I Am Intern, Hear me Roar

Finally, I have internet access, battery in my laptop and enough time to give you an update. Apologies for the long wait; I really have missed writing this, even if you may not have missed reading it particularly.

Anyway, back to what I meant to talk about: I am now officially interning three days a week at House of Holland, and will be until the end of July. I know that was a bit anti-climactic after my OTT secrecy, but I wanted to get a bit of distance from my angry ranting of a couple of posts ago. It was all my own frustration and didn't want anyone to think it was directly aimed at any individual. Everyone I've been working with has been lovely so far, and the person I called an assistant is most definitely not an assistant; in fact, she verges on scaring me slightly every so often, so I *really* hope she never reads that.

Well, I say everyone has been lovely, I have developed a deep hatred of a couple of the staff at Brown's Focus, one of whom laughed in my face because I was unsure about something that I had no reason to know. Fair enough, I'm an intern - which we all know is the lowest one can be within the industry - but I'm an intern from the designer, and he's basically a shop assistant selling the clothes, so he has no authority over me or right to laugh in my face.

*Aside: Sorry, I'm trying to not get too venomous too often; if I get into the way of it this could very easily be come a forum for my frequent ranting.*

I've mainly been doing that sort of thing: running between the studio, shops, fabric suppliers and factories, with a few bits and pieces of packing, sorting and quality checking thrown in. It may not seem too fun on the surface, but I'm really enjoying it; just being in the studio is such great experience, seeing how everything is done; and after hearing horror stories of people with other designers spending their placements picking up pins and dog shit off studio floors, I know I'm lucky to be doing what I am. 

Plus, the fact that I'm working with Henry Holland does make the whole thing quite exciting*, in a startstruck 14 year old girl kind of way. Ok, so he's not there all the time, and I haven't actually worked directly with him, or had a conversation with him, but he's smiled at me, apologised for being in my way, and asked if he could take a chair I was carrying, which makes me happy*. I thought working in the same space as him, seeing that he is in fact human, would make me less of a fanboy, but if anything it's just regressing a couple of years. He was my hair-spiration when I went from heavy fringe to textured up-do. (I don't know why that's relevant, but you never know, it might be useful in a pub quiz some day.)

Oh, also, I'm loving getting all the inside info. I'm used to getting everything from twitter first, so I felt ridiculously smug having heard about Agyness Deyn's wedding long before I saw the first tweets about it. And, I won't say too much, for obvious reasons, but what I've seen of SS13 looks *amazing*.

Outside HoH I haven't been doing too much: Last week was a bit rushed to begin with, finding out I got the placement on Monday, then starting on Tuesday. On Thursday (I work Tues, Wed and Fri) I went to the Ball Gowns exhibition at the V&A, which was good, but I'm not sure how strongly I'd recommend parts of it; already having a good idea of mid-late 20th Century fashion, a lot of the context stuff downstairs was a bit same-old to me, but I loved seeing newer pieces from designers I knew of, especially things like the silver leather Gareth Pugh piece they have (I'm still in a bit of a Pugh obsession), and I kept going back to the Atsuko Kudo lace-print latex dress. It's definitely worth seeing though. Oh, and then I was in Covent Garden and saw Gok Wann. I feel that my self restraint in not punching him is a sign of my emotional maturity. I did fantasise about using the easel he had with him to stake him, Buffy styley, but that's not the point.

Then I was back up in Nottingham from Friday through to Monday trying to pack up my life into as few boxes as possible, which didn't quite happen. Let's hope Abigail's offer to store my stuff for a month extends to a large suitcase and approx. 10 boxes.

Today was pretty chilled; mainly revolving around frapuccinos and scoping out the Lush store I have a trial in on Saturday. As much as I'm liking having most of my week as a wee holiday in London, I'm going to need to get a paid part-time job to fund the extravaganza of pineapple, cherry coke and tacos that my life has become.

I think that's about it from me tonight; sorry it's been so rambley and unstructured, that should improve when I'm posting more regularly again. 

My New Obsession (And for those of you who who follow me on twitter, these are the ones that got chilli in my eye.)

DSH. x

P.S. I saw this piano on the South Bank this afternoon. Am I the only one to see it and think of the Glee Purple Piano Project?

*No, I do not mean "exciting" or "happy" in any libidinous manner. Shame on you for thinking such things!

Update

While I'm waiting around at today's Sassoon shoot, I thought I'd give you a quick update on the not getting a response, whole life on hold, etc. situation.
I got a reply! Well, many really. I called again yesterday and, after a thoroughly confusing conversation with an assistant* who couldn't understand my accent, I got an email asking if I still wanted the trial. I replied straight away, and after a few further correspondences this morning, a trial has been organised for this Thursday.
So, if all goes well I'll be in London for around six weeks. I do kind of wish I could have gotten home and seen f&f for a bit in the interim, but I'll survive, and it means I'll get to be there for the big joint birthday thing Kate's planning for those unfortunate enough to be born outside term time.

I'll let you know how it goes on Thursday, and might even tell you then who the trial's with (although, most of you who know me face to face already know, that's not the point).

DSH. x

*Well, I say assistant, she could have held any position really, but based on my wealth of televisually-based experience, I'm assuming she was an assistant, or maybe a receptionist.

Sometimes I'm Angry, 'Cause People Drink My Mi Wadi (And Don't Fucking Reply To My Emails)

As much as I love the fashion industry; the pace, the excitement, and the breath-taking collections some people manage to (and I hope to someday) create, I'm feeling more than a tad disenfranchised, and, to be honest, totally fucked off with the general attitude towards students.
I apologise for the obviousness and ranty nature of this, I'm just so sick of those at a certain label thinking they have the right to leave me hanging like this.

After emailing several brands of various levels, and magazines, just after the Easter holiday, I didn't get my hopes up that I'd hear back from any of them, so I was quite surprised and excited to get an email a couple of weeks ago (around 4:30pm on May 31st, to be exact) offering me a placement at an internationally recognised, london based label, provided I pass a trial day. They needed help from the second week in June, so the email told me, and if I was still interested, I was to contact them and they would organise a trial. Naturally, I replied within a couple of hours.
Fine, it was a Thursday, so I can understand them not getting back to me within that week, and yes, it was the Jubilee weekend, but I'd assume that what they consider to be the second week in June starts tomorrow, but I've heard nothing from them.

Again, this would all be fine, if I were living in London, but I am putting my life on hold for this opportunity: I haven't booked any flights back to Belfast, I can't sort out storage for my stuff because I don't know when I'm moving out of my flat, and I can't organise accommodation for when I'm there (if I get the placement), because I don't know for sure the when and for how long it would be. Every day they leave me waiting, it's going to cost me more. And knowing what some of the cocks in this industry are like, they'll probably come back to me and expect me to drop everything and be with them the next day; which again, would be fine if I lived in the same city and had no plans, but I'm a 2 hour (£50 return) train journey away, and the longer they leave it the more likely I am to have prior commitments. It'd be great if I heard from them tomorrow, but if they want me Tuesday I can't, because I've committed to a photoshoot; I'm not going to piss off to London leaving Sassoon one model short, especially after they've cut and coloured my hair for the shoot, and have been so generous to me over the past 7 months.

And, before you say anything, I know this is the reality of such a fast paced, competitive, high pressured industry, blah, blah, blah.... but I'm not going to sit here and happily wait, just because I've been graced with one email. This is a fantastic opportunity for me, which I know I'm lucky to get, and I'm not expecting to get it for doing nothing, but how can I work for it when they won't even get back to me about the fucking trial?! Do these people not realise that even first year fashion students who are desperate for experience, have lives that they need to work around, just as much as they need to work around the designer's schedule?

Anyway, I rang them on Friday and left a message; hopefully that'll prompt some kind of response, one way or the other. As much as I tried to sound professional, my annoyance and in-eloquence with voicemails may have crept in by the end. Although, if that makes me lose the placement, I really don't think I'd be as annoyed as I currently am; I just want to know what I'm doing.

I'm not naming the brand at this point, by the way, as it is someone I really do want to get the chance to work with, despite this utterly inconsiderate inefficiency in communication.

DSH. x

** In hindsight, I want to apologise to the people this is directed at. I'm currently in the last week of the internship, and since we finally got to the stage of organising it they've been lovely and totally accommodating. At the time I had a lot that needed to be sorted out, and I was wrongly projecting all of my frustrations onto one person. Granted, I still think there could have been more efficient communication, but I wouldn't want the people involved to get the wrong impression if they ever read this.

Anyone For a Rebrand?

I'm not quite sure why I chose now to do the rebranding I've been wanting to do to this blog for the guts of a month; I think it was a combination of work and tidying avoidance, but that's not important, the important thing is that it's done and it makes me happy. 

The original "The Boy With The Toast Tattoo" title seemed like a good idea at the time, but after about a week of reflection I realised that, as entertaining as it was for me and one friend, as an extension of an in-joke, to anyone else it would probably come across as ridiculously derivative, juvenile and just a bit lazy. Plus it might be a bit misleading about what I'm doing here (and before you ask, no I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing here either, but whatever it turns out to be, toast tattoo does not communicate it. Now shush.)

At least "Bonington Boy" has some relevance to the fashion side of my life, Bonington being the building I have all of my classes in at uni. About 3 weeks ago, when I was on my way out, I bumped into Grace off of Drama, who asked me "Are you a Bonington boy, then?" and it kind of stuck with me. 

I like that it sounds a little bit playful, and the alliteration of the b's is a lot more aurally pleasing than the t's of "toast tattoo". Plus, although it's not totally clear to everyone what it means, I feel it's a bit more friendly and all encompassing.

As far as the continued inclusion of "boy" goes, it has no real significance; perhaps it's a consequence of my youthful good looks. Considering my first blog was called "Der Junge Mit...", it does seem to be a nice coincidental thread running throughout. 

Maybe that's something I should consider for future branding; it does seem a tad better than the D S Hunter and DSH ideas I've been toying with... Anyway, that's something for a future post.

DSH (or Boy) x

White

I finally got round to talking to the photographer from our white project show (which took place in April) last night to confirm that I could use her photos; it really is wonderful what you can get done in a club's smoking area (and no, Mum, before you ask, I was not smoking, we'd gone out to try and find Shirin).

Anywho, here are the ones she got of my garments. I'm really happy to get some clearer ones in which you can actually see the seam detailing and paint, after the whole camera disaster of my shoot. 

While we're on the subject of final garments, I had the 3D deadline for my colour project yesterday. I think it's safe to say, I'm going to be very selective about what images of my garments make it up here, and the jacket will most definitely not be shown when it comes to our colour show. I really just rushed through it when it came to my final garment choice, not really thinking about my design or fabric choices. In the end, the fabric was too light to support the structure of the jacket, so it didn't hold any real shape, plus my pattern cutting was a bit off on the lapel. 

But, we live and we learn. Hopefully I can do enough with my 2D for Wednesday to bring my mark up and get me back next year. If I end up having to remake my final garment, I wouldn't be too surprised, I'm just trying to keep my thoughts away from the possibility of not getting back at all. 

Thanks to Caitlin for modelling for me again.

I have a few posts waiting to be finished, so you should be hearing a bit more from me after Wednesday.

DSH. x

Photos courtesy of Els at http://www.facebook.com/elspethvanderholephotography