dreamy ends

hey guys! how are you all?

I feel like I should have done this post on Monday eve buuut, the Fashion Futures comp is over!!! Which is actually quite sad, but it ended in style - at the Freemason's Hall for London Fashion Scout, as part of London Fashion Week. Seriously though, it was such a beautiful night, filled with so many inspiring & creative people. I also won the Textiles Award! Still waiting for that to sink in haha! big luv FAD

My garment on the catwalk

I talk about seasons a lot, and the beginnings & ends of months. (sorry in advance). But wow has this month whooshed by. Feeling closer to nature, and myself in general, has been a big part of this month. And just chillin; mentally, physically, on my own, with new people. Feeling/being "formless, shapeless, like water" - in the best way possible. That quote is taken from Bruce Lee, which I heard in this chill, hip hop remix by Caleb Belkin.

be formless, shapeless, be water my friend.

I also visited the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition at the Tate this week. and you know what? I was pleasantly, pleasantly surprised. At first I was a bit ambivalent as to whether I wanted to spend a whole day gazing over framed flowers. but the exhibition completely knocked that out of my head. and I mean completely. The exhibition featured her magnified flower paintings (which were incredibly dreamy and sensual), her New Mexico desert landscapes, animal skulls and seascapes - including Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 1932 (the most expensive painting by a female artist ever sold at auction). I was also just taken aback by her use of tones, colour, senses and composition. Honestly, I didn't actually realise how much of an iconic artist she was and what an influence she had had on Modernism, particularly in the United States. I feel enlightened now haha. The exhibition even included Alfred Stieglitz's (O'Keeffe's husband) iconic photography of O'keeffe. They not only inspired me for my textiles work, but also for exploring my own photography. Deffo try and get yourself to this exhibition, it stops showing it at the Tate at the end of October!

Work by O'keeffe:

"I made you take time  to look at what I saw  and when you took time to really notice my flower , you hung all your associations with flowers  on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see - and I don't". Georgia O'keeffe

quick Outfit Of The Day (OOTD) :

Puffer jacket: East End Thrift Store

Cherry crop top: H&M

Black jumpsuit: New Look

Buffalo platforms: eBay

so that's me. I hope to post v soon about other random stuff n creative things I'm getting up to so stick around ma

Cleo xx

bonjour // allsaints

blendin' in like a pro

Lovely Shoreditch, en route to ALLSAINTS!

hey luvs!

Is September even in full swing yet? If it isn't then I really don't know what full swing is because things have been jaaam packed this month... also, happy first day of London Fashion Week! #lfw

In my last post you may remember me talking about F.A.D and London Fashion Week and all that jazz. Well, we're coming even closer to the Fashion Scout catwalk (this Monday!) so I'm feeling pretty hyped!

Anyway, last Tuesday, courtesy of F.A.D, I got to visit the ALLSAINTS studios down in Shoreditch. 'Cool' doesn't even begin to cut it. I've never been an avid ALLSAINTS shopper but after the tour & talks, that might be changing a lil' bit. It is such an amazing company and store! I could literally spend hours walking around their studios, let alone the actual shop itself. How on earth do you make a rusty warehouse look and feel so modern and sleek?! Don't even get me started on the antique sewing machines (for decoration only, sadly). But anyhow, what a wonderful place it was, and what lovely people inside too! We met Amy, who took us around the studios, the Showroom (the new collection looks *insert fire emojis*), the photo shoot studio and looked around all the different departments within the company. Along the way we met pattern cutters, designers, merchandisers, garment technologists, photographers - the list literally goes on and on.

All in all, the day was soo lovely and inspiring. It taught me another valuable lesson - not to doubt myself or think that I won't succeed in this industry. It will be a long journey but if u got the passion then go for it all mate. Dream big. There is something different out there for everyone!

Even the reception was beautiful.

Also, applying for uni, or in my case, an art  foundation course, is coming up pretty fast. kinda just want to float through time and space to be honest.

To build up my portfolio for that, I have a photography/fashion project planned! It's called 'Eating Nature' and is based on some poetry I've been reading and generally my own feelings over the last couple of months.
If it all works out, I will be posting pictures from that very soon!

Hopefully that will be in full swing by next month. Any SE London models feel free to hit me up haha.

stay tuned my loves and see u in the next post! 

(btw, Sun, if you're out there - come back. 

Sincerely, a concerned citizen).

Cleo xx

F.A.D // GRADUATE FASHION WEEK // LONDON FASHION WEEK

greetings luvvies,

Sixth form officially starts again this week...however I have some less depressing things coming up in the next few months of 2016 so stay tuned!!

Wondering what FAD is? Well FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct) is an award-winning charity that offers young people the opportunity to get ahead in their creative careers. They specialise in professional fashion workshops, competitions and live industry experiences. At the beginning of this year I applied for one of their competitions called Fashion Futures. This project equips teenagers with the 'practical skills, knowledge and resilience to pursue a viable career in the creative industries'. And damn does FAD stick to its word. So, after 10 weeks of industry-led, fashion workshops - where the participants work towards their toile (based on the given design brief) - they present their finished toiles and portfolios to a panel of industry experts, who select the Fashion Futures finalists.

Fast forward to September, after an intensive week at University East London creating our finished designs, the 21 finalists see their garments come to life at Fashion Scout during London Fashion Week (f*cking crazy right?!). Weeeell, I might just happen to be one of those finalists...
Can't explain my love and gratitude towards FAD and the amazing experiences it gives young people to explore and experience the fashion industry. AND I'M SO EXCITED FOR LFW!!!

The brief for this year was Fusion; exploring this through India and its subcontinents. We had to produce a design that reflected its culture and its street style and one of the main sources of my inspiration came from Indian architecture and the Mughal temples. Check out my interview with FAD here: FAD story 

Me at UEL and the top part of my jumpsuit!

A few months ago I was lucky enough to attend Graduate Fashion Week which I found really amazing and inspiring. It was great fun looking around the uni stalls and gawking over all the portfolios. Whilst I was there I attended the launch of the website INTOfashion which was really cool. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in fashion or who just wants to explore the broad range of paths within the industry. Sometimes I feel as if there is this misconception that the fashion industry is really narrow and all it entails is making dresses. Noooooo ahah, not at all.

Here's a few pics from the day - regretfully, I don't have the names of these wonderful designers, but these are amongst my faves:

portfolio appreciation:

tbh, looking back on 2016 it wasn't all that bad...in terms of fashion and getting to know what direction (study wise) I want to go in. It's a long journey but u know what, you will get there n somehow realise what path suits you or just where your heart is lingering. But it does take a lil time. Honestly if I hadn't signed up for Fashion Futures, let alone chosen textiles for a-level, I probably wouldn't know that I wanted to study fashion. If you take your time, explore and try new things it will contribute!! Towards the end of this year I've felt some sort of creativity brewing so lets hope that in 2017 it fully manifest itself. My advice is to take ur time n try everything that comes your way. 

What are you guys' goals for these last few months? 

Cleo xx

SEPTEMBER? NAH

Well, September is here. The month where the daily loop begins again. When I woke up and saw 'Thurs, 1 September', I was sort of like, nah. I'll pretend it's still mid July and sixth form doesn't start next week, thanks. I love the summer because you can basically wear anything. It's a colourful season - the atmosphere is pretty much warm because everyone is outside, people usually wear bright clothing...I'm missing it already. We better not start settling into winter just yet.

Anyway, I thought I should put a face to a name! So here's a couple of pics of me. Yesterday was a pretty lovely day - maybe London hasn't given up on summer just yet...

Y/day I met up with a friend that I hadn't seen in a while, which was a cute start to the month! We just went up to our local park n chatted, ate, listened to music, ate. 'Chilling in the park' has literally defined my summer/year/life. It's like the staple meet up activity.
Even though it was just to the park I still spent ages deciding what to wear. Like ????. In the end I decided with this outfit. Loose trousers n a crop top with big chunky shoes to spice it up. I don't know why I spend so long choosing what to wear and end up with a pretty basic outfit.

Clothes:
- I ordered these Buffalo platforms on eBay a couple weeks ago and I'm in loove. Do I qualify as a Spice Girl yet??
- My green shirt was thrifted from the amazing East End Thrift Store - check em' out on their ASOS market place or you can pop down to Whitechapel to visit their store. (they do the craziest £1 sales).
- The smart trousers I'm wearing were bought from a Charity shop in Bromley for only £4!
- My black halter neck crop top is a gem I found in Zara.

As you can probably tell, my style stems more towards vintage/retro. Picking up second hand or vintage clothes has become pretty much normal to me now (once u go Brick Lane, u never rlly come back). However my style differs quite a lot. I fluctuate between formal and informal - though because I don't reeeally own any heels, even when I'm trying to dress formal my scruffy Air Force 1's reeeally don't cut it.  Inspiration can be grabbed from anywhere so sometimes it just depends on time, place and mood.

I'll be posting a lot more of my style and clothes soon and tiny little fashion projects and hopefully, will hear from you guys about other cool places to check out!

My beautiful friend and I chilling in the park.

Cleo xx