The girls get down at French Connection's Electric Disco

On Thursday UK Kolours' Marketing Consultant, Hannah and I (Karen) joined French Connection for an evening of VIP shopping!

We rushed into London town from sleepy Hertfordshire as soon as we could get out of the office and at Oxford Circus station we climbed the steps out into the magic of Regent Street at Christmas time! The lights had been turned on and the new crossing had opened… I was very excited!

At French Connection's Regent Street store we were welcomed into the warm with a complimentary glass of wine and a delish choccie! The store was buzzing and we mooched round with our wine and chocolate, checking out the fabulous Winter Collection.

The Benefit 'make-uppers' were doing wonderful things and all the lovely girls from French Connection were looking after everyone, and keeping me topped up!

The party dresses really were the star of the evening, their sequin sparkle attracting shoppers like magpies! Moon, Spirit Catcher, Mae and Damask dresses all very popular… but how do you choose?!

The bold statement jewellery and accessories also got a lot of attention, the Spirit and Moon clutches my favourites of the bags.

After some hard work (!) we were starving and popped round the corner to grab a Thai before heading back out of the Big Smog home to Hertfordshire!

Another day, another fabulous VIP event!
Karen x

If you're a French Connection fan stay tuned… we'll be bringing the best of the Spring/Summer 2010 Collection to UK Kolours and Indah in the New Year.

UK Kolours - Freshers Week University Promotion

The clever marketing bod’s at UK Kolours decided that this year we should run Fresher’s week promotions at some of the home-counties top universities.

Armed with UK Kolours promotional bag’s, mix CD’s, discount cards, lollies and other goodies we visited the lovely students at a selected number of universities in September and October 2009. These included Cambridge, Oxford, Surrey and Hertfordshire.

The brilliant re-useable promotional bag’s came in two colours; we had navy back-pack bags for the guys and deep purple shoulder bags for the girls… although we occasionally had the odd guy and girl who wanted the opposite colour ….Hey, its all good!

The mix CD’s were from Danny Tammuz of London’s Players Posse and Choice FM. Thanks Danny! Hot mix!

Our first visit was to Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. It was lovely weather and there were students everywhere. We managed to double-park down a side street right next to the uni (James has inside knowledge of the area as he had studied in Cambridge). We were bombarded! Everyone wanted to get their hands on the UK Kolours bags! It wasn’t long before we were completely out! Hi to all the lovely people we met that day!
Driving away from the university – it was very rewarding to look around and see blue and purple UK Kolours bags everywhere!

Our next university visit was Guildford the following week. I have never seen such a big uni! The campus has its own Starbucks! James and I again double parked in a “secret location” and again the bags went down a treat. I then decided to try my luck and go inside the main tent where most of the activity was happening… It was rammed packed full of students. I walked up and down the isle with endless amounts of bags weighing me down, but with every step the load became lighter. When I quickly ran out I would have to run around the corner (where James sat eating his sandwich – thanks James)… to get more bags! And yes, soon enough … all bags had gone. Two universities down, three to go ….

Next up was the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield. This time, UK Kolours James, Steve and I went along. I think in total we were standing there for half and hour. We literally got stripped of our promo bags. They were a winner. We even gave a bag or two to the nice parking attendant! Thanks for your help. We hope your sons resolved their fight over the promo bag!

Next, back to Cambridge again… This time we parked up and positioned ourselves right outside the Kelsey Kerridge sports centre where the Fresher fair was taking place. The weather was amazingly bad! It was tipping it down with rain. Luckily we all had worn our hoodies. Aeropostale for me and Hollister for James… LOL! Although it was raining non stop and we got pretty soaked we had a great time bantering with the students and the other promo people around us. On the plus side for me, there was a real hottie handing out promotional gear to student’s right next to where we were standing! Thanks…whoever you were… :-)

Last but by no means least; we headed to Oxford University on a crisp Wednesday morning. We had given out so many bags already our supplies were low but we were looking forward to our visit to this lovely City. I had forgotten how beautiful Oxford is. It took us an hour and a bit to get to Oxford from our HQ in St. Albans. The Fresher’s event was happening at the Examination school on the high street. We had only been there for 5 minutes when we bumped into Rosie, one of our UK Kolours models, who is now attending Oxford University. Well done Rosie! Brains as well as beauty ;-)

After a slow start (we should have known that most students don’t get up until lunchtime) the numbers began to increase from a steady stream to suddenly a flood! Thanks to James and his now infamous double parking the supply of bags and goodies kept coming. A special thank you to the two Oxford policemen for your understanding :-) After a short time we were inundated and then… we were totally out. Every single bag was gone! Big apologies to those who missed out.

All in all we had great fun meeting the future leaders, doctors, vets and barristers on our 2009 university travels. A big thank you to all the great people we met in our Fresher’s week promotions and good luck to you all! Enjoy the bags!

Michelle. x

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Fashion's Night Out!

And here we are again… The UK Kolours girl's Michelle and Karen hit the town last Thursday night to attend the brilliant ‘Fashion’s Night Out’ in collaboration with Vogue magazine. Fashion’s Night Out was hosted in stores simultaneously in 13 fashion capitals across the world, including London, New York, Milan and Madrid.

Stores such as Mango, Miss Selfridge, H&M, Gap, French Connection, Selfridges and Burberry opened their doors to fashion frenzied shoppers in a bid to boost the economic gloom by pampering, gifting and even slashing prices to entice shoppers to treat themselves… Hey, it worked on me!

We came out of Oxford Circus tube station and headed straight towards Topshop where most of the crowds were gathering.

First things first, myself and Karen were on a mission to find the free bubbly which was being handed out in really cool miniature bottles; which let me tell you was not easy to find.

We started browsing and managed to pick up some really cool, funky garments and great ideas within the first 10 minutes.

Around the Topshop stage, an assistant gave us a flyer for Vogue’s top tip Autumn Winter ‘10 trends presentation, which was about to start. We took our seats… right at the front. Excitedly we sat enjoying the free chocolate and champagne :-)

The top tips and the models were so good that they even persuaded me to buy some of the featured clothing. I love my Boho woollen cardie from Topshop!! All good inspiration for Indah Autumn Winter ‘10!

After Topshop, we headed down towards Bond Street to check out H&M, Selfridges and Burberry where lots of exiting things were happening.

It was now after midnight and so in need of refreshment we headed to Camino’s Spanish Tapas bar in King Cross for a late drink and a bite to eat… Yummy as ever!

Karen and I had a really good and more importantly an insightful evening and came back with lots of info and ideas. Fashion never stops!

Until next time…

Michelle x

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UK Kolours Photoshoot - Behind the scenes

A model's diary by Brogan

An early start had commenced and everyone seemed enthusiastic and excited as the rest of the models and I went into hair and make-up. Instantly I knew the team at UK Kolours clicked as they cracked jokes together. I felt nervous, as it was my first professional photoshoot for an up and coming company. Luckily however both my boyfriend and I were involved in the shoot which made things easier.

The other four models were relaxed and easy to get on with as we talked, laughed and joked around together. There was a really friendly atmosphere as the preparations continued. It definitely helped that we had all met the day before the shoot to get to know each other and the UK Kolours team, so we all knew who we would be working with before the day of the shoot. Although our ages were not exactly the same, Rosie, Abby, Sam, Tom and I were all in the same boat. All of us wanted to produce the best photos for UK Kolours, and reach our full potential.

Hair and make-up took a while but no one seemed to mind about getting pampered! Clare, Marta and Aga did an excellent job. The team knew the look they wanted to achieve but other options were taken in consideration. I loved the clothing we were modelling which was from brands such as Hollister, American Eagle Outfitters, Aeropostale, Ralph Lauren and Havaianas.

A couple of hours later, when the stylists had finished, we headed into St. Albans town centre for the first part of the photoshoot - summer. It wasn't the best weather but no surprise there as this is England! We all bared the cold and enjoyed a great start to the day. Karen, the photographer, had designed each setting but we were advised to incorporate our own ideas into the pictures.

Shoot number two - autumn was underway faster than summer; mainly as we all knew the plan of action. Back for hair and make-up, outfits change and grab a bite to eat. We were racing against the clock! The energy of the team gave me the adrenaline rush and boost of confidence to get the photos the UKK team needed for the campaign.

For ordinary people the change of seasons happens during the course of a year whereas for this particular modelling job, we adapted summer, autumn and Winter in under 24-hours. I'm not embarrassed to admit, it was a challenge, orientating myself for each shoot. Thankfully, the weather cleared up as the day continued. It was eventful however, walking around St. Albans town in the afternoon sunshine whilst wearing fur foodies and big coats. There were a few odd looks heading our way!

Overall, the day was such a good experience and I think it was the UKK team that made it that bit more special. Everyone just seemed to fit, like a puzzle. I would happily do a shoot again for UK Kolours as it was just so fun and enjoyable. There was no pressure on us as models, everything was just simply and laid back. The best way to start off a modelling career is working with such talented people and I'm lucky I had the opportunity.

Brogan. x

Check out the behind the scenes footage from the photoshoot here:




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The UKK girls hit Pure!

At the beginning of the month Michelle and I gave up one of our valuable lazy Sundays to attend Pure Womenswear exhibition at Olympia. Not that it was much of a hardship… we got to look at gorgeous clothes all day!!

We went to source new brands for Indah, our new venture. It's all about ethnic fabrics and bohemian style so we decided to stop at Portabello Market first. We had a good rummage around and found a couple of bargains for ourselves as well as spotting a couple of good stalls for Indah!!

After lunch we headed to Pure. There were lots of great brands and some fabulous lines, we were in heaven! We even caught the last catwalk show of the day which was super glam even if we weren't on the front row!!

We've made some great contacts and hopefully you'll be seeing some new brands when Indah launches in the spring next year!

Karen
x

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UKKolours Brand New Blog

Just a short welcome from the all new UKK blog.

We'll be covering all the exciting happenings at UKK which we hope are going to be HUGE over the next few years.

We're very close to launching a new-look website with some great new functionality and we're expecting big things to happen! So, we look forward to the journey, with you, along the way to world domination!

Karen

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