My New Years resolution went seriously wrong....I seem to have been busier than ever...rushing round from one place to the next, not stopping to sit and write down anything i've done! 

So this is going to be a super long catch up for me to collect my own thoughts as well as bore you with my activities!

I'm going to do it in reverse order to help my brain...

Monday saw me down at South Bank as the second years on my MA had their final exhibition show...it was great to see their final collections and their dissertations we're absolutely amazing to see (and i'm now terrified!), they had a private industry day, so we we're there to sign people in and help in any way possible...they had some of their work displayed out on mannequins as well as short films being played on big projectors - very scary to think this will be us in a years time...so much to do!!



I had a great weekend volunteering at The South Bank Queen Elizabeth, in The Local Wisdom project overseen by Kate Fletcher...it was a great experience and I got to be a photographers assistant for the day (building my muscles holding up a canvas) and it was lovely to hear peoples unique and often inspiring stories of why a certain piece of clothing was their treasure item, never washed, or shared amongst people!

 

Friday was the Private View For the Masters, it was in collaboration with Cape Farewells SHIFT festival, with musicians and artists explaining their experiences in a once in a lifetime voyage to see the real effects of climate change...



On friday morning we had a great adventure out to Kew Gardens, Beth had managed to organise a tour for us with an amazing gentleman called Mark Nesbitt who showed us the best ways around the amazing Victorian gardens, green houses and we even did the treetop walk!! after a lovely lunch in The Orangery we were allowed into Kew's amazing botany archives....absolutely thousands of samples are carefully and beautifully archived ranging from the 1800's to present day and from all across the globe, showing all the different varieties of fibres available and used in fabric production, as well as natural dyes. The tour was amazing and we only seemed to scratch the surface of what he had to show us!







 We have been busy trying to organise a few events through the UAL Student's Union for Go Green Week 2010 - we feel as a course we need to promote sustainable design and show how the fashion industry could be a catalyst for change if we work on the WHOLE process of design and life cycle of a product not just the aesthetic quality...a Swap Shop is in the process of being organised as well as "an introduction to Sustainable Fashion...' with some great fashion companies and designers coming in to spill a few of their secrets as well as the premier of our MA fashion and the environment film...exciting times...but LOTS of hard work!...the posters look AMAZING though!

 
Right time for a food break I think....

I had a great time yesterday exploring Bethnal Green's Museum of Childhood...my next project at uni involves what connects a person to their clothing, and entices them to keep it in their wardrobe and treasure it instead of throwing it away!! So I thought this would be a good start at looking to what children connect with and how this affects their habits in later life!!

I was most intrigued with a Playsack...it was from the 60's and is basically a giant paper bag with a hole cut out for the head...you could either decorate your own or choose from a number of characters...to inspire the children and make their fantasies a little more realistic!!









 

I had my Unit 1 assessment tutorial this morning (which went really well!) and then decided that an 'exhibition day' would get me out of the house and hopefully inspire me (and it turns out scare me!) for the next set of projects!! I met with Julia and we went to explore the delights of the RCA work in progress exhibition featuring first and second years work...it was great to see what other institutions are doing and there were so many great pieces of work with some amazing concepts behind them...I look forward to seeing their final exhibition later on in the year! 

I then ventured into the V&A and had a lovely wander around soaking up the different rooms...I had found lots of great information about historical knitting practices on their website that I wanted to see and read more about but unfortunately the textile section was closed when I got to it! Never the less I had a great day (very tiring!) and now feel set to jot down all my new ideas and questions ready to begin my next projects!!

New Years Resolution - be better at updating my blog again!!

This Christmas and New Years has been the best yet!...snow, family, friends, food, parties, knitting, presents (including tickets to see The Lion King - which was amazing!!) 

I want to kickstart my knitting again, with a few more personal projects to update my own wardrobe as well as increase my skills!

For Christmas I also got a spinning wheel...I am so excited to use it...although its back home up in Bolton so i'm going to have to be patient and wait for a break from uni to experiment!!

Hmm...I'm feeling like a craft spurt so i'm going to go and entertain myself and i'll update properly tomorrow!

 

This is a quick update...as i'm off to 'The Wave' march in London to raise awareness of the Copenhagen summit, to show our government that we need to show how important the 2 degree change is!! More on that later!!

I WON!! I was so surprised, we all went to the Centre for Sustainable Fashion's 'Fashioning the Future' awards ceremony...which was held in City Hall!! I walked in just as Caryn Franklin was practicing her speech, which was a little surreal as I used to watch her on a sunday night with my little sister on "The Clothes Show"!! It was a great night and the film they had made was amazing! 

I was presented my award by Jo Woods (I think when I told my mum she was more excited that i'd seen Jo Woods than my award...heehee i'm joking!) and then had a nerve wracking time mumbling through a couple of interviews!!

...







There's quite a few good articles online about it (and of course you can read more about it on www.sustainable-fashion.com)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/nov/25/fashioning-the-future?picture=355994327

http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/fashion/fashioning-the-future-2009-awards/2009/11/26/

http://www.drapersonline.com/news/winners-of-fashioning-the-future-awards-unveiled/5008492.article

http://blog.artsthread.com/?p=1175

http://www.greenmystyle.com/eco-elite-present-fashioning-the-future-awards/

 

The Centre for Sustainable Fashion has just opened their new exhibition at John Princes Street "Space" gallery, and at City Hall, Westminster for two weeks...theres some lovely looking work in there girls heehee...

(Sorry Ruby your colours wouldn't come out no matter what settings I put it on!!)


 

I had thee best pie ever on Tuesday evening from a little pub near Covent Garden...Steak and cheese flavour...mmm I had a very jealous boyfriend when my huge pie came out after his equally lovely tasting but a lot smaller shepherds pie!!
(I apologise for the very bad photo off my phone...I blame the cosy lighting!!) 



Back to my goings on now heehee!! Yesterday we had a great day out as Scenario 3, we decided to go to Hackney City Farm - good decision, it is an amazing place, you feel as if you've just stepped into the middle of the countryside!! There ethos is great, everything they do is to build a community spirit - they hold lots of local groups and events there, as well as the cafe apparently being the place to hang out if you have a child!! They respect the nature around them and utilise it without exploiting it - they enjoy what nature provides for them and uses it beauty to educate people...they also have a lovely selection of farm animals (including one very loudly snoring pig called Bella!!)





(Bella the snoring pig!)



We then went into the centre of London to research into Topshop - It is absolutely hectic in there with hardly any space to move between stands of clothes and people carrying handfuls of clothes!! We went in to talk to one of the StyleAdvisors who very nicely let us ask a few questions about how this service works there is a waiting list of up to 6 weeks!), how it influences peoples purchases (apparently the average spend after visiting a stylist is around £300!) and how this level of service enhances the consumers experience and interaction with the 'designing' of their identity.

I also just found this great shop on Etsy with some amazingly detailed cowl/shawly things by Fringe!!



http://www.etsy.com/shop/fringe?section_id=5271513

Thanks to a great tip off from Ruby i've been looking at a great selection of knit from a designer called Alana Clifton-Cunningham from Australia, Her knits evolve around the idea of silhouetting the body in an alternative way and experimenting with the traditional idea of knitting...

Today has been a great day!! I went and did some research for our project in Topshop...the sheer volume of stock and the amount of people that go in and out in ten minutes is astounding!! I did find 3 fairtrade concessions in the basement though...PeopleTree, Bibico and Anna Greenabelle...which is a start..I suppose!! Anyway after that and a quick trip to National Geographic (I love that shop!) I went to meet some of my lovely friends off my course for an introduction to proper Chinese cuisine...and they did not disappoint!!...after lots of questioning what things were on the menu we decided to let them order for us...the waitress seemed to think we had ordered quite a bit and maybe it was too much...but we went ahead with it anyway...WELL i have never seen so much food in my life!!...It was all delicious...and we even tried chicken feet...which were actually really tasty but i'm not sure i'd have them as a main meal!! The desserts were also amazing...a coconut jelly thing and a mango smoothie type thing we're lovely!! Then on our way back (after a quick stop at the Chinese supermarket where I picked up some Jasmine tea which I think I might be addicted to!!) we stumbled across a marmite pop up shop...its amazing...I LOVE MARMITE and desperately want to wear the t-shirt that states "Ja'i adore marmite"!! 

Back up to uni and we had a set of three lectures dedicated to literature reviews, archive analysis and how to experiment with how different drawing techniques best suit your work!!

 







I also found this really lovely window display by John Lewis' Haberdashery department, promoting self customisation and reverting back to the era of 'make do and mend'...I have my eye on the sewing box!!