Hello my name is Paul Smith

The Design Museum takes you into the world of Paul Smith, celebrating his career in fashion and charting the rise and success of his quintessentially British label, which has become one of the worlds leading fashion brands.  The exhibition is already receiving brilliant reviews, and the opening day saw The Design Museum open the doors to the most visitors they have ever had in a day.

The exhibition showcases his entire career starting at a his first shop, the public can walk around in the recreation of the three metre by three metre shop that opened in Nottingham in 1970.

Inside his first store in Nottingham

Curator Donna Loveday is confident that  it will be as popular as The Design Museum's 2012 Christian Louboutin exhibition, which is the museum's most visited exhibition ever. She believes it will be appealing to a broad audience and has said that even fans who think they know all about the designer "Will hopefully find out something new about him."
Take a unique insight into the life and mind of the designer Paul Smith, The Design Museum have even made a life size recreation of Paul Smith's office, which is crammed full of artwork, music, bikes,books and even curiosities sent to him by fans, including the nativity made from peanuts.

Recreation of his office

You can book tickets for the exhibition on ticketweb.co.uk which are just £8.40 for students, and you can even book late night viewings!

Vivienne Westwood x heritage

Vivienne Westwood has collaborated with five British heritage brands, for a capsule collection called Vivienne Westwood(heart). The collection is a celebration of British quality and craftmanship. There has been a lot of focus on British brands, and I think it's a great idea to purchase quality items made in Britain, especially as we are still in recession, I definitely agree with Westwood's quality over quantity values.

The five chosen brands are luggage label Globe Trotter,Outerwear specialist Gloverall, cashmere and knitwear label Johnstons of Elgin, hat designers Lock&Co, and luxury sock brand Pantherella.  The brands are all between 75 and 346 years old and fit into her quality over quantity ethos. Vivienne Westwood also recently teamed up with British brand The Cambridge Satchel Company to create a collection of limited edition satchels which look amazing, so I can't wait to see the outcome of the British heritage collaboration!

The items will be available from the Conduit Street and King's Road stores in London and at viviennewestwood.com

Rise of the fourth conglomerate

Li & Fung is a trading empire founded in Hong Kong run by William Fung and brother Victor Fung. The brothers are buying into British heritage, slowly buying brands, particularly on Savile Row.
They already own Gieves and Hawkes,Hardy Aimes and recently Kilgour, the Savile Row tailors who have dressed celebrities including Jude Law,Hugh Grant and Daniel Craig.

Apparently Fung's plan is to add keep adding more upmarket menswear brands to the group, creating synergies to build the brands up in Asia and the US. I wonder who will be next on their list?

#REGENT TWEET!

Saturday 22nd June saw the third  'Regent Tweet' event. Bloggers from all over the world are invited to the annual digital event. The bloggers spend their day participating in masterclasses,competitions, attending talks,entering competition, receiving goodie bags, and shopping! This year also saw the introduction of male bloggers to the event!
42 brands from Regents Street participated, including Liberty, Oliver Sweeney,Coach, Karen Millen and Michael Kors!   

Guest speakers on the day included the hugely successful Susie Lau, from Style Bubble and British write Christopher Riley.In between shopping and blogging, the bloggers enjoyed lunch at American steakhouse, MASH and took a break to tweet and tell their followers about the event, followed by masterclasses in sushi,cocktail making and cake decorating. The day ended with a drinks reception at MASH, competition winners were announced(prizes included 5 pairs of tickets to the David Bowie exhibition),and bloggers enjoyed canapés and cocktails to see the day out.

London Collections: Men

London Collections: Men will be an event between 16th-18th June this summer, showcasing the most prominent names in menswear, including international designers, Britains acclaimed designers and up and coming talent in fashion.  Dylan Jones, Chair of London collections: Men, announced in New York, that after years of showing in Milan renowned British brand Burberry will be moving their menswear show to London. Burberry will be showing on Tuesday 18th June, this is great news as it celebrates London as the city of menswear.

The event will showcase collections from our iconic British designers such as  Paul Smith, Alexander McQueen, Jonathan Saunders and Savile Row designers Richard James and E.Tautz.
The event will also be a platform for up and coming designers to showcase what they have to offer. The MAN show will take place on Sunday 16 June and is presented by Topman and Fashion East and will be showing work from three of London's emerging designers to watch!

Another iconic show will be a presentation from the tailors of Savile Row at Lord's Cricket Ground on the afternoon of Monday 17th. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London will also get involved with the antics by hosting a celebration of menswear in London on Tuesday 18th June, this will include a look at the history of menswear in the city and its heritage. What a week for London!

Vauxhall art car boot fair

Vauxhall Art car boot fair will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this year . It is held in Brick Lane and isn't your regular sunday morning hum drum bootsale affair.Head down and bag some out of the ordinary bargains on Sunday June 9th, and get yourself involved in the fun by playing pass the art parcel, just like the children's game, but you could win your very own masterpiece by the likes of Peter Blake or Tracey Emin! Plus all the proceeds will go to the Just For Kids charity. 

Head down to Brick Lane Yard to experience British eccentricity at it's finest!

Just £5 to enter the bootsale but it sounds like a good day out to me!

Alexandra Shulman at Rave!

Today editor of British Vogue Alexandra Shulman arrived at Rave to tell about her experience as editor for the past 21 years!   
Although many countries over the world publish their own Vogue, I feel our edition is such a British treasure and something to collect and keep for years to come.
Alexandra talked about her background of journalism and how she originally wanted to work in the music business, and have a rock star boyfriend. When the couple of jobs in music didn't work out she began working as a receptionist for a fashion company.. which lead her to a very successful career in fashion. Alexandra was so interesting and inspiring, and I suppose i kind of had a preconception of her as the editor of a very successful fashion magazine (maybe I've watched The Devil wears Prada too much!?)

She talked about the process of choosing covers for the magazine, and how long in advance they create the issues. She also spoke a bit about her favourite issues which included the millennium issue which was covered in a silver reflective material, so the readers saw themselves on the cover and the August 1997 Vogue cover in memory of Princess Diana,with an image of her in a red dress shot by Patrick Demarchelier. Alexandra was very intriguing and allowed us to ask her anything we liked and even asked us some questions, including who preferred reading a paper copy of Vogue and who preferred reading it online. Almost everyone said a paper copy, which was fantastic news for her to hear. I suppose it was also quite surprising as Rave is a digital college,but as I said earlier I feel people think of Vogue as a bit of a collectable. Alexandra was definitely my favourite speaker who has been to Ravensbourne and even gave people advice on how to get into the fashion industry and shared her experiences and I can't wait to see what she has lined up for the 100th anniversary in 2016!