Why not invest in a new outfit with some Great Gatsby glamour for this year’s May Week?

Varsity Fashion takes a look at what the high street has to offer for Gatsby fashion and shoots some Gatsby-inspired May Week styles in Queens’ College.

The Great Gatsby has roused roaring twenties excitement in the fashion world. For the film, Miuccia Prada reworked 40 dresses from the Prada and Miu Miu archives and collaborated with Catherine Martin, the film’s head of wardrobe, to create a set sparkling with extravagance. The spring / summer 2012 and 2013 catwalks were brimming with lavish roaring twenties designs and there are some great buys to be found on the high street!

Catherine Martin gives an insight into her creations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHudO2oaflU&feature=player_embedded

Models:

Sara Robson, Olivia Stamp, Guy Smith, Henry Pritchard and Sam Brooks.

The Cannes Film Festival always creates a magical spectacle, where the hair and beauty of red carpet stars never fails to create a stunning statement – effortlessly glamorous and pretty in the Riviera sunshine. From intricate and elegant up-dos to braided buns, tousled and textured tresses to retro-glamour waves, the red carpet shows that there is a style to suit everyone.

Hair.co.uk is taking bookings now for styling and putting hair up for May Balls. For only £30 they can create any hairstyle you would like – just take a photograph or an idea and they will transform your hair! It’s a lovely salon with a really friendly atmosphere and you can go individually or in a group. Their normal opening times are 9.00am – 5.30pm, but they will be opening on evenings for groups on request.

Website:         www.haircouk.co.uk

Telephone:     01223 464386

Address:         23 Green Street, Cambridge, CB2 3JX

After picking up the phone to hear the friendly voice, “Hey, it’s Lily how are you doing?” I was soon enamoured by the charismatic actor, supermodel and charity campaigner, the lovely Lily Cole, who warmly opened up about inspiration and motivation behind her new “gift economy” social networking concept Impossible.

Lily has chosen Cambridge, her University town, to test her innovative idea. As well as starring in a debate at the Union to present her new concept, Lily waited under the  “giving tree” outside Kings College where I met her face-to-face. Walking under the tree’s canopy, it was surreal to find Lily and her camera crew casually sitting under its branches with picnic blankets. Welcoming anyone to come and have a chat, Lily invited students to make their first personal ‘wish’ for the app, which encourages users to post wishes in the hope that other users will offer their help in return.

Wishes under the "Giving Tree"

It’s easy to forget that Lily is only 25 years old and left Cambridge two years ago. “It’s been quite an intimidating project. Announcing it out loud and taking it the world is quite scary,” she admits, “whereas somehow coming to Cambridge felt really natural and almost homely. As if there is a community of people in kinship here, even if I don’t know them.”  As a “magical day” here in Cambridge, it’s clear that the launch was a very positive experience for Lily. “It was such a magical place under that tree. It was great to see what people’s thoughts were and everyone was really receptive and positive. We took about 80 wishes or so that day. At the end of the debate I read out some of the wishes and managed to get quite a few of the people in the audience to fulfil them. A real life enactment of what the app platform does.” Lily eagerly continues to talk about a student’s wish to walk someone’s dog, to which David Halpern looked up and said “Oh I have a dog, I’d love that!” – “it was one of those moments that made me realise that all the efforts worth it. So hopefully if we can help with more wishes like that then it will be a success!”

Wishes at the Union's Debate

The notion of “community” is central to the app’s ethos that focuses on the idea of giving and trading within a “gift economy’, challenging our bartering economy through a currency of “thank-yous” instead of money. Lily readily begins to explain her inspiration for Impossible emerging as a social business: “I just left a meeting now actually with Professor Muhammad Yunus,” she says casually, “He won the noble peace prize for micro finance and he’s now really focused on social business as a concept. I went to Bangladesh with him last year and it inspired me to structure Impossible with these social business principles, so that in the future we can make 100% profit go into the social mission of the company.” She seems so moved by his ideology, “He’s an amazing, amazing man,” she asserts, “He’s one of my heroes and he’s an official advisor for Impossible now, which is pretty great…!”

So how does a Cambridge student begin to launch an app? Lily may have had modelling fame and a Cambridge degree to back her, but Lily begins to reveal the huge challenge that faced her. “It was so hard I have to say. I had the idea with a friend in the last year of University. I tried to build it that next Easter, just as I was about to do my finals, which was a total disaster because I’d never tried building technology before.” Despite different frustrating attempts to create the app, the persistence of this idea in her mind kept motivating her. Her luck struck when she met investor Kwane who loved the idea. Returning from a trip to Bangladesh with Professor Yunus, she met with the investor, assuming he would be put off by the social business idea with no potential for profit. But, she tells eagerly, “amazingly he came back a week later and he started building it! I was like, “woah we haven’t even done any contracts”, while he said, “no, I took a long hard look in the mirror and decided this is what I have to do.” He’s been doing it as a gift as part of the gift economy.” Taking a breath, “that’s quite a phenomenal story.” Together with his “amazing” team, Lily was able to transform the app with quite a few versions, gather feedback and alter it, taking them right up until last week’s launch in Cambridge.

Alongside her modelling, acting and app launching, Lily has been involved with many different charities, including The Environmental Justice Foundation, which first drew her attention to cotton farming and production chains. She realised she would rather support companies with strong social and environmental policies, championing the idea that “every time you pay for something you are essentially voting with your dollar.” Moving her career in that direction, she set up a company called The North Circular with “lovely grandmas” and knitters from all across the UK. “We put the names of the knitters on the goods to show that sustainable clothes can be possible. There are people behind the goods that you buy. It’s so important to develop a more holistic relationship with production chains.” http://thenorthcircular.com

Discussing the way in which the high street is overshadowing these great, unique fashion brands, Lily agrees that ethical fashion is “so invisible right now”. The sustainable brands need more support and publicity to promote that people make an important decision in choosing where they buy their clothes. Lily enthusing that, “I love this idea that people are feeling empowered, and they are by their choices.”

As well as working with The Body Shop, Lily has been looking at projects with the WWF and their involvement in the rubber trade in the Amazon. “Working with wild rubber is one of the best ways to prevent deforestation. Essentially you’re paying the farmers to protect the forest instead of destroying it.” Helping with the project, Lily was able to direct a short film for them. It’s really inspiring so take a look! http://wales.wwf.org.uk/wwf_articles.cfm?unewsid=6504

In terms of modelling, she says “there are some amazing and creative people in that industry.” If one of her favourite photographers or magazines reaches out to her, then she’s of course open to ideas. But it is the campaigns, such as her involvement with The Body Shop, that concern the social agenda where she really wants to spend some time. For example, she went to the Met Ball last week in New York wearing an inspirational dress Vivienne Westwood made for her out of rubber that comes from the WWF Amazon rubber project. “Obviously I love Vogue and the Ball, but really genuinely the reason I went was because of the wild rubber project and the publicity potential the dress might have. Vivienne said that she’s really passionate about the rainforest and that’s why she wanted to get involved and make that dress.” Moments like that are a wonderful way to make people see that fashion can have a truly inspiring purpose.

Lily at the Met Ball Gala in her Vivienne Westwood wild rubber gown

Lily aims to be back in September to follow up this launch, but for now it’s up to us students to pioneer her app. We are her testers, and she enthuses just how much she wants our feedback, so download the app *impossible* from her website www.impossible.com and send Lily a message at info@impossible.com.

Judy’s Affordable Vintage fair has made it’s way to Cambridge’s Guildhall, next to the market square, where 45 vintage traders and designers from all over the UK are showcasing an amazing array of fashion and accessories, collectibles and home wares.

Overflowing with outfits from the 20s onwards, the fair offers both fashion forward clothes and eclectic, one-off vintage pieces. With printed, sequined, feathered dresses, fur jackets, leather jackets, scarves, jewellery, hats, sunglasses, shoes, posters and many more vintage items, the show caters for all ages and both men and women. It closes at 4.30, so there is still time to pick out a unique vintage find for yourself!

I explored the fair this morning, seeing what other students were buying and picking out some of my favourite pieces!

Judy’s Vintage Fair Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/210441395762864/

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted this annual A-list party to celebrate their ‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ fashion exhibit. The exhibition aims to show the relationship between the original punk concept of “do-it-yourself” and the couture concept of “made-to-measure” through a collection of original punk garments and contemporary fashion. Originating from the anti-establishment punk anarchy of the 1970s, this fashion statement rejected the affected excess of the music and fashion world. It began as a defiantly anti-materialistic statement, yet now forms a striking visual symbol that inspires haute couture. Themes of the exhibition include New York and London, Clothes for Heroesand four manifestations of the D.I.Y. aesthetic—Hardware, Bricolage, Graffiti and Agitprop, and Destroy, pictures of which feature on the museum’s website:

http://www.metmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/listings/2013/punk

Far from a rebellion, this style is now influencing contemporary mainstream fashion. Can designers truly label their work as ‘punk’? Placing the ‘chaos’ into the world of couture and celebrity status surely filters the essence of ‘punk’ to such an extent that it subverts it’s true purpose.

Many celebrities embraced the theme at the party, with inevitable red carpet style successes and fashion disasters. They drew upon aspects of the widely ranging eras of punk fashion, but in their A-list spotlight leaned predictably towards ‘couture’ style. Many would argue that punk should remain as ‘chaos’ and shouldn’t enter this celebrity realm, but the exhibition shows that there are in fact no rules with ‘punk’ – it inspires and can evolve in whatever form of artistic expression.

Inspired, we found punk fashion on Cambridge’s high street to show that this daring style is accessible and ‘ready-to-wear’.

Photography: Lottie Franklin

Styling: Kate Cheng

Models: Heather Mckay & Conner Noteboom

Cambridge’s latest entrepreneurial model, Heather Mckay talks inspiration, modeling, style and the reasons for casting their fashion show under the ‘ethical’ spotlight.

Taking part in the RBS Indian Summer challenge, a group of enthusiastic entrepreneurs joined student teams from 14 of the UK’s top universities in a 24-hour fundraising challenge to compete for the chance of winning a three-week trip to work in the RBS Mumbai Office. As part of their hectic day raising money for the Prince’s Trust, Sela Motschwane, Abigail Holsborough and Heather Mckay hosted an ‘ethical’ fashion show. Transforming Cambridge’s Ta Bouche, the team showcased a striking synergy of local designing talent and high street fashion.

F: What inspired you to organise a fashion show for the competition? 


H: We brainstormed quite a few ideas, but the overriding feeling was to run with a fun concept that we could connect to personally. Sela runs a fashion company, Touch of Africa, and I have been modeling for roughly 2 years. I love fashion and I really enjoy modeling, so a catwalk show seemed the most natural choice.

F: Why did you choose to showcase these particular brands?

H: We wanted to host a fashion show that made a different kind of impact. Not just a display of stunning clothes. Seeing as the goal was to promote sustainable business ideas that had a positive social bearing, we felt a show that raised the importance of ethics behind fashion reached towards our ideal goals.

F: What is it that makes these designers unique and ‘ethical’? 


H: We looked to local designers, such as student designer Yazmin Lucy Greener from Anglia Ruskin, to highlight the young, fresh and innovative talent in Cambridge. Why should high street stores dominate what we students wear? Her collection promotes creativity and resourcefulness in style.

Touch of Africa was founded in March 2011 and aims to bring the best of modern African fashion to the UK.  Generating jobs within previously disadvantaged communities, the company promotes fair trade through helping exciting designers take confidence in creating traditional, distinctive, high quality clothing.

http://touch-of-africa.co.uk/store/index.php

We were also able to show a collection from GD-Designer Style Hire, a local company that rents out gorgeous designer dresses to students for affordable prices. With access to a huge array of beautiful gowns, including Vera Wang, Vivienne Westwood, DVF, Joseph, Calvin Klein, Marios Schwabb and Hugo Boss, no matter what your financial situation is you can have the opportunity to stand out, confidently and individually, at any of Cambridge’s events.

Check out their deals for May Ball dress hire here!

http://gd-designerstylehire.co.uk

F: How do you think ‘ethical’ fashion should be encouraged? 

H: I believe that both the manufacturing of clothes and the girls who wear them must uphold this ‘ethical’ image. We have to be responsible where we spend our money. It’s so easy to pick something up on the high street without thinking about how it was made, despite the huge publicity against ‘sweat-shops’. There are so many ‘ethical’ brands out there, but it’s our ultimate duty to buy from them.

F: What are your favourite pieces from the collections?

H: My favourite piece in the entire collection was the long blue coast dress that I modeled on the catwalk. I am not into ‘glitz’ much when it comes to my own clothes, but the dress managed to incorporate glamour and sophistication in a way I really liked. However, if I have to say what piece suited my personality a little bit more, I would choose the Touch of Africa dress. It was a bit of fun with a splash of colour that I could see myself wearing out.

F: Is there anything about Spring / Summer 2013 fashion that you really love? 


H: It has to be the fact that I can once again wear sunglasses and shorts! I need all the vitamin D I can get!

The show presented a huge variety of beautiful, unique dresses and each collection wore an ‘ethical’ label for different reasons, exhibiting accessible, sustainable and creative fashion from all cultural backgrounds. I’m sure this show will inspire more fashion events in Cambridge, fueling more excitement in Cambridge’s style scene.

Thank you Heather! I’m sure we will be seeing more of her modeling in this term’s summer shoots!

I don’t know how often you read the weekend edition of the Financial Times, but you really should start doing it: if only to get at the holy grail of Sunday supplements – Financial Times’ ‘How To Spend It.’ I cannot think of any single other thing, person, animal or object that better encapsulates the connection between art and fashion in 2013. Seriously, you can’t tell the adverts for £29,500 watches apart from the articles prodding you to buy Hermès’s ‘The Art of Living’ picnic set for £2,670. This is the beauty of ‘How To Spend It:’ wonderfully pointless expensive things. ‘A wonderfully pointless expensive thing’ describes a lot of the art made these days. Indeed, both art and fashion are now a part of the ‘Luxury Industry’, and it is their status as commodities which most defines how people interact with them in the 21st century.

Moving on from my FT fixation, a quick visit to Louis Vuitton’s ‘Friends of the House’ section of their website further illustrates just how integrated the fash/art worlds are. Louis V’s arty friends number Richard Prince, Olafur Eliasson, Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama. It seems natural that artists and fashionistas would make good bedfellows. They’re all hot, sexy and throw great parties – get Wes Anderson to film a bit of it and you’re golden.
I suppose that right about now I am meant to tell you that the reason LV, and the conglomerates that own LV, collaborated with these artists was all in the spirit of creating art AND fashion. I mean, hey man, Marc Jacobs is an artist and fashion is just art you wear on your back. Did you not see Meryl Streep schooling Anne Hathaway in ‘Devil Wears Prada?’ Fashion is IMPORTANT, cerulean is GROSS. I’m no cynic. I think that those Richard Prince handbags and nurse outfits are really nice. I read the catalogue for the Alexander McQueen blockbuster retrospective at the Met and liked it. I also think it’s cool that there is a giant Murakami sculpture in the flagship LV store on Bond Street, but, I definitely think that the entire enterprise revolved around making as much money as possible. Excluding pesky illegal drugs, Art is the biggest unregulated market in the world; perhaps fashion houses hope that through collaborations, artists can throw some of their wealth, status and cultural capital their way. Maybe the relationship between art and fashion hasn’t changed that much at all. Fruitful partnerships have always sprung up between designers and artists: think William Morris, Bauhaus, Constructivists, Elsa Schiaparelli etc. etc. However, the tone of contemporary collaborations seems different and altogether more desperate for my cash. Today, with each new artistic collaboration, all I feel like I am being told is how to spend it.

http://makethisspace.tumblr.com/

Make This Space from Nick Morris on Vimeo.

Photography: Nick Morris | Styling: Tom Rasmussen | Make-up: Talia Robertson

Models: Lauren Hutchinson, Robbie Aird, Henry Jenkinson, Rosalind Peters

Flags at Lake Garda. Photo credit: ell brown on Flickr.

With 8-week terms, three term years, and three-year degrees, by my calculations the average Cambridge undergraduate has 72 weeks teaching time, a grand total of 360 days. That means less than one year of our life is dedicated Cambridge teaching time.  My finalist friends are now in week 63 of this process and whilst the constant grey cloud of the ever-approaching deadline may become somewhat tiresome, for most it has crept up on them all too quickly. Amongst Cambridge undergraduates, I am in the relatively unusual position of being on a Year Abroad. Our degree system is still incredibly linear. Unless you are studying Languages, the possibility of taking a year out is very limited, in my opinion one major downfall of the Tripos system. Perhaps they’re scared we’d forget the equations, the formulae or the theories, or even worse that we’d never come back…

I won’t give you all the ‘gap yah’ spiel and pretend that we all will have come back having ‘found ourselves’ but it can’t be denied that living abroad for a year teaches some fairly important life lessons. The Cambridge Collegiate system is pretty cushy; if we were prepared to accept odd socks, the occasional shrunken jumper and high levels of sodium chloride, most of us could probably graduate without ever having cooked a meal or done our own washing. Whilst some may consider this a great advantage, I question whether Cambridge is not doing us a disservice here? What use is a first in Molecular Biology if you can’t work a washing machine? We will at least return from a year away slightly better armed to deal with stroppy landlords, gas leaks and bed bugs; we may even be able to conjure up a paella or boeuf bourguignon, though perhaps that’s a little optimistic…

Arriving in a foreign country where you know nobody forces you to do some unexpected things – you can’t really afford to be fussy when you have no friends. So much of how we judge people is buried deep in our culture and upbringing; based on the way people speak, where they come from, what they study or who their friends are. It’s almost impossible to make these snap judgments in a foreign language and culture. I know in a year’s time the fact that I celebrated Mardi Gras in fancy dress, on a beach (where it snowed), with an eclectic mix of French, Mexicans and Spaniards is going to seem like a somewhat distant reality.

If I were in Cambridge this year I know I would, along with my fellow finalists, feel entirely lost at the prospect of entering into the world of work next year. A year out from Cambridge buys you time, and provides an invaluable opportunity to narrow down what you might like to do. This year I have both studied and worked. I am currently doing an internship with Oxfam, and I now know I want to do a job with a purpose, one that means I spend more time with people and less time with screens. I am not prepared to sacrifice my social life and sanity for the mega bucks.

Aside from the more obvious advantages to living abroad for a year, I think leaving ‘the bubble’ provides a welcome insight into just what a Cambridge degree has really got to offer. I had the privilege of studying at Sciences Po, Paris, one of France’s finest universities. The quality of teaching was outstanding, but what it offered in teaching it arguably lacked in many other regards. Very few academic institutions in the world could rival what Cambridge has to offer regarding theatre, music and sport. How many universities can boast an entirely student run theatre, some of the best boaties in the country, and a Union with speakers as diverse as Sirs Ian McKellen and Richard Dawkins? There are societies to cater for even the most obscure of interests. It is all too easy to get caught up in the academic Cambridge hot house, or let terms fly by it in a hungover haze of swaps and strawpedos in Cindies and Life.

Crossing international borders may not be necessary – regional borders would be a step forward. Arguably a year in industry could be as beneficial as one in foreign climes. I don’t think it should be obligatory – it’s certainly not for everybody – but I do think it should be encouraged. Equations, formulae and theories can be taught, learnt and revised. The benefits from a year abroad have to be experienced.

Laura Stockley is on her Year Abroad.