NCL-DXB-BNE

After frantically selling/throwing away all of my personal belongings, moving out of our house and packing and re-packing a 30kg suitcase we were ready to fly to Brisbane.
We had a lot of emotional goodbyes, especially my boyfriend's parents, 'You're leaving forever' 'We'll never see you again' - cue guilt and stress! But we reassured them we'd be back, we were going on an adventure, to try it out, nothing was set in stone and who knew if we'd even like it!
We relaxed a little on the plane and excitement took over, our next stop was Dubai!
Dubai was incredible. I loved it so much and it was a great start to our adventure. We stayed at the Intercontinental which was insane.
We went to the Burj Khalifa, Wild Wadi water park, old town Dubai, Bubblicious brunch and on a sand dune safari.
Brunch was my favourite thing ever; all you can eat international food stations and unlimited cocktails and champagne! The dream!
In true Brit style we got wasted and ate way too much. We went back to the hotel and scoffed a Birthday cake that had been put in the room for my sister's boyfriend, did drunk gymnastics/head stands and tried to drink even more. This culminated in me waking up to the sound of my boyfriend filling the bath with vomit and sicking on my bikini and towels. What a time to be alive!

Although it was super muggy and hot in Dubai, I loved how lavish everything is. The hotels, malls and restaurants are all huge and expensive and we really felt like royalty at the Intercontinental.
Before we went to Dubai, I read about the cultural differences and respecting the culture: you can't hold hands or kiss in public, you have to be covered up and people had told me when they'd visited they'd felt a cultural difference which made me skeptical about our trip.
I have to say I didn't really feel this difference. I thought I would feel restricted and I didn't at all. But then again snogging in public and wearing skimpy clothes aren't really my forte.

So after our amazing trip in Dubai came to an end, we boarded our flight to Brisbane!
We were met at the airport by my cousin. One of the main reasons we chose Brisbane was because my cousin and his wife live here. They said we could stay as long as we needed while we got sorted with jobs and a flat. This was amazing to have, I don't think we'd have been able to move to another city knowing we'd have to pay rent straight away and having the comfort of being with family made the move easier.
We lived there in the suburbs for a few months, going on day trips, flat hunting and enjoying our time off work. We always knew we'd live in the city, but living in the suburbs cemented this for us, we needed to be near the action!
We moved to a 5* newly built hotel in Fortitude Valley, close to great restaurants and bars, a short walk into the city and it has a pool, gym and looks onto the Story Bridge. Oh and IT'S A FIVE STAR HOTEL!!
We were very excited!
Downsides: I HATE flat viewings and our flat came unfurnished so we had to buy our furniture off Gumtree. Cousin had to get van, pick up stuff, move all stuff to city = ball-ache.
We've lived here nearly 5 months now. It's the first time my boyfriend and I have lived just the two of us and we love it. :)
Although the job hunt hasn't exactly gone to plan...

Re-Rewind

So let's go back to where I left off in 2014: final year of uni. One of the hardest years of my life, so much work, so many decisions. I remember feeling like I didn't want to do it anymore, not just because it was hard, I starting thinking what if fashion's not for me, do I really want a job in fashion?
My placements hadn't given me much faith in the fashion industry and I wasn't really aware of what options there were for me.
But if I am anything, I am persistent! I had put in so much hard work over nearly 4 years of uni and wasn't about to quit. So I finished the year with a 2:1 which I was so over the moon with! But I was also a bit dead inside haha
I was really pleased with my accessories collection and when I look back on it now I'm really proud of it, even though then I was sick of the sight of it!

http://www.northumbriafashiondesignandmarketing.com/annarichardson/

The Mercury bag, based on liquids, made with screen printed liquid satin.

So then I started applying for jobs. I couldn't get a job in retail as I had no retail experience and there are hardly any other fashion based roles in Newcastle; confusion once more! Do I move? WHAT WILL I DO?!

After waitressing for a bit at the hotel my sister worked at, I applied for a job at Handbag Clinic, a handbag repair workshop just outside of Newcastle.
It was a dreary 45 minute bus out of Newcastle, in an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere.
But it was in fashion right? The place was okay and the people were nice and I got offered the job the next day.
The job was as a stitch technician, repairing handbags by hand-stitching; stitching ripped handles, linings, pockets, making new parts and attaching hardware.
Although we had targets to meet, it was pretty relaxed, I was enjoying not having to talk to customers and I made some great friends. The job was easy enough and enjoyable and I was getting some practical fashion experience.
I had been there almost a year when they asked if I'd like to work in their retail shop in Newcastle as an in-store stitch technician as they had one in Chelsea and it worked well.
I was chuffed to be asked and also super grateful as it meant I could walk to work and not have to get the awful bus super early in the morning. And I got a huge pay increase!
It was all top secret and I wasn't allowed to tell anyone I worked with as they were firing some people for me and someone else to swoop in and run the shop. This was so difficult, I literally left the workshop one day and never went back.
But then I had a great year in the Handbag Clinic shop, gaining customer service, retail and sales experience. I was a lot happier, walking to work and interacting with people on a daily basis, managing my own time and workload.
And then I decided it was time to move on, our house contract was coming to an end so we thought instead of renting again we'd just move to the other side of the world...

Twenty-Eighteen

So it's been a while since I wrote: about three and half years!
I've been reading through my past posts and realised how much I love to write and it's great revisiting past memories. (Good and bad!)
Most of my previous stuff started as I'd moved to London, strangely enough I am re-starting my blogging from Brisbane, Australia where I moved to 6 months ago.
Apart from the obvious similarities in moving away from home, starting a new life and job in a strange and far away place (a lot further this time!) I guess as in London, in Brisbane I find myself alone sometimes and needing a hobby; hence the blogging.

I have far too much time on my hands at the moment for thinking. I listened to a podcast with Fearne Cotton and Matt Haig (Reasons to stay alive) and they were explaining how writing is a therapy and makes your feelings tangible. As much as you don't want other people to know what you have been going through, it's important to tell people as you just become introverted and it's as if those feelings don't matter as you've just kept them bottled up.
I'm learning that I need to express myself more, I've seen a huge change in myself over the past three years. I'm no longer as care-free, maybe that's just something to do with getting older and knowing more and being more aware of what's going on around me, but I feel I'm struggling a bit more than a few years back.
But I'm kinda okay with that, knowing that I can get through hard times and see a brighter future ahead. It's just trying to get there that's the issue!

I'm starting to wonder whether I run away from things and think I'll find something (or myself) away from home, but obviously all of my baggage just gets carted onto the next place.
I'm looking for work in Brisbane which I'm not having much luck with and I find myself feeling lost and without purpose. I'm applying for all these jobs that I really don't care about! I have no idea what I want to do with my life, what job I want to have, which I guess most people feel at some point but I need to find a way to discover that.

So onwards and upwards with self discovery...

I'm feeling 22

So my 22nd birthday is rapidly approaching! Amongst all the uni work I have managed to arrange a lovely weekend involving lots of prosecco, food and afternoon tea. I'm feeling pretty happy that it's at the start of the uni year where I can enjoy myself for the weekend and the work load isn't too much.
Although I am known for leaving things until the last minute so I am determined to push aside my urges for trebles in Newcastle and knuckle down after the celebrations!
I have a table booked at the Silk Room in Newcastle for a meal (review to follow!) From what I've seen and heard it's very nice and fancy! I will be queen for the weekend!
It's made me think about birthdays, how much of a big deal it used to have to be, you'd have to have to best party and you had to invite loaadddss of people (some of which were just invited to make up numbers). I'm surprisingly excited for this birthday, maybe as it's my first with a boyfriend and I'm hoping I get spoilt haha but I'll have the important people there and who doesn't like being centre of attention for a day...or a weekend!
Up-market food and champagne cocktails called for a new outfit, so I'm wearing monochrome; a black bardot top and a white skirt. I've wanted a white skirt for ages and found one that I love and is a really good fit from Missguided.

Black Bardot top: Missguided £4.99 White Chain Skirt: Missguided £19.99
Jewellery: All Primark £1.50-£3
Boots: Fashion Union £32
Studded clutch: Marni £590

You might be thinking "hang on, she's got an outfit for around 60 quid and that bag is £590?!" The bag I actually have is pretty similar to the one in the picture and it got it from Primark a while back for around 6 quid! Pretty big saving! I think £600 is a little steep for bag although if I could afford it I'm sure I would splurge!

I do love a bargain and although I think some things need to be invested in if you want them to be high quality and last the season, for now I'd rather spend my money on boozy bubbles and having a good time!

Happy Birthday to meeeeee!!

You've got time

Running parallel to the theme of 'growing up' in my last post, comes the theme of time. Time moves on, we grow, everything is constantly changing around us with time. 

A contrast that could be considered here is life vs death, death is inevitable in life and as time goes on it gets closer...(how morbid!); our biological clocks are literally ticking away.

Change is a by-product of time. We have physical changes to our bodies, evolution, growth and decay in plants and animals, climate, our economy. 

I've read somewhere that time was a human invention, a way of categorizing change in our lives.

One of my favourite quotes is one by Dr. Seuss: 'How did it get so late so soon?' which I think describes most days for me! 

I will have set out with the greatest of intentions but time goes so quickly and my procrastination levels are so high that the day is over and I have achieved very little.

Although, similarities could be shown within any career: if you are in a monotonous job, your daily achievements could also be very low and your day unfulfilled apart from the promise of cash for your hours.  

This then made me think if death is inevitable, what are we really living for, is it getting the cash from these jobs so that we can have a few holidays a year? Or if we go really deep into it, do we discuss the meaning of life?! When I first considered life vs death I felt this was more a literal term; change in the physical sense, but it could be argued that we aren't really living anyway...

Literal time is shown in clocks, hourglasses and we even use the sun to tell the time. We have certain things to do at hours in the day; we wake up in the morning and sleep in the evening. Different parts of the world are ahead or behind in time and we fly through time zones to reach a destination. 

We know things from the past; past monarchs, inventors, deaths, discoveries, animals and disasters due to records and the trails they've left behind but we know nothing about the future...nothing is certain. 

Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, the list is endless but we can't find the time to fit everything in.

I like the below quote too, as it refers to time as a value. Although it is an inanimate object, it spoken about as tangible and compared to us using it as money.

Time is always used as a metaphor. Time is money. Time is a healer. Time is a gift. There's so many angles to go down! 

Let's hope I have the time to look at everything! 

Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional

I've been looking at the theme of 'growing up' as a starting point for my final year research. This stemmed from an interest in kidswear which led onto children's literature. The books that stood out to me were Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland which both contain this theme. It made me consider the contrasts of wanting to stay young and wanting to grow up, which I think we go through in life constantly. The strains of work and responsibility make us want the simplicity of childhood and that 'ignorance is bliss' feeling where you don't have a care in the world.

On the other hand, being younger than legal age for drinking, doing naughty things and not being old enough to come home when we wanted made us wish we were older.

I'm sure most of us would say that once we became older it wasn't all it was cracked up to be!

I've read a lot of theories on Peter Pan. There are a lot of sinister analyses of the story, but ultimately J.M.Barrie based the characters on his life and his relationships. 

The main theme of the book is that all children must grow up; Wendy goes back to her parents, she can't be like Peter: he is there for her to learn that she needs to go home and accept her responsibilities and she can't stay young forever. Peter is irresponsible and naive and is there to show Wendy and the reader what you cannot be rather than what you can be.  

On the contrary in Alice in Wonderland, Alice literally grows and shrinks with different encounters of food and drinks within the book. Analysis of this shows that growing up is unpredictable and Alice has to deal with being too small or too big in certain situations. 

So alike Peter pan, we are shown that growing up is inevitable and responsibility has to be taken, even if it is a bumpy ride!

I find it really interesting going back to books and films from childhood and rediscovering the adult themes in them that you would never have noticed before. It makes you wonder do we take these themes on subliminally or are they there to be discovered when we are older. (We only realise when we have grown up..oohhh! Think I'm getting too deep into this!)

I like the contrast shown here of staying young vs growing up, which has spurred me on to look at other contrasts and bring this into a fashion sense. I think this would be a nice theme for kidswear too as it is directly linked. 

And on that note I'll wrap this up as I think I've aged writing this post!
My brain hurts.

Feeling pun-derful!

I love puns. I really do find them hilarious. I always have, but seeing a wooden fish sign at a friend's new house saying 'Seas the day' spurred a weekend filled full of pun-derful moments.
I think I have found my (somewhat nerdy) hidden talent.

From the veggie:

To the animal world:

To the rude but informative:

What's not to love!
I am currently trying to find some way to incorporate puns into my final year collection along with cute animals and vegetables, how hard can it be?!
Anyway I better get back to my book about anti-gravity, I just can't put it down!

Running out of time

One thing I have recently taken up is running. For anyone who knows me I DO NOT run!! Well at least I didn't...I also thought I couldn't which I have happily been proved wrong about! Probably the only time I will admit to being wrong...
Anyway there is a reason for all this extra cardio: me and my sister will be doing the Great North Run for the British Heart Foundation at the start of September. I am currently trying to get my head around that it is HALF A MARATHON, 13 MILES, TO THE MOON AND BACK.
To put it simply: I am scared.
Although training hasn't been as much of a arduous task as I had originally thought, it is in under 3 weeks time and I feel slightly unprepared. Mainly due to the fact it took me most of the allotted training time to pluck up the courage to run actually in the outdoors; as beetroot face, major sweating and fear of being seen took over.
I have since conquered my fears, I can be a lone runner but I will always still believe in safety in numbers; I will never understand why people will honk their horns at me whilst I am flailing and red-faced and in no fit state to shout obscenities back. At least pick me up and drive me home.

My original reason for applying for the Great North Run was for saying I'd completed it (pretty impressive sounding for an original non-runner, add to CV, motivational skills oi oi) and also hoping in the process it would increase my fitness, which it has. But the other huge reason is to raise money for the BHF which are a worthy charity that do amazing work for fighting and researching heart disease.
Hopefully I won't need their services after the race though...

Here is their website:
http://www.bhf.org.uk/

And here is my Just Giving page if you're feeling generous:
https://www.justgiving.com/Anna-Richardson3/

Back in business

So you could say I've been a little slow with these posts, but only because time (over half the year already!) has gone so incredibly fast! Moving home from London, seeing in 2014, getting settled back up north and finishing my third year at uni combined with a whole load of other adventures kind of took over for a bit.
I forgot how much I actually love writing and research for my final major project for my fourth year in Newcastle has prompted me to start it up again.
I can't really say it will be informative or helpful to you at all, I'm just hoping my ramblings will kind of help me discover what avenues to go down within my year long project with Fashion Marketing.
This has actually made me look back at the stuff I've been doing over the last 8 months and it's been pretty great and apart from a busy, slightly stressful(!) last term at uni I've had lots of amazing times travelling, exploring and trying new things with some lovely people!
This year has flown by (time flies yada yada!) Well I had been having a lot of fun but now I'm pretty flippin' bored. So I s'pose boredom has spurred my blog writing...I need a hobby asap.

Manager's meeting

Before the animal instincts of the managers came out at the sample sale, they had all been pretty civilised at the manager's meeting. It was one of my high points of my time there as well as a top event in the company calendar.
All the managers from over the country come together to see the new RTW, shoe and bag collections and be talked through them by the designers. This allows them to get to know the product before it gets to store as well as letting the designers and merchandisers know which items are popular among the staff, what they think might sell well and deciding whether anything should be removed if it gets a bad reaction.
There were also updates from the press, web and wholesale departments on sales progress and best sellers, expansion to other countries and where the products were featured in magazines and newspapers.

Oh also: Champagne, mini sandwiches and cakes. Need I say more haha!

Placements are hard.

They really are. It's hard not to think why the hell am I here when you've been sat in silence at a computer for 7 hours pretty much being ignored. Don't get me wrong I love being independent (London has forced me to have this attribute) and being 'left to it' when you're sure of what you're doing and you are enjoying it but there's also a feeling of 'I'm working here for free, I'm getting no direction and I should be learning a shit lot of stuff.' 

I'm all for the experience of things but bit annoying when you come out the other side feeling empty. TEACH ME STUFF GODDAMNIT. 

My last placement taught me that you learn a lot more stuff at a smaller place as bigger companies just don't have the time or the right kind of people to help you along the way. I felt a lot of the time I was being annoying if I asked for help or things to do, when I was expecting to be rushed off my feet and have a proper supervisor. I would much rather be busy than spend half my day on Daily Mail, even though that is a truly enriching experience...

So I left.

The only thing I'll miss is the lunch vouchers and Oyster card. That kind of says it all really. I was becoming wayyy too much of a regular at Pret. WHERE ARE ALL THE GREGGS?! 

And the sample sale pretty much killed me off. It was feral. There wasn't really anything I liked and people thought I was mad for not having my arms laden with everything I could carry.

I was pretty happy with my free bag and shoes but the lady with 12 bags was over the moon.

Time flies...

Can't believe how fast my time's going in London, it's nearly Christmas! I'm actually the most excited I've been in years for it because I've been on a proper lil jaunt rather than just a hop and skip away to uni. At the minute I'm going through phases of being in love with life and London and on the other hand; being excited to get back up north where people talk to each other and I don't have to avoid awkward eye contact on public transport. 

Although London at Xmas is just MAGICAL to say the least, as long as you can manage some shoulder barging on Oxford Street. 

So the new placement... Let's just say it's a lot different. I always knew it would be with the company being on such a bigger scale and it's merchandising rather than being a PA/hand-sewer/errand runner which I now realise I enjoy a lot more than spreadsheets and computer work.

I thought I'd be really into a job like merchandising or allocating but it seems I can cross these off my list. 

Firstly I definitely don't have the attention span for computer work (to quote a friend I have 'the attention span of a pie'...yes) and secondly staring at a screen for 8 hours a day hurts my face.

As everyone says you put it all down to experience and it has definitely opened my eyes into other areas of the fashion industry, unfortunately just ones I don't want to go into!

So onwards and upwards, wonder where my next adventure will take me...hopefully in the right direction. I've only just got used to actual journeys in London, never mind metaphorical ones, help anyone?

Makes you realise things don't turn out how you'd sometimes hoped or expected; was buzzin' to work in central London everyday...until I got my first central line tube at 9am. 

Lord have mercy. 

I was late for my first day because I couldn't get on the first 3 trains. We were all crammed in like sardines, people were fainting around me! (Okay so that last one's a lie, but it's definitely happened before!) 

So I arrived for my first day late and sweaty. Maybe that's where I went wrong. 

Rewind

So let's turn back the clocks a bit. After the collection launch, we had the showroom for two days at Wolf and Badger during London Fashion Week. This meant me going to stand next to the collection in a room full of up and coming designers and talking passionately (half blagging) about it to buyers and anyone else that was interested in the hope of getting some orders. Luckily for Teija she already had some interest, so she knew when to expect some visitors and it was nice to see other people so interested in the collection and the concept. Some of the other designers were amazing, personal faves Judy Wu and Krystof Strozyna had really strong, colourful collections.
So looking at clothes, talking about clothes, drinking tea and eating croissants isn't a bad way to spend the day, apart from the next day when not a soul came into the showroom. 8 hours of standing with the fear of leaning or sitting down in case someone important came in is not fun. And the croissants were hard that day.
(First world problems)
Luckily I made friends with a slightly eccentric lady with a lot of pink eye shadow. She gave me a vodka and told me how she'd met Michael Jackson. It was lovely.

New adventures

So forgive me for the delay I've been a little busy. It's not easy making the transition from one placement to next, juggling having interviews throughout and lying to employers about why I needed a day off. I hate that you have to lie just in case you don't get the job, thing is it's even harder trying to persuade a busy fashion designer who needs you pretty much 24/7 that you have some 'uni work' to do. buulllllsshiiitttttttttttt. I'm terrible at lying too so I sent an email to avoid eye contact and a lot of sweating. Basically it didn't go down well but weirdly I got an apology on the grounds that said designer was stressed with her collection. (How bad do I feel now?!)
Turned out I got the next placement so the next leap was telling her I was leaving. I get so worried about these things (sweating) and then in the end everything's fine and dandy. I think she was sad to see me go, I bloody hope she was anyway..!
My last day in her studio was just me and her finishing some work off from the previous day's shoot (info to come later!) It was dark outside and a Friday night so we decided to call it quits, then she announces she doesn't have a key to lock the building, we're the last ones there and the building has been burgled before. Fucking fantastic. 'What are we going to do?' she says...There's me thinking WE aren't going to do anything.
Then we proceed to stand outside fretting as she won't let me leave because someone got mugged here last week. OH MY GOD. I can honestly say, perfect sitch right there.
Eventually I left (ran) with prosecco in hand (lil treat off the boss, not so chuffed as was leftovers but whatevs it was free booze) and got home with all of my possessions.
I never did find out what happened to the unlocked building.

TEIJA & Emma J Shipley

So I should probably tell you a bit about the collection..! Teija's SS14 collection is entitled Arctic Summer which is reflective of the designer's Finnish roots. The colour scheme is white, nude and black with subtle hints of grey and blue within a Teija own-print chiffon. The garments are designed to curve with the body and create a simple but statement silhouette. 

The collection is very wearable in the shapes it creates; flowing dresses, more structured leather jackets and the colours aren't invasive. Personally I would wear a lot of it and my favourite pieces are the blue and grey printed shirt and a gorgeous soft white leather jacket. 

The Emma collection incorporates Emma's prints into Teija's designs with a similar muted colour scheme to the SS14 collection. The prints are animal based, my favourite of these is a gorilla and rib-cage print. The high waisted shorts and top combo in this collection are beautiful with a bird print in a pinkish hue. 

Both collections echo each other whilst successfully showing both a Teija Anglo-Scandinavian feel and a distinct Emma style within the prints. 

Consistent and beautiful. 

(Bit like me, really.) 

Teija and Emma J Shipley launch

So it's been a little while since I last blogged, work has been so busy! Everything the team and I have been doing over the past month had been culminating up to the event last night: the launch of Teija's SS14 collection along with her collaborative capsule collection with print designer Emma J Shipley. 

The event was at Wolf and Badger's Dover Street store which I seem to be a regular at, having delivered some of Teija's last season items there, although with pleasure as it's such a lovely shop! Once again I can't afford anything I just like to touch haha ( Lovely stuff by Ever Reve and Lulwa Al Amin but I'll save that for another time!) 

Anyway me and the other girls had a manic day doing the last minute preparations for the launch, putting finishing touches on some pieces (I never want to sew on another popper, think I must have done hundreds!), running to London College of Fashion to press and steam everything whilst doing other little errands, mixed with sewing button holes on a shirt on an ancient domestic sewing machine 5 minutes before we left the studio. Phewww...and then we were meant to make ourselves look presentable in a piece from Teija's AW13 collection. Bit hard for me when I'm not an 8, even though her 8's are more like 6's anyway. Nee chance! So I got put in a black wool jumper dress with gold neck detail and the other girls donned shiny gold leather hotpants and trousers. 

I teamed the dress with sky high cream platforms, a skinny belt and had a bit of help to be sewn in at the back as it was bordering on bin-bag territory which I don't think was the look Teija was aiming for. I loved the dress on the hanger but it was very obvious it was designed for leggy, skinny girls (models/bitches..!) and not me. ie the girl with the shortest legs in the world! haha nahh I thought I scrubbed up well to be honest! 

Me and another intern manned the door to greet the guests which was nice as I got to see clients and stockists that I had met before and it wasn't an arduous task as it was an intimate affair... I had a drink in my hand at all times which kept me happy too! 

Teija had designed the drink for the event which was a lavender bellini, delishh! I had many of those haha, disappointed in the other girls not taking advantage as much as me, maybe it's 'cause I'm Northern and love free stuff! Especially alcohol! 

We didn't see Teija for most for most of the event but the verdict at the end of the night was that it was a success! Which is obviously good but even better for me as I probably would've been on the end of some kind of wrath if things hadn't gone to plan...nothing personal obvss!

So I attended (and survived) my first fashion collection launch, kicking off just before London Fashion Week which is so exciting for me! So good to see all of the hard work paying off when you see everything on the rails and people appreciating the clothes! 

Hackney Wicked

So a foreign girl at work told me about Hackney Week. After some confusion and weird conversations turns out she meant the art festival at Hackney Wick, no wonder I couldn't find any traces of it on Google. Anyway once that was cleared up we started off at Broadway Market which is a really cute market with stalls selling all kinds of things like books, food, and vintage clothes. I found it really nice for a leisurely Saturday walk as there's street music and there was a lovely, busy atmosphere. After a few bevs we made our way to Hackney Wicked, which held a similar vibe to the market with street stalls and loads of 'trendy' people looking for their art fix, but afternoon drinking was definitely high up on the agenda. Luckily I was with someone that shared my love for getting merry while pretending to analyse artwork.
The open studios were all pretty cool, it felt like a kind of zoo for artists where we got to see them in their natural habitat. I liked the rustic feel to the event as it wasn't made to look glamorous like a gallery or museum. My friend didn't agree as she thought 'they should have tidied up a bit'...don't think she really grasped the concept haha!
As always with art there were pieces I loved and hated. I really liked Ben Hopper's work which included graphics on black and white photographs but after researching his past work I really like his photography, especially 'Naked girls with masks'... (Does exactly what it says on the tin haha, he says there's a concept behind it but he got to photograph naked ladies c'monnn!)
http://therealbenhopper.com/
Unfortunately I can't find the artist who had drawn political figures doing silly things, my favourite being Kim Jong Un enjoying a ride on a rocket which tickled me as my sister finds him hilarious in his normal life never mind when he's airborne.
This made me realise how many things are always going on in London and I'm definitely in the right place for arty events in the East! And on that note, here's the man himself:

What a treat! 

Dover Street Market

A lot of the time getting sent to different parts of London to collect fabric or deliver some of the collection to stores is an opportunity to see more of the capital. On my jaunts I always seem to find myself wandering into somewhere that looks 'artsy' or taking pictures of street art...or popping into a bakery for a doughnut. (Got to keep up my energy levels now haven't I?!) A lot of the time I do 'research,' ie. going shopping but I can't really include Dover Street Market as a shopping trip as it was a more a 'ilovethisbuti'vejustpickedituptoseethepriceandkeeledover' trip. The clothes in there are amazing, so many amazing designers and my faves Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto and Commes des Garcons are stocked there. So good to see the prints and designs close up and put my grubby paws on the fabric and then run away because I'd have to take out multiple loans to afford any of the clothes. I also got a little paranoid that the shop assistants (not sure if they can be classed as this as unsure how many people actually buy stuff, so more like a 'I'll stand here a lot and maybe say hello' kind of job) were looking at me and thought I was a shoplifter as it was pretty obvious I couldn't afford to buy anything. That and maybe because my feet were bleeding..(see previous post!)
http://london.doverstreetmarket.com/

Peter Pilotto AW13 

Mary Katrantzou AW13 

The first rule of interning...

ALWAYS WEAR A COMFORTABLE SHOE. ALWAYS. Although comfortable does not mean all of your style goes out the window...I still work in fashion, dahhlingg. I've found my trusty Chelsea boots have served me well, maybe too well as all the 'interning' has made them start sprouting holes... As much as I wanted to wear my studded nude ballet shoes with my cigarette pants it soon became clear it was a bad choice. Getting sent to every corner of London in the same day (one place twice) definitely resulted in blood, sweat and tears and I felt I couldn't say anything to my boss. Thought it was a bit sad to be like "Yeah soz not going for that fabric we need today 'cause my feet hurt," pretty sure I'd have been sent anyway haha!
Makes me think of those signs on the tube that say bags caught in the doors cause delays or when the tube's delayed because someone's jumped in front of it, it's the delay that matters not the lost bag or poor soul on the track... Anyway what I'm getting at is that there's always something more important to someone else, in this case it's the designer's collection over the state of my squashed toes. So my feet will have to be well padded and ready to carry me around, even if it does mean compromising a block heel for a brogue. This is where I turn up for work looking like shit because interning has crushed my soul and I can't be bothered to find an outfit that will go with a comfy shoe...jokes...

Länges Fadchen, faules Mädchen

I feel like I should explain my blog title... It was one of my first days on this new placement and one of the other interns: a German girl, was showing me how I should sew on care labels. There was loads of thread already on the needle she was about to use and she said her Grandma would have said 'Langes Fädchen, faules Mädchen' which she said translates to the non-rhyming version 'Long thread, lazy girl' and for some reason it stuck. I actually really like the phrase and I think it is quite representative of working in the fashion industry; you have to be patient and precise! (And obvs you should use lots of little threads instead of one big one which results in pulling your hair out/crying/bleeding fingers after 30 care labels with invisible stitching..)