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.