My work day today was by far, the best EVER. My first job was to search the internet to find a place to buy multi-colored wigs for a reasonable price. I ended up finding this great costume store in Soho that sold what we were looking for, and was promptly sent out to buy them. At this point, taking the tube was easy and I had no trouble getting there, however, on the journey home, I hit a few snags. First, I took what I believed at the time to be a short cut, and ended up on this street with adult toy shops and theaters. It was a really odd street, and somehow looked a bit creepy in the sunshine with all these guys awkwardly walking around. I suddenly decided I would like to leave this little street asap. Walking at a brisk pace to get away from Adult movie-toy street I found myself in ChinaTown. I attempted to walk away from THAT area and found myself London’s version of Times Square. FINALLY, I found my way to an information booth and made my way home.
Once I reached London Bridge Stop, I realized it was break/lunch time at work, and since I was already at Borough Market, I decided to pop in. Borough Market is this wonderful outside market that has beer, veggies, fruit, sandwiches, candy, pretty much everything! It is positioned under a bridge and you must keep walking around these big concert pillars to get to more of the market. The market itself is huge, it keeps going and going the more you explore it.
When I returned, wigs in hand, Zandra was very happy with them. I did put one on for her, just to make sure it was a good fit (but really because I needed a laugh.) Now it was time for my next task, because I was done with the scarves for the exhibition, I worked on a slew of other things.
One of the fun things I got to do today is help in the designing process of Zandra’s new line of watches. This process: Zandra had picked out different patterns from the pattern bible (a large book with every pattern print they have ever done,) and photo copied the ones she liked. I cut the patterns into strips so they could be imagined on a watch band, then they were scanned in to the computer. From there, I opened them up in a program called illustrator, and started re-drawing them so they could be rearranged and organized in whatever way Zandra would like. Using illustrator, we could even put the design onto a drawing of a watch as a mock image of what the watch would look like in real life. It was a refreshing exercise to do after sewing for so long.
I ended up working late today, until about 7:30pm. I think it was because I was in a bit of denial it was my last day. Immediately after work I packed for home, and had a last dinner with Kitty and Ruth. Ruth is the most amazing cook, she can make the most amazing meals out of any ingredients. Kitty and Ruth have both been working overtime while I have been here. Kitty: to get her collection done for Paris Fashion week and Ruth: to design textiles that her agency will try to sell to stores like UniQlo.
For people new to what a textile designer like Ruth does for a living, it goes a bit like this: She has an agent who might say, such and such a company wants a summer print for 2015, she then makes a variety of prints and sends them off. The agency presents them to a company like H&M for example, and if they like it they buy the print and Ruth gets the sale. It is a very competitive field where the biggest competition is yourself, whether you can get yourself to produce and meet the deadlines.
After dinner Ruth and Kitty went back to work on Kitty’s collection. Shortly after, I joined them, then popped in the drawing room to chat with Zandra for a bit. The nice thing about talking to Zandra is that, there is never a loss of interesting conversation. She has so many stories, and she has done so much. She also actually likes to talk, which is something we share because I talk almost too much. Too soon its time for me to turn myself into my room and try to sleep.
Sleep does not come, so I just sit here, thinking about how its my last night at Zandra Rhodes amazing house. As I quietly think and reflect, my things packed neatly in a bag, I realize that soon, these 3 weeks will boil down to the memory of a trip that changed my life. Zandra’s personality had proven to be brighter then her prink hair. The people in her company, and who live in her house have been so full of character and lessons. These people I will always remember fondly. Art, culture, creation and inspiration pulses through this house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It has more history, and personality then most people I have met in this lifetime. While sitting here, thinking about all of it, I know that even though I leave tomorrow, these experiences will never leave me.
The last two days have been some of the best days since I have been here. Yesterday(Thursday,) me and my roomie Ruth went out to go get tea at the SwissOtel which we found out when we got there, did not exist. They had closed a year ago and their website was never taken down. We decided to just walk, eventually we found a candy store and I just HAD to go in! With out candy bags full we walked down the street looking at different things, shoes mostly. We went in and out of stores for a bit, then stumbled upon this amazing bar she had once been too. I ended up getting a drink called a Jamaican Mule, which is 2 different kinds of rum, ginger beer, ginger and lime, she got a something tasty with blood orange. I didn’t catch the name of the bar, but the bar itself was all concrete with different artists on the wall. We talked for a while, drinking our drinks happily.Then it was off to China Town, to share some duck and toufu. After that, Ruth took me on a mini tour of the parts of London I had not known to go. Some, like London’s version of time square were touristy, some were hidden, like streets that simply looked amazing at night.
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| A shoe store that Ruth and I visited |
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| A cool building in London's version of Times Square |
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| The Candy Store Ruth and I went to. |
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