Selfie Culture

“The surest cure for vanity is loneliness.” - Tom Wolfe

Today is a time where nostalgic photographs of memories are no more, but a time where we post endless pictures of ourselves on instagram with no real meaning. Instagram is a place where likes are more important to people than the real image itself. I can't help but feel social media is a virtual contradiction. Where it causes more harm than good but raises awareness of the harms it causes.  

The McQueen documentary 2018

On June 8th, the Alexander McQueen film/documentary will be coming out. Ive always been a fan of his work since a young age with the way his garments were like art pieces. I can't wait for this documentary to air, out as I feel the public never really got to see what the life of Alexander McQueen was really like. Since McQueens death in 2010, I feel the brand has had a lot less impact on the fashion society today and I haven't seen much groundbreaking things from them. However, in this documentary we will see never before seen footage of his most groundbreaking fashion shows.

House of Hackney

For the past couple of weeks, Ive been looking into the brand House of Hackney. I've been looking into them in aid of my university summative project where I have to create a fragrance for them and create a story. House of Hackney are an interiors brand which sell maximalist designs which celebrates print, colour and texture. I love this brand a great amount as their designs are a vision of historical inspiration rather than the contrasted modern approach of minimalism which we are now used to seeing over and over again.

Abortion Laws - Ireland votes YES!

Yesterday, Sunday 27th May 2018, Ireland voted on a historic referendum to allow women to get abortions if they choose. This is a great step for Irelands future. However, Northern Ireland are still behind the times where abortion is still illegal. Being a young female, I feel extremely strong about female rights and how we should be able to do whatever we want our bodies. Pregnancy can be a life changing alteration to a females life for the better or for some people the worst. Although, females need support in these times and have the option to choose if they want to be a parent.

My £54 Customs Charge!

Around 2 months ago, I purchased clothes from an Australian brand called White Fox Boutique. Slightly more expensive than the mass market stores in the UK. However, the quality of the clothes are SO MUCH BETTER just for paying that little extra. Its always a risk buying from abroad because you're never quite sure what you're going to get, but I built trust in the brand over social media, UK bloggers and also previous purchases. These clothes are ones that you'll want to keep for ever and it's sad to say I can't think of one shop in the UK that sells this kind of quality with designs that you genuinely love. Although everyone has different taste, I feel for the female market, Australia really does have some of the best brands. 

A Wedding to remember

A beautiful celebration of British culture. Royal weddings. 19th May 2018 Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle got married. While I was laying in bed on a lazy Saturday morning, I was watching the royal wedding in all its glory... On my laptop. Im not a royalist at all but all I was really interested in was what is she wearing! 

Music Maverick - Björk

Björk 

Watching Jools Holland today, I came across Björk. I had never heard or seen her before, however, her performance captured my attention based on how unique it was. I've never seen anything like it. It was like a mixture of performance art and music. I found out that she 'is an Icelandic singer-songwriter and founding member of the band the Sugarcubes. She went on to a strong solo career with songs like "I've Seen It All" and "Human Behaviour," as well as acting success.' (https://www.biography.com/people/bj%C3%B6rk-9542528)

Gender-Neutral Fashion

This year, I have noticed a huge trend in inclusivity. Whether it be for makeup or clothing, individuals are demanding more from brands. When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, unisex clothing is almost nowhere to be seen in stores. The fashion industry today in mass form offers baggy streetwear as an alternative for unisex clothing. However, this is not necessarily enough or meets the needs of the LGBTQ+ community.

Minimal VS Maximal

This week at uni, I've been looking at 8 different brands to decide which one I would like to take forward to create a brand story for, with fragrance in mind. One of the brands which has stood out to me is House of Hackney. Its maximal approach has made me question... whats happened to maximal design and bold materials? So in this blog i'm going talk about the opposite ends of the interior spectrum and how I feel about them.

Online Fragrance Industry

For the past month or so, me and my team-mates worked on creating a fragrance brand and wanted to see where the gap is in the market. Fragrance is a sector which has stayed the same pretty much forever and there is so much room for change and challenge.

Today, I read The Business Of Fashion and they were talking about the way online shopping for fragrance is difficult and telling a story through visuals is so important to sell it. Also in our online world its all about who's selling it and what influencers are promoting it. With youngsters and their disposable incomes, they'll pretty much buy whatever they want, so when people such as Kim Kardashian are selling perfumes and promoting it over social media, it becomes almost unavoidable.

Met Gala 2018 - Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination

Monday 4th May 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York hosted the Met Gala which famous faces meet up to raise money for the Met's Costume Institute. This year the theme for the event was ' Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination'. I loved this theme as it has such a broad artistic and interesting influence that the designers could really push boundaries in which direction they chose. 

Its a Trend - Packaging

This semester, me and my team at uni have been working towards creating a brand for a perfume. With this comes looking at what people are looking for now and what kinds of trends we can find out there that can help us with our aesthetic for our products and also for the brand itself.

When it comes to trends I like to look at WGSN which is a trend forecasting website. In absolute relief, I came across packaging trends for A/W 19/20 which was a great bit of research which could help us in a big way. I found this trend was called 'Free Style' and its really taking packaging in a new artistic direction.

Muslim Fashion - The $254 Billion Market

This week, I have been reading BOF and fastcompany.com  for some updates in whats been going on in fashion lately. I came across an interesting article about how Muslim fashion has such a huge market for modest clothing yet not many designers really cater to that. I found it quite baffling that some of the big spenders and elitists from Dubai who are majority Muslim people, have no designers to really turn to, to find fashion that suits them. Especially Muslim women.

The 60's

The 60's.

I'm not quite sure what my fascination with this era is, but Ive had it now since I was around 12. I think it stems from listening to the Beatles with my dad and watching their films 'A hard days night' and 'Yellow submarine'. Maybe the thought of a time I've not experienced feels interesting. Through growing up in a time where CDs were just becoming a thing, I feel the future hit the world extremely fast. Does thinking about old times bring nostalgia to our brains?