Thursday 29 March 2012

Henry Holland at the V&A 2012







So i went to see Henry Holland talk at the V&A on the 23rd March and i was pleasantly surprised by him and his story.

I will confess, i wasn't a huge fan of Henry, due to the fact i thought, how can someone class themselves to be a fashion designer when he has no real training? I am not advocating that everyone that wants to go into the arts needs to go to art school, not at all. We know that there are people with raw talent that hasn't been trained by the system, they just have a natural gift. But with the case of Hery Holland, reading a bit about him in newspapers, magazines etc. i thought this guy has come from journalism and has gone straight into the fashion world due to him having celebrity friends, how wrong i was...

Listening to Henry being interviewed by Vogues online editor, Dolly Jones, it was apparent to see how charismatic Henry is and how likable and infectious his personality transpired to the people sitting in the audience. I began to warm to Henry and understand that he is in a field that he loves and that he's thankful to get into due to working in the industry of entertainment (was a writer for Smash Hits magazine), surrounding himself in that lifestyle and naturally creating a brand from that.

His first ever appearance with his use of cheeky slogan t-shirts worn by fashion designers was a brilliant introduction, more of a penetration into the world of fashion and grew from there. The power of social media has benefited him hugely, with him having over 200,000 followers on twitter and his style of not taking himself to seriously, working hard but playing hard forms a great brand i think and i was so glad my pre-judgement of him changed.

I think what is clear is that anyone can create a powerful, influential brand that can connect with people for the brand to be understood and leveraged. Its clear that Henry is a fun loving guy, with loads of passion and drive and i think its quite refreshing to see someone rising up within their field by not using the conventions of education.

Sunday 18 March 2012

Mary Quant at the V&A 2012








Mary Quant...what a pleasure!!

So I went to go and see the amazing, legendary Mary Quant speak at London's V&A. I first knew about Mary Quant from my mother, having being living in London in the late 60s/70s she had some of her clothing which she still has today, which i am ow a proud owner of :-)

Her talk of her journey of making clothes was very interesting, from her early days at Goldsmiths which i didn't know actually, i was very pleased as i was a Goldsmiths MA student (fantastic university) was very happy to find this, to her first shop at London's Chelsea's Kings Road to her working in cosmetics, what a vast life...beautiful story, well done Ms Quant!

Monday 12 March 2012

Breaking News: The truth of trend forecasting

Breaking News: The truth of trend forecasting

The truth of trend forecasting

You can read the article I wrote during LFW 2012 on trend forecasting for the award winning fashion blog 'Musings of Ondo Lady'

http://ondolady.com/2012/02/the-truth-about-trend-hunting/