Fashion, Fabric and Food- our Fabulous Trip to London
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Below is an account written by students of Cleveland College about their recent Arts and Design College trip to London in March 2015
Setting off from Darlington station early on a drizzly Wednesday morning, students and staff were full of anticipation and excitement for their three- day visit to London, booked through Adaptable Travel.
Negotiating London’s underground system is always a challenge but with 30 students in tow it’s even more fun! But both the tube staff and those at the Pembridge Hotel were friendly and helpful.
We arrived at our hotel near Hyde Park early but the hotel were kind and let us store all of our bags in a spare room. After a quick brush up, we took a short walk to Portobello Road which is always vibrant and full of exciting treasures and lovely smells of food – ideal for excited fashion and textiles students!
The main purpose of our visit was to see the Savage Beauty exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. The students were all up early and raring to go on the second day ready to make our way there for our 10.15am slot. The exhibition had only been open for a few days and has been extremely popular, so we did well to get tickets for the first week of the show.
On entering the exhibition, the tension and expectations were palpable. Each room featured a different collection of McQueen’s spanning his short but illustrious career. The use of lighting and sound enhanced the experience and the hairs on the back of our necks stood on end. Everyone was overwhelmed by the exhibition and all took away something special to remember whether that was the construction of the garment, the combination of detail and technical skills or the sheer genius of McQueen’s vision.
After the exhibition we all needed some tea and cake and the café at the V&A is beautiful with a lovely selection of food and beautiful decorations.
Being fashion and textile students, the afternoon was spent hunting for fabrics in Berwick Street in Soho and visiting the amazing Liberty’s store and of course a bit of shopping!
By Friday, we were all a bit tired but still managed to visit St. Paul’s and we had a lovely walk over the Millennium Bridge, which provided some excellent photo opportunities. Then a short walk to the Tate Modern on the South Bank where we had the privilege of coming face to face with Picasso’s and Dali’s. During the afternoon, the sun put in an appearance which made a walk down toward Tower Bridge a delight, taking in all the sights and sound of a bustling city.
During our final afternoon in the capital, we visited Covent Garden for some refreshments and a final bit of retail therapy. Our train left for London at 9pm by which time we were all ready to head back up north, back to a slower pace of life, giving us all time to think about the amazing McQueen exhibition and start using some of the fabric brought and inspiration found to inspire our own creations.
The trip was a huge success with everything going to plan and a great welcome and support from our hotel and booking team- Adaptable Travel!
