LE LABO

When me and Katie took our trip to London for the Savage Beauty exhibition, we only booked a late train home so we had loads of time to explore, one of our first stops being Liberty London. 

Liberty stocks thousands of luxury brands; however, it also stocks up and coming brands that are original and bring something new to the market.  Our first destination was the fragrance section, obviously! We came across a brand called Le Labo, which has the coolest packaging ever, to say the least! 

After admiring the beautiful designs of the bottles, a member of staff introduced us to their brand and its concept.  Le Labo was founded in New York and is a brand which provides a collection of perfumes that are made from scratch, based on the consumers choices of particular notes. The brand also allows you to personalise the label, making it ideal for a gift. 

I absolutely love this brand, the quirkiness is reflected all the way through to their in store interiors.  Hopefully one day i’ll be able to afford it!

DRESS LIKE A BOY, ACT LIKE A GIRL

ALEXA CHUNG

AMY SPENCER // THELITTLEMAGPIE

SUKI WATERHOUSE

After a couple of hours of researching, we were asked to focus on current fashion and who our inspirations are, this was tricky for me as I seem to love every celebrity’s fashion that I have on Instagram, but I managed to whittle it down. 

We were asked to select a blogger and 2 celebrities, this was simple for me, Alexa Chung. Absolute goddess and master of all things, her style is so fabulous and always on point, I love her simplistic outfits that she appears to have just thrown on. My favourite and ultimate guide when it comes to dressing myself comes from her, dress like a boy, act like a girl. 

My next choice was a blogger favourite, Amy Spencer of ‘The Little Magpie’.  I LOVE her style, it’s also very similar to Alexa’s and on top of everything, she has hair to dieeee for.  So jealous! My favourite item of hers has got to be her All Saints leather jacket, this my goal when it comes to my jacket collection, maybe one day.

My final inspiration is Suki Waterhouse, the girl who opened my eyes to Superga footwear, heaven on earth for my feet.  I love her messy, tousled locks and how she can pull off a messy but impeccably dressed vibe without looking over done. Oh and to top it all off, her eyebrows.  How is it fair that someone can be blessed with beauty like that and insane eyebrows? Major envy!!

SAVAGE BEAUTY

Last week me and Katie had the opportunity to visit the savage beauty exhibition at the V&A and of course we said yes! NTU had pre bought tickets and were selling them to fashion students like ourselves for just £3!!! Insane. 

When we arrived in London we had a bit of a mad dash to get to the V&A as we’d booked ourselves a bit of a risky train in terms of timing, luckily we were led straight into our slot and were greeted by a huge black and white portrait of McQueen himself, a very powerful start to the exhibition.  The first collection was his graduate show, it was extremely surreal to see the garments in the flesh as they were all crafted at a phenomenal standard.  Knowing how difficult pattern cutting to perfection is myself, I had great admiration for his work.  

Following on from the first room we were greeted by a sign “I’m a romantic schizophrenic”, at the start of the exhibition we didn't see the story behind this quote, or why it was used in such a thought provoking manor.  However, after exploring further and greeted by darker and stranger collections, it felt extremely in keeping. 

We finished up the spectacular exhibition, which I can’t recommend highly enough, and if its still showing then go go go!! It is by far one of the best collections of work I have ever seen.  Afterwards, we headed on into London to grab a bite to eat and do some shopping, our feet were killing and the rain didn't hold off for the majority of the day… typical.  

Before our train home, we attempted to find London’s best milkshake, and finally we did! The yummiest strawberry milkshake i’d ever tasted and we found it in a little burger shack right by Liberty’s. Priced at only £3 we thought it was a right bargain.

By far, this was one of the best days i’ve had since being at University and even if it costs you an arm and a leg, I would not miss this exhibition! There’s a reason he is a fashion hero. 

PHOTOSHOOTING

Finally, i've gotten round to uploading the final images of Isobel from a photoshoot I did back in January! I'm such a slacker when it comes to finishing a piece of work i've started within the same month but better late than never, as they always say.

Finding these photographs instantly rekindled my love for photography and it made me realise how much i've been putting my real passions on the back burner recently, so as of today, i've decided that over the 4 months I have off in summer, I will dedicate my time to designing and photographing... and I cannot wait.

Keep you posted!
becky x

MCQUEEN AND I

I recently watched the Alexander McQueen documentary, McQueen and I.  I wanted to clue myself up as much as possible before heading down to london, with katie, next week to see the Savage beauty exhibition… eeee how exciting! 

Admittedly, I usually have a bit of an off switch when it gets to around the 30 minute mark in a documentary but this one i just couldn't get enough of! Infact it was so good Katie had it on within the first ten minutes of me telling her how amazing it was. 

When the film starts we are introduced to Mcqueen, his early life, family members and close friends are interviewed. Then the story begins, and we are welcomed into the whirlwind of Lee Alexander Mcqueens fashion phenomenon.  Coming from a textiles background myself, I have always been interested and blown away by the life and work of many fashion designers.  I’ve always been in awe of McQueens work and the surreal and earie nature to the majority of his early collections, more interested in design rather than the make myself, I found I was immediately researching his more extravagant garments and look at the incredible structures his garments possessed. 

In the film we are also introduced to unarguably one of the most influential people in McQueens life, Isabella Blow. Starting his career off in 1992, Blow bought the entirety of his graduate collection as she was so impressed by his work.  Although the documentary was mostly informative, it began to become quite emotional as the tormented minds of both Mcqueen and Blow is brought to light.  

McQueens life and work is so moving and exhilarating you can’t help but applaud the global success of the ever growing brand. Despite the troubles McQueen faced, he is definitely one of the most influential people in fashion history and design wouldn't be were it is today without him.

Watch the full documentary HERE 

EXPLORING NOTTS

 

 

 

A little bit of a different post, for all those people living in the beautiful city that is Nottingham and feeling like they have nothing to do.  

Me and my friends have been feeling a little stir-crazy lately, with our whole lives at uni fitting into the smallest space you could ever dream of.  Imagine, a prison cell painted bright colours and costing you £140 a week, oh but with the beauty of an en suite bathroom, that must be what we’re paying for!  With us living on a budget, we seem to have been spending all of our days stuck inside bogged down with work and worrying about our bank balances, something I'm sure every university student can sympathise with. 

So last week we decided to treat ourselves and explore Notts a little bit more, this led to a coffee date, followed the next day with a happy hour cocktail trip and then a stroll into the beautiful and quirky Cobden Chambers, home of the amazing Ideas on Paper. 

Our first venture led us to the best coffee shop i’ve ever been in, 200 Degrees. After hearing so many faultless reviews on the intimate cafe, we decided to give it a try.  On arrival we were greeted by humorous and quaint signage, which let us know we were definitely in the right place!  When then proceeded to enter and ordered 2 mocha latte’s and a filter coffee, unexpectedly we were told to take a seat, as apposed to waiting at the end like you would do in Starbucks or Costa.  After waiting around 10 minutes our coffee’s finally arrived and it was fab, they were so beautifully presented and tasted just as good… a definite place to visit!

Next came the cocktails! Mmm, who doesn’t love a good cocktail? Usually ,however, you look at the prices on the menu and cry a little inside as you pass over £8 for one drink, sob sob.  Not today though as it was happy hour at turtle bay, which meant 2 for 1 drinks up until 6pm.  The only down side being you have to get two of the same cocktail, with there being three of us we just did a little swap on our second round and we were more than happy!  My favourite of the three was by far the ‘Rum Runner’, a frozen bliss combining the tastes of dark rum, blackberry & banana liqueurs, lemon, grenadine & pineapple.  Delicious.

Lastly we had a stroll into Cobden Chambers, with the hopes of me purchasing an independent magazine only stocked in Ideas on Paper. I came out happy with my bag full of HUCK goodness, if you’ve never seen this mag before then definitely track one down, if not only for the incredible style and design layout.  Not only did I come out buzzing about my purchase, I was also happy we had an explore and found such a beautiful location, which can only be described as every girls court yard inspiration, with pastel coloured doorways and lit with twinkle lights.  

If you’re in the Nottingham area then I would seriously make sure you take a trip to any of these three lovely places.

becky x