A New Recommendation…
I have been reading The Cherry Blossom Girl recently and I am really enjoying it so I have added it to my Blogroll.
She writes in French but provides English translations of most posts. Mainly she is worth checking out for her fabulous styling and photography, which she does herself.
FS
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Filed under: Fashion, Internet | 13 Comments
The End of The Met
Well, the end of the Met Collaboration anyway.
On Monday we did our final presentations to the Metropolitan Police about our redesigning of their uniform.
In the ’smart, new, fully equipped presentation suite’, (a classroom with a fresh lick of paint, some new furniture and some pretty good IT equipment that no one knows how to use), a room I didn’t know existed until that morning, we were faced with several officers in formal uniform, of varying rank, some people who were just described to us as ‘investors’ (in who I’m not sure), and several people from the Metropolitan Police Uniform Department. As you can imagine it was pretty daunting.
And as you can probably guess from the lack of enthusiasm I have shown when writing about the project, I wasn’t particularly prepared.
But I had to go first, and had prepared a very basic powerpoint presentation and some notes for each slide, which I totally abandoned and decided to wing it. I do tend to work better that way. I know my work, and can talk about it quite easily. Notes just scare me even more.
After finishing mine I sat through everyone else’s. There were 5 presenting from my course, all having done the woman’s uniform, and then 2 groups from the Menswear degree. The Menswear presentations looked a lot more impressive than ours, as there were about 4 in each group they had done the entire uniform, whereas we had only made 1 garment each. Which was a little unfair.
When all the presentations were over lots of journalists and reporters were there to document the event. Which was totally bizarre. Like I said previously, the Met have used this PR very much to their advantage, however this time they got it a little wrong. After the good couple of hours we spent doing filming and photos and interviews and things, the election for London Mayor won, and there was pretty much no coverage on TV or in the news papers. Not the best week to have organised it.
But anyhow. After a stupid amount of waiting, we returned, and stood in a huddle at the back of the room. The Met decided to give a Womenswear Winner and Runner-Up, and then a Menswear Winner, (no runner-up as there were only 2 groups). A girl called Jude Cunningham won the womenswear prize, for trousers with an adjustable height waistband and movable pockets. Much deserved because she really problem solved the issues discussed with the police. And another girl called Alice Burkitt and her group won the menswear prize for their fluorescent cape. Which I must admit was very cool, and very amusing. Though I must admit I can’t see police officers liking it (which is proved here, and if the commentators on that sight think that ‘fashion students’ enjoyed designing their uniform, well they have it rather wrong), it was clever.
So after that they needed a Womenswear Runner-Up, and that was me. For a stylish jacket and a good presentation. Which is cool. They wanted designs that solved problems for the winners, and basically all I did was make a pretty jacket, but they liked the design, so that was nice.
Anyway what all this means is that that project really is over. Which is a relief. And I can now focus on my current project, which I am determined to make light of and enjoy. And am so far succeeding at doing.
But more about that another time.
Filed under: Diary, Event, Fashion, Internet | 6 Comments
Discoveries
While flicking through my RSS feeds yesterday I came across an interesting article from The Business of Fashion about the top 10 internet fashion magazines.
Now I must admit I’m a little rubbish at discovering these kind of things, and hadn’t heard of a disgraceful number of them. I read Fashion156 rather frequently, and a couple of others I have glanced at at some point in the past, but the new one that has caught my eye is Ponystep.
Its East London based, started by Richard Mortimer a mere matter of days ago. I like its simple layout and aesthetic, and its contributed to by a large number of interesting London folk. Definately worth a look in my opinion.
Filed under: Fashion, Internet, Magazine | 1 Comment
The year ahead.
I am at this moment lying on my sofa eating chocolate for breakfast. Not an entirely healthy start to the day but it is a weekend of celebration. So I am allowed.
On Friday I had two interviews for 6 month work placements as a pattern cutter. One was a very positive experience, I discovered that my old pattern cutting teacher works there, which was a very exciting prospect as I know I will learn a lot. The other was with a brand that I absolutely love. But the spark just wasn’t there. If the placement had been shorter or it had been part time, then my decision would have been very different, but I couldn’t face working there for 6 whole months. I was quite upset about this, as obviously I’d rather got my hopes up about them. But at the same time it was good. Because it made my decision for me.
This is why I am eating chocolate for breakfast. I’ve been celebrating all weekend. Friday night was the leaving party for the designer I’ve been working for, Julia Clancey, as she’s moving to LA. We went from there to another bar, and there were a lot of toasts to the fact I have my year sorted. Yesterday I went to meet my father for a celebratory glass of champagne, but we had both rather over indulged the night before so we had a celebratory salad instead. And I bought a guitar. As you do. Sadly today I need to do lots of work, but I will alternate this with guitar playing, and perhaps treat myself to something good for dinner!
So my entire placement year is planned. I will be spending 6 months at Betty Jackson working as a pattern cutter, and then 6 months at Mulberry as a technical assistant. Pretty damn exciting.
Filed under: Diary, Fashion, Work | 6 Comments
I am still rubbish.
The lack of writing is appalling on this blog.
The Easter break is now over and I return to uni tomorrow for my last term of the second year. Our new project is with a brand called MCM, and I haven’t even started it yet. I was a little annoyed at the end of the last term when we were given it as they are an accessories brand. So it seems that college managed to get a company to set a brief for the accessories pathway of my course, but not the clothing or footwear, so we’ve just been tagged on to the same project, just working with our own specialism.
This means that the brief we were given for this project is about 1 sentance long, ‘Design a clothing range for MCM’. A non-existant brief is just as irritating as a ludicrously strict one.
I have been making progress on finding a work placement for 6 months in July, and have two interviews next week. One isn’t even really an interview, I’ve been offered the placement, I’m just supposed to meet them to sort out the details. But I haven’t agreed to anything yet. So we will see what happens next week.
I had planned to start my new project today. But I’ve been working on my portfolio instead. Much more important.
As depressed as I sound there is one thing I am very much looking forward to this term and that is starting my elective on Tuesday. This term I am doing my elective on Corsetry. Which I am very excited about, and will probably spend most of my time working on.
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Filed under: Diary, Work | 6 Comments
It is nearing the end of term…
…THANK GOD.
I think my serious lack of writing (even for a sporadic blogger like me) has partly been due to the fact that for this project we signed a confidentiality agreement with the Metropolitan Police. So I am totally unsure what I am or am not allowed to discuss, so I’ve avoided it all together. Which is rubbish, because my rants on here are rather theraputic. But there is only two weeks until the end of term, and I only have, oh about the whole project to do. Plus a cultural studies essay on feminist arguements on pornography (very very interesting but I’m not going to be able to give it the attention I would like as there is just too much to do).
But for a little update, I was on tv the other week. Rather exciting, even if it was mortifying to watch. I was on the BBC London News when they did a piece on the Metropolitan Police collaboration, and they even showed a little of my work. Exciting stuff.
I had an interview with Mulberry for a work placement and got it. Which I am ridiculously excited about. That will start next January for 6 months, I will be working with the production team overseeing the clothing from design until it reaches the stores.
So now I just need to find a placement from July until January. I’ve done it the wrong way round rather. Its my friends fault, Mulberry liked us both so they took on both of us, her from July to December and me from January until June, she happened to get the first which means she doesn’t have to worry about organising another placement yet. Whereas I do. As there isn’t very long to go until it starts.
In other news my mother’s boutique in Windsor was ram raided this week. Which is madness. Luckily they didn’t manage to break through the metal grill on the door, and left with nothing. But the front of the shop is very damaged and some poor person’s car was stolen and trashed in the process. My ma is in France and got a phone call at about two o’clock in the morning to inform her, but of course she was totally powerless to do anything and had to hope that the police could get hold of her business partner to go and sort it out.
I went to see Hadouken! last night at Koko in Camden as part of the NME Awards tour. They were supported by Cut Copy who were suprisingly good, Ali Love who was a complete idiot and David E Sugar who w missed. Hadouken! were very very good and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, dancing away. Although we were pretty much the oldest people there (I have never seen such an empty bar at a gig), and I am incredibly bruised today.
Particularly my nose, for some reason.
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Filed under: Diary, Gig, London, TV, Work | 8 Comments
Stress
Oh the annoyance.
I just seem to be going through a phase at the moment where one thing after the other goes wrong. I haven’t had a properly working boiler since the beginning of December. And it hasn’t worked at all for a week and a half. And the oven broke (but it now fixed). And last night my macbook broke. The hard-drives gone. And my phone has stopped charging properly. So it didn’t charge overnight and I missed my first lecture, because my housemate didn’t think to wake me up til 5 minutes after we should have left. And I leapt out of bed to throw everything in a bag and do my makeup and things on the way (even though I’m going out somewhere nice tonight so wanted to make an effort) and smacked my foot on the corner of the drawer (it still hurts). So I decided it was futile and told my housemate to just go on without me. So I spent time getting ready, and my makeup still looks rubbish. So I came in and managed to book an appointment at the Genius Bar on Regent St for Thurs afternoon. Which is good except I need to do a load of work for my design selection on Thursday and now can’t print anything off. And its going to need to be sent off to be fixed. And I’ll have to pay for it as I’m out of warrantee.
God I’m in such a terrible mood. But I’m now sat in college on a computer here. Got a seminar session in an hour, but I’ve no idea what its on because I missed the lecture. Oh the annoyance.
Hopefully the day can only get better. Fingers crossed.
Apologies for the rant. I needed to vent.
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Filed under: Diary | 4 Comments
January Sales
I’ve pretty much avoided the sales so far. I absolutely hate sale shopping. Its just too stressful, and I just can’t be bothered to sift through rails and rails of rubbish in the hope of finding one gem, in my size, at a decent price.
Now saying that, I’ve bought a couple of things. A beautiful top from Karen Millen, a store that is beautifully peaceful even in sale time. I don’t have the energy to get it out and photograph it, which is terrible blogging I know. It was way out of my price range, but it was just one of those items where you try it on, and there is just no question, you have to have it. I wore it on New Year and managed not to ruin it, and am still absolutely in love with it.
I also bought a pair of black flat boots from Office, which can be seen in the previous post. Remarkable practical for me. I had eyed them up earlier in the season, but wasn’t convinced enough about them. Then when I saw them in the sale I just decided to go for them, and I’m really glad I did. But those are the only things I’ve bought.
Actually that’s not strictly true. They are the only fashion items I’ve bought. No, this January sale has been seriously DVD focussed. I’ve bought 9. Oops. I can’t resist. Now I’ve only spent £40 on them, so they’ve been absolute bargains. But it is terrible. Especially when I already have a lot of DVD’s that I’ve never watched! And I really need to do work not watch DVD’s.
Oh well. Sometimes theses things just have to be done.
Top (l-r): Sleepy Hollow, Green Street, Edward Scissorhands, The Devil Wears Prada, Reservoir Dogs
Bottom (l-r): Layer Cake, Donnie Darko, O, Flight Of The Concords: Complete Series One
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Filed under: Diary, Shopping | 1 Comment
An Outfit Fit To Present
I had to present my jacket that I made before Christmas to Amoosi yesterday. Which all went very well. I’m down to the final 6 people. And we’ll find out if I’ve won a prize or if they want me to work with them or something as soon as they’ve agreed all that kind of thing with uni. So thats quite exciting.
As I was going to be speaking to industry people rather than just teachers I thought I’d make a bit of an effort with my clothes rather than wearing the same pair of jeans for the fifth day in a row. Plus I wanted to wear my new leggings. So I put on a dress to make a bit of effort. I quite liked the outfit, casual but not scruffy, so I thought I’d share it with you…
Apologies for the picture being a bit blurry. In fact it was not the focus that was the problem. I looked at the lens after taking these and there was so much dirt on it, it was near opaque! New Years was a rather hectic evening, I think my camera bore the brunt of it!
Shoes, sale purchase from Office; leggings, American Apparel; dress, Zara; cardigan, bought by my mother in France; belt, Ebay.
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Filed under: Diary, Fashion, Work | 3 Comments
Apologies
I apologise if every blog I write is then posted about 5 or 6 times, with few if any adjustments. For some reason the WordPress editor isn’t saving my formatting so every time I publish it is just appears as a large block of text rather than in paragraphs. I’ve no idea why. But it’s getting very annoying!x
Filed under: General | 3 Comments
