The Generator

Hello, it's been a while.

This past week I've been back at uni, trying to settle back in to a routine, and chasing up maintenance to come and finish my room for what feels like every five minutes (that's a story for another time). But, whilst all of this has been going on, I went to London on an FCP night for a couple of days, and we stayed at The Generator in Kings Cross.

When I first think of the word 'hostel', I instantly think some cheap, run down building, with dated wallpaper and rusty bunk beds. With The Generator that is not the case. Being FCP students we obviously have to do style on a budget, which is totally what The Generator is. It's decor is very artistic and visually attractive, with bright colours, different materials, funky typography and lots of illustration.

The atmosphere is brilliant, because it's full of like minded people who want to stay somewhere nice, but can't necessarily pay mega bucks. People who are creatively minded. People who aren't settling down for a while.

However, being a hostel there are some down sides to the small price tag. For example, you do still get bunk beds, which isn't a problem in itself, but the mattresses aren't particularly comfy to say the least. And breakfast is nothing to write home about. Nevertheless, I had a full nights sleep and I was fed, which you can't really complain about considering we paid less than £30 for the night.

The Generator is a chain of hostels, so they also have hostels in most major European cities, including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Stockholm. It looks like there is going to be on in Miami very soon!

If you're exploring accommodation options across the continent I would definitely recommend having a look at their website.


Georgia.xo

Cows & Cream

Over the past few months, I've been working on my summer brief, whereby I had to choose a topic and research it in depth, in preparation for Year 2.

The topic I chose was ice cream. You may be puzzled. And when I saw what everyone was else was doing (e.g. athleisure, illustration, gender neutral, etc), I was puzzled about why I chose ice cream too. 

BUT over the summer I was working full time on a farm, selling ice cream from a vintage ice cream bike, and that's where the idea came from. I was originally thinking of looking at symbolism and how different images and icons can connote different things. For example, how ice cream is a symbol for summer and fun and happiness. However, after thinking about it, I realised that ice cream can be an umbrella topic in itself. I could look at the different colour palettes that you can associate with ice cream and dessert parlours, and I could also look at consumer behaviours and trends, and that's how I could link it to FCP. 

I wasn't sure where to begin at the start. I compiled a list of questions that I could ask different ice cream parlours for primary research, but whoever I emailed never responded and when I actually visited one they told me they were too busy. 

But over time, I collected quite a bit more information that I was expecting and it even turned out that ice cream had somewhat influenced the last fashion week! That, plus the Museum of Ice Cream being such a success, proved to me that ice cream really was culturally relevant. 

To complete my project, I created a mini digital zine, which briefly covers what I've been doing and what I found out. I will leave the link for that just here... 

https://cowsandcream.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/cows-and-cream.pdf

Georgia.xo

My Happy Place

When I was 13, I visited the small island of Corfu for my cousins wedding and had the time of my life. Since then I always dreamt about going back. 6 years later and I've just got back from showing the island (predominantly the North) off to Harry!

Corfu isn't unknown. You may know it for it's party destination, Kavos, or because it was the birth place of Prince Phillip. The capital, Corfu Town or Kerkyra, is a port city with two fortresses and pretty shopping streets, whilst the old town is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. But despite this long history and copious amount of culture, I simply love the clear waters, the sandy beaches and the laid back atmosphere. 'Paradise' often comes to mind. 

Me and Harry stayed in the resort of Sidari, which is on the Northern coast of the island, and the same place where I stayed with my family all those years ago, in the same hotel - the Cyprotel Corfu Panorama. It was such a weird experience when we first arrived. The resort and the hotel have hardly changed at all since I was last there. It felt so familiar, almost like I'd never left. 

The hotel itself was lovely. We had an amazing view of the beach and the Canal D'amour, and even the Albanian mountains! The Cyprotel Corfu Panorama is a group of buildings up on the hillside - an army of beautiful salmon pink walls, away from a lot of the other hotels so even though you were in the resort, you could still have a bit of privacy from it. It's a 5/10 minute walk down the hill to the strip and the beach, which isn't far at all. The room was a bit basic, but it was clean, airy and the view made up for everything, so we couldn't really complain. The food was amazing! We've been to all inclusives before *cheers to the free drinks!* and we weren't expecting anything special but every day the food was different and of really great quality! Top dishes included braised veal with white wine and spinach and feta parcels.

Throughout the week we went on four excursions, which we booked with Vlasseros Travel. On the second night we visited Corfu Town where we watched the sun go down, had dinner, and wondered about the little lanes of shops. We then spent the next day at Paleokastriksta on the beach and also visited a small aquarium, where we got to hold a bearded dragon and a small snake! Our third day was spent in Kassiopi, which is a small harbour town, which has a number of small shops and restaurants, and also has a couple of gorgeous beaches. It was such a shame that we had thunderstorms on this particular day because it would have been paradise in the sunshine!

We had a bit of a chill out day by the pool on the Sunday, before spending the Monday at the Aqualand water park! I'm all for a good water park and Aqualand does not let you down! There are a number of slides - the rubber ring ones were definitely my favourite - a lazy river, and the third largest wave pool in Europe! 

Corfu is my happy place and for a week I got to live my dream. I never wanted to leave and I will definitely be back! 

Georgia.xo

Tommy Hilfiger Ready to Wear Autumn 2017 Show

A couple of years ago, Tommy Hilfiger was pretty irrelevant. But add Gigi Hadid to the mix (a social media powerhouse with 35.7 million followers on Instagram and 6.4 million on Instagram), plus an online streaming see-now-buy-now strategy under the hashtag #TommyNow and you've got the current market down to the T.

On September 19th, the designer showcased his third season of the TommyXGigi collection with a rock and roll circus themed catwalk at the Roundhouse in London. To sum it up simply the collection was 90's rock and roll meets winter (in reference to the see-now-buy-now model) meets America's red, white and blue in true Tommy spirit. Not only was Gigi Hadid walking the show, but also big names including her sister, Bella, Jordan Dunn, and Georgia May and Lizzie Jagger.

The collection follows a general mix of tartan, leather, denim, stripes and metal embellishment. A lot of the looks had quite a preppy vibe, with many of the women's looks including knee high socks and shorts, and many of the men wearing bomber jackets. There was also hints of leisure wear, which millennials are really rocking right now, as well as a rebellious spirit about some of the outfits, which gave the whole show a very 90's/Rolling Stones feel, which has really been making a comeback in recent seasons. You definitely get an idea of merch from the show, in relation to the rock concert at the Roundhouse.

I am really feeling a lot of the looks from this show. I think what I like about it is that you could easily recreate a lot of the looks, whereas some catwalk shows are a bit less realistic for your everyday outfit.

The catwalk finished with a performance from The Chainsmokers.

As part of the Tommy Now set up, you can now save each of the looks from the catwalk as you watch the playback of the show on the Tommy Hilfiger website here.

Georgia.xo

Bitesize News

I recently read an article in the 12th July issue of Stylist magazine, and one of their 'Elsewhere - Bitesize World News' articles caught my attention.

The article was named 'Bad Ads' and spoke about how the Social Democrat, Green and Die Linke parties in Berlin are going to be removing offensive ads, which portray women in a negative light, for example, as weak, naive or as sexual objects.

I've been an avid supporter for obliterating negative stereotypes and portrayals of women in the media ever since I studied Media at school. It was a topic which I wrote about for my A Level Media report, focusing on how women were depicted differently in the contrasting ad campaigns from This Girl Can and American Apparel, and came as a strong topic of conversation in my university interviews.

The plan would include a committee, who would pass judgement over whether proposed advertising violates their guidelines or not before they appear in Berlin. I think this is a great idea because it means no stones are unturned in a movement which sees women no longer having to feel guilty if they're not coinciding with the labels that society has created. However this will only work if the committee are genuinely concerned about the issue. Otherwise, what's the point?

This plan is similar to the one which Sadiq Khan put in place last year to eliminate ads, which conform to unrealistic stereotypes (similar to that of Protein World's 'Beach Body Ready' campaign), from London's public transport. So I'd like to see how it works out in Berlin, and I'd also like to see something similar across more areas of the UK, or even the whole of it!

Georgia.xo