A First Class Honours Fashion Graduate, with a blog that's been an independent site since 2015. Currently studying MA International Fashion Management at NTU.
Seemingly, it doesn’t matter how many posts you’d like to write, if you don’t have enough hours in the day, your blog is slowly going to die a painful death.
New tactic.
To incorporate your degree with your blog, so you can be blogging and still technically be doing uni work.
In all seriousness, my second year at university has kicked up a gear and I’m struggling for time to do anything. My Fashion degree is obviously something that consumes me and therefore needs to filter through into this blog. Starting with a recent visit to a T-Shirt exhibition that was a part of the British Textile Biennial.
The first stand I was drawn to in the exhibition was the selection of climate change t-shirts. They varied from hand drawn pieces overlaying commercial graphics to simple yet effective stand-alone text tees. Luckily, the t-shirts stood for what was printed on them. One read ‘Single Use Plastic is Never Fantastic’ (designed by Henry Holland in collaboration with BRITA) and was made using recycled plastic and salvaged cotton.
From climate change to political issues, specifically titled ‘Personal/Political’ deriving from the slogan ‘the personal is political’. I thought that this section in particular covered a lot of issues in one. Which only highlights the aim of the exhibition as a whole to start the discussion of fashion being an avenue for communication and personal expression.
A big influence in the exhibition was the work of Vivienne Westwood. The pefect choice, that I thought encapsulated what the collection stood for. The particular piece above was from Westwood’s runway for Spring/Summer 2018 and I think its a t-shirt in its peak of importance during a time of awareness against fast fashion.
Another selection of t-shirts came bearing empowering quotes which further highlights the premise of the collection, demonstrating t-shirts being a really impactful communication tool. Whilst I feel the one on the right (‘We should all be feminists‘) has a great importance it has definitely circulated a lot more. Whereas, I particularly loved the left tee ‘What other people think about you is none of your business’.
Finally finishing with this masterpiece, obviously I adore the quoted t-shirt and once I’ve finished writing this I’ll be googling where I can get my hands on one – a sustainably and ehtically produced one of course. But I just really appreciate the scale in which Vivienne Westwoods face has been printed onto the t-shirt behind. Go big or go home, I guess.
Towards the end of March, I went on a University organised trip to Italy. Each day was very different but also packed with a plethora of places to visit. I of course, took many pictures that inevitably were going to end up in a blog post- this one if you hadn’t guessed by the title.
Sunday 24th March
We arrived at Como in the early evening, so we had little time to explore. But we did manage to have our first taste of the mouth-watering ice-cream.
Monday 25th March
Figure 1- Funicolare Como- Brunate
The morning of our first full day started with a trip up a hill. It’s actually called Funicolare Como- Brunate which sounds much better than a hill. Once at the top, it was breathtakingly beautiful and it was really surreal that that was our view.
Figure 2- Villa Carlotta
Around lunch, we got a boat to Tremezzo to look around Villa Carlotta. It was fascinating to walk around a place that started to be built back in the 16th century.
Figure 3- View from Villa CarlottaFigure 4- Villa Carlotta Gardens
The villa sits on about 8 hectares of botanical gardens and I can’t imagine how much more beautiful it is once all of the flowers have blossomed.
Figure 5- Bellagio
Late afternoon we arrived at our final stop of the day; Bellagio. It was a stereotypical Italian town; narrow, cobbled streets and colourful quaint buildings.
Tuesday 26th March
This day, we travelled to the Comocrea Textile Trade Show. It was so inspiring (and kind of intimidating) to see the vast amount of work from so many designers.
Figure 6- Villa Erba
Understandably, I couldn’t take pictures inside the trade show. However, right next door was the beautiful Villa Erba. Collectively, we all decided that this would be the place we’d all very much like our wedding to be held.
Figure 7- CernobbioFigure 8- Cernobbio view
We then got to explore the rest of Cernobbio (whilst eating ice-cream) and I was beginning to wonder if its at all possible to find a place in Italy that isn’t picturesque?!
A highlight of the day was having the opportunity to go into a Como design studio. Watching people hand paint their designs was captivating and slightly therapeutic. It was also eye opening to see their work ethic and how quickly they can get their designs out there (around 2 a day).
Wednesday 27th March
We had a tour of Mantero- a textile company- which was easily the most inspiring part of the whole trip. I watched Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton fabric all being printed, so to say I was in awe would be an understatement. We also got a look-in at their archive room, which looked like it easily went on for miles! I’d love to work in such a large open plan office like there’s, with so many people everyday! And I loved how the factory was attached to the offices, I’d never thought of that before but I like the concept of it all happening in one place.
Figure 9- Duomo Cathedral
Then it was off to Milan! The top tourist spot is definitely the Duomo and was one of the first things we saw, stepping off the metro. It is architecturally beautiful and leaves you speechless with its structure.
Figure 10- Duomo ViewFigure 11- View from the top of the Duomo
After 200-something steps we made it to the top to look over the city.
Thursday 28th March
Figure 12- Entrance to the Fashion HousesFigure 13- Centre of Milan
Our last full day was all about SHOP, SHOP AND MORE SHOPPING. Being in the fashion district, we couldn’t not treat ourselves and window shop at the big brands like Louis Vuitton.
Figure 14 & 15- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Figure 16- Milano Design Museum
We ended the day at the Milan Design Museum, where I found the whole exhibition ‘Broken Nature’ very thought provoking.
Friday 29th March
We flew home! It was such an incredibly inspiring and interesting trip, I’d love to go back and explore more of the beautiful country.
From climate change to political issues, specifically titled ‘Personal/Political’ deriving from the slogan ‘the personal is political’. I thought that this section in particular covered a lot of issues in one. Which only highlights the aim of the exhibition as a whole to start the discussion of fashion being an avenue for communication and personal expression.
Finally finishing with this masterpiece, obviously I adore the quoted t-shirt and once I’ve finished writing this I’ll be googling where I can get my hands on one – a sustainably and ehtically produced one of course. But I just really appreciate the scale in which Vivienne Westwoods face has been printed onto the t-shirt behind. Go big or go home, I guess.
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