London fashion week 2011

I always wanted to see what fashion week looks like. Every time I saw from bloggers or magazines that they took so many fantastic pictures of people and designers.
However, I am not a buyer nor press, I can't allow to watch runway shows. But I can be a passerby at the fashion week place! So on 20th of Feb, I went to London to check it out!
Well, I did see a lot of stylish people over there. And lots of cameras took pictures of them. It was quite interesting experience. And after standing there for almost 2 hours in the freezing day, I saw Vivienne Westwood! It was like, "oh my god, It's her! Unbelievable!!!"

Although I can't be a part of fashion week, it was worthy that I saw one of the famous designers in the world~

Below are some pictures that I took.

25 designers you need to know - from Marie Claire US

Well, I think I need to work on harder to know as much designers as I can. Of course, everyone knows the most famous designers, but there are much more great designers that I don't know.

Marie Claire US published 25 designers that we should know.

There are, 

1. Alexander Wang

2. Rag & Bone - Designers: Marcus Wainwright and David Neville

3. Miu Miu - Designer: Miuccia Prada

4. Band of outsiders - Designer: Scott Sternberg

5. Thakoon - Designer: Thakoon Panichgul

6. Lanvin - Designers: Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver

7. Vena Cava - Designers: Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock

8. Altuzarra -Designer: Joseph Altuzarra

9. Ralph Lauren - Designer: Ralph Lauren

10. Erdem - Designer: Erdem Moralioglu

11. Céline - Designer: Phoebe Philo

12. Christopher Kane - Designer: Christopher Kane

13. Balenciaga - Designer: Nicolas Ghesquière

14. Proenza Schouler - Designers: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez

15. Chanel - Designer: Karl Lagerfeld

16. Rodarte - Designers: Kate and Laura Mulleavy

17. Prabal Gurung - Designer: Prabal Gurung

18. Isabel Marant - Designer: Isabel Marant

19. Burberry - Designer: Christopher Bailey

20. Michael Kors - Designer: Michael Kors

21. Preen - Designers: Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi

22. 3.1 Phillip Lim - Designer: Phillip Lim

23. Louis Vuitton - Designer: Marc Jacobs

24. Tory Burch - Designer: Tory Burch

25. Richard Chai - Designer: Richard Chai

(From Marie Claire US)

Um... I think I will have a lot of homework to do to check their collections. There must be something super good design that Marie Claire only lists them, not others. 

PS: On Feb 6~12, I went to Paris for Premiere Vision, and Amsterdam as well. 

It was like dream comes true. I always wanted to see Eiffel  tower, the Concorde, and feel the city of Paris. Paris is so beautiful, especially the Louvre. 

Only 5 days in Paris is not enough. I wish I would go there again. It is a fascinating city ever! 

The crazy man - from The Style Crusader

This is another street snap blog. It is called "The Style Crusader" by Jennifer Inglis who lives in England.
I've noticed that there is a crazy man in the photo.

Picture from The Style Crusader

High heels, glamorous dress, fur coat, plus his beard!
It is so funny! It makes me laugh when I see it. HA!

Jennifer asked him if he was a designer, and he answered "No, I am a personality."
How confident he is. If there is a man walking on the streets in Taipei, people will think he is nuts.
But in here, I think it is just a normal thing in life...... Every one can truly be themselves, and doesn't care what others think.

He is so cool!

After Lanvin + H&M, the next is H&M + Elin Kling

After the successful collaboration of Lanvin and H&M, H&M works with Swedish famous blogger - Elin Kling.  She was a model, but right now she works as a blogger and editor for magazine.

The collection has 9 pieces and 2 accessories. The "less is more" is an important meaning. Simple but well-designed. Unfortunately, it is only available in Sweden.

Blogs, now, it is not just for habit. It is becoming a business if you are capable to make your blog stand out.

Below are pictures of clothes.

Pictures are from Style by Kling

Upcycled fashion - from BurdaStyle

How many new clothes do we buy in a year? And how do we deal with old clothes that we don't want? Throwing away or donating?

Maybe we can give old clothes a second chance by remaking it. It could be a new different looking and new pattern that we will love.

BurdaStyle posted the best of upcycled outfits. All of them look great! Just using a bit of effort, but making it different. And the most important thing is "it is the only one in the world!".

Below are some photos from BurdaStyle.
Pictures from BurdaStyle

It is made from surplus fabric. Draping natural lines and making sleeveless, it is so wearable in summer time.

The hoodie was made of sweaters, creating this fun and interesting hoodie.

Both of the two skirts were made of old curtains. Especially the right one, it looks so cute!

Blogger with fashion magazine

Picture from Bryanboy

Of course, there are so many famous bloggers now. They usually collaborate with fashion designers, posting the newest fashion shows, or showing their fantastic outfits. But now, Bryan showed his face on the cover of fashion magazine and his own pages. This Singapore magazine invited Bryan to be cover for Feb. Well, it is not the first time that he shot for magazine. Last time was for German magazine.

Bloggers, right now, are not just posting their thoughts on the internet, but becoming a fashion icon. They have become web-celebrity. Every movement they are watched by their fans.
Comparing bloggers in Taiwan, it is quite different. Taiwan's bloggers become more commercial. It is not saying that other bloggers in other countries don't. But what I observe is these bloggers are trying to give us a unique, different point of view of fashion stuff, like Style bubble (another blogger). Unlike Taiwan's bloggers just show the trial products from merchants.
It is not bad, actually. They have to make a living after all.

Well, for readers, we just want to know what the newest thing is or what bloggers do in our normal life. It is not really matter that how much commercial stuff in their blogs. If the products attract us, we will, maybe want to buy. If not, we just skip it. For bloggers, they have their job done. That's all.

But I just wanna say that how it is weird seeing bloggers on the cover of magazine. There are always stars, singers or models on the covers. Time is changing now.

Leopard fur coat in winter - from Style and the city

Picture from Style and the city

Leopard fur coat is popular in winter. But this little girl looks so cute when she wears the "mini" leopard fur coat! How cute she is!

If I have a daughter, I can image the picture how it would be interesting if I wear the same coat with her on the streets.  XD

Bright young things launched at Selfridges, London

Recently, Selfridges works with new designers launching their collection online and let them to decorate window display. This project is called "Bright young things".
Some of them just graduated a couple years ago. It is a risk that put on not very famous designers' clothes to sell. Because we don't know if it will work or not. But the result is great, it does sell.

I think it is a great opportunity for these new designers. They provide a stage for the designers showing their talent to customers. To let them have courage to keep creating unique and new pieces.

Below are a few designers' pieces.

---
Kirsty Ward - graduated from Central Saint Martins MA in 2008

She also has her jewellery collection. She started her collection since 2008.

This is the newest collection of spring/summer 2011.
Her dresses have very special structure, mix and matching different shape of pieces on the dresses. She makes her model to look very pale and dramatically make-up. Well, it looks odd but it quite works well with the whole outcome.

---
Li-Lee - graduated from London College of Fashion MA in 2010

The pleats, I assume that it will be popular this year.
Her dresses are very ladylike, graceful, and feminine. Basically for s/s 2011, it is mainly white color plus some geometric figures.

This is her window display. It is kind of telling a story that if we wear her dress, we can be free, pure and comfortable.


There are so many designers to see their creativity. Next time, when I go to London, I definitely  will visit Selfridges for the beautiful window displays.


Pictures are from,
Blogger - Style Bubble
Li-Lee
Kirsty Ward
Selfridges

09/01/11 Shakespeare's birthplace

On Jan 09, me and my classmate - Yeh Hsin visited the Shakespeare's birthplace and other famous houses.

Shakespeare's family was very rich. They bought this house for 10 pounds. It seems very small value to us now. But 10 pounds was a huge amount of money at that time.

It was quite interesting visit to see what they lived and what entertainment they played.
Seeing the place that makes the super famous writer.

31/12/2010 Victoria and Albert Museum

At the end of 2010, I and my friend went to Victoria and Albert museum in London.
We will celebrate the new year in London watching the fireworks of London Eye.
It was the first time that we had the new year celebration in different country.
All of us felt excited.

But during the day time, we decided to visit V&A museum which there are so many museums to see in London. It is very different from Taiwan. We don't have such a huge collection of art and design.

At the entrance of V&A.

At the level 1, there are many sculptures from ancient times.

But it was not our point. We went upstairs for the history of jewellery design.
It is not allowed to photo. But the exhibition is amazing. It displays from the old times to present.
The design was very sophisticated, even the size of ear rings was very small, they can still engrave pattern on it. We took several hours just in the jewellery exhibition!

Next, I saw some paintings about fashion clothes.

The amount of clothes paintings are not very much. Just showing the fabulous dresses of the past time.

Next, there is a one room for costume clothes. There are so many dramatic clothes.
This one is Kylie Minogue's dressing room.

It is all about it. But there are still so many exhibition rooms that we don't have more time to see.
We definitely will come back again anyway.


At night, we prepared to see the fireworks and enjoyed the fun.

Luckily, our hostel is near the river. So we didn't have to go to the London Eye. We just walked down the river about 20 minutes, and we can see the fireworks! It was amazing and pretty.
Everyone was excited and happy~

Happy new year!

January progress

31 Dec
Went to V&A museum in London

4 Jan, 2011
Checking the research methods for POS

12 Jan
Borrow a book - Merchandise buying and management from library

27 Jan
Discuss research method proposal

28 ~ 31 Jan
Adjust research proposal and make a questionnaire