December

Happy New Year! It's time for 2014 and a second semester in Milano.

So it is actually halfway through January as I'm writing this, in my apartment which now after so many weeks of battle finally has the internet! You can't possible understand the joy this has brought me.

At the start of December I did start getting a little homesick and to go back for Christmas has been amazing. I didn't go back to work but instead spent my time seeing friends and family and getting fat just like Christmas needs to be spent. One of the pathetic things I missed about being away was Topshop. To let you know there isn't a Topshop in Italy and as an ex employee and huge fan I really missed it. Not as much as my mum though, everyone misses there mum the most right? On arrival back home she did me a gravy dinner that was out of this world, I appreciated it so much more though as also you can't get gravy in Italy.. or dry shampoo.. or silver shampoo. These are all things that I have now brought back with me to enjoy.

Throughout Milan the run up to Christmas was completely slack and it took until a week into December for any form of substantial Christmas decorations to be put up. What is that!? If the Italians knew what Christmas is like in England they would probably think we are crazy but as a Christmas enthusiast I couldn't believe how late they left it to grace the streets with twinkly lights. In Duomo they erected a Christmas tree that's height pretty much matched that of the cathedral, it was big. It was something to do with DHL delivering packages from Christmas as there was also a cabin at it's foot however I'm not sure how that worked I just really appreciated the tree, pretty. See photo below. Naviglio Grande is always beautiful anytime but when the decorations went up there it looked sensational and so festive. 

Montenapoleone was by far though the most impressive sector of Milan in accordance with Christmas decorations I have never seen anything like it in my life! They actually have a string of baubles through the street that double as speakers playing christmas music and every single store either has fairy light, reeves of ivy of some form of giant bow. Stupidly I didn't take any photos but if you google there are some on there but in my post for next month I'll go take some of it in it's normal state. Montenapoleone is the designer district of Milan and has names such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Celine, DKNY and so on. Each shop has a big scary looking body guard and so far I've been too chicken to actually go in any but in terms of visual merchandising inspiration there is not a better area in Milan. Equally it's a fantastic area to roam around in terms of street style, most people are conservatively fashionable in Milan but if your looking to get a picture to blog of someone a little more daring and eccentric it's your best bet to lurk around there. 

For dining I've found some absolute gems during December! It terms of bars we've now upgraded and become slightly more sophisticated that the dirty D'OOR and found an outside wine bar just off Naviglio Grande on Via Casale the road that lead to the metro stop Porta Genova. The bar itself is called La Vineria and it actually for most parts of the day just a brewery, it is tiny and has no indoor seating whatsoever and only opens in the evening where customers sit outside on barrels under heaters. The wine is amazing and at only 7 euros a bottle it's the cheapest we've found to date. They also sell sandwiches that look good yet to try one of those and throughout the night you watch as people come and go refilling bottles of wine from the tap to take home. It seems to be a very affluent place to find young people and everytime we've visited has been so busy it's difficult to get a seat. 

For eating I have two places to tell you about that are extreme ends of the scale of typically Italian and complete chainstore. The typically Italian place is a pizzeria on the top of Alzaia Naviglio Pavese called Luna Rosso. For around 8 euros you able to purchase the most gigantic pizza imaginable, really they don't even fit on the plate! I recommend the fantasia and the one with blue cheese, ham and salami. So far this place has given me the best pizza in Milan and as they only charge 12 euros for a bottle of white wine it is also viable to sit and have a drink in there as well. The decor isn't anything particularly special but the food is and the staff are also very friendly and helpful. 

In terms of chain restaurant I'm talking about a place called the Old Wild West. So far I know of three in Milan but I've got a feeling there an awful lot more, it's a western themed burger and grill restaurant that is value for money and fast service. The place does monster portion of fries with every meal and very, very good nachos. Equally cool they really have invested money on the decor of the place and sometimes you will find yourself sitting in a wagon as you eat. The biggest one I know of is near the square on Corso di Porta Ticinese and I've been three times now without being disappointed. 

In december there was also a few additional attractions to the city one of which was an outdoor ice skating rink and small german market in Porta Venezia that we visited with some friends from NABA. This was actually a pretty small rink and nothing compared to time square in New York so don't get to excited but it was still nice to get to know some people of our course better and see the city. It was located in the part just across from the historic gateway where you pop up from the metro. 

For university it's now becoming pretty full on and through December I found myself working more and more especially for fashion design. Currently we should have two collection each with two of the following; shorts, trousers, knitwear, tops, accessories, coats, dresses, jackets and skirts. All of our design work has now moved out of our sketchbooks and on to A3 sheets with accompanying flats and fabric samples to the illustrations. To get the fabric samples we we're advised to visit a fabric shop near the metro stop Zara called Tessuti and Scampoli on  Via Lario. To date this is the best fabric shop I've seen and they have a huge range of fabrics also allowing you to buy samples charging to the cost of the roll for how big a piece you want however if you do not speak Italian like me it is a bit of a challenging encounter. One lady in particular is incredibly rude and refuses to serve you if you do not speak Italian but if you persevere and have plenty of time to wait you will eventually be served by someone.

For knitting I've started making my box and I have to say I love adobe illustrator like Brick loves lamp, yes that was an anchorman reference. Thank you Adobe, thanks you. Last post I put details of my project on here giving an overview of my idea and how I'm going about it, this is a a continuation and I've gone through the process of translating my wardrobe into an illustrator file with different layers so I can laser cut the little devil.

How sure I am that it's going to work? 'Hmm we'll see' summarises it nicely. I've chosen to put the decorative details of the wardrobe on the file too and they are going to be engraved rather than cut through (hopefully) but I'm excited to tackle a mock up in cardboard and see how it fits together.

In terms of textiles inspiration and ideas don't really come any easier that rummaging through a box of what your hoping to achieve and taking ideas from already beautiful things. I luckily have been able to do this and have sifted my way through a huge box of amazing textiles looking at the different techniques used and how they differ depending on the fabric they are implicated on to. I'm using bacteria as inspiration for one of my fabrics and so have looked at flocking to create a hairy textile but didn't really know the different ways the method could be used. Now in my post box rummage enlightenment I've learnt that is it possible to transfer print onto flock, there are different length of flocking fabric and that the base fabric that is flocked on to, which can be anything by the way! This makes a huge difference. 

The above image is an examples of transfer print flocking.

Not very clear with the image but the fabrics on the left hand side are examples of the same pattern flocked onto different fabrics.

Shades of blue, again flocking, can't get enough of that! 

And finally this is something I'm very excited about! One of the prints I'm going to produce is inspired by writing on a chalk board and the opaque ink on this Georgette gives exactly the right effect.

Marketing and pattern cutting are ongoing so there is nothing excited to report there it's now just going to be all round hard work in all subjects for the february exams. Towards the end of January classes actually stop and there is around a three week un timetabled period to help students focus on catching up and completing there work.