University Life...

It's completely fair to say that we have LOTS of work this semester at the University of Derby! It's very irritating to hear that Fashion Studies is an easy road to a degree. It most certainly is not! Especially for someone like me, who loves to be creative, but can not for the life of me understand how to draft a pattern neatly... It's impossible!!

Still, I'm managing to get a little bit of fashion journalism into all my modules, be they design or professional studies! Speaking of which, our Professional Studies module this year is turning out to be my favourite. We are learning straight from the horses' mouth, as it were, how the fashion industry works, and how best to apply ourselves and secure that dream job. Sally Denton, founder and directing manager of The Trend Boutique is leading the module this semester, and it's absolutely perfect to have someone so involved in the actual industry to be giving us advice and guidance.

In other modules, I'm trying my hardest, but as design is not my 'primary target', too much design, pattern drafting, cutting and manufacturing is taking its toll... It's all I can do to keep up with it, but I am going to try and set aside a few evenings a week dedicated to writing.

It's a friend's birthday tonight, so am off out wearing: Leather shorts (Topshop); Rococo-patterned vest top (re-discovered a few years back from the dressing up box!); Silky, cream, over sized blouse (Primark, sorry!) and my beautiful 'Idina' black-patent, peep-toe platforms (L.K. Bennett). Hopefully my adventures will inspire an article, so watch this space!

Lanvin for H&M... of course number 1 most read on Vogue.com!!

My countdown 'til November the 2nd has begun, when the new Lanvin/H&M collection will be revealed in its entirety via a specially made film. We've known for a while now about the collabiration, but Vogue.com said today that the collection will hit the shops on November the 23rd!! Excited is just not the word, but just to tantalise us further, Vogue.com has put up a preview of the collection featuring four LBDs...I have to get my hands on one of these dresses, for sure, but which one?! The fact that the one on the left looks a lot like the Lanvin S/S 2009 RTW collection piece below could be the decider...

The most interesting thing, in my view, about the Vogue/Alber Elbaz interview was the statement he made, in which he said:
"I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public."

I like this idea - even it does seem somewhat snobbish to say outloud - that you too can own some affordable luxury, rather than that luxury being bought down to the level of us mere mortals...

Japanese Fashion and Fun!

Yesterday I took a trip down to Birmingham via rail, to visit an old Japanese friend from Newcastle University. We went for bento at a little Japanese restuarant, and then on to another cafe for more talk! She's my kinda girlfriend...

One of our topics of conversation was, of course, about fashion, and inparticular the differences between the youth fashion culture of Japan in comparison to the British. We were joking that as H&M is much more, shall we say, classier over in Japan, that she should wear her clothes with the labels hanging out to show off. But apparently, this is already the 'done' thing in the fashion circle of young Japan. For example, if you were to have a Burberry scarf, you must be sure to make sure that the label is very noticable, maybe even wearing the garment inside out!

Thinking about it though, this is not so different to the youth culture here, where, if you manage to get your paws on the 'It' bag, then you'd better make certain that it's a Louis Vuitton et al with branding ALL over it, so that it's clear it was veerrry expensive.

Personally, I prefer a designer bag to be understated. Those in the know can recognise it, and the rest... who cares?