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Angy's Blog June - July 2009
The trials and tribulations of a fashion designer in the Lake District!
ARCHIVE: my previous entries:
MAY - JUNE 2009 (Summer Solstice - Toon in Tatters - Fashion Communism - Ele Horsleys - Kittiwakes - Stolen Dreams - Bluebells)
MARCH - APRIL 2009 Made in England - Stolen Dreams - Easter Sunshine - Victoriana - Alan Shearer - Funland
FEBRUARY - MARCH 2009 (Favourite View - Punk Revival - Gone with the Wind - Fast Fashion v. Recycled Fashion)
JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2009 (In Search of Winter - A Favourite Place - Catwalk Videos on YouTube - A Winter Chill)
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008 (Recycled Outrageous Clothes Show (ROCS) - Florence No2. - Winter-Mere)
OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2008 (Cumbria Life - NW Evening Mail - Glitz & Glamour Haggerston Craft Show)
OCTOBER 2008 (Woman Event - Collection on Catwalk - Radio Cumbria - Brochure Download)
SEPTEMBER - Early OCTOBER 2008 (Newcastle United Wedding Dress - Wedding Shows at Abbey House and Carlisle)
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2008 (Fashion Designers - Spectrum in Four Seasons Collection - Sara Gadd Millinery)
JUNE - JULY 2008 (Haute Couture - Vivienne Westwood - Wildlife - Dorset Buttons - Magna Carta)
FEBRUARY - MAY 2008 (Lake District Inspirations - Long Blondes - Wedding Show)
USEFUL LINKS:
CLICK for: SPECTRUM IN FOUR SEASONS catwalk pictures
CLICK for: SPECTRUM IN FOUR SEASONS video clips on YouTube
CLICK for: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Cumbria Life - 5.2mb PDF
CLICK for: MySpace
1 Atkinson Court
Fell Foot
Newby Bridge
Ulverston
Cumbria
United Kingdom
LA12 8NW
T: 015395 30648
M: 07812 210880
Email: angela@
romantiquecouture.com
EVENTS DIARY 2009:
AUGUST 2009: LAKE DISTRICT FASHION EVENT (Date to be Confirmed)
Watch this space for something completely different - special fashion event in the Lakes - won't let the cat out of the bag just yet!
OCTOBER 2009: STOLEN DREAMS 2010, St. James' Park, Newcastle (Date to be Confirmed)
Spectacular launch of my unique, 2010 'Stolen Dreams' Collection in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care
SEE BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS
20 NOVEMBER 2009: CHARITY FASHION SHOW, Haverthwaite
Charity Fashion CatwalkShow by Romantique Couture
The problem wirth working from home is that you sometimes have to force yourself to take a day off. And even then you usually feel guilty. The sun has been shining all week, the temperature has been rising, and it has been getting more and more difficult to turn my back to the blue sky and close my studio door behind me. So, yesterday we shut up shop and headed off into the wilderness. And I soon discovered how unfit I have become. This is probably the only time in my life that I have not been active. I used to swim, run and do aerobics all the time. I used to be a professional swimmer for goodness sake. But work has been taking its toll for the last two years, and I can feel it. This new collection is very time-consuming - I can work seven days in a row, from early morning right through into the early hours, when I have a new design in my head. It is relentless, and the list of creations to complete seems never-ending. I only hope it will be worth it.
Anyway, what a fab day. And what a fantastic place ... don't ask me where it is, because I won't tell you. There are some secrets I prefer to keep to myself, and for the few local people who also know about it. It's my favourite swimming pool - high in the fells: icy, crystal clear water, very deep, with just enough shade for when the sun becomes too hot, and a waterfall llike a natural jacuzzi to sooth the aches and pains. Sheer bliss!
Just when you think things cannot get any worse, something truly awful happens! My club is rudderless and drifting dangerously. So what do they do?. They decide to release the 'Away' strip from Hell! I'm not sure if it's only me, and perhaps I'm being unfair because I've only seen the press pictures and read the dismayed comments of other fans. I mean, you don't get a true impression on a computer screen do you? So perhaps it OK in the 'flesh'. I hope so because on the screen it looks quite hideous - eggy yellow stripes on something that could be white, ivory or even primrose yellow, depending on the angle. It's like being kicked when you are already down. As if somebody is set on destroying our club, and our pride, from all sides. What was wrong with the dark purple? It was classy. This is just embarrasing. I hope I'm exaggerating. Better, sharpen my scissors just in case! Stolen Dreams!
A few years ago Mike took me to the place where he grew up - right on the edge of the Lake District. I had never been there before but I remember that first time like it was yesterday. It was like Heaven on Earth. It still is! Even now I love to find a quiet spot, where I can sit and be quiet, empty my mind and just watch and listen - use my senses to feel close to it all. I really found myself there in the Lakes - humbled by the landscape, at peace with my surroundings. And even today the landscape and the nature never fail to impress me, and to inspire my creative side.
If anyone had said to me years ago that I would fall in love with a place called the Lake District, a place of mountains, valleys, lakes and woods, I would probably have laughed in their face. I'm a city girl, through and through. I was born in a city. I grew up in a city. I would have asked, "Where is the nearest shop?" I would never have belived that country life could attract me - a brief visit perhaps. nothing more. But, hey presto, I'm here! Indeed, I've been here for nearly five years and, yes, I can live without the lights, and the shops at the end of the street, a coffee bar within a couple of minutes' walk, a theatre at my fingertips, and the incessant buzz of the city. My mum thought I was mad when I announced I was going to live here. She couldn't believe it, and gave me the whole, "you can't do that," spiel. You know how mums are? But, when she came to see me she was mesmerised too. You see, I sometimes imagine the lakes and the valleys are full of good spirits, fairies perhaps - they can spot somebody with a good heart from miles and miles away and lure them into their spell.
Midsummers Night, the Summer Solstice, is a mythical time all over the world. After this night the days begin to get shorter again - but I'm trying not to think about that! How time flies.
Anyway, I thought these pictures would be appropriate. They were taken a couple of evenings ago, on my way back from a meeting in West Cumbria. The stone circle is Swinside, which is hidden away on a sunny plateau high above the Duddon Estuary, overshadowed by Black Combe and Corney Fell. It dates from the Bronze Age and is one of the most impressive not only in Cumbria, but in the British Isles. Wordsworth, who was very fond of the Duddon valley, wrote:
" Or near that mystic Round of Druid fame,
Tardily sinking by its proper weight
Deep into patient earth, from whose smooth breast came."
Footnote: just found out more about the stone circle we found in the Rusland Valley. It has apparently been erected at a point where the ley lines from other Cumbrian stone circles meet and will be used over the solstice for a gahering of dancers and musicians ... and probably druids and I don't know what. You certainly won't catch me there!
My lovely team is up for sale on the internet! What a shambles ... every time you begin to feel optimistic, something else comes along to kick you in the....! Sometimes you have to laugh or you would cry ... and of course Sunderland fans are having a field day. I can't blame them. No doubt we would have done the same. £ 100 million is the price tag for the club; just £ 20 million more than Real Madrid are paying for Ronaldo. Who says a player cannot be bigger than the club? It shows that it isn't only the Newcastle story that is farcical. Other fans may be picking on us at the moment but there are dangers everywhere ... £ 20 million for just one player, not to mention his wages, and just look at the latest Liverpool accounts! Money, money, money!
Whatever the future brings for Newcastle, it will always be my team, and I'm still revealing my new collection, "Stolen Dreams" at St. James' Park. And the saga will of course form part of the collection itself as the story continues to unfold.
The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle. For further information about this fantastic place: www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk
The last few days have been beautiful and truly inspirational - early summer weather. This has been reflected in the glorious mass of colour from the wildflowers in the meadows and hedgerows. Here are a few photos taken over the last few days (Left to Right, Top to Bottom):
Meadow Buttercups near High Force, Teesdale; Foxgloves near Bouth;
Wood Cranesbills in Upper Teesdale;
Hay meadows in the Rusland Valley with Ox-Eye Daisies and Bistort
Can I write a blog about today's fashions by just reading Vogue from time to time? Or keeping an eye on the High Street? Living out in the countryside I do need to keep a tab on the Fashion Press and the fashion media, though some of the glossy mags seem to have more ads than content nowadays.
I read an interesting article today in one of the fashion columns about so-called "Fashion Communism", something that I have myself noticed more and more recently. That is the trend for girls to spend more and more on cheap outfits so that in reality they look just the same as thousands upon thousands of other women. Whatever happened to individuality I sometimes ask myself, indeed, a few weeks ago I was writing optimistically in my Blog about a punk revival and a backlash against the sameness of High Street fashions. I come from a former Communist country where choice was limited and individuality wasnít only frowned upon, it could actually land you in jail, or worse. Of course it is not quite the same here, but there is a trend to accept mass-produced, often poor-quality fashions without even blinking. Yes, you can combine a top here with a skirt there, and add accessories but there is still the danger to look just the same as somebody else on the street.
I have an example to illustrate this. Last year, a young girl - we'll call her Miss A - came into my studio with a bright pink dress for her prom. She wanted me to alter the bodice so after taking a fitting I hung the garment in my fitting room. A couple of days later I received a visit from one of her colleagues - Miss B. She also wanted a bodice adjusting for her prom dress. As she disappeared into the fitting room to try it on, there was a loud scream. For a moment I thought she had pricked herself but no, much worse! Shock horror, she had had seen Miss A's dress and it was exactly the same as hers! Same dress - same prom! What a nightmare. Apparently they had been shopping together. B had told A she liked the pink dress in the shop. A said it wouldn't suit her and she would buy something else. However, for one reason or another they both ended up buying the same dress a few days later. Perhaps it's not quite the same as seeing somebody else wearing the same dress on the street but as the prom was so special it was even more significant. And what if another of their colleagues ended up with that dress too?
One of the main reasons why I was always eager to become a designer was that I always wanted to be different. Perhaps it was because I grew in a society where choice was limited unless you could make or restyle your own clothes. Nobody ever wore the same clothes as my grandmother, my tutor from the age of just 6 years. She was one of the best dressed ladies in my home city, and was always beautifully attired in her own best cut suits.
MAY - JUNE 2009 (Toon in Tatters - Fashion Communism - Ele Horsleys - Kittiwakes - Stolen Dreams - Bluebells)
MARCH - APRIL 2009 Made in England - Stolen Dreams - Easter Sunshine - Victoriana - Alan Shearer - Funland
FEBRUARY - MARCH 2009 (Favourite View - Punk Revival - Fast Fashion v. Recycled Fashion)
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2009 (In Search of Winter - A Favourite Place - Catwalk Videos - Winter Chill)
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008 (ROCS - Florence No2. - Winter-Mere)
OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2008 (Cumbria Life - Glitz & Glamour Haggerston Craft Show)
OCTOBER 2008 (Woman Event - Catwalk Photos - Radio Cumbria - Brochure Download)
SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2008 (Newcastle United Wedding Dress - Wedding Shows)
AUGUST - SEPT. 2008 (Fashion Designers - Spectrum Collection - Sara Gadd)
JUNE - JULY 2008 (Haute Couture - Vivienne Westwood - Dorset Buttons - Magna Carta)
FEBRUARY - MAY 2008 (Lake District Inspirations - Long Blondes - Wedding Show)
Angy's Blog is written by Angela Morton, Fashion Designer & Dressmaker
Photographs copyright of Mike and Angy Morton
Copyright Romantique Couture 2009
Photographs copyright of Mike and Angy Morton
Copyright Romantique Couture 2009