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| Brunch with these ladies: From left side of table (Front to back) Suzy, Denise, Lauren, Sophie. Right side of table (Front to back) Friend of Hanna, Luiza, Dianne, Me, Lucy. |
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| The Victoria and Albert Museum foyer transformed for a grand party |
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| British celebrity ... I fancied her dress. Of course I can't pull that off, but hats off to her! |
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| One of the finalists, Han Zhongshu (Suzy ;) And her date. |
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| They held the awards ceremony inside the exhibit of religious art. How Blessed. |
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| Cat Deeley, host of "So You Think You Can Dance" was our host for the evening. I love her! |
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| What I traveled thousands of miles for. |
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| Christopher Bailey, Head Designer of Burberry, won an award!! I love what he's done with the brand, he's brilliant. |
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| The wonderful, Dianne Lober, manager of Brand Communications for Invista in the US. |
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| Lucy Gardner, the winner of the Lycra Future Designers Award. |
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| Shireeka Devlin, the winner of the Lycra Future Designers Award last year, 2012 |
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| Mumsie and I getting our pose on |
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| I probably won't be making my own dress for awhile. Too stressful, I say. |
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| Free drinks y'all! |
The day began with brunch in Piccadilly Circus (the prettiest shopping district) with the ladies of Lycra, WGSN, and the finalists of the Lycra Future Designer Awards. The food at French restaurant
Aubaine was delicious, a definite must for future London visitors. Later, I rode the Tube to Liverpool Street where I took the wrong turn and ended up in what looked like a financial district. Loads of men in suits made me assume such, though I must say that many of those working gents knew how to choose a good tailor (two thumbs up and a girlish smile from me, yay everyone wins!).
When my mother and I arrived at the V&A that evening, it was freezing and we had to wait awhile before they let us in. Once inside though, the museum was best dressed in purple lighting to get us party ready. I was more nervous than I thought I would be, but the drinks were free, appetizers made their way, and I left my coat at the coat check. Let the awards begin ... in another hour ... or two. After our three course meal was served, host Cat Deeley, was on her way with the festivities. The categories and winners went by rather fast (a mix of the host rushing because they started late and my nervous anticipation, so everything before our category was a blur).
Finally our category was next.
"Award for Individual Designer: The Lycra Future Designers Award ..." I could barely breathe. My name was introduced first along with a shot of my illustrations.
"Pa-treet-zia Cla-reetza," she read my name first and continued to introduce the other finalists.
She made sure she pronounced my name correctly in her best Italian accent except ... it's not an Italian name and I am definitely not Italian, lol (Still love her though!). Alas, I didn't win. Lucy Gardner from the UK won the coveted prize. For a minute I was disappointed and then relieved that the anxiety was over. I still felt exhilarated, though. I was honored to have even been picked from thousands internationally, then one of thirteen, and down to the final four. I was just as excited to travel to London, a place that I'd dreamt of visiting, the place where I could finally use my British accent (Cockney was my specialty. I had practiced for years), but knew that I probably shouldn't, haha. So with that I congratulated Lucy, who I had gotten to know over brunch and I'm genuinely happy she won ;)). I also said my good-byes to the lovely Lycra ladies Luiza, Denise, and Dianne (who I had also gotten to know over email). Everyone that I had met from WGSN, Lycra and the 3 finalists were all so pleasant and kind, which made this experience all the better. So to celebrate my personal win, I grabbed another champagne (winning!) before the night was over ... and right before the mother would pull me out to taxi back to the hotel. Cheers to the night and to an early excursion in the morning!
