Ever since I arrived in Nottingham I have realised just how many events and opportunities are going on in this city at all times! I almost feel overwhelmed by the amount of things I wish to go to and see (particularly high on my list at the moment are the Nottingham Contemporary and the Nottingham Playhouse), but if I do miss an event, I try to convince myself that there will certainly not be shortage of fun or interesting things to do over the next three years.
One of such events was a vintage fair, hosted by Lou Lou's Vintage Fair, which I heard was being held at the Albert Hall in Nottingham last Sunday. I was unsure whether to go or not as I had a lot of work to do and reading to catch up on, but in the end I'm glad I did. I feel that they did a pretty good job at capturing the vintage atmosphere (they even had a live singer performing a few classics) and some of the stands were actually gorgeous. I especially liked the homeware and pottery sections, I kind of wish I had taken some of those flowery teacups back home with me!
Here are a few snaps I managed to take on the day:
One of such events was a vintage fair, hosted by Lou Lou's Vintage Fair, which I heard was being held at the Albert Hall in Nottingham last Sunday. I was unsure whether to go or not as I had a lot of work to do and reading to catch up on, but in the end I'm glad I did. I feel that they did a pretty good job at capturing the vintage atmosphere (they even had a live singer performing a few classics) and some of the stands were actually gorgeous. I especially liked the homeware and pottery sections, I kind of wish I had taken some of those flowery teacups back home with me!
Here are a few snaps I managed to take on the day:
The fashion world was recently shaken by the unexpected news that Raf Simons, who has been Dior's artistic director for the last three and a half years, has decided to step down and part ways with the historic French fashion house. To me personally this news came as slightly eerie and with uncanny timing, as only three days prior to Simons's announcement I got the chance to see the movie 'Dior & I', which documents the designer's arrival to Dior's atelier in Paris and the putting together of his very first haute couture collection.
In the movie, director Frédéric Tcheng draws some compelling parallels between archival footage of Christian Dior in the late 1940s (accompanied by a voice-over reading excerpts taken from Dior's own autobiography) and present scenes of Raf Simons, which I thought brilliantly mirrored Simons's own focus as newly-appointed creative director to juxtapose Dior's historic codes and classic "New Look" tailoring with his own twists of modernity and dynamism.
I want [the collection] to be dynamic, because I find women very dynamic.
Raf Simons
Whether you personally like his designs or not (I know I do), Raf Simons's time in Dior has certainly made an impact. He cast away the dark shadow of John Galliano's scandalous layoff from the house (which had the potential to seriously damage the brand's international image) and brought in a breath of fresh air thanks to his eye for modernity, bold colour combinations and clean lines, whilst at the same time keeping true to Dior's confident and timelessly feminine aesthetic. "I think it is rather challenging to face a legacy which is so gigantic and is so sublime", he comments in the film. It was also disclosed by Sydney Toledano, Dior's current CEO, that the brand's sales rose by a whopping 60% since 2011.
When you tell someone you're going to work for Dior, that's a lot of weight on your shoulders, because this house has so much DNA that it'll be hard to find creative freedom. It scared us a little. I was scared a little.
Pieter Mulier, Raf's "right-hand man", on joining Dior
Since taking up his role in April 2012, Simons has worked on an astounding 20 collections, and with each and every one he helped modernise and revitalise the house's haute couture and ready-to-wear looks. I especially love the way he manages to incorporate some of his inspirations from outside of fashion directly into his designs – which really comes as no surprise once you learn that he started off as an industrial and furniture designer, has been an architecture scholar since his very early days in the industry, and owns his own private art collection which includes several pieces by Sterling Ruby, one of said inspirations right from his first Dior collection.
Raf Simons for Christian Dior, AW12 Haute Couture (Simons's debut). Paintings by Sterling Ruby were incorporated through warp printing, a difficult fabric technique, to add movement.
Raf Simons for Jil Sanders, SS12. Designs inspired by Picasso's paintings.
Raf Simons for Christian Dior, AW13. Designs based on Andy Warhol’s works.
Raf Simons SS13 Menswear. Designs inspired by Brian Calvin's paintings.
Raf's announcement has placed a big question mark on Christian Dior's future, as candidates for their next creative director are yet to be declared. In the meantime, the Belgian designer is planning to dedicate more time to other ongoing projects in his life, namely his own brand – which is understandable considering the insane amount of time and work a fashion house the likes of Dior requires: with no less than six shows per year, there is a lot of pressure on fast ideas and fast delivery. And, by his own admission, Raf is not one to work at his best in this kind of fast-paced environment: "I’m not the kind of person who likes to do things so fast. I think if I had more time, I would reject more things, and bring other ideas or concepts in". Taking the time to reframe his artistic process rhythms and to add a new sense of proportion to his work may just be the chance for him to explore new ideas as deeply as he feels fit in order to achieve a more grounded sense of professional gratification.
When you do six shows a year, there’s not enough time for the whole process. Technically, yes — the people who make the samples, do the stitching, they can do it. But you have no incubation time for ideas, and incubation time is very important. When you try an idea, you look at it and think, "Hmm, let’s put it away for a week and think about it later". But that’s never possible when you have only one team working on all the collections.
Raf Simons
I am definitely curious to see who will take over Raf Simons's legacy and how they will give their own interpretation to Monsieur Dior's original philosophy. At the same time, I look forward to seeing more of Raf Simons's work, especially within his own brand where he is allowed complete creative freedom and has no one to measure himself against but himself.
Even though I have travelled to England many times (and even lived for about 10 months with a local family just south of London), Nottingham was never one of my destinations. As most other people (especially from out of the UK) I had of course heard of it as the land of Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham; but that's really all I knew about it before I moved in.
So what better way of getting to know the city than to do a treasure hunt?
During our first week we were split up in groups of five and sent off with nothing more than a map and a list of clues. Our lecturers seem to rather like the "small & independent" as opposed to the "big & mainstream" (which is great!), therefore most of the sites on our list were cool, sometimes proper hidden shops and cafés that just added to my already very positive impression of this city. I have no doubt that I will be going back to some of these places and actually spend some time to take it all in - especially around the Creative Quarter.
Alongside exploring and noting down the names of the shops, we were also meant to document our little adventure through photos and make a collage out of them. It wasn't too easy to get properly organised with my group, especially since it was still Freshers' Week and we were all busy buzzing around the campus to try new things and meet new people, but the collage up there is what we came up with in the end.
Here's some more photos that weren't included in the final collage, in random order:
So what better way of getting to know the city than to do a treasure hunt?
During our first week we were split up in groups of five and sent off with nothing more than a map and a list of clues. Our lecturers seem to rather like the "small & independent" as opposed to the "big & mainstream" (which is great!), therefore most of the sites on our list were cool, sometimes proper hidden shops and cafés that just added to my already very positive impression of this city. I have no doubt that I will be going back to some of these places and actually spend some time to take it all in - especially around the Creative Quarter.
Alongside exploring and noting down the names of the shops, we were also meant to document our little adventure through photos and make a collage out of them. It wasn't too easy to get properly organised with my group, especially since it was still Freshers' Week and we were all busy buzzing around the campus to try new things and meet new people, but the collage up there is what we came up with in the end.
Here's some more photos that weren't included in the final collage, in random order:
To ease into induction week and to get into the visually-oriented mindset that we will need during our course, we started off with a screening of the movie/documentary 'Bill Cunningham New York' by Richard Press. The movie was a fresh and insightful view into the life of 80+ New York-based legendary photographer Bill Cunningham, a man who almost entirely dedicated his whole life to his work and passion: street style. As I watched him go about his daily routine, carefully inspect the hems of the skirts of the women passing by on the pavement, and sometimes even chase an eye-catching outfit through heavily-trafficked streets, I couldn't help but feel utter admiration towards this man. His dedication to clothes and his talent in spotting trends as they are born among the widely-varied New Yorker crowds were beyond inspiring, especially when topped by his humility and sense of humour.
"We all get dressed for Bill."
Anna Wintour
His philosophy? "If you don't take money, they can't tell you what to do". And he most certainly lives by it. For the sake of preserving his artistic freedom, Cunningham has rejected most of the material goods that the majority of people in our society would consider mandatory: a private bathroom, a kitchen and a closet full of clothes. His tiny flat being essentially a storage for his negatives and photographs, he spends his days by cycling through the streets of New York to spot new and recurring trends, selecting which photos to keep (very few are actually published) and putting them together to write an article on whatever trend has caught his eye. His work is his life and his life is his work.
It was also interesting to hear his opinions circa the fashion industry as a whole and the glamour and glitter that this environment is drenched in. He is clearly fascinated by it, but at the same time he prefers to keep his distance from it. Cunningham successfully made a name of himself in the fashion world even though his persona doesn't exactly match the dazzling, gleaming socialite image: an aged man, very reserved, living the humble life, who has been wearing the same cheap blue coat for several decades, and who simply doesn't participate in the glittering fashion events and parties that he attends as a mere photographer, never a guest. As if he were staring through a looking glass, he observes but doesn't touch, documents but doesn't get involved. He wants to be invisible; which is what differentiates him from the aggressive paparazzi.
I have definitely enjoyed watching this movie and found it to be quite the perfect start to this course. As a movie junkie myself I can hardly hide my excitement for the Film Club sessions we are going to be having on each Monday afternoon, and I look forward to finding inspiration as to how to integrate my love for movies and TV into my own visual communication concept.
"Bill on Bill" - NYTimes.com
"Why Bill Cunningham is actually the most interesting person at Fashion Week" - Huffington Post
"Bill Cunningham New York" (2010) - IMDb
photo credits:
the sartorialist
As this is my first proper blog, I figured introductions are mandatory. So, hello! My name is Benedetta but most people here call me Betty – and by “here” I mean the UK, for, no, I am not from here. I was born and raised in Italy, more precisely in the North-East of the “Boot”, somewhere near Venice. I am not, however, completely new to Great Britain as I have visited every country in it except one (Northern Ireland, I’m looking at you). As a matter of fact, I even lived in South-East London for about 10 months back when I was 17, when I decided I would join that selected (but ever-growing) group of teenagers who are completely bonkers and move to a foreign country as exchange students. But that’s another story.
My dream since I was an early teen was to be an actress. I just completely fell in love with theatre and cinematography and for many years I simply could not see myself as being anything else, which lead to more than some discords with my family. When the time came for drama school auditions, however, I found myself unable to go through. This is when I decided to move to Vienna, where my boyfriend is currently studying, and take an extra year to think about myself and my future; thankfully, I managed that and more, as I was able to learn a new language from scratch (and one that I discovered I really enjoy – German) and put aside some money (which I subsequently proceeded to spend on a two-week backpacking trip to South-East Asia with said boyfriend – but, again! That is another story).
So, here am I, currently a first year student at Nottingham Trent University even though I am about to turn 21 (though it would be great if you didn’t remind me of that, thank you). I have to admit: fashion is a sector that never would I (and most people who know me) have thought I would be getting into. I’m afraid this is largely due to the stigma that surrounds the industry (something that I found myself face a lot ever since I accepted my offer at NTU), which tends to be painted as the industry of everything frivolous, materialistic and shallow. It is also because, growing up, I was never the stereotypical little girl who loves dolls and pink dresses, and I later found some of my main interests to lie within more intellectual areas ‒ such as philosophy, sociology, feminism and even science. I suppose I was always drawn towards the idea of being well-rounded as an individual, and I always struggled to stick to only one area, one activity, one project – constantly changing my mind, repeatedly reaching out for something new. Nevertheless, when my dreams of being a movie star were shattered and I started gloomily navigating through the UCAS website searching for a subject that could appeal to me, I knew only one thing: it had to be something creative. There just was no way around it. Whatever career path I would choose, it needed to be an environment where I have to create something. And so, FCP it was.
I feel like, compared to some of my course mates, I probably don’t have as much of a background in fashion or even just art and design, seeing as in Italy high schools don’t offer much choice on that (common A Level or BTEC subjects such as Textiles, Business, Media and Photography are non-existent in Italian schools), but I know I am a fast learner and I am confident that I will find my own way to interpret the tasks we will be assigned, and give them my own spin. I know my way around Photoshop and coding already, and have been toying around with drawing and photography for a few years, but of course all that has always only been on the side of my main studies. Therefore, I look forward to being part of a course with a much more overall creative focus than I’ve ever been used to, and I am excited (and frankly a little nervous) to measure myself and my creative skills against actual professionals.
So, that is all from me for now! Hopefully I didn't bore you too much and if you decide to stick around, you'd be sure to make my day.
Over and out.
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