The last day of London was long. It was filled with a jammed back itinerary at Hearst UK and then was spent doing some last minute shopping. Also, I saw where Freddie Mercury lived and had some lovely cookie dough. Wherever I went, I was always surrounded by well dressed people.
Fashion is a huge part of London. Everyone dresses similar to New Yorkers with their designers or high street clothes. When we went to Hearst, I learned a lot about the fashion realm here in the United Kingdom. I got to hear from some amazing people from ELLE Magazine and Cosmopolitan. Meeting the interns who style the outfits for shoots and seeing all the props made me love my major more. Styling is a huge part of my photography and how I try to make fantasy type portraiture like ELLE. I met Alex the videographer for the Beauty Lab video on Youtube, and I may have spent too much time talking to her. Her studio is filled with so many lights and backdrops for such a small space. I wish I got to see some of what the photographers do but it is probably very similar. The editors even mention how they pick their photographers which was helpful information for me.
The girls from Cosmo and ELLE who talked stood out to me the most. They talked about how they got started at their publications. The girl from ELLE used to be a photography major but learned she preferred styling the outfits more. This made me think that one day I might just want to focus more on styling. In school, I am taught to design my own photoshoots with costuming and locations to create what a message. I would never want to split the two (styling and photography) away from each other. Magazines and working for a publication or brand is a dream of mine, but I would never want to do a photoshoot just to press the camera button. Anyone can work lighting and equipment. Photographers should have more room for their creativity with the publications. I am very thankful for the information they did say about photographers in the business.
After Hearst, I got to spend my night at the famous Oxford street. Oxford Street is basically a wide open version of NYC with all the different shops. There are so many different shops that I have never heard of and wished were in the United States. One famous store is Primark. Primarks are basically cheap clothes like Forever 21. I got a lot of good deals there while also going across the street to the typical London tourist stores. A main designer department store in the United Kingdom called Harrods. Harrods was my personal designer heaven filled with so many designers that I knew and many I didn’t. I got lost several times throughout the whole store. Some brands have exclusives that are only found in Harrods ( I bought three makeup exclusives).Throughout London, I have focused so much attention on how people dress that I was glad to be in my business attire for all these lectures. I know the rest of this trip will not be as fashion based and more historic. I am still excited though especially to see the castles.