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

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

Is Fashion an anti-utopian world?

As part of this weeks reading, we were told to read “FASHION A Philosophy” By Lars Svendsen.

Whilst reading the book, the idea that fascinated me the most was a quote from Boris Groys. At first, I thought his concept was ridiculous but the more I thought about it, the more I started to agree with him.

Boris Groys describes fashion as anti-utopian – a world characterized by misery and oppression, but is it?

As a fashion lover, you would assume that I would disagree with this statement. However, I tend to agree with Boris Groys as recently (especially in Central London), certain nightclubs have told their bouncers to follow a set of requirements when it comes to club entry - allowing only one type of female to enter. As a woman, to hear this is disgraceful and a complete anti-utopia. Why should we follow a certain vision? Is this to attract males? Why do males not have certain requirements? What happened to individuality and the freedom to be who you want? Adhering to their “ideal image” is oppressing for those who have their own style and do not follow the crowd. Clubs are promoting the message that if you don’t fit their criteria of appearance then you cannot go out and enjoy yourself. I completely disagree with this concept because clothes are supposed to make you feel good and if you are not comfortable in what you are wearing, how can you have a good time? This is outrageous and as a fashion capital, there should be no rules on how to dress. Obviously clubs can give a dress code such as smart/casual or dressy but to pinpoint every part of the outfit should not be allowed. Women should not be forced into wearing 6 inch heels, short dresses or revealing tops, we do not have a uniform. 

So ladies, do not fall into the trap of feeling like you have to change your style to have a good time or to please others. Be yourself!