My son is 3 and sleeps through, which is life changing again. I can see a little clearer and string a relatively coherent / educated sentence together. I have twitter to thank in some ways as it allowed me to start blogging but in no way required a command of sentence structure or grammar - freestyle ideas whittled down to 140 characters @fifigibbs if you are interested.
I am now based in Liverpool at LJMU teaching on the Fashion BA and MA. Also delighted to be so close to a project that has been very dear in my heart for 5 years +Baltic Creative CIC And I got that book deal - our deadline for Marketing Fashion Footwear - The Business of Shoes is December so we are scribbling and snapping away and pulling in favours from our nearest and dearest fashion footwear people to create the best footwear text book in the world......
So I was very fortunate to be given press accreditation to attend our very own British Fashion Council's London Fashion Week at Somerset House last Saturday. It's been 18 years since I first worked at LFW, showing the fashion royalty as was to their seats at the Roland Klein fashion show and marvelling at the Clements Riberio SS97 collection down the catwalk at the Natural History Museum. I spent my formative graduate fashion years knocking about London as it started to boom in the late 1990's. Those were heady days but I took a more commercial route in to menswear and started teaching part time in 2004. It was a slower world then (more time to discuss this in another post) but having been there intermittently over the years there is a woosh of excitement coupled with a few stabs of insecurity, after all there no denying it is full of beautiful people, who wear fabulous clothes. Stepping into teaching for several years and as previous post shown - had big life things happen - returning last week was a wonderful opportunity to revisit with fresh eyes.
I was just as excited heading down on the train (it is a bit faster 20 yrs later) but I was not nearly as nervous. Now in my 40th year I am probably viewed as a bit of an old bird in the era of youth and digital engagement - but it excites me with its possibilities. I have the privilege of hindsight - I can put this is context and know that if you stick at it and follow your gut you will enjoy the getting there as much as the rewards. I have seen the evolution of a sector that despite financial ups and downs is an industry that is credible and sustainable if done right.
Before I arrived the lecturer in me made some notes -
"young people be yourselves, go with your gut, build your network and they will pay your dividends in the decades to come....." I drifted off and my studious and reflective notes stopped there - I reverted to shoebird circa 2001.
I arrived at Somerset House to the well documented circus of photographers and photographees - in all shapes, sizes and sexes. This was new - in the olden days it was heads down, dressed in black and look moody and important (everyone fitted at least one criteria). Although it is now a circus - what a crazy, intimidating, carnival of colour and sound. I barely remember Punks on the Kings Road being photographed as a tourist attraction - but I think this may be reminiscent of it!
Gathered myself and headed into the exhibition which was previously housed in tents in the Natural History Museum grounds and similar along the Kings Road in the later 2000s. It has quite a permanent feel in a real building - I liked its grown up approach. I was there to seek out the UK leading footwear designers that are braving this new world in 2014 - and brave, ambitious and hard working they are; people like Julian Hakes, Joanne Stoker, Camilla Elphick to name a few (another post on UK designers to come) are doing amazing work and we need to champion them all the way to build strong businesses and great brands.
But above all - I heard my own words coming back to me as I caught up with an old friend Lucy Choi, herself working tirelessly to create a great British shoe business. She turned round and introduced me to her uncle Jimmy who bought me coffee and wanted to hear all about the book I was writing. Turns out we have a shared vision - to tell the world that Britain creates that best shoe designers in the world. Thanks for the coffee Prof Jimmy Choo - lets do it!
