Clothes Show Live 2013

Clothes Show Live Birmingham NEC 2013*

I am sure you are aware if you live in the UK, that Clothes Show Live takes place at the NEC arena in Birmingham every year in December, showcasing many fashion outlets, beauty products, recruitment centres, as well as off-course the fashion show itself. I have been previously when I was around 15, around seven years ago (wow I feel old!) and I remember really enjoying the day, I was thrilled to find I had won tickets to attend this year. 

I was super excited, I made sure I woke extra early to ensure I arrived at the NEC bang on 9AM. On arrival, I was impressed to see it wasn't ridiculously busy at that time and so I could have a good look around with ease. As you can see from the photograph I took below, it was pretty quiet when we arrived, it didn't stay that way for long though! 

There were many fashion stalls representing themselves at the show, I found there was many indie clothing brands which sold a lot of on trend pieces. I am not really a trend follower, I was more interested in the beauty side of things and that is what I was excited about. 

With brands such as Barry M, Rimmel, Models Own, Bare Minerals, Miss Patisserie, Clarins, Fake Bake,  Ciate,  Helen E Cosmetics, Jelly Pong Pong, So...? With Attitude, With Love Jess, Elemis, Bomb Cosmetics, w7, Laurens Way, Leighton Denny, Mary Kay, along with other indie beauty stalls, I was over-whelmed and brought a few things. 

A few of the reality TV stars from Made In Chelsea and The Only Way Is Essex were at the event over the weekend, I caught a glimpse of Gemma Collins from TOWIE representing her plus size clothing brand, she is even more pretty in real life.

With plenty of stalls, including; womens wear, mens wear, candles, jewellery, teeth whitening, confectionary, beauty, hair, accessories, vintage, plus size, perfume, lingerie and footwear, there was plenty to see and purchase!

The same as every year, a few Magazine stands were offering their goody bags for £3, including Cosmopolitan and Company and Elle Magazine, which is good value for money seeing as the magazines tend to cost around £3 alone anyway.

A lot of the make up brands had fantastic deals on goody bags and buying so many any times for a certain price, making fantastic discounts. Some highlights were; Rimmel's £5 goodie bag including 4 products, Barry M's goody bag for £10, 10 items for £10 at w7 or 3 for £10 for higher priced items, Buy 3 Models Own Polishes for £10 and a free goody bag, Buy two goodies bags from Jelly Pong Pong for £10 which included four items, and many more.   

Echo falls, Diet Coke and Starbucks were dotted around the floor giving away samples which kept us refreshed!

A disappointing point of the event, was that there were about 6 cash machines inside the hall, and none of them worked. There were two outside the hall which off course was super busy, I would recommend withdrawing money before arriving at the building if you were to go in future, as not many of the stalls accept card payment.  

There were lots of social media onsite with photobooths, Capital Radio FM were there along with a camera crew so there was a lot going on. There was also a 'Take Me Out Live' event where you could pay to watch, or auditions for you to take part in the show!

As I arrived early I didn't have chance to catch all of the fashion shows, but I am told they were fantastic. 

The halls were easily located as there were many sign posts to direct you to the hall, staff were very friendly and helpful, and overall I was impressed with the day and enjoyed myself. It was off-course began to get very, very busy at around 11 AM, so I would suggest if you are given quite a early afternoon fashion show time, go as early as you can to avoid queues and missing out on some fantastic deals. 

I picked up quite a lot of beauty bits, I haven't had chance to sit down and photograph them all properly on my camera, but once I do, I will test out and review the products and pop them up in a different blog post! I took a couple of rubbish quality photos on my phone though which I have included below. 

Have you been to the Clothes Show Live before?