Lifestyle: Life Lately In London 4

After a week of severe eye-straining and permanent headaches, my body forced me to slow down my busy schedule and I had to 'relax' and 'stay away' from the screen for a few days. I still feel massively tired and burnt out a little so this weekend will be spent in the Forest of Dean and hopefully I can refuel on my energies. But before I go into a social media and blogging free weekend, I'd like to give you a quick update on what's been happening this week in London.

1. Fashion: I visited the LV Series 3 exhibition

I spotted an advertisement for the Louis Vuitton Series 3 exhibition whilst on the tube and the opportunity to go and see it came up, when Alex had an appointment in Covent Garden. Whilst he went there, I would visit the exhibition on The Strand. The venue for the exhibition was only a few meters away from the iconic Somerset House and easy to find. 

Entrance to the exhibition is free but upon arrival, you'll have to 'sing in' and leave your personal details with them. The exhibition itself started with a few rooms of artistic installations which would stir your imagination and you would feel where the designers got their creative vibes and inspiration from. I would describe the installations as futuristic and modern, as they would use different sounds, lightening effects and various screens to create the atmosphere. Like the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition, the Series 3 was organised and run highly professional showcasing and worshiping fashion as art rather than everyday wear.

I made it to the first two rooms and then I got a bit lost to be honest. There wasn't much of a guidance where to continue the tour and in the dark I couldn't see the entrance to the next room, so I ended up approaching the exhibition from the other end. However, for this post I arranged the pictures according to the route you are meant to follow.

After the room dominated by the screen (pic 1 above) you would enter a room with screens displaying the runway show (pic 3 above). This was brilliantly made as visitors had the chance to sit down and fully appreciate the different designs. The contrast of movement from the models on screen and the static environment of the room worked extremely well and yet again highlighted LV's latest collection as a piece of art. 

The next room would have some physical pieces of the collection. Main focus of the room was to highlight the making of LV handbags, having two designers and their workstations on display. I spoke to the lady briefly and she told me that one handbag takes up to 30h in the making. Everything is selected by hand and carefully crafted. It was amazing and interesting to see a professional at work and how precise and accurate every little detail came together.

From a rather dark room you would walk into the other extreme: a bright white showroom of the most iconic handbags you've ever seen. I'm not particularly fond of the original brown LV style, but these were absolutely gorgeous. From the way they were displayed to the rich and elaborate details of every piece, I would hear myself screaming 'MUST-HAVE' in my head all the time. Absolutely pretty and amazing. I can't find the words to describe it, you really have to see it yourself.

One of the last rooms was designed as a big walk-in wardrobe with mirrors all around you. You would walk on thick, fluffy carpet and view dresses, shoes, handbags, suits and glittery two piece combos displayed in a glass wardrobe. I loved that the pieces were displayed openly. Not a single sign of a thick windowpane would keep you away from the items which made it easy to get as close as possible and fully appreciate them. 

The exhibition finished with a room full of sketches, storyboards and pictures from the collection. You would be given free posters and stickers to take home, which I found gave the entire exhibition an individual touch. It was impressive to see how a fashion brand would advertise and showcase its latest collection. The idea to present the range as an art exhibition just underlined the exclusivity of LV as a luxury brand and also as art rather than fashion (hope that made sense).

Have you seen the exhibition, too? Or are you planning on going? The exhibition runs for another week and will close officially on 18th October. Entrance by free admission and bring some time with you. I rushed a bit through the rooms as Alex's appointment finished after 35minutes. In total I think I could have spent easily an hour or so at LV Series 3.

2. Lifestyle: I went to three more interviews (for the same job)

A few weeks ago I was invited  by a big digital marketing performance agency in London to interview for a role. My task was to prepare a presentation which I absolutely loved. I used to give 90minute talks and lead academic discussions at uni so I was completely in my element when I worked on my talks' structure, designed a ppt and studied my actual speech. The presentation was picked up very well and though I missed the topic slightly, the interview panel were impressed and asked me if I'd like to present myself to another team of their company. So I did and they invited me back for three more interviews. I haven't heard back from them just yet but please keep your fingers crossed. 

3. The BareMinerals Christmas Range Event

On Thursday night I was lucky to get an invite by BareMinerals and had a little sneak at their new Christmas range. The products were beautifully displayed but sadly, the venue was rather small. At some point moving was no longer possible, but this wasn't necessary, as the event brought together a little Bloggers Festival reunion. I saw many familiar faces and chatted literally the night away. I was glad I arrived early at the venue to take some pictures before all the networking. I'm really sorry about the poor quality of the pictures but the venue was dark and the lighting predominately red, which made taking pictures not that easy. 

I can tell you though that the BareMinerals Christmas range is inspire by the theme 'Enchantment' and features gorgeous glittery and nude shades. The packaging is festive and very pretty which makes any lip gloss, eyeliner or eye shadow palette a wonderful gift for beloved ones. 

4. Film: I spent half a day at Cineworld

I made good use of my unlimited card and watched The Martian, The Walk, The Intern and MacBeth. I found The Martian very easy to watch with great acting performances by Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain. The plot now and again felt a bit too smooth, in the sense of that the main character barely faced any problems or if he did, his plans to solve the issue always worked. Alex also felt that the film went a bit too flawless and we both agreed that the 3D effect was well worked out.

However, the 3D effect in The Walk was magnificent. We watched the film on a super screen and I had sweaty hands all the time. It was a nerve-wrecking and absolutely gripping movie, loved it. The story starts a bit slow and needs a bit of time to accelerate and Joseph Gorden-Levitt as an external storyteller might be a bit unusual and cringe but a) it's a PG film and b) I felt this was needed to explain the characters motivation and ambitions. The Walk is based on high wire artist Phillipe Petite's story and I've never heard of him before, but I had to research him after the film to find out more. His story is so inspiring if you ask me with the empowering message of never loosing sight of your dreams and do what it takes to make them come true - with the help of true friends who will always support you.

The Intern on the other hand was less inspiring. It was very cliche and underwhelming to be honest. Easy to watch, but far too much sugar and predictable. A plot line as thin as the wire in The Walk, a super charming Anne Hathaway and situations beyond reality couldn't make it over my 5/10 mark. It's a film you can enjoy after a long hard working day or on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but not necessarily for £10 per ticket at the cinema.

Same applies to MacBeth. The movie was so atmospheric and the cast and acting were brilliant. However, I'm not sure if Shakespeare works on screen. Whether it was Romeo and Julia or Hamlet, I don't think Shakepeare plays adapt well for the cinema. The medium of film is highly based on visuals whereas Shakespeare relies on the language. You really need to pay attention to the prose as all of the dialogues carry the plot and action. If anything distracts you, you miss out on details (we all know how complex and rich in detail Shakepeare is) and get totally lost. It's hard to focus on two very strong competing elements (visuals of the film and language of the play) and if you're not familiar with the play, then it gets even trickier.

So, now you've got a little update on what's been happening lately. What have you been up to? I'd also like to make a little announcement in terms of my blogging schedule. For the rest of the year I'd like to take a step back from blogging. As I've mentioned at the beginning of this post, I had some health problems in the last couple of weeks and I think I should still keep busy, but maybe slow down a bit. That's why I'm going to publish a bit less than normal until the end of the year.

Also, in the year and the half that I've been blogging, I got struck by writers block. Lately I feel uninspired and demotivated. To be honest with you, I'm not very happy with my latest posts and I feel I can do so much better, but my mojo is low. This frustrates me a lot. The promotion (setting up tweets, work on Instagram) and picture editing have been far too dominant and I lose more and more my passion for writing. I love writing but it has been pushed back tremendously into the background by all these other blogging related tasks. In having a break I hope to get my mojo back and also focus more on my text production, rather than shooting the 'perfect PinInterest-worthy picture'.

Furthermore, I've got a few personal related goals that I'd like to achieve by the end of the year, which will require all of my attention. I will still be active on Twitter and hope to attend the one or other event to feature on my blog, but really I need to slow down a bit as I don't fancy starting 2016 with burn-out-syndrome. I hope you can understand and I will be back to a more regular schedule by January 2016.

Have you seen my previous Life Lately In London posts yet? Life Lately In London 1, Life Lately In London 2, Life Lately In London 3, Life Lately In London 5.

Till next time,

xx CAZ xx

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