BBC Perfume Documentary | Part 1

After completing my fist ever module at university, I am now preparing for the next which is based around fragrance. I am currently home from uni for 2 weeks worth of reading weeks and as preparation for this next module, I have been asked to watch a series of episodes from a documentary 'Perfume', which was aired by the BCC back in 2011.

Today I watched part 1 of this series 'Something old something new'. This title seems suitably fitting for the documentary as it focuses on the production and release of a Tommy Hilfiger fragrance (something new) and looked into perfume brand Guerlain, which has been around since 1828 (something old).

Throughout the documentary viewers are given an insight into how Guerlain differs from other fragrance brands. Perfumers are now forced to use fewer, cheaper ingredients in order to maintain profits, however for Guerlain this is not true. Guerlain's perfumes are made to ancient recipes and unlike the many brands that are constantly introducing their newest fragrance, Guerlain very rarely release new perfumes. As I'm sure you're aware, many department stores these days heavily push fragrances, Guerlain is much more dignified 'the ladies of the first floor salon don't do flirting or squirting, they're here to gently shepard'.

The documentary follows the creation and production of a Tommy Hilfiger fragrance 'Loud' which was the most interesting part for me. The fragrance was to have a rock and roll vibe and Hilfiger had made clear that he wanted the bottle to also portray this same rock and roll feel. I found it incrediby intersting that the perfume bottle was created before the perfume itself which really highlights a point made within the documentary 'scent is invisible so the packaging has a lot of work to do'. A lot of work and thought definitely went into the designing and production of the fragrance bottles, from the 'rock and roll' inspired mood board to the LP inspired sleeve packaging.

I've always found it fascinating how perfumes can drop from being in such high demand to being available on the bargain store shelves in such a short space of time, you could be paying a considerable amount of money for an admired perfume one month and the next it's available at Wilko's at less than half of its original price. Within the documentary scent critic, Chandler Burr visits a local bargain store to take a look at the fragrance on offer. He explained that the fragrances found on sale within discount stores have previously been at a prestigious level, but once they have dropped and become unpopular for two years they will often end up here. Burr then pointed out a Calvin Klein fragrance and explained that although having this product available within a discount store could cause a 'slight fall in lustre' of Calvin Klein as a brand, this is outweighed by the money that can be made by doing so, as it allows consumers who wouldn't normally purchase from the brand to do so.

I plan on posting about each of the two remaining episodes I have left to watch of this documentary, these will be up on my blog over the next week or so, so stay tuned!

Love, Isabella x

Photo Credits: Google images 

Angelica Hicks - Artist Crush

I came across Angelica Hicks, a London based artist back in November when one of her images which you're probably familiar with 'Victoria's Secret Service' appeared all over social media platform, Instagram. The illustration featuring models Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, was used to announce the girls debut as Victoria's Secret Angels. Hicks posted the illustration onto her Instagram page and it remains her most liked post to date, Jenner and Hadid also posted the image onto their Instagram accounts. Below I have collected together a handful of my favourite illustrations by Hicks, I couldn't just pick a couple to share I'm too in love with her work!

A handful of my favourite illustrations by Angelica Hicks 

The young illustrator is currently taking Instagram by storm, by quite simply making fun of fashion and culture with her witty puns and faultless illustrations. I love how her pieces are so aesthetically pleasing yet so witty, fun and humorous at the same time, fashion can be taken far too seriously so it's nice to see that a lighthearted approach towards the industry is being embraced!

Within an interview with Bazaar, Hicks expressed her feelings on the power of social media 'If I hadn't put one of my first cartoons on Instagram and received positive feedback, who knows whether I would still be illustrating'. She then went on to discuss how she felt that Instagram and social media have influenced the world of fashion 'I was talking to an editor the other day and we were discussing the way in which Instagram and social media have removed the need for people to buy magazines.' This is definitely a statement I must say I agree with! Social media platforms are bombarded with spoilers regarding the fashion industry, Instagram is always the first to make users aware of a new campaign, magazine issue, or up and coming model or photographer, and so on making it unnecessary for us to pick up a magazine to find out the latest news within the fashion world.

During an interview for Tory Daily, Hicks explained that she puts her flare for illustration down to her parents 'My father is a decorator and my mother is involved in both fashion and interiors so I was brought up with an astute awareness of the importance of aesthetics; everything was either "ghastly!' or "divine!" As a child, my father would constantly urge me to "be more observant," and this emphasis on the visual from an early age, coupled with a photographic memory have proven invaluable to my illustrations as I cross-reference popular culture with fashion'.

Angelica Hicks' Instagram 'angelicahicks' (https://www.instagram.com/angelicahicks/) is a must follow account, which she keeps updated with her work on a regular basis. I would also highly recommend giving her website a visit, http://www.angelicahicks.com.  I'd love to see Angelica Hicks collaborate with a fashion campaign or magazine issue in the future, wouldn't that be AMAZING?

Love, Isabella x

Photo Credits: Angelica Hicks' Instagram 

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show - 2015

Without a doubt this is the fashion show I look forward to the most each year, everything about it is always so captivating, theatrical and stunning, never failing to deliver great quality entertainment. I really like how the brand has such a clear image and each year the show is always so reflective of this. For me nothing can top the glitz, glamour and sparkle that is the Victoria's Secret fashion show! Hosted at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York City last Tuesday evening, this year marked the 20th anniversary of the annual show and it was as extraordinary as ever.

Popular, well known musicians have always featured within Victoria's Secret fashion shows, in past years the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift have taken to the VS runway and performed amongst the angels. This year was no different, with appearances from Selena Gomez, The Weekend and Ellie Goulding. Goulding stood in Rhianna's place after the singer dropped out of the show a week earlier. Having big names of the moment perform on the catwalk is a great way for Victoria's Secret to gain publicity for its shows and the brand itself. Gomez, Goulding and The Weekend have a total of 61.8 million Instagram followers and 43.4 million Twitter followers between them. Each of the artists posted on both of these social media sites regarding the show, prior to it taking place or after. This meant that an incredibly wide audience was made aware of this years show through these artists posting about it on social media alone. Gomez posted a total of 5 images related to the show on her Instagram page, two of these images reached 1.7 million likes. Goulding made 7 posts regarding the show on her Instagram page, she also reposted a VS show related image onto her page, one of her posts reached 272K likes. The weekend posted a photo on his Instagram account of himself amongst the angels, accompanied by Selena Gomez which gained 274K likes.

A week before the show was due to take place, On Tuesday 3rd November Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid took to Instagram and Twitter to post an illustration that had been drawn of the pair labelled 'Victoria's Secret Service'. The models captioned the posts gushing how they were the 'newest recruits' to join the team of angels. I think that casting the young models as angels for this years show was a smart move for Victoria's Secret. Jenner and Hadid's careers have rocketed over the past year with them taking on major jobs. Jenner has previously taken on the role as the face of beauty brand, Estée Lauder and Hadid, the face of the Autumn/Winter campaign for high street brand Topshop. The best friends have such a great following and it seems as though they come as a pair. They are often seen together personally and professionally, they have recently starred alongside one another in the H&M X Balmain campaign. I think casting the girls together will prove to be a particularly intelligent decision for Victoria's Secret as they are both hot property in the modelling world right now, so it makes sense to have them work alongside one another.

The Kardashian/Jenner clan took to their Instagram and Twitter accounts to express their pride for second to youngest sister, Kendall. To the left are some of the images the family, including Kendall Jenner herself (41.3 million followers), Kylie Jenner (42.2 million), Khloe Kardashian (35.7million), Kim Kardashian (51.7 million), Kourtney Kardashian (28.6 million), Kris Jenner (9.3 million) and Caitlyn Jenner (5 million) posted on Instagram. In total this ultra famous family have an Instagram following of a whopping 213.8 million! As you can see the images racked up millions of likes, with one of the pictures posted by Kendall herself, reaching an astounding 1.7 million likes. It wasn't just the Jenner/Kardashian family who took to Instagram to document the event. Gigi Hadid posted 8 images onto her Instagram account (8.5 million followers) her most popular post coming in with 893K likes. Like Jenner, Hadid also received support from family through Instagram with her brother, Anwar Hadid posting 3 images onto his Instagram account regrading the show along with their mother Yolanda Hadid Foster who made a total of 4 posts regarding the event.

The show was also covered on social media platform Snapchat. As you can see from some of the imagery I have displayed within this post, the whole show has a certain feel to it and this doesn't stop backstage. The hair, make up and general girlie hanging out backstage adds to the ethos of this show. Through the use of snapchat, fans of the brand had the opportunity to see what went on behind the scenes, which is really just as interesting as the show itself! Seeing the models dressed in the brands statement stripey pink robes being beautified is all part of of the event.

I'm counting down, along with the Victoria's Secret website and I'm sure many of you for the show to be aired on television on 8th December. These images have got me a whole lot more exited to visit New York in January, where I'm sure I will spend far to much time in the Victoria's secret store.

Love, Isabella x

Photo Credits: Instagram, Twitter, Google images 

Paul Smith - Gentleman Designer

During film club this week, I watched a film based around the professional life of Sir Paul Smith 'Paul Smith - Gentleman Designer'. Smith is originally from Nottingham, where I am currently at university so it was particularly interesting for me to broaden my knowledge of the brand and Paul Smith as a person. Its not surprising that the Paul Smith flagship store is located in Nottingham, in a building named 'Willoughby House'. This isn't the only Paul Smith shop within Nottingham, the company's first ever store which is located just around the corner from Willoughby House, remains but now as a 'PS Paul Smith' store which is considerably smaller than than the flagship store and only stocks menswear.

I thought that the film captured Smiths personality really well and it allowed us to have a real insight into his character, and he seems like such a lovely man! He came across really hard working and mentioned in the film that he usually leaves his house at 6 o'clock every morning. Although he comes across really dedicated to his career and work life it seems he has a great sense of humour too. Moments within the film made it clear that Smith doesn't take life to seriously. The designers office featured in the film, a cluttered room packed with inspiration and  items of nostalgia he has collected from around the world or has been sent over the years. During the film Smith reached behind his office door he referred to as his 'filing cabinet' and pulled out a newspaper he opened the newspaper to reveal an array of small paper notes he had collected, each note with a different positive or inspiring quote. This struck me as such a sweet idea, lets face it there are times we could do with a positive or inspiring quote or two when we're in the office!

Paul Smith has become a global brand, wholesale to 66 countries around the world in total, 17 of these stores are located in England. Paul Smith stores can also be found in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Korea, Singapore and Anterwep, but the country home to the largest percent of Smith stores is Japan with over 200 located here!
The number of Paul Smith stores located in Japan compared with the number in England, where the brand originates from it is actually quite fascinating and shows just how big the fashion market is in Japan. Within the film we followed the man behind the brand on a trip to Tokyo, I was quite surprised at how similar the Japan Paul Smith stores are to the English ones. The Japan based stores have the same style as that of the English stores, a very clearly English look. The strong links with the English heritage could explain the popularity of the brand in Japan as the stores have an individual look which particularly stands out when taken out of England itself. Not only did the film show just how popular the brand is over in Japan but also Smith himself, he is viewed as a star there and is treated as a big celebrity. He explains when he visits the country during business he attends between 20 and 30 interviews per trip.

Collecting inspiration and information from aspects for fashion from outside of fashion is a big part of my Fashion Communication and Promotion course, so it was inspiring for me to see how Smith collects inspiration ideas for his designs. Clearly this creative process is something Smith feels is important also enjoys, he sees inspiration everywhere and he feels so strongly about this that he even wrote a book regarding the idea 'You can fine inspiration in everything and if you can't look again'. Although the ideas I collect will not inspire fashion designs but instead other creative aspects such as styling, art direction or a colour palette, I still go through this same research process. A lot of Paul Smiths designs are influenced by musicians/bands and fairgrounds, in the film we saw him visiting a fairground photographing everything that caught his eye from patterns to colours. I noticed that Smith takes great pleasure from being behind the camera, snapping everywhere he goes. We even saw him getting involved and taking part in the photography for campaigns and lookbooks for his collection during the film. He explained that he likes to capture a mood rather than the detail of clothes within his brands photography. We saw Smith travel to Portobello Road, London within the film where he searched the rails for vintage clothing which caught his eye. Garments he particularly took a fancy to, or saw something unique in, he purchased and took back to his design team to use as inspiration. He made a point that he doesn't copy designs he likes but may just take inspiration from an aspect he liked about the garment for example, the pattern, colour of a print or the way a sleeve has been put in. I thought this was a strong point as my work within FCP will also require me to use this thought process of putting my finger on what I specifically like about something using this to inspire me rather than just copy what has already been done.

As I watched the film I tried to bear in mind what makes this brand so popular and by the end of the film I had come to a clear conclusion. Paul Smith is individual and not one of these 'try hard' brands we see so many of. Smith even touched on this point himself within the film, he explained that he sometimes thinks the brand should focus on being more fashionable and trendy but he then realises that this individuality is it what makes his brand successful, as it makes it wearable for such a wide audience.

Hopefully having read this you have a little more knowledge about Paul Smith, the man and the brand.

Love, Isabella x 

Photo Credits: Google images