Very good advice

I have recently met a girl who was an account manager. I was talking to her about the diffuculty of finding a work placement and ,making contacts within the fashion industry. She told me about a website called linkedin.com. It is similar to facebook but is used to gain contacts within any industry. It allows you to stay informed about your contacts in the industry, Control your proffesional identity online and most importantly for me- find the people and the knowlege you need to achieve your goals.
I have set up my own profile and think that it could be extreemly useful. You can type in any company and get contacts details of employees who are on Linked in. You can also get recomemdations from any contacts that you have. This means that I can get a reffernce from the junior designer that I did my work experience with and also be able to see all of her contacts.

Ethical Trading for or against?

Next week I have to take part in a debate arguing points against ethical trading. Initialy I found it very difficult to think of any negative points about people working in factorys making clothes having better pay, working and living conditions. But the more I researched ethical trading the more I realized that it is a catch 22 because in many cases ethical trading meant that workiers had there hours cut to meet regulations meaning they earnt less money and had a worse standerd of life. We also plan to ask the students in the debate if they would be preppared to pay more money for there clothes if it meant that workers in sweat shops had the same pay and working conditions as we do? I know that alsmost every person in the room will be wearing something from Primark how do they think it was made possible to buy a pair of jeans fo £5?

Peclers Raris Pressentation

Last week we had a trend forecasting presentation from Peclers Paris. I presentation was well put together and very inspiring. It was clear that the people who put the presentation together spent a lot of time carefully selecting images that conveyed the correct mood for each story. They can work as much as two years in advance which is amazing. I did initially think that to be to rely on one company to predict what you should be producing would limit creativity but I now disagree.
One re- accruing theme was the fact that people are buying better quality clothing that will last from season to season as apposed to buying cheaper throw away fashion. I have recently made a pact to do the same thing as I think financially you are better of in the long run to spend in this way.
My favarate story was 'Daily Eccentric' because it was so versatile. It broke all the rules by blending menswear and womenswear and different seasons. The key peieces in this story for A/w 09/10 icluded large blazers, candy colloured knits and soft furs but with a rock and roll twist.

Theme board

On Monday I had to create a theme board based on the word surreal. Initially I stated looking at the work of Salvador Dali and other surrealist painters but then I watched the film Pans Labyrinth and it completely changed the direction I wanted to go in. It is made by film maker guillermo del toro and is about a little girl who finds out she is queen of the underworld. I absolutely loved the film and thought it was so imaginative and the theme of magic and nature made me decide I wanted to look at nature and surrealism. This was a good exercise as it proved the point that the best way to have originality in your work is to have a started point that is not necessarily fashion based.
I think this theme would lend itself to a de-construcred knotwear collection.

The competition starts here!

Last week in our PPRD lesson we were told that every year approximately 3000 fashion graduates flood the industry out of which approximately 1% will secure a job in design! At first I found this very disheatening as I want to have a career in design. But it just means I'm going to have to work really hard and get as much work experience as I can so I can be one off those 30 people who are lucky enough to get a job in design