Weekly Update: Life in London - Week 2

Monday, May 27th:

The week definitely started off busy with lots of things planned! After an early morning workout, I had a planned photoshoot designated to our first assignment - the white shoot. We had to organize and style a shoot incorporating white colors. We decided to do our shoot in Regent's Park, because the theme we went for was an effortless 50's era lady wearing all white paired with a red lip surrounded by the water. I am really starting to get into the fashion styling class! I realized how much creativity involves each assignment, and it makes me fall in love with fashion even more.

After we shot the look, we headed back to campus and walked around my favorite street again - Marylebone. We stopped at a cute café and just enjoyed the day off from class, because it is a bank holiday here in the UK! Once relaxing at the café, we headed back to campus and got ready to go to Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace was absolutely beautiful! It is something that every tourist must see, and it gave me the chills stepping outside of the palace knowing the Queen was inside (the guards raise the flag when the Queen is in the building). Surrounded by the palace were tons of gift shops and cafés, so of course we stopped inside for some. I discovered one of my new favorite coffee places - Joe & the Juice. They are also located in NYC, but I've never gotten the chance to try it. They have amazing juices, coffee, and healthy food options! I definitely recommend stopping there for some cheap coffee or tea. The night ended by visiting a local eatery near campus, and I sat down to do some schoolwork and ended up having a relaxing night.

Café in Marylebone

Buckingham Palace

Joe & The Juice Coffee Shop

Tuesday, May 28th:

No class for me today, because we decided to do our photoshoot yesterday. The morning started off with some schoolwork, and I must say, I am really loving my Fashion Styling Class. It is so interesting putting my creative ideas into something tangible. I completed most of my weekly assignments, so today I was finally able to print them off and add them to my portfolio (portfolio pictures soon to come).

Since today wasn't the best weather, we decided to go to a museum. Most of the museum's in London are free which is great, because it is an interesting way to spend your time in order to balance out other attractions that may be a tad bit more pricey. We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum to visit the fashion exhibit. It was so exciting getting to see historic fashion pieces from Europe dating back to the 1800s and all the way to modern day. Fashion evolves every second, and it was fascinating to see what trends, patterns and more from the past came back and are present in todays pieces. I would highly recommend visiting this museum; there is tons more to see than just fashion as well! My favorite part of the museum was seeing Christian Dior's work, because he is a huge fashion icon I look up to. His work is so unique, and he is quite talented. After visiting the museum we sat in their café and had some drinks.

Harrods the ginormous department store was about a 15 minute walk, so we definitely wanted to check it out. This was one of the most overwhelming places I've been to, because it consists of over six floors jam packed with clothing from every high-end brand you could imagine (Fendi, Burberry, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc.). We kept getting lost! The amount of luxury filled inside this store was insane. It is a must see when you are in London and a one of a kind brick-and-mortar store.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Outfit Details (Dress - Vestique, Denim Jacket - Forever 21)

Harrods Department Store

Wednesday, May 29th:

Today was filled with classes from 10 - 4pm. My Fashion PR class is picking up quickly, and we are learning more and more about how advertising and PR ties into the fashion industry. Our main project for this class consists of coming up with a collaboration between two different brands (one UK brand and one US brand). We have to plan a new line for the two, come up with a launch party, and figure out how to execute a successful collaboration between a UK and US company. The two brands I chose are Sweaty Betty and Aerie, in order to combine athletic/athleisure wear with femininity and female empowerment of all sizes. I will update you all soon with my process on the project! By next class, we have to come up with our proposal and inform the class more about the two brands we chose as well as why we chose them.

After class, some of the girls and I visited the Graduate Student Film Show that kicks off the Graduate Fashion Show being put on tomorrow. It was interesting to see the work of different students in the UK and how much time they put into their work throughout the entirety of the semester.

I ended off the night with a girls night and we ordered some dessert back to the dorms.

Sweaty Betty (UK Brand) used for Fashion PR Project

Thursday, May 30th:

Today from 11 am to 6 pm I worked the Graduate Fashion Show hosted at the university. At first I just decided to volunteer because I figured it would be good to learn more about behind the scenes and get a different sense of exposure, but it ended up being so much more than that. Once I arrived to volunteer (we were asked to dress in all black), I was put in charge of dressing the models backstage. In total, there were about 19 models and over one hundred looks between all the designers. Each model walked the runway 4 - 6 times; therefore, they had to change looks multiple times and be ready to walk the runway before their next look hit the stage.

It was so interesting to see all of the lines that the graduate designers have put together over the course of the year. They each made five different pieces, and they all went together whether it be the same print, color scheme or fit. The models were professionals, so they were easy to work with for the most part and each designer was extremely helpful if we couldn't figure out how a certain look was supposed to be worn from the prior photos taken of the looks.

First, we had fittings where the models tried on all of their looks. Fittings are extremely important, because this is the time where we had to sort out if something did not fit, figure out how each look was supposed to be worn, if we needed to trip/clip any pieces or if we had to add something to the final look. After the fittings, we did a dress rehearsal where the models ran through each look and were able to walk the runway with the other models. The show went in order my designer, so it was exciting to see each line together for the first time on stage. From there, the show started immediately after. It ended up being such a success! Over 400 people came to the show, and there were even people from Vogue who attended.

Today I realized that today was a day where I definitely grew some more. I was nervous to volunteer at first, because I have never done anything like this to that extent. I ended up proving myself wrong, learning a lot, and now I am even more confident of my abilities in the industry and that I am choosing the right path for myself.

The show wore me out mentally and physically, but it was so worth it! I would love to do something like this again, and I am glad I got this hands-on experience. It was neat working with models and students from another country and pulling something off that people worked so hard on for months and months and months.

After the show, we just walked around Baker Street some and went shopping at Selfridges. This was my second time at the department store, and it is probably my favorite department store in London. They have a mix of clothing from Top Shop to Gucci.

Today was overall a great, jam-packed day.

Model Fittings

Backstage

Stage

Selfridges

Friday, May 31st:

This day consisted with a full day of class, because we did not have class on our normal day (Monday) due to the bank holiday. Our class goes on from 9 am to 4 pm and is comprised of lectures, discussions and assignments. Today was a packed day of class filled with lots of information and tasks. We started off by going over the work in our portfolio and discussing our opinions with one another. The assignments we discussed were our likes/dislikes assignment, our pick of a fashion stylist, and our white shoot. It was interesting to dissect each assignment, because I was able to learn a lot more about the story behind each editorial, how much goes into an advertising campaign and that there are multiple interpretations to every piece of published work. Everyone has a different opinion, but the beauty of the fashion industry is that a certain look can be viewed in multiple ways.

The second half of the class was assignment based. We were asked to bring a beauty product and create an advertising campaign for it. We had to find the props we wanted to incorporate into our campaign, take the picture for it, edit it using photoshop and come up with a final product before the end of class.

I chose to use a face scrub from the brand Fresh. For my props I used a flower from the garden and water mist to make the flower come to life. We shot our campaigns in the photo lab, which was extremely helpful because they have top-of-the-line equipment and Cannon cameras. The type of photo we took is called a still-life photo; it was interesting to learn how to take pictures of a non-moving item. Normally I just take pictures of other people when it comes to fashion related assignments. This type of photo is shot from a straight-forward angle. It is extremely important to make sure every object in the photo is facing forward, not smudged, and you have to make sure any text is able to be read by the viewer (getting the right focus is huge).

Throughout this assignment, I realized how much work goes into one single photo. It took so many shots to get the right picture, different types of lighting, multiple angles and a lot of time to finally nail the shot. After the photos, I edited the picture using adobe photoshop. My tutor taught me so many new tips and tricks that I was unaware you could do using the software. I'm excited to keep learning about adobe photoshop and take my knowledge back to the states where I can incorporate it into my future work. Below is my finished product.

Mood Board

Advertising Campaign - Final Product

Saturday, June 1st:

Today the majority of the group went to Windsor Castle. Being in London for 6 weeks, I want to make sure to take advantage of the city and see as much as I can during my time here! We took a train to Windsor, and then we took a tour of the castle. This is the Queen's home during the weekends, so it was really exciting to know she was in the same building and nearby. We spent the majority of the day exploring the town and walking inside and outside of the castle.

Once we got back, we all decided to go out together and hangout the rest of the night. We ended up going to a club called "CarWash", and it was my favorite club so far. Each floor played a different decade of hip-hop music. Saturday nights are so fun here!

Morning walk in the park

Windsor Castle

Outfit Details (Bottoms - Zara, Top - Top Shop)

Club Carwash

Outfit Details (Top - Princess Polly)

Sunday, June 2nd:

I cannot believe that I am already finishing up my second week here at Regents. Writing these blogs puts into perspective how fast time flies. At this point in my trip, I definitely feel more comfortable finding different places in the city, and I cannot wait to keep exploring. There is so much more planned and fun things to look forward to throughout my next four weeks here. I cannot wait! I love having a routine everyday, learning more about the fashion industry, and just being able to live my life in a huge city. My location makes everything so easy to go places, because it is placed in such an accessible area close to a wide range of places. The people who I have met are amazing and getting to know them have been a lot of fun. I seriously love life in London, and I am so grateful for this opportunity.