St Andrew's Fashion Festival

I was at another emerging fashion event on Saturday 11 Feb, St Andrew's Fashion Festival at the Byre Theatre which was a small event with several stands run by local businesses, and this was the first event in a five year plan and the fashion show showcased fashion from local boutiques.
This is another great emerging idea which I hope will become part of the hub of fashion companies around Scotland which I hope will grow together to develop a proper industry providing opportunities and support for those wanting to make a career in fashion possible in Scotland.

There was a good competition for emerging designers and the event got some good local press coverage: fifetoday.co.uknew fashion festival for st andrews. Here's a link to photos from the show: facebook.com/media.

To keep up to date with the news on social media here are links:
facebookStAndrewsFF

Fashion PR - first client!

I'm developing a fashion PR company, intended to represent independent and emerging designers in Scotland and today was the first meeting with a designer client.  Toco Fashion and I first met at the Checkmate fashion show last May and then did a shoot in early Autumn and she is originally a milliner who designs amazing hats as well as some beautiful clothing and is a designer I'm incredibly pleased to be working for.

She was already familiar with the aims and ethos of my idea, and to take it further I need to hear exactly what the designers need me to do on their behalf beyond what I've already got in mind.  We had a lengthy conversation to establish what's required and once I got home I started working on that list.  I'm looking forward to seeing the first round of results which will be a lookbook and a revamped website.

She's currently planning a new collection and is at the pattern cutting stage and it sounds like a stunning, luxury resort collection.  Amazing things are taking shape!

Gaelstrom

I've been developing a magazine in my spare time over the last year and published the first issue today - I hope you enjoy Gaelstrom.  It is a melting pot of Scottish creative and cultural expression. 

Gaelstrom is about the Scottish creative industry: we've got a massive wealth of talent, productivity and inspiration.   and the purpose of the magazine is documenting and writing contemporary urban legends, alongside commentary on affairs, opinions and culture. We seek to look positively at the future to see how we can create opportunities and inspiration; to examine what Scotland's attitude is, not continue to demonstrate it's image of being tartan-tastic. I want to portray the issues we face factually and then discuss the progression we can make together.

We'll continue to be captivated by mystica themes and fantasy - that's our Celtic heritage, but will define our identity beyond the tourist perception of Brigadoon and Wee Jock. We've developed way beyond that.

I hope you enjoy this first edition and I encourage contributions for future issues.

Fashion References

I've found a few references recently so thought I'd put links to them here.

First there's Amanda Hallay's YouTube Channel The Ultimate Fashion History with a huge quantity of videos I'm working my way through from Vikings to the 1950s.  There's also a Facebook group.

This is a lovely bit of British history - a website with images from Kays Catalogue: World Of Kays which shows hundreds of images from the catalogues from the 1920s and accurately described as "social history in a book.  Having been published twice each year since the 1890s, Kays catalogues represent a fascinating archive of the way we lived in the past.  Not only are contemporary fashions included but there are also household items and luxury goods, thereby allowing the whole picture of life in past times to be examined."


 


Above: Ladies dresses in the 1930s



Above: Ladies dresses in the 1950s



1960s



1970s

It's fantastic to get these pieces of history, even better to remember the items from your own lifetime.

2017: So far, so good and looking better.

The new year so far has been good.  I've worked with a London stylist on a short film production called A Take Of Free Fittings, about a real charity, Suited And Booted, which helps vulnerable men prepare for job interviews to get their lives back on track by looking professional in order to make the best first impression they can.  On the Friday before the first production day I was running around all over London, or so it felt, doing picks ups,  buying costumes and props for filming on the Saturday and Sunday.  I loved working with Laetitia, the rest of the cast, crew and contributors were great and I loved chatting to Maria who runs Suited And Booted.

The Friday's shopping was a great way to get to know London, and it included a drop off to Burberry on New Bond Street and then to a lovely boutique, Donna Ida, in another part of London.  People have been really helpful with directions and I'm managing to learn my way around quite quickly.  The days on set were quite long but I was kept busy with getting things that were still needed and definitely made myself a good team member.

During conversation Maria told me about another charity which does the same assistance for women, and this organisation, Smart Works, has a branch in Edinburgh.  I tweaked my Image Consultant CV and sent it off with the application form and I'm going for a chat and to see their set up on Friday, so hopefully I'll be volunteering with them soon.

I've got another film coming up back in London in February, a fantastic horror-style music video in Glasgow later in Feb, then a beautiful fantasy shoot and I'm planning to run an editorial styling workshop with a photographer at his studio so have the trial run of that coming up!  I've also got flyers to distribute to attract new image consultancy clients.  And the icing on that massive layer cake is that I've been asked to style a show at Ibiza Fashion Festival in June which I'm stoked about!

Incredibly busy eh?  I'll need to work out the priority list to make it all function well ☺

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.