WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

August 14, 2007

6/5 Trend Union & BBH

I am almost embarrassed by the amount of notes I took on this speech, but I guess with it being the third day of the trip I was feeling really motivated. Basically Trend Union is the company started by a woman named Li Edelkoort and their sole purpose is to predict what will be the fashion years ahead of time. By the time a certain style hits the market it has already been circulating for over 2 years. There is a fabric fair in Europe where designers pick their textiles, then they make their collections and they go to fashions shows, then to stores, then to the public to wear.

According to the Trend Union Representative:
-Iceland, Scandinavia, Sweden and Finland are all immersed in the idea of the interior (think IKEA, Swiss design)
-Brooklyn is becoming more interesting than Manhattan (Speak for yourself!)
-South Africa- has a young look
- “Graphic Design is a trendsetter for fashion trends; we are both influenced by contemporary art”
- “Sometimes there is no explanation for a trend, it just takes intuition.”
-There is a revival of Arts & Crafts despite the digital world. A movement to be unplugged.

I could go on and on but basically what I learned is that in Winter ’08-’09 we will all be wearing lots of hats going for an Amish look, that masks will become popular, and that will all be walking around wearing plastic. Oh, and that bunnies will be everywhere.

That afternoon we made it over to BBH for a talk with one of the art director/copywriter teams. Some of the accounts they have there are Levis, Audi, The Robinsons, Vodafone, and Axe. The Axe commercials were very funny but overall I could see a big difference in British humor compared to American humor. I liked how the Robinson’s ads were really simple and very handmade. They appealed to children and that was the target audience as well as their parents. I think the team gave us great advice which was that if we get stuck, we should go watch a film to clear your head.

In the afternoon Rachel, Rosie & I walked over to the Mac store to book our trip to Barcelona! 5 Days in the sun..I can't wait! Then I headed over to see GEMMA my counselor from camp who I haven't seen in years but I adore her and was psyched that I would be seeing her in London. I took the tube up to Bellsize Park where she lives and we went out in her neighborhood which is so trendy and fun. The pubs are adorable and we had a great dinner and got to catch up. It's really nice being so far from home but having someone there who makes you feel so at home, and I know if I needed anything Gemma would be the first person I'd call!

6/4 V&A

We started the day with an orientation meeting about the program and then headed to the Victoria & Albert museum to see the Surrealism exhibition. It’s goal was to look at how surrealism impacted architecture, design, fashion and other forms of art. It was an amazing exhibit, and I couldn’t believe the sheer volume of work that it had. Dali of course was represented, as well as Man Ray, and there were no-figural sculptures by Giacametti which I found really interesting because he is known more for his gesture drawings and sculptures and these were completely new. I also found the fashion designs of Elsa Schiaparelli very intriguing. She used fabrics designed by Dali to make many of hers dresses, one with a design meant to look like skin being torn the tears became a pattern so it was very subtle. It sounds weird, I know, but it was something to see.

After going through the exhibit we met with Zoe Whitely and NB Studio who basically branded the exhibition she curated called ‘Uncomfortable Truths.’ They showed us a portfolio of their work and the different steps they took to get the final result for the V&A exhibit.

6/2-3 London here we come!

Where do I even begin? After my poor roommate dropped me of hysterically crying at the Philadelphia airport I took one look at Rachel and she started crying and then thankfully her mom came along and consoled both of us until we stopped. Lucky for me the wait wasn’t too long and I slept the ENTIRE flight…I missed the food, movie AND free slippers. Oh well, I was in London! The bus took us to our flats and we found ourselves on Southampton Row, bordering the financial district in a beautiful little neighborhood. I made it up first to our flats and thought I stepped into an IKEA catalogue…Clean white walls, oak bookcases, big red couches…seriously it was so much nicer than I ever had imagined. We picked rooms and Alicia and I were lucky enough to get the big room off the living room with a huge window and lots of light. Actually all the windows were huge and had these gorgeous balconies although we only made it out there a few times to take pictures in fear of the landlords sealing them shut.

We all went for a walk to explore the area a little and had our first meal in London at Subway…how typical. Then lucky for us we found the supermarket one block away which had good deals if you took your time shopping. One thing I learned since my family moved to the city is that you really can’t buy food in bulk because you usually don’t have that much storage, and also there is no minivan to load your groceries into, you have to walk home with them. Therefore food shopping in the city wasn’t such a culture shock for me, and Alicia and I decided sharing most of our meals would help cut costs in London.

We made it back to our flats, got dressed and took lots of pictures before heading to Cagney’s for dinner…named after James Cagney so now we were 2 for 2 with the American restaurants. In order to compensate for our lack of London pride we headed to the London Pub that night and enjoyed our first pints.

May 31, 2007