Londontown

Back from Barcelona, one day to catch up on reading and print out boarding passes and then off to Londontown. I was there a whole week and was busy the whole time! The main reason for the trip was to meet with a company called Spring Studios and the London College of Fashion. Two great meetings. Spring Studios is a company that started as solely a photography studio and has grown into 45 studios that provides stylists and photographers, world class retouching, social media strategy, and is working to become a one-stop shop for the industry. 90% of the world’s luxury fashion brands use Spring’s facilities. We sat in on a photo shoot and a brand strategy meeting! The lady we met with, Lucy, was phenomenal and such a creative and inspiring spirit. It was also really great to see this side of the industry on our journey, as most of Hong Kong was more on the supply chain and production side. Our day at London College of Fashion was also great. We sat in on a lecture, had lunch on the terrace with some professors and students, gave a presentation and attended another lecture. The funny part of this was that our two British friends from HK were in the class that we happened to sit in on!

Buckingham

Parliament

Besides our meetings we had plenty of time to explore and sightsee. I think we hit most of the big stuff: Tower of London, River Thames, Big Ben/Parliament, Buckingham and Harrod’s. One of the coolest things we did was go to Brick Lane in east London. Our friends had said it was a great market that we just HAD to go to. As we walked down Brick Lane there were tons of Indian restaurants, 7 Elevens, more oriental stores and we started to question if either we were in the wrong spot or if we had misunderstood our friends about what was here. Then, we saw it. People were everywhere! There was a basement vintage market set up, booths and booths of vintage clothing and knick knacks, food stands, a huge American Apparel overstock sale, local jewelers, everything. Jackpot!! We walked around for way too long, but found a few gifts and things for ourselves. Definitely worth the trip!

Inside the Tower of London

Tower Bridge

During the trip we also got to meet up with some friends! My friend Chris is studying at an Architecture school in London so we met up with him for some coffee, a first-year exhibit and a tour of his campus. Although he’s not even sure how to explain his degree, it was great seeing the area and getting to catch up! We also met up with “the British girls” for dinner and drinks. Drinks were at this neat bar called Sketch that was very alternative, but a neat place to check out. The toilets were literally eggs that you entered. The last British friend we saw was Sam (from HK) that surprised us for a night! Just enough time for dinner, jazz bar, and brunch and then we had to head back to Denmark.

With Chris Johnson

Sketch with the British girls

Samuel and I