I <3 BIRMINGHAM

So today I woke up in a pretty crappy mood and knew if I didnt get out the house I'd just end up bumming around watching repeats of The Hills, which yes is fun but theres only so many times you can watch the same episodes about 10 times!

I decided to drag my dad away from the allotment and get him to take me and mother to the German market. After loooking for a parking space for about half an hour we soon realised town was going to be packed!!!

The point to this post is that today there was soooooo much going on in Birmingham and it just made me realise that I absolutly LOVE this city and that its a pretty cool place to live.

So, obviously the christmas lights were being swithed on today witch resulted in town being swamped with excited JLS fans along with other herds of people all heading for millenium point! On the way home in the car we heard that it had been cancelled though because there was too many people! I felt bad for everyone who stuck it out in the rain for hours!!!

Also it was the launch of the new Jimmy Choo range for H&M (the bullring store being 1 of only 19 in the UK!!!).....I had to drag my dad round just to have a quick mooch but found that you had to que up jst to have a look at the collection. And like a typical old man....my dad was having non of it!! The buzz around H&M was pretty funny!! it was like boxing day sales 2 months too early! Scowling women.....pushing and shoving all for some fancy shoes :)

After fighting our round the bullring we decided to face the rain and head for the German Market.......jeeeez that place makes me soo happy =] I don't know what it is it just makes me feel all christmassy and warm inside!! obviuosly we couldnt leave without a traditional German hotdog and a hot chocolotte just to get into the spirit of things.

And now to my absolute favourite part of my day and the whole reason for this post..........BEING INVOLVED IN THE FILMING OF THE NEW T-MOBILS ADVERT!!

so were walking out of selfridges heading for the car and we just get bombarded with musical instriments!! I mean drums, banjos, maracas...any intrument u can think of!! And then we get asked to shake some tamborines along with this band in the background! By this point were dancing away with tambourines and we still ent got a clue why??!

Anywhooo....basically it was for the new t-mobile advert so look out for me and my dad shaking our tambourines! I think the band may be called 'I'm with Josh' but to be honest it was all that random I could be wrong. The song is really cathcy though so I think the adverts going to be pretty cool!

I'v got some videos that I will post up as soon as I can....

WHAT FARAH DID NEXT

So, most of us are getting to that time of year when those daunting decisions have to be made about uni and progression. I don't know about anyone else but I find this process absolutly terryfying! So I decided to talk to a friendly face to discuss her move to university and how shes coping with the whole experience.

Most people have met Farah but if you havnt she is a past student who completed the National Diploma and continued on to the Foundation Diploma. Farah went on to continue her studies at Ravensbourne, London.


SO FARAH, HOW ARE YOU FINDING YOUR MOVE TO LONDON?
London is really great, I've been here less than two months now and it feels like home. I have a lovely house and get on well with my house mates, which is always good. I'm not in Central London. It's very suburban and quite- very different to the dodgy area of Birmingham I grew up in!

HOW IS UNIVERSITY DIFFERENT TO COLLGE?
University is a total shock to the system. Your trown in at the deep end, The tutors make people cry. You have to do twice the amount of work than at college, in half the time. Everything costs money that no-one has. It's scary. But at the same time it's great. You really have to work to be noticed in a group of 80, but the tutors make sure they help everyone. Personally, I enjoy contextual studies the most, because they really challenge the way you think, even without the context of fashion , and they make it fun with debates, seminars and magicians....

I think the biggest difference between college and university is the sence of indipendance you have. I see my tutor once or twice a week, I'm in two or three times a week but I still have to work very hard by mysef and make decisions without others feedback. You have to really develop your own style and stand up for youself if you are questioned about it.

WHATS BEEN THE MOST EXCITING PROJECT YOU HAVE RECIEVED FROM rAVENSBOURNE?
We have only had one project so far. The brief was to design and make a skirt in white or nutreal colours. Our inspiration was to be anything we want! We were encouraged to go and see lots of exhibitions, try on expensive clothes and find anything and everything to inspire us. I started by going to the fashion and Fear exhibition at the V&A, and I really loved the fairytale imagery. I started to look at woods in fairytales, and how the huge proportions make them look quite menacing. I then started to look at scary creatures in fairytales and myths. The end result is almost finished. The project was supposed to be a 5 week project, but our department was closed for 10 days because of swine flu so the new deadline is friday. We will hand all of our work in and present our work in a crit. I'll be up first, I'm terrified!

DO YOU THINK TH WAY YOU WORK HAS CHANGED SINCE GOING TO UNIVERSITY?
My work has changed a lot since I came to Rave! Our tutors don't like a lot of annotation, or filling up pages. It's all very minimal. We don't do so much fabric sampling in our sketchbooks, but maybe we will do more of that as we go on. We have to work in A3 sketchbooks, wich I'm not used to at all, but I think im taking to it well so far...

I've also learnt to work alot faster. No one chases you or calls you up if you havn't gone in. It's entirly up to you to motivate youself.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
I don't think I have a signature style. I work best with strong sillouettes, strong colours and unusual details, but I'm certain my style will change once I lear new things and discover new ways of working.

WHAT DESIGNERS ARE INSPIRING YOU AT THE MOMENT?
I'm always inspired by Maison Martin Margeila, Commes Des Garcons and Huessein Chalayan.
But I'm personally more inspired by ideas and concepts, rather than what other designers have already done. I like to read and watch interesting films, and find out about other peoples points of view.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BRITISH DESIGN AT THE MOMENT?
British design is really exciting at the moment. London has a 'anything goes' attitude that allows designers to challenge ideas. I think in a few years, as we come out of the recession, it will be even better. There will be so many graduates coming out of Ravensbourne, Central Saint Martins, Lcf, Westminster etc who will really push the boundries. I hope to be on of them!

WHAT DO YOU ASPIRE TO DO ONCE YOU HAVE GRADUATED?
I'm not quite sure what I want to do once I've graduated. I would love to try for a masters degree at Central Saint Martins or RCA, but I will just take oppotunities as they come. I want to eventually become a designer that inspires other designers.

Ikon Gallery

So last Wednesday me and Sian got super-duper lost in Digbeth looking for Ikon Eastside. We finally found our inner sat-navs and found the gallery only to find it was closed til Thursday...ARGHHHHH how annoying!?!?!?! As we were close to the Custard Factory we decided to go and have a look at the Bodies Revealed exhibition to find that it was £12, which yes I know isn't that much but when your a poor student and pay-day is a long way away we just couldn't bring ourselves to spend £12 to get freaked out by the insides of dead peoples bodies.
Sooooo after all this walking we decided to head over to the Ikon Gallery to see what was on there. The first exhibition was called 'The Trample Down An Arable Land', it was a series of 6 videos that to be completely honest just completely went over my head. Normaly I would get annoyed with myself if I didnt understand an exhibition and would really try to get what the artist was trying to communicate BUT (and thats a big but) when I came for my interview for the foundation, Jannette told me that "you don't always have to understand art, you just have to appreciate it, and maybe later on in life, it will just click" so i appreciate the beauty of the videos and the sensitivity in them I just don't understand their purpose.

The second exhibition was by a Russian artist called Semyon Faibisovich. The series of paintings were derived from mobile phone photographs. The artist says they depict everyday life in Ragulyai a district in Moscow.
I thought the paintings were beautiful. From a far they look like photographs but when you see them closer it becomes apparent that they're paintings.

WHATS ON? NICK KNIGHT AT SUMMERSET HOUSE

After recently discovering SHOWstudio I am finding it a great tool in keeping up to date with current fashion affairs. I love the way that shows like Alexander Mcqueen are streamed live over the net and you can view photoshoots as they happen.
I was so excited when I found out that Nick Knight has collaberated with Summerset House to exhibit nine years of online innovation. The website says that the exhibition will showcase over twenty projects from SHOWSTUDIO'S archive along side new films and photoshoots.
The exhibition ends on the 20th December so if your interested then I'd get down there soon!.....I just really wish I had found it earlier. I hope I get down to London before it ends.

www.showstudio.com/project/fashionrevolution

BEAUTIFUL!!

So today we started our new project with Mark, I'm not really sure what the lesson is called...Fashion Vissualisation or summat? Anyway, we have got to design 2 designs and then illustrate them with the skills he is going to teach us, which means photoshop!!! Me and photoshop...were not friends! Thats besides the point though, in the brief he gave us a couple of illustrators to look at that may be of inspiration and one of them was Sandra Suy. I went on to her website and thought her illustrations were just stunning. I love the sensitivity in her illustrations and her use of a minimal colour pallette.

I recomend checking her out for yourselves.... www.SandraSuy.com I find her work really inspiring.

SAME DRESS....DIFFERENT DAY

Sheena Matheiken is a style blooger who has set herself the interesting chellenge of wearing the same LBD every day for a whole year!!! She is doing this to raise funds for the Alankshe Foundation which is opening schools for childrens in India's slums.

I think that this is such a fun and challenging way to raise money for an important cause! Sheena says that the best way to get over the repition is to accessorise with old belts, hats, scarfs and tights, also that ebay and vintage shops are helping her to keep the dress fun and different every day.

Heres some photos of how Sheena has made the same dress versatile and lets face it.....COMPLETLY DIFFERENT each day.

You can follow Sheena's story on www.theuniformproject.com and make donations to the Akanksha Foundation!

AMAZING!

http://tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com

Check this blog out!
Tavi is a 13 year old girl who has an amazing fashion blog. You can tell that she just loves the industry and completly absorbes herself in it! She is really inspirational.

THELOVEBLOG

http://thelovemagazineblog.worldpress.com

NEW BLOOD- THE YOUNG & RECKLESS

LOVE magazine is a fashion magazine that I stumbled across in boarders when scouring the shelves for something a bit more edgy than LOOK or ELLE (I do love ELLE tho!!!). You can't help but be distracted by a naked photo of Beth Ditto jumping out from the shelves!!

I love the photography of her and the way it depicted her as a strong, beautiful women who could quite easily give the typical 'size-zero' cover girls a run for their money.

Issue 2 of LOVE did not dissopoint me. NEW BLOOD- THE YOUNG AND RECKLESS, is an issue devoted to displaying the talents of young people under 21. From Mylie Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers to Britians young boxing hopefulls, this issue gives an amazing platform to young people trying to persue their dreams!

I JUST LOVE.....'MYFLASHTRASH'

After trawling through the internet in the search for interesting fashion pages, I came across this website called http://www.myflashtrash.com/. The site is a jewellary website set up 'in an attempt to give unique jewellery designers a platform to display their creativity and sell their pieces online'.

Theres a price range for everyones pocket with rings and neclaces starting from about £6 to a more pricey £312 for a gold skull & pearl neclace.

I love how this site not only lets budding designers show off their work but allows them to sell their peieces and get some return for their hard work!!

I particulaly love this Alice in Wonderland charm braclet and this quirky little Amour neclace. They will both defonatly be added to my ever growing christmas wish list!!!