A day off in Como

Since the comON week ended theres been a general feeling among the group that we're all a bit segregated. Yesterday (at least it would have been if the internet hadn't disconnected.......in fact it was Thursday) we had the chance to remedy this for Ella's birthday! Zeffira, Tulay and myself were invited to her room for cake and coffee, which we enjoyed very much............along with the company of the other girls of course ;)

Perhaps sensing the divide the lovely people at comON kindly organised another trip for us on Friday!

We went to Biella, which ended up taking three 3 hours thanks to traffic. After an 8.15 start on a morning which we had understood to be a day off we were less than impressed when we arrived at yet another textile factory!

Unsurprisingly the day turned out to be a good one! We were told that Bielle is the wool and cashmere centre of Italy. Although we weren't told the name of this company (not sure y) we were informed that it is the big cheese of this industry and has a lot of important (but apparently covert) clients which we also weren't told the names of.

Here we are not observing a very clear 'please don't touch' sign!

Here we are being shown around their design department.

Thanks to the traffic on the way there our tour had to be cut short and we were wisked away to another company. When we arrived we went for lunch!!

I ordered a vegetable heavy meal but was quickly reminded that i don't like vegetables when my food arrived! Luckily vegetable lover Zeffira was on hand to help out ;)























The tour of Cittadellarte Fashion (this time we were fortunate enough to be told the name of the company) was incredibly short. It was long enough however for us to learn that they develop clothing for companies concerend with sustainable fashion. not in a half assed kinda way either!!

 On the way to our next location there was some excitement over some snow topped mountains, naturally i took a picture!

 

ahem..............lets try that again shall we...............?

Ok so......this isn't my best photography but give me a break i was in a moving vehicle!!

anyway, our final destination was at a company called Ermenegildo Zegna.

This company was also about wool and cashmere and it had everything! Museum, archives, factory, plus it was in a sick location!

Here we are feeling up some wool! we were taken for a tour of the factory which was interesting.......although it would have been more so if i could have heard anything over the sound of the machines!

What happened next made my day........we were taken to the roof...........

Look how happy we all are!!! :) :) :)

Filled with a new enthusiasm for the day's events, we went to the museum and archives!

This was of course the best part of the day! look at all the stuff we got to touch!! :)
Completely knackered back at the hotel, Tulay ran off to Milan to be with her boyfriend while Zeffira and I ate cake and played 20 questions, what a day...........

Three day week! Woop woop!!

Yesterday was kinda stressy at the office. The collection needs to be finished before the end of the month for the show in Cannes so theres a lot of shouting and running around going on. I expected to arrive to a similar environment this morning but thankfully things seem calmer.

I've been the subject of some teasing recently because apparently i don't eat enough at lunch time (who'da thunk)! Today i thought i'd been clever by packing myself some left over spag bol from last nights dinner ;)
Of course once my colleagues caught me eating something other than a sandwich for the first time since i started here a whole new set of teasing ensued!!

At least now i'm feeling full and ready for work! This morning i was given some folding to do which was exciting (it really was!) and now my mission is to create a collection that's young (but not too young) and simple (but not too simple)...........hmmm...........

Tomorrow i will go to Biella with the comON folk for a little explore. I'll surely return with lots of photos and exciting tales but until then i'll get back to my observations of the everyday. Here are some 'artsy' pics i took of the hotel room!

             

If you're wondering what's going on in the photo above right its just Caroline (one of our neighbours) spilling an entire packet of spaghetti!!

Loretta Lux

While i was in Milan on saturday with Tulay we visited 10 Corso Como's photographic gallery. I didn't mention it in saturdays post because i thought it deserved a post of it's own! Since yesterday was pretty much just another day at the office, this is the perfect opportunity, so without further stalling, i give u Loretta Lux!!

 

Naturally i collected some literature about this exhibition from the gallery but I have left it in the draw next to my bed so heres what wikidepia has to say about it!

"Loretta Lux (born 1969) was born in Dresden, East Germany and is a fine art photographer known for her surreal portraits of young children. She currently lives and works in Monaco.............The artist executes her compositions using a combination of photography, painting and digital manipulation. Lux's work - at once alluring and self envigorating- usually features young children and is influenced by a variety of sources. She originally trained as a painter at Munich Academy of Art, and is influenced by painters such as Agnolo Bronzino, Diego Velázquez, Phillip Otto Runge. Lux also owes a debt to the famous Victorian photographic portraitists of childhood such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Lewis Carroll." 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretta_Lux)........thanks Harvard referencing...........

If Wikipedia doesn't do it for u.......snob........here's what the New York Times had to say.......

"Like the set-up photographers of the early 1980's, Ms. Lux is trying to give photographs a different physicality, which is difficult. Initially, her images have a spellbinding gravity: the children are emotionally complicated creatures, at once self-knowing and innocent; the contrasting surfaces and textures almost have real weight. But so far the work fails to evade some glaringly familiar conventions -- the cloying preciousness of Victorian children's portraiture and contemporary advertising."
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/06/arts/art-in-review-loretta-lux.html)

..........took the words right out of my mouth!!

Water water everywhere

It was still raining yesterday morning when we work up (in fact it rained all day and is still raining now). Naturally i had no internet so i opted for more drawing. I call this 'Grace the explorer' :)
 

Luckily I got a message from Chiara around midday inviting me and Tulay to Milan. Determined not to spend another day locked inside away from the rain, we jumped at the chance!! This time we went to see a Dali exhibition.......but there was a reeeeeeeeeeeeally long queue!! so we went shopping instead :)

Sadly I didn't find anything for myself but i did get a certain someone a little present ;) and i had the opportunity to take some cool photos of Duomo in the rain.