Barcelona. One of the best trips EVER.

Back when I was in secondary school, me and my best friend Becky took an art trip to Barcelona with the school. Whenever we look back at the photos we cringe slightly, it is crazy to see how different we looked. Our dress sense was indescribable, and the poses not much better. We took endless amounts of photos of paintings in art galleries, buildings, statues, anything that caught our eye, without knowing the meaning of what we were taking.

I am a big fan of street art, there will always be something quite cool about it. The fact that people don't care if they get caught, they merely just draw how they feel. It doesn't need to be neat and tidy, it just needs to have a creative edge and mean something to them.

Kind of like mine and Beckys relationship, we have both surpassed caring what people think about us. We both wear what we like (Good clothes now I can assure you),we both do as we please- yet we both have a creative edge. She has the better wardrobe whereas I have the better drawing skills!

I knew that one day the pictures I took of street art would come in handy, I see it as a new trend, such as using it in shops to form displays, some people even go to the extent of having a professional graffiti artist paint there room. Keep on drawing please street artists, your art is something else that inspires me.

If I was a colour.

If I looked to my friends and asked them what colour I would be, they would say black. My wardrobe mainly consists of black and white clothing, because I believe that these colours look best on me. Don't get me wrong, I love colour, I wouldn't leave my house without bright statement lipstick. Black and white explains my personality, one day I'm up and the next day I'm down, its odd because I'm never somewhere inbetween.

Summer is approaching, and the last few items I have purchased have been rather colourful. I love love love the trend of clashing bright colours, it creates such a bold statement, and emulates a quirky personality- which when I'm on an 'up day' I have! I am going to start by adding brighter lipsticks to my already vast collection, then begin to add brighter statement pieces to my outfits- who knows, I may be able to carry off this trend too.

Elle and Vogue's April issues had some fantastic photos of this current trend, therefore I have used some of these photos to create two mood boards that show off the 'clash of colour', both of which I will be using for my portfolio.

The fear of white walls.

From a very early age, whenever I went to a new place, it would be my prerogative to find a souvenir to remind me of that specific place; Even if the souvenir was a tacky fridge magnet or an ‘I love London T-shirt’. Mum and Dad used to call them ‘the tacky shops’, me and my sister took every opportunity we had to go in and have a good look around, leaving our parents outside trying to figure out where to go next.

Since the beginning of my fashion course, I have come to the realisation that collecting such items could potentially help me. With the exception of fridge magnets and T-shirts, collecting endless amounts of postcards, and taking photos of everything that catches my eye, could be collectively put together to create something visually pleasing. My Dad has taught me that I should carry my camera with me everywhere, if you just stop where you are and look around I can guarantee that you will see something beautiful. Such as the graffiti that lined the walls in Barcelona, the mosaic patterns on a random street lamp in New York, Covent Garden’s tube stop, and even Nottingham’s market square.

My obsession with lining my walls with endless amounts of magazine pages started when I came to university, as much as I hate to rip a page out of Vogue, those pages deserve to be looked at. Every time I enter my room, I stop and look around. After each briefing on a new project, my walls give me inspiration to create new ideas. Added to my walls are endless amounts of obscure postcards I gathered from New York, my own work, flyers; the list could go on really. I guess I have a slight fear of ‘white walls’ I need to be surrounded by pictures and things that remind me of being at home. Thank the lord my parents let me go into those ‘tacky shops’ if it wasn’t for them, I would literally be staring at a blank canvas.

New York: The Gallery.

We were slightly lost, yet me and Daisy getting lost always led to good things. We were walking down a small street in Little Italy, unbeknown to us that we were about to walk into something that we believe know one else from our course would have seen. We walked into a tiny gallery which housed shoes that were stuck on canvases. Each shoe design was different, covered in; forks, popcorn, fingers and bugs, gummy bears, cigarettes, tampons, staples, jelly willies, smashed up records and gift wrap, and lastly toy soldiers and stuffing. The designs must sound so odd to you, but they were incredible and so innovative, such a simple idea of covering a shoe and turning it into a truly brilliant piece of art. As we were walking around the tiny studio, the owner appeared. He was fantastically hilarious; he was financially stable enough to open a gallery merely just to show up and coming artists work. This particular art work was produced by a man who was aged 19, I would love to one day be financially stable to enough to be able to do that for someone. A genuine man who told us that we had ‘made his day’ and how ‘lovely we were’. It just shows, getting lost isn’t the worse thing in the world.

New York: Googoo Dolls.

A typical American pub that you see in the movies; rowdy men surrounding the bar, the most gorgeous rugged bartender, and a shy yet beautiful waitress sitting on the end of the bar, doing her best to ignore all the men that were trying to talk to her. We walk in shivering and worrying whether or not we should be in there- the bartender was incredibly welcoming and the men smiled politely at us both. The music was amazing, old school indie rock that had me and Daisy singing beautifully too. The meal we had was literally the best meal I have ever tasted, there were only four other people in there, yet our food took an hour to cook. It was good to know that it was all being prepared from scratch. It was a simple meal of a chicken burger with red and yellow peppers, and the chips, which were seasoned with what tasted like heaven. What made us laugh the most was when I sneezed; all of the men at the bar turned and said ‘bless you’. In England it is not customary to even talk to a stranger, let alone say ‘bless you’ if someone sneezes. When I next go to New York, I would love to go back to that pub; I think that may be the only meal I have ever taken my time over eating.

New York: The Vintage poster store.

I like to avoid white space; my room at university is covered in endless photographs, pictures from magazines, and my all time favourite collectables-postcards. I need to have something to constantly look as it always seems to give me ideas for a piece of work I am given. On our walk to the Meatpacking district, we noticed a vintage poster shop. Posters lined the windows which completely drew us in, and we were happily welcomed by two men who owned the shop. They showed us many different posters and postcards, and vintage journals on photography and various other art related topics. We were told to take a journal and to choose between a collection of posters which we could take home for free- it was amazing to meet two people that were so passionate about what they sold, and they loved the fact that we were visiting from England. I bought around twenty postcards in that particular shop which they both seemed extremely pleased about. It was an amazing way to begin the day- basically Americans are just brilliant.

New York: Resurrection

This particular store was like a dream world for me. At the back of the store, vintage wardrobes lined the back wall. Wardrobes which contained vintage Chanel suits, still completely intact and as stunning as they would have been when they were first created. Looking at the craftsmanship that went into each suit was incredible, each stitch was so intricate, and the lining as well done as the care that had been put into the suit itself. After reading so much about Chanel, I didn’t expect anything less. It was just bewildering that I had a vintage Chanel suit in my hands, I just felt so lucky. This is another thing I will do one day; I will go back there and purchase a vintage Chanel suit. Even if I don’t have anything to wear it too, I can just stare at it right?