Tom Ford

I am so happy that is over with! and I have no idea why we were all so nervous...

After spending the whole of the last two weeks locked in my room with my group I'm pretty pleased with what we did in the end! I thought the overall visuals of the presentation were really good and represented Tom Ford extremely well. It definitely suggested the sensuality and classiness that the brand has.

We all decided to wear similar things which we believed represented the brand accurately. The girls chose to wear a leather skirt with a black top and red lipstick while the boys wore a white shirt and black pants. It looked pretty good!

I wasn't looking forward to the feedback! Just because we thought it went well doesn't mean anyone else did! 

Some of the positives were:
- Good consistency of visual DNA
-Presentation skills were very good (could tell we rehearsed)
-Lots of detail, especially with the moodboard
-They liked how we identified the gap in the UK market
-Liked the new concept 'Tom Ford 10'
-We kept referring to the brand DNA
-Loved how we presented words on the PowerPoint (large text on consumer profile and visual DNA slide)
-Good teamwork 

Some things we could change:
-The brand model on the white background isn't  very Tom Ford
-Try and make it a lot more graphic
-Put Tom Ford more towards 'sexy' on the perceptual map
-Develop consumer profile (use a real person)
-Look at typography (make it a lot slicker and maybe smaller)
-Could crop some of the images like he does with his advertising

And now it's time for the Christmas holidays!!!

Tom Ford 10

Only about 1 week to go until we have to present and we've finally got all the detail onto our presentation! Perceptual map, consumer profile, brand essence and not forgetting our new concept...

We're all really happy with our presentation and just have a few minor changes to make so we can make it the best we can! This week we've been meeting up basically every day to sort it out and we will definitely be doing the same next week! I'm one of those people that can't sleep at night until I know whatever I was doing that day has been sorted and completed - strange I know! 

I've had the most fun thinking of loads of ideas for our new concept. We thought of collaborations, fashion shows and a new line of perfume aimed at the younger market but we finally decided on one which I'm sure is a million times better than the ones I've just mentioned.

We've decided to hold a celebratory event for Tom Fords tenth anniversary in 2015! This event will be the most luxurious that London has seen in a long time. It will be everything that Tom Ford stands for - Luxury, elegance and sensuality. It will highlight his most iconic and memorable moments, whether that's from his time at Gucci and YSL, his debut film 'A Single Man' or his iconic fashion shows which featured Beyonce and Lauren Hutton. After our visit to London we chose to hold this extraordinary event at 'The London Edition' in London. Each room will be devoted to a moment in Tom Fords history. From projects of his film and documentary on the walls to mannequins wearing the suits he designed for the James Bond films, this event will be the most glamorous around. We knew to make it the most successful it could be we had to have the most gorgeous celebrities walking down the red carpet. All this is sure to make Tom Ford 10 the most anticipated event in 2015. 

Floral Fever

I said in an earlier post that me and my flatmate went on a bit of a shopping spree...we should definitely not be let loose in Nottingham city centre!

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Zara but since I've been at uni its turned into more of an obsession! I'm constantly on their website trying to find new pieces I can save my loan for and this dress was one of those beauties.

I've literally NEVER worn a body-con dress in my life so I'm not sure what came over me with this one! Normally when I try them on the fabric is so thin and shows literally every lump and bump I have whereas this Zara dress was so much nicer and I felt like it covered everything up! 

I wore it on Friday night for my friends 19th so I wanted to dress it down a little, one good thing about this dress is it can be dressed up or down so easily! I paired it with a pair of heeled black ankle boots which I'd been after for quite a while so when I saw these in New Look they were so much of a bargain I just couldn't resist! 

The hairstyle took a few times to get it looking even slightly acceptable though! I've been going through a stage where all I do is leave my hair naturally wavy on nights out and I thought it was time for a change! Like I just said, I wanted quite a relaxed vibe so (with a little help from my friend) french plaited my hair round the back of my head and then left it in a low side pony. I have a feeling this is going to become my new favourite hairstyle! 

Dress - Zara £39.00
Ankle boots - New Look £27.99

Blow by Blow

I remember when I first heard about Isabella Blow. I was doing a project at college about hat design and came across Philip Treacy, who's work is SO cool! Then I obviously researched about Isabella Blow and that's where the obsession started...

Ever since then I've read books on her, documentaries, articles and now I'm beyond excited to go to Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore at Somerset House.

Reading her biography 'Blow by Blow' told me so many intimate and personal details that I never even knew about her. I found it so emotional when her husband was discussing all the things in her life that could have made her want to commit suicide. I always knew she died like that but I find it hard to understand how someone with such a bright wardrobe and personality could live with such misery.

When I'm low on inspiration flicking through pictures of her from my books always help. Her wild and wonderful choices in pattern, colour and shape ALWAYS help me! Some people may think she's far too bold and it's not a good look but I couldn't disagree more. I absolutely love her style and love anyone who is bold enough to be so creative with their outfit choices and not care one bit what anyone else says! I especially love her hats, I mean who wouldn't?! 

Luxury beyond belief

Tom Ford is THE most sensual brand I have seen in a long time. 

After my seminar with Tim I went home and dug a lot deeper into the brand. I looked in between the lines of a lot of his imagery and realised he is trying to shout out and doesn't want his brand to go unnoticed. You can see this within his logo as well as his name is always in capitals which, once again, shows just how much power he wants his brand to have within the industry. 

The hot, sweaty and sexual images he uses throughout his website and in his promotional methods really caught my attention! At first glance the sweat dripping from the back of girls necks wasn't very attractive but then I realised it was capturing the brand essence instantly. I was particularly intrigued by his perfume ads which were shot by Terry Richardson. He's always been well known for his risque and provocative shoots with celebrities so it was cool to see him inject some of this into Tom Ford's perfume advertisements. 

The brands visual DNA is very luxurious and elegant with the constant use of deep colours and velvet fabrics as well as the celebrity following he has such as Beyonce and Lauren Hutton. 

Another thing I thought was really interesting was the fact his face IS the brand. There's no denying Tom Ford isn't a confident man with nothing to hide. He absolutely loves his looks and isn't shy about showing them too the world. This again shows how he wants the brand to be powerful and confident and doesn't want anyone to ask 'Who's Tom Ford?'.

After looking further into the visual DNA of the brand we started to improve our PowerPoint by using richer, deeper colours on the slides and changing the fonts so they tie in nicely with his logo, which is his name in capital letters. 

I'm actually really looking forward to presenting this in a couple of weeks! Especially seen as though we've all decided what we're wearing...

Urban Outfitters anyone?

I definitely experienced what heaven feels like tonight...

Me and my flatmate nipped into town to buy our friend a coat from Zara for her 19th, which of course ended up in us spending more money than necessary on our selves! It also meant that by chance (as we completely forgot?!) we ended up in the queue for the opening of Urban Outfitters in Nottingham! 

The promise of free drinks and a DJ drew us in...as well as the chance to see the store for the first time and snap up some new purchases! Even though neither of us bought anything from UO we spotted quite a few things which are definitely going on our Christmas lists as well as items from the homeware collection which we have already got our eyes on for our house in 2nd year! Eager or what?!

Most of the times I go into UO back home in Manchester I rarely buy anything but I just go in to admire their edgy visual merchandising! I absolutely love their VM and I seriously think their idea of a warehouse for a store is the best I've seen on the highstreet! It gives UO a bit of an edge compared to the modern styles of Topshop or River Island. 

I think it's  safe to say this is where all my money is going to be spent from now on!  

London calling

London is a very magical place.

Ever since I was a little girl I've always gone to London and even now the magic still lives on, especially at Christmas. 

This is why the FCP trip to London was so much fun! We were going on the trip so we could collect primary research for both our group brand, which is Tom Ford and our own individual brand, which is Mulberry.

We started off by visiting the 'Club to Catwalk' exhibition at the V&A which was really interesting. It showed us all about how designers took inspiration from the club styles in London and how they transformed these trends into high fashion. Every time I go to the V&A it makes me see a part of the fashion world I'd never even thought of before. Maybe it's naive of me to think this but I had no idea about the connection between London club fashion and the catwalk shows. 

As I've just been on a two week holiday Ibiza I found it really interesting to read about how the coolest London clubs in the 90's recreated the sound and atmosphere from the drug fueled dance clubs in Ibiza and I can absolutely see what they mean. Of course people still get dressed up to the nines and make every night out a glamorous event but, as I read at the V&A, it's no longer 'dress to impress' in most cases and it's more 'dress to sweat'. I totally get this! Raves are so popular now with my age group with things such as the Warehouse Project in Manchester, festivals and underground parties. 

I've always absolutely loved Vivienne Westwood. I just think she is hands down one of the coolest designers around! Vivienne was one of the key designers within the punk era in the 70's and this is very much still referenced in her collections today. Whenever I see a piece of her work I can automatically see the cultural references to history such as pagans, hobo dress as well as modern art. She's still such a well known figure for re working fashion traditions and she is definitely not afraid to push the boundaries. 

The best part of the trip is yet to come...shopping in all the designer stores you could dream of! I'll write about that in a bit more detail on another post...

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 

Tom Ford

We finally got told our new groups for project 2! I'm really excited about getting on with this presentation as I think it will be interesting to look deeper into Tom Ford and analyse the brand as well as come up with a completely new concept - exciting!

I'm really happy with the people in my group and I feel like we're all going to get on really well. Which is helpful seen as though it's a group project!

We got given a list of designer brands to chose from and at first we had no idea who to pick and were seriously torn between Tom Ford and Puma! In the end we chose Tom Ford because after doing a bit of background research we realised how sensual and luxurious the brand was and thought it would be cool to dig a bit deeper into that. 

So far we've decided that all 6 of us are going to research into every part of the brand and then combine all our findings in hope that we will end up with a lot of useful details for us to use within our presentation! 

We also started having a think about the layout of our presentation after lectures from Angi and Tim on the importance of imagery and text. 

Inspiration at last

Flicking through a selection of magazines in my seminar magically gave me so much inspiration. I don't really know why but I was instantly drawn to them, especially the bottom image! The fact the woman's body is non existent on this photo really interests me as it's not a very conventional fashion image but I love how it makes the clothes stands out and especially the tailoring and pattern of the garments. 

Velvet Crush

Soo last night was definitely one of the best nights of freshers! Can't believe that freshers week is now over and its back to the reality of hard work. 

I was pondering the high-street for ever and  religiously browsing online for something to wear as I am definitely one of those girls who can't wear the same outfit more than once for a special occasion! During my trawl through the shops I managed to spot these little bargains hiding behind a pile of clothes in Topshop.

I have to admit I am a massive softy for anything Topshop and even though I've only been here a couple of weeks my student loan is tempting me even more to purchase their new beauties!

I'd had my eyes on the 'Midnight Crushed Velvet Shorts' for a while now but couldn't bring my self to part with my limited money for them until the student lock in which gave me 20% off! A pretty good reason to spend my cash if I do say so myself! I had also wanted a black cami for SO long and the freshers ball seemed like the perfect opportunity! 

I paired this outfit with my trusty Primark wedges which never fail to impress me! I can't believe they were only £16 pound! SUCH  a steal! I got these quite a while back but I'm pretty sure they're still in store so I suggest you all run out to buy them as soon as possible!

I normally have wavy or curly hair on nights out so I thought I'd go for a different look for once! I never used to like having my hair straight when I had my hair cut short (NEVER again!) but since it's grown out I'm embracing my straight locks! 

I hope you like this look as much as I do! I've been shopping quite a bit lately with all the student sales being on so I'll post more pictures soon showing you what I've been buying! 

My outfit!

Shorts - Topshop £32.00

Cami - Topshop £18.00

Wedges - Primark £16.00

Lucy's oufit!

Dress - ASOS 

Shoes - Nine West (Bargain charity shop find!)

Nottinghams Catwalk

I absolutely LOVED my induction week task! I found it so incredibly exciting to hunt around the streets of Nottingham looking for people with their own individual and edgy styles. My team found so many unique styles that really inspired me to be more daring when picking my outfits (although I find that hard to do just before my 9am lectures!). 

This task has also really got me into blogging and pinterest! I already had a flickr but that was more for my own work so I’m really looking forward to creating my own pinterest and blog based on things I find really interesting and inspiring! 

These are a few of my favourite images from the street style task. I particularly love the 'couples' image as I find it interesting how certain 'tribes' stick together which is something we discovered more and more throughout the week. We chose not to stick to a certain trend and instead decided to capture as many different styles as possible, which I preferred. These three images show very different people with different styles which is why we chose to use them. This task encouraged me to understand and realise even more that style isn't necessarily about following trends but being unique and adventurous!!