The city that never sleeps

This is crazy. As if I am actually living in New York. Okay it's only for four months but STILL! I cannot get over how weird it is! 

I haven't really been able to blog because it's been so chaotic here but I've managed to do lots of wonderful things in this beautiful city while also managing to sneak some uni business in there! 

Welcome week was mental, as always! We had a massive mess up with our course selections so had to start from scratch. This didn't exactly go well as the majority of the courses we all wanted were now full or not running any longer - absolute nightmare! We managed to eventually get it all sorted after countless phone calls and emails to every professor at F.I.T! 

I'm now studying quite a range of subjects here such as Fashion Journalism, Buying, Photographic Styling, Leather Accessories and Jewelry Fabrication! The description for all of these sound really fun and exciting which is exactly what I wanted! I'm definitely most excited for Fashion Journalism and Styling as these are the two areas I'm most interested about going into when I graduate at the moment. However, that could all change after these four months! I'm really hoping the Journalism course will help improve my confidence within writing. I like to think I'm pretty confident when it comes to public speaking but I've always struggled with presenting my ideas to peers for fear of them not being good enough - such a silly thought!!

We've done so many touristy things in the couple of weeks we have been here so I will just upload pictures to this post for you to have a look at rather than me banging on about them all!!

Next up - New York Fashion Week! Ahhh!!! 

My final week at LOOK!

This week went SO quick once again! It's already Sunday and I'm wondering where this past month has gone?! 

I had such a lovely month with the girls at LOOK and I really do hope we stay in touch! This week we mainly gutted the WHOLE cupboard ready for the new interns on Monday (which happens to be one of my really good friends Beth!) and now the cupboard is absolutely spotless! 

After a fabulous week I landed back home and went out for my best friends 20th birthday. It was so nice catching up with everyone! Now I've got one month left at home before I jet off to NYC for four months to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology! 

Fast Love

Today's seminar definitely took me back to A-Level English. We had to analyse a text called 'Fast Love' which was taken from 'The Sunday Times' supplement 'Style'. 

What are the main points?

- How women struggle with time as their other commitments take over 

- A new salon is opening with the hope of allowing women to look gorgeous fast

- The market is demanding a new idea like this 

What are the key themes, issues and questions?

- Taking a different approach to salons

- Not a personal 'one on one' service 

- 'Fast Beauty'

-Blow dry bars + salons

-Women are extremely conscious of their looks nowadays

Who is it aimed at?

- The article is aimed at business women who are interested in the new concept of 'fast beauty'

- The salon is aimed at busy 'time poor' women, women with demanding jobs and lifestyles and women with the need to be well groomed at all times. However, I'm not sure whether this will work as even 20 minutes (the length one treatment would take) is considered a long time in the lives of professional women. 

What was the article originally published for?

- Promotional purposes as the article is very factual and informative.

- Includes many details such as opening times, treatments and the time these treatments would take as well as how much these will costs. 

- Originally published for a magazine offering free press. A supplement from a newspaper such as the Daily Mail or The Sunday Times. 

What do you think about it?

- The article was easy to read and as a beauty lover I found it extremely interesting to read about this new concept for 'fast beauty'

- I thought the title was slightly misleading as I'm not sure how at first glance 'Fast Love' would make you think of a beauty article. However, after reading it it does become clearer and I can see that they were trying to put the point across that this 'fast beauty' concept will ideally make you feel beautiful and loved. 

- I thought the layout was quite eye-catching and definitely would have appealed to me if i had come across it  in my own time while ready Style magazine.

- The use of imagery really conveys what the article is trying to say. 

What research methods do you think they have used?

- The article suggests the journalist interviewed the owners to find out key details such as opening dates, prices and treatments available.

- It also suggests there was the use of focus groups as a form of research as well as competitor research as the journalist references back to salons who had previously tried a similar idea. Daniel Hersheson opened up his blow-dry-bars and Cowshed launched Cheeky which also allowed some walk in appointments. 

- There are a number of quotes within the article which have been sourced from the founders them selves, Dharmash Mistry and Fiona McIntosh.

References used within the article

- Daniel Hersheson 

- Cowshed 

- Spotify

- Apple 

- Ottolenghi 

- Dharmash Mistry, an internet entrepreneur behind Love Film and MyWardrobe

- Fiona McIntosh, former editor of Grazia and Elle 

What's on my mind?

This idea of 'free writing' really got me thinking! It's an idea that when you're feeling particularly stuck on a piece of work or have got a serious case of writers block you do this! 3 minutes of non stop writing. No thinking, no nothing! Just writing!

I admit I did find it pretty difficult at times and, as you can see, my handwriting looks like a 4 year old has attacked my note pad! I struggled to constantly be writing something that didn't sound like absolute rubbish but the more we did it the more I got into it and I began to realise that maybe all that is in my mind is absolute rubbish!!

The topics we were asked to write about were all of interest to me which is why I find it strange I struggled to write a lot. I've always been someone who has to plan and structure their work a hell of a lot before any one can read it so maybe I need quite a few attempts at this before I let my thoughts go and I'm able to write them all down. 

The topics we were asked to write about were:

-Who am I?

-The death of the high street

-The death of magazines

- Write in the style of any magazine (Vogue)

The eye has to travel

I have to admit I didn't know much about Diana Vreeland and her career before starting uni but this has all changed! 

After watching 'The Eye Has To Travel' I thought of Diana to be a strong, independent woman and her views and opinions were not to be messed with. Her wonderful career as fashion editor at Harpers Bazaar with her column 'Why Don't You...'  which let her share her extravagant and thought provoking ideas with the readers. She then moved up the ladder and became editor-in-chief at Vogue. This showed how passionate she was towards fashion and that it wasn't just a job to her, far from it, it was her whole entire life.

This was extremely prominent when Diana lost her job and her career. She came across as  heartbroken and lost without her job whereas when  she spoke about the death of her husband it was clear to see how unemotional and unattached she was towards his death. This did make Diana come across heartless and a bit of an 'ice queen' although I don't fully believe this is her true personality. After watching this film I wondered whether her lack of emotional towards her husband and personal life was  because she wasn't willing to bare her soul for the cameras and allow people to get close to her. 

I obviously learnt so much about Diana's life and her career within the fashion industry but I also learnt so much about other iconic people within fashion as well as the history of fashion and the changes women faced such as gaining more respect and power, as Vreeland showed when she landed editor-in-chief at Vogue. 

Watching this after watching Bill Cunningham's documentary made me realise how massively different the two are even though they both work within the same industry! Bill is a sweet man who doesn't believe in being paid for his work as he sees it as a passion and his whole life whereas Diana is quite the opposite where money is concerned although its so much more than just a job to her as well.

It was stated many times throughout the film that Diana was not the most beautiful of people and she often said that she knew that. The constant comparison between her and her 'beautiful' sister by her mother reinforced this idea within her mind and from then on it was a constant thought. Even though many people thought this about her they all loved her beautiful style and elegance as well as her then outlandish views. Her calm, relaxing tone of voice definitely made this film a lot more enjoyable and the way she spoke really made you feel like you were having a one on one chat with a friend.  

I  am definitely going to be asking for her memos as a Christmas present this year!