The Lush Creative Showcase

 

 On Tuesday I took a trip to Shadwell to the Tobacco Dock to see this years Lush Creative Showcase. Obviously I had never been to anything like this before but I've bought a few Lush products over the years and had one of the best customer service experiences there so it was great to get a first look at what was coming up and get a real insight into the company. 

When you walk into the venue the place really does look beautiful, one thing I will say off the bat is that the venue was really representative of the brand and by the looks of things they really did have the entire venue to themselves.There was greenery everywhere and dotted about the place you could see that signiture Lush front peeking at you from blackboards.

Upon arrival I was given my wristband (another thing to add to my London scrap book) and instructed to download an app that would aid in giving me more information throughout the afternoon. However a) it was slow in downloading, b) it was asking me to sign up and create an e-mail or link with facebook and c) Ambers app didn't even work so needless to say the app was promptly deleted, that wasn't a very promising start to the trip for me. 

So with no real idea of what direction to go in I headed off around the venue, starting in the Christmas Showcase and taking in the wide range of products that Lush will no doubt sell in large quantities throughout the holidays. There were massive blocks of soap, bath bombs by the hundreds and gift boxes galore as you walked around the room and took everything in. There were some staff on hand to help but overall the large quantities of crowds in the room made it hard to hang about and have a good look and the tills in the corner meant that large queues would block certain areas. 

Everything in here looked extremely festive and smelled amazing. As a rule, at Christmas I tend to stay away from bath sets as loads of people give them out at Christmas but the Lush sets really are something special and I wouldn't mind receiving something myself. We spent a good 10 minutes walking around in here and taking everything in but there will always be something really odd about hearing Christmas music during a London heatwave. As always, a Lush display always throws up the perfect photo opportunity so below are some of the pieces you will find in stores this Christmas.

My favourite part of the afternoon was seeing the selection of interior swatches that the company are coming up with to use in their stores. After a history in visual merchandising it's interesting for me to see some of the process behind showcasing different products since I'm used to seeing it used with clothes. 

Marble and copper are looking like the key materials they want to go for but whatever they choose to ride with, it looks like it will be done in a recycled and upscaled style. 

 Fun fact, some of the swatches of 'marble' seen here are actually made up of recycled plastics. 

In the make up section there was a load of lipsticks to be swatched which is usually what I would run for but these pigments were absolutely beautiful and I couldn't ignore them. Happiness was this stunning darker gold shade, not unlike the gold you get in the Naked palette but the colour payoff was oustanding. The Cinderella blue was also beautiful, definitely not a shade I would usually consider but after seeing it swatched I totally fell in love. All of the pigments I tried had spectacular colour pay off so whatever one you decide to choose you won't be dissappointed.

 Walking into the more open foyers off the Tobacco Dock is where you are really wowed by the effort that Lush have put into this showcase. There was a huge bathtub setup that allowed staff to show off their new products in huge vats and in the corner there was a deceiving cotton candy stall which oh my god, DON'T EAT because it's shower scrub. I totally thought I was about to get free candyfloss but I used the shower scrub that night and it was really amazing so that made up for not getting to eat it. 

The bath setup in the foyer was truely the shining jewel of the event. I was looking at it and thinking 'all this for a two day event?' but every single person that came across this spectacle was in awe of its scale and you could say it was a sculpture that captured what Lush is all about? I dunno, either way it was crazy impressive to look at, almost like a fountain and you literally couldn't take a bad photo of it either.

The only thing I couldn't get on board with on the day was the huge urgency to sell. The whole afternoon felt very rushed, when we arrived we were asked if we were considering jobs in Lush etc. and when you pair that with the need to sign up and use the app and the whole thing just felt a lot more like a marketing push. I have no doubt that the marketing would have been a huge driving force behind making a two day event for the launch but I just felt that the afternoon should have been more balanced with talks and interaction with the products themselves. I don't know if it was our timing but when we went into the beanbag room there was nothing happening and nothing to tell us if there was any other talks/music going to be on that day (although it was probably stated on the app.)

I would also say that there were areas of the venue that I walked into and didnt even know if I was still at the Lush event or if I had strayed into somewhere else. 

Overall the day was interesting, I seen a lot of things that I liked - in particular the make up - but overall I just felt the event wasn't very social or educational about Lush. I would say that the members of staff that I did encounter seemed super knowlegable on the products and really excited about what they were doing. Would I go back to the event again? Yes but only because it's something different to what I usually dobut I would rather go back to my local Lush and speak to staff one on one to learn about the new products when they come out rather than attend another event like this.

Industry Insider

 When I first started blogging a few years ago one of the first things I aimed to do was scour the internet for fellow bloggers to take inspiration/learn from. Sometimes this process can be a hit or a miss but every now and again you find a blogger who blows you away with their design, creativity and content. 

Jemma from Dorkface is one of those bloggers. 

When I decided to reboot the Industry Insider section of this blog and cater it more towards the blogging community as well as those out there in the creative industry Jemma was number one on my list of people to interview. 

Below Jemma gives us an insight into her day-to-day life in terms of her blog as well as some sound advice about what it takes to progress your blog and ensure you provide a quality experience to your reader. 

1. First of all what inspired you to get into blogging? 

I've always loved writing, it's my passion. And after Uni I really wanted a new way to be creative everyday :)

2. Did you take any particular classes or courses growing up that lead to your choice to start blogging? 

I studied Fine Art for years at college and then university; and always wanted to share my creativity. 

3. Can you tell us a little bit about a typical day blogging for you?

I wake up each day and make a to do list for the day. Usually I have a couple of illustration clients, and I try to get them done in the first few hours of the day. Then I'll take a bunch of photographs for upcoming blog posts for a few hours. Then the evenings will be when I write up all my blog posts and finish up any illustration work for the day. My days are busy, but I love them :)

4. How do you manage your time to run your blog efficiently and consistently? 

I stick to a rigid schedule, and I always plan ahead! 

5. Where do you look for inspiration when the writers block hits? 

I usually find painting really helps me, and ideas come to me naturally if I take time to relax. Music and reading really help too.

6. What inspired you to start the #girlgang and the subsequent podcast for your followers? 

The girl gang began because I loved the idea of spreading positivity in the bloggosphere, and reminding people that it's good to spread a little love. The podcast is simply a fun project my boyfriend and I had wanted to try for the longest time, and I'm so glad we did.

7. As I'm a reader of your blog, what do you hope I take away when I read your posts?

I hope you feel inspired and motivated more than anything!

8. Are there certain topics/genres you stick to when you write your blog posts or do you like to write whatever comes naturally at the time? 

Oh no way, my blog is my happy place to share anything I'm inspired by! :) I'm always happy to write about new things.

9. Has having your blog opened any doors or provided you with any opportunities that you wouldn't have had otherwise?

Oh definitely! I now work for myself because of the opportunities I'm so lucky to get now. Writing and illustration have always been a dream of mine and now I get to do each every day :) I also have a whole range of wonderful new friends thanks to blogging.

10. What direction do you see your blog going in now that you've expanded into podcasts and gained quite a large following? 

I've no idea! Haha. I'd love people to feel like they can get to know me more, and so through podcasting I feel like thats a little more possible. I just hope to keep enjoying it like I am now and hopefully it'll grow. As for my blog and everything else though? Who knows! I like to go with the flow :)

11. What advice would you give to someone starting their own blog? 

Try to do the best you can with everything. You'll improve naturally over time, but the most important thing is to let your personality shine through! :) Be yourself and write about what interests you most. 

12. What in your opinion makes a successful blog? 

Something that inspires you, and others.

13. Are there any bloggers you admire or try to emulate?

A good one that comes to mind is Mandy from A Girl Obsessed. She's a great inspiration.

14. As a fan I personally love your blogs layout and especially its bright colour scheme, it gives me the idea that you have this really fun, bubbly personality. Do you feel it best represents your personality and is this something you take into consideration when you look at other peoples blogs? 

Thank you!! Thats EXACTLY what I was going for :) I love a nice clean layout, but IRL I am quite a colourful, loud and bubbly person. I'm obsessed with bright colours and cute prints, so I try to inject that into my blog as much as possible. No matter what Im taking photographs of, I'll always try to get a pop of colour in there :) I do think this is an important thing for bloggers to do. It makes you, your blog and your photos build up a recognisable brand.

15. What apps/purchases really helped you with your blog? Do you have any programmes or items that you use that really help step up the quality of your blogs appearence/content? 

My photography lights FOR SURE. Such a great improvement. I can now take my photos at night even, yay! I got them from Ebay for about £40 and they are amazing. I also love my blog layout, which I bought for a great price on Etsy.

16. How do you balance blogging with the other aspects of your life such as family/work etc? I'm always in awe of people who spend hours replying to people on twitter and wonder how they balance staying in such close contact with followers with everything else thats going on in their lives.

Honestly, it's HARD. It really is. But its a case of planning :) I plan everything as far ahead of time as possible, and it really helps. Plus I'm just pretty much obsessed with social media haha.

17. Finally, if you had one piece of golden advice to give someone with a struggling blog following, what would it be? 

Be as active as possible, and share your personality as much as possible. Your blog, promotions, posts, etc - will only get you so far. People want to see your life, your work, what you do in your spare time, and just you being your true self.

 I would like to end this post by thanking Jemma for taking the time to do this interview and I would also like to say that you can find Jemmas Dorkface blog by visiting

www.dorkface.co.uk

Why I chose to pursue Fashion (and why it's getting harder to love it)

I am always fascinated by people and how they came to pursue their careers, infact i'm even curious about why they don't pursue something i'll think they're really good at and so I want to talk to you about how I got into fashion and why I'm currently in a love/hate relationship with it. 

I was always a very tall child, i'm the tall one in all my old primary school photos and at the age of 9/10 America's next top Model was huge on the telly and I instantly fell in love with the whole idea of becomming a model and wearing gorgeous dresses for a living. I'll be totally honest, there was no way in hell that little obsession was going to come true for me but I did rock a fake runway in my house whenever I got the chance so I guess we'll call it good characted building for a young mind with long legs.

So anyway that blatantly never happened but as my interest in finding out as much as possible about these models grew, I found myself on MTV watching 'The Fabulous Life of...' where they would show you all of the designers celebrities and models wore and soon I found my obsession with designers grew.

In school I was always good at Art and as I progressed to highschool I was presented with Craft and Design which turned out to be an even bigger success. Whilst Art at my school had a design part with it I always felt they went down unlogical paths and it wasn't so much about functionality of clothing but about how out there it could be which to be honest went against everything I felt about clothes at the time. Craft Design however was more my thing, functionality all the way with logical design so I took the ideals of my craft class and applied them to art and beautiful things happened. These two were definitely my best classes at school, I remember actually being excited to do the homework for them as well which was a rarity so I poured my heart and soul into them.

By this age my life was Vogue and E! I spent my evenings and weekends looking at models (some things never change) and started to find out about the world of online fashion blogging. I remember seeing Tavi and Style Rookie and having my mind blown at the knowledge of a 12 year old and really stepped my game up in the fashion stakes. I had to know as much about each designer as I could with the tools available to me and so I started my own blog and got to work. It was also at this age that I started obsessing with non-fiction fashion books. My mum and dad would find me in waterstones in the art section pouring over fashion drawings and begging them to buy me the books and to this day I still collect as much as I can if I can afford it.

University was where things started to get complicated, I went to a School in the Scottish Borders and studied Garment Technology whilst working part time in a cafe to fund a lifestyle I blatantly couldn't afford. I very quickly established that there were parts of the fashion industry I loved and parts I couldn't stand at all and the same could be said for the people. I was waking up at 5am to leave for class and getting home late at night blearly eyed and frustrated that the same process would happen all over again in under 12 hours time but regardless, I tried to stay positive and as drunk as possible in order to cope.

Fashion has a lot of pretentious people in it, sadly so did my university at times, especially as we progressed through the years and things got more competitive. I longed for the weekend and to go back home to see my friends and go out to a club, making the most of the fun times before going back to to 5am starts on the Monday.

 The classes could also make me feel like a salmon fighting it's way upstream at times. Pattern cutting was 1000000000% not for me. Too much maths and numbers and stress, not eough time etc. I hated it, I remember having to really psyche myself up in the morning to get dressed and face the fear of failure I had with it. 

Design however still gave me the satisfaction it had all though highschool as well as specification writing which was also a love of mine from my craft classes so I clung to these in my last year to help battle my hatred for just about everything else at the time. Whilst I had classes I loved it felt a million times better when I'd manage to somehow pull a miracle from somewhere and get B in a pattern cutting class. That called for a celebratory glass of wine!!

By this point my love of fashion isn't sounding too fantastic however one thing that continued throughout the years at university was reading online blogs, seeing pictures in the magazines and keeping up to date with all the latest on E! which I swear was and still is an absolute oasis in my life. I had to keep reminding myself that whilst some areas of the industry drove me insane and frustrated me, there were other areas I absolutely excelled in, I just had to find a job that allowed me to pursue them all after university was finished.

It was at this point I spoke to a careers adviser and found out about garment technologists and the work they carry out in the industry. I got a mentor in the form of the form of the amazing Lindsay McKerchar and finally it felt like I had a direction to go in after I got my degree, another target in the distance to aim for but I soon found out that a piece of paper wasn't going to get me the dream job I always wanted. 

I graduated university and found myself as a visual merchandiser at the store I worked at part time through Uni. For a while I felt elated that I'd gotten a full time job in the fashion industry doing something I love but there were days where I still felt like I could achieve more. My job became less creative and more 'point to a wall and paint it the colours they tell you' plus by this point I was starting to get really frustrated with retail in general and the lack of good wages/progression they offered you. I'll be honest here, retail wages are some of the poorest out there, If I wanted to really make something of myself it would have to be somewhere else and not in an environment where people would say 'You're so young, you shouldn't spend your life in retail.' That freaked me out a bit. 

I stopped sewing, I couldn't sit down and concentrate long enough on one design to make it into a half decent outfit. My new blog, which was starting to take off, was suddenly uninteresting to me and I stopped caring about  fashion magazines and TV that I just ignored it all. It wasn't that I
hated fashion It was just that by this point I felt I'd wasted 4 years at university to end up in a sector that I could have worked in right after high school and therefore I began to feel really down and  resented my job. 

(This is where this post starts to take a little turn for the better.)

I should try and end this piece on a high note and reassure other fashion students reading this that it's not all doom and gloom and I promise you I will. I may work in a job that I really struggle to love right now but I remind myself that it is relatable to my degree, it is experience in the field. I concentrate on the things I'm good at and have taken steps to get back to loving them again. I've found the names of every scottish clothing manufacturer and I'm sending them my CV in the hopes that I can get experience doing what I originally set out to do for university. I've gotten back into this blog so that I can continue to talk to you all out there and remind myself that it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get to a place where you can look back and feel that you've really achieved something and this blog gives me that. I've also just pulled out my old sketchbook and I'm about to get my pencils out and start doing what originally made me fall in love with fashion - designing- and I'll be keeping you updated on that. 

If you're in a similar position or went through similar feelings at University leave a comment below because I would love to hear from you or hear any advice you have on how you tackled it and got to a place you're really happy with and if you've been a sport and actually read all of this extremely wordy post then I want to thank you for your time also!! I just want to remind people that it pays to look at your situation in the bigger scale of things and more importantly remember why you chose the path in the first place because that's what's currently keeping me going.

Broonylou

 

Visual Merchandising - Model Store

I'm finally back with another post focusing in a bit more detail about the job of a visual merchandiser, it's been a while since I posted any photos of our displays and hard work in store so this is the perfect opportunity to share with you what I've been up to!

So my job these last few weeks has become increasingly hectic due to Model Store judging. 

Model Store for me and my job is when we as a visual team work tirelessly to make our store look the best it possibly can for customers, staff and the like and after many weeks of prep someone from high up within the company comes out and judges us on several criteria.

My job as a visual merchandiser involves presenting well thought out mannequins that were pinned well, dressed appropriately to the stock on the mat, create various hotspots throughout the store at key sightlines to promote stock within the store and change over our windows to designer stock which would encourage customers to come into store. We were also doing general maintenance such as cleaning, painting and touching up mannequins to make them look pristine in condition. 

Aspects such as colour flow, power of three, trends and layout were all key in the process to ensure the customer journey was carried out consistently through the store and looked chic. 

Last year one of our big criticisms was that we went over the top with our displays and as a result they were too busy and detracted more from the stock within the store rather than enhance it. 

Below I have a whole bunch of photos to share with you all, showing you the standard we set this year and I'll describe underneath what we were trying to achieve to explain to you all in better detail because it can sound a little confusing. 

So here you go! My stores model store displays for S/S15! If we've done our job properly you should look at these and immediately think "oooh wheres that stock?!"

Our main Safari tend catwalk 

Priority One window, the blues and stripes trend 

70s hotspot 

Swimwear mannis, note that the blue and red colours flow up to the handbags at the far end of the walkway (colour flow) 

Our Wedding Gifts hotspot. Lots of power of three 

A home hotspot, again lots of power of three and repetition, good colour flow between the products 

A hotspot at out luggage department to promote sales 

One of our bed displays 

Another bed display 

Collection formal first catwalk 

Collection formal second catwalk 

One of the lingerie hotspots 

Ted Baker 

Lingerie pillar with a display on the top 

Another angle of the Safari trend catwalk (notice how the floral print is continued throughout the mannis) 

Rocha manni display, good colour flow through mannis to match back wall merchandising and the height difference creates interest 

A shoe hotspot 

BDL mannis

Blues and stripes hotspot at the top of the escalator (this continues the story from our front window into the store) 

Jasper hotspot (notice all the blue?)

Behind the hotspot at the top of the escalator (rails have been added to the clothes can be shopped immediately after seeing the mannis) 

Toddler boy hotspot

Girls hotspot at height to draw attention 

Swimwear hotspot, good symmetry here 

Young fashion, mannis placed beside each fixture wearing the clothes to promote sales 

Same again 

Same principle but beside a graphic rather than a fixture 

Tropical hotspot 

Henry mannis, situated at various heights to create interest, good colour flow 

Mother day hotspot in the lift area, lots of power of 3 

Hotspot at the bottom of the escalator with shoppable rails 

Side view of the hospot, notice the detail on the catwalk continues up the wall 

Mens catwalk, maroon and blue colour flow 

Mens suits catwalk using staggered height to create interest 

Purple catwalk 

Pale blue young fashion mens display at height 

Mens shoppable hotspot at the back of the escalator for our mac trend 

So you may have realised that a lot of blue was projected around our store this year, Dark blues in womenswear, teals in home and the brighter blues in our young fashion areas. This helps carry a shopper through the store and is pleasing to look at. There was a lot of good merchandising in the store using these colours to enhance the journey as well but I have no photos of them.

If there's a certain display you like or want to comment on leave your thoughts down below!!