As you might have noticed it has been quite quiet on Bien Sucé lately. No, this has nothing to do with laziness or hot summer nights. It’s because I’m currently working on making it Bigger.Better. & Bolder.
Expect the unexpected… and in the meantime > > >
xoxo Sofie
So if you read my blog post on UPR’s BIG YOU event, you must have read that there was a blog post coming up about Camper, soo TADAAA here it is!
Camper had set up a nice corner at UPR, with a big map hanging on the wall. We could pick out our favorite shoe and choose a location where we’d like to go. Since it’s summer and all, everyone had their location pretty quick. It took me some time though, to consider where I would really like to go in the future, since I don’t want to pick out the typical spots.
So I chose a country where I don’t know much about, so that there is still so much to discover for me, and to look up before I would take off….. Here’s my pic with the map and my DESTINATION >>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yeppaaaah, I chose Bucharest in Romania! I didn’t really know why at the time, but I thought it would be fun to do some research for this blog post and who knows I might go there later this year…. So Bucharest? What to do , what to see? Let’s see what Wikipedia says:
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country. In the period between the two World Wars, the city’s elegant architecture and the sophistication of its elite earned Bucharest the nickname of “Little Paris“.
Oeh, little Paris, that can’t be bad, right?!
Let’s see some images then (don’t we all need visuals?!):
Not to shabby, hey?!
On all of my last trips, I took the bicycle to explore the cities I was in and I must tell you know: I AM HOOKED! I can’t even imagine doing city trips by foot anymore! As you can see right here ;):
So now this is exactly the reason why I picked out THIS Camper shoe to go on my trip (No, not just because I like the color and it looks pretty)! As you can see this sneaker has an extra strip to keep your pants from going where it shouldn’t be when riding your bike! Ha! I loved the idea!
They days of feeling all geeky because you had to put these yellow thingies around you legs are OVER! Thanks to Camper that is 🙂
Why I didn’t go for these other lovely shoes?
When I go on a city trip it’s all about seeing as much as possible on a short amount of time, so no heels, but easy, comfortable shoes that I can walk/bicycle on all day! Of course when nighttime falls and dinner is served in a local restaurant, I’ll switch to the pink dotted pumps 😉
I hope some of you got inspired to visit Bucharest or another place where you don’t know anything about OR maybe to go and get you those super convenient Camper bicycling sneakers 😉
(Check out the entire collection on www.camper.com)
Wherever you’re going this summer: enjoy your journey and try to keep your eyes open for everything (even though that means not always checking in and posting stuff on Instagram!).
Have a great summer!
xoxo Sofie
Remember that oh so very HOT Thursday about 2 weeks ago? Well, that day all bloggers were cordially invited by UPR , to come and join them for their second BIG YOU event. So heading down to their office, on a superb location (see pic), wearing shorts (yet sweating like a pig), we started of this amazing day with a nice cool drink by Liefmans & Vedett.
As always Elisabeth from UPR made us feel right at home and soon after the introduction we were busy planning our workshops and discussing what to start with. At first I was a bit reluctant to the thought of doing a yoga session in about 27°C, but hey, I am hardcore, plus it was tought by Nina De Man. Now who can say no to that?! Getting all yoga-ish in our super cool outfits by RITUALS (big thanks there!) , we were doing the downward facing dog before we knew it. Luckily Rituals thought of everything: a towel, deodorant and some body mist > just what we needed!
After all that sweating it was time to show some legs in front of the camera! Yes, with a still yoga-red-sweaty-glow, but it was all about legs, thank God. So in front of a critical jury (peeps from Veritas and the lovely Mrs. Tiany Kiriloff) we did some twirling and presented ourselves as THE right person to participate in the new Veritas campaign and to win a €600 giftvoucher on top! Unfortunately, I didn’t win, but my congrats go out to fellow blogger Kim who did!
Off to workshop number 2 then! We gathered around a table full of M.A.C. make-up (you can already feel the excitement, right?) for a presentation by Elke Willemen on the upcoming make-up trends for this year. After that we could start creating on our own look on paper, using the M.A.C products. You can find mine below. I kept it pretty simple, ’cause that’s kind off how I like my look, colourful, yet not going drag queen.
Because it was so hot, UPR did think of something to cool us off a bit. Yessss, icecreaaaam!
So having that down my tummy, I was ready to explore the wonderful brand world that was spread through the office! At the Veritas table we could customize our own bag, using all kinds of materials. Buttons, ribbons, glue pistols, prints.. everything was there! Normally I’m really into this kind of tinkering, however I think my head was really overheated, ’cause there was no creativity coming on to the bag.
Moving on to the stuff I was capable of doing: posing. Yes, I’m such a poser, I know. At the Camper corner you could have our picture taken, with your favorite shoe of the collection. No, that wasn’t all. There was a big map hanging on the wall where you could pick a location where you really wanted to go. You can write a blog post about your choice of shoe + the travel location and maybe win a trip to Berlin or Barcelona! So keep an eye open, that post is coming up this week!
There was more posing going on near the Camper corner, this time at Swarovski. It’s every girls’ dream to stand next to James Bond and pick out any jewellery item you want. If you know me, it won’t be a surprise to you that I picked out the biggest piece of jewellery I could find to ‘frost’ myself. Add a martini and a gun and you get THIS ……
They didn’t just pick Mr. 007 for no reason of course >>>
For a refreshing stop you had to go to the L’Occitane booth. Oh my, these new VERBENA products are PERFECT for a hot summers/beachday. Soooo refreshing and they smell lovely. You should really go out and find these babies!
Remember how my creativity had melted away earlier? Well, same reason why I didn’t manage to create my own T-shirt at the Lavand table. Others were going at it like crazy though, so make sure to check out their results on their blogs!
After all that hard but fun work, it was time to have a drink and a bite to eat. Thanks to UPR we could fill our blogging bellies with amazing BBQ food and have a chat about this great day.
Last but not least we got an inspiring speech from the Timberland peeps on how we should think about the environment and be more GREEN. Because this is such an important element for them we got to take home the cutest little tree to plant on an original location throughout town. Whoever has the best location gets to win a pair of Timberlands. Unfortunately for me, my dad got really excited about the tree and wants to plant it in our garden. Can I take away all this fun? Of course not…
Recap of the day: HOT HOT HOT – cool brands – yummy food – good chats – nice stuff to win >>> For all of this a BIG thank YOU goes out to the UPR team who put an enormous effort into this project to spoil our little blogging asses. We really appreciate it!
Can’t wait for the next edition!
xoxo Sofie
This weekend me and my good friend Noëmie went to visit our all time college buddy Saartje, who lives in the o so trendy Amsterdam!
The weather was not looking good at all, but as most of the time the weather peeps were WRONG! Sunshine was all over town, so we enjoyed ourselves riding bicycles, drinking bubbles in the park and having ice-cream!
And yes, there was a tiny bit of shopping involved. But really just a tiny bit. Here are some pics of our super-duper weekend and what I bought.
bubbles in the park!
Apero time!
OMG, Trinny and Susannah watch out!
Dinner tip >> Cous Cous Club!
Here are the lovely things I bought…..
H&M Blouse & Monki pants
The necklace I’m wearing on the picture below is from a store called LABELS . There are 3 stores in Amsterdam, so if you have the chance you should really drop by 1 of them!
The jewellery itself is from a brand called Club Manhattan.
You should really check out their website, they have such fab items + easy on the wallet!
After all that fun it was time to go home again, but don’t worry Saartje, we’ll come again soon 😉
xoxo Sofie
Last Saturday evening me and a friend went to the presentation of the 2012 La Cambre Fashion Show, thanks to Piper Heidsieck.
Strolling down the streets of Schaarbeek in our stiletto’s, we managed to get to the Halles of Schaarbeek in one piece.
For the occasion I wore my French Connection glam dress, that had been in my closet for almost 2 years without being worn (yes, the price card was still on it):
After spotting the most fashionable people over a glass of wine, it was time to take our places for the fashion show. I don’t know about you guys but I always get butterflies in my stomach when the lights hit the runway….
Here’s what I got to snap (sorry about the quality, but snapping runway shots is damn hard!):
And then we got to the really freaky part of the show 🙂 :
As you can see the level was extremely high this year, and I would like to congratulate all the graduates on their mind blowing creations!
Want to find out more? Check lacambremode.com for more info!
Xoxo Sofie
It seems like all I do lately is blog about Lily’s and Mr & Mrs Tweed, but it’s just so hard to keep up with the hard work of Kelli and Johan!
This time they helped organise a runway show as a final project for some college students. And what a show it was!
A great location (looked like a church), fabulous styling, a fun goodie bag and a fantastic atmosphere: all a fashion show needs!
Have a look at the party collection that was presented there and find better pictures on shoplily.be (since I forgot my good camera, grrr!).
PS: A big thumbs up for fellow blogger Anouk who was one of the models! Way to go 😉
xoxo Sofie
This week H&M held its Open House, the occasion for journalists/bloggers to discover the trends for upcoming Fall/Winter 2013!
I’m still craving for summer, BIG TIME, but I must say after seeing the collection, Winter didn’t seem so bad anymore.
Just like in the other Fall/Winter collections (see the Pressdays posts) H&M isn’t afraid to add a little playful colour to the most dark time of year.
So here is what you can expect next year……. Please let me know what you think!
xoxo Sofie
Hurray Hurray, Congratulations to Miss Kelli for another succesful project!
Thanks to this fashionable lady Mechelen has got 3 (!) must see stores, and this in about only 2 years time ! It’s amazing what Kelli and her husband have achieved, so a big applause for both of them!
So a few weeks ago I went to the opening of their latest project: a Noë by Lily store! As I expected the cute shop was looking fabulous and super cosy. Have a peek at the interior:
Lucky for us girls this new shop is located right next to their 2 other succesful stores Lily’s and Mr & Mrs Tweed, so we can just hop from one shop to another, how convenient ;).
The Noë pumps are without a doubt absolute jaw droppers, especially when they’re lined up like this…Talk about a colour blast!
But next to the pumps you can also find some cute Chica’s sandals and other amazing footwear:
Now Kelli wouldn’t be Kelli if she doesn’t spoil us to death, so of course she also brought in some bags, some chocolate, some nail polish, and so on 🙂
So I had some champagne, tried on some pumps, took some pictures and Mr. Buddha saw that all was right.
xoxo Sofie
Last week H&M held its very first Bloggersday and had a very good reason for doing so. Well 2 reasons actually: get to know the Belgian bloggers better and present them the brand new Fashion Against Aids collection 2012! I must say it was quite interesting for me to be there as a blogger and as a part of the H&M-team 🙂 There were 2 sessions the bloggers could attend to: the lunch session or the evening (cocktail) session, so it was quite a long day for us, but we enjoyed it a lot!
So the main focus of this day was the Fashion Against Aids collection 2012. This collection is launched every year to raise awareness around the issue of AIDS/HIV.
25% of the revenues raised by this collection are used for AIDS- & HIV prevention. Quite a good reason to like this collection even more, I’d say…. To my opinion these pieces are perfect for the upcoming festivals !
So our bloggersday:
Of course there was a plan : get to know the FAA collection, get tips from a professional photographer (Dirk Alexander), specific advice from the ultimate make-up wizard (Gino Beeckman) AND participate in the amazing STYLING CONTEST!
Yep, there was a contest and a mind-blowing PRICE to win! The bloggers had to create their own styling using the FAA collection, mixed with other H&M pieces. A professional jury, with among others supermodel Elise Crombez and top stylist Linda Van Waesberge, looked for the best outfit that represented the FAA-vibe. The winning blogger won a professional photo shoot with Dirk Alexander and make-up by Gino Beeckman, with the new H&M FALL/WINTER Collection 2012. Talk about an exclusive preview and tons of blogging material!
But before releasing all of this madness, we started off with some delicious food and a little chitchat to get to know each other a little better.
After that the bloggers were divided them into several groups so each group could stop by the photographer and make-up artist.
Gino working his magic
How to capture movement - in this case twirling Lucy 🙂
Dorothy getting her smokey eyes done
After all that fun it was time to get the styling battle on! It wasn’t as easy as it seemed, because there were shoes, clothes, accessories and of course everything was looking gorgeous…. To get the vibe of this styling competition, imagine a huge group of bloggers running loose in a showroom filled with clothes & shoes, knowing that they can win a professional photo shoot. You get the picture…
After a lot of changing, ooo-wing and aaaaa-ing, here are some examples of what came out! (For the fun of it I also put together an FAA styling ;))
Fellow blogger Anouk rocking her styling:
Styling by Polienne:
I must honestly say there were sooooo many great stylings that day, just too much to capture in this post, but really a big thumbs up for all bloggers! Of course this made it reaaaaallly difficult for our judges to pick one winning blogger…. You should see the tension on the bloggers’ faces waiting for the announcement 🙂
Unfortunately there could only be 1 winner and that was…………………………… Anaïs from Modoholics! Congrats again!
Our lovely jury congratulated Anaïs and everyone received an amazing goodie bag, so nobody went home empty-handed.
On to the next H&M Bloggersday I’d say!
PS: ( A big thanks to my colleague Lison who was the most fantastic model ever! 😉 ) xoxo Sofie
In these times of sustainable fashion & conscious collections , I was pleased to hear that Tommy Hilfiger was launching a Promise Collection. Since 2009 Tommy has been part of the Millenium Promise and several projects to raise awareness about African communities living in extreme poverty. 100% of this collection will be donated to the Millenium Promise. On top of that this project has an inspiring ambassador: Miss Katie Holmes. I just had to check out this promising initiative.
The Promise Collection is full of African influences, which you can see in the use of vibrant colors and tribal prints. There are pieces for men (13) and for women (17) and on top of the garments, there are also bikini’s, swim shorts, bracelets, etc. Basically everything you need to create a fab looking outfit! Have a look below what caught my eye at Tommy:
In the store you could also have a walk through the photo exposition, showing pictures of the famous photographer Tom Munro. In his pictures you can see Katie Holmes getting to know the people of Ruhiira and what has already been achieved thanks to the Millenium Promise.
In this Promise Tree you could leave your promise and hang it in the tree! I read some great promises from fellow bloggers there :).
We (fellow blogger Anouk & me) had a great evening at Tommy …….
….. and I sure hope that everyone keeps his promise!
xoxo Sofie
Bien Sucré 