A Day in the Life of... Alex Stedman, Stylist & Blogger

Welcome to my new series, celebrating talented women I know and taking a behind-the-scenes peek at their careers, through spending a day in their shoes.

We start with Alexandra Stedman, Fashion Stylist and Blogger/Founder of The Frugality (one of my all time favourite blogs - bookmark it immediately!). Formerly Style Editor at Red magazine, Alex recently went freelance, as well as starting up a seriously cool video production company Lucky Number Thirteen with her other half. I'm loving the 'Postcard from...' series of travel videos (YouTube them now!).

So last month I asked Alex to capture an average day in her week, illustrated with some Instagram worthy moments. Let's take a step into her world...

7:30am | Wake up and shower. I don't usually get up too early as I am usually up till late working on the blog, so I let myself at least have a lie-in! I always have a coffee at home so as not to waste (too much) money in Pret, but I don't eat breakfast.

8:30am | Leave my house. I'm a 40 minute journey door-to-door on the sweltering hot tube at the moment, so I usually dress for that! I often try and Instagram a 'FWIS' pic on the walk to work...

9:30am | Start work. I have been working in a few different offices lately; Conde Nast Traveller was very calm and quiet, whereas Red is very chatty. At Conde Nast Traveller, I was working on a supplement so the majority of my day was spent calling PR's for images, chasing prices and laying out pages to be photographed.

Moments from my day (CW): #FWIS Photo of my outfit, my alarm clock, my desk at CN Traveller and a Chanel tennis racquet shot for the supplement

11:00am | I have a meeting to show my Editor and Fashion Director my pages. Every magazine is different, but here at Conde Nast Traveller I don't have to worry about the price points so much, so Louis Vuitton luggage, Chanel ski goggles and Hermes snow suits all make it into the pages! All of these brands advertise with the title, so I also need to make sure they are featured enough. The Editor loves a few mad accessories, so Pom Pom bracelets, Mr Kate fake gold tattoos and Leica underwater cameras are in the edit. Our favourite piece though is the Ashish sequin 'USA' t-shirt for one of the pages I'm doing on slogans.

Our favourite piece - the Ashish USA sequin tee

An amazing Dolce dress

Dior sunglasses in the fashion cupboard

12noon | Once everything is approved, I speak to the Art Director about how everything needs to be shot. Everywhere is different, and we decided it was all to be shot front on and quite graphic.

12:30pm | I start taking the products to be shot down to the studio. Conde Nast have their own in-house photographer who is great!

Carrying products to the photographer to be shot

The rail of clothes in the shoot

1.00pm | I usually always make my lunch everyday but today I have a meeting with Oasis about an exciting blog collaboration. They're relaunching their blog in September and I will be involved in a few of the posts. We go to Nopi and share some small dishes (the pork belly and scallops was delicious!).

Lunch at Nopi with the Oasis team - yummy!

2.00pm | I pop back to the studio to see photographer and pick up anything he has finished with. I have a girl to help me do my returns only once a week, so I am keen to return as much back to the PRs when she is in! (We never keep samples).

3.00pm | I frantically chase all the prices for 20 pages - this is not as easy as it sounds as I only have 2 days to finish the project and PR's are often very hard to get hold of!

4.00pm | I have a chat with the 'Word of mouth' editor about getting celebs to provide a few 'insider tips' on the destinations in the supplement - we've got some exciting names!

A Tory Burch bag, a Dolce shoe (and my Carven shoes) whilst editing in the office

5:30pm | I'm supposed to go home but I often like to stay later to miss rush hour on the tube, and I always have admin to do.

7:30pm | I usually get home and make dinner and lunch for the next day. In our house, whoever gets in first cooks.

At the moment, it's a very busy time so I never sit and relax on the sofa... Tonight I have a blogpost to finish with Atterley Road - I sit and pick my top sales picks from the site and edit the photos my husband took of me earlier in the week as the post needs to go live tomorrow morning. I also have to plan social media to go with the post in case I get too busy tomorrow.

My Atterley Road outfit post

I go to bed around midnight and do it all again the next day!

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Thanks Alex! I already feel more glamorous after sampling a day in your working life!

Let me know what you think of this new series, this post and any ideas of the type of people and careers you'd like to see covered in 'A Day in the Life Of...'

Photographs taken and supplied by © 2014 Alexandra Stedman. All rights reserved.