Manolo Blahnik 'Art of Shoes' Exhibition - Milan

This brought FAR too much excitement to my life when this piece of news was released! The only downer though? The exhibition isn't coming to London :(!!! BUT! this could be another reason to travel. The exhibition will be hosted at a number of locations starting in Milan, from Jan 26th to April 9th. It will showcase 212 shoes divided into 6 sections all celebrating Blahniks work as a form of art and showing off Blahniks vision, craftsmanship and creativity. As mentioned the first stop for the exhibition is Milan, other locations include St Petersburg Russia, Czech Republic, Madrid and finally Toronto Canada. As soon as I have further information on this I'll be sure to update you guys!

Graduate Fashion Week Round Up!

Today is the last day of Graduate Fashion Week (boooo) I LOVE graduate fashion week, it highlights all the top Students from Fashion Schools around the UK. It also shines a light on designers to look out for, some of the famous British brands around today are headed by designers that were able to show case their clothing on a Graduate Fashion Week schedule. I have picked out my favourite pieces so far. The tickets are still available for the last few showcases at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch today, so you can still get in on a piece of the action. For anything that you have missed head straight to the Graduate Fashion Week instagram, you won't be disappointed! (Photography above and below are not mine - for info on photographers please go to the GFW instagram! 😘)

Liverpool John Moores University  

Daisy Miller for Liverpool John Moores University 

Rosanna Hepburn for Northbrook University @nbcol

Jenni Thompson for Northbrook University

Northumbria Uni

Faith Balogun for @universityofeastlondon

University of East London

Anita Atuobi from UCA Epsom @unicreativearts

Blaire Herron for University of Brighton @fashion_uob

Esmee Ford for De Montfort University @dmuleicester @fashiondmu

Laura White for De Montfort University @dmuleicester @fashiondmu

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Ancient Greek Sandals

Ancient Greek Sandals a brand started in 2011 has taken the world by storm. Beyonce, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gisele and Anne Hathaway are all huge fans that have been spotted in them. Their story is one that inspires me, as a Greece based business at the time of the recession they went up against the odds, building a successful business with loans from friends and family after being refused a loan from the banks. They now have 15 stockist and sell around 80,000 sandals a year (yeah I know wow!) and show no signs of stopping. Ive selected a few of my favourite styles, and with the summer on its way now would be the best time to stock up!

Vogue 100 Exhibition

I have been desperate to go to this exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery ever since its open date in February and it finally happened on Saturday. The boyfriend and I decided to have date day and all though we had to wait an hour until our allocated slot the exhibition was well worth it. I have been an avid Vogue collector since my mum bought me the subscription for christmas years ago, (slightly obsessed since I've kept every copy!) so I was excited to see the front covers that I hadn't seen before. I absolutely loveeeeed it! The exhibition took around 45 minutes to get through (good running time! ha) and the rooms were decked out in great imagery from some of the fashion photography greats. As I walked through the exhibition I could see so many of the covers that Grace Coddington had curated and it was nice to know the back story of how the shoots were produced and put together. The covers for the first few magazines were beautifully illustrated and the huge archive that they've exhibited was stunning. This is the last week for the exhibition and Sunday will be the last day, make sure you head down there before you miss a great exhibition.

SHOES 

PLEASURE AND PAIN

V&A

So a couple weeks back my lovely boss treated the ICMS team to the Shoes Pleasure and Pain exhibition at the V&A - it was nothing short of inspiring. The collection was pretty amazing and the short films were fab. The most memorable part of the exhibition was watching the short films on how 5 renowned designers (Manolo Blahnik, Sandra Choi of Jimmy Choo, Caroline Groves, Marc Hare and Christian Louboutin) within the footwear industry deal with the specific elements of the design process. Most of their responses within this 12 minute clip explored in my opinion the ever changing relationships with technology, either with design (using CAD as to the old fashioned way of using pen and paper) or even the manufacturing process. Caroline Groves in particular relished in the fact that bespoke shoe making allowed her to take complete control of the making process using only a sewing machine in her kitchen to complete a beautifully custom made pair of shoes. In comparison other designers almost felt eternally indebted to their manufactures and worked meticulously together to recreate the exact design that was initially conceived from a sketch or CAD design. The exhibition brought together all of these components, including a brief history in footwear all the way to shoes in the present, that have completely changed the way shoes have been designed and made.

V&A Museum

£12 entry

South Kensington Tube Station

www.vam.ac.uk

Victoria and Albert Museum

@V_and_A

@vamuseum