13/01/2012

Risen from the Dead!

Oh my god I haven't posted on here for so so long, I've been awful! Christmas holidays was not the relaxing time off that I was hoping for, I was doing uni work practically every single day. I had three deadlines on monday and an exam yesterday so I've just been frantically trying to get heap loads of work done. I don't start uni again till 23rd so I'm hoping that I finally have some time to breathe!

Anyway a part from the joy of Christmas being slightly tainted by my workload, I did actually receive quite a few nice presents, which I'll probably be showing off on here in the next few days! I'll start off by posting a couple of pairs of shoes.

The first are more of a present to myself and they weren't officially bought for Christmas! I went shopping with my friend yesterday to celebrate the end of exams (in all honesty we did only have one but it still required a lot of our time and energy)!!! I came across these shoes in Urban Outfitters (one of my all time favourite stores) and I'd had my eye on them for months. They were originally £150, then reduced to £70 but my student budget was unable to stretch to spend that amount on shoes alone, a girl has got to eat! I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered they were now £40 in the sale and out of the two pairs they had left, there was one in my size - meant to be! I'm really pleased with them - they're comfortable to walk in and because the heels aren't TOO high, I can wear them in the day as well as on nights out. Defo worth the wait!

Deena & Ozzy lace-up dalmation shoes. Excuse the awful carpet colour, its my room at my student house!

The second pair of shoes were a Christmas present from my boyfriend. The story behind them is quite funny - Basically around November time, he was up to visit me in Leeds and we were browsing his favourite shops up here and he came across a pair of shoes he was in love with in Welcome. They were a pair of Nike SB Bruins but unfortunately they didn't have them in his size. So he got me to try them on instead and liked them so much that he decided to buy them for me. A few weeks later, he was back in Leeds and discovered that Welcome now had the shoes back in his size. He then bought them for himself so now we both have a pair - his and hers! I get so much use out of them and they've had a lot of compliments. While I love to dress up, I also love to dress down and these Nikes are the perfect accessory for a very casual day or night-time outfit.

Nike SB Bruins in black with a white sole.

13/12/2011

3 x (one week briefs)

Now I'm finally back at home for the holidays and relaxed, I thought it was about time I posted some of my work from uni. I study Graphic & Communication Design which is a combination of photography, illustrations, art, typography, film, fashion etc. It is about creating new and unique visuals that will make sense to their audience whilst maintaining an attractive layout. During my course, the tutors will scrutinise absolutely every aspect of my work whether it be the reasoning behind my choice of typeface, the colours used, the layout, the leading and kerning of type (a technical term used for the spacing between letters and lines of copy), the size of type, the images used and the list goes on. Absolutely every part of your work is studied and questioned and there needs to be thoughtful meaning behind it all.

At the beginning of this semester, I was given a brief each week that needed to be presented seven days later. Each piece of work was then critiqued and I was given time to improve them. Below are the final three outcomes that I submitted at the end of the semester. Click on each image to enlarge and read content.

Brief 1 - Making the Invisible Visible
Brief 2 - Pictogrammes of the Four Seasons
Brief 3 - Visualising the Concept of Time (24 hours)

09/12/2011

L'exquise

I was supposed to write about this lipstick weeks ago but as per usual I got sidetracked! I've had way too much work at uni but thankfully it's the end of the semester now and I'm going home for Christmas hols tomorrow yey!

Anyway a few weeks ago my boyfriend and I were in Leeds city centre and he treated me to a Chanel lipstick - lucky me! I am a massive fan of really dark lips at the mo so I concentrated on the darker shades. I had a handful of about six lipsticks, much to the annoyance of the woman at the store, and I finally narrowed it down to an earthy brown/red one. After trying it on, it was a definite 'must have' and I've worn it out on a number of occasions since. The lipstick stays on really well and unlike many others, it is also quite moisturising. It is part of the 'Rouge Allure Velvet' selection and it is no.41 L'EXQUISE.

I am such a fan of the containers of Chanel lipsticks - the way you pop the top to open them!

Me showing off my new L'exquise lipstick.

24/11/2011

Roland Klein

Apologies for not posting for a couple of weeks. I've been swamped with work at the moment due to deadlines coming up before Christmas holidays.

Anyway as part of my course, I've chosen to take '20th Century Fashion' as one of my modules. Usually the one hour lectures are taken up with us watching a series of fashion DVDs but yesterday the tutor had got a guest to take our lecture for us and it was actually very interesting.

The man's name was Roland Klein and he'd worked as a fashion designer throughout the later part of the 20th Century. He was French, born in Rouen and was lucky enough to go straight from college to Christian Dior. Nevertheless he was quick to tell us that working for Dior was not as glamorous as we'd like to imagine - his job was simply to put a lining into the edge of sleeves. However he took the opportunity to study how the clothes were cut and created and it made him incredibly ambitious.

He was then offered a job at Jean Patou where he was assistant to Karl Lagerfeld. This job involved him reproducing sketches of the current collections and sending them to clients that were unable to attend the catwalk shows. It was interesting to note the precision that was taken in reproducing the garments that a client chose to order - A mannequin was made to the exact size/proportions of the customer and the clothing was then created around it in order to provide a perfect fit. Roland Klein said that the six years he worked at Jean Patou he learnt so much about fashion, culture, art etc.

Another job offer came up in London at Nettie Vogues and, because it was only for a period of six months, Klein took the job. Six months turned into a number of years due to his new love of the city during the "swinging sixties"! It was an exciting period of time, where teenagers had new clothes to wear, rather than those of their parents. It was a culture shock where new fashion, music, film, art and culture was evolving.

During this period, Klein began properly designing clothes for Marcel Fenez and both Twiggy and Naomi Campbell modelled them on the catwalk. He soon had an individual 'Roland Klein' label and his designs became increasingly popular. A dress was selected by Vogue for Princess Diana to wear and following on from this she became a regular customer at the store. Klein told us that she was a really genuine, down to earth woman - She'd even helped them on one occasion dry the dishes from the night before and would constantly insist that she wanted her dresses shorter when they were designed. She'd said of the press, "they criticise me in whatever I wear, so why not give them something to talk about?!" Ironically Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall has also been photographed wearing Roland Klein.

Later on in life, Klein was offered a job at MaxMara where he specialised in evening-wear. He said this was more his speciality and what he enjoyed the most. He was also asked to do a pitch at British Airways to design the new uniform. After stating at the pitch that he couldn't design the uniform unless he really knew what the job entailed, he was chosen. They used his uniform for eight years and his work for the airline meant he was chosen to design corporate clothing for other huge companies; British Telecom, Midland Bank and Halifax naming just a few.

After a well deserved retirement, Klein was asked to go into interior design, which he still specialises in now. He says he keeps the designs fairly traditional although he'll occasionally go against this. Additionally he is currently designing a small range of clothing however he was unable to reveal who it was for. He admits he is slightly rusty on fashion design but when he picks up a magazine (which he hasn't done for years) the clothes are all the same. Fashion is constantly repeating itself.

At the end of the lecture, we asked him about couture fashion (relevant to our 2000 word essay in the module) and whether he thought there was still interest in it today. His response was that there definitely was due to peoples' boredom of what globalisation has done to the world of fashion. He described couture as a craft/artform although admittedly the process of creating it has become more a thing of the past due to how time-consuming it is to create and the high demands of society today.

His lecture was really interesting and I was surprised, in spite of myself, of the amount I was able to absorb from it. His final words to us were that his success was due to a combination of hard work, talent and luck. Without them you won't go very far at all. So fingers crossed I'll manage to tick all three boxes one day!
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Princess Diana wearing Roland Klein.

11/11/2011

Gothic

Soooooo as promised I tried my new MAC 'cyber' lipstick out last night. It was a very different look to the pale lipstick from MAC that I'm used to called 'myth'. I was slightly conscious of looking like a member of the Adams family but fortunately received quite a few compliments on it so can't have looked too bad (I hope)! The only issue with the lipstick was that I was having to reapply it quite regularly and, like any dark lipstick, apply it with a lip brush to ensure the outline was perfect and not smeared all over my mouth! I would definitely wear this colour again though. It's incredibly striking and very different from my usual everyday choice of make up. I've uploaded a photo below from last night. I'm afraid I can't bring myself to take photos alone of myself - I find it far too cringey so I hope this photo is sufficient enough!
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Me (left) and my friend Misha elegantly poised in the back of a taxi!

10/11/2011

Unexpected Splurge!

Yesterday I was treated to lunch at Yo Sushi (one of my absolute favourite places to eat) by my friend Char. Due to the fact we were eating in Harvey Nichols, we decided to have a ponder around afterwards. During our ponder I discovered these incredible clutch bags by Lulu Guinness and I am so so in love with them. I think my favourite would have to be the silver or red Swarovski crystallised one (annoyingly one of the most expensive at £650). I might have to settle for one of the cheaper ones but I think they're all really good pieces of design. Coincidentally I've been looking for a lipstick clutch bag for months and when I came across this selection I was in heaven!

http://www.luluguinness.com/CategoryPage.aspx?categoryId=icons_lips-clutches

After coming to terms with the fact that my bank account could not handle paying for even the cheapest one of these bags, I decided to head to MAC - a little more in my price range! I've been looking for a dark lipstick for a while and I experimented with a very cheap black one on Halloween and was impressed with the results. After sampling a couple, I opted for the darkest one I could find called 'cyber' which is a very dark/deep purple. It cost £13.50 and I'm trying it on tonight for my friend's 21st so I'll see how it looks.


In addition to my new lipstick, I've been in need of a new perfume for months. I hate not having a bottle and since running out of my previous Chanel one, I've been going through all sorts of free samples and unwanted Christmas/Birthday presents. No matter how many I've tried, I can't find one that I prefer to Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel. So yesterday I braved it and ended up splurging £45 on a 35ml bottle. I know I'll get good use out of it so I'm trying not to feel TOO guilty!


(I have to include all the packaging in my pictures as I think it's a huge part of the product's image and definitely included in the phenomenal price you pay for it)!
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05/11/2011

No7

Whenever I used to pay at the tills at Boots, the cashier would always give me a No7 voucher, which I would then scrunch up and throw away. It was only until the other day that I saw my friend actually using them that I bothered to look at what these vouchers entitled you to - £5 off all No7 products. I was so impressed! I'd never really bothered with them as I'd assumed they were like the other hundreds of vouchers you get given from various different companies that give you a fiver off if you spend over £50. Anyway with my new love for this generous offer I decided to check out the No7 range at Boots. I was in desperate need of some new skin make up as my previous Rimmel '24 hour' foundation was far too heavy and orange. There was such a range of foundations there that I was totally lost. I was in need of something light but that still gave you sufficient coverage. With the help of one of the assistants, I chose the 'Instant Radiance' foundation (£12.50) in a shade of 'New Ivory' and it's worked perfectly. In addition to this I also bought a cover up stick called 'Quick Cover' (£8) in 'dark' and the 'Skin Illuminator' (£11) in 'peach'. They have all worked really well and I would definitely pay full price for them but I was of course lucky enough to get £5 off with my new trusty vouchers! I would recommend them to anyone short of money but in need of some good quality products. I will definitely be checking over my vouchers more carefully from now on!
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