The Access Fashion Business course is a one year introductory course at the London College of Fashion that provides an overview of the fashion business for students hoping to progress to Higher Education courses or jobs in the fashion industry. It’s important for Fashion Business students to understand the fashion product and they get to explore the fashion product development process- from concept to design. The UK pet clothing market is valued at abpproximately £30m according to this BBC report. I’m a big fan of pet styling & I love this cat fashion concept!
Enjoy Squeeze’sCool for Cats as the perfect soundtrack for these feline fashions
The much anticipated David Bowie exhibition at London’s V&A museum is being enjoyed by record-breaking numbers of visitors. We swelled those numbers by taking the London College of Fashion‘s Access Fashion Business students, many of whom were newbies to the wonders of the Bowie!
The exhibition claims not to be a retrospective but uses David Bowie’s own vast archive- including hand written lyrics to many of his iconic songs, stage costumes and ‘sound and vision’- to explore the influences on, and influence of Bowie.
Accompanying the exhibition are a range of talks and activities. Curators Jeffrey Marsh and Victoria Broackes treated a captivated audience to a glimpse behind the scenes of staging the exhibition- their visit to the David Bowie archive in New York, how they selected artefacts to exhibit and explained the innovative audio-visual experience visitors enjoy as they tour the exhibition. They also shared their surprise and delight at the amazing coincidence of their opening coinciding with Bowie’s latest (highly secretive) album release- The Next Day.
The fabulous Theatre of Fashion‘s Amber Jane Butchart in conversation with Helene Thian as part of the V&A Bowie weekender explored Bowie’s interest in kabuki theatre and his creative collaboration with Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto which spawned many iconic costumes.
The V&A shop features some fun products- I love the Bowie paper doll book.
All the world’s got Bowie-fever including Vogue Japan– the April 2013 edition features ‘Fashion Warrior’– a Bowie fashion spread.
On Saturday I spent a fascinating fashion day at Snibston Costume Gallery at the Costume Society‘s Utility Fashion in Wartime Study Day. Philip Warren started the day by exploring the social, political and economic context of 1940’s Britain that led to clothes rationing being introduced in June 1941.
Jenny Lister of the V&A museum followed with a detailed review of the Board of Trade Utility collection, which tasked the Incorporated Society of Fashion Designers to produce stylish fashion in accordance with strict wartime restrictions.
Utility skirt suit 1942 Victor Stiebel
Utility suit & coat by Worth 1942
I gave a talk on the Make Do & Mend campaign through which Mrs Sew and Sew encouraged the mending and remodelling of pre war clothing: on hand were examples of a blouse made from salvaged parachute silk, a jigger jacket made from a baby’s blanket, a 1940’s party dress remodelled from a bias cut 1930s wedding dress and dyed and coats made from Victorian shawls.
Currently the interest in wartime crafts is so strong that the Mrs Sew and Sew leaflets have been reproduced in this cute book
A tour of the CC41 Utility Fashion in Wartime exhibition was followed by Professor Lou Taylor’s thought-provoking examination of Paris Couture during the war.
We were lucky to finish the day with two private collectors- Alisdair Peebles and Janet Godfrey of the Kent Costume Trust– sharing their collections with us. And re-enactors Sandra Gribben and Tracey Cork stole the show with their fabulous 1940’s ensembles.
The retail sector is one of the UK’s largest employers with approximately 3 million people working in retail in 2011 and in an increasingly globalised economy customers are demanding an increasingly personalised experience. Thus Shop Girl magazine was created to address the significant lack of fashion and lifestyle media tailored specifically for people working in retail.
I hope you enjoy looking through the result of my first project for MA Fashion Journalism at London College of Fashion.
According to the introduction Skald was ‘an ancient Scandinavian poet who memorialised the epic deeds of the Vikings with elaborate recitations at court’, Skald is also an award-winning art & literature publication produced by the students of Villa Maria College New York. Featuring work from many college departments there’s plenty for a fashion-lover to enjoy!
When Karl Lagerfeld showed his 2013 Cruise collection for Chanel in the gardens of Versailles we coudn’t help wondering if he’d been peeking in VMC student Katelynn Hanners’ sketchbook! Remember her fabulous Anarchy in Versailles graduate collection- pastel silks & organzas, corsetry & knitwear all mixed with tweed tailoring. Enjoy these images from her collection sketchbook & compare with some key pieces from Karl below
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You can see the complete 2013 Chanel Resort collection on Style.com
Galleries in Buffalo‘s Allentown art district host a multitude of openings on the first Friday of each month. The May first Friday event showcased 3 separate gallery shows from Villa Maria College students and faculty.
Fashion professor Rich Christian‘s solo show Betrayal at the C.G.Jung Center until 30th June, features mixed media paintings and drawings centred in myth, metaphor and lived experience in a deliberate narrative. The title of the show references psychologist James Hillman‘s essay of the same name.
Graduating students John Dunkleman BFA Fine Art & Laura Herby BFA Photography held a joint show at Main(ST)udios Gallery. Colorblind Perception references Ishihara tests in portraits seen differently by colourblind & non-colourblind viewers. Superficial Steel takes images of Buffalo’s industrial forms- including the grain silos so admired by Le Corbusier– & prints these photographically on canvas hand-sensitized with silver gelatin emulsion.
Art professor Adam Weekley‘s Youthful Indiscretions Paper at Studio Hart features cropped images in a charming illustrative style.
The draping class has been a hotbed of creativity all semester & the last couple of weeks were no exception with students fashioning these fabulous designs from newspaper & plasticbinbags!
My workshop- Towards Global Creativity– explored culturaldefinitions of creativity in an increasingly interconnected world & examined theories that propose certain geographic locations have creative advantages. Participants carried out a Creativity Attribute ranking activity that sparked a fascinating dialogue about our personal definitions of creativity.
Russ Schoen facilitated a fun & fabulous afternoon of Improvation that introduced improvisation techniques to use in the classroom or workplace to create supportive environments where creative thinking can thrive.
John Cabra & Juliana Sanchez Trujillo led a workshop on how creative collaborations can be fostered through Lego Serious Play– one of the highlights for me was finding Russ’ Lego twin!
Clara Kluk gave a fascinating insight into the creative lives of Miro & Picasso using their artworks to examine creative leadership thinking skills & unleashing the participants’ latent artistic skills by inviting us to create a collage inspired by the session.