New wave feminism

Women are taking on a new role online.

Dominant female voices are coming through and evolving on traditional media and online. Females are all voicing their opinion on misrepresentation that brands have on women. Stylus describes this shift as a  ‘feminised world picture; a world of conversations and emotional connections, an outward-looking perspective – a world with empathy at its core.’ Women are fighting back against the traditional views of women. For example, one woman shared her opinion on the ‘BiC cristal for women’ pens released via a sarcastic review

The change of femininity has even affected children’s clothing as girls are encouraged to learn to build.  Traditional ‘boy’s toys’ are now being endorsed by girls as companies such as ‘Goldie Blox’ bring out engineering toys for young girls.

You can buy it from here: http://www.goldieblox.com/pages/whats-new

This shift will change the ideas of success and beauty, modifying the perception of women. Steering away from the Towie image, women are modifying views of beauty. Demi Lovato advocated natural beauty, tweeting ‘ladies be brave’ influencing others to go bare.

Dove are also behind this movement with their recent download that restores photo shopped images. It was disguised as a ‘bodyglow’ tool, when, in reality, in reverted back the image.

Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6eJeBb7HSI

These new self-assertive, new millennial feminists are set to be an emerging consumer group for the future. They want honesty, control and to not be patronised. Brand’s are going to have to re-think their approach to these women, or will be at continuous risk of being publicly exposed and condemned.

The Finished Product

Every fragrance needs an ad campaign. Yuansu, with its minimalistic vales required a minimal shoot, no model and lots of white.
Here are the single page and double page spreads:

Bowie

The Return of Bowie
“we’re painting faces and dressing thoughts from the skies”- After all
David Bowie, the icon of post modernism is returning with a new album. He has been a huge inspiration within fashion with his innovative dressing and forward way of thinking.
Check out his new song:

Logo

For Yuansu, the base of the fragrance is minimal and so, the colour scheme and logo should replace that. For yuansu, the colour palette is very minimal and based on the colours of the elements so it is earthy browns, light greens and white. To help develop the logo, I played around with the layout of the Shang Xia logo, to link the brands together but also setting them apart

The Great Gatsby

A film on the Fitzgerald book, directed by Baz Lurman and music created by Jay Z.
More often than not, a film based on the book does not depict the true tale and can be a disappointment to those who have read the book. However, with The XX as the sound track, a great casting and the most perfect shots in every scene, the film is faultless.

I would highly recommend watching the film.
Watch the trailer here:

P'trique

P’trique C’est Chique.
Interpreting the consumer and mocking them.
His videos are funny, having exaggerated the stereotypical fashion consumer.
This is something you have to do within marketing, interpreting your consumer and knowing them inside out in order to sell products.

Nikki Rowntree

Having a lecture from the PR, Marketing and  events was really insightful. Nikki has worked worldwide with companies such as butler and Wilson, Colin McDowell and the environmentally friendly, ready to order clothing company Toast.  She discussed the different events she has organised and talked about stepping out of the realm of fashion when planning events and PR;. She discussed the communication with the consumer and the benefits of finding the right product t the right moment. Her lecture also helped with the organisation of teamwork and having a strong level of communication and understanding of each other.

Toast is a company that supplies beautifully made lounge wear. The name fits in with the context of the clothing and the colour scheme of all oof their work exhibits the attitude of the company.
Visit their store here: http://www.toast.co.uk/

You can also find out more information on Nikki here: http://www.nikkirowntree.com/central.htm

The Scent

From the gathering of data and market research the idea of our scent is finally coming together.
The idea my group have come up with is the idea of a natural, wholesome fragrance for the affluent male consumer in China. We already know that China is a good place to market a fragrance too with the growth of fragrances and male beauty products continuously growing. We will be basing it on the idea of the Wu Xing elements of traditional Chinese consumers.
We also looked into penetrating the market by partnering with a brand, as we know the Chinese consumers are label led. After thinking of many brands suitable, we have narrowed it down to Helmut Lang and Shang Xia. However, the brand attitude and values of Shang Xia I feel suit our brand a lot better. It would also appeal more to our target consumer.
From our research we have come up with the idea of Yuansu- the different elements together.

The Quay Brothers

The two twins Timothy and Stephen work together to create films. Amongst their more recent film for the Comme Des Garcons fragrance Wonderwood. Their work is filmed in stop-motion and often has sinister tones. They have done a series called ‘The Insutitute of Benhamenta’ which is quite odd but is also very addicting.
Watch it here: part one- Institute of Benjamenta

The film for Wonderwood really encapsulates what the fragrance is about- wood. The film features a boy, who is shown to love wood more than anything.
you can watch it here:

Google Glass

What is google glass? Well, they’re glasses. They are popping up in the news everywhere. They act as a wearable computer. They allow you to capture moments with their camera. They can direct you if you are lost. They allow you to update your social media, seamlessly whilst on the go. They  help with face recognition and allow you to be consistently connected whilst on the go.
But is this a good thing?
It could, capture moments you don’t want others to see, it could allow horrid exposures and indecent pictures over social networks. And most recently, it can have an app for porn- not something you would like your child to use.

The creation is amazing, but is it a step too far?

How to create a fragrance.

Within a fragrance are many different substances that all come together to form different notes you smell within fragrance.

To start, you have the top notes, the first impression of the substance.
These notes are becoming evermore important within modern scents. It is the first thing you get to smell and often becomes the main selling factor for buying a certain scent.

Middle notes
These act as the heart and character of a fragrance, they give it body and the base of a fragrance, they are the elements that hold the scent together

The base notes are the long lasting foundations of the scent. They also add body but are the longevity of the fragrance, allowing it to last throughout the day.

Karen Gilbert constructed this diagram to show the elements with a fragrance and what to take into account when creating a scent.

Tempting Twitter

Something needs to have a clear point when you only have 140 characters to say it in..
Twitter in the past few years has exploded in its amount of users.
It allows a gigantic community to get news fast. It allows housewives to know the latest TV gossip and young girls to know the latest FADS. We live in a fast paced, ever demanding community where we get everything in an instant.
But it’s not that easy when you’re trying to be that person who gives the latest (useful news)
Live commentary  on twitter has to be quick, witty and actually TELL the person reading it something.

As you can see from above; my first attempt at live commentary. You quickly learn to pick up the most important elements within the show. The more you go along, the more of a style you collate.
I found it easiest to use alliteration of garments, key pieces or the mood. The use of alliteration or assonance gives body to your tweet, it flows better and makes it more likeable. I released my inner poet to be witty with my 140 characters.

Our Sense of Smell

Behind the scent

How do we smell scent? Well the smell of something goes up our nose, it transformed into nerve signals and sent up to our brain for a response.

The olefactory system.
How does it work?
First, the substance particles travel up the nasal cantry to the olefactory neurons. These are then transformed into the olefactory bub and into the limbic system of the brain.

Many of our perceptions of scent, for example of an apple come from the synthetic idea or concepts.

Forget Heroin Chic, it's all about Exhausted luxe

Yesterday, I went to go see 'The place beyond the pines' (if you're thinking of going to see it- it is good but I warn you it is long)
Anyway, Ryan Gosling (playing luke) supports the 'exhausted luxe' look as seen on many of the catwalks.
Ripped clothes, t-shirts inside out and worn out clothing- he pulls it off very well.

See phillip french's review here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/14/place-beyond-the-pines-review

Anna Lomax

Her work is just great. It is bright, colourful and screams pop culture, very fitting with David Bowie. Might be quite a good collaboration with pretty polly too- that would be interesting!
http://www.annalomax.com/#

Art and science

In today's society the different sectors of art and science and technology all merge together to create new, innovative pieces.
The firewall is an interactive wall, creating sound through the use of movement. It is made by Mike Allison and Aaron Sherwood, I find it stunning.
Take a look:

Kid President

Went to an LSN global event today and they showed a little bit of the kid president, who make me smile, it gives hope and shows how intelligent Generation I are, soon the youth will control all.
This boy is a heart warmer!http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=SPzvRx_johoA-YabI6FWcU-jL6nKA1Um-t&feature=player_detailpage&v=TssZ9Uma1-w

Dove

In life, people get carried away with what they look like and how other may perceive them, instead of looking upon what they have been given and hoe lucky they are compared to others.
This video is great... Dove has done a good job with this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=trueview-instream&v=XpaOjMXyJGk

Pretty Polly

Through uni, pretty polly offered a brief  making tights sell in the summer. Sounds odd but if you think about how English weather is, tights seem highly appropriate.
For this, I worked with a friend.
Together, we came up for the concept of 'reality exceeding expectation.' Basically, the weather might be horrendous, but, we expect it, we make it fun.

These were the results:

After this, the images were edited to create a summery hue. We also worked with a graduate illustrator to add elements of fun such as this:

After re-touching up they looked pretty great and our work was highly commended, great! :D

Colour Theory

Just a little exploration into colour theory and tones of imagery.

Karen Gilbert- The fragrance expert.

http://www.karengilbert.co.uk/

What is a fragrance? “it is a way of communicating without words”
Karen discussed the history of scent and the science behind it.

The history of scent- A brief Summary of the history:

1920’s
The women began to steer from floral scents into aldehydes as the emancipation of women began

1930’s and 1940’s
These eras were all about the Hollywood glamour. This acted as an escape and a way of exhibiting the economy.

1950’s to the 1970’s
The was establishing the mass market, having industrial fragrances. The start of bath oil and having an easy way to smell good began.

1980’s
This was the decade of showing money and power- the era of power dressing.
Very strong, powerful scents were created.

1990’s
The reverse of the previous decade. A time of Zen and spirituality. It was all about mininmalism.

2000’s
The celebrity cult- the birth of mass celebrity fragrances. And, the repelling movement of high end luxury and niche fragrances

London

Visiting London for a research trip proved very successful. Talking to experts help you to gather information. It was also a good to get ideas for the visuals of brands and colour schemes as well as new ways of marketing products.

Consumer Behaviour

Brands...Brands...Brands...

We are all addicted to a brand or five... but why?
Well there are many factors but that main one is the relationship that we build with them.
In post 16th Century, there was no distinction between the culture, the economy and there was no individualism
From the 1600's to the 1800's the culture and economy became separate as the turn of industrialisation began
Post modern has now changed where culture and the economy are intrinsically linked.

"Buying behaviour is not only a function of the product: it is also, and in some cases perhaps more so, a function of the consumer, his social environment and that of other consumers, the competing products in the marketplace, and the brand marketing strategy." Thorsten Veblen wrote about conspicuous consumption in “the theory of the leisure class” in 1899

By brands building a friendship, customers will return again and again. They get to understand the brand, it's language and WHAT it communicates.
Coming into that is the comfort of the brands semiotics, its packaging and store layouts etc.

"Unattractive packages change activities in areas associated with uncertainty, disgust and risk" (Stoll et. Al 2008)  

 It seems we do judge books by their covers after all...

Dr Morgain Gaye

An expert in marketing, branding and behind the taste and smell of things.
In her lecture, Morgain discussed the consumers relationship with scent and how this deferrers within cultures and consumer groups.
We are able to identify over 10,000 different smells within our mind and within this is our likes, dislikes and our perceived idea of what smells good and bad.  This is also linked to the different cultures. For example, some cultures believe the smell of cow’s excretion is a godly scent- gross!
us British people tend to link scent with a psychological response- we base it on our experience in life and the scents we feel smell nice often acts as comforts e.g your mum’s homemade apple pie. Americans, however like their scents clean, fresh; scent is linked to cleanliness and bad smells are linked to dirtiness.
And the French often link scent to a psychological object, scent and the smell of a person is often a sexual relationship.

Morgain also described the relationship between colours and personalities that exhibit our taste and likes. She got us to select a colour flower and the idea was that the different groups that selected the different flowers would have the same taste and smell opinions. It was very interesting and every different group have some distinct likes and dislikes within this groups. You can find her website here: http://www.morgainegaye.com/academic/

Diana Vreeland

She was one of the first female publishers and had a great enthusiasm with what she did.
Her career started off as a columnist for Harper’s Bazaar  writing her articles on “why don’t you ?” Later on, she worked her way to become the editor of the magazine. After that her route in fashion took her to Vogue and later to work with the Metropolitan Museeum of Art in New York.

Oscar De La Renta explains how Vreeland “made beauty then she made wealth”
As a widely travelled woman, Vreeland knew so much and helped to revolutionise fashion in many different ways. There is a film made about her, her history and life and everything that happened around her. It is called  “The Eye Has to Travel.” The website for it is here: http://www.dianavreeland-film.com/

To me, she is very inspirational in her attitude towards life and her wisdom. The film is agreat one to watch if you’re lacking that oompf in life.

Logos!

Logo's come into a brand's attributes- the ability to communicate with the consumer with the use of 'denotation' and 'connotation'- The different messages is sends via different aspects



These logos are applied to 4 P's of promotion:

• Product( to show who made it)
• Promotion(how it can be applied/ the things it is applied to)
• People(Recognizable as it is part of brands identity)
• Place(how is it placed)

 As you can see, Nike applies its logo to many different products, from sponsorship to product and advertising, that tick is enough to know it is a product of Nike.
The Nike tick just goes to show that sometimes its the simplest logos that are the most effective. Another example of this is the Chanel logo, it has been around for over 90 years and it is still recognizable and relevant in today's society.

Here are some attributes to make a successful logo:

1. Visibility
2. Application
3. Distinctiveness
4. Simplicity/ Universality
5. Retention
6. Colour
7. Descriptiveness
8. Timelessness/ Modularity
9. Equality

Keeping up to date is key

A great website to keep up to date on the current fashion news.http://www.businessoffashion.com/

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Released in 1989, the cook, the thief is a satirical drama with lots of violence and much more strangeness. When first released, it was an X rating.
Despite its oddness, the costumes and costume changes make it worthwhile.
Throughout the film, the costumes change depending on the room.
Red in the dining room, green in the kitchen, white in the toilets and black elsewhere creating an artificial atmosphere.
I personally think the film is about sex (due to the affair),food/ gluttony (it is mainly based around the eating of food)and murder/ revenge (through the violence and various acts.)
You can watch the trailer here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cook_the_thief_his_wife_and_her_lover/
 

The Fragrance Breif

There is so much choice of different scents out there and I have been given the task of finding a gap in the market.
So, where to start? Well, GMID, Mintel and forecasting reports of course! Using statistics and finding out the growing economies is the best way, I feel to start with the brief.

Using stats and reports from Mintel and GMID, I think there is an opportunity for a fragrance in Asia as that is a market with a growing income and a growing want for beauty and fragrance. 

After further research, I think that China would be the best option to market a fragrance too. Without a history of scent and emotional links to fragrance, China are growing a want for beauty and fragrance. I found the Mintel report by Lui Meng Chow on China’s beauty and Fragrance market very useful within my research. Now, with the basis for the fragrance set, ideas on who to sell it to, how and what the product will be can now commence.

Daughter

A real great track, I find it a brilliant chill out song.
Daughter is a band of three, the vocals of the music- Elena has one of those voices you get lost in, might possibly be better than Ellie Goulding dare I say it!
Have a listen


If you can, her track human is great too
It is downloadable here:
http://4ad.com/releases/21673

The modern Punk

After the MET's Punk exhibition, the catwalks were BOUND to be littered with many 70's attitude.

For me, this was GREAT. Ever since I was little, I have always loved the experimentation and attitude of punks. So, in celebration I have made a mood board of the elements that have come off the catwalk and how to create this look yourself( without spending thousands!!) This new form of punk is more. relaxed- elegant and modern and a bit more minimal.
So grab yourself some attitude and have a look.

Binary Bitch

House Of Flora

The House Of Flora is a avant-garde head and eye wear designer, featured within many runways. Their designs always have that 'little something' different and the music always heightens the feel.Treat yourself to a browse of their previous campaigns:http://www.houseofflora.net/video.htmlFlora's new A/W 13 collection features a slightly tribal feel. Their campaign video features apocalyptic elements, with their usual strange music and slow motion movement. The running seems to show raw, aggressive emotions adding to the dreamlike quality.Are you going to bring out your inner warrior?

Printing Medicine?

PRINTING YOUR OWN DRUGS

For a while now, I have had a great interest in the new development of 3D printing. I mean, WHO wouldn't want to be able to download and print your outfit for that day... sigh
I know it's still new but the possibilities of this new development is simply amazing.
This TED talk discusses the current research into creating the ability to download your own drugs. So, when you're ill, what better way to get medicine than to do it in your own home.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lee_cronin_print_your_own_medicine.html

Have a watch.

MiuMiu

Coat from MiuMiu AW13 and I am IN LOVE. The textures, the shape, the navy and black, perfect. So glamorous.

First Post

So, this is my first post, so I figured I will start it off with one of my passions; music.
Yasmin has a great voice, and the song itself is great. A good party starter with even better lyrics. Turn it up loud!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4__q9CapVo