Clothing Industry Research

Work wise December was pretty constant, travelling around the country for various reasons.  For CRR I visited two more companies to complete case study interviews: Incorporatewear on the outskirts of Birmingham, very much enjoying meeting Brian, who I have since met a number of times at various events; I also visited the Eon head office just outside Nottingham, Kate Reily that I met in HK came along with me to find out the issues dealt with by the providers of corporatewear.  For Skillfast-UK I met with Verity in London to complete the first Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting to discuss the Advanced Design National Occupational Standards (NOS), this was held at the wonderful Fashion & Textiles Museum, near London Bridge.  Being part of the TAG was a great experience, it is good to know that there are practitioners within the sector that want to invest their time and effort into the future of industry practice.

My Christmas night out was a unique and unusual experience.  Having been aware that my friend Penelope’s daughter was going to be a ‘flying squirrel’ in the Royal Opera House Christmas production of Hansel & Gretal, I was amazed to see that in Newcastle you could watch a live transmition of the performance at the Tyneside Cinema!  I persuaded my Mam, Jan (my Godmother), and friends Louise and Helena to come along.  It was a great evening, the way they had filmed it was amazing, as the view of the stage was possible better than being in the actual auditorium!  It was made even more exciting when I spotted Fiona appearing from the top of the set, then at the end when she left her very distinctive plats down so she would stand out at the end of the performance!  A fab Christmas night out!