Mulberry to die for

Now this is the brief I have been looking forward to the most...

Designing my own brand-zine is going to be so much fun! I love designing and creating things so this is right up my street. 

We got to choose any brand from a list the lecturers gave us so I chose...MULBERRY!

I've always wanted a Mulberry bag (Chanel comes first though) so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to learn more about one of my favourite brands. 

When we were in London I was going to go to Mulberry's store on New Bond Street but we ran out of time. Luckily for me we by chance walked past this store in Knightsbridge! I initially went into the store to try and take photos of their visual merchandising however it was difficult to do so with staff watching me from every angle! Instead I took photos of the window displays and attempted to sneak a photo of the inside of the store.

Even though the staff obviously weren't too keen on me taking photographs within the store they were extremely pleasant and helpful! I know people think this should happen in every store anyway but sadly it doesn't. Most of the times stores such as Mulberry would be very cold and almost rude to students walking into the store as its quite apparent we weren't going to buy anything. This is exactly what happened in Roberto Cavalli! As soon as we walked in we were almost followed around the store in an attempt to get us out of there! We got no 'hello' or we weren't even asked if we needed any help with anything. I have to say, out of all the stores we went into, the staff in Tom Ford were by far the nicest. The bodyguard on the door, the staff behind the counter and even the guard inside the store (even though he did follow us round quite a bit!) were extremely pleasant and were constantly asking us how we were, how our day had been and whether we needed any assistance! By far the friendliest staff we had met during our day in London. 

I admit I was slightly disappointed by their display especially after walking past Harrods about one minute before! I do love the 'simple yet effective' look but I just wasn't feeling it with Mulberry! Although as the brand was founded in England I did like the use of Buckingham Palace Guards and nutcrackers within their display. I thought having their advertisements on a large scale in the window was really eye catching and the bags were definitely still the main focus even though the images were busy with trees and owls.  

The trip to London has got me even more excited for this project and I can't wait to start looking at Mulberry's visual DNA, Mulberry's handwriting and any cultural references they use within their work which I am hoping will inspire my brand-zine!

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. 

Italian glamour

When we were first given the brief for project 1 I was really looking forward to getting stuck into it.  I was given the brand Etro, who I admit I'd never heard of before, but I thought this would be a plus as the thing I was looking forward to most on this course was looking into new areas of fashion I'd never explored before.

Etro are an Italian fashion brand who are most known for their use of paisley and colour. 

When I first started collecting images for my moodboard I just gathered brand images rather than exploring the brands culture and motifs so my moodboard began to have no meaning and was becoming more of a look book. However, after our 'surgery' seminar with Tim and Angi I realised what I had to do next! 

This is when I really started to enjoy this brief as I thought it was SO interesting to dig deep into Etro's history and find images which conveyed the brands mood and cultural references. My favourite images on the mood board were the Indian spice market and the map. When I was researching Etro these were the two things that stood out to me the most, their love to travel and gather inspiration as well as their use of bright colours in every collection which reminded me of a spice market. 

The bottom image was my original version of the mood board and the top two were the my adaptations based advice from my peers. I decided to add the Italian stamp to reference back to their heritage as well as their love to travel. 

Overall I was pretty pleased with the feed back I got from Matt and Angi as well as the rest of my seminar group! 

Some of the points I got told were: 
- Good use of analysis and vocabulary 
- Good layout of images
-Good explanation of brand and mood board
-Good choice of images and good editing skills
-Really good use of negative space

I also received some constructive criticism about my mood board:
- Could do with a stronger emphasis on the brand (more brand images)

-Include key words (eccentric, exotic etc)
-Be more confident in my delivery

Don't believe the hype

Everyone I know knows about my love for Arctic Monkeys and especially for Alex Turner!. This is the 3rd time I've seen the beauties and they definitely didn't disappoint! 

Granted these photos aren't the greatest quality but I didn't want to risk getting my camera out when I was squashed up against the barrier! The last two pictures are from their poster book that I splashed out on (as well as a T-Shirt!) Definitely need to start remembering I'm a student...

I just love their style and I don't just mean their clothes either! Alex is quite obviously inspired by the 'Rock' era with his quiff and leather 'grunge' jacket and his persona on stage and in interviews is really cool as well! He reminds me of a young Elvis! Especially those snake hips of his. 

Going back home to Manchester for a night to see them made it even better. I cant explain how nice it was to sleep in a bed that doesn't feel like you're lying on bricks. 

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.