Below are some photos of my outfits featured in Jewellery Fashion show in NEC Birmingham. Styling by Siouxsie Represented by OB Represents. 

Yesterday I've been at Cirque du Soleil Kooza show. 
It was truly unique experience, I felt like in a fairy tale and even had goosebumps, which only happens when I'm super impressed by something.  I loved the music -  the voices of the vocalist were beautiful, and performance was thrilling. 
The only disappointment was the lack of "Wheel of Death" performance, as it was cancelled and there was no announcements about that. I wanted to see that so much!
Despite the fact above I had my own favourites in the show - contortionists, who were bending in impossible angles and were moving so beautifully that I had tears in my eyes. 
Another favourites were acrobats who were performing on a thick rope and riding bicycles there! That was incredible and looked very scary. 
I would definitely advice to go and see the performance, but avoid front rows, as there are cruel clowns in action there :)) I felt really so sorry for those people! 

This Friday I went to see ballet "Sleeping Beauty" which took part in London Colliseum. 
I will be honest - I wasn't too impressed by the show itself, but there were some beautiful and some funny (yes!) moments. 
First of all, I love the venue - it looks smaller from outside, than it actually is. The walls and ceiling are covered in fretworks, paintings and there are golden statues of chariots harnessed with three lions in each corner of the scene. It wasn't too crowded - third part of the seats were empty and I understand why. 
Although, I haven't seen ballet for several years, I understood that that particular ballet production wasn't very popular (in comparison, I couldn't buy a single ticket for the swan lake, as I didn't think of getting them in advance). 
The ballet lacked some dynamics and was a bit too long. 
Although, not to sound too negative - the skilfulness of dancers was impressive. I loved the humorous dance of couple who had rabbit costumes and a dance of female ballet soloist. 
There were some dramatic moments as well - the appearance of dark witch - in a black chariot with burning candles, dragged by 4 bold men, who looked like aliens. I loved their creepy and synchronised  movements. 
Another great prop was a ship, moving in fumes - it appeared as it was actually swimming in the white clouds. 
I have a great feeling left after the ballet, although the collective sigh when it's finished made me laugh!  

Last year was a hard one for me, I had my ups and downs, but there are lots of moments to remember. Here's my 20 best 2012 moments.

1) I graduated from University with 1st class honours degree in Fashion Design (Womenswear). There was much hard work and lots of pressure and I'm happy it's all over! 
2) I've created my final collection "Orpheus", inspired by the myth with the same title, and it was great to see my garments on the catwalk. 

3) I was taking part in creation of "Ouroboros" fashion film, featuring 80 fashion graduates, including myself. It was great to be behind the scene and see amazing set designs and transformation of the scene. Great challenge which finally worked out. The final movie can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/45083852

4) I went to Cyprus in winter, which was a great escape from cold and rainy London. Inspired by incredible mosaics, ancient ruins and blue sea waves I've created a capsule collection for Nicole Farhi. 

5) I did photo shoot of collection "Orpheus" with David Richelieu who I worked with before. Still waiting for images as David is incredibly busy :) But I've enjoyed the experience anyway and model Anabel was incredible. Below are some sneaky peaks from the shoot.

6) It was great to witness Olympic games and feel being a part of them. There were more smiling faces, more nice cafes opened and I adore Anish Kapoor creation. 

7) My signature leggings were published in Vogue Italia. 

8) I was styling "Let it Rock" photo shoot, using part of my graduate collection. Below behind the scene images. 

9) I've joined luxury lingerie company Bordelle. I am happy and proud to be part of the team and work with most amazing and inspiring garments. The company's web page is: www.bordelle.co.uk

10) Some of my garments from "Orpheus" collection were published in "Coco Magazine". 

11) I went to southern Spain for holidays in September with a group of friends. We've had amazing adventures there. The best moments: 

• I've applied my limited Spanish knowledge, which really helped as not many people spoke English there; 
  
• I had my first ever aqua park visit, but still couldn't get myself to go down the highest slope
• We've visited the only night club in Cartagena which we could find and had all the attention of the local crowd, as no one dances in there :)
• And we've seen a great variety of lakes- dark green, red, pink, which was the most disgusting, as the water was oily and there was salt-like substance underneath it. I must confess - I didn't even risk to touch green water, as it wasn't very appealing either.

Great inspiration for Spring/Summer colour palette!

12) Last year I went to see "We will Rock you" musical, which was incredible and funny as I love Queen's music and there was amazing atmosphere in there. Great sound, live music and talented actors/singers. The crow was singing along and waving hands and it was a truly enjoyable experience. And I was wearing one of my designs - sheer mesh/lace black dress. 

13) Exhibition of Paul Benney "Night Paintings" at Somerset House impressed me with liveliness of his paintings and great set up in underground premises, underneath The Edmond J. Saftra Fountain Court. It was the first exhibition of its kind in the unique space.
 Each  painting had its own tiny premise and brick walls were the great addition to Paul's works. Below are some of the sneaky pics I've managed to do. 

14) I've read the Haruki Murakami Trilogy "1Q84", which according to my mind is the best of his works I've read so far. Surrealistic mood, strange sequence of events - this is the fairy tale for grown ups, which is incredibly shocking, scary, romantic and beautiful at the same time.  I would definitely recommend it for reading, as Murakami is the real master of the words and I'm always impressed by his ability to create such brilliant and dark narratives. 

15) Together with Bordelle team I went to see the British movie by Tanya Wexler "Hysteria", starring Felicity Jones, Maggie Gullenhaal, Rupert Everett and Hugh Dancy. The movie was literally about the invention of vibrator and was incredibly funny. The actor's play was brilliant and it was completely different of mainstream hollywood movies, which I am fed up with. It provokes lots of thoughts about women's rights and feminism, and how the invention actually changed their lives. 

16) "Ballgowns: British glamour since 1950s" exhibition at V& A - quite small but beautiful set up. It was definitely worth seeing as there were exhibited dresses from the best british designers. It is always useful to see couture creation alive, study seams, proportions and fit. The best ones - Alexander McQueen's feather dress, Gareth Pugh's black gown and Hardy Amies dresses. 

17) Crazy Horses Cabaret. Incredible experience, great performance, funny moments. This is the show for the women, as was said in one of the promotional videos. Below is the video of one of the moments (the song is playing in the head for a while afterwards)

18) Tim Walker's exhibition - full review in the earlier post.

19) Hollywood costumes - review in earlier post as well. 

20) And the last, but not least is the book "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Another trilogy I've red last year and the book was so interesting, that I've noticed that I'm going to the wrong direction in the tube only at the 5th stop. The plot is quite terrifying, and inspiration behind it were both war and reality show. The book raises many philosophical questions about human nature, cruelty and eternal fight for the power, where suffer children and ordinary people. It is beautifully written psychological book, which makes you feel the pain of the main characters.  

Well, I didn't expect it would be such a hassle to get to this particular exhibition, but I've anticipated the amount of people, so booked tickets in advance. Actually, booked 2 months in advance to get tickets for the first possible weekend. 
And finally here I am standing in a long queue in semi-dark premise filled with incredible costumes from different eras.
The exhibition was divided into three parts and each part was located in separate room, filled with costumes. This made you feel that the exhibition was endless and you'll never be able to leave it, never want to.
There were costumes from old movies - black dress from "Breakfast at Tiffany's", Merylin Monroe's white dress, Charlie Chaplin's worn out suit, Marilyn Dietrich's to name a few. 

There were costumes from more recent movies - huge jewellery set from "Avatar" (I recommend to watch the whole movie about Avatar making on a screen besides costume - it's incredible), costumes from "Ocean's Eleven", "Matrix", "Fight Club", "Bourne Ultimatum", etc.
There was the separate space devoted to Royal costumes in films (several Elizabeth's costumes from different movies). 
Well, I can write a lot about it, but it is better to go and see it for yourself. 

I've managed to go to Somerset House and finally see Tim Walker's exhibition! To be honest, I was expecting just to quickly see a few of his photos and then leave for lunch, but ended up spending more than an hour in the exhibition space.
 The most impressive part was the giant props from different shoots, including Skeleton (used for a Harper's Bazaar shoot with Tim Burton), Doll and some impressive insects.
 The exhibition itself was telling a story, with text across the walls of photographer's quotes. A must see. Open until January.  

Finally government is trying to change horrid situation with free internships. I doubt it will resolve so quickly, but I want to believe that there will be an end of exploitation of free workforce soon. There's been a furious discussion about that for a while.
 My opinion - people should be paid for their work, unless internship isn't a part of their degree program. I think experience is important, but I won't work for free after I've graduated. I have to pay my bills, as I'm sure most of us.

Here's the article -  
http://www.fashionmagazine.com/blogs/fashion/2011/12/09/they-saidwe-said-britain-based-fashion-design-houses-have-been-ordered-to-pay-their-interns/

Hola! 
Finally I'm posting the link to the fashion film featuring 80 designers. I was a part of film team and it was a great fun to make, although it was a huge challenge as well. 
Here's the link to the film, published in telegraph:

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/videos/TMG9389733/One-film-80-outfits-Ravensbournes-novel-graduate-showcase.html

My leggings published in Vogue Italia! 
People working on the shoot: 
Model: Andrea Chovanova from Premier Model Management
Make up: Chanel Boateng aka Ama Toffee
Hair stylist: Kasia Fortuna from 'Radiant Salon'
Fashion Stylist: Erica Matthews
Top: Anar Mensiitova
 

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