On the right track baby

Well, things that are going to plan, then fall through and end up with better results has been the case over the last few days.  I'm in London again, the best visit yet so far - I did the last shoot of Carly's London School Of Styling Beginners Course on Saturday and loved the outcome.  My model was one of the other girls doing the course, stunning Hannah and I was doing image consultancy for her scenario of going to a wedding.  I'd ordered the clothes I'd need at the beginning of the week, and was given Thursday as the delivery day (because I was stoopit and forgot to select free next day delivery which I was eligible for)  So, Thursday came and went, and no text to tell me the items has been delivered at my local Click & Collect, and when I looked at "Track Your Delivery" it stated they'd attempted to drop around lunchtime.  I wondered how can you only attempt to drop items off at a local shop always fairly well staffed?  So, I made sure I didn't stress and selected a couple of dresses of my own to take.

Hannah in one of the outfits I chose for her as my Image Consultancy client

Thursday was a hectic day, there was lots to organise for going away for the week and I was working in the evening.  So we start Friday, everything packed and good to go; Murran, my pet rabbit was dropped off at a friend's the day before, all the other rabbits are good to be left in their carers' hands but still nothing from ASOS and I'm refreshing the "Track Your Delivery" often but no change apart from that the items left the depot at around 9.30 in the morning.  I had to be in Glasgow Central Station at half three to get my train and I thought I'd go to the local shop to see if the items had been delivered as I had the time to do that before the bus into town.  Just as I walked into the car park of the shop there was a delivery guy with a big bag of parcels so I asked him if he had anything from ASOS in the bag, he said he wasn't sure, so it was taken to the shop counter and rummaged through.  Out came something  from Littlewoods, something from Very and there was my name on an ASOS bag next in the pile!  100% cutting it fine - I was completely relieved that my shoot was going to go as I'd planned, as I'd chosen the outfits very carefully I was looking forward to seeing how they'd look put together.  I was delighted with how they looked :D  I'm loving this course and when I've got enough money I'll do the Advanced one sometime next year.

Apart from that shoot, I've been planning to get as much networking in as possible this week with the fashion and style creatives in London and have been making contact with photographers and MUAs for several months now.  Back in October I got in touch with a photographer and we were putting ideas together for a shoot theme, then I got in touch with a make up artist who as it turned out knew the photographer so we were briefly discussing a collaboration until the photographer left the conversation, for reasons I don't know.  So I continued developing the idea and keeping the MUA up to speed with how things were going, but her input was becoming less enthusiastic and she was expecting me to get the whole team together and source a location which was impossible as I'm 400 miles away and don't know sufficient folk and suitable places in London, so after pointing that out she unfriended me which was pretty unhelpful.  So I contacted the photographer as he seems very motivated to find out if he was available to shoot, and he messaged right back saying yes he was!  And he's got ideal location in mind.  So it was cheerio uncooperative MUA, welcome back brilliant photographer.  Being back to square one without a make up artist meant I had to post on the various forums to get one in the team, which I managed fairly quickly, and booked an agency model - so in the end I did do all the choosing of the team but had the photographers keen input on location which I couldn't feasibly do.

Moodboards from the shoot planned for Tuesday

So all this is showing me how things are falling into place and turning out right (OK- I've still got to wait till tomorrow to see if the shoot goes without a hitch!) but it's all running very smoothly.

As well as that I'm enjoying the hostel I'm staying in - made friends with a great, Irish guy same age as me who's staying in the same dorm and we're having great conversations about life - fate, futures, synchronicity, and we have very similar views and perspectives on things.  As well as him, everyone is incredibly nice and there are travellers from all over the place - very friendly people all sharing stories and opinions.  I had this feeling this morning that this is all very right, I've had that feeling before - I'm on the right track baby.  It's wonderful :D

Fashion isn't frivolous

I've reached my conclusion after a very long time considering how fashion is perceived, and most often categorised as 'frivolous' - even Anna Wintour in First Monday In May described it as that.  But I've now realised it's fundamental, it's completely associated with identity.  Yes, this is a first world issue and is of little concern when you've got Syria, homelessness in your city and screwed up world politics but it's an expression of how people in the most developed parts of the world define and motivate themselves to succeed and progress.  Maybe it's been discredited over the years to diminish it's power.  We've probably been conditioned to think fashion is frivolous so we don't focus on ourselves but allow ourselves to be subjugated to feeling it's not so relevant, and also why we're seeing a surge in individualism. 

Trends reflect the bigger picture of the world and filter into society and culture, and fashion is part of the arts whether traditionalists want to acknowledge that or not.  People relate and process life and express that creatively in stylish self expression.  So let us represent with colour, texture, pattern and shape how our lives are without feeling intellectually inferior, as we have a fundamental way to understand and communicate ourselves.

London College Of Fashion Editorial Styling Course

London was fantastic, I loved it and would have happily stayed longer as I didn't get my fill.  The styling course was great, there was a class of 11 and we had a brilliant tutor, Lucy London who is smart and knowledgeable.  I was at the Lime Grove campus which is a beautiful building inside and out, and the weather was hot and sunny most days.  I was pretty pleased with the outcome of my shoot - I'm still to see the edited photos but the snaps I got on my phone from standing behind the photographer look great.

On the first day Lucy established what the class understood about styling before we had a discussion about the different kinds of styling, the functions of styling, trend forecasting, customer profiling and shoot concepts and she gave us the introduction to our briefs.

The second day was carrying out the analysis of the magazine you chose to do a hypothetical shoot for, and profiling their typical readership so all aspects of your styling were relevant to the customer base.  I chose to go for Grazia given that I'm a regular reader if that magazine and fall into mist categories of their typical readership (pretty independent, interested in current affairs, human rights, keeping up with fashion while remaining creatively minded) as opposed to a magazine like Vogue whose readers are spoon-fed ready made luxury looks.  I also need more commercial images in my portfolio so these images should be ideal.  The class was given a choice of four themes and the theme I chose was Out Of This World which suited me completely given my interest in transhumanism and more importantly i had clothing that suited that theme.  One of a couple of big drawbacks about the course was that there was no clothing provided, no connections to up & coming designers and that students who had travelled for the course were potentially left high and dry here.  It was only by luck I'd packed a silver top, a metallic dress and had bought another metallic dress en route to Glasgow Central Station on Monday morning.  Another issue was that no professional model had been booked for the shoot day (I mean, come on!!) and again it was by pure luck there was a stunning, slim, tall girl I was sitting next to who I asked if she'd model on my shoot - and ended up modelling on two or three other shoots with other students.  On the Wednesday evening i spent a good couple of hours traipsing Oxford Street to get shoes and accessories, and trying to track down a pair of silver shirts I'd have loved to have used in one of the looks.  No luck with the shorts but check for silver eye shadow pencil, silver nail varnish, a mesh top, 2 pairs of metallic shoes, white tights, a silver skirt and lots of jewellery.  I was pretty laden down!

On the shoot day I was scheduled after lunch.  Kara, my model, modelled her own shoot plus I think two others.  There was great camaraderie among the students, helping prep, assisting with make up etc and from what I saw of everyone else's images we got a good body of work between us all.

I also met up with Carly on Thursday evening for my first theory class of her course which includes doing four shoots between now and the start of December, and in addition to that I had time to go to an introductory workshop she ran on the Saturday morning which was an amazing addition to the week.  And as it turns out, a lovely girl called Hannah who did the LCF course got one of the last two places on the same course I'm doing with Carly (with a wee recommendation from me 😀).  I had my introductory class at Shoreditch House, a very salubrious private member's club.  I got the tube back from Liverpool Street to Great Portland Street and encountered a very drunk funny Irish guy who'd been 'out for lunch' since midday.

I made all my store returns on Friday morning, crashed out for an hour or two after lunch then met up with a make up artist late afternoon and spent the rest of the evening relaxing - much needed!  I got the train home on Saturday afternoon.  I'd stayed in a dorm in student accomodation on Great Portland Street.  Getting my bearings a couple of times in the first two days was stressful and the tube was a bit of a headache on the Thursday evening, but luckily I get to grips with things quickly so settled in fast.  I hadn't had my fill of London and can't wait to go back in early October.  I had a nice lunch with a glass of wine before getting the train.  Back in Glasgow I felt a comedown - people walk i n g   s o   s l o w l y  it's just a joke, two neds having a Barney on Hope St at 6 in the evening and it was pissing down. I cried when I got home but had a clearer head in the morning.

I've now got an even clearer focus on my portfolio and directions and I'm more motivated to make this all succeed 😀.

I'm enjoying the wonderful intangible feeling knowing influential men believe in me.

Email from Bill Drummond this afternoon:

Dear Jacki,

The Curfew Tower missed your presence.

But it is good to get your email now.

But…

I am afraid I will not be able to write and introductory piece for Gaelstrom, as I am very overcommitted...  at the moment.

That said I would like to be kept abreast with what you are doing so that I could dive in at some future point.

And…

I very much enjoyed reading your Arts Power piece.

Yours,

Bill X

London!!!

Leaving for my first London College of Fashion course on Monday morning - accommodation sorted; meeting a photographer to get some ideas on the go on Tuesday night, meeting Carly who runs the second course on Wednesday for the first class of that course, meeting another photographer on Friday and then home on Saturday.  I think I'll stay in bed all day Sunday!

I'm excited as a kid but nervous.  I've put a lot of effort into getting my portfolio as ready as I can, started on some good networking already - I messaged a stylist who's just graduated with a BA Hons in Fashion Styling from Istituto Marangoni London to see if could work with her as an assistant and she was lovely.  After seeing my website she messaged back with "Work looks great. I will keep you posted on the shoots I do and if you're around you can definitely help." I'm making good impressions!!

It's making me a bit anxious in case it doesn't go right but I've got to remember to keep a calm head and this time round I'm going there to learn, and going to prestigious places so it's going to put me on the right track to where I want to be. Gotta remember! I'll be fine, it's a whole big adventure and a new lifestyle opening up for me. You can see why I'm excited and nervous!

Recent shoots

I've been busy getting my portfolio London prepared for my first styling course next week at London College of Fashion which I'm so looking forward to :D  I've been getting really high standard shoots done with great teams and I'm happy to put some images from these shoots into my portfolio.

The first was a lookbook shoot for up and coming designer Alice Cait who I came across when I was planning the Checkmate show and I wanted to put shoot together with her beautiful crisp white modern designs.  We shot around Glasgow's west end on a lovely sunny day, and the fantastic Hillhead Bookclub very kindly let us use a lovely space upstairs to get hair and make up done.

Next up was a very pleasant surprise shoot for an American photographer Matthew Calbraith Butler - it was a surprise message from a model friend to find out if I was available on the Friday which I was, and waited for a phone call which didn't come until the last minute on the Thursday evening at 10.30.  I had a chat with Matt who described what he was wanting which was a floaty dress or skirt and bold jewellery, luckily Karen and I had the pieces between us and Matt was really pleased. It seemed pretty impromtu, we got her make up done in Boots on Princes Street then made our way up the very steep cobbled street at the top of the hill with heavy suitcases...
.
We shot in the Turret at The Witchery on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, a stunning opulent suite.  This was for an exhibition that is being held in Miami in December and the camera is a scanning camera and captures an image as it goes from right to left and this means cool effects can be created by moving parts of your body or clothing to elongate it without the person creating the effects being captured in the shot as long as they move in time! What I was seeing on the laptop looked great.  The images are to be made up to be huge - small wall size - for the exhibition so they had to be incredibly good.

Then just last week I did another lookbook for a little known Japanese designer Toco Fashion living in Scotland who also showed at Checkmate and has made a collection of absolutely stunning hats and striking cocktail dresses.  Again we shot at Hillhead Bookclub which is a fantastic location.

So it's been a very productive few weeks in prep for a mega busy week in London, with the London College of Fashion editorial styling course, meeting Carly Brook who runs the London College of Styling course which is the other one I'm doing, plus meeting a couple of photographers and planning shoots with them.  After that I've got a contemporary jewellery shoot and a sportswear editorial planned!  All go and it's amazing :)

Body and Soul

After enjoy a lovely spa day with bestie Leanne nearly two weeks ago - when I wanted to take the swimming pool home with me :)  - I enrolled on beginners swimming lessons, first class was last night. Nothing to report apart from that it was fun and I did ok (and man, such hot men!!) but I'm on a body-care plan and had a wonderful hour long massage today.  I've not had one in probably at least 18 months and my poor shoulder muscles are tight as can be, closely followed by my calf muscles, but it was fantastic and I'm booked in for another in 4 weeks time to help my poor battered body.

Looking after my wee self is good, make sure you look after yourself too xxx.

Mid August Shoppist update

Here are my favourite pieces available from Shoppist that I've collated this week.  All are from Street Style Store.

These first items are beautiful sharp and elegant black and white pieces softened with floral print.

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=11999&controller=product

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=15291&controller=product 

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=17020&controller=product 

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=17190&controller=product 

These pieces are more flowing, very feminine with their flowing lines, A line shape and floral details - very pretty indeed.  My favourite is the white shirt dress, it's stunning.

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=11965&controller=product 

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=14977&controller=product 

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=16300&controller=product 

These two are very different styles but classic and contemporary respectively.

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=17196&controller=product

http://streetstylestore.com/index.php?id_product=5259&controller=product 

Dopamine, the ego and creativity

I found this article today which backs up what I've been thinking and saying about how fulfilling (or not) your life is, and how the ego needs sustained by methods to keep you motivated, and reading here shows how dopamine has an effect on what stimulates and fulfils people.and the best ways to achieve this.  Basically, low dopamine encourages addictions like shopping to make you feel good in the long term but creative interests provide a natural long term release to make you feel good and motivated by your productivity.  I think this sums up my debate of ego vs self belief well.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/04/11/8-great-ways-you-can-increase-dopamine-levels-in-the-brain-without-pharmaceutical-drugs/

1. Don’t Get Addicted

“Many people get addicted to something because it gives them some kind of instant gratification – drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, shopping, and other addictive behaviours actually have the opposite effect on dopamine levels in the long-term. In essence, when we get overly addicted to something, the ‘reward circuitry’ of our brain kicks into overdrive and we crave the ‘quick hit.’ This is not a sustainable solution for dopamine production, which can and should be done naturally.” 

What’s missing here is the fact that addiction is quite often a result of low dopamine, meaning addiction is more of an attempt to fix an already existing problem. In essence, “the underpinning of your addictive personality is a lack of fulfillment from within, with a resulting urge to achieve fulfillment through substances, objects, or events that relieve the inevitable pain – for a while.”(source)

“When we receive a reward of any kind, dopamine is released in our brains. Over time, this stimulus and release of dopamine can lead to learning. Researchers have recently found that how quickly and permanently we learn things relates directly to how much dopamine we have available in our brains. As we get rewarded over and over again for something, we learn that we should keep doing whatever that is very deeply, and it’s hard to unlearn those kinds of behaviours.” (source)

What this means is that low-dopamine is a response to a lifestyle which doesn’t offer much in terms of reward to the person living it. It may be a response to the environment you’re living in, the clothes you’re wearing, the tight budget you’re working within, the relationship choices you’ve made or have been made for you, or a result of trauma where there was no perceived reward. It’s very easy to understand how dopamine levels may appear low when we consider all the potentials leading to less-rewarding lifestyles and life-experiences.

What’s necessary then is less of a ‘don’t get addicted’ approach and more of an ‘increase the rewards in your life’ style of applied advice. Fact is, you’ll constantly feel less fulfilled through low dopamine when you’re not (or are unable to) fill your day with things that inspire and reward you. Meaning, the most effective protection against addiction and greatest advantage to high-dopamine levels is a defense against low-rewarding activities and an offence working towards rewarding actions, activities, and ultimately, a lifestyle of fulfillment and achievement.

Also, because addiction is most often rooted in past traumatic experiences, where emotions create a fight or flight response that becomes rooted in your core emotions, it’s vitally important to seek proper and effective help in dissolving past trauma. Doing so can only help you perceive more rewarding experiences in your life, rather than filtering experiences through a ‘traumatized’ awareness.

3. Create Something

“For us writers, painters, sculptors, poets, singers, dancers, and other artists, we can identify with this. When we’re in creative mode, we can become hyper-focused. As a result, we can enter a state called flow. Dopamine is the brain chemical that allows us to achieve this state. The lesson is this: take up a hobby or activity in which you actually create something tangible. Try something like arts, crafts, auto repair, drawing, photography, or something else that sounds interesting.” 

Sparking your creative drive is an effective way to increase your potential for feeling great, achieving goals and inspiring yourself through your accomplishments. However, it can also be a distraction from a feel-bad lifestyle, if it’s not maintained with a purpose in mind. Whenever you’re working on a project, creative or not, that truly inspires you, you’ll activate your ‘flow state,’ where time and space seem to stand still. So how to you determine what it is that truly inspires you?

The most important goal in revealing your most authentic creative energy is to remove the creative energies of other people from your life. So many of us look up to the creations of others, whether works of art or music, and their works or talents take up time and space in our own minds. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it can influence your own beliefs about what you can create. If you compare yourself to others and minimize yourself, you’ll repress your own creative ability. This can affect your dopamine levels, because if you can’t see your own creations as rewarding to you, as much as someone else’s, you’ll feel inferior and incapable.

One very effective way of neutralizing the influence other people have on your mind is to literally look at the negatives or downsides of their accomplishment. This isn’t to practice being a critic, but it can enable you to de-infatuate with their creative powers, helping you to stop minimizing your own. Once you recognize that your creative endeavors can exist on the level of those you admire, through practice (just like they did), you’ll increase your ability to see your own creations as meaningful and rewarding.

So, to avoid having to regularly boost the ego to be a happy person, get creative and accomplished and gain self belief.

Opportunities!!!

I'm absolutely done with my bread and butter work, I'm at the stage where I can hardly face doing it, it's soul destroying.  Its making me a person I don't want to be, arrogant and generally disinterested in people except for the deigned few.  I've had to put up with such crap and on Friday I was in tears with an arrogant arsehole photographer who had the audacity to click his fingers at me to show him to part of the venue he didn't know how to get to.  Seriously!!  London just can't come fast enough ,- get me out of Glasgow asap. 

Working in customer service is so demoralising. Managers pass the buck to front line staff, the public are arseholes who seem to think it's OK to demonstrate someone else's actions and put their hands round your neck and when foreign event photographers are clicking their fingers at you it's beyond acceptable. I'm a smart, motivated person and I'm now pushed past my limit.

So ahead of doing my styling courses I'm looking for the jobs I can seriously consider in a short enough time to come and they're blowing my mind!!  I felt sucker punched on Friday and now my mind is blown with the possibility of going from one extreme to the other, and I know I'm perfectly capable of it.  Life - you rollercoaster!!!

Take this opportunity:http://www.retailchoice.com/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=66094720&WT.mc_id=A_RE_IDPPC_MP0_ORG_0  and this one http://www.indeed.co.uk/viewjob?jk=00e4b4d9fedd7c52&from=myjobs&tk=1ap3cjvh317hj4kk

I just need the years experience under my belt.This is certainly pushing my motivation to keep moving in this direction, and back to the right level of work for me, a decent job with excellent pay with high calibre companies (still hanging on to the BBC memories, I know where I'm meant to be!)  At home I'm no longer being busy for the sake of being busy, but properly channelling my energies towards proper goals and feel more professional than I have - I have aims in mind and focus to get there (I always did have the focus to achieve, but it was the goal itself that was vague and uncertain).  This future seems like it's going to fit me nicely thank you very much.

Shoppist favourites

I recently became a Personal Shopper with new online personal shopping service Shoppist and have selected some more of my favourite clothes for my new clientele in addition to the pieces I've selected on my profile.  Shoppist is a personal shopper app whose job is to search online on behalf of the customer and get more relevant products sourced from the entire web.  Shoppist is for those who are tired of spending hours searching online and not being able to find the right product.

You can hire your personal shopper for free whose job is to search online on your behalf and curate most relevant products specifically for you out of entire shopping universe (Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Snapdeal, Myntra, Zovi, Fashionara and many more).
 
While shopping online, if you've experienced getting bombarded with too many irrelevant choices, keeping multiple shopping apps feels like a mess, you feel confused about the style that suits you and disappointment about  missing the most relevant deals then… Shoppist is the solution for you - currently available on Android playstore. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shoppist.app).  The startup app was founded by IT Roorkee graduates with the vision to make shopping easier, developed and based in India

With this being an Indian based company, there are a lot of stunning items from that country including clothing and homeware.  I've always been attracted to the bright jewel colours of the clothing and I'm very struck by the style of the clothing so I'm highlighting that today.  The dramatic colours, the shape and cut of the dresses to give them such flowing movement are beautiful and the bright gemstone jewellery finishes the stunning look.

From top row left to right:
Anarkali party wear suit (light pink and beige)  £18.51
Bollywood Shilpa Shetty silk party wear lehenga suit (pink)  £19.44
Georgette anarkali party wear suit (black)  £13.88

Second row:
Bollywood style lehenga choli (white and pink)  £63.41
Bollywood style raw silk lehenga choli (pink)  £42.75
Bollywood style black and neon yellow

£62.56

£62.56

  £62.56

Jewellery:
gold-plated austrian stone kundan blue necklace set  £11.10
Gold-plated austrian- tone purple kundan necklace set with maang tikka  £12.38
Pota kundan maroon and green-gold finish necklace set  £9.71

The best of the Grad shows

I've been to lots of the graduate fashion, jewellery, costume an product design shows in the last several weeks and I'm posting images of my favourites. I've been to just about all in Glasgow, and indulged myself in a trip to London to see Graduate Fashion Week at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane which was an exhibition and a half!!

First is a tiny selection of my absolute favourites.from Graduate Fashion Week:

 

The detail in the work on the shoulders of this jacket is brilliant and I love how this bright outfit completely comes to life when worn by a model in a shoot with as much energy as the vibrancy of the clothes

I loved these pieces which were the silhouettes of pieces from collections all done in voile to show just the design detail in the simplest way, they looked ethereal and ghost like to me.

Kelvin college in Glasgow is one of my favourites after I discovered the design talent and the tutor support a year ago, and I was really pleased to see the stunning designs this year.

Glasgow Caledonia University put on a great catwalk show with a lot of great designs.

Checkmate Behind The Scenes photos

Post Checkmate

I ran my first fashion show in nearly three years on Thursday 2 June and it went pretty well considering we had no rehearsal, there were too few models and make up artists.  Although I've been doing lots of invigilating shifts for bread'n'butter cash I didn't realise students would be concentrating on their graded unit pieces and other end of year work and unavailable to work on an event - doh! It was a low key show which I got through - I was pretty nervous before getting to the venue, setting up and running the show but once I got there and got into the work I was excited with the buzz.

Without a doubt I got quality over quantity and had a totally fantastic team, great backstage atmosphere and appreciation from the audience who were there.  So many people appreciate my vision and to be honest I'm bloody pleased with myself - there's been no textbook to follow in this career for me.  On the day, as Glynis (the choreographer and model) and I were discussing the concept, music and choreography I decided the way it was going was just to completely scrap any idea of this being close to a straight fashion show and go ahead and make it a performance piece and it worked wonderfully!  I conveyed the ideas I'd had for years and Glynis and the girls took it all on board and went with the flow - very improvised and it worked!

What I found difficult was having to communicate with many people needing to ask questions about different parts of the show and set up - it was switching from one train of thought, immediately jumping to another to communicate with someone else - from choreography to the backstage popup photography studio to sound tech to tickets! But it was such a buzz and an enriching experience .

I was congratulated on being to run a brilliant show, and one of the models who works in the venue was talking to me about running more shows there, and a couple of days after that someone I work with often on a bread'n'butter job and have been on a film with asked to join the team!!  Afterwards I had an odd feeling of plateauing, satisfied with my current level of achievement and waiting for the next motivation.  It was a weird feeling of not having someone I'm seeking to impress cos I'm the top dog!

The concept of the show was that Eris confronts the reality in a power struggle for everyman. The queen beats her opposition and releases the energy in people to achieve the potency of their own lives. The premise is the battle between the creative and corporate consumerism which the creatives ultimately win and take control of their future.

Making sense of styling - fashion psychology update

I'm still getting my head round the psychology of fashion and it's relationship with the ego, the characterisation of someone and fashion design as art.  As a stylist I'm not going to make people follow instructions about what should be in their wardrobe, I think they should have what's needed and wanted to put outfits together to enhance the person they are in a given situation, wearing clothes that suit their taste and reflect their lifestyle.  The starting point is to emulate the style of a favourite character in a similar scenario - visualise the person you want to be and use styling to create and develop that persona.  You want to take the essence of someone's energy and make it your own.

In trying to understand the nature of a shopaholic I see the use of clothing helps gain identity ie developing the ego.  The continued need for a lot of shopping reinforces that sense of self.  You need more individuality in a uniform environment like a corporate workplace or school - which is the time in your life you want to be individual but it would be more ideal if you got past that need once you've achieved self belief which is more difficult for some people.  I feel despondent when fashion is consumed by people who feel the need to constantly reward themselves to feel good - who can't express adequately by thoughts, feelings and actions and feel important via their core id.  Continually purchasing clothes is the best thing in their lives - that's my definition of retail therapy, the therapy being a means to gain positive reinforcement of their ego - they treat themselves to feel special because they don't have other adequate means to feel special, such as perceiving they're not loved, attractive, intelligent etc.  It sometimes seems this is the new salvation for unhappy souls.

Woman traditionally use fashion for recognition because men get recognition for their work talents automatically  Men traditionally receive recognition and expect it without doing any more than be themselves to get it.  The idea of "metrosexuals" is confusing to some guys, they don't get it.  The way I see it is in the context of manipulating society.  The hetero mans world just gets smaller so there's no place for him except the solace of his own headspace where he escapes by getting wankered on beer, fags and drugs..  He's rendered powerless by being made to be influenced by "metrosexuals".  Testosterone plays a part in motivation - if men are concerned  with focusing their energies on themselves and being approved of and appreciated they're not going to be asserive, defiant and rebel to become the authority figure.  This all goes towards calming defiance by realigning the priorities via manipulating the ego.

Lady Gaga's corralling the emos is why she's allowed and supported, it's not a genuine motivation to empower weaker people - once emos gain acceptance they'll probably lose their motivation and defiance.  I love LG's appreciation of high fashion and I see Couture as art.  The constant in your face marketing from the fast fashion industry makes me lose interest as it takes away what makes it special.  You can't be special every day - well, that's the point - it's filling a hole in the lives of people who need to be made to feel special every day because that's maybe all they have.  These are the folk who need to find a way to gain self belief beyond their image..  Once their needs are attended to and they don't rely on a quick fix consumer habit fashion can be serious once again.  Having watched a Vivienne Westwood interview I've found a great way to sum up my view: "Fashion is art and protest on the streets".

 William James, an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician was one of the leading thinkers of the late nineteenth century and is believed by many to be one of the most influential philosophers the United States has ever produced.  In  The Sartorial Self: William James’ philosophy of dress by Celia Watson I found many statements and paragraphs to help understand from other people’s points of view.

Neither in tailoring nor in legislating does man proceed by mere Accident, but the hand is ever guided on by mysterious operations of the mind. In all his Modes, and habilatory endeavors, an Architectural Idea will be found lurking; his Body and theCloth are the site and materials whereon and whereby his beautiful edifice, of a Person, is to be built.—Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus

Yet to many readers, an examination of James’s dress might seem a frivolous and trifling endeavor: The idea that any serious development of the personality takes place at the closet door will, at first blush, appear to exaggerate the importance of the mundane daily duty of dressing.  Furthermore, some readers may think a study of James’s clothing is downright petty: Is it not, after all, unfair to draw conclusions about a man on the basis of his appearance? (Celia Watson).

By Lotze: “On the contrary, the wearer herself is by feeling directly present in all the graceful curves that with feather weight touch but a few points of the skin, and yet through these points excite the most distinct sensation of the breath, lightness, and softness of their sweep. Nay, even the pleasure afforded by such a sight is derived far less from the pleasing effect of the drapery which we see than from the fact that we can transport ourselves by thought into the imaginative, joyous, or dainty vital feeling which the myriad petty impressions from the garments must infuse into the form which they conceal.”

From Lotze’s passage the reader can glean one clue to the importance James placed on clothes: They are capable of being felt as a part of the wearer’s own body, fabric extensions of the flesh.  James explained, “is the recognition one gets from his mates. We are not only gregarious animals, liking to be in sight of our fellows, but we have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind.”

Going further to describe the fact that we choose what we wear “the free man can—and must—decide. He issues, from within his spiritual self, a “fiat of the will.” Although habit may ensure that a person leaves the house with shoes tied and pants zipped, it is the spiritual self that decides on the particular colour, fabric, and cut of the trousers and whether the shoes will be leather, or canvas, or otherwise.  Thus, in the daily act of dressing, the individual deliberates; he chooses what information he wishes to convey about himself, what garments he wants to don as extensions of his own body, and which elements of his wardrobe best reflect his idea of himself. Clothing is a form of self-expression, a way to allude to attributes of one’s most essential being, one’s place in the world, or one’s sense of beauty. Kingfishers catch fire, politicians wear red ties; the self announces its attributes with clothing..”  To William James, clothing was about self-remembrance and self-awareness—not “self-forgetfulness” as was the etiquette of clothing at the time, to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

Several historians have pointed to the relationship between James’s literary style and his artistic sensibility; his appearance gave color and atmosphere to his philosophy. John Dewey wrote that “[James] was an artist who gave philosophic expression to the artist’s sense of the unique, and to his love of the individual.”

James recognized that certain choices—decisions about dress among them—were necessary in defining the self.  James’s clothes were appropriate to his personality, to his writing, and to his thought. His thinking was marked by color and creativity, and in his dress he made choices that signified—and perhaps contributed to—those attributes.  Our actions and decisions he would argue, chart a course for our minds, while simultaneously our minds are reflected in our outward selves.

Clarity Thanks fo Mr Motivation

A year ago was the beginning of when I started to thoroughly think a lot of things through to be able to define my outlook on life properly.  Due to a project idea someone had wanted my collaboration with which had a load of exciting potential to be artistically and culturally provocative, my head was full of alternative thoughts,  The exciting, crazier ideas were meant to develop a film project to appeal to a more edgy community.  I was getting further from conventional  with a kind of permanent over excited hyperactive state of mind and frustration with ordinary living, aware I was being too surreal in my creativity and wanted to suppress that too irreverent thinking to be less out there but I was relishing it at the time, it was putting lots of new information and ideas into my head..  As it happened, the person who came up with the idea had  no motivation for this so it came to nothing: great pity as I thought it was a marvellous idea but it's maybe best left alone.  As I said in a previous post I was quite demoralised with other things so this was a great focus for my attention and distracted me from any lethargy I felt, though when you're needing inspired it's hard to put what there is of your energy towards getting someone else directed to something that's stirred your own imagination.

Last year there was someone who instigated me to realign my focus - I was concerned he'd think of me as a dilettante with crazy ideas, which I can be but it's predominantly not me, I'm too focused - or so I'd like to think :)  He showed me there were still motivated people like I was used to growing up and not just feckers - most people are content plodding on and don't have a structure or direction.  So I started working on my business brain to develop a route to get where I wanted to be instead of making and taking opportunities as they arose or I had time and imagination to develop them.  I've achieved focus on styling and have theories about the psychology of fashion which make sense to me.

I've looked back and realised the effect situations have had on life.  Through these situations changing my perspective I've experienced confusion and seen how making the best of bad circumstances changes your focus: you go with new ideas and plans because they have potential at the time.  But I didn't want to be too surreal and lose any ability to relate to people on a normal level, which can be easy to do if you open your mind up and get frustrated by closed minds.  I wanted to be predominantly business like rather than arty farty dilletante.

As I had a very professional class background, my parents living a non arty consumer lifestyle and living in middle class Bearsden  where the expectation was after school you'd go to uni to study English, medicine, psychology or something similar.  My upbringing alongside my imagination made it quite difficult to resolve conflict between the two states if mind, and without courses or structure to develop a career plan I had to make it up as I went along, which has been great fun but the lack of trajectory has been frustrating, but in hindsight I wouldn't change it given the experiences I've had and the people I've met.  I've had to rely on my creative talents because I missed so much school - when you're channeled one way but you instinctively want to go another and you're not in the optimum environment to make it successful it's frustrating.

Now my business brain has centred it all and brought focus to the sometimes frenetic creativity.  Too much mental stimulation can sometimes cause confusion, not knowing where to start or what to do with the ideas.  I've made sense of it now .  I can take my creativity seriously and now want to be professional and in some ways a conventional professional.  I thrive on productive stress and hate stress I get with unproductive frustration.

Combining my desire for cultural and societal development I'm thinking how to conceive a progressive independent business, by taking our current conventional structure and figure out how to work independently beyond and around it to  succeed independently.  That's where I'm at now and finding out there are a lot more like minded people than I'd previously thought, and that there are larger support networks for these micro businesses.  I reckon this whole process has been about trying to put ideas into a workable framework, having to figure it out as you go along because the concept of microbusinesses in this currently scale is fairly new after so many people deciding to do their own thing after the economic crash.  I think a lot of us are having to find our feet and our direction.  I feel much more confident about my capabilities and my clear route forward which is fantastic :)

Checkmate Fashion Show

Eris confronts the reality in a power struggle for everyman. The queen beats her opposition and releases the energy in people to achieve the potency of their own lives. The premise is the battle between the creative and corporate consumerism which the creatives ultimately win and take control of their future.

Exciting Scottish designers are showcasing their talent in an exciting performance fashion show. There will be a retail area so you can buy directly from designers on the night.

Buy your tickets from Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/checkmate-tickets-25693394635

Creative Therapy

Being creative can make someone a happier person by enabling them to express their ideas instead of facilitating someone else's.  It has a beneficial impact on ego and self belief by enabling a level of productivity and accomplishment through a tangible body of work other people can appreciate.

By developing precision skills and creating something of value while taking pleasure in the creative process itself, developing a portfolio which pleases the maker and is admired by other people you get a fundamental self satisfaction which boosts the ego and can go beyond that to enhancing self belief in abilities and talent.

Creative thinkers enjoy challenges, analysing and coming up with an interpretation of something.  By thinking outside the box your life can work much better for you.

Thinking ambitiously and creatively enables new opportunities, although in our commercial business focused world it can be difficult to make progress as quickly as you might like.  There's too much empirical control for a real free market so we end up with a bottleneck and unfulfilled achievers.  The example I can site best is the Scottish creative industry where it's fragmented, unorganised and very few people can slip through the bottleneck to move away from the part time jobs and make a good living doing something interesting which would really benefit the economy.  Sourcing designers for fashion shows disappoints me as I find many talented people who have gone through university and have brilliant conceptual ideas working in the fashion industry only as a sales assistant or visual merchandiser, not being able to fulfill their creativity but falling in line with an old fashioned structure, following someone else's lead, not developing ideas and new concepts.  We need investment to enable big projects to allow greater economic growth beyond retail.

This is a high cost country, so we need high cost companies investing but in addition to big ideas we need solid business plans.  As stated in this article, historically too often tricks are missed; as it states "offering a way out of our decaying industrial past, a pathway from an old world to a new" we need to keep progressing to find new ways of doing things as the old world fades and "Scotland could break free of its old economy shackles" if only we consistently had faith in our abilities.  Sometimes I really wonder why the government doesn't try to attract new high end industry, though I understand the established method of control.  It would be anarchy if people were being entrepreneurial and making good money and getting leisure time en masse and actually having power to run their own lives rather than staying safely in their routines and behaving quietly.. Truly, anarchy is not rebellious bad behaviour, it's progress beyond the established control; thinking for yourself and growing your life the way you want, not in the construct deemed desirable for all.

It's high time to reject the current wearing you out at work lifestyles, ie work your ass off for a meagre reward and get pissed, the quick route to finding your own headspace and feeling slightly rebellious again.  The twisted psychology of the system has a negative effect on everyone and consumerism is exploitation of the ego.  We now have lots of means of self expression, it's time to move it up a level to the next stage of consciousness beyond ego-driven self expression through image.  

Modern life can't give people the opportunities to live their lives their own way eg choosing suitable and enjoyable jobs with sensible hours as then then they wouldn't be controlled and would have time to think.  Controlling people doesn't utilise capabilities to best effect and makes for a lot of dissatisfaction.

You've got to work out how to renegotiate your way through this greed world to stay independent: to me that means being as self sufficient as possible and making authority irrelevant.  Being creative in its many forms can help you see what your talents are and utilise these to become this self sufficient person who doesn't rely on approval to have self belief.  Investing in your independent thoughts is investing in the control of your future.