Post feelings of Hempel Award

I am back from China. I have already been few weeks in Barcelona, but only this week I have finally recovered from the trip. At the end of my stay in Beijing I catched a flu and have been sneezing ever since. Now I start to feel fine.

I enjoyed the competition. It was well organized, with professional staff for the catwalk, really nice. We were all together 29 competitors from various countries. The collections were fantasies, more or less industrial, mine was (too) industrial, and then there were something in between. The most innovative collection towards material won. It had used bamboo chips made by using porcelain technology. I have nothing to add to that. The winning clothes had even their "bodyguards" during the stay there. Impressive.

Most winners were from Asia region, only a shared 2nd price winner was from Germany. In a way I can understand that as this competition seems to have much bigger hype and reputation in Asia, which is completely normal. Hempel International Group is a huge and well known brand there.

The theme for this year was "Boundary" - How should those fashion editors dress up themselves when they go to fashion shows.

Here I put some of the winning collections to see.

The winner Wang Zhixian with her winning collection (photo courtesy of prcservice.com)

German Christina Sieber's collection "Motocross" shared the Silver Prize. This was also my favorite collection.

Korean Park Min-Seon's collection "Connections" shared the Silver prize (photo courtesy of english.cri.cn). I also liked this one, except the colors reminded me too much of Formula1.

Susi Sweet Dress today

Everyone who is in Barcelona today should visit the Susi Sweet Dress vintage style -clothes fair in Gracia.

Susanna Bas, the creator of Susi Sweet Dress street market event, is an actress who in her trips to abroad bought pretty dresses that her friends loved. After "taking orders" to buy vintage dresses from her travels to her friends, step by step the concept of "Susi Sweet Dress" was born. Now twice a year she organizes the vintage style clothes street market where you can find dresses, skirts, shirts and accessories and this event is today.

In every edition there is a collaborator Illustrator and this time she is the Illustrator  Joana Santamans. I hope I have time to pass by the street market today, last time in October I bought one dress with really pretty fabric, origin from Japan as the etiquette was in Japanese. Spring is coming and soon starts the "no jeans" -epoch for me, so new dresses are more than welcome.

The event is in Rambla del Prat 27, in Gracia near the metro station Fontana.

New acquaintance to "Made in Spain" brands

In January I panicked when searching for shoes to the Hempel Award Fashion Show. As my clothes have a neutral color palette; beige/black/cream the shoes need to be red, bordeaux red if possible. Going around on sales I passed "expensive shoes" section in El Corte Inglés and there they were; patent leather bordeaux red high heels. I thought they were too expensive for me to buy for the show, but the sale was - 50% and the shoes were "Made in Spain" so they started to be tempting.

Panic came few days later, the idea of me running around Barcelona and not finding red shoes week before the trip to Beijing so I rushed back to El Corte Inglés and bought 3 pairs of L.K. Bennett shoes in the sizes they still had (38, 39, 40). They were not cheap, but they are perfect red colored, good quality and "Made in Spain". I will keep the 38 to me and the sizes 39 and 40 I will put on sale to eBay or something, that is the idea. So if you would like to have these shoes they will be later in April on sale.

L.K. Bennett Shilo Bordeaux patent Leather shoes

I didn't knew the brand L.K. Bennett before, a London based shoe&clothing brand. The clothes don't draw my attention, but the shoes are brilliant. They have a classical nude and black high hells with several option for the  heel hight (flat, kitten and stiletto), these are so called conservative but chic shoes and then they have more extravagant collection. And what is really important is that the shoes are "Made in Spain".

In February L.K. Bennett launched a collection in collaboration with Caroline Issa, Tank magazine director. Both unknown names for me; Caroline Issa and Tank magazine, but I don't mind as the shoes were amazing. As I love folklore, these folklorish Thai inspired embroidered shoes with pom-poms are hilarious. Very stylish, youthful and colorful limited edition collection. I also have learned now that Caroline Issa is "the ultra chic Fashion Director of London based avant-garde style bible Tank" and at the moment one of the street's styles biggest stars.

Caroline Issa and her creations

Gorgeous dresses

The best collection from the Paris Fashion Week Fall 2013 ready-to-wear show is the Valentino's one, in my opinion. The designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli had created absolutely stunning dresses. The atmosphere came from Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring and it was very, very successfully interpreted theme.

I love the laser cut details and the austere look of the models; simple and beautiful natural look with so lovable braid. 
All following photos are from Valentino's ready-to-wear Fall 2013 show from style.com. 

Travel fever

Trip to China is approaching; I have my holiday request approved, we have plane tickets and the accommodation (organized by the Hempel Award -organization). We got our VISAs last Friday and that was a relieve as during the February I started to be anxious about everything, including the VISA.
We already have 2 travel guides and I couldn't be without buying the book "Living in China" by Taschen. It is not really useful in the trip, but it serves as an inspiration and as it cost less than ten euros I bought it.

Finally when reading about China I start to have typical feeling of long holiday journey and the butterflies start to move in my stomach. Until now I have been only cloth focused, sewing and thinking what is still missing to do (a lot...) + all the practical aspect of the journey; VISA, hotel etc. but finally, finally I realize we are going to China and that is a huge ancient culture really different what I am used to here in Europe. I am so happy that back in November I applied to the China International Fashion -contest.

For the past few days "Princess of China" by Coldplay ft. Rihanna has been a perfect soundtrack to me. The video is wonderful. 

Have you set up your goals yet?

We are reaching the end of January and I still consider this time to be something new&exciting, a kind of transition from old to new. Therefor I just posted my last good wishes via postcard for the year 2013. I think I am still on time, since we are in January.

Nevertheless I could improve sending seasonal greetings. With birthday cards I am already pretty good. That might be, because it was my last years goal: to send "happy birthday" -wishes on time. My this year's goal will be: at the end of the year to send the holiday greetings on time. Knowing me it will be hard.

I am speaking now my objectives and goal setting for the year 2013. I skip promises & wishes. Objectives are something realistic and measurable and they should be written down and revised few times a year (four, for example). I did this the first time last year, thanks to my professor in a "Management of a small business" -course. Back then we had one session of self knowing/management and our teacher had handcrafted us pretty notes of the objectives.

There are 8 categories for the goals;
1.) physical surroundings
2.) hobbies, free time
3.) self development
4.) career&work
5.) friends&family
6.) relations with your colleagues
7.) economy
8.) health

+ I have added my own 9.) Dream section (things you know will not happen, but you still want to keep thinking on them that maybe, some day...)

During January I have been thinking these categories and what I would like to improve in my life or how could I do things differently. How I would like my life to be by the end of the year and what changes I should make in my way of being. Please skip all the jargon of "doing more sports & stop smoking" and focus on what could you actually do and succeed on doing, maybe just going for a walk 1-2 times a week for 1 hour (this is only a simple example). These objectives should be easy to reach so that they would be encouraging and you could stick on them. My idea for physical surroundings will be to take out the garbage as soon as they are full, especially the biological one. Nothing too tricky. Last year I focused on cleaning the dishes at once and not just piling them up on the sink waiting better days to come. And I managed to do that.

These goals are personal ones; you don't need to share them, it is for your own use only. Write them down and have a look on them every three months; have you succeed, if you need to change your goals a bit and so on. For sure this way you can make most of your studies, work , life in general. Good luck with your year 2013!

These are the notes that our professor made us and my notebook 

where I write down my goals for the year to come.

Inspiring conference

The Fashion School Felicidad Duce organizes once in a while conferences around the themes of fashion. In December the turn was for Josep Abril - Creation of a collection. I immediately assigned to the conference, but I have to admit that first I mixed Josep Abril with Josep Font, oops, my ignorance. The lecture was worth of visiting.

Josep Abril is a men's clothing designer who has his own brand and is already established in the Spanish and international men's clothing scene. He has a great appreciation to noble materials (wool, linen etc.) and textures. His style is; I would say, timeless and he has a thing for lines and squares. I did had heard of his name, but was not really familiar with his work.

It was such a pleasure to listen him explain his vision of textile industry and creation of a collection from a point of view of a visionary designer, almost like an artist, but not forgetting the end user and that the collection needs to sell. Clothes are not pieces of art. I was happy to here finally something that is not "fashion design for industry", fast fashion or directly copying.

All the time Josep Abril was speaking about clothing and not fashion. He is creating clothing instead of fashion as fashions come and go, but his vision stays. He as a designer of his own mark has his own preferences, path and the customers that are not in the great mass of "fashion victims". Thank you! In a country of such a high consumerism of fast fashion these kind of opinions are more than welcome.

As a designer and producer of his own line (the manufacturing is done here in Spain) he is also focusing to sustainability, a theme, that is not so often heard in the class rooms of Spanish fashion schools or in the street. Also he mentioned the luxury brand Hermès as one of the number one sustainable companies in the textile industry. The price is not just a vanity thing and more money to the pockets of the owners, but a salary to a crafter that is living and enjoying his life and work as any other worker is. Clothing work should not be done in the sweat shops at all.

The conference lasted about one and a half hours and I really enjoyed every minute of it. I hope there will be more designers like he is, following his path as a creator, but still focusing on the client and making that mixture a successful one.

Ah, and Josep Font is a Spanish designer of women's clothing and few years ago he was the only Spanish designer that was participating to the Paris Haute Couture shows with his own collection. Unfortunately he no longer creates Haute Couture, but I think one day I will write more about him.