Future Fashionistas

On Thursday night, I made my first trip back home from uni, after about four weeks; I was really missing London.

That's right, I missed the city. 'Family?', you ask? 

Nah bruv, I can speak to 'em anytime! Can't ring up the city every time I feel the need to stroll along the river.  

Alright, alright, I did miss my family and friends too. It was painful being in London for just a weekend, and not being able to see everyone that I missed. My whole life is there, it's physically impossible for me to see everyone. Sad face.

But on the up side, I did get to catch up with some of my fashionista girlies from my days at Central Saint Martins (a lifestyle I am completely missing too!!). On Saturday, the V&A were holding a Fashion Festival event, kind of like the one I went to last year, but for 16-24 year olds who wanted a career in fashion. 

What a day. 

I had so much fun and learnt so much from all the workshops and speakers that were there. Once of the most valuable talks for me was a talk by Asos, about fashion marketing and journalism. It was only after I sat down that I realised my entire outfit was in fact from Asos. Including my Mac! Subliminally keen or rather addicted to Asos... You decide!

Work by Charlotte Lucy Barry- Named one of the best fashion
graduates of 2011 by Vogue UK

Fashion Photography by Danny Balwin

Jane Bowler's latest collection.  Her work is so cool, she's known
for her exploration (and discovery) of diverse and exciting materials.

A dress I really love by Jane Bowler. It really shows off her passion
of transforming pretty typical everyday materials, plastic in this case.
I absolutely adore her range of textiles; very unique!

Pretty pretty fashion sketches 

We also got to listen to an interview with Henry Holland!!! Shame on you if of dont know who that is... House Of Holland, look them up. The interview was mainly about how he started his label, and a lot of the focus was on the fact that he didn't have anything to do with fashion when he founded his label. It really proved that you don't necessarily need to go to a fashion university, and the importance of having both connections and a sound level of business knowledge. He was so, SO cool! Super down-to-Earth and grounded, not at all arrogant, completely casual and jokey. 

Henry Holland. Again, he's so cool!

We also went to a fashion illustration workshop, run by Stuart Mckenzie (check out some of his work here) He does loads of magazine work,m particularly for Cosmopolitan (US) and used to so a lot of illustrations for Vivienne Westwood. He is currently a lecturer at CSM too.

Illustration Sketch by Stuart Mckenzie
Here's a tumbr link to a post about the workshop.

Sketches by Mckenzie

Some of my sketches from the workshop. Click here for some more. 

And we had an awesomely well fed lunch in the V&A cafeteria. Yum-my.

But my favourite part of the day was being able to catch up with my Fashion Jewellery course mates. These girls were who I ended up being closest with on my course so not being at uni with them kind of sucks. But I loved hearing about their course, the good and the bad. They're all doing Fashion Contour at LCF. 

The advice and insight we got was entirely priceless and I think we've all left with something to inspire our future fashion careers. 

To finish off, here are our outfits, because no fashion event blogging is complete without a few OOTDs!

I've already told you my whole outfit is from Asos, so no need to give you any more details on that. I'm wearing also wearing a necklace by Fallen Saint, because I recently went on a mad shopping spree from Fallen Saint, Oh My Love, Topshop, Asos (no surprises there) and various brands I found in Old Spitafields Market. All within the space of two weeks. WTF?! Anyways, here's what my necklace looks like.

Ma Girlies!

Tan Skins, Late Nights and Summer Days

2013 has blessed Britain with actual season of Summer. It has actually been substantially warm, and even hot in London this year. Usually one week of Summer brings about three weeks of rain. Well not this year *touch wood*
Although it's the end of August, September in Britain tends to carry on with the heat.

So let's have a brief moment to think about what Summer means and what we expect from it. Come on, let's think of all the ideologies;

• Long days 
• Late  nights
• Parties
• Barbecues 
• Ice cream
• Beaches
• Road trips
• Warm tans
• Beautiful skin 

And the list could go on. But let's focus on the last point for now. Whilst winter usually brings about problems of dry skin, summer, by nature, does the opposite, which generally leads breakouts. With a city like London, where the air tends to carry a level of moisture and humidity, this along with heat and swear irritates your pores. Here are some of the usual problems we get in the warmer weeks of the year and some simple solutions:

• Summer Acne - Drink water, cleanse your face properly and DON'T skip your moisturiser. There seems to be an odd tendency to skip on face creams among people with oily skin in particular, but this just makes your skin dry, so your face produces more oil, making it even worse. Go to a local beauty counter and try some skincare specifically tailored to your skin type, very important.
• Dry skin - Also due to sweating, which leads to dehydration which dries out your skin. Basically don't sweat. Ever. Drinking more water will help, and using moisturiser. But don't sweat.
• Cracked lips - Same reason as dry skin. So don't sweat!
• Heat Rashes - Use sunscreen. Brits aren't used to getting lots of sun. We're just not made for this business. 
• Creepy crawly bites and itches - Insect repellent (obviously...) and moisturise!

Of course there are some precautions you can take and specific store bought moisturisers. But one thing that can really help your skin is a natural home made face mask. But first, here are a few plain and inexpensive ingredients you could use by themselves to start with:

• Coconut Oil - This baby can be used for so much all year round. Food, hair and skin. Yum for everything. In case you happen to have no sense of smell, coconut oil has been used in many commercial skin products throughout the years. It has been known to contain lauric acid, which is an antioxidant that fights inflammation and premature ageing. It also improves the moisture and lipid content of your skin. Have a look at this 101 uses for coconut oil to get a sense of it's versatility of uses.
• Witch Hazel - Commonly used to take the sting out of big bites and soothing rashes. It is also used to treat sun damaged skin, and wait for it, PREVENT SUMMER ACNE! Triple-Summer-skincare-win!
• Rubbing Alcohol - This weapon instantly takes the burning sting out of sunburns and also prevents poison ivy (another Summer pain) from spreading by drying it.
• Apple Cider Vinegar- Another kitchen ingredient that fights sunburn. It also contains malic acid, which is an anti-bacterial agent that not only treats summer breakouts, but prevents it too.

So now lets get to the fun DIY part. Don't forget to use ONLY organic products. These things are going on your one and only  face. And don't forget, it's usually all the pesticides that are causing us all this damage. 

1. Blueberry, Yogurt and Almond Oil:
   
   
   The benefits of blueberries could go on for years, but the gist of it that they are high in vitamins A and C and are high in antioxidants (hence their 'superfood' nutrition status). They are seen as a miracle skin fruit for a problems such as acne, blemishes and uneven skin tone as they normalise the skins oil level. The fact that it is high in vitamin C means it helps to strengthen our blood vessels and repairs broken capillaries, known as 'spider veins'. AND (yes, there's more) the high level of antioxidants makes it perfect to giving skin that fresh, young glow.
   To make the mask, mix an approximately equal amount of plain yogurt and blueberries, probably about 2 tablespoons of yogurt and mash the blueberries.Yes, blueberries and yogurt is a perfect Summer indulgence but we're not focusing food right now, so no, you can't taste it. Then add a teaspoon of almond oil, which has softening and moisturising qualities due to the Oleic Acid. The mixture should look something like this: 
   
   You're going to want to leave it on your skin for about 20 minutes and then rinse it off with lukewarm water and pat your face dry with a clean towel.
   Easy, quick and cheap. And the best part about this is that you can substitute the blueberries for other fruits which may have other vitamins that'd you yourself require. 
2. Avocado, Honey and Coconut Oil:
   
   Avocado is another superfood for our body, hair and skin, but let's focus on the latter for now. Avocados are rich in vitamin A, meaning it helps clean our skin, like the blueberries and removes dead skin cells. The amino acids in the fruit also protects our skin from environmental damage. If you live in the city, this is a major benefit. We all know avocados are high in healthy oil and fat, but what's great about the avocado oil for our skin is that it's easily absorbed, so by penetrating the layers of our skin, its helps to soften it and to restore nutrients. It also stimulates the growth of new skin sells. The oil can also be used as protection against sunburn, as it can protect your skin, and hair, from UVB and UVA rats, The antioxidants in avocados helps to rid our skin of toxins which lead to premature ageing and wrinkles. If this is one of your main skin concerns, even applying one mashed avocado as a face mask for 20 minutes will do wonders.
   

   
   

   
   For this mixture, mash half a ripe avocado until it's smooth and creamy. Next add 2 tablespoons of honey and half a teaspoon of coconut oil. Once it's ready, apply to your face and leave it on for about 15 minutes. Rinse with warm water, or use a damp cloth to remove it.
   
3. Mocha Mask:
   I am so craving a mocha. Mmmm. BRB. Need my coffee fix.
   
   
   The benefits of caffeine are too often overlooked. Ground coffee has a potent anti-inflammatory properties, so it can be used to reduce swelling and puffiness, therefore leaving you a beautiful even skin tone. It can also be used under your eyes to reduce puffy and dark circles. The antioxidants in cocoa help to reduce ageing and the yogurt acts as a replenishing moisture ingredient. 
   To make the Mocha mask, blend together 2 tablespoons of freshly ground coffee, 2 tablespoons of pure cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of honey and 3 tablespoons of yogurt or sour cream. Once it's all mixed, apply it to your skin and leave it on for about 10 minutes. Rinse with warm water. 
4. Oatmeal mask:
   
   
   Oatmeal seems to be a little underdog character in the world  of skin care. The benefits of oatmeal isn't as commonly known as some of the other ingredients. What's so great about it is that it is hypoallergenic and it has plenty of amino acids which can improve scarring and will hydrate your skin.
   Start by grinding 1/4 cup of oats, so that you don't have random lumps of oat on your face. You could skip this and cook it or let it soak for a bit too. Mix this with 1/4 cup of water and then add 2 teaspoons of honey, which removes the bacteria on your face. Keep this on your face for about 15 minutes and rinse it off with warm water.
5. Egg, Lemon and Honey mask:Eggs are nutritious little byproducts with many healthy proteins and a range of benefits. One of these benefits is that it helps to keep virus' under control, due to an ingredient called albumin in the egg white. They also contain an enzyme call lysozyme, which is aids the skin by digesting the cell walls of bacteria. Regularly applying egg whites to the face can also narrow your pores, which in affect, prevents the accumulation of dirt, thus preventing acne breakouts. Additionally, the tightening properties of egg whites can reduce the appearance of wrinkles on the skin and it also leaves your skin soft, radiant and glowing. However, it removes excess oil from the skin, so it is great for people with oily skin, but not for people with dry skin.
   
    

   Mix the juice of 1/2 a small lemon, or about 2 teaspoons, with 1 egg white.  You can save the yolk and whip up a double yolk breakfast, go on! Add 1/2 tablespoon of honey.Beat the mixture well, for good few minutes. Leave it on your face for about 20-30 minutes. It should dry up and feel tight on your face. I've heard that it's best to lie down with this mask, and other tightening masks. Apparently something to do with how while it dries, gravity will pull it down... Not sure how plausible it is, but why say no to a lie down?  Rinse your face with water and pat dry. Pretty as a picture. 

So there you have it, another satisfying summer coming right up!

Daily Dust of Life

A couple of nights ago I checked up on my Tumblr page, which I only created to share some of my art foundation work with my family members and relatives who live around the world. To my absolute ecstatic joy I discovered that one of the jewellery pieces I had designed and produced was reblogged by the UAL Student Union (University of the Arts London). I was so thrilled and proud to have my own creation  reblogged by them (on their 'Inspiration' Page!).

I also looked through some of the other posts that were liked and reblogged, and although it was only a few, it was enough to give me the confidence to use that for something more.

Art has always been apart of my life. I don't remember a single day when doing some art hadn't brightened up my day in one way or another. Although I have left Central Saint Martins, the creativity it has pushed from me will never leave me. Being a creative person, I commonly find myself sorting through my problems in life through a creative outlet; by either writing, acting, and when I lived in my parents house, I'd play my piano or guitar. But the one outlet I have always used has been art.

After all,

'The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.'

- Pablo Picasso

These days, I find myself sketching and doing a lot of art to pass some empty time, so I've made a decision to share some of my art more regularly and to record it online. So if you want, you can follow me and my creative journey though life: tumblr.com/blog/sarahhusain9 

Nuff said.

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The baroness of a busy life

Lately, I have been doing some part time work at some random events, which have kept me quite busy to say the least. They usually involved selling some adorable merchandise (check out the cute teddy bear!), and some lame memorabilia that people always "slag off" but secretly want as a souvenir, or worse to even add to some sort of lifeless collection... *__*

Pinbadges, Keyrings and Frigde magnets. 

They were a fast sell out

Teddy bear from 'The British Athletics'

I didn't really take a lot of pictures, because, well, ya'know, I was sort of working... on a job.  But I did get some break times, and I was fasting at the time so there was nothing for me to do but walk around; SO, I want to share a few photos with you and remind you that even if you have to work super long hours and super hard under super stressful conditions, there's always a way of looking at it from a super perspective.

Outside the Queen's back garden.

Super cool clothes

So fancy! 

Old Skooool TV from 1953 

This one was a big seller in the 50s, with over 20 million
viewers tuning in to watch the Queen's Coronation -
the first time a Royal Coronation was ever broadcast

Released in 1966, July saw over 32 million viewers tuning in
to watch England's victory against Germany in the
World Cup Final

Where the Queen has breakfast sometimes (apparently)

Red Convertible <3 nbsp="" td="">

The Orbit by day

The Orbit by Night

Race time

They were long hours, but I did gain a lot from the experience. Being in places like the Olympic stadium and Buckingham palace was a big enough perk, but  I got to see cool people, like the majority of the royal family and famous athletes, I got to interact with some super nice people, learn some random historical facts, get a few exclusive merchandise (including a new running T-shirt from Adidas,  Climate cotton- oooohh) and make a fool of myself as a "sales person" with not care in the world. AND I got my work ethic back. I hadn't had a proper job for about a year, so I forgot what it meant to wake up early, work hard and earn something for it. I lost a lot of my sense of responsibility but I think I handled it pretty well this round.

Children of the Mekong

Last week I mentioned being super busy for lately, so this week, I'm going to tell you about one of the things that's been taking up my time.

I've recently volunteered to help out this amazing little charity called Children of the Mekong, which is the UK branch of the charity Enfants du Mekong, which has been around since 1958.

COTM basically help support children in south east Asia through their education system. They work on a number of projects to encourage children's education, such as building schools and offering free education. Since 2000, the EU made a number of pledges, one of which was to increase the number it primary schools in LEDCs, as part of their efforts to relief world poverty. However the issue now is that there are less developed secondary schools and extremely limited higher education. COTM is working to increase the education options beyond primary schools and are even working to help the graduates to network, write their cv, find jobs and more.

It's a small charity, and it's only just over 2 years old in the UK, but in it's first year of existence, the charity has helped over 2,000 children (bear in mind that there is only one staff member and ten volunteers working from London).

You can check out their website here:
childrenofthemekong.org/

And all their social media pages:

facebook.com/childrenofthemekong
twitter.com/ChildrenMekongwww.youtube.com/user/childrenofthemekong
youtube.com/user/childrenofthemekong 

So what am I personally doing, you ask? 

Well, I am generally trying to help the charity's popularity and web viability. There are a few more little tasks and jobs I get to do, like opening an ebay shop, but I'll get to those later. My main role for now is to take charge of their online blog. 

*stress face* 

It's obviously a huge responsibility, but so far, the blog has been up and running for only about a week. There's still a few technical tweaks and layout issues we need to fix, and I think it may take some time for the blog to find its "niche" but it's getting there. Check it out:

blog.childrenofthemekong.org/wordpress/

Suit Up

Okay, so I've the most busiest past few weeks... more on that later. 

ANYWAY

I wanted to take a little time to tell you all to Suit Up for this trend. 

This look was so infamous, fashion shoots and photography to this day echo its vibe, by using androgynous models and slicked back hair. YSL was credited for empowering women with this look and allowing them to wear something that's normally worn by men.

Since this suit was introduced in the 60s, many different matching separates have reinvented, with new colours, patterns and fabrics. The silhouettes have even been modernised.

Despite being an old trend, it's one that constantly breaks into that magazines and runways, and it's a look that we won't get bored of. Each time, it's evolved in one way or another, so give it a try! 

And don't forget, you can dress the look down by opting for less "suity" suits... if you get my drift!

Twisted Tradition - Sketchbook and Research

Hey,

I wrote about my final CSM project a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't include my initial research or any of my sketches, so here are a few pages from the three sketchbooks we had to use. 

The use of the sketchbook in Fashion related pathways differ from the use of a Fine Art sketchbook, which was what I was used to in my past creative/artistic life. First of all, I used to refer to it more commonly as a journal, and I used it to document my thought process and the journey of the project in the way my mind dealt with it. So, as you might have noticed, the mind isn't very chronological in its methods; so given this fact, Fine Art journals didn't need to make any logical sense, they were meant to be unplanned and reflect our own spontaneous explorations and ideas. 

However, Fashion sketchbooks are perfect. Everything for the core fashion students had to be precise, planned and perfected. My pathway was slightly less strict, but it still had to make sense. It couldn't be a reflection of my own jumbled mind processing everything bit by bit. And the layout for Fashion sketchbooks were generally much neater.

My Fine Art sketchbooks were, well, arty. I was able to stick in anything vaguely related to my theme, scribble down any relevant information, and draw/paint anything I wanted to explore. But for FJA, I had a separate 'information file' for any articles, book photocopies, images etc., and a 'reflective journal' for all my reflection. This made the transition from being a Fine Art student into a Fashion Jewellery and Accessory student harder. I was no longer able to put everything in one book (which was easier for my mind to process, as I could put a lot of stuff on one page). In addition, the work in my FJA sketcbook had to illustrate all the relevant information. This was really difficult when I wanted to include historical information, facts or statistics. However I found a way to get past it, and to make my sketchbook work.

Anyways, here are some of the images I put on my project brief, as my starting points. 

Hassan Hajjaj 2000 ‘Saida in Green’/ Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 1998 ‘Between’/ Casa Elena Fashion Week 2012 ‘Jogja’/ Jean Paul Gaultier 2010 ‘Vogue-à-Porter’/ Raeda Saadeh 2003 ‘Who will make me real?’/ Prada 2010 ‘Vogue-à-Porter’/ John Galliano 2009, Couture abayas on Paris Runway

And here is some of my sketchbook work.