Gosh! This was a surprise. On December 5th I attend the awards ceremony, first at the University in Preston, then at The Guild Hall. My 5 minute acceptance speech lasted 9 minutes….. typicall of me!!

Cliff Bashforth Honorary Fellowship

Citation follows……

Chancellor,

Our honoree today is a Preston man. He was born and raised in Manchester, but he lives here and he works here. Cliff Bashforth is the top consultant for Europe’s leading image consultancy firm, Colour Me Beautiful, as well as the founder and director of his own company, Simply Image, based here in Preston. He has a client base of over 19,000 individuals, including TV presenters and politicians, whom he coaches to achieve their professional and personal goals. Major blue chip companies including banks, financial institutions, retailers, airlines and optical brands call on Cliff’s expertise throughout the UK and Europe. British Airways, Peugeot, Marks and Spencer, Boots, Next, Forte Hotels, BUPA – they’ve all come to rely upon him. Cliff gives presentations to audiences in their hundreds, all over Europe, and runs seminars and training courses for companies wishing to help staff project a better image and to maximise their potential. High Street retailers regularly call upon Cliff to assist in the training of new employees and to increase standards of client care and service.

Television viewers have seen him on Granada and BBC2, one day holding forth on the topic of ‘tatoos’ and another on ‘dressing for success’. He is a regular fashion presenter on the Ideal World Shopping Channel, and also lends his expertise to the QVC shopping channel. He has written for The Guardian, the Daily Express, Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan. And in 2007 he became the first male image consultant in Europe to achieve ‘Master Status’ within the Federation of Image Professionals International; in 2008 he was awarded their highest accolade: ‘Most Inspirational Consultant’.

It is fitting and proper that the people of Preston – and this University – match the expressions of appreciation and respect that Cliff Bashforth has received at the European level. Because in spite of his pan-European profile, he has never forgotten us. He is a familiar voice on BBC Radio Lancashire and in the Lancashire Evening Post and the Lancashire Telegraph. He has actively supported a host of local charities including St Catherine’s Hospice, Derian House, Vine House and Sure Start. Here at UCLan he has delivered both inspirational and aspirational sessions for our conferences and personal development programmes.

Cliff may in fact see a bit of irony in his presence here today. As he recalls, ‘I think I made every excuse under the sun not to attend school – I disliked everything about it.’ As for university, he says, that was ‘out of the question, as wild horses wouldn’t have been able to drag me into another place of learning’. He always preferred working – he is a self-confessed workaholic who began a career in retail, at Dixon’s in Blackpool, as a junior salesman’, which, he says, was a euphemism for cleaner, tea-maker, shelf-stacker and delivery-van-unloader. But by 18 he was the company’s youngest store manager, in Wrexham, and went on to a host of other training and management roles in the electrical trade. Then in 1983, as he recalls, ‘totally out of the blue’, a job came up with the Wella hairdressing division. This was the start of Cliff’s love affair with colour and the whole concept of image makeover. The philosophy he learned then – and which he says is even more relevant now – is that ‘the image you project speaks volumes about you, even before you open your mouth’.

Chancellor, I’m sure our honoree today would never go so far as to say, ‘It’s all about image’. No university in their right mind would honor such a shallow and preposterous position. But image does matter, as our interface with the world at large. It is often the first portal to it. Cliff has worked tirelessly, professionally, and sensitively to integrate image-consciousness into our daily lives, and in the process he has indeed coloured the world beautiful. So it is with greatest appreciation, on behalf of the Academic Board, that I present to you Cliff Bashforth for the award of Honorary Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire.

Here’s the group photo from the Colour Me Beautiful training (18th – 22nd June). A fabulously colourful week! Newly qualified CMB stylists pictured here are from the UK, India, Oman & Belgium.

colouring the world beautiful

For more information regarding training with Colour Me Beautiful please visit the Colour Me Beautiful Training Academy (click the link below)

http://www.colourmebeautiful.co.uk/training-home

Just returned from a fabulous What Not to Wear weekend. Here’s a photo of the ladies as we arrived at The White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds.

Shop until you drop

We enjoyed two days of Colour, Style, Make-up, Accessorising, Shopping, Eating & Drinking. What a great way to spend a weekend! CLICK HERE  for more information

For the 5th year running Cliff has managed to hold the price of his What Not to Wear Weekend at £199.00 per person!

The price includes two nights dinner, bed & breakfast at The Rendezvous Hotel in Skipton, all Colour, Style & Make-Up Workshops, Coach Transfer to & from the shops in Leeds and……… pre-dinner drinks.

NEW DATE 25th to 27th MAY 2012

for more information & booking details – CLICK HERE

Cliff and a group of ladies shopped til they dropped during the What Not to Wear Weekend at the end of October! This was the final weekend of 2011 – it all starts again next year!

Colour me Beautiful

Pictured above are a few of the ladies… we’ve just sat down for dinner on the Saturday evening. There’s always lots of eating and drinking over the weekend. The priority of course… is leaving looking fabulous!

Once again I had the pleasure of taking women away for the weekend! Over two weekends 42 style seekers joined me for my Spring ‘What Not to Wear’ events.

Shop til you DROP!

The champange reception on Saturday evening gave some of the ladies chance to show off their purchases.

DISCOVER A NEW YOU WITH COLOUR ME BEAUTIFUL – CLICK HERE

Two of the leading European trainers for Colour Me Beautiful are hosting ‘Discover A New You’ weekends around the country.

On Friday 11th March from 6.00pm to 7.00pm Cliff Bashforth & Ann Skidmore will be ‘live’ on air! Tune into Ideal World Television (Channel 22 – Freeview, Sky 644, Virgin 747 & Freesat 812) to find out how to look younger, healthier & slimmer.

MORE INFO / BOOKING DETAILS

These exclusive weekends – we believe a UK first, commence in April and run through to September 2010. Stunning locations are the backdrop to the events.

FIND OUT MORE

For further information or to book please call Cliff on 01772 750052. CLICK HERE to view video from a previous weekend.

Cliff along with colleague Janet Harrison from Vision Republic have arranged an exclusive FAB OVER 50 EVENT!

In these days of 50 being the new 30, we want to embrace and celebrate all that being 50 and over has to offer. Therefore Cliff and Janet will be hosting this informative and fun event to make you look and feel your best, look and feel fantastic and acheive your dreams!

Date : Thursday 20th May 2010  Time: 7.00pm to 9.30pm 
Venue; Ribby Hall Village, Wrea Green                  
Cost: £12.50 including bucks fizz & a goody bag worth over £30.00!

For more information / booking details please click on the link below and view the EVENTS section.

WWW.ENCORELIVING.CO.UK

I had the pleasure of attending the Colour Me Beautiful Conference on Friday 26th & Sat 27th February in Covent Garden. CMB consultants travelled to the event from as far a field as Capetown. I met up with many of my friends including Ria Strauss, the managing director of Colour Me Beautiful South Africa and Anki Svensson the M.D. of CMB Sweden. As the leading consultant at CMB I was asked to deliver a workshop for the company – CMB entitled it ‘an audience with Cliff Bashforth’ I presented to consultants from all over the UK, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, France, South Africa & China.

Apart from catching up on gossip, learning some new techniques and networking, we were all there for the launch of the new publication ‘COLOUR ME BEAUTIFUL’. I received an award; in fact, it was CMB’s CROWN award which is the highest accolade one can have – lucky me!!

MORE INFO / BUY NOW – SAVE £2.00 on each book!

As many of you are aware I work with many retailers all over the country. What’s fabulous about working in stores is that I can actually put all my knowledge into practice and show people how the cmb system works.

I’ll be conducting FREE 30 minute consultations in SPIRIT OF THE ANDES STORES. The shops have a fabulous range of alpaca knitwear (amonst other things!) in stunning colours! The dates and locations are as follows:

                             23rd February (Pack-it) SOUTHPORT         9th March PRESTBURY
                                            27th April PRESTBURY         20th May PRESTBURY

For more information please telephone me on 01772 750052.To view clothing range please visit www.spiritoftheandes.co.uk  Booking is essential.