Royal Wedding!!

People from back home keep asking me about Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding.  At first, I wasn't very excited. What exactly does the Royal Family do? Not a lot of Brits have been able to give me a satisfying answer. Most people simply say that the family is good for attracting tourists which is important income!

I watched the movie The King's Speech but this didn't really help either...but I did enjoy it!

But then it happened! Little by little, I have become really really interested in all things Royal Wedding related. I read all the stories, look at magazines, and am even considering getting a hat. Stores are selling memorabilia even pillows with their faces and even THESE (&%&??!!)

My fascination, I think, happened because I love Kate Middleton. I love learning about her dress (one of my friends has a friend who knows the designer!) and what she is up to now that she is about to be a Royal.

I love learning about her because there are more and more things that I like. She shops at Top Shop, at one point worked a 9-5 job, goes to the gym.... ok, I guess that's where the similarities between us end.

Richard Lowe, head of retail and wholesale at Barclays Corporate says: “Kate Middleton is expected to do for many British high street names what Michelle Obama did for J Crew in the US. Shoppers really
get inspired by these big glossy images of her in styles which are very accessible.”

I recently found out that Lifetime has made a movie about the story of William & Kate so for all of you back home who wont be able to get near Westminster Abbey can watch THIS!

Some Events

This year my uni has really encouraged us to attend as many events as possible to learn about different industries and most importantly, network.  Some of them were really interesting and fun!

Professors and our class representatives have planned several Marketing Symposiums each semester. Different speakers have come just to speak to our program!

Some pictures: (I actually got these from the blog: (http://mbsmarketingthinktank.blogspot.com/)

In the past few weeks I also attended:

Technology for Marketing and Advertising Exhibition 

We talked to different venders, and heard several different speakers. The two I enjoyed most were Boots and Acuity.

Boots is basically an equivalent CVS or a Rite Aide. They have cosmetics, pharmacy, grooming products, odds and ends like that. At home, Target actually carries "Number 7" make-up.  The Boots speaker told us all about their loyalty card program which was really interesting.

With information they collect on the cards they are able to figure out who is shopping in their stores and want they want!  They know so much they offer different specials tailored to each location.

This is the Boots ad I have seen the most:

Acuity http://www.acuity-ets.com/

is a company that specializes in eye tracking! They use glasses to follow what your eyes focus on when you look at an ad. 

Last week I attended the the  international food & drink event (IFE). One of the professors at University of Westminster had a stand promoting a beverage called fresco. I had the best time! Different vendors brought their products from literally all over the world. I made the mistake of not eating lunch before but by the end I was actually full from trying different samples.  Some pictures:

London Fashion Week

Finally, an update!

Two weeks ago I had the chance to go to a really exciting event, LFW!! It was held at Somerset House which is huge & beautiful. Here's a link to learn more about the actual building, http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/about_somerset_house/. 

 I was really impressed with all the lights & I am searching for more pictures!  

Entrance to Fashion Week:

Of course, all the important people see the real runway shows in the daytime during the week, so sadly, no celebrity sightings.  The show we saw featured 3 popular designers & one of them actually made the costumes for the movie Black Swan!! (On a side note, I really enjoyed that movie and if you haven't seen it... you should!!)

One of my favorite things that I learned about is "color blocking" which is really in! It is when you wear very bright colors that clash. Since my absolute favorite pieces in my wardrobe are LBD's this was a little new & I decided to try it! 

Models Color Blocking

ME! color block-ing on the runway

As you can see from the picture room was pretty small so we had a really good view! It was interesting to see the models. The presenter made a point to tell the audience that the designers had deliberately chosen to use models of all sizes. This was probably in response to the Size 0 Debate as fashion designers received negative attention for only using very very very thin models.  

After watching the show & seeing the women up close we all decided that we are glad we are not models. It seems very difficult and honestly, they were not as glamourous or pretty as we were expecting. After watching Victoria Secret 2011 Fashion Show I felt a little fat & depressed but in the up close & real life fashion show... I was really glad I had just eaten a huge hamburger! =)

We chose to buy "Gold tickets" which came with free gift bags! Slightly disappointing the contents were a lot of dental products but I love the actual bag :)