don't panic.

in my undergraduate days i spent forever trudging around london collecting as many free fanzines and mags etc. that i could find/ lug back to chatham on the train. part of the many things i used to collect, and what predominantly adorned the walls of my modest student room, were the posters from the stuffed brown don't panic envelopes swiped from the boutiques of kingly court and carnaby street.

don't panic has been going to for a decade now and is being celebrated in the form of an exhibition at the old truman brewery. dazed digital features a short piece on it with some images to wet your appetite.

exhibition opens from tomorrow and runs until 3rd october.

***EDIT*** Go here for pics from the opening night.

unlike cinderella, i didn't get to go to london fashion week.

so obviously my invitations to the shows at london fashion week were lost in the post, there's no other explanation for it is there surely?! whilst the lure of the catwalk has always been laced with excitement for me (despite how cool i try to be about it) i always find what people are wearing on the streets much more exciting that what i'll ever see on the catwalk.

not being able to be in london hasn't stop me appreciating the weird and wonderful outfit concoctions of the industry insiders and hangers on due to the wealth of blogging dedicated to the parade. my favourite post featured on amelia's magazine blog. written and photographed by matt bramford, the post is beautifully witty, filled with street pics and made me chuckle muchly. susie lau also does great lfw coverage as per (i think everyone is now fully aware of how much i love her- it's a given).

missing out on the lfw shows doesn't mean i've missed them altogether though. and neither have you thanks to the wonders of technology. the official lfw website has a wonderful digital schedule where you can click a button and be magically transported to the front row... well... you get to see the video of the show at least. i'm currently loving hannah marshall, who i think every other industry insider is getting excited about right now. her show this year may have stuck to the dark side of the colour spectrum but showcased exquisite uses of clashing textures (leather, fur, velvet) and fantastic geometric, body-con design features.

and yes, whilst i didn't want to make a big deal of it, i realise that i can't just sneak back to blog without some explanation of my prolonged absence. let's just say that the summer was eaten up by too many family health problems and situations that i needed to be present for. pretty much everything stole me away. now that everything's calmed down and i've constructed a suitable timetable to organise my (sometimes too many) goings on, you'll see more of me.

writer's block.

i have had writer's block for what seems to have been a considerable amount of time now. i know what i've wanted to write, i know what i've been researching and what i want to research... and i know that i should keep doing it. however. sit me down in front of my laptop and my mind turns to jelly. every single thought and idea i had about five minutes before literally disappears in a puff of smoke. there have been times that i've been sat there with my cup of tea and literally stared at my blog editing screen for what seems like forever.

i've tried to figure out what it is and i think i've hit on several things. 1) stressing about other annoying life matters, 2) my nomadism, 3) having too much clutter and 4) lack of inspiration.

and my problem with these has been that i have let them become problems. now, i've decided to head at things straight on and just get on and deal. oh yes, oh yay.

i also feel that sometimes a blank screen on a laptop can be rather daunting. so i'm thinking that i could do with some blank pages of sketchbook. i have desire for something more visual at the moment and i think that the visual could kickstart my enthusiasm and motivation for the wordy.

i'm going back to the drawing board.

never thought i'd hear myself say this.

whilst i will admit to looking at it everyday for a brief 15 minutes in morning or at lunch time it's very rare that you would find me actually talking about or even reflecting upon what i've read on the MSN homepage. today a little article caught my eye and started the cogs of my mind whirring away. MSN has presented a short picture article of current everyday gadgets that could soon be extinct to honour the inevitable demise of the humble floppy disk. this comes as sony have announced that production of the floppy disk is due to cease by march 2011.

the image of the floppy disk reminds me of the excitement i felt as my family got our first PC in 1996 (pre social networking, blogging etc. 1996 was definitely all about the AOL teen chatrooms). we used to have hundreds of the things cluttering up the place with numerous saved bits and bobs on them...who knows what and where because they were very rarely labelled. but they definitely came in handy for when i need to transfer my regular music reviews for the school paper (that would be "Tamsyn's CD Corner" as part of the "Pupil's Eye" newspaper... i kid you not) from home to school. and do you remember the sound they used to make when you'd pop one into the PC and they'd whirr into life? oh yes. those were the days.

but now back to the present day where it's rare to even see a computer with a floppy disk slot. nowadays, it's all about the USB memory stick. i remember getting my first memory stick in my first year of uni... a 2MB stick that cost forty british pounds. nowadays you can get about ten of those sticks for the same price (with undoubtably much more memory capacity). that's in just 6 years. a small example of how digital technology is becoming cheaper and more readily available for a wider audience. the USB memory stick has gone from being an investment buy that i had to ask for as part of my christmas present to being something that i can pick up in poundland (and yes i have seen them) with my toiletries and domestic cleaning products. in a little technology timeline one would see the USB memory stick replace the recordable CD replacing the floppy disk effectively replacing printed information and so on and so forth. i know it's not exact... or maybe even true. it's just me attempting to apply mcluhan theory to my mind's rambles.

going back to the MSN article, out of the list of gadgets soon to be extinct there was one that particularly caught my attention. the alarm clock. despite manufacturer's attempts to jazz it up.. people no longer want or need, what one would assume to be, the essential alarm clock. and what instead is one using on an everyday basis to get up for work/uni/school etc? the mobile phone.

the multimedia/multifunctional capabilities of the latest mobile phones, or "smart" phones, enables an individual to access a plethora of everyday modern necessities. even helping them to wake up in the morning. this use of one central item to control your whole life be it your job, social life or personal leisure time is a trend which looks likely to continue. i wonder maybe if in a hundred years time our destiny will be one similar to the human population of wall-e?

fat, anti-social slaves to technology hmmm? what do you think?

and i think i'll stop that blog there before i go off on another trail of thought.

excuses excuses.

an expensive broken down car, lack of internet and other personal difficulties have equaled a serious lack of motivation for research over the last 6 weeks. these are the reasons why i haven't updated my blog but i don't want to use them as an excuse or in fact keep using these reasons as an excuse. so its time to break the unmotivated cycle and embrace a highly motivated one. please keep a look out for a blog update later today. as usual, i would appreciate any feedback.

dis magazine.

just a short, sharp, sneaky post whilst at work today. my work colleague emailed me a great link to an interview with dis magazine. from my very quick browse it looks just up my street but i will need to read properly and dissect another time.

enjoy for now and leave me your thoughts.

ArtEz

recently, i was lucky enough to be involved in a project collaboration between my university, UCA Rochester, and ArtEz in Arnhem, The Netherlands. we visited them for Amsterdam Fashion Week (you may remember the blog in which i was anxiously pondering over what i should wear to the event?) and they came to visit us during London Fashion Week. split into four different groups we worked together through the topic of fashion as performance to come up with new concepts to revolutionise the fashion show as we know it. the project was very fun and gave me the chance to meet some wonderful creative individuals who were also tonnes of fun.

my tutor emailed a link to a blog about the ArtEz students own work about a week ago which, i must confess, i have only sneaked a peek at today. to my delight and surprise, the work shown are mood movies by the MA fashion strategy students in reaction to the project title "the future of visual communication in fashion". much for me to mull over and be inspired by. may even think about making my own little mood movie myself.

enjoy.

*** just read that susie bubble has quit her role as commissioning editor at dazed digital. whilst not upset, i always thought that her taking on that role gave hope to bloggers everywhere and showed how bloggers were beginning to be taken seriously by the fashion industry. what's interesting about susie bubble's latest post is her remarks on how she feels the fashion industry are not as accepting of bloggers as they like to claim they are. perhaps bloggers are just a passing fashion fad and not as dominant as we first thought? or perhaps its the eternal battle of the establishment versus the revolutionary? whatever it is it, the fact that the fashion industry as seemingly reluctant to accept bloggers just proves what i always thought about the fashion industry... conformed individuality. i hope that time and continued research into this project of mine will prove it all wrong.