Loose Ends: London, UK

London, UK

October 26-November 2, 2012

  

With my stay in London coming to an end I decided to go to some famous places and see them for myself. On my way to Savile Row I came across a cool bike with an actual steering wheel instead of handle bars, and a license plate.

This is Regent street, a popular street to shop on with many brand name stores, it connects to Oxford Street and leads to Savile Row. The lights above the road were set up in preparation for the holidays, each light structure representing one of the twelve 'Nights of Christmas'.

 This is the street view from the Picadilly tube stop down the road looking at Regent Street and Oxford Street.

Savile Row is a shopping street in Mayfair, central London, famous for its traditional men's bespoke tailoring. The term "bespoke" is understood to have originated in Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to "be spoken for" by individual customers.  The short street is termed the "golden mile of tailoring", where customers have included Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Napoleon III, and Mohammad Ali . Being a Design and Merchandising major, I had to visit Savile Row and soak up the fine craftsmanship and history of bespoke tailors.

The Alexander McQueen tailor had some extravagant suit materials and styles. 

The showroom gallery is typically up above, and the bottom of the building is where all the tailoring would be done.

 The quality of these time pieces is unparalleled. As shown in these pictures, the stitches are customly hand-sewn to perfection.

 Each suit is custom sewn and personally fitted to ones build and structure. The time, and delicacy gives these suits a large price tag and puts the gentlemen that can afford them in a class of their own.

Here is an example of some visual merchandising with an antique telescope reaching out to an educated gentleman with astronomic or geographic hobbies. This gentleman would represent a very high class person in financial gain and or social recognition.

After I finished all my classes, and submitted the last of my essays I could finally take a deep breath and continue to my study abroad experience. I was headed to Israel to visit my girlfriend who is also enrolled in a study abroad program fromm Drexel. I am visiting her, and her family will be there the same week. We're set to see many historical sites, and learn a lot of history about the State of Israel.

I got to Heathrow about  4 hours ahead of my flight and to the El Al check-In. I got searched for the first time by security. They looked through my entire luggage and even my laptop. They even asked me about the contents of my laptop, went through my cell phone, and my wallet, I was speechless. I wasn’t allowed to bring a carry-on bag; I was only allowed my glasses cases and a book to read in a plastic bag that I was given.  I wasn’t even allowed to bring iPod headphones! I was personally escorted from the El Al luggage check – In all the way to the security clearance at the gate, only until everyone else got on the plane was I allowed my passports or my boarding pass. Security was very intense but safety is their number one priority, especially in a time of tension with Gaza.