Write what you think and what you feel

Free writing activity was about answering the question given within a certain time, for example 3 minutes. I was asked to write about exactly what I'm thinking at the time and not think whether it is going to sound good or not. Just write.

Who am I?
Karolina, a city girl from London. Grew up in Poland. I have two younger siblings who sometimes make my life hell. Stuck in the middle of life at Univeristy. Who do I wanna be and what will really make me happy? Not really a place I expected to find myself in. Confused and over whelmed.

What would life be like without high-street stores?
Completely different to the world we're living in now - no more shopaholics (me), no more sales, no more of the excitement that comes with the Boxing Day sales. What would people do? Some of us live on shopping and gossiping with sales advisers. What about all the designer stores? Does that mean the fashion week wouldn't exist? And neither would fashion? The Sex and the City girl wannabes would find themselves in a great hole, not knowing where to head from there. My idol of a perfect woman - Carrie Bradshaw would definitely not be happy. So does that mean we would all walk around naked? Or would I still be able to wear the clothes I already own? Whoever came up with the idea of "no high-street stores" is mad as a Hatter.

The death of print
Fashion magazines are where I get my inspiration from - they are my halo. The Vogue is my Bible. They are what I live on and what I base my life on. I cannot imagine not getting my monthly subscription of Vogue from this hot post man of mine. So what am I supposed to do a train journey? I definitely think the death of print would affect me a lot more than other people who prefer the modern online lifestyle. People don't read hard-copy magazines anymore, they look out for online versions. What is the point of going to the kiosk to buy one when you can read it online from your bed hidden under the covers. 

xoxo

Color it

As I walked into the lecture theater of Chaucer building, I saw an enormous screen in front of me reading 'colour palette' - first thought was "Wow. This is going to be so interesting.". Not going to lie I was not looking forward to it especially whilst still half asleep and coughing my lungs out. However, as the lecture progressed I started enjoying it a lot more. It was not just about what colours are opposites of each other and which are harmonious, but more about how different colour combinations affect our brain, as well as, how we see everything completely different to how we would see it if just a different hint of colour would be added.

So let me break this down.

Primary colours are the basic colours of the color palette. There is no way of mixing these three and getting them from scratch from any other colors. Red, blue and yellow are what begins the whole process.

Secondary colours are the three basic colours you can create using the mix of primary colours.

Teritary colours are obtained by mixing all three primaries of a primary with a secondary colour. An example would be: orange + blue; green + red; purple + yellow.

Colour selection process is one of the hardest and longest of all. Why? Because the colours that you chose for your brand at the very beginning of founding it - they are going to stay with this brand forever and they will represent it. People will recognize the image of the brand in different ways due to different colour palettes. So it is your choice what you want that palette of 5 main colours be.

These choices are based on many factors and are all based on the power of colour to deliver specific messages, e.g.: cultural - gender, age, politically, geographically; historical - era, association, provenance; social - lifestyle, mood, attitude. While choosing the colour scheme, it is important to keep in mind incorporating different colours from different colour groups. Adding a neon shade to your neutrals will make the eye focus more on the image and let it concentrate on the neutrals more. 

"Each palette needs to be considered - not just as a combination of all the colours selected but looking at the choices in small groups, trios and parts. By sub-dividing the range it is possible to demonstrate the full flexibility inherent in the selection to derive drastically different moods from one palette." - Timothy Rundle, lecturer

Understanding basic colour palette is crucial part of working in the fashion industry. Colour behavior plays an important role in presenting, buying, styling, coordinating, selecting, editing, analyzing etc. These are a couple of examples of how different shades and tones, as well as, different colour mixes affect our view.

Hue is the equality that we call the colour, to distinguish it from another.
Value is the lightness and the darkness of colour.
Chroma is the intensity of the colour, its brightness and purity, or dullness and impurity.

Colours are often affected to give a more paler look or more vibrant look to an image by simply mixing them with a bit of white or a complimentary colour.

Tints are hues with white added.
Shades are hues with black added.
Tones are hues with grey added.

What I found really interesting about this lecture is that the simplest things have an enormous effect on our life and the way we look at things.

xoxo

Did someone say New York?

Do you believe in dreams?

I do.

I believe that if you have a dream and you want to make it come true, you have to try your best to give yourself the best of what the world has to offer. 

One of my biggest dreams is to one day be able to go to New York - not only to see the city and live the experience, but also for the fashion side of it. If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere in the world. It is the largest and most desired fashion capital of the world. The Mercedes Fashion Week proves that - and so does the American Vogue in arms of the famous editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

So now, this is my opportunity to see what's out there for me and see if I do really love it (which is of course a rhetorical question). 

January 2014, I will be there!

xoxo

Bill Cunningham - the one

"The best fashion show is definitely on the streets. Always has and always will be" - Bill Cunningham

So who is this old gentleman dressed in a bright blue sweeper jacket with a camera across his body, zooming through the New York city traffic on his vintage red bike? This is one of the (globally) most influential photographers and one of the biggest fashion inspiration to everyone who wants to make it in this world.

Bill Cunningham is known for his individuality and precision - even though he likes to take snapshots of people running around the city, he always gets it to perfection. Whether it is outside the fashion week shows or on the streets, where people are always in a hurry. This is what real life is all about, this is what real fashion is all about because this is what we live in. "I'm not interested in celebrities and their free dresses. I'm interested in clothes." says Bill Cunningham when asked about his work. It has now become very common to be asked on the streets by someone if they can take a photo of your outfit. However there is nothing like seeing a picture of yourself captured while running to the subway, in New York Times.

This unique photographer has two columns in the NYTimes - one is about the extravagant life of the fashion editors and celebrities, the after parties and the backstage of the fashion shows. The second column is all about the trend setting and spotting the individuality in all the New York-ers day by day. It is incredible what is seen by the eyes of Bill and what not many other people would even notice. He lets himself go that extra mile every time he collects his research for the new article. He is a perfectionist.

"We all dress for Bill." - Anna Wintour

Although you may think that this man is made of money - surely someone that has been writing for New York Times for most of their career would live in a mansion and travel in a limo while taking snaps of people's outfits. Bill Cunningham is a simple man, living in a tiny apartment filled with books and film from his camera. He archives every single photo he has ever taken. Bill doesn't care about money - "You see if you don't take money, they can't tell you what to do kid."

The movie "Bill Cunningham New York" is a proof of what an inspiration this gentleman is and how much drive and passion he has for what he does. The moment the pictures get published is the moment he gets his pay - the pride in what he does.

xoxo

Fashion Communication and Promotion

I have always been a bit stuck in which area of fashion I want to go into - one plus was that I knew it was going to be the business side of it. This is why I chose to study on Fashion Communication and Promotion in Nottingham Trent University. The course has a very wide range of business areas which you can go into after graduation - by 'wide range' I mean from journalism and working for magazines to styling photo shoots, as well as, PR, advertising and buying. Being so indecisive and a bit stuck in the middle in what I really want to do in my life, is one of the reasons I chose to study over here - best way to make up your mind is to try everything, because you never know if you'll love what you are doing until you start doing it.

Previously, I have worked with the visual merchandiser of Republic. I, also interviewed her and received a lot of great advice - to follow my dreams and to be brave. You cannot sit in the corner waiting for the job to be handed to you on a plate - you have to work hard to get where you want to be in life. The work experience gave me an insight of what it is like to be a VM of a big retailer. At the beginning of the 2013, I started my job as a sales assistant in ZARA. Even though I was just a sales assistant, I got a great view of the merchandising side of the business once more. This is what made me realize that maybe, merchandising isn't what I want to be doing.

This all didn't sound very promising to me. However after today's morning lecture about what pathways I can go into during and after finishing this course, I started seeing the positive side of things. The lecturer talked about the different careers that are out there for every single one of the students sat in the Waverley lecture theatre. The reason why some people are not successful and don't reach their life goal is because they do not try hard enough and they do not give it all they have to make their dreams come true.

I have always had a passion for writing - English was my favorite subject at school and even when I didn't have to, I'd write essays about any topic they came to my head. The lecturer today morning was talking about how journalism is one of the most popular career paths that students go into after graduation. Journalism isn't only about writing for magazines - it also includes fashion editing, other parts of it are styling for fashion shows as well as attending them. Meeting the designers and having a chance to interview them. Personally, I think this is one of the most exciting careers I have ever thought about.

However, then we have skipped onto the next career which was creative/art director which takes care of the company's image and who it is represented by. Reanna Evoy - creative director for Aldo, has explained what her usual day at work looks like and what this job enables her to do. The constant travelling around the world with buyers and styling teams for photo shoots, as well as, finding inspiration for future campaigns. This is the interview with her.

LIVE/WORK - Meet ALDO's Senior Art Director, Reanna Evoy

The lecture finished on Social Media career path which I found very different and maybe a bit young but incredibly exciting. What some people may think is that social media job is just spending your entire day tweeting and instagram-ing everything you see. NO. It isn't about that at all. What you get to do is trend forecast, as well as, be able to go into detail and have a great knowledge about it. Nicole and Jimmy from Nanette Lepore have explained their job as a social media team very well in this video below.

Social Media Careers in the Fashion Industry

Personally, I am now really looking forward to being able to go into all these areas of fashion and learn more and more about them to then have a chance for one of them to one day become my career and my life.

xoxo

Dreamgirl

Welcome to PR Empire!

Hello blogging world! I am very excited to share with you my passions and inspirations. So here is a bit about myself... Currently studying on a Fashion Communication and Promotion course (more about that in the next post). Everybody always says: "Create a blog! It changes your life and helps you find the inspiration, as well as, the right path in your own life." So here I am - sitting in my small (but very homey) uni room on a Tuesday night, while everybody is falling asleep into their pillows.

A quick description of myself would be very useful here, I think. I was brought up in Poland, in a small town, an hour away from the capital - Warsaw. Few years back, my parents decided to come to London and start and new chapter of our lives. This must have been one of the best decisions they have made for me and my siblings - I mean, where in the world would you find a bigger variety of style and a bigger opportunity to become whoever you desire to be? Growing up, I used to sit in front of a TV and watch "The Hills" which became the bible to my life (of course not literally! Only the fashion part of it). Since then, I've spent my days dreaming about having the life of Lauren Conrad... However now I think, why not make the dreams come true? Why not try and push myself as much as I can to get to the point in life where I really want to be? No one else is going to live my life for me.

You must wonder why I called my blog 'PR Empire' - this is what I want to achieve in life, have my own PR Empire. I am always thrilled to see such great and inspiring people show their work and be able to share it with others through amazing PR skills. What I see the fashion PR side being like is the advertisements and campaigns promoting a brand and its work - making it reach the highest levels and letting it grow. One of the most important things is maintaining the brand's image and giving it resources, as well as, contacts which will maintain its growth throughout.

So this is where I start and lets see where it will get me within a few years time.

xoxo