Get Ya Bargains Here!

Have you been a bargin fashionasta in the good ol' January sales this year? 

To be honest I usually avoid most of the sales especially the January ones, too many crowds, tooo much mess, sales assistants have given up hope, never anything in your size and you get tempted into buying alot of things you don't actually need, how can u resist when it has £50 off! 

Been snowed in for what feels like a decade in itself so have no ventured into the highstreet for a while now, so pretty much been doing my window browsing on the internet (above are a few of my best picks). However web shopping has not come without its frustration as many sites will show these fantastic products- click on it... out of stock! it's like they are teasing you at least in the shop when its gone its gone, so you never see it to want it. 

I want to know have you managed to get a hold of any bargains! I guess key to sales is focus on classics that will last you along time or at least a few seasons, I brought myself some Bertie heels (pictured above) justified them as i struggle to find shoes to fit (in reality snow has stopped me strutting my stuff in them so still not worn), got a All Saints Tee not to dissimilar to the one pictured- loved the cut out back (still braved it in this cold!- I mean you can always layer), a digital print puff sleeve top from Oasis (looked better in the picture!) oh and some boring ol'  emilio cavallini tights from John Lewis (one fits one doesn't and I'm only 5ft1 how small did you need to be?). So didn't go too mad (this time)....  

Louis Vuitton to hire Tony Blair... (yes I know!)

If it's not bad enough that the Governments mess has made it near enough impossible for any fashion graduate to get a job, they are now taking them too!!

Politics and fashion is not one that is often associated with each other (other than Sarah Browns mild attempts) and if like me you will have to re-read this next statement several times...

Louis Vuitton to hire Tony Blair (Via The Telegraph, UK)

yes I know!! think it is actually more shocking than Ivana Trumps lips, well if it has quite sunk in I'll try my best to explain what the Telegraph details: 

Basically Tony Blair's palling up with French billionaire Bernard Arnault during his time as Prime Minister has really paid off (quite literally) apparently they are in discussions over his new advisory role with the luxury goods firm Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. Mr. Blair has not been suffering the doom of the recession thats for sure in fact he has not been without a job since he left office in 2007 and disparate  "advisory" positions have been believed to have earned him at least £15 million. So we won't be seeing Tony down our local job centre que anytime soon then, but hey Tony that nice sum of money would help out our desperate banks hey, but oh yes of course you got out of that one quick!

It seems Mr Arnault has been giving Tony his own hand outs and reportedly has made the Blair's quite comfortable, now, where to start:

• Blairs sons Eaun and Nicky both got a luxurious internships courtesy of Arnault (not quite like the work experience we know) they had accomodation, bodyguards and a chauffeur-driven cars all provided for at a believed cost of at least £40,000 for Euan's two month internship. 
• This may be mistaken for something out of The Hills but daughter Kathryn also benifited from Arnaults genoristy and was allowed to stay in his 20million pad in Paris during her time studying at The Sorbonne.
• Not to forget the millionaires essential yatch, 'Amadeus', which played host to the family in the Med while they popped in to see the Pope in 2007 and it was there port of call (excuse the pun) for the duration of there stay while attending the  Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008

It leaves a bitter taste doesn't it, I mean what hope is there for the rest of us mere mortals! the privledged will always be able to lead their privileged lifestyle (with or without any style credential) but they cannot however exclaim that they ever got to were they are off their own merit, silver spoon and all! 

Emma Watson puts her best leg forward!

(image from the huffington post)

This made me smile seeing the new Burberry ad campaign! Not only does the misplaced leg (or is it just hid behind his?) look slightly off so is the same family portrait fact that she is posing with her brother. The Guardian saw it as " actually a bit weird", must admit you wouldn't usually see most of us posing that closely with our brothers but given a £million ad deal hey, why not! What's your thoughts? Enter the pole on the Huffington Post is it a photoshop blunder or is just very cleverly bent and obscured by her brothers leg? 

(image from WGSN twitpic) 

I think they look very alike, some families get all the looks! 

Girl Meets Dress

I’ve always loved the idea of these borrowing websites yet always remained dubious that it is one of those to good to be true factors. For a special occasion it always seemed a perfect idea to borrow a dress as on so many occasions I have splashed out on an expensive dress that gets stuck at the back of the wardrobe after one or two wears. Special occasion pieces test there limits of how many times you can wear it without people noticing it’s the same one worn as the last event. I don’t think I could ever justify buying a designer dress for just that reason (unless I was going to meet the Queen, which in itself is highly unlikely) and if I did I would want to wear it all day everyday, even to bed for it to pay for itself. Designer dresses are so alluring, pure quality and glamour, what girl does not want to feel amazing on a special night out or an event.

GIRL MEETS DRESS, reconciles such fashion conundrums perfectly with an array of designers available from quirky Marc Jacobs, to ultra feminine Temperley, to daring McQueen there is a perfect dress for everyone. Below are my favourite choices:

L-R: 3.1 PHILLIP LIM, TEMPERLEY, LUELLA , HERVE LEGER, RICHARD NICOL

Worried about little catches to this, well fear not, I had a few of the same preconceptions which luckily the fantastic Website, put my mind at rest finding out that your are able to try up to 3 dresses for free (- Shipping fees), choose from over a 100 designers, Borrow from just £24 and keep for 2 or 7 nights and simply when your are done send back the garment in a prepaid package where they even take care of all the dry cleaning! Sounds Perfect!

My major concern is, night out, expensive dress, sounds like a receipt for distaster but Girl Meets Dress has this covered where you are able to now take out insurance for the dress at a meer £7! There all those worries out the way free to enjoy wearing your dress.

Now all I need to do is just find an event to go to.

Want to find out more and be tempted by more gorgeous beauties visit www.girlmeetsdress.com

V Magazine- Dakota Cover

Here’s a sneak peek at Dakota Fanning in the new issue of V Magazine.

Below are some highlights from her interview with the fashion mag.

On wearing a size zero: “Now that I’m getting older, I’m finally getting to the point where I can fit into those things.”

On her ’sexy, wild-child’ role in The Runaways: “I really enjoyed doing that subject matter for the first time in a biopic, because it really happened, it’s not just a made-up story about a 15-year-old running wild. It’s a true story of her evolution from good Valley Girl to bad rock ‘n roll princess:.

On her kiss with co-star Kristen Stewart: “It’s passionate, they were just as close as two could get.”

On drugs, mainly the cocaine, onset: “It’s actually crushed B vitamins. Kristen and I were, like, our hair is gonna grow a lot from these.”
Dakota’s cover of V Magazine hits stands on January 14.

I felt quite shocked when I read that she was happy to fitting into a size 0 (like that is aspiring) especially for such a young girl such as herself. Is she sending out a negative message?

I think she is an extremely talent child protégé and her new role in The Runaways will definitely set her apart from any of her other movies and i am looking forward to seeing it. She also looks amazing on the cover ( a slight Jean Shrimpton look?) however I think this picture below really accentuates her slender frame, what do you think?

Mark Abrahams Photoshoot [January 2009] - Dakota Fanning 681x850

info from http://www.dailystab.com/dakota-fanning-does-v-magazine/

@StellaMagazine RT Who knew you can watch the entire series of 'Fashion House' on 4oD... see Gareth Pugh before the fame

This is why I love Twitter! Although a highly addictive ‘social networking site’ which fills my time with pointless 140 character messages of nothing-ness it does sometimes however unearth some great gems, and Thanks to Stella Magazine this tweet was one of them!

StellaMagazine Who knew you can watch the entire series of 'Fashion House' on 4oD... see Gareth Pugh before the fame http://bit.ly/4GqZrb

And to my delight here was my reply…

@StellaMagazine RT 'Fashion House', yay! whenever I mention it people never seem to remember it. All i can say is that Bikini!

Fashion House was the ‘original project catwalk’, and whoah does it brings back memories! Firstly how I religiously used to watch every episode each weekend on T4 secondly being how it funnily got me initially intrigued and determined to follow that ‘passion for fashion’ and aim to study it at university. All I remember thinking is wow those people have an amazing opportunity and one day I want to be there in that position!

And an impact it did make on little me and I managed to dig out this piece of work I did while I was at school! This explains my remembrance of the Monogram-tastic bikini in the final episode by builder/fashion graduate Lee.

Apologies for the picture quality found it in my sketchbook as the fickle web had no images to be found of Fashion House anymore

sketchbooks collecting dust- belive it or not there is so much more!

Its enjoyable looking through old pieces of work, if like me you have stacks of it! Nice to see there is an actual development and progression happening throughout the years! And this piece is so cringe worthy, it made me chuckle at the naivety of my fashion knowledge back then, hence the major plastering of luxury brands all over this. If I member correctly this was only for my mock exam and therefore didn’t count, luckily!

Fashion house, when you watch back now seems so dated and I remember rushing in to school ready to have a good old gossip about the latest episode however I must have been alone as no-one I spoke to ever watched it! Which is like what happened while I was following my aspiring dream of fashion design stardom at Central Saint Martins I bumped into Lecturer David Kappo (the eccentric product manager in Fashion House), must admit I was a bit of a star-struck teenager, living outside of London you never bump into anyone who appears on TV!! Well no-one on the course knew what the hell I was on about when I was telling them our lecturer is on the show, too embarrassed and slightly worried I would scream out ‘OMG I love you on Fashion House’ I rightly decided to not ask him about it however was overwhelmed with joy when he told me he liked my design on the mannequin which I was getting pictured with. Alas he never saw the pining at the back holding it together and this was also the end of my designer hopes when I realized I’m hopeless at sewing!!

(If you don’t want me to plot spoil look away now) The stand out moments which I can recollect of Fashion House are how adorable Pippa was especially when David and her skipped down Rome’s pebbled streets and Gareth’s amazingly wacky and conceptual body stockings and massive bauble attire. It’s unfortunate to think that he never won the competition (they saw his designs as being to Avant-Garde) but he has now successfully made it in his own right. According to the ever reliable Wiki-P Pugh apparently referred to his stint on the show as "horrible" and his "only other option [to being on] the dole" .To be fair a year contract at Stella McCartney would of only held his creative flair back and thankfully now he is the shining star of British design talent!

I apologise this has been my first post in a while now but I felt Christmas was a time for a well-deserved rest and as I have been told by tutors enjoy this one while you can as when you get into year 3 you will not have one.

This is not to say I have not been working behind the scenes so to speak and have a few posts racked up ready to publish soon. X

Ok... so i felt guilty to leave it on a limb like that, so instead I'm going to fill you in what it is exactly I'm stressing so much about.

Basically our brief was:

To create a trends package branded within a trend prediction consultancy. As a team project, we have to confirm four complete key trends of socio-cultural relevance impacting on fashion trends for 2012.

so... Here we have our trend consultancy Agency, Volume II (www.vol2.co.uk) named volume II on the premise that volume I is 'now' (present time) and as a predictions agency we are looking ahead, the next chapter so to speak, therefore we are Volume II. This here is our logo and part of our branding, it would be great to get some feedback on this... We are currently working on our website and should hopefully be live in a few days but in the mean time why not check out our twitter page and follow us & our updates to get a sneak peak at our trends for 2012.

below are some of my original/ draft ideas for some possible 2012 trends:

Could the Apocalyptic theme be a continuing trend? (please not these were done in early Oct)

Reversal was the idea that Post Olympic population growth that London city living will adopt a NY lifestyle. This board however was combined with another trend which makes it slightly confusing- Salvage, the idea that items would have multiple identities and transform

These however are not part of our final trends package as we moved into consumer trends, please check the website from 1st Dec (when hopefully it should be live) or checkout our twitter to keep updated

Sorry it's that time of year, deadlines are here!!!!

Sorry it's that time of year, deadlines are here!!!! (cue the scream... arrrggghhh!) so my lack of posting of late is due to me piled under, books, books and more books, newspapers, sketchbooks, photocopies, glue you name it....

and when this is all over your be sure to know about it.... they'll be thousands of postings. but until then I'm officially going to set up camp in the library ... bye for now x

Lecture by Claire Foster from WGSN

(all from lecture on 30.09.09)

Claire Foster, Associate Editor, Footwear & Accessories

                       

            Since gaining a fashion design degree at UCE in Birmingham, Claire has been involved in a number of creative and womenswear design-based roles and projects. She established a womenswear design collective and retail space, which culminated in running her own womenswear and accessories label No Dice.

            This space was rented for a 6month period in Birmingham city centre, Claire along with her partner in the business sold vintage clothing, as well as securing some designer labels to sell alongside her own collection. This was a major learning experience for Claire and she believes it not only helped her develop as an individual but learnt about financing, buying, marketing, press, womenswear and accessories. With this knowledge she moved her collection to Manchester to embark on a 2-3 year long project. She had a shop and a market stall where she sold her collections seasonally and was gradually building contacts.

            Claire also did freelance styling and journalism on the side and her main advice is: “Put yourself out there, Make as many contacts you can!” 

            Her work experience background was the most inspiring as she did a stint at i.D magazine and in the press office at YMC which allowed her to get an understanding for the different levels of the industry especially in Press and Editorial. It is ironic she had experience in editorial and PR as the WGSN office was described by Mark Tungate as similar to a ‘bustling editorial floor of a major newspaper with dozens of journalists tapping away at keyboards.”

            However securing her position at WGSN was not a walk in the park, she had heard of the position from a friend who recommended her to it. Before her first interview she had to write a trend report, which then secured her the position as associate editor accessories, and footwear, which she has now been doing for three years.

            WGSN has many different levels to the company including trend analysis and future trends, which Claire is responsible for contributing to each section in her specialized field. Time scales for each project varies and Claire can often be doing 3 reports a week along with the help of commissioning freelance and international contributors.

            The London Headquarters currently has 100 people as part of the global WGSN team, which stretches to L.A. New York, Japan and Melbourne. It is important for them to have a grasp of what trends are happening around the world. They will often have assignments which requires them to visit a location whether it be home or abroad and then collect all findings from that city- street style, exhibitions, architecture, shops, films, magazines, events and report this all back to the team in form of a presentation. It is important for WGSN during these tough economic times that they report on worldwide highlights and trends as it is now believed many designers/ creative’s do not have the budget to do so themselves.

            Claire had recently in June this year spent 5 days in Melbourne and 3 days in Sydney. She took an in-depth look at Australian Art, music, fashion and style and it was interesting because of the seasonal difference, 6 moths behind. Claire picked up that the street style was transitional and laid back casual. There was also a grunge aesthetic very D.I.Y 90’s feel. They had community Zines for the creative’s, and appeared to have a massive vintage obsession with well-kept specific shops. Punk street art was exposed through graffiti. The art scene there is very unique and everything is customized from t-shirts and sneakers to make shift galleries. Alternative music venues and gigs with bands called Bridezilla, red riders, SPUNK & Lions at your door. 

L>>R) Romance was Born, Lover (http://www.loverthelabel.com/), Elke Kramer jewelry, PAM- Melbourne

Sydney Road- up & coming road with little shops it is developing from word of mouth. http://www.sydneyroad.com.au/

Exhibtions on at the time were John Brack, Cara Stricker, (see below)

http://www.imelda.com.au/- blog

I SPY LEVI’S®

A Levi’s initiative, which was a real world game and mobile treasure hunt, designed to get people talking about, and wearing Levis again. Hundreds of pairs were ‘released’ on to the streets of Australia and New Zealand, worn by Levis representatives. Twitter users could piece together clues (online or via their mobile) to locate the jeans and instantly win a pair by asking the wearer “Are those Levis?”. If they got it right, the person wearing the denim had to drop their pants, and hand over the jeans on the spot. The campaign generated plenty of PR and also satisfied Levi’s sampling requirements by getting the denim into the hands of the target (and vocal) demographic.

Claire’s role at WGSN means it is essential that she keeps up-to-date with blogs, music, films and street style (markets being her best hangout) and she will give weekly presentations back to the team.

WGSN look at seasonal trends 18months ahead, each trend pack includes 3 trend concepts, which has been devised by the team on the basis of an overall common theme. They will often get technology experts to come in and in and inform them on the latest equipment or developments, which may influence future trends. When developing items they tend to use a USEFUL method of going back to basics creating moodboards. The colour teams whom work 6 months ahead respectively will work with them to bring the overall concept together. When putting together a trend they will write details of the products listing where it has come from and where this may be developing. Under research & reference they picture all the influences, with illustrations and which turn into online downloadable pages.

WGSN not only keeps up to date with consumer needs but also recognizes the needs of there own customers (clients) they are aware of the industry budgets and have close links with marketing & PR teams worldwide. Revenue is created through subscriptions (around £2500) and they find that their consumers are quite vocal with their expectations and feedback. Being exclusively online allows them the advantage of being instantaneous and they are able to work in between seasons as the industry is becoming less seasonally defined.

What’s coming up for Claire herself?....

Looking towards sustainability and communication and also writes for the Guardian, she hopes to keep these external interests open. Also involved in consultancy which is mainly through her existing role she is currently working with Blackberry looking at potential accessory possibilities