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The Psychology of Consumption
Gaby Hinsliff writing in the Guardian (11 April 2012) challenges us to consider the “viability of the everyday habits to which we feel blithely entitled” and asks the question “when will the stigma now attached to rampant consumerism spread to the over consumption of natural resources?” My visit this week to Sheffield University’s Psychology Department… →
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Diana Vreeland
Looking at a series of quotes by Diana Vreeland, one of my favourites is where she celebrates vulgarity- “ Vulgarity is a very important ingredient in life. I’m a great believer in vulgarity- if it’s got life…..no taste is what I’m against.” I sometimes wonder if all the choice and instant access to garments and… →
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SUBLIME: Beyond Duty
Duty: that which one is bound by any obligation to do I have become increasingly interested in how certain actions become first acceptable to society and then, ultimately, something that you have to do. Following on from that, why do society and culture come to see certain behaviour or beliefs as acceptable when they are… →
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Carmen Dell'Orefice
I first met Carmen about four years ago when she came to the opening of David Downtown’s exhibition in the Fashion Space Gallery here at the College. It was hard not to be awestruck- a reaction I now recognise when people are first introduced to her. I knew the facts of her life and had… →
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Colin McDowell
Colin has been a great friend and colleague of myself and the College for many years. He is a seminal figure in fashion commentary and one of the giants of fashion journalism. He has been involved in the industry for 35 years, as designer, stylist, illustrator, editor, broadcaster and author, and has written expertly on… →
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Madame Grès (Musee Bourdelle)
Last year’s exhibition of 80 key pieces by the couturier Madame Gres (Germaine Emilie Krebs) was a revelation. Curated by Olivier Saillard, it was integrated into the museum dedicated to the sculptures and studio of Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929). I had been aware that Madame Gres had originally trained as a sculptor which meant that her… →
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SUBLIME: Sustainability and the Curriculum
Top designers do not emerge fully formed from nowhere. They have learnt their craft with rigour and fashion is as integral to their life as getting up in the morning. For fashion educationalists the idea of learning “in” and “through” the subject is at the heart of our craft. A key aspect that drives the… →
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SUBLIME: The Fashion Body
Sophie Robertson. BA (Hons) Fashion Photography The concept of the fashion body provokes in me a number of ideas and thoughts. For example, the role I play in an industry which is dedicated to style, personal identity or the ways we use clothes and adornment to express our bodies. How I like to try and… →
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SUBLIME: Drying Out Fashion
It takes 2700 litres of water to produce one cotton t-shirt from ‘crop to shop’. Just imagine how many full swimming pools it took to manufacture the contents of your wardrobe. In the meantime, 5000 children die each day due to lack of clean water. All of us need to remember that stark equation: designers,… →
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SUBLIME: A Model of a Woman
Today there are thousands of girls aspiring to be the next Kate Moss in an age when perhaps it has never been easier to get into modelling. Yet there was once a golden age, when only a handful of models made it into the history books. We meet one of them Flicking through a magazine,… →