sun sea & sand

Holiday season is upon us & this saturday i will be jetting off to spain... Thought i'd share a few of my holiday essentials/new purchases. 

make love not war

A charge by riot police during the Vancouver riots knocked Scott Jones & Alex Thomas to the ground. Admist the violence & chaos a young couple share a kiss. The photograph, taken by Canadian photographer Richard Lam is being labelled as one of the most iconic kiss photographs. 

I particularly loved how Scott's mum commented saying that she immediately recognised her son, from his minimalist wardrobe & 'it's just something he would do'.....

Here's the photograph..

happy 15th anniversary vogue.com

Vogue.com are celebrating the 15th anniversary of the online fashion site with 15 best art galleries picked by Mario Testino, 15 best pin up girls selected by Charlotte Olympia. In fashion there's always a great excuse to look back on the very best. For my birthday this year a family friend got me a back copy of Vogue - March 1990, my vogue birth magazine.... such a unique & interesting present. I thought i'd share the front cover in celebration.

salford students win british fashion council award, again

The University of Salford was crowned as a leader of student fashion design for a second year running, after being awarded the British Fashion Council Colleges Portfolio Award for 2011.

Here's some of the portfolio presented to the British Fashion Council....

the diving bell & the butterfly

My sister, is my book group, recommending/demanding i read books she herself loves... i'd be lying if there wasn't a bit of a back log. The latest edition was 'the diving bell & the butterfly', which i read on the train into London last week. 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, is a translation of the French memoir Le scaphandre et le papillon by editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby. A short story that describes what his life is like after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome. He awoke 20 days later, mentally aware of his surroundings but physically paralyzed with the exception of some movement in his head and eyes. 

The entire book was written with Bauby blinking his left eyelid, which took ten months (four hours a day) using partner assisted scanning - (a transcriber repeatedly recited a French language frequency ordered alphabet (E-S-A-R-I-N-T-U-L etc....), Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. 200,000 blinks later the book was written, a word took on average 2 minutes to blink/write. 

Bauby documents in detail his day-to-day struggles and frustrations, unable to show the slightest bit of emotion, buried alive in his own body - then into his imagination/ & memory, effortlessly flowing through his mind. 

A must read.

the class of 2011

Today was our final preparation for the BIAD show. I must admit i was quite pleased to see it all laid out infront of me (super-sized even) really proud to see all the hard work finally paid off. It was also the first time i've seen much of the classes work at all, & it was all pretty amazing. 

Not afraid to say that i am extremely excited not to be doing uni work ever again... i say this now but when i'm working 9-5 i may dream of my long lie-ins & late nights out. 

Hopefully something will transpire from this work, but if not it's an excellent reference point with future employers. I am keen to be at the heart of it all in London, well New York would be awesome, but i'm trying to keep my feet partially on the ground. 

Soooo... this is my final set up to show off my dissertation. I was really happy about how it looks!

guardian's top 10 in pictures

Loved logging on to the Guardian today to see my friends in fashion design at number one of Rachel Hannaway's 'top moments' at Graduate Fashion Week 2011.

Take a look....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2011/jun/08/graduate-fashion-week-top-10-pictures#/?picture=375470352&index=0

graduate fashion week in pictures

 

Cheeky visit backstage

Pre-BIAD show....

the highs & lows

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/07/graduate-fashion-week-2011

if only.....

Read today about the annual Graduate Preview Day which provides member colleges from the British Fashion Council Colleges Council (wow that's hard to say....) with the opportunity to showcase their graduating students’ work to industry professionals, what an oppurtunity. The 27 exhibiting colleges submitted portfolios to be judged by a panel of industry experts. The event was hosted at The May Fair hotel in London and was judged by;

Chair of the Colleges Council Anne Tyrrell // Hannah White, Editor of Fashion Monitor // Lauretta Roberts, Digital Development Director of WGSN // Nick Chalkley, General Merchandise Manager of Harrods // and Caroline Burstein, Creative Director of Browns.

The initiative, set up as part of the British Fashion Council's bid to support young emerging talent is a brilliant way to showcase your work on a more professional platform away from the more commercial Graduate Fashion Week and mingle on a smaller scale with big names within the industry.

Here are some photos from the day.......

Lauretta Roberts (WGSN), Nick Chalkley (Harrods), Hannah White (Fashion Monitor), Anne Tyrrell, Caroline Burstein

the future of design

Ok so i could be bias...but these are designs from some of my lovely friends. And i think they're pretty faB. Firstly, mills.. now i've only known laura for a year now & i hate to say it but she's pretty talented. Generally anything you throw at her she will nail. 

Laura Mills

Jennifer Glenton

Fiona Perkins

Paris Hawkins-Carr

we supoport emerging talent

Whilst browsing the internet, trying to distract from work & my impending deadline i came across Topshops new link to emerging talent; expanding on their support for young British designers as sponsors of the British Fashion Councils 'NewGen' initiative. Using topshop.com as a portal for the designers, posting information, images and links to each showcasing designer.

Felicity Brown

Peter Pilotto





oversized silhouettes

On a trip to London this week i visited the Yohji Yamamoto exhibition at the V&A, a retrospective of the work of visionary Japanese fashion designer. 


Prior to the exhibition i was not an expert on his life history, but i instantly understood his meaning and philosophy. I loved the volume, adventurous shapes, bold colours, texture and the integration of basic clothing into art. Yamamoto is known for an avant-garde spirit in his clothing, frequently creating designs far removed from current trends. His signature oversized silhouettes in black often feature drapery in varying textures. The exhibition comes 30 years after his London Fashion Week debut and celebrates his lifes work.

In 2008, the Yohji Yamamoto Fund for Peace (YYFP) was established in conjunction with the China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development (CFFPD). The aim of the fund was to help the new generation of design and develop China's fashion industry. Whilst trying to help heal the long-standing enmity between China and Japan. Each year, an emerging Chinese designer will be awarded with a two-year scholarship to a fashion college in Japan or Europe, and a male or female Chinese fashion model will be selected to make a runway debut during the Paris pret-a-porter season.

Love this!

hammerson fashion innovation award.. ok then

Got an exciting email of my tutor today ...not the usual room changes or presentation times that i have come to constantly expect when i look at my emails. No, today i had been put forward for the Hammerson Fashion Innovation award at Graduate Fashion Week!
My dissertation; (which i still don't have the marks for) is to be sent of to judges along with three other students from my university, the winner will be announced during GFW and will win £750.....that would be nice.

Fingers crossed. x

washed up in the wonder room

Whilst at work yesterday, a busy saturday on womenswear - top floor it was hard not to miss the stream of half naked men dressed up as scuba divers - chanting, girls following in tiny shorts with large plaques in tow, what was it all about? Project Ocean. Selfridges's new quest to help highlight a huge environmental issue that will impact on us all if we don't change soon. Millions rely on fish a source of both food and income, eating freely with little consideration as to the impact it is having on our environment. 


Selfridges have launched a massive campaign to increase awareness of the issue over-fishing, inspiring change and raising funds... basically they are aiming to.. 'save the sea', as Katherine Hamnett's slogan t's so simply put it! In Oxford Street, a window display challenges the public to imagine a world with no more fish in the sea. 

From 11th May- 12th of June there will be a host of activities - both fun and serious - highlighting the issues, delivered by members of the marine conservation community and like-minded celebrities, artists, musicians, designers and chefs.

Elle McPherson

The window display plays host to a unique exhibition 'washed up'... renowned curator Judith Clark has created an oncean-inspired works of art from the world of fashion. Designers Philip Treacy, Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan. 

Hussein Chalayan

Philip Treacy