Florence vs Rome. Zygimante Vakare Jovaisaite

Well, to be honest, there is not much of consideration when it comes to picking one. I fell in love with Florence as soon as we arrived, while Rome did not wow me as much. It is really hard to describe, but there just is something magical about Florence. The narrow streets and wide river, fascinating architecture, the overall atmosphere is just wonderful, impossible to forget or not to like. And even though I love writing about cities, this time I feel like it is extremely hard to put my thoughts and feelings about Florence into words. Possibly, simply more time is needed for my emotions to sink in, so in the meantime let's take a look at the pictures, which, to be honest, still not represent the mood as good as I wish they did.

The Friday evening in winter London -- Yuzhe Zhuang

Friday evening is a time of the day when people are going home with the hope to have a good rest during the weekend. Or, it might be a kick-off start for the crazy weekend especially for party animals. For shoppers, at least for me, Friday evening is indeed the best time to go shopping. Stores on Oxford Street and at Knightsbridge are not yet packed with crowds. Many shoppers are just like me, after a whole week of hard work, they are thinking about treating themselves well with a shopping experience.

The shops in London during the Friday evening smell nice. They are in the disguise of beautiful neon lights, smelling like a delicious pie to be taken a bite of by those happy shoppers.

Commented by today's Times, British shoppers are not ready for interest rate raise, which indicates a potential development in domestic consumption. What I observed in London's Oxford Street and Knightsbridge indeed supports what's been suggested. On Friday evening, shoppers are everywhere at those two places. They may stood there for a while, being attracted by the light decoration out of the department stores or the window display. They may happily make a purchase to pamper themselves or to treat someone important.

To the stores, Friday evening in winter is  always a start of the most busy days during a week -- the weekend. It feels like the last few days before spring and summer, which informs the end of coldness and the start of warmth.

Impressive memories to Rome - Shuyang He

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is Art.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Doing what you like is freedom, liking what you do is happiness.

The beauty of the journey is found in the scenery along the way.

Full in love with Fontana di Trevi in Rome - Shuyang He

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

Life is made up of small pleasures.

#moftravels To Italy. By Emily Perriss

On an Evening in Roma. (By Emily Perriss)

Ciao Viaggiatori. For the past week, those fortunate enough to have been able accompany the MOF troop to Italy will understand that, throughout the week we had some of the most surreal and incredible experiences that we may never be fortunate enough to experience again. And those who didn’t could not have missed what we were up to due to our vast and constant amount of instgram’ing, tweeting and with Matthews encouragement, hashtagging #moftravels whenever we could connect to Wi-Fi or, standing close to Kristie #KristiesHotspotWeLoveYou. For me, my Italian dreams had been accomplished by our first evening in Roma. As a young eight year old, I was assigned a ‘Eurpoean’ project, and with my Italian ancestry I chose Italy. Throughout this project I discovered the ‘Trevi Fountain’ and the idea of throwing a coin into the beautiful and historical fountain had always become a dream for me. The best aspect of Rome is that you can be walking around quite, little backstreets and then suddenly be in the face of something you have always dreamed of seeing. The atmosphere instantly becomes electric, and the emotions of excitement, surrealism and simply: contentment becomes overwhelming. For me, it was very much a dreamlike moment, one that I could only capture in photographs. I could not leave without following through with the ‘Three coins In a fountain’ tradition, however as it was our first night I was low on coins, therefore was only able to throw one in. With any luck, this means I will one day, return to Rome. 

Year 3 Italy Project. 

Lo Amo L’architettura Italiana. (by Emily Perriss) 

As a fan of art, the architecture of Italy is just one aspect of the Italian art culture that makes both Rome and Florence magnificent. Walking in between each attraction was a fascination on its own as each stunning building holds you captive. Each detailed aspect, from the Flavian Amphitheatre (The Coloseeum in Rome) which despite being built in 70 AD is still the largest Amphitheatre in the world, to the gothic Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (The Florence Cathedral) which began being built in 1296 and is simple breathtaking. Even, the street shops alone, particularly in Florence, hold a charismatic attraction creating an inspiring city. With Italian architecture influencing the world, particularly throughout the 19^th Century as the Italian style modeled on the Renaissance architecture enthused many other cities, it is completely understanding as to why everyone is inspired by the cities art.  We too can understand why the cities themselves appreciate it, and take great pride in what they have produced, and so when walking around, most companies have, instead of using unpleasant scaffolding, they have created artistic scaffolding; cleverly deceiving the eye into thinking one is looking at the building.  This is a clever way in keeping, what is even being repaired beautiful.

As a keen fan of art, I have always enjoyed visiting galleries, and so visiting the Capucci Museum in Florence was enjoyable. Roberto Capucci’s exhibition showed that he was more than just a fashion designer. He was an architect and an artist. His unusual couture garments intrigue the eye. His unique dresses show to have been inspired by architecture, instantly making his sculptures into an art piece. Getting lost in art galleries is a hobby of mine, however when walking out onto the roof terrace to see the whole of Florence surrounding me was a picturesque moment. Words cannot describe the feeling of looking out, over Florence and the mountains that surround it. Only Natalie’s expression: ‘I cant’. When overlooking over something so beautiful, one is thrown an array of emotions, mainly appreciation: Appreciative of being part of such a surreal trip, having the opportunity to experience what we had experienced, being able to get to know some incredible people on my course, being lucky enough to have the lectures I have and actually being fortunate enough to be at university. Only then did it truly hit me.    

‘Fai della bellezza il tuo costante ideale’-Roberto Capucci. (by Emily Perriss)

My ‘Roman (and Florence) Holiday’ was inspirational. Each experience, each view, each moment has inspired me. I feel encouraged to ‘peruse beauty in everything I do’. This does not mean art alone. Every project, task, or action I do I want it to be worth something brilliant. I feel encouraged by every brand, gallery, piece of artwork and person I met to create, sketches, photographs, exhibitions and memories. For my first university trip, it ‘Each, in its own way, was unforgettable. It would be difficult to.....Rome! By all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live.’ (Roman Holiday) 

#moftravles to Rome and Florence 2014

I have created a iMovie which shows some of my favourite moments of the week. 

Visiting Valentino Headquarters in Rome - Kristie Tang

On the 19th Feb, We went inside Valentino Headquarters in Rome and saw their production process of womenswear. I am so amazed when I realised everything is handmade. Yes, EVERYTHING. Even though the patterns on the dresses. It takes the workers more than 8 hours to cut, make and sew ONE butterfly on a dress and 3 months in average to finish the whole garment. Also, Valentino provides different kind of after-sales services such as altering garments for free. So that customers can wear it for a life time. Unfortunately I wasn't allow to take any pictures inside or else I would love to share it with everyone.

Last but not least, the dress below is one of the garment of the spring/summer 2014 haute couture collection of Valentino and I can't believe I had a really close look at this dress when I was visiting their workshop. 

Click here to read more: 

http://kristiexjulie.blogspot.com

Bond Street & Oxford Street

Ruoxi Jiang, Weiran Wang, Weiting Ling, Qiao Jia

Bond Street

Bond Street is in the heart of Mayfair area, a street of luxury and jewelry brand. There are two famous streets about high-end fashion brand, one is Knightsbridge and the other one is Bond Street. It is one of the most experience strips of the real estate in the world. Bond Street is divided into new Bond in northern and old Bond in southern. Jewelry and antique stores collect at the old bond street, like Levied, Chatila, Chopard, and David Morris. Comparing with the old bond street, new bond street gets more luxury brand.  Many shops are inside the branches of the main street. It is not so much a street, more like a luxury area.

The most fashionable displays and the exquisite architecture was mixed together in the balance way. Window displays on this street are amazing, elegance and glory. It is a relaxed shopping street, if you are rich. Individual customer come here their will get the best service. They can also customize their own products in some stores.  Some brands, like Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood, there are more than just one step here. Their have tow store, one is for man, and the other is for women. So you can consider which store you get in, when you know what you want to buy it.

Bond Street is really an experience street.  This street is on a wonderful and convenience location between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. Bond Street gathers the flagship store, exclusive brands, designer fashion, and luxury goods.  


Oxford Street

There is a huge different between Oxford Street and Bond Street, although they are close to each other, the market they are target to are in two different level. For Oxford Street they are target market is mass market, so most of the shops is Oxford Street is High Street brands, like Forever 21, GAP, Fcuk, Mango, H&M and Zara. There also some department stores in Oxford Street, such as John lewis, Debenhams and Selfridges. Oxford street also are place full with stories cause the history of this Street. A  other difference between Oxford Street and Bond Street is the design of the shops, most shops in Oxford Street has big entry and their doors are always open. Also stores in Oxford Street will show the price of their product cleanly in their window displays.

At the same time shopping in Oxford Street will have a completely different experience compare with Bond Street. Oxford Street trend to the more crowd than Bond Street, and unlike Bond Street most of the shops in Oxford Street would not provide individual customer service to consumer, no to mention the fact they don not have a doorman.