I’m a coward. I never had the guts to stick it out and go down a purely creative route which is how I winded up studying history at UCL, because I wanted to keep my options open. If you are a fashion/arts student, this may sound strange to you but I personally admire that single mindedness because you put yourself on a set path pretty early on. Furthermore, there’s nothing more fearless than embarking on a career as a fashion designer as the problems of an over-saturation of designers, the struggles to either establish yourself and your label or the difficulties of working for a company that you may not admire would keep anyone downbeat. What differentiates myself, a voyeur of fashion and the creators is that strong conviction. It’s easy for me to flit about admiring designers, consuming fashion but not so easy for the ones doing the designing, providing for the consumers.
Take Ramby Tse, originally from Hong Kong and currently in her 2nd year at Middlesex University studying fashion design. She started off in Kent but found the place too static and so moved to London. Her hopes and fears as a fashion designer?
Hopes: "Fashion today is boring, why can’t people have a bit fun with it? I want to create a style that represents my generation and when we get old, we can tell our kids, ‘Look when I was young, people dressed like this. This is because.’ Something like that. Oh and fashion is a way for me to express myself and to communicate with others, I hope people will look at them like an art piece and try to understand them."
Fears: "After all it’s (fashion) just a dream, I’ve been working for quite a few companies. Seriously you don’t really have the chance to do what you really want, there are too many limitations. I’m afraid that when I’m 40 I will still be an assistant or working for a high street brand! ( I want to have my own brand) I’ll be satisfied when I see my clients happy."
Her statement she keeps close to her heart? "Working in the gap between art and life" as spoken by Robert Rauschenberg.
Here is a dress made by Ramby for a collection called Candy Pop influenced by Pop Art and dessert. The similarity between the two as they’re both quite ‘direct and simple’ and ‘easy to digest’ as well as having mass-appeal. Modelled by the stunning Mariane, who happens to also be an ex-UCL-er (we pop up everywhere we do!), I love the playful quirkiness of it.
I also like these deconsctructed garment pieces by Ramby.
Cowardly me will continue admiring, seeking out the brave innovators.
Hey Susie!
Thanks for that! It is a lovely paragraph!!
Take Care
xxx
I’m at UCl studying law at the moment..but I wanted to work in fashion. Now exams are coming up and I wish I’d had the guts to follow my dream and not go down the academic route. I hate it. Fair play to anyone who has the courage and focus to do otherwise.
Hey, I’m 20 and come from Romania.
First of all I wanted to thank you for being my inspiration. I think you rock the “overpiling” of clothes, you put them together perfectly. Here in Romania, people dress rather boring and everytime I try to express myself/be different I usually get laughed at (example, prom dresses worn with hoodies, or yellow rain boots, or crazy hats). The point is, I liked the way you expressed yourself through your clothes and I thought I should do the same, if not in real life, then through my blog and my stylediary.
I too wanted to be a fashion designer, but I didn’t want to be a cliche: young girl that draws outfits on girls and has big dreams of making clothes. The industry scared me, moreso, the face that this particular industry (fashion) is not so developed here in Romania (people tend to dress the same, in cheap clothes made in China). I was scared, however I wanted to keep my future open to possibilities, so now I study painting. It helps me in learning about colors and I see this as a basic. However I’m in love with fashion (and bcz I can’t really afford to spend money on clothes, the 2nd hand stores are my heaven, love love love vintage dresses).
I’d like to design my own clothes too, sometime, and I do understand how Ramby is thinking. I wish her the best of luck!
I’ll put you in my blogroll so that my friends cand check your blog out too, maybe, if it’s ok with you I can write a post about you. Unfortunately, my blog is in romanian, but you can see some outfits that i’ve put together and photographed on my sister.
Party around the world; partyoutfits:
http://dianabobar.wordpress.com/2007/04/11/party-in-jurul-lumii/
and the second one is about a classic pair of blue jeans:
http://dianabobar.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/1-pereche-de-jeans-5-outfituri-de-scandal/
Hope to hear from you.
Good luck in everything you decide for you future!
Diana
I want to see more fotos of your appartment, lovely fridge! 🙂
Nelly: It’s not my apartment! I believe it’s Mariane’s….. the girl in the pictures!
ahh… college dreams… i went to london college of printing to study typography. it turns out every which way, i’m a graphic designer(luckily, most graphic desingers cultivate multiple talents!). you can’t avoid your destiny, that’s for sure. susie, you ARE a fashion inspiration, and it doesn’t matter what your degree says!
so the mouth piece is supposed to be inspired by pop art? i would say it’s more surrealist, a dream-like creature who consumes and comsumes. it’s a cool piece, i love the idea of wearing art.
so, I posted another “home-made” editorial. I love to wear my mom’s skirts as dresses. So I took this ideea and created 6 different outfits:
http://dianabobar.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/skirtdress-fustarochie/
I still wait for your reply dear Susie, whenever you have time.
These photos are inspired by an older post form this blog. it was about lots of clothing, thrown together. Or was it about the things that you love and dont wear? Oh well, this is how my bed looks after I did the “skirt=dress” photoshoot:
http://dianabobar.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/my-bed-after-the-shoot/
The mouth piece indeed looks like that sofa that surrealist extraordinaire Salvador Dali created. Really cool indeed. I’d like that piece as a hat! Or as a bag? Well, both!:)
i totally understand you! in my youth idealism, i studied engineering, graduated and got myself and engineering job, but fulfillment in life called me to do something else.. now i’m close to working in fashion, not necessarily in design, but i’m getting there… 🙂 so there’s no regrets in life!
Thank you for appreciating my work. This is a huge encouragement for me. I did struggle a bit at the begining if I should take this route, especially when I already took a degree in Aviation.
Never thought the candy pop collection will look surrealistic to other people, thats interesting. The deconsctructed one was inspired by 60’s furniture, got a story behind it. Arr long story…
Anyway, if you saw a brand called Ramby Wayward in the future (10 year? may be even 20!?), then it should be me!
I can relate sooo much to what you are saying here…I`ve always wanted to be involved in fashion, but I`m currently studying architecture in my hometown in Mexico, so this summer, finally, I will go to London to study a fashion design course, it`s never too late to start!
I completely sympathise, Susie. I’m studying English, constantly reading the ‘greats’ and writing long essays extolling the virtues of other authors instead of writing my own work. I sometimes worry what will become of me.