Weds 24th Sept: Aurevoir Miss Honey Penny

Yesterday was the end of an era for the online pioneer Penny Martin who has left the mirrored doors of SHOWstudio to take up a professorship in fashion imagery at The London College of Fashion. Although Im sure they will greatly miss her I reckon they will be equally pleased to share her as Nick Knight's touching post revealed:

"When you work with Penny, whether it is a 6 hour non-stop live interview with Dame Vivienne Westwood or a quick soundbite backstage to a Vogue journalist, everybody comes away from the meeting feeling better about themselves."

This is very true for me as Penny has been a driving force in propelling me out of obscurity by taking a chance and trusting her instinct. So I am eternally grateful for this breath of fresh air in a very blinkered industry. I entered a competition which I ended up being a winner for. Out of sheer surprise I sent a thank you card followed by posting various other random communications. One day Penny got in touch to ask me to contribute to a project and this multiplied with time (no-one else has ever sandwiched me between Giles Deacon and Chrisoper Kane!..........im talking schedully, not bodily.........!). Not only have these invitations helped my journey immensely but Penny has always been a lush personality behind the work. For example kindness in taking me out with the team for a night and kindness in allowing me to blog through their site. That was my 1st experience of blogging and the big gulps of apprehension as I clicked the upload button to the live feed thru to SHOWstudio's homepage. Cripees that was a responsibility! But she cured my paranoia by sending me an encouraging text message.
Always a reassuringly smiley face in the fashion pack crowd, Penny is a shining light. And here I have only mentioned her personality. To describe her impact through developing and establishing the force of SHOW would need a whole other post.............