Monday 28 November 2016

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

Tuesday 1 November 2016

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.