Kikki.k - My new obsession

On our London trip, we came across a shop called Kikki.k in Covent Garden. Kikki.k is a stationary shop, a bit like Paperchase but more sentimental. As soon as my flatmate and I walked in, we fell in love with the aesthetic of the brand. The journals, diaries and notebooks all had a minimalistic look but included positive/motivational quotations. I love stationary as it is but this brand had such a different feel and I think it is going to be an emerging brand in the market.

Walking around the shop, there were lots of inspiration quotations next to the products. The store is the definition of cute!! I can't wait to make some purchases and re-decorate my desk area with a Kikki.k theme. I would definitely recommend visiting this store if you are ever in Covent Garden.

Photo Credit - Chloe Ferdinand

How about this Calvin Klein!?

BuzzFeed editors took it upon themselves to re-create the Calvin Klein underwear advertisements to suit everyday people. The brand is known for its sexual adverts but is it right for them to be selling a fantasy. Not everyone that purchases these pants fit the stereotypical male that Calvin Klein use.

"What they're selling is unattainable. These aren't representations of all types of people, and i'd love to see more models of different ethnicities and shapes and sizes." - Andrew Richards

I love these adverts, yes they aren't what men would ideally like to look like but they are realistic and this is what current brands forget to communicate, realism. They also communicate humour which I think is more engaging for the audience. However, will Calvin Klein ever change their advertisements? Probably not!!

Photo Credit - BuzzFeed

Vogue 100: A Century of Style

The National Portrait Gallery collaborated with British Vogue and showcased Vogue 100: A Century of Style. The exhibition had a range of photography that has been commissioned by British Vogue over the years. It was really interesting to see all the different styles that Vogue has experimented with, there was photography from 1916 when Vogue was founded and recent shoots that took place last year. My favourite part of the exhibition was looking at all the different magazine covers and the layouts inside.They started off heavily illustrated and minimalistic but now, Vogue is known for its strong photography and structured layout. I would like to see more illustrative content within the current British Vogue, it makes it look more artistic and it would also stand out from the other contemporary fashion magazines. Also, the amount of advertisements have increased heavily, taking away the personal elements of the magazine. Above are a few images that I took whilst looking around the museum. I love the first image, it's so elegant and sensual. I love how the rose has been sculptured into the shape of a hat and the use of lighting is really effective, it acts as a silhouette. The second image shows recent images that have been featured in the magazine. The bottom left is my favourite because Vivienne Westwood is one of my favourite fashionistas! Her courage with fashion is admirable. Kate Moss was featured in almost every room of the exhibition. It was clear to see that she was a covergirl for Vogue and one of the most used models, this is because she is so versatile.

Head down to The National Portrait Gallery!

My day trip to Central London

As part of this module, we have to constantly record our inspiration and research in our sketchbooks and on our blogs. We luckily got the opportunity to visit London for the day. As London is my second home, I was looking forward to visiting my favourite places. We arrived in London around 11ish and got dropped off near Marble Arch. 

My flatmate and I decided to visit Selfridges first. If you have been reading my blog from the start, you would know that Selfridges is one of my favourite places for inspiration. The clothes are always so beautiful and I always get inspirations from the clothes that I see and always impressed by the visual merchandise. This time, I found two window displays that particularly stood out to me:

Both of the displays are visually pleasing, colourful and fun which is different to many displays that I have seen recently. I was so excited to see the new Self Portrait collection and as usual, it didn't disappoint! We then headed to Oxford Street's Topshop, I always feel so lost in this store because it is way too big. The next stop was Liberty - we looked at all the bespoke fragrances and could not believe the prices of some of them. After browsing Liberty, we walked to Carnaby Street, I love this part of London. Monki is always a shop that I am excited to visit because it normally has some unique items. 

Abercrombie and Fitch was next on the list, we wanted to look at the famous fragrance; Fierce. As I used to work here, I already knew the best sellers and new products but it was good to go back and refresh my memory. Just off of Abercrombie and Fitch is Burlington Arcade, we walked through and came across various bespoke fragrance stores. The most useful store we came across was Penhaligon's, the women was very informative and she told us that almost all her clients come in for a personal experience/fragrance. They don't follow specific trends or look for certain scents, they end up buying what they like. She also said that they have released a new scent that celebrates the British tradition of tea drinking but so far this hasn't been the most successful fragrance although it has a good narrative behind it. But it still has a chance to grow as it's very new.

Then we got the tube to Knightsbridge and went to Harrods. This was one of my highlights from the day! Toy Kingdom made me feel like a child again and it brought back so many memories! The fragrance section was unbelievable, there was certain fragrances that were only sold in Harrods. To give our legs a little rest we grabbed a Costa and had a small break. Our next plan was to find magazine store. We headed to various magazine/book stores such as Koeing and The Vintage Magazine Store but there wasn't a big selection of magazine that would be useful for layouts, we didn't find what we were looking for. We walked around Leicster Square and Picadilly, popped into the National Gallery and decided to go to the Vogue 100, A Century of Style exhibition which I will explain in more depth in another blog post.

Covent Garden was the next stop, this was my favourite place when I started going to Central London by myself. We discovered a new stationary shop called Kikki.K. I will also be doing another blog post on this because it is my new favourite shop for stationary and I believe it will be an emerging brand! For lunch we went to Nandos (I am obsessed with the olives!!) and then went to Camden for a browse. Camden was full of quirky people as usual but I would have preferred to visit when the market was open. We had about 40 minutes left until we had to be on the coach so we went back to Marble Arch and looked at the shops until it was time to return back to the coach.

Photo Credit - Chloe Ferdinand

Women's International Day

In aid of Women's International Day (on the 8th March), Dazed magazine asked 5 illustrators to create an image that answers the question, what does it mean to be a woman today? All five were completely different but the image by Polly Nor stood out most to me. The image is bright because she wanted to celebrate the progression of women. If you haven't noticed already, the background is a climbing wall. This represents an ongoing struggle for equality and a completely safe society for all women. 

Before reading what the picture represented, I thought the image was all about diversity and the steps that women have taken to gain freedom of speech and the equality that we have today. The names on the t-shirts refer to strong women who have suffered, Sandra Bland causes a lot of controversy because we still don't know the truth leading up to her death and Sarah Reed was allegedly sexually assaulted in hospital. Also, the statement 'black lives matter' really stood out to me because I believe that in this day and age, racism should be abolished but unfortunately, it is still around. The only thing that I would criticise about this piece of work is the fact that all the women are the same size, where is the diversity is body shape? 

Photo Credit - Google Images

An introduction into perfumery

Last week, we were lucky enough to have a fragrance workshop with Karen Gilbert. Karen is an expert in the industry and she delivered a lecture that gave us a brief insight into the world of perfumery. She started off by explaining our sense of smell which is part of the brain that connects to memories and past experiences. This is why we always associated memories with certain scents. I loved her phrase "Fragrance is a way of communicating without words" this is the perfect way to describe any smell because you automatically get a thought in your head. Fragrance can be created from both natural and synthetic materials, they differ because synthetics replicate naturals scents that aren't found in nature, they are reconstructed. Whereas natural scents are 100% made from natural materials.

To create any fragrance, you need three main components. The top note (the first impression when you smell a scent), middle note (the heart of the scent) and a base note (the longevity of the fragrance). Once you have the three main areas covered, you can begin to create the perfect scent. The main fragrance categories are Citrus, Floral, Oriental, Fougere and Chypre. Before the lecture, I was only aware of three of those categories.

The most important part of Karens lecture was when she was explaining the step process of choosing your theme, character or heart of the fragrance. This is the step by step process that all perfumers use. Step 1 - This could be a material, feeling, colour or fragrance type. Step 2 - Your accessories should aim to enhance the middle note of the fragrance. Step 3 - Fixatives are added to make the scent last (not overpower). Step 4 - Add a scent to blend the fragrance, refine it.

In the workshop, we then got to create out own scent in groups. We had already decided that we wanted to stick to the theme of nature and aromatherapy so we wanted a cool, relaxing scent that smelt herbal. These are the ingredients and the amount that we used:

(Step 1) Heart notes:

Naturelle Homme = 60 drops, Herbal = 60 drops

(Step 2) Accessory notes: 

Tobacco = 10 drops, Green = 20 drops, Vanilla = 20 drops

(Step 3) Fixatives:

Musk = 10 drops, Vanilla = 10 drops

(Step 4) Harmoniser:

ISO E = 50 drops

Above is an image of our final product. We asked peers what they thought of the scent and we got comments such as "it reminds me of a spa" and "oooo it's very herbal!" which is exactly what we wanted to hear! Although perfumery is complicated to get your head around, once you get the hang of it, it is quite fun!

Photo Credit - Chloe Ferdinand

Zara joins the unisex hype

Zara has just announced their 'genderless' collection. This includes clothing that is classed as basic that can be worn by both sexes. As genderless fashion is increasing, I believe that many shops will go in this direction and start releasing genderless lines or even make the whole of retail completely genderless. 

But what other issues could arise because of this whole genderless movement? Will men and women finally be seen as equal? Or will that never change? Will it still be ok for women to pose naked but inappropriate for men?

What does the future hold?

Photo Credit - Google Images