rosie tinted glasses.

buff shorts.

2012-01-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

Wish I was back in Birmingham to get a pair of these for the summer months. Courtesy of Frock On Vintage, who can be found in Topshop Birmingham, The Custard Factory (Appointment only) as well as all the usual Facebook etc. they really are quite super.

According to Frock On's Facebook they are also posting them out so find them here. Quick.

office sale picks.

2011-12-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

After picking my favourite sale items from the Office sale I got featured on the Office Shoes Blog.

Some great bargains this Christmas, and I managed to bag myself a pair of the Francis Brogue in Black Patent for half the price!

Click here to see what I picked from the sale.

love my dog.

2011-11-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

I really like dogs at the moment (surprisingly as I am a Cat Lover deep down) so when I heard that Love My Dog were having an open studio/sample sale I could not resist a visit.

Their Facebook page is loaded with all things doggy, and the studio dog Rabbit makes frequent appearances modelling beautiful, handmade in England, clothes and accessories.

Sample sale.

Bruce in Shrewsburys new collar.

Charity Poo Bags.... £1 of each purchase goes to The Dog Trust.

Hat and coat combos.

Rabbit and Friend.

Liberty print Collars/Leads.

Not often you find a company that hand makes items (down the road) to such a high quality, with a friendly and approachable service at the same time.

Visit the Love My Dog Website and Shop here to see the full range.

white girl problems.

2011-11-23T15:14:00.001-08:00

I cannot wait for this book. Read chapter previews here.

And follow her on Twitter:

@whitegirlproblems

And Facebook as well. And buy the book when it comes out.

I love you Babe Walker.

national history museum ice rink.

2011-11-13T10:11:00.001-08:00

4th November - 8th January 2012

How picturesque.

all i want for christmas is the internet.

2011-11-13T02:59:00.001-08:00

Is it too much to ask Orange/Virgin Media??!

four floods.

2011-10-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

My good friend Jennie Webber invited me to the Four Floods exhibition to see some prints she had been working on. The exhibition was held in the Concrete Hermit shop/gallery on Club Row. You can buy prints from the exhibition from the Hermit Editions website, and browse work from other artists as well.

As I am a sucker for a white t-shirt I left with the above (designed and printed by Jennie), and feel it is more a piece of art, than an item of clothing. Either way I love it.

The idea behind the exhibition, was that a selection of artists were given an open brief and told to come up with work using only pink, blue, yellow and black.

My favourite being "The Coming Dawn" print by Joe Wilson, photographed below. More details of it can be found here.

The results were spectacular, and a lovely, cider drinking evening was had by all.

You can see more of Jennie's work here on her website or "like" her on facebook.

marrakech.

2011-10-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

For my 21^st, I decided to go away with my sister. I fancied something a little unconventional and completely different to anywhere I had been before as everywhere I have been has been reasonably easy going when it comes to cultural and language barriers.

We stayed in the most beautiful Riad, called Riad Azzar which was run by a lovely Dutch couple. They're called Riads because they are inwards facing because of the heat and have the garden in the centre of the property. Really bizarre. They gave up their jobs and stressful city lives and decided to start running the Riad, which meant it was a complete sanctuary; No internet, no TV, nothing but books and beautiful food.

It was right in the heart of the medina, off a small side street... every street looked the same it was easy to get lost. I was a pro map reader by the end. The Souk (market) was absolutely huge, and at night looked like it might be on fire, with all the dust and bright orange light.

Some snaps of my travels....

Talented ladies.

THE jacket.

2011-10-19T10:36:00.001-07:00

This is the beaut jacket I got from The Gingham Deer at The Vintage Fair: Shoreditch Town Hall.

twitter.

2011-10-19T02:44:00.000-07:00

Getting oh so into the twitter thing.... the feeling you get when a brand/person/business you love "re-tweets" or replies to something you have to say is pretty great.

Follow me @rosie_tinted.

the vintage fair.

2011-10-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

Today I stumbled across The Vintage Fair in Shoreditch. It was busy to say the least but needless to say I picked up some lovely bits and bobs.

4.45pm - still so busy.

Butterfly brooch - Janice In Wonderland

Feather brooch - Wolf + Moon

Hand bound notebook - Me and Miss Jones (Don't hold me to this name, I haven't been able to find anything more of them on the internet?)

I also bought a really gorgeous Jacket from The Gingham Deer but haven't got a photo as yet.... This was the first purchase and was quite the bargain. Glad I stumbled across this on my Saturday afternoon.

try again.

2011-09-13T06:18:00.000-07:00

So, the job is a short term thing, working back at OFFICE head office doing maternity cover. It got me out of working in a store which is seriously hard work so I took it. This did mean moving down to London within five days of accepting the job which was tricky to say the least.

I had a short-let for one month, then a short-let for this month and then on October 1st I finally move into my flat!

Can't come soon enough. Anyway, with all these new things to see and do, I am going to blog my little heart out.

changes.

2011-08-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

As you may well notice by the dates I have not blogged for a while. Why? Because a lot has gone on. I have moved to London and I have a new job. Its all happened very fast. Let the explaining begin....

BIAD graduate show.

2011-06-16T05:02:00.000-07:00

Last night was the private viewing at Birmingham Institute of Art and Designs graduate show. This gives all the courses a chance to show off all the final projects that have been carried out, and give students a chance to promote themselves.

We each had a booth in which to display our work, and had to create the three boards that I wrote about before. This is how it all looked.

The lecturers also did a small awards ceremony later on in the evening to praise students for the work in which they carried out. Prizes were kindly provided by Harvey Nichols Birmingham. Jenna and I were both student representatives this year and each won a certificate and bottle of wine.

My large format poster is displayed behind, which looks absolutely great. Glad to know it wasn't going to waste.

The lovely chicken coops also got an extra appearance.

old soles.

2011-06-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

As I have worked at Office shoes for well over two years now I have gathered quite an array of shoes, many of which I don't wear any more. They aren't not worn through distaste, just that they have been worn so well they look barely like the shoe they were when I bought them. I know shoes can be recycled, or given to charity shops, however mine are well past someone wanting to buy them again.

So I have been looking for a nice way to reuse them without me having to actually throw them out...and I found one. I am not really a gardening person, but have always liked to get my hands dirty when it comes to being house proud so this idea is perfect.

Making plant pots out of them. I found an article about it here on eHow and I am all inspired to get started.

This boot looks great.

I am a true hoarder at heart so to have an excuse to keep things, especially my beloved shoes, always makes me happy.

mums wardrobe.

2011-06-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

My sister and I had gone through Mums old clothes around five years ago, well before I would ever have thought they were cool. However this weekend was different. Not only do I now have a huge interest in vintage fashion, but also I happened to be going to a hippie themed party.

After showing Mum what I was going to wear, she quickly decided my outfit was not "hippie enough". I jumped at the offer to look at the clothes she had saved from her teenage years in the 70's and found some gems. It seemed to be all about the maxi skirts and dresses, with beautiful bright floral prints.

The dress I chose for the hippy night was ironically a Topshop number Mum bought in London around 1975.

Not a great image sadly but as Mum had the dress straight back in the suitcase the minute I took it off I couldn't get a proper photo. With buttons all the way down the front, and fitted around the chest, the gorgeous flowing skirt is flattering to any figure. It can also be worn flowing for the summer days or tied tighter by tying a bow at the back I am pretty much in love with this.

Definitely going to have to get to work on Mum to have this in my wardrobe. Sooner rather than later.

pub quiz done.

2011-06-10T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have finished the flyer's for the Bluebell Inn's first ever pub quiz. We decided to use the lined paper to give a quiz sheet look to them, and kept them very simple with the Bluebell Logo and colour being the only key branding.

This is going to be a really great event and I am getting together a quiz team with the family.

dream job.

2011-06-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

Urban Outfitters is a company I would probably like to work for more than any other and today I went on the job page and there it was; My Dream Job.

Web Stylist

After doing styling throughout third year and working with product so much at Office I have come to realise that going down the more creative route is definitely the way to go. I love the way trends work and the way in which different garments and accessories go together in such different ways.

A huge part of me also loves technology based commerce, so the fact it is specifically web styling is a huge bonus.

Going to start putting together an application now. Fingers crossed.

learning from my mistakes.

2011-06-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

So for Graduate Fashion Week and part of our last self promotion module we had to design and print business cards for people to take. The front of mine was the blog title and then a picture of my glasses. However, I realised after them being printed and being sent to Graduate Fashion Week ready to be put out on the stand that I had written the wrong blog address.

I had originally wanted this blog to be called Rosie Tinted Glasses as a play on words from Rose Tinted Glasses. As my name is Rosie, and I wear glasses and this is all about the hazy future I thought it was quite fitting. However, Rosie Tinted Glasses had been taken already, so I decided on Rosie Tinted as the address but Rosie Tinted Glasses as the title. Anyway this all sounds very confusing, so to cut a long story short, I accidentally put the wrong address on my business cards, and only realised after they had been printed. Here is the front of the business card....as it had been printed.

The front. WRONG.

The back. Right.

Due to the printers machines breaking, I was left with no contingency, and spent the whole night I realised looking for 24 hour printers. This wasn't going anywhere, and after talking to my Mum we came up with the idea of using a Dymo Gun (a label maker in which the font I used on my card is taken from) to make labels and stick it over the error.

This wasn't ideal, and after spending my train journey down to London and the whole evening before Graduate Fashion Week typing out labels I was more that dubious about how it was going to turn out.

However, after finishing some of them off I was actually really happy. I felt it added texture to the cards, and gave them a little something extra. I also knew it hadn't turned out too badly when my pile of cards was going down faster than I had thought.

Anyway, here is how they looked after all the drama.

graduate fashion week.

2011-06-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was at Graduate Fashion Week, an exhibition of all the fashion based courses in the UK. Each university has a stand in which to display their work. Ours was based around chicken coops, playing on the growing new talent/incubator theme. I was a bit dubious when I first heard the plans but thought it looked absolutely great.

This was my work displayed as I eagerly awaited the judges for the Marketing Award. Sadly I didn't get any further in the competition but even to be nominated was such a huge achievement so I couldn't be happier.

One of the other stands that really stood out was Rochester, as they had created a workshop type environment that I hadn't seen done before.

It was also in line with my dissertation, with quite a hands on approach that I always find attractive.

designer australia.

2011-06-01T06:04:00.000-07:00

While I was in Australia I was surprised by the amount of vintage fashion in all of the cities. From markets to shops each city had its fair share, with Melbourne being well up there with the most.

Friends who had lived there before had always said how much better Britain was, but in retrospect this is clearly due to Australia's lack of high street stores. Sydney introduced some more interesting midrange fashion brands to the mix, with a huge Zara opening in a new Westfield shopping centre causing quite a buzz amongst locals.

Most of the department stores and shopping centres however, were full to rafters with designer after designer from international brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Dior to my favourite Australian discoveries, gorgeous nightwear designer Peter Alexander and casual wear brand Bonds.

The Peter Alexander website has vibrant colours and imagery throughout and I love how the product is displayed.. Take a look here.

I of course took a few items home as souvenirs. Would be rude not to.

suzuki night market. melbourne.

2011-05-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

Whenever I told people I was going to Australia they always said I would like Melbourne the most. And when it came to shopping i definitely did. It had so much to offer in the way of vintage, with one market standing out in particular... Suzuki Night Market.

The market ran only through the summer and was almost like a mini festival. It had food, bands, interiors and best of all clothes. It was all about sustainability so everything had a handmade and personal touch to it.

It was every Wednesday and we only stayed in Melbourne over one. Had I known this market was on I would have definitely rearrange flights.

The highlight of the market was definitely the "Wozwaste" stand. All sorts of useful things, from purses to large shoppers made out of old carrier bags, tooth paste tubes and even old cassette tapes.

the best cafe. ever.

2011-05-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

On the Gold Coast in Australia I got taken to the most amazing cafe I think I have ever been called Gov's. It is full of old interiors, art and furnishings, and you can buy anything within the whole cafe. It is spread over four large areas and as I have always had an interest in interiors, as well as the creative ways in which different things can be displayed together I was in my element.

We spent around five hours in Gov's that day, and here are some of my favourite things.

If I had a house big enough it would definitely be like this.

skip diving.

2011-05-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today I have been helping my boyfriends parents clear out their house ready for when they move on Friday. One of the houses on the street had a huge skip full of all sorts of goodies and some leather suitcases took my fancy.

After watching Kirsty's Homemade Home on Channel 4 I got all inspired and decided to go for it. The hinges are broken but repairable, but I have one already (My Dad's from when he was a boy scout) that has become a sort of mirror stand in my room and looks quite cool. If I had a trendy boutique it would take pride of place with some lovely scarves falling out of it.... but I don't. Well not yet anyway.

project board.

2011-05-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Coming towards the end of my life at university, and the final project is geared a lot towards how we present ourselves at both graduate shows we show at; Graduate Fashion Week and BIAD Graduate Show.

For the BIAD show we each have a stand and have to create three boards which not only promote ourselves but also our work.

The key board is A1 in size and has a project area within it in which we have to present the idea behind our dissertation.

Here is what I have come up with.

a beautiful wedding.

2011-05-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

I visited Australia in December 2010 for five weeks. It was pretty much the best thing I have ever done. I always said it was a once in a lifetime experience but there is no doubt in my mind I will go again. Hopefully within the next few years.

The reason my boyfriend and I went was for a wedding that had a very vintage/handmade feel to it. I spent the day of the wedding (as well as the four days in between the wedding and touching down in Brisbane) setting it all up which was quite a flashback to my first job in which I worked on around three weddings a week at a hotel based in Derbyshire.

The Bride and Groom had got wind of my experience, and the few days I was around before the wedding I helped them out with all manner of things.

When arriving I helped Emma (the bride) plan how to set the tables out at the reception given that it was meant to be outdoors and the weather forecast was rain throughout the day. They had hired a house to have the wedding in, and were unsure as to whether the tables would work inside.

I was entrusted to set it all up in the four hours between the ceremony and the reception. I had help from Emma's Mum who was a star when it came to tidying and cleaning as I am a little messy.

So colourful. Such a shame the sun didn't shine.

Handmade (by Emma and I) tissue paper pompoms hung on the stairs....

...and on the ceiling.

Gift table.

Gorgeous floral prints used for the swing tag style name cards.

The napkins were handmade by Emma's Mum.

A range of cocktails in large glass jars.

The best sweet (or "lolly" as the say in Aus) selection I have ever seen.

The flowers were a mix of real and fake, all sat nicely in recycled glass bottles.

The wedding looked absolutely amazing and Emma and John put so much time and effort into finding all the gorgeous props and accessories. Helping them out wasn't a chore at all. I love getting involved with this kind of thing and they bought my boyfriend and I dinner to say thanks. Getting paid in food is definitely the best.

graduate fashion week preparation.

2011-05-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

As my dissertation has been entered for the Marketing Award at Graduate Fashion Week in London I have to talk about my work to the people who will be judging it. One of the aspects to my creative outcomes was a large format poster that displayed the photo shoot I wrote about previously.

When I say "large format" I mean LARGE. It was created as a means to market the Sew&Sew business through the use of guerilla marketing. It displayed just thumbnails of the photo shoot, with the Sew&Sew blog displayed in a small frame in the bottom left hand corner.

The dimensions for the final piece were 2.6 metres long by 1.1 metres wide. I need to scale this down to A1 which although is still big, in comparison seems tiny.

Here is a photo of me 5 foot 2 inches laying next to the final piece.

the bluebell country inn.

2011-05-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

The Bear and The Bluebell Inn are two family run pubs in the heart of the Derbyshire countryside. After seeing some of their promotional material they had previously done I asked if they would like any help. They have a real rustic feel to both the pubs which I think is really lovely and very current so helping out with their promotional side would actually be quite enjoyable.

The first event they have coming up is their first ever pub quiz, in aid of cancer research.

They have given me the details of the event and the only other thing they have said is that they would like them to be kept very simple as they already have a broad customer base. I am going to get to work on some ideas for them to pick and choose different aspects, so we can come up with the final design sooner rather than later.

party invites done.

2011-05-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Today I finished the party invites for my friends 21st. She is so happy with them and has sent them out to loads of people which is great. All the people who have seen them so far have said how great they think they are! Just the party to wait for now. Just got to find a hippy outfit! Shouldn't be hard with all the great vintage shops and fairs going on around Birmingham at the moment.

Here is the final product.

And the original again for you.

styling.

2011-05-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

For my dissertation I decided to do a photo shoot so I had some images to use for my promotional material. It was quite a last minute thing, but it ended up being one of the things I learnt from most throughout my dissertation.

My house mate Josie who studied Fashion Communication wanted to do a photo shoot too for a magazine she had to do so we decided to collaborate.

We both wanted to do a really raw shoot, that took inspiration from street style using vintage and second hand clothing. I am lucky to have two friends Carl and Amy who run a vintage clothing market called The Hanging Rail Market who we borrowed some clothes off for the shoot, as well as using our own clothes and accessories.

We used my veeery good friend from work Ifrah Khan as the model. She summed up everything the shoot was about and was absolutely amazing on the day.

Here are some of my favourite photos from the day.

I taught myself so much doing this shoot with Josie, from putting the looks together the day before, to photographing Ifrah on the day. Love this.

graduate fashion week competitions.

2011-05-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

I was at work the other day and had a sneak peek at my blackberry....and noticed I had an email from a lecturer at university.

I assumed it would be about the next deadline, or money that needed to be paid so ignored it. Went on my break later on and read the subject was "Graduate Fashion Week Competition Nominations" so had a look and read that I had been nominated for an award at Graduate Fashion Week.

My dissertation is being sent off for judging this week and I couldn't be happier. At least this gives me confidence that I haven't written 12,000 words of complete rubbish! Phew!!

placement.

2011-05-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

In January 2010 I carried out a placement at Office shoes head office in London. It was six weeks and I absolutely loved it. I rotated around the different departments for the first week or so and then settled in nicely in the Visual Merchandising department.

Kerrie in the VM department was really welcoming and trusted me with a variety of tasks. I did a number of things varying from store visits to arranging the spring/summer 2010 merchandising guidelines that all stores were sent.

It was during this time that I really developed the basic skills in Photoshop that gave me the confidence to try new things and experiment more.

These are some of the trend boards I did:

Androgynous

Woodstock

These were done using Photoshop. On previous moodboards Office had done they weren't always using Office products on them to translate the trends. From working in store I thought it would be a good way to translate the trends to the staff - especially those who don't understand them quite as well.

The Buying Director told Kerrie they were the best boards she had seen.... No biggie!

party invitations.

2011-05-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

Since handing in my dissertation I haven't had such an excuse to play around with designing things on Photoshop as much. My best friend Frey was saying how she wanted some party invitations for her 21st birthday party. She is having a hippie/peace themed party in her garden and described it almost like a mini festival.

I kindly offered to design her party invites for her which we decided would be based on the "Three Days of Peace and Music" poster used for Woodstock Festival in the late 1960's.

Here is the original:

Going to get to work on these straight away.

my dissertation.

2011-05-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Around a month ago I handed in my dissertation. I have never worked so hard on anything in my whole life. We had to come up with a business idea and write a 12,000 word business plan, as well as come up with creative work such as posters, flyers, a website, a bag, a photoshoot... the list goes on.

The business I came up with was called Sew&Sew:

“To bring the Make do and Mend culture experienced after the second world war up to date, playing on the core vintage and second hand clothing trend, by getting the fashion-lead public doing their bit for the environment as well as their bank balances by reigniting the passion for handmade fashion.”

Some of the promotional material I created is shown below (There is more to come....)

Flyer.

Poster.

My photoshop skills were put to the test but I was really happy with the final results. I put my final dissertation together using Adobe Indesign which is an amazing tool to see a full book like document come together.
Below was the final document that the brilliant company Street Print located in the Custard Factory Digbeth put on their StreetPrinters Twitter profile.

My Dissertation the day I collected it from Street Print

I got so into the business idea I would love to go ahead with it for real. Decisions decisions.

the end. but also the beginning.

2011-05-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

I am coming closer and closer to the end of my degree in Fashion Retail Management. The last three years I have studied away at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, completely oblivious to what the future holds, except now, the time has come.

The future I was so scared of, can no longer be brushed under the carpet. I have to face the music, and do grown up things like find a job (maybe even a career).

Wish me luck.