Mario Testino at the Vogue Festival 2013

     The Vogue Festival is such an amazing place to be. It truly makes you want to work in fashion, being constantly surrounded by beautiful people in beautiful clothes. I luckily managed to get tickets to see Mario Testino interviewed by Lucinda Chambers with an introduction by Alexandra Shulman. I have read so much about these people as individuals and been hugely influenced by they're work over the past few years. Mario Testino has shot so many people of note from the fashion industry, music industry and the royal family.
     He is a very interesting character who grew up in Peru and didn't find photography as his first path. After years in England not making his way forward he began photography and gradually worked his way up. His talent is what really makes the shoots because although there will be a stylist and hair and make up artists, Testino creates the look, using them to make what he sees in his mind, the reality that you see every month in Vogue.
      His advice to anyone wanting to start out in photography is to be an assistant and even then, he himself will not hire an assistant until they have had 4 years in the industry. On a shoot, he says it is easier working with harsher people and finds criticism helpful, ''always take criticism because there's always something you can learn from it.'' He said if he could only ever work with one person it would be Kate Moss because he describes her as having so much energy, saying ''she's like a walking photo.''
      In the foyer, among the crowds of fashionistas were beauty stands which were making people: Dior eyes, YSL Lips stands and a Braiding Bar, leaving half the women with plaits looping their heads. There was also a huge queue for the Vogue Cover shoot, which included hair and makeup for a shoot with prints with a mock up cover which looked so good!
     I wore my 'In Vogue We Trust' crop top and houndstooth leggings and my new studded flatforms. I also took a comfier pair of creepers in my bag to travel on the tube in, because however lovely the flatforms are, they are from Office and only £20 so I had blisters that were killing from the previous days wear! I also wore my Tom Ford shades which I quickly whipped on upon arrival at the Southbank Centre as even though the sun wasn't out everyone was strutting around with their massive glasses on.