I'm fine just smiling along with you

 Summer is always strange and busy; seemingly endless despite that looming sense of it's time limit hanging over your shoulders. This summer has been no different, however I've been spending time around home more as I'm not travelling abroad this year. It wasn't really planned, rather a lack thereof; so this summer has been spent at home in England and it's actually been pretty sweet. 

I started working as the Fashion Assistant at XXY Magazine shortly after London Fashion Week Men's in June. I've written a few articles for them now as well as been able to assist on shoots and am learning so much every day; not just about how a magazine works but also so many valuable lessons from the team, who are such insightful and intelligent women who I am so proud to have the opportunity to work with. (see my articles here - Back to the Future at LFWM, Focused Functionalism at LFWM, Politics is LFWM's Biggest Trend).

I've also made a website for my photography and fashion work so it can be found all in one place, which you can find here if you are interested. I'm looking to work more with photography and also go back to making art, which I kind of stopped doing after specialising in fashion during my Foundation course. I realise now making art was a huge buzz for me and also really helped inspire my fashion work and so I'm going to work more on it. I joined De Wallen art collective with some of my closest friends from Foundation, so watch this space in terms of getting my fine art ass back in gear.

These photographs were all taken on a cosy Friday spent hanging out in a dried up paddling pool with Georgia. Georgia and I always end up taking photos when we're together as us combined is like a huge actualisation of all the styling and shoots we imagine doing when apart...her work is so amazing and it's fun to get to be the test dummy for new techniques she's trying out. 

I recently added the pins to my infamous beret, the silver lady was a gift from my parents for my 18th birthday, the badge from an angsty 15-year-old trip to Camden Market and the Frankenstein zombie pal was 1 euro from an antiques market in Paris. 

I was considering making this another sort of update post but everything I have posted this year has been "an update" but has failed to fully catch this blog up with everything I have done since starting Foundation. I got very swept up with the workload and spending time with new friends, and managed to end the year with a Merit in Fashion Design, meaning I can go on to study a degree in Menswear in September. All is exciting. 

Have a good week! 

something new

Whilst studying my art foundation I feel I've grown up a lot. My work has changed, my style developed, so much has changed that has left me feeling somewhat out of sync and adjacent to the Ellie that used to write on here twice a week in 2014. Rose and Vintage has been everything that made me who I am in the sense that without creating this space and this voice, my true personality would never have been given the time or platform to develop.

However, I think, like me, this page has some growing up to do. Social media and sharing is integral to my work, and so I have no intention of quitting - however I want to welcome a new era of this blog and of my work, and allow it to become something more versatile and honest, without me attempting to tailor my adult self to the Rose and Vintage sweet sixteen year old me that I once was.

So - a new url, just my name...not for any reason other than I don't feel the need to dress myself up with a title anymore, also usually my name is not taken as usernames and the like. I'll leave the header and things for a while just so people don't get mad confused as to where I've gone. I'll still be here, just as myself as I am now.

I hope this change, a sort of re-brand, will let me post more and use this space more dynamically to share my work and interests, whilst not losing any of the traits Rose and Vintage was known for. Also, of course, I won't be deleting my archive - so you're all welcome to laugh at my awkward 2013 posing and cheesy writing.

Have a great week,

...back again

It's weird to think that art foundation is nearly over - it's pretty much consumed all of my time and thoughts for the last 6/7 months, and I'm not quite sure how I'll adjust to normal life again once we break up for the summer.
Since I last posted a lot has happened...there's been fashion week, countless work for uni, BA applications and interviews (aka portfolio hell) and a 3-week Easter holiday during which I visited Tokyo for a week. I'm now back at foundation and close to drowning in final major project, but I want it to be my best work yet so I think there's definitely some excitement mixed in with the panic.
Here is a lil update of some film from recently...I will post in more detail about Japan as well as the many other things that have happened in 2017 so far in a later post. (photo above by Yukika at her Thursdays Youth Club event).

Alan outside a brewer gig in Bromley-by-bow / me attempting a 'casual look' for family drinks / myself, Stevie and Anna before electrowerkz / a catch up with angel Mona over a picnic at Hackney Marshes / Georgia's sweet room, from an evening of ramen and Almost Famous

Anna and Maya, an evening of cheap beer and nostalgic tunes / Alexi on Clapham Common after looking at dead things in jars and drinking cider in the sun / Sam and Stanley, an art evening / art and wine bottle art by Shane and Sukey / Sunday pub embroidery with Clodagh and Ellen

Test pieces and response shoots for my Final Major Project, models: Nik, Oscar and Cordelia, garments, photography and styling by me / Anna and Rosalind in the fine art studio

Apologies for the very brief update, more will come as I intend to document the last month or two or foundation like crazy, as I already can tell how much I'm going to miss it.
Have a sweet Easter weekend!

(goodbye 2016) (hello 2017)

Ok ok so I said I'd keep this page regularly updated and I will, just university has to take a slightly higher priority with my time at the moment. It's a weird cycle...I've spent so long freelancing and working independently in the hope of it helping me study fashion, and now that I am finally studying fashion I have no time to carry on with my usual work in the industry. It feels like to take a step forwards I've sort of also had to take a step backwards, but I'm sure everything will work out well in the long run.
Finishing my first term of foundation was surreal; my life has changed significantly since the summer, and although I'm probably the happiest I've been, there's always a twinge of sadness at how finite this period of time is...in six months, the academic year will be over and it'll be off to a new course, a new setting, new people...it's strange, knowing that in such a short time I'm going to be looking back at now and thinking, damn, that was a good time.

 It's been quite a big year generally, not just in the sense that 2016 has majorly sucked at points...losing so many icons, my personal hero Bowie being one of the first, hasn't made it easy, especially alongside all the political stress and upheaval taking place across the globe. I don't think I can say, then, that 2016 has been a great year; it's had it's high points though, and I've enjoyed things like attending London Collections Men for the first (two) times, working backstage at London Fashion Week, finishing college and running away to Paris for a weekend, visiting Berlin and Vienna with two amazing friends in the summer, being an assistant stylist for Jessica Gwyneth, and publishing my first independent zine, Bloom. Issue two was supposed to be out already however university has seriously eaten into my time to work on it, however I'm hoping to get it out there as soon as I humanly can.

Uni has been crazy busy; we had our first little interim show which definitely heightened by pre-christmas panic at whether I could actually make anything good or not...I'm learning slowly not to be scared of making, and to just produce work whether it's worth it or not, as everything is a process and is useful in some way, even if it doesn't turn out how you might have planned.

^ Textiles project, 35mm from the show and general fashion room life

^ From a shoot earlier in the year with Ahida Agirre, and a traditional fragile skirt mirror selfie to see 2016 out in a very "me" style

I hope you all have an amazing new year and start to 2017...thanks so much for all the support on this page and my various endeavours over the last year, it's been amazing and I wish you all great success in whatever you are doing! See you next year, dudes...