Remembering Bert Stern: Photographer Dies Age 83

Perhaps most recognised for his iconic shoot of iconic beauty Marilyn Monroe, the noted photographer has passed away in his Manhattan home on Wednesday it has been confirmed.  
Stern was best known for his iconic photographs of Marilyn Monroe, taken for US Vogue 6 weeks before she tragically died. The photos were later published in a book entitled The Last Sitting featured Monroe posing nude or with transparent scarves and were taken over three days in June 1962 at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles. The photos became some of the most recognised and praised photos of the young star. 
Bert was born in 1929 in New York and had his first brush with photography by taking photos of the US army for whom he worked as a photographer on a base in Japan. His first shot at the big time came from art director Hershal Bramson who gave him a job for a Smirnoff campaign. From there Stern continued in to photography and later in his career shot a host of classic beauties from Audrey Hepburn to Elizabeth Taylor. In 2002 he shot the cover photo of Sophie Dahl for the May issue of UK Vogue.  
He if often credited with redefining fashion and advertising imagery in the fifties and sixties along with esteemed photographer Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, all offering a cleaner more candid approach to their subjects.
Its fair to say that the photography world has lost a true talent, heres some of Bert's most iconic work. 

#REGENTTWEET

Unless you live under a rock its likely youre part of the twitter community, with over 500 million worldwide users it makes sense that this is the perfect place to advertise. Thats just what Regent St have done, the infamous shopping street has somewhat of a wide online presence reaching consumers all over the world. With shops from Burberry to Zara and with recent editions such as & Other Stories (from the H&M brand and the 1st in the UK) its easy to see why Regent St could soon be over taking Oxford St as the go-to shopping location in the big city.
To further their online presence, a couple of years ago Regent St created Regent Tweet (see what they did there huh), this year was its third year and the event took place on the 22nd June.
The event is created especially for bloggers throughout Europe, they then spend the day shopping and tweeting. There were various competitions and discounts available throughout the day.
There were various goodie bags available for the bloggers throughout the day featuring goodies from UGG Australia and Four London. There were also talks from insiders such as writer Christopher Riley and esteemed fahion blogger Susie Bubble.
If you browse the hashtag #regenttweet you'll be sure to find plenty of photos from the event, here are a few from http://www.iamgalla.com!

Barbara Hulanicki: 'Women Have Boring Wardrobes"

Barbara Hulanicki

The innovative founder of Biba, one of the biggest labels of the 1960's, has recently hit out at the modern woman saying that she thinks that their fashion sense has become far too predictable. Barbara thinks that we should ignore fashion trends, she said "There's too much interest in clothes now and it makes women dress less well. I think people are too concerned about what's fashionable," she said. "Women have such boring wardrobes these days because they must follow fashion, they must, they must. But sometimes it's about saying, 'Oh, this would work well with that.'"
I think that in a way Barbara is correct, we base our choices of outfits now on what is dictated to us as 'on trend', to be brutally honest the majority of us are slaves to fashion. We spend hours browsing the latest  collections online and flicking through magazines telling us what to buy and how to dress that some of us often forget to be ourselves and have fun with fashion, there are few that stray away from the status quo and choose to dress more quirky and 'out there' but walk down a Great British high street and you will no doubt see a bazillion females in crop tops and denim dungarees. Most people are too scared to take risks these days, I don't think Barbara means to offend anyone she is just being honest about the state of fashion these days, we've all become brainwashed with whats on trend and what will make us clones of all the other 'fashionistas'. 

Are we all becoming slaves to fashion?

Two final statements made by Barbara which I must agree with:  "It's very difficult to know what to wear now. That's why I always wear black," moreover she thinks American women have the worst style of all: "They're terrible; they all wear the same thing."

LCM Highlights

London Collections: Men has become as big a part of British fashion as our bi-annual fashion weeks. Who says fashions just for girls? The third instalment of the popular event had a lot to offer and lots of surprises too, from Idris Elba took to the decks at Oliver Spencer, Dougray Scott tried his hand at modelling for the Savile Row presentation and David Gandy pretty much everywhere (not much of a surprise hey but I'm not complaining). Heres some of my highlights.
Burberry Prorsum
Burberry jumped ship from Milan to show in London for the first time, which makes sense when Burberry is known for heritage and is the quintessential British brand. Their first show didn't disappoint, with a front row filled with Burberry regulars such as Tinie Tempah and David Gandy (of course) the show begun showcasing an incredibly youthful, chic and wearable collection with a beautiful bright colour palette inspired by painter David Hockney.
View the full collection here

Katie Eary
Katie Eary sent each of her guys down the catwalk holding a skateboards in bright prints creating what might be next seasons must have accessory. Perhaps one of the standout collections from the event and certainly Eary's best collection to date, saw female and male models sashayed down the catwalk in clashing pinks and reds in leopard and flamingo print. Paired down with a pair of neon Nikes, the collection screamed cool and was perfect for its front row audience of the likes of Tinie Tempah and Reggie Yates.
View the full collection here

JW Anderson
Once again JW Anderson chose to turn menswear on its head. Last year we had frilly hemmed shorts and bandeau playsuits, this time around Anderson presented a bizarre collection of unisex pieces including an array of printed halter necks and little black dresses(tunics?) over trousers and man clutches. Clearly taking the lead in fusing feminine silhouettes menswear Anderson doesn't seem to be backing down any time soon.
View the full collection here

Christopher Kane
Christopher Kane looked to the future for his collections, featuring trophy sweatshirts adorned with 3D scanned images. What with advances in 3D printing looking to turn the industry on its head this collection was hugely relevant and contemporary. Graphic prints paired with straight leg trousers made this collection extremely wearable, keep you eye out I think we may see a lot of these prints soon!
View the full collection here


A few looks that raised a few eyebrows or simply took my interest starting with Craig Green, who created probably some of the most avant-garde looks from the event which can only be decried as sculptures, faceless and huge Green made a strong statement, so different from many of the wearable collections showcased at the event! Second, Astrid Andersen followed suit of JW Anderson with a collection of somewhat girly garments, white lace and long tunic/dresses however it could not of been interpreted differently thanks to the ridiculously built models sent down the catwalk. Each with perfectly oiled abs and biceps and with a macho sportswear feel Andersen offered a whole new take on the unisex dressing trend. Lastly, I always take a look at Christopher Raeburn's latest offerings, the ethical designer comes back every year with a collections of endlessly wearable sports-influenced garments you can imagine on the shelves at Topman right now. With prints of camo and a tie dye its an easily accessible brand which i feel sits comfortably in this commercial industry, which is very different to its sister industry!

RAVENSBOURNE AT GFW

So, unless you've been living under a rock or ignoring my blog posts you'll know that this week was massive for the nations fashion graduates, Gradute Fashion Week finally came to Earls Court!
Being a Ravensbourne student I got the oppourinty to see our show and have a look round the exhibition space. It was super exciting to see the work of students from other unis and to see how it was displayed, moreover seeing the displays from the international collages was interesting. I really liked browsing the portfolios of our fashion promotion graduates to get a taste of degree work!
When 3:30 came around it was show time. I love fashion shows, the atmosphere is always so exciting and I always love seeing new talent and love the music the designers choose.
We didn't have exceptional seats but obviously they're reserved for VIP's and possible employers, oh and Susie Bubble! I didn't know what to expect but I was blown away by the talent, my personal favourites were the metallic holographic clutch by Sophie Malmgren and the pastels from Lydia Krause. I loved the song choice we had a bit of Venga Boys (mega nostalgia!) to a bit of Kanye.
We were all amazed when we came out and as the next GFW will be our show we have big boots to fill but we're all really excited about it and ready for the challenge!
In other news it was a great week for Rave, in Promotion we won 4 awards, Sophie Christiansen won the Per AQUUM marketing award, Rebecca Chambers won the Media Design award, Anne-Lina Dingsor Uudelepp and Emma De Vires won the Karen Millen Portfolio award. Moreover, four of our fashion students had their work selected for the prestigious gala show on Wednesday, they were Chen-Yu Wang, Patricia Williams, Phiney Pet and William Baxter. This is a huge honour and we've done so well I'm so proud! Heres a few cheeky pictures I took with my friend Grace, so check it out!

 
Sophie Malmgren
 
Lydia Krause
 
Rebecca Elley

Luke Harris

PENROSE MAGAZINE PROMO VIDEO

So a few days ago I showed you a magazine I had created for a university project, here is a short promo video I created for that magazine using Final Cut Pro, check it out

Ravesbourne Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YBj_2G_BME

All other footage: Shot by Elizabeth Fowler

Music: Friendly Fires - Paris (Aeroplane Mix)

LUELLA RETURNS

Luella Bartley and Katie Hillier
Some of you may remember the work of Luella Bartley, I for one remember fawning over her incredibly feminine designs in my youth (I had pictures of her spring 2008 collections plastered on my bedroom walls and myspace -yes it was THAT long ago) and scouring eBay to find cheaper alternatives. It didn't help when Alexa Chung (girl crush) sauntered around London in her designs. Her designs continued to capture the heart of young stylish 'it' group of Alexa and Pixie Geldof etc, and me for that matter until late 2009 when it was sadly announced that Luella would cease trading as it seems her designs weren't doing as well as you would of hoped.
Fast forward to 2013 and it has just been announced that Luella will join forces with Katie Hillier at the helm of Marc by Marc Jacobs, diffusion brand of Marc Jacobs. Its the first time that anyone other than Marc has had control of the brand although he will still have a major input in the brand, especially when it comes to decision making, but he wants to concentrate more on Louis Vuitton and his own name sake brand, which is understandable when both have had such success recently and LV is looking to expand, it's been milling about for a while about them launching their first fragrance but no news yet!
Luella has been appointed ready to wear design director (swoon) and Hillier creative director of the line. Their designs should be unveiled Autumn Winter 2014/15, so make sure you check it out I for one am very excited (and curious) as to what they will come up with, only time will tell!
Luella Spring Summer 2008

GRADUATE FASHION WEEK, TOMORROW!

1 DAY TO GO!!
Oops, been getting slightly confused with my days! It is most definitely one day till THE biggest event for fashion graduates commences, but its 2 days until the Rave show! As I said in the last GFW post I'm heading down the Earls Court to watch our show so I will be blogging as it happens and I'm so excited! 
They have also just released an app in time for the event next week. The app, designed by UCLAN students, is the best way to find out about competitions and keep up to date with whats going on at GFW. It was also feature reviews and photos straight of the catwalk so will really come in handy for those who can't make it to the event!

(Source: http://www.gfw.org.uk)
Moreover, fashion director of The Daily Telegraph Hilary Alexander (you should all know her!) has claimed that the Ravensbourne show was the first to sell out this GFW, so you must know this big news!
If you missed your opportunity to grab a ticket, Rave is hosting the pop up shop for a second year in a row so make sure you get down and check it out! 

A third of Ravensbourne Fashion Promotion students are finalists in national competitions which is great news, 2 have been reviewed by iD online, and another is up for the prestigious D & AD award. At GFW, Promotion students are finalists for Fashion Photography, Fashion Marketing, Fashion Business Idea and Fashion Media. So make sure you check us out at GFW to see what everyones raving about! (sorry I couldn't help myself.)

Hilary Alexander with Anna Della Russo (Source: http://thefashionguitar.com)

BLUMENFELD COMES TO SOMERSET HOUSE

Yesterday afternoon I visited the latest exhibition to inhabit Somerset House's East Wing. 'Blumenfeld Studio: New York 1941-1960' takes a look at the work of esteemed photographer Erwin Blumenfeld. Blumenfeld is one of the most influential fashion photographers of our time, his flawless photographs adorned the pages of Vogue and Harpers Bazaar throughout the 40's and 50's. What made Blumenfeld stand out so much more than your average photographer was his skill and originality, he used various effects using collaging, mirrors and lights etc to create visually stunning pieces of work. What amazed me was how such imaginative images could of been created centuries ago, when there were no means of photoshop or editing software, this just show how talented Blumenfeld was. If you looked close enough you could see that he used no retouching whatsoever, classic beauty Grace Kelly's arm hair was still there and you could see the texture of her skin, yet it was still flawless.
From my point of view, being an avid lover of fashion magazines, it was also interesting to see Vogues covers from years ago and how much they have changed. The exhibition really focuses on vintage photography and shows that it doesn't have to be boring with a model stiff in the centre, Blumenfeld was ahead of the times with his imaginative imagery. The photos I really liked were the ones with the cigarettes, there was one and the model was wearing a flower bracelet and it showed how different smoking was portrayed in those days and was a really beautiful shot. 
The exhibition may seem a little boring to some as there isn't much interactivity and the images are quite small, it is the complete opposite to the Tim Walker Storyteller exhibition which vacated Somerset House a few months ago, but that shows how much photography has changed nowadays, and will be sure to capture the imagination of those who are interested in the art of photography. In fact I feel Blumenfeld may have been the Walker of his day. His photos, like Walkers, are incredibly surreal, magical and precious that it keeps you guessing how it was created. 
I really advise any budding photographers, fashion photographers or lovers of fashion to visit, as its so interesting to see his tricks up close, moreover theres a video playing for you get a deeper insight in to Blumenfeld and his work. You're not permitted to take photos (always a bummer) but I've found some images of Blumnfeld work which I really liked and posted below for you. 
The exhibit runs  till the 1 September so you've got plenty of time to visit especially if you're planning a visit to London over the summer, moreover it's free which is always a bonus particularly for students like me! So get yourselves down there.