THE LONDON ADVENTURE: PART TWO

So after the V&A and the delights of Harrods, the next day I went to see the Wallace Collection. I had never been there before but when I was reading the biography of Madam de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette it mentioned that paintings and pieces that belonged to them was currently in their collection, so naturally I just had to go!

It was an absolutely magical place, basically the whole place is filled with 18th century French and English furniture, paintings, ornamental pieces and armor. I took most of my 300 pictures there, everywhere you looked there was grandeur and luxury.. the sheer scale of some of the pieces on display was amazing. For example they had huge horses with men on top in full armor, they had massive paintings and mirrors adorning the walls and the sweeping staircase was just something out of a fairy tale.

I saw a painting of Madam de Pompaour by Bucher that I had read about, I stood and looked at it for quite a while.. completely in awe that she herself had actually owned and would have been looking at the exact same painting of her that I was. They also had furniture that Antoinette had owned on display.. the little signs said not to touch (but shh, I touched!) Quite proud to say that I touched a desk that Marie Antoinette would have sat and wrote at, astounding when you really think about it.

So after a morning off work came an afternoon of fun! I visited Camden Town and honestly I blown away by it.. of course I had heard that there were great markets there.. I just didn't realize that basically the whole town was a market! I couldn't believe how vast it was, it just kept going on and on. I loved the fact that it was such a complete mix of styles there, everything from Vintage, to super cute Japanese stalls to Punk.

An afternoon was not enough there, I can't wait to go back there and after not much thought I would love to live there. It's such a vibrant, creative and free place.. where individuality is a must have. Of course I did some shopping, I bought some cute keyrings from a Japanese stall, a gorgeous black mock-crock clutch for a bargain of £15 and a shocking red silk kimono (got to show that off soon!). Ahh, I wish I was back in Camden right now.

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THE LONDON ADVENTURE: PART ONE

So I had a great adventure this week, an adventure up in the great city of London. It was a busy 3 days, was meant to be 4 but as I'm ill at the moment I just had to come home.. missed my own bed.

So got there Monday lunchtime, dropped off my bags at the hotel (which was horrible and I don't even want to talk about) and went straight to the V&A.. my favorite museum. Unfortunately the fashion exhibition was closed for renovation but the rest of their collections was awe inspiring as usual, they did have a good selection of stage/theatre costumes on display though and The House of Annie Lennox included some of her outfits she's worn throughout her career which was quite interesting.

The rest of the day was spent visiting Harrods, I spent ages walking around the womenswear designer floor.. having a good look at everything. I found the Harry Potter shop which was quite the experience, it had everything Potter related.. even actual costumes used in the films on display around the store!

As every Fashion Design student should do I was looking at how each garment was made, what fabrics were used and finishes. I was surprised at how on some of the dresses that cost thousands actually used quite simple but effective design features.. even I could replicate the techniques. I found the Victoria Beckham Collection, was so amazing to actually see and feel the pieces in real life. I was really surprised that on one of the dresses it didn't actually have a lining! It was a stretch dress but with lots of seams and they were all visible on the inside.. not even finished!

I also found the Victoria Beckham handbag collection.. which I absolutely died over!! They were the most stunning and well crafted bags I had ever seen and held in my life.. you could feel the quality and now I understand the high cost. I got to hold a few of them, including the one I've been lusting over ever since the collection was unveiled.. the black crocodile 'Victoria' bag, £18,000. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture taken holding it as we got told off but to actually hold it felt amazing.

I'll talk about the rest of my trip in my next post, I would post so many more pictures but somehow took about 300 in the space of 2 days!

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