A little late on this one but better late than never… On a lovely autumn day in mid-October I had the pleasure of spending the day with Lauren at Stylist Live.

Stylist Live takes place once a year and is a 4-day fun-filled festival of culture, catwalks, cocktails and conversation with all sorts of interesting folk. It’s basically a girl’s dream.

Stylist magazine is essentially brought to life with the event offering everything from fashion, beauty, music, books, celebs, food and drink, and much, much more…

The Islington Business Design Centre is absolutely massive, and with so much to see & do you definitely want to set aside a full day to make the most of it.

Lauren & I grabbed a coffee from Shoreditch Grind and tried to take stock of the day’s events.

We worked our way around the (100) boutiques, appreciating all of the unique brands, clothes and jewellery on sale.

You could get your hair and make-up done too, with the beauty section offering free demos and treatments. Of course Lauren & I made the most of all the freebies going.

But it didn’t take long for us to gravitate towards the food sections.

‘Feast Street’ had all sorts of well-known & loved restaurants & bars selling their tempting wares.

Annie’s Mae’s famous mac & cheese had an unrelenting queue all day long:

^ And for obvious reason.

Iberica’s charcuterie offering was enough to get anyone excited.

Whilst The Botanist was on hand to keep everyone hydrated.

And Stylist Live’s champagne bar provided each ticket holder with a glass of bubbles.

But, in addition to all of the restaurants, there was also a bespoke farmer’s market selling independent curators’ delicious treats.

Crosstown Doughnuts sold out of their renowned cronuts before I managed to get my hands on one.

Pearl & Groove cakes weren’t a bad substitute however, which I had the pleasure of trying for the first time at Fare Healthy.

And then it was time for the main event. The Stylist Live Catwalk.

Each ticket holder is allocated a time slot to attend, so that no one misses out.

Lauren & I bagged ourselves front row seats and were pretty much mesmerised for the next half hour. A fashion catwalk is not something that I ever expected to be ‘my thing’, but we both absolutely loved it.

But in addition to being able to amble around all of the stalls at your own pace, there were also scheduled celebrity Q&A’s, career advice & trend talks, book signings by best-selling authors and food demos & tastings by top London restaurants.

Sadly we missed out on Madeleine Shaw’s ‘How to Reboot your Body & Mind in 7 days’, which we had both been really looking forward to, but this only spurred us on to ensure that we had front row seats to Roka’s ‘How to Make Versatile Dishes at Home’.

Regular readers & friends will know that I have a deep love affair with Roka, so this was a master class that simply couldn’t be missed.

We learnt that ‘ROKA’ in Japanese means “sharing with friends amongst warmth and energy” – this literally sums up my every experience at Roka (and made me love them even more).

We watched in awe as some of the restaurant’s top chefs expertly filleted the biggest fish I’ve ever seen.

Before breaking the fillet down into a multitude of Roka’s best & signature dishes.

And allowing us to FEAST.

Lauren & I managed to get our greedy mits on a variety of the raw goodies going.

And it’s fair to say that I was very much behaving like the cat that got the cream.

Beyond happy that we’d eaten so well from a free tasting (and from my favourite restaurant no less), we decided to celebrate with a glass of bubbles.

Before making our way to another cookery demo (funny how those were the only ones that we ‘managed’ to make), held by the famed Daylesford Cookery School, with ‘How to Make 3 Suppers’ on the agenda.

Head Tutor Steve Brown’s passion for organic whole foods was unmistakable, and very inspiring.

It does worry me ever so slightly when I actually think about where half the food I stuff in my face must have come from.

Anyway, the class lived up to its name, delivering 3 delicious, easy, quick healthy suppers in 30 minutes, which the audience were more than happy to tuck into.

Mackerel with a raw ‘coronation cauliflower’.

Epic.

A beetroot & goat’s cheese salad.

And, finally, a classic (but excellent) mushrooms on toast.

With savoury safely taken care of, and Green & Black’s handing out chocolate like no one’s business, we made a beeline for their chocolate and alcohol pairing.

We tried a whisky, a port and a sherry with 3 different chocolate flavours.

My favourite combo was easily the port and salted caramel choccie.

It being late afternoon and needing to kill some time before our dinner reservation at Pizza Union, we got in a couple more rounds of champers and some obligatory Stylist Live snaps.

Before enjoying a fresh, brisk walk to Kings Cross for our final (I promise) meal of the day.

I had such a fun day out with Lauren and will definitely be returning to the festival next year. There is loads to see & do and I personally think that the day out is an absolute bargain at £25pp.