayley Carr in the blogging Q&A

The Only Way is Blogging: Q&A Session - What makes a good blog? by staceyjmford

The event which proved to be a big success is running its next event - The Spring Social next February which promises to bring the ever growing blogging community together. Yet rewind five years and the term blogger would rarely have been uttered. Nowadays, bloggers are everywhere. They're invited to press days, sent free goods and this September saw them swamp London Fashion Week's front row. They write, they publish photos and produce video and audio content, whilst working to deadline - not much difference from the 21st Century multi-media journalist. But is blogging Journalism? And does it pose a threat to the traditional platform? 

“I wouldn’t say so much a threat, I do think that blogging is kind of closing the gap and I think it’s making journalists think a lot about what they do. I think it is having a threat on weekly publications, there’s a real thirst for knowledge and people want something here and now, they want it instantaneously and that’s what bloggers offer. Particularly at things like London Fashion Week, they can have pictures uploaded within an hour whereas it takes a few days or even longer to come out in print press. I don’t think it will ever be a threat to the ELLE’s and the VOGUE’s because people like the feel of a really thick magazine, they like the beautiful pictures and they like the really long, thought provoking intellectual articles that it offers but I do think in certain respects it is a threat but long-term, you’ll never get rid of magazines and you’ll never get rid of Journalism!” said Hayley Carr, Founder of TOWIB and blogger of The London Beauty Queen. 

Hayley believes that blogging and Journalism share similar qualities: “I think it is in certain respects, I think it still has the same background to it. You’re still writing about a product and you’re still giving your opinion. I think blogging is a lot more fluid and it’s changing a lot and I do think that a lot of bloggers want to be journalists so it’s the first toe in the puddle so to speak. But I still think it is quite different, obviously journalists are quite structured in the way they write about stuff whereas blogging you’re writing from your own personal opinion and your own personal experience.”

Her blog, The London Beauty Queen is the sole reason she got her job as a Social Media manager, dealing with the biggest brands in the country. "I've basically turned my blog into a job. It's opened me up to so many different opportunities, to go places and do things. I've been sent to Milan, I've been to Marbella, I'm backstage at London Fashion Week at all the shows, I've stayed in the most luxurious hotels in London and it's been an amazing ride - I've just made the most of it while I can because you never know when it's going to end."

Lara Lain sees the situation from both sides, working as a Marketing Executive for Look Magazine whilst running her blog: I Feel Like I Dreamt It. She started her blog after she moved to London to "prove I could write well in the hope that it would help me get a job in a magazine or newsaper." She admitted that she classes blogging as a form of Journalism: "If you get your blog 'out there' it can lead to all sorts of writing work and great chances to do Journalism based tasks that you wouldn't otherwise get the opportunity to do." However she dismissed the idea of it being a threat to traditional Journalism: "I don't see it as a threat at all, bloggers are great to work with - if anything they enhance things for our magazine. I think magazines are getting more and more behind bloggers as time progresses and I think that's great. Of course online is the future but I don't see print dying out completely, I much prefer to read a newspaper or magazine to reading online news." 



For the full interview with Hayley Carr on bloggings relationship with Journalism, please listen to the audio below:

The Only Way is Blogging: Interview with founder Hayley Carr by staceyjmford




One famous blogger who has stormed the fashion industry is 15 year-old owner of blog Style Rookie who started her blog at the young age of 11. Since then she has been invited to fashion shows, A-List parties and has recently opened her online magazine for teenage girls - Rookie. 


But where has blogging come from? Below is a timeline of where it started and how, what insiders nickname the 'blogosphere', has grown:

A history of blogging on Dipity.

(Some statistics used in this timeline were sourced from Blogging Historical Timeline). 

Lara believes the popularity of blogging lies in "natural human curiosity." "I think people love to read about people that they kind of think they 'know'. I also think bloggers love to share and readers love to take inspiration and tips from bloggers." 



Cases like Tavi Gevinson's, where she has had hundreds of opportunities become available that weren't present before running her blog, proves that blogging is more than just a hobby. 




"I have met so many great people, been to events that I would never have had the chance to normally and above all, it's give me more confidence in myself and my ability to write content that people want to read about. Work wise it's progressed my job further as I understand blogging now and I can push blogging related projects to a higher level in work. I would not have been able to do this before I blogged myself" admitted Lara.




For more on this story, click here and here for a BBC video report on how bloggers are rivalling fashion magazines. 

This post was written by Stacey Ford. You can contact Stacey at: SFord1@uclan.ac.uk

Audio Skills Test - Proposed plans to build a new Tesco in Buxton

Tesco have recently proposed planning to build a new store in the Derbyshire spa town of Buxton, which has been met with mixed opinions from the public. While some see the addition of another supermarket to the area as progress, others feel it could "bulldoze" the town's charm. 

Buxton Tesco Vox Pop by staceyjmford

Alex Wild, 24, an administrative assistant saw only positive outcomes from the inclusion of a new supermarket to the town: "I can understand why people would be worried about it, especially all of the local shops but all they're doing is just keeping people in Buxton."


Bernie Bentley, 48 agreed admitting: "I think it would be a good idea actually."


Whereas Mary Riley, 84 who has lived in Buxton for 40 years condemns the plans arguing: "I think there's enough supermarkets in Buxton without another."


"I think it's quite a good idea because it'll bring job opportunities to Buxton and especially since the figures at the moment, especially for youth is quite low, it'll be quite good "said fashion student, Megan Bagshaw, 20.


Mother of three, Colette Measley of Holker Road, Buxton agreed with Mrs Riley: "I think we've got enough supermarkets in Buxton so I just think, no, use the space for something else, plus the amount of traffic that's in town already - it's just going to be a nightmare."


"We should have it yeah, I would!" said Ken Phillips of Buxton. 


"It does kill off all of the shops, the size of the company and it just bulldozes through. There's a number of different points of why we don't need one" stated Mark Measley of Holker Road, Buxton. 


Whereas Ann Nadin, who's husband was against the proposal to build a new Tesco, had a neutral stance on the topic: "I'm not opposed to it personally, but my husband is. If it comes, I'll welcome it, if it doesn't then tough!" 


Some shops along the high street have shown their rejections to the proposals by putting up 'No to Tesco' signs and banners. 

For more on this story, click here and here. 




This post was written by Stacey Ford. You can contact Stacey at: SFord1@uclan.ac.uk

Video Skills Test: The Leveson Inquiry

The Leveson Inquiry into the ethics of the press began this week with Hugh Grant, one of the first witnesses, giving his submission. The actor, most known for his role in 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, accused The Mail on Sunday of phone hacking and condemned the press for its intrusion of privacy.

Lord Justice Leveson is also to hear evidence off comedian Steve Coogan, murdered teenager Milly Dowler's parents, JK Rowling and Gerry and Kate McCann among others.

But what does an average member of the public think of the inquiry, and do they agree with Hugh Grant that the press sometimes oversteps the mark when it comes to privacy?





For more on this story click here and here.

This post was written by Stacey Ford. You can contact Stacey at: SFord1@uclan.ac.uk

Data Skills test

 Graph 1

Graph 2

UCAS UK applications have fallen compared to those last year. Graph 1 demonstrates that 59,413 applications were received for 2011 entry. It also shows that this figure dropped by nearly 7,000 this year with only 52,321 submitting an application for study. 

Graph 2 breaks down the severity of the fall in each UK region. The blue bar represents the  amount of applications received for 2011 entry and the red bar represents applications for 2012 entry. The graph proves that every region in the UK has suffered a decrease in applications. East Midlands felt the biggest decline at 20% with their applications dropping from 4,109 in 2011 to 3,286 in 2012. Whereas the South East gets off lightly with just a 8.10% decrease from 9,805 2011 entry applications, to 9,006 2012 entry applications. 

It is interesting to see first how the overall applications for the UK has differentiated and have the region breakdown to see which parts of the country have suffered from the biggest decrease. 

Last November the government implemented a plan to allow universities to raise tuition fees up to £9,000. Whether the sharp increase in fees has had a direct impact on the number of people applying for university is yet to be proved, but it's coincidental to say the least.

I sourced the above data from the Guardian Data Blog website. Click here to see the specific article which I used to download the data. I created the graphs myself using Microsoft Excel and believe they are effective in telling the story of the UCAS application drop.

For more information on this story click here and here. 

This post was written by Stacey Ford. You can contact Stacey at: SFord1@uclan.ac.uk

Map Skills test

View Lancashire Evening Post: 20th October News Stories in a larger map

Above is a Google map showing the locations of four Lancashire Evening Post news stories on Thursday 20th October 2011. 


I chose the stories I did as their geo-locations were specific to locate on the map to make it clear to readers where exactly the event/incident happened. This is important as it gives people who live in Lancashire an idea of where news is most frequent and where it is not. As you can see from my map, three out of the four news stories I chose to geo-locate are located in and around Preston city centre. I also chose these stories as their topics are all important issues and are different to one another. Below is an explanation of each pin on the map and why I chose that story: 


Yellow pin: I chose the 'CCTV appeal for supermarket thief' story as unlike the others, the story is geographically quite distant, being located in Lancaster rather than Preston. I also chose it for it's tone - it's not a soft news story but at the same time, it's not as hard a news story as say a murder investigation. I wanted to ensure that the tones of each of my four stories differed as well as the topic. 


Red pin: I chose the 'Schoolboy suffers minor injuries after crash' story as not only is it an emotive human interest story, but it also combines the education topic. A point is made in the story as to the boy's educational background at Fulwood Academy. I also chose it for it's tone. It is a hard and serious news story but the outcome was positive as the boy luckily only suffered minor injuries including bruises.


Pink pin: I chose the 'Preston nursery running Halloween fundraiser' story as it is an upbeat, positive news story but at the same time has been published for a serious reason - to raise awareness and funds for the LEP Lifesaver Appeal. 


Blue pins: As explained in the information of the blue pins, I geo-located both the hit-and-run location and the address of the hit-and-run killer as although the news story is about the killer himself appealing for a reduced sentence, I thought it important to contextualise the story and pin point the location of the hit-and-run, as without this previous news story, this 20th October news story wouldn't exist. I decided to draw a blue shape around both of these blue pins to highlight that this is one ongoing continuous story. 


This exercise has been beneficial to my Journalism skills as I now have a new and alternative way to present a news story as opposed to the conventional text story. 

This post was written by Stacey Ford. You can contact Stacey at: SFord1@uclan.ac.uk

Images Skills test

Above is the original image I took of Lancashire County Council. I took it from a corner angle to incorporate both views of the building and to add depth. I also wanted to ensure that I included the Lancashire County Council logo to make it clear exactly what building I had photographed. 

Above is my cropped image to the specification of: 200 pixel wide by 500 pixel high version in jpeg format. After setting the size to crop, I then 'Saved for web and devices' under the 'File' tab. This then took me to a menu where I selected to save the image as a jpeg and included the meta data before finally saving all of these options to my cropped image. I decided to focus my cropping primarily on the logo as I wanted to cut away the front facing side of the building as I felt it distracted away from the Lancashire County Council text. The 500 pixel high measurement allowed me to include all of the 'Lancashire County Council county hall' text which was my objective. I didn't want to include some of the logo and miss another part as I felt this would look messy and unprofessional. 

Above is my cropped image to the specification of 400 pixel wide by 300 pixel high version in jpeg format. After setting the size to crop, I then 'Saved for web and devices' under the 'File' tab. This then took me to a menu where I selected to save the image as a jpeg and included the meta data before finally saving all of these options to my cropped image. This time I cropped out the top part of the building that was shown in the previous focus to again direct the attention towards the Lancashire County Council logo. The only issue with this crop is that the window to the left is a little distracting which I have addressed in my final crop below. 

Above is my final cropped image to the specification of 100 pixel wide by 100 pixel high version in jpeg format.  After setting the size to crop, I then 'Saved for web and devices' under the 'File' tab. This then took me to a menu where I selected to save the image as a jpeg and included the meta data before finally saving all of these options to my cropped image. My main objective through cropping all of these images was to focus purely on the Lancashire County Council text as although the County Council building is architecturally beautiful, it could be easy to forget the purpose of the building without this logo. This is why for my final crop, I removed the window from the image which was shown in the previous crop and focused entirely on the text. Although the stunning contours of the building are no longer visible when you compare this 100 pixel wide by 100 pixel high image to the original, I think I have successfully met my objective and I feel this is an effective image and could be used as a thumbnail for Lancashire County Council e.g. as part of a letterhead or as a logo for their website. The logo is clearly visible and their are no distractions to the image. 

From this images skills test I have learnt how to successfully and effectively crop images to change the meaning and focus of the image. The meaning of the original image is significantly different to that of the final 100 pixel thumbnail image. The original image is filled with the architecture of the building, giving it quite an artistic meaning, whereas with the thumbnail, the meaning is simple and straight-forward - it's all about the logo and the Lancashire County Council. Like I mentioned previously, without this logo, this stunning building could be a building anywhere in the world and not mean anything to anybody but I think with my cropping based entirely on the logo, the meaning of the images as a whole changes. 

This post was written by Stacey Ford. You can contact Stacey at: SFord1@uclan.ac.uk