CARYN FRANKLIN INTERVIEW

I recently interviewed renowned fashion expert and industry icon Caryn Franklin for a project I'm putting together as part of my Masters and thought I'd share it with you guys.

We ended up chatting for about 45 mins in total but this version is just under half an hour - I took out a lot of my CRINGEY extraneous uhming, ahing and general blethering and kept in all the juicy bits including her description of her time at i-D and The Clothes Show, tales of a few BRILLIANT fashion moments including what it was like interviewing Lee McQueen, a run down of the All Walks campaign (which I mentioned in my ECA review post) and finishing with some SERIOUSLY useful tips for getting a job in the industry.

- You can also hear me saying things like "definitely" and "oh jeeze" and "really" about ten gazillion times, but forgive me. I'll be honest and admit I was freaking out talking to someone as cool and knowledgeable as Caryn...



Caryn Franklin interview - Kirsty McLaren by kirsty44SUNSETS


Cringe at my THAT WAS REALLY REALLY INTERESTING chat at the end! Jings. Get a grip wummin...

But aye, it was actually REALLY REALLY INTERESTING, no? Agree?

THE ONE WHERE I TURN 24 AND DONT GET TO SEE BEYONCE

Hey y'all!

Today is my 24th birthday, would you believe! Mental.

It's been some year bloggies. I broke up with my boyfriend, started this blog, decided to go back to uni, made a heap of new friends, spent quite a bit of time through in Edinburgh, cried a little, laughed a lot, had hunners of deep chats and lots of ridiculous times with my core four besties, made and met some lovely blogging pals, and generally had a gay old time.

That said, I am currently in work approaching hour 9 of a mammoth 10-hour shift and have hee haw planned for tonight except a season 2 True Blood marathon and the T in the Park highlights of Beyonce's set. WILD NIGHT OR WHIT?! 

Can't believe I won't get to see big Bouncy do her thing, while she is a) in Scotland and b) in Scotland, performing, on my birthday! Gutted. Still... Bill, Eric and Jason will do-doubt take the edge off.

Aaaanyway, here's a few snaps from my birthday night out on Thursday:

Photogenic as ever, Kirsty.

'Deathly chic.'

Enjoying some taxi banter.

My Friends, ladies and gentlemen. Professional people. Classy ladies if you will...

Pissed as absolute farts. LOL!

I actually spent ages doing my hair that night but it just would NOT play ball so it had to go up. It's at a particularly annoying stage at the moment where it just never sits right. I'm going to have to persevere though cos getting it cut short again is not an option. I've had it with looking like a teenage boy with over-grown curtains, even if that look weirdly suits me. I miss slamming my long locks in the door of my car, or waking up thinking it's strangling me to death. I'm afraid to say these are just FACTS, people, so I'm officially growing my hair, again. At 24 I must have spent a good two thirds of my life either actively growing out a fringe or growing all of my hair in general. Sigh.

I like to buy a new dress for my birthday if I can, so I had a look online at some of the sales and spotted this Topshop Unique silk playsuit, down to £75 from £150. Bargain.

I also helped myself to these badboys with some of my birthday money:

Ladies, if you like a mid-heeled leather boot, and what kind of crazy fool doesn't, get down to Topshop cos they have a whole new range in two or three cute wee styles. It was hard to stop at just one pair, let me tell you.

SO. Apart from turning another year older, what else have I been up to? Well, last week I CASUALLY, NONCHALANTLY interviewed a freaking hero of mine, Caryn Franklin.

As a renowned fashion critic, Caryn is probably best known for presenting the BBC's flagship and much-missed Clothes Show, but she was also the co-editor of i-D magazine in the 1980s and as a journalist and broadcaster she herself  has interviewed the likes of John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld and Vivienne Westwood. Her expert and insider opinion is still as highly-valued and sought-after as it ever was and she continues to be a champion of breakthrough British Fashion at all the main Fashion Weeks every year.

So, like, NO FREAKING PRESSURE THEN!

It was a phone interview in a sardine-tin of a recording studio on one of the hottest days of the year, so to say I was sweating was putting it very mildly. Eventually though, once I figured out what the hell I was doing/going to say, it turned out to be one of the most interesting interviews I've ever done. And, OK, I'm no Michael Parkinson (shocking, but true) but seriously, she was a DELIGHT! We spoke for almost an hour about her early career, about interviewing Lee McQueen in the dark, about how to get ahead in fashion and in business, about juggling family and career and finally about the All Walks Beyond the Catwalk project which she co-founded along with Erin O'Connor and Debra Bourne.

Ladies, can I be your new best friend?

It was honest-to-goodness such an interesting and enjoyable chat I didn't want it to end! GUSH GUSH!

I don't want to say too much as I'll probably reveal all in due course, but I interviewed her as part of my Masters project which I'll let you all know about once it's come more together. I obviously recorded (most of) the interview and am looking to get it onto a podcast for y'all to wrap yer lugs round soon... if you guys want?

Oh aye, and you might have seen from my Twatter that I MET THE QUEEN LAST WEEK TOO!

OK, not actually, but almost! My dad, his girlfriend and I were invited to the Royal Garden party at Holyrood last Tuesday and apart from all the standing about in very painful Kurt Geigers (Thanks Mhairi Spoon for letting me borrow!) and lack of any alcohol, the best bit was when the actual real life QUEEN came and stood an arm's length away from me, chatting to the couple stood directly to my left, for like at least 5 full minutes.

It was pure surreal.

Oh, and I wore my most favourite dress in the universe:

I would OBVIOUSLY have been getting my pap on right in Lizzies face if I could but phones and cameras were heavy banned, so just believe me when I say she was looking very regal and Queen-like in a long cream coat and black hat. Yah.

Jings, this was a bit of a ramble, eh? Much more concise next time, I promise.

So yeah, that's what I've been doing, innit. Just a final word - I'm STILL having problems commenting back on Blogger. Unless you have the comment function that pops up in a separate window, Blogger keeps asking me to sign in on a constant loop whenever I go to enter a comment in the box. It happens on my own laptop and on my work PC so I have no idea what the issue is? Does anyone know how to get round it - I'm para it looks really rude and ignorant of me to never comment folk back!

Cheers!