Interesting Adidas Quote

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am quite the adidas fan recently and with one of my recent purchases of super star trainers I got this in the box. It was on a piece of card and as I was about to put the box away (with the rest of my random shoe boxes with absolutely nothing in) I noticed it inside and found it quite nice. It made me think what adidas may have meant by it and what I got from it was they are not interested in just the followers the approval and getting all the attenetion etc, but just care about their brand and their brand being what they want! -- I am sure this is more than likely to be completely wrong -- what message did you get from it?

Whether my idea of the meaning is right or wrong or neither, I thought it was a nice and different thing to have with the purchase and made me think of what adidas is like as a brand if anything!

Gym wear -- even on non-gym days

Two of my absolute favourite things are fashionable items and comfortable clothing -- and today due to gym wear being a fashionable thing to wear whenever, means these two combined is now possible.

Gym wear can be bought in many mass market shops today unlike before when people would most likely have to go to sports shops to buy their sports clothing. This is due to the fact sportswear, trainers in particular are a big fashion trend today and I buy my sportswear clothing and accessories from ASOS, Topshop and New Look mostly.

These days I find myself wearing leggings and trainers with a sports jacket most days --- (because they are just so nice and comfy). Even going shopping I would just put on some gym wear type clothing and be good to go, whereas this would not have been the case a couple years ago.

Below is a typical outfit I would wear going out during the day whether to the shops or for a walk -- leggings, a baggy comfy top and trainers.

Kim Kardashian is also showing a similar style as she was spotted wearing cropped leggings with trainers walking about with her sunglasses and handbag to add extra style to the outfit.

www.pinterest.com

It is also interesting as recently I joined the gym by my uni and the people there actually wear nice gym clothes. Whilst the guys mostly wear shorts or trackies with a baggy top and nike trainers mostly, the girls seem to wear coloured leggings, a vest top over a coloured sports bra with nike trainers mostly also. Although now I wear these to the gym, to be honest my gym wear does not differ much to what I wear going anywhere else haha!

GLASSES..NOT SO UNCOOL NOW

It is quite interesting thinking back to being in primary and high school when it was seen as an uncool thing to wear glasses, yet today, people are seen wearing them who do not even need them.

I never actually wore glasses in primary or high school but it only came to my attention at the start of sixth form that I actually had pretty bad eye sight. Despite this I literally did everything to avoid having to get glasses until eventually after going for an eye test and being given prescription glasses to wear.

Being honest for my time at sixth form in the beginning of getting my glasses in particular I would put them on as I entered my classes and take them off as soon as the lesson ended. The most annoying thing I find about them is the fact they ruin my make up as they print on to my face (because that's way more important than me being able to see I know). However, I soon got over this when I wore them walking from class to class and received many compliments as the ones I wore were 'geek' style big ones. Interestingly lots of people who never wore glasses before started wearing these particular style of glasses around the same time also. Many people also started wearing them that did not even have bad eye sight but just wanted to wear them by choice.

Now at uni I wear my glasses everyday -- (not actually walking around although I should) but always in my lessons and lectures and don't mind anymore as I can now think of them as partly being a fashion statement.

Also, many celebrities including Niall Horan have been seen wearing glasses as fashion items which I think has also made wearing glasses a fashionable thing these days. In One Direction's latest music video 'History' Niall is wearing large geek style frames which in fact gave me the inspiration to write this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjmp8CoZBIo

Other celebrities including Zac Efron and Selena Gomez have also been seen wearing the large 'ray ban' style frames as shown below!

www.fanforum.com

www.tumblr.com

My Summative Brief has come to an end!

I have come back to my flat feeling such relief as I have officially got my brief work printed and bound so it is ready to be handed in.

The photos below show the end result of my work if you are interested in having a little look!

(You can see my progress from researching fur and how it is used in different products to how I reached my final 'big idea'.)

Summative Brief Progress

I have been working for the past 5 weeks on my summative brief and I have finally almost completed it. As I mentioned before my trend category is fur so I did research ad analysed fur within fashion and also in a broader context. For the broader part I researched other non-clothing fur items (cosy interiors, vehicle products and fur print designs). Then I researched and explained how fur being worn has changed throughout the years from the 1920's to 2000's which I found quite interesting.

For the final task it involved me having to come up with my own 'Big Idea' involving fur. This took such time and patience (..and lots of terrible ideas) until I finally decided on what my official one would be. Due to the fact immediately when I think of fur I think of warmth and cosiness, so I thought this matches perfectly with skiing and ski wear. After lots of research and planning I decided to design the layout for a shop window for a ski shop which featured fur heavily. The design involved skis being covered in fur and piled up on top of each other in the shape of a mountain. Then there would be manikins in ski positions wearing fur ski wear on top of the 'mountain'.

(..here are a few images of the black and white practice print out of my brief)

LARUICCI MEGAWATT JEWELRY - NY!

On the fashion tour day in New York we also visited Lauren Ruicci, a fashion jeweler designer. She gave us a talk about her career and how it progressed. I found it so interesting listening to how she got her big break when her jewelry featured in the Beyonce 'Run The World' music video.

The Fashion Tour Day in NYC!

Friday was a great yet very busy day as we went to a fashion garment tour day with the uni people. We had a tour leader who was very enthusiastic and brought us to MOOD fabrics which was full of designer fabrics. We did a short but very fun activity wherewe explored the different types of fabrics!

Then we were given a talk from two bloggers who were so inspiring. They said how their blog began years ago before blogging became a big thing and they did not even have a proper understanding of what blogs even were. They have known eachother for most their lives and since a very young age they shared clothes. Then when they went to university they started up a blog to keep each other up to date with what they have each bought (so the other will own when the reunite). To their amaze they were told that this blog of theirs had a large number of followers and it built up and now the blog is their career.

The wanderlust girls -  scoscoop.com

We were then taken to a shop which sold all types of fashion magazines from around the world (Around the world fashion publications). We looked around at the individual magazines for a while and then listened to a PR girl abut her job and how she started in her career. I found it particularly inspiring and I left feeling more confident about the different careers in the fashion industry and motivated to become part of it!

Shop layouts in New York

The shop window displays and inside layouts certainly caught my eye whilst shopping in New York. The first image is of a random shop we came across in Soho which I thought was very cool especially because of the lights on the ceiling. Some of the clothes were hung in cool cut out areas as shown in the top image at the back of the room with lights on top so the clothes stand out which I thought was attractive and unique.

We also visited plenty of other shops and the images below just show a few of the cool places I liked. The trainer shop 'Fight Club' was amazing as there were loads of different types of trainers across all the walls and the shoes were vacuum formed. The price difference of the trainers was crazy as some trainers were $60 and others $600. They also had a cabinet at the back of the shop which had one of a kind trainers which were ridiculously expensive but I thought it was a pretty cool idea. 

Opening Ceremony was another cool shop and we spent ages walking around inside wishing I could buy everything (literally). The window display featuring fur caught my eye, particularly because of my summative brief task being all about fur so I can include that photo in it.

...other photos of attractive stores that caught my eye

My First Day in New York

My course friends and I all set our alarms for 8am so we were ready to explore New York City by 9am. I could not get over the height of the buildings -- (I was literally walking around the city looking up constantly). I also could not get over the business of it as the roads are constantly crazy busy with cars beeping all the time and people everywhere. Although I am used to the business of London, New York was strangely a different kind of busy I thought. 

I took loads of photos --- I have selected a few of the good ones to show here.

I loved the whole atmosphere of New York as it had a lively feel due to the huge number of people around all day everyday. There were some amazing buildings and decorations on them which I have shown below. I thought the lit up walk way was very pretty and it created a nice feel as I walked through it.

BACK FROM THE BEST TRIP

I am currently sat in my bedroom in London feeling absolutely exhausted yet buzzing and so happy after the best trip in New York. I also feel so confused with what is going on to be honest because mentally for me it is only 8am (American time) so I think the jet lag is starting to affect me now.

My journey to America started off eventful as anything that could have gone wrong for my friends and I - did! (But to be honest it made it more fun so it's fine) It began when I was given the wrong boarding pass which was going to some other country so I had to get mine reprinted, then my friend Lillie was stopped by security and had to get her bag searched so already we were behind the rest of the people on our course but it sure made it eventful. Then as we finally got past security Lillie realised she forgot to bring her foundation so we had a mad rush to buy one involving her having a full make over in Mac and then us realising we had 10 minutes to run to the gate to board the plane -- we made it and then had a chilled journey. However the relaxation did not last long as I had to have my whole suitcase emptied and searched once we landed in America, but after abut 20 minutes the 'random person' search was over and I ran to get on the coach still buzzing to finally get to our hotel so we could explore New York eventually.

We were exhausted after our particularly eventually but absolutely hilarious day so we walked through New York -- got lost (of course being us) and went for dinner which was so amazing. We were searching for the Empire State building also while we were out because we were told it was near our hotel but we could not find it anywhere so we eventually decided to head back to the hotel to go to sleep. However, the funniness continued when we got back and looked out our bedroom window to discover to Empire State was right outside our window. We literally laughed for a good 10 minutes straight! (only us!!!)

(room views -- the empire state building and the outside road view)

The time has almost come..NEW YORK!

I'm currently sat on my bed looking at my massive suitcase and rucksack both packed all set for an early start tomorrow as I am finally going to New York. The excitement has seriously kicked in for me particularly because this is my first time ever going to America so the morning cannot come soon enough. My friends and I have planned lots of places we want to visit and of course are planning to do plenty of shopping (it is New York city after all) and particularly because it is just after Christmas so who knows we may even get some bargains, fingers crossed!
I am planning to take plenty of photos there so I will continue my blogging most likely when I get back next week.

NEW YORK TRIP PLANNING

As part of my FCP course we are going to New York City next week which I am so excited about especially because I have never been to America before.

I want to make the most out of it so have researched and planned places I definitely want to visit there.

These include:

1. The Statue of Liberty
2. The High Line
3. Chelsea Market
4. Ground Zero
5. Brooklyn Museum
6. Central Park

Want a pajama day whilst going outside?...Now you can

Winter is all about keeping warm and cosy, but this can often be a struggle when trying to also look fashionable.

Nothing is more cosy and ideal on a winters day than wearing a dressing gown coat!

Yes! These are a huge on trend clothing item at the moment and it only caught my attention properly the popularity of this after reading the Metro Newspaper today.

As the image of the newspaper article shows, most of the women are wearing ankle boots with their outfit, but some are wearing trainers. Due to trainers being hugely on trend as well this would be such a comfy, practical outfit choice.

It is also recognisable that the dressing gown coat is the whole main part of the outfit when being worn. Due to it's length and the fact that it is tied up with the belt, it would be perfect for an ' in a rush' outfit idea as the outfit being worn underneath does not have to be seen.

Oversized Clothing / Comfy yet Fahionable

It has become apparent that over sized clothing is massively on trend this season as I have seen so many people wearing over sized jackets in particular. As I have previously mentioned the fashion cycle has resulted in many people wearing their parents old jackets from 20 years ago as baggy, over sized jackets today, including myself. Especially during this Christmas holiday I have asked my dad on many occasions if I could wear his over sized denim jacket (which basically is mine now..he just does not know). I usually wear it with black skinny jeans or leggings and a crop top and I feel the over sized jacket gives the outfit an edge which I love. Every time I have gone out wearing the over sized jacket I have received compliments and people are shocked when I explain it's my dad's from before I was born!

Over sized t- shirts are also in and I have noticed this is the case in menswear in particular. Long t-shirts that go far below the waist seem to be all in and I first noticed this style on Justin Bieber, especially in his music video 'I'll show you'. (as shown in the images below)

www.dailymail.co.uk

Perhaps Bieber has started this trend but I have noticed it particularly since coming home to London for the holidays and seeing guys wearing these long shirts with skinny jeans, trainers and a shorter jacket so the top can be seen hanging below.

Overall, this oversized clothing trend is quite ideal for this season especially as in winter people want to be warm and cosy. However, it is always a bonus to be warm and cosy whilst being on trend and fashionable -- so maybe we should thank Bieber!