Home and behind!

***Post written in Heathrow Airport on 22/07/2011 without internet access. Read up, catch up!

Why hello world. What a time these past few days have been! I managed to snag myself an amazing bloke (Right before I leave the country amazing timing, let me tell you...), I've had such emotional goodbyes, I could give a freshly spanked wailing newborn baby a run for their money, and oh yeah, I graduated.

I say graduated, but I actually mean I just became a graduate. I was rebellious and didn't actually do the whole ceremony thing. It's such a novelty in England to throw their caps in the air and wear the gowns and stuff...but seeing as I sported gowns every time I left a school, it didn't appeal to me much this time. Saved a bit of dollar too. :P Oh by the way, I got myself a prize for being radical at pattern cutting! Yay!!!! Good things happened!

I was even taken out to dinner! I was not expecting that at all. I originally didn't want to do the whole graduation thing because I knew I wouldn't have anyone to dine with after the ceremony. Everyone had family or significant others to go out to dinner with and I didn't. Why put myself through the loneliness, yo? But things change when you meet new people so I ended up having a lovely evening over some steak and wine. Mmm. Win. Plus having nearly half a bottle of wine to myself made me all tipsy and made me want to run away from saying my byes to people.

But alas, I still had to say goodbye too many times. I usually am hard as a rock when it comes to feelings but because the girls I met on my course are amazing and reduced me to tears at the thought of not spending every waking moment with them anymore. Ah...ohhh the tears are welling up again. Composure, Holly, composure...Calm. Good. No tears. I refuse to cry anymore! Haha.

I even cried saying bye to people I know I'll see again in two months, I swear I'm just a big ball of hormones at the moment. Grahh. Such a nuisance, trust me. I was escorted to the Bristol bus station to catch my coach to Heathrow by my lovely mate Ella (check her out, her illustration is amazering). She bought my a cupcake from the Hummingbird bakery. Oh my goodness it was delish. Thank you, Ella! As I got on the bus, I immediately got leaky eyeballs and then tried to distract myself with music on my ipod. In theory that would work, but EVERY SINGLE SONG reminded me of someone. Chase and Status = Stacey, Beyonce = Charlie, Foster the People = Snoon, Crystal Fighters = Sioban...the list goes on! Its nice, but it sucks if you get me.

But the good in all of this is that once I manned up and stopped feeling so weepy, I listened to the music that made me think of my brother and my girls back home. I'm actually quite chuffed that D&B and Dubstep are getting more recognition in America, I'm going to have a banging summer. My sister is getting married tomorrow...so that's a fun way to start the holiday off, right? Right!

How lovely it will be to see family and friends back home! I just hope my jetlag doesn't mess my face up. Need to look fly when I step off the plane, don't I? Yes, yes I do. :) Although I feel like I look awfully British with my Brogues, denim shirt and my headscarf. Here's to a good flight. x

Hello all! Terribly sorry I've been MIA for the past few weeks. I've arrived home safely in New Jersey as you can tell by this post. Home's been way too hot! :( Who woulda thunk it? Complaining about the heat?!) I got off the plane in Montreal, stepped outside and had a panic attack whilst furiously tearing off my clothing. The heat was unreal. You know what it's like when you open a hot oven and for some reason you're standing directly over it and you get a horrible wave of heat? Yeah, it was like that.

No matter! I will put the CLIC Sargent post up within the hour so you lovely people can read that as well. Sorry for the delay all, but Holly is back. x

I feel the urges steaming already.

Hello! I was meant to have posted a nice little diddy about CLIC Sargent's nice vintage shop on Gloucester Road, but the photos are on my hard drive and I can't use it without my travel adapters. As they are in storage while I prepare to go back home to America for the summer, I can't post until I'm by some good ol' America plug sockets . Nice. My bad, so that will be up right after my sisters wedding...so...sometime next week! Trust me, it's a good-un!

I have finally moved out of my third year house and I am technically homeless until I go home on Friday. Now, I've been staying at a friends house and as I'm home alone while they're all at work, I go into housewife mode. I've been cleaning and cooking just for things to do (because, between you and me, I've become a bit of a bum. Not working, just relaxing, which is well nice!) and I've just finished ironing a bunch of shirts and I've felt a bit of inspiration brewing.


I don't normally iron shirts, because I go out of my way to buy things that don't need to be ironed, but doing it this one time makes me want to either jump right back into menswear or maybe make some really cool drapey shirts for when I eventually get into some field where I need to actually dress in proper workwear attire *shudder* Something a bit All-Sainty like so:


Oh yeah. I feel like designing again


...right when I get back to America. x

The Secret's Out!

Ahhh...A very good morning to you all! Guess where I am? Well how would you have an inkling of a clue? I'll just stop your guessing and tell you.

ALICE'S SECRET EMPORIUM
(The website is still under construction at the moment but its up! Still have a look around!)

I was asked by my darling friend Tom, the genius mind behind this awesome little shop, to man the fort for a few hours. This totally beats packing, trust me! I am absolutely delighted to be sat behind the til eagerly awaiting customers. But seeing as it's Saturday morning...oh let's just hope not too many people are hung over! I thought I might do a little bloggity whilst it is quiet!

Alice's Secret Emporium is nestled downstairs of BS8 on Park St. (34, Park Street, Bs1 5JG Bristol, United Kingdom to be exact!) . BS8 is actually really a lovely place to shop! There's clothing, fragrances, accessories, a little stall completely dedicated to designs made from driftwood (really cool stuff, mind!) and all the vintage things your heart desires.

Now ASE's is Just. Too. Cute. It's vintage heaven! So many of the items have been sourced from all over and you've got a lovely array of chine, jewelry, ribbons, buttons, brooches, old Singer hand sewing machines!!! You don't even know! The list goes on and on, trust.



I'm a huge fan of the decor (I've been really big on decor lately, making mental notes on my own place, I suppose!) Everything is displayed in bookshelves and in vintage shelves and dressers. The till is even hella old school, but I shan't tell you more about that!





All I'm saying is that this place is awesome. The people in the other bits of BS8 are really sound as well so if you're wandering on Park St anytime soon, come on down and get your hands on some amazing vintage stuff. You'll love it. And Tom's an absolute doll, so do say hi!

Check out the facebook page too! Totally like their page too. Ooo looks like potential customers are coming over. That's my cue! Ciao ciao!

P.S. She was lovely! She's getting married and bought a glass cake stand. Adorable! I wish her all the best for her special day!

Messy, messy.

Ugh.
My life is basically all over the floor. I am a messy bugger.

I need to get on with with tidying and packing, but the thought of food seems so much more appealing, don't you think? I'm thinking homemade bread yet again with a nice selection of spreads. I feel as if I should start a food blog as well. Would people enjoy that or...?

The work paid off.

Bit of press!

Aloha. Can I just stress the amount of excitement when I saw that people actually liked my collection. I watched the audience as my models went down the catwalk and their smiles and premature applause before the lineup really made me proud.

Now you can only imagine how chuffed (oh the British phrases I've picked up...) I was when the well known blogger Charlie May blogged about our show and I was included in her review! I was jumping for joy when my friend Shiv sent me a link about it. Have a gander at the loverly post she's done about the first half of our graduate fashion show.

A la Mode: UWE GRADUATE SHOW PART 1

And just cos I'm not selfish and I would love to help out my fellow designers as much as possible, check out the second half as well!

A la Mode: UWE GRADUATE SHOW PART 2

Big shout out to Charlie May though, you're seriously the bomb sniggety for blogging about us!

Another shout out to Miss Fashion Fashionista for also blogging about our show. It's even cooler that I know Fran personally and she was part of our support system last year when she was a third year and when she kept popping into uni with loads of advice for us this year. We are ever grateful and hope keep on inspiring girl!

INTRODUCING THE NEW GENERATION

Ah and there's yet another fashion-forward website called Whiteboard Fashion I've managed to get onto. My great friend James Morris came to the show and wrote an article about my menswear collection! When I read it, I was soooo honored! He wrote such an amazing article and I was so lucky that it was about my work and he legit liked it!

WE WENT, WE SAW, WE CONQUERED: GRADUATE FASHION SHOWS

So much love from the people. So much love! Seems I need to add a "Press" bit to my website now...Oh and we made the paper as well.

STUDENTS TURN ON THE STYLE IN FASHION SHOW

Okay I think I'm done. < / b r a g g i n g >

Out of my design coma

Ah how refreshing it is to...momentarily hang up the towel, so to speak. The past month was definitely an interesting one. The fashion show went down. Have some photos!

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Cassidy

Photo Courtesy of Steve Norton

Photo Courtesy of Alice Eaglestone

As I came to the end of making this collection, I really started to hate it. Why? I don't know, may simply be because I kept looking at it nonstop. I guess I can compare it to eating the same thing over and over again for a week. You just get tired of it, right? However when my mate Helen came to the rescue with male models, and I put my outfits on them, everything just clicked! I loved everything I made and my models were absolutely fantastic with all their swagger.

Footage Courtesy of Monty Kimball-Evans

It was a tiring two days, really. The venue was gorgeous, but there was no air circulation so all our models were practically dying and such of the heat. But they were all awesome! Mine were so amazing, in fact (and I felt so guilty for making them wear Autumn/Winter in the summer) I bought them all ice cream and nice cold drinks and insisted I bought them all a round later on at our after party. I cannot stress how amazing my models were. They knew exactly what they were doing, they knew what they were wearing, they didn't mind that I gave them wet socks because there wasn't enough time to dry them properly for the third show -- They were just amazing.

After our show in Bristol, some people were chosen to show their whole collections at Graduate Fashion Week in London and some others were chosen to bring their garments along. I brought my big distressed coat with me because that seemed to be one of the favourites. That same coat is actually going to New Designers as well so that will be interesting. I had no idea I would have been chosen to show my work at either show in London, but I'm honored that I was! More later about New Designers! Stay tuned, people!