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SUBLIME: Luxury
“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy, For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” Hamlet The relevance of this Shakespearian quote is clearly demonstrated at a time of year when we are all turning our minds to presents and the inevitable increase in consumption. It challenges… →
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SUBLIME: The Skin You're In
A recent trip to New York was revealing not because of the shopping or food although they were as varied and wonderful as ever, but I was struck by the number of tattoos proudly worn by people from across the social strata. These tattoos were extensive and showed a permanent commitment to ritual and adornment… →
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SUBLIME: Green Credentials
Renowned sociologist Anthony Giddens, in the introduction to his book “Modernity and Self- Identity “, highlights the risks facing our contemporary social and economic structures. He states that: Modernity reduces the overall riskiness of certain areas and modes of life, yet at the same time introduces new risk parameters largely or completely unknown to previous… →
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SUBLIME: A Cut Above
With the concentration on our carbon footprint, we forget that an essential part of our human DNA is the cultural footprint we construct throughout our lives, which plays a key role in our economic, social and cultural interactions. Whether it is the books we read, the music we listen to, the films we watch, or… →
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Wardrobe Dilemmas
Traditionally, spring is the time for out with the old and on with the new: a time for blossoming ideas, often about how we might take responsibility for innovating and starting again. To do this we must begin with the personal, we cannot bring about new directions if we believe the responsibility for it lies… →
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SUBLIME: In Through the Out Door
At this time of year my thoughts always turn to our graduates. They face the challenges and triumphs of turning the skills they have honed, combined, with the skills and abilities they brought to the college, into a career. Like their fellows from across the country, they have worked hard and learnt much, but face… →
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SUBLIME: Through The Looking Glass
The received notion is that wisdom comes with age, far away from the sharp smartness of youth. Yet combined together they give us the possibility of sustainable progress as the exuberant innovative creativity of the young combines with reflective experience, that hopefully comes with age, and cautions against swinging pendulums too far, reinventing wheels or… →
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SUBLIME: Surprise Package
Developing a sustainable future for fashion cannot be a short term fad. Those of us involved are acutely aware that we are in for a long haul; that we are in fact part of a global work in progress with climate change and respect for the environment our goal. We in the business of fashion… →
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London Leaders
“We launched the London Leaders programme in 2007 to catalyse change – the kind of change that we need to tackle London’s most ingrained problems. In December 2008 we announced our second group of inspiring London Leaders from organisations and communities across the capital.” Here is what I wrote for London Leaders Since its foundation… →
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SUBLIME: Having it all
The Oxford Dictionary definition of pure is that an artefact, substance or being is unadulterated by another material or that it is of unmixed origin or descent. What does this mean for fashion design today? For a designer it is impossible not to be inspired, influenced or affected by other designers, products or artefacts whether… →