Reflections of 2009
New year, New start so they say but 2009 will not be one that I will forget. It was a year full of fantastic opportunities and memories, a real starter mark that only would get me more determined to strive higher and push further!
The end of the year is always one for reflection:
Valencia- July 09
This trip was a bit of a birthday treat, we chose to go after reading a fantastic review of this quite undiscovered city. It was a beautiful place, extremely inspiring and somewhere I would recommend everyone to go! It had the perfect mix of Culture with Urban, sun, sea and sand!
July 09
Birth of my Boyfriends first nephew was another significant event in 2009. I’ve been with my boyfriend for over 5 years now and am very close with his family and they mean alot to me. He already has 4 nieces (who all call me aunty) with a predominantly female family it was big news that a little boy was coming along.
Must admit this has been a bit of distraction as I love children and babies and have been have many trips to see them and see baby Trevon grow!
Aug 09-
My new job a Vintage Lingerie company ‘What Katie Did’ was a big highlight for me this year. Although only a small company they are doing considerably well and after a few weeks work experience I was offered a position there to help with press.
I’m still there at present and have sent out many press releases many have been used on the Lingerie Post Blog and in Octane Magazine & Classic Military Vehicle magazine. Editorials in I-D, Vogue, Vogue Nippon, Russian & French Vogue, Harpers Bazzar, POP, Look and many more including many British newspapers.
Aug 09
Although having lived in Reading all my life this was the first year I actually ventured to the other side of the fence.
I had a great time with highlights being Kings of Leon (unlucky Leeds) and the Prodigy both of whom where amazing!
Everyone was really friendly and up for a good laugh. I am definitely considering going again in 2010! Although Glastonbury is a big aim for me to actually go at least at Reading I can go home shower and sleep in a bed each night, which is so nice!
Festival fashion is always fun also- much deliberation over the wellie essentials and it was great to see people in summer get up although very cold and wet and also seeing some very random fancy dress including a can of spam!
Sep 09
Blow PR Internship. This is one experience that I will never forget and enhanced my year! After a challenging interview I was overjoyed to know that I could work with them at fashion week. This was my first ever fashion week, it was enjoyable as well as tiring, incredible as well as painful (swollen & battered feet) and an overall fantastic learning experience.
Met great people, was able to watch some amazing catwalk shows and really get a taste of that fashion buzz (if you was there you would feel it and understand what I mean.)
Sep 09-
Romeo Pires s/s 10 catwalk show at Vauxhall Fashion scout. This was they very last show I worked, and again bumped into yet more FPI students. Again the audience was of some familiar faces and a few friends from the course I did at LCF. Wouldn’t say this was the most impressive show I had seen during the week but seeing behind the scenes more I realised how manic the setting up was. Each account manager was responsible for their clients show and so this one was pretty laid back. The clothes were not entirely inspiring but the prints on gorgeous silk and hair were the stand out pieces. You could pinpoint the designers inspiration for the collection instantaneously however the overall the shapes and style of the garments were not very diverse and did not particularly stand out.
Avsh Alom Gur Presentation:
Ashish catwalk show:
Sep 09-
Well what can I say; the Canon experience was an amazing day!Saturday 19th September and the plan was to meet at 1pm, go for lunch before heading into the CPS area at 2.45. Catwalk seats for the Ashish show at 5.30, after which go for a couple of drinks. Sounded great to me so I managed to get off early from Blow Presents which was an all day event at the festival hall (9-5)
Still very dubious, s as I walked over the bridge towards embankment tube, believing that there would be no one there. I got to the tube station and had no idea who I was meeting, was meant to get sent a picture but it came through too late that I never saw it before I left at the crack of dawn. I had received a text from Camilla, who was the host for the day, looking around seeing if I could spot someone who was waiting also I saw a group of three stylish ladies- nervous to approach, I never thought for a second it could be them, as I was not even sure how many people it would be. I rang Camilla on the number and one of the stylish ladies in the group picked up, so it was them. Camilla introduced me two the other two girls who were bloggers also, Elle and Sophie. They were really lovely girls, Sophie had come down from Manchester and was currently working after doing a graphics degree. Elle lived in London and is a stylist, (infact she was working on a show that day and had to miss a part of the day). Please refer to my blog posts on the event and some images of the day. It was overall a fantastic experience, felt very surreal! It was a real taste of fashion week, in the best possible way. We were treated so well (I just imagine that is how the fash week major players do) fantastic 3-course lunch, champagne all day, allowed access in the lounge and backstage. Given tours, free gifts and finally to top it off fantastic seats to the Ashish show which was attended by Rosin Murphy (“quick lets get out of here before I get papped”), VV Brown (to Camilla “wow you have fantastic cheek bones”) and Jameela Jamil from T4 (“I look awful have lots of spots”- um no she didn’t!) See photos below.
Met some amazing people in 2009. They were all lovely and very approachable. I think this made me realise that sometimes it’s better to take a chance and get turned down than to regret ever doing it at all. I think in Fashion confidence is key and that chance encounters and networking is a very important aspect. You never know what opportunities may open up, knowledge is key and speaking to people first hand is the best approach to finding out more.
Sep 09
Went to Alton Towers for the first time ever it was to celebrate my boyfriends birthday and for our 5 year anniversary. We had a great time up in the midlands, stayed in a little B&B for the weekend. Nice to have a break away even if it was in the rainy UK.
Oct 2009
Becca is a friend form my college days at LCF, and I love that we have still kept in touch; she is a great friend with fantastic qualities. I love her upfront attitude, positivity and ability to make all things fun and enjoyable. College/uni friends are those who have made a big difference in my life and I hope to always keep them near.
SHOWstudio Fashion Revolution at Somerset House was one of those long awaited exhibitions, which was unveiled during LFW. I think this has to be the stand out exhibition of 2009 that I went to. I must say it probably one of the best I have ever been to. Exhibitions I have gone to thereafter such as POP Life really has disappointed in comparison. You can’t really expect anything less from SHOWstudio, who are completely heads above the rest in the digital game. I was shocked to find out that SHOWstudio has now been around for over 9 years and although a long-standing argument about is art fashion and vice versa I truly believe SHOWstudio is merging this gap. The curration of this exhibition was fantastic and the interactive nature was compelling, hours of the day passed without noticing. I attended with my marketing group and it was an enjoyable day out, I think we all got great ideas from it, to push the boundaries and think ‘outside’ of the box.
Nov-December 09
November through to December was pretty much spent focused on the last project, to be fair I had not much time to do anything else but uni work. Fashion Forecasting was an intense group project where we had to develop four key trends for 2012, then develop a trend consultancy agency, which was called Volume II and then compile a trends package suited to our chosen client, who was the OXO Tower Restaurant.
Working as a group always presents its obvious challenges, however I felt we worked in an amazing team, which developed a great strategy of working. This project in effect was in three parts; the first part was extremely broad research of trends, current, future and past, considering Political, Economical, Social, Technological & Environmental effects that would shape the possible trends for 2012. At this stage we had researched individually into different areas, to bring this all back together into a cohesive format, one, which we could then draw, trends from did seem overwhelming at first. So we went back to basics and wrote all our main points from our research which was then broke up into PESTEL sub sections which not only culminated all our ideas together it also made it easier to draw upon emerging trends that we could see coming through.
My personal way of working was influenced extremely by this method and I infact used it to write key words onto miniature post it’s that I then stuck around my mirror to consciously and subconsciously help me learn my speech for the presentation as I did not want to be reliant on cue cards. Throughout this project I also used my dictator phone to record lectures so I could take down notes afterwards and also came into great use for when I was doing primary research and interviewing people.
However no matter how I tried to curb my bad habits of ending up working on floor in surrounded by papers everywhere, some may call it a mess I ended up living in that way for weeks. Also I end up doing way too much research that it proves a struggle to cut down and then I have far too much to analyse fully and present in a way that I would like to. These are my aims for this term is too try and eliminate these habits and put a more structured and organised way of working in place.
The post it note process nicknamed the ‘brain’ by Osman Yousefzada was one we felt represented our groups workings and therefore should be integrated into our brand aesthetic. We developed a post it note design logo with the name Volume II chosen as we were a trends consultancy agency focused on the future so you could look at it as Vol.1 would be the present, the here and now, and vol.2 is the next chapter so to speak (the future). Adapting an existing font by extending the E to join the II as we remembered from the lecture with Chrissie Abbot that we should aim to make a font our own. The post it with tea stain was also done and scanned in to get the texture, and 3D effect.
November:
I spent one afternoon with another member in my group, which drifted into the evening exploring all the wonderful Restaurants that London has to offer on recommendations from friends, tutors and research. We started off in Bangalore Express, which was reviewed on Cool Hunter. Not only was the Indian food absolutely delicious and well priced, It was also new and contemporary with seating which is divided into pods above one another.
We swiftly moved on to Hix- which we actually couldn’t find the door, that exclusive I guess so unfortunately we couldn’t experience that one and we went round the corner to Bob Bob Ricard on the recommendations from our tutor Hem. Found it a very surreal place- when your inside you feel like you’re in a world outside of London. It is extremely up market and the waiters seat you and take your coats, which go in your own personal coat rack behind your seat/ booth. It has a very oriental express train feel to the interior with lashings of Art Deco influences. We were informed that the name for the restaurant is the names of the owners. Bob and Ricard, being his nickname. There is a small Russian part to the menu, due to one of the owners being Russian. They have a a press for champagne button at the table and downstairs a private members bar with a backgammon board. We spent hours in there having our ‘afternoon tea’, we did not know what that was at first, it is a real escapism place.
We both had never been to this event before and were surprised how busy it was. It was a fantastic place to interact with our target consumer, as we were focused on restaurant experiences it was hard otherwise to gain a perspective and interview them obviously while in a restaurant is not an ideal environment. This was an informal place that made it easier to approach people, ask them questions (using the Dictaphone) and ask them to fill in questionnaires while they were waiting for cooking demonstrations (which also proved interesting). Most people were extremely receptive and helpful with our research. It was a pity that it was all of bit of a last minute organisation to attend and that I had no idea what to expect that I did not foresee needing more than over 30 questionnaires and prepared them slightly more direct, as after speaking to people you think of so many more questions that would have been extremely relevant to ask. It was also a surprise to find a considerable number of people we spoke to had infact been to the OXO restaurant and this would have been great to have a few more surveys that asked more direct questions about there experience there.
We also loved Lawerence Keough who we pretty much followed the whole day to get him to talk to us, in the end I pretty much walked into him, with bit of a stutter I managed to asked him if we could ask him questions and he was lovely enough to give us his business card. It was like a major food networking event, which outside the world of fashion was great to have experienced and will serve us well, if we ever in the future have any similar research projects.
Our Marketing Package:
Above are a few examples of our brand development which was part of our trends package. We have our Logo, one of our moodboards for our key trend Reversal, our brand website and the OXO tower poster that was advertising the 15 year anniversary event we proposed to hold there.
This project was full on in the sense we had to produced such a extensive range of material. We developed our own brand, logo, aesthetic, website and twitter page. Gave the OXO a brand refresh and developed it’s own website, online and outdoor advertising and proposed an event, this was then presented as a final trend package/ report along with a presentation pitch.
I believe as a group we were pleased with our overall outcome and proud with all that we achieved together as a team and as Individuals.
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