Spots & Thoughts: London
Hi guys! Sorry I’ve been a little MIA this semester, we had a huge trip last week and I’m still trying to get my life together lol. Two Saturdays ago, the whole Fashion Business department at FIT in Florence traveled to London, England to experience fashion a little more North of Italy. It was quite the trip so I’ll try to give out only the synopsis of each day.
Our lengthy arrival into London was luckily the only bumpy part of our trip. Even though i might have slept through the turbulence, I woke up to find that our scheduled airport closed and we had to land in an airport an hour or two outside of London. Thankfully, we didn’t have important meetings that day seeing as we finally arrived at our hostel at 5pm instead of 2pm. Despite the longer than desired travel day, I ended the night fully satisfied with some amazing pub food - pulled pork mac & cheese - that made me forget all the challenges of the day.
(outside of Buckingham Palace)
On Sunday, we had a walking tour of the city - a nice plus considering this was a fashion academic trip! We learned the marital stories of Henry VIII and Winston Churchill’s drunken comments at the Red Lion pub. I visited this fabulous city years ago with my grandparents, which made the tour even more special, reminding me of the time I shared with them.
(The road from Buckingham - paved red to resemble a red carpet for the Royals!)
After the tour, we traveled to Brick Lane in East End London to check out some of the famous markets such as Spitalfields Market where you can find anything from vintage furniture and clothing to small shop designers to delicious food - I tried curry for the second time ever. Brick Lane Markets attract many young people, kind of like a Williamsburg of New York City, which makes sense that All Saints had their head store on the corner of the main square of the area. At the end of the day, our class had the privilege to have a private store visit of All Saints, learning how the manager deals with running the main store in London.
Monday was definitely one of my favorite days of the week. For the whole day we were able to walk around and listen in on talks held at the PURE London Fashion Trade Show.
We sat in on a buyer briefing from a WGSN (world famous forecasting company) representative, witnessed the catwalk showcasing upcoming trends of the upcoming season, listened in on how to be more sustainable in the industry, as well interview and talk with various booths at the trade show.
Monday ended with a visit to the Tate Modern Museum that showcases many contemporary and modern works of art. Although the museum didn’t hold my favorite kind of art - I’m more of a Renaissance girl - I enjoyed the art by Guerrilla Girls that illustrate the inequalities of women in the workforce and life.
(Guerrilla Girls)
Tuesday was filled with many store visits such as the Dover Street Market, an avant-garde concept store, Jigsaw, a contemporary British fashion brand focusing on timeless well-made clothing, Selfridges, a famous department store in London, and a personal stop into Liberty, one of the oldest luxury stores that everyone must stop in to see when in London! At Liberty, a girlfriend and I were able to have classic British Afternoon Tea that comes with scones, finger sandwiches, and little sweets.
During a break on Tuesday, a couple of girlfriends and I headed to Burberry on Regents Street - it is the biggest Burberry in the world and it sure felt that way. As we were walking around, a saleswoman approached us and when she found out we were fashion students she immediately called someone on her headset to come and give us a tour of the whole store. It was such a treat to have a private and unexpected tour through Burberry - who I actually interned with last Spring. It really goes to show that this company has some of the best service, catering to everyone who enters their stores.
Although it might seem that all we were doing was shopping the past couple days, it is essential as fashion students to visit many stores in each new fashion area in order to understand what colors, silhouettes, designs are trending in each level of the industry. Through companies like WGSN - we also had a meeting with their head office in London as well - we analyze upcoming trends and relate it back to what is going on in the current seasons.
(Mikaela and I outside of the WGSN London Office)
On our final full day of the academic trip we visited an amazing vintage company called Beyond Retro that has their own private label made from other vintage pieces on top of selling traditional vintage clothing. We all were dying to check out their store in London at the end of the meeting to pick up something uniquely ours for a surprisingly fair price.
Our last activity with school for the week was a tour of Bermondsey Street where the majority of London’s leather making factories used to be - much of the old facades of factory buildings are maintained all along this street as well. At the end of the tour we entered the Fashion and Textile Museum, learning about the history behind the Liberty that I mentioned earlier in this post.
One of the best moments of the week was at the end of our long Tuesday when around twenty of us went to go see the musical Wicked. It was even better than I could have ever imagined - the British accents were a pleasant addition too. The last song and the voice of the woman who played Elphaba had me and many others in our group in tears. I could listen to her rendition of Defying Gravity over and over again.
If anyone is on the fence about visiting this city, please go! Just walking around at the end of the day and finding streets with buildings as beautiful as the one above paired with the delicious pub food would be enough for me to head back to this amazing place. I would highly recommend checking out Borough Street Market for lunch as well if you enjoy incredible food.
London, you were magnificent, arrivederci!