The End of Our Spanish Adventure ....

Today was an emotional day for all of us since it was the last day of summer school in Madrid. We got up bright and early and walked to uni together for the last time all prepared to present our final presentations that we've been working on. Nerves were high for presenting but we all managed to get through it and Kumba and Danielle's group, NAC even won best presentation!

Couple of actions shots from the presentations. 

After all the presentations and feedback from the lecturers were given we had a farewell brunch with the full class. This featured some delicious Spanish snacks, our favourite being the tortilla espanola! It's safe to say emotions were running high at the brunch whilst saying goodbye to our new friends, however we've promised we will keep in touch! 

The four of us with three of our new favourite lecturers, Teresa, Julia and Pilar. 

After an emotional morning and afternoon at the university, we ventured home via Retiro Park to take in the culture for the last time. - And we couldn't resist taking advantage of a few photo opportunities. 

On the way home we also stopped by a frozen yogurt place which we can no longer remember the name of, however the sight of chocolately milkshakes looked much more appealing than some healthy frozen yogurt. Extremely sickly, but extremely delicious !

After stalling for quite some time, we had to accept it was time to go home and get packed up and ready for going our separate ways - which none of us were happy about. Nikki and Danielle were the first to leave and trigger the first couple of emotional goodbyes. Gillian and Kumba (the ones writing this) sadly leave the beautiful city of Madrid behind tomorrow. 

We can all definitely say this has been a trip of a lifetime for all of us which we would recommend to any fashion and retail students looking for something different. We've learned a lot and gained experience as well as getting the chance to meet some extremely interesting people in fashion and retail industry which we hope to keep in touch with in the future. However, not only that, from coming here strangers the four of us have became great friends and shared some amazing memories. We all plan to keep in touch and stay friends and have many Madrid reunions soon!

Now, for the last time, 

Hasta Luego , 

Gillian, Kumba, Danielle and Nikki 

xxx

Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

So Wednesday we headed off early to meet the rest of our class mates at the bus station at Plaza de Castilla and caught a bus to the Cortefiel Head Quarters. (Fancy, I know) This trip was extremely interesting and educational for us all. It started with a brief presentation about the history of the company, and also we were presented with a goodie bag. - FINALLY A GOOD GOODIE BAG !

Afterwards we were then given a tour of the building which included getting a first hand glance at what happens back stage in fashion companies. Probably our most favourite part of this tour was getting to see a live photo shoot which featured their new menswear line and a very attractive male model... not that we looked....

               

After our Cortefiel trip we traveled back to uni to do some last minute work on our projects. We then felt we would end our day with spending some time in Retiro Park. This then lead to adventuring onto the lake in small row boats. Which really isn't as easy and romantic as it looks, since we spent most of our time going round in circles and screaming. - Everyone else somehow seemed to manage it fine however. 

The evening ended on a high after successfully managing to fix the trip switch in the flat after realising our freezer wasn't frozen but the pizza in the oven still was. 

More adventures coming soon, 

Hasta Luego, 

Nikki, Gillian, Danielle and Kumba. 

xx

Gay Pride in Madrid!

So on Saturday the 5th we returned bright and early to one our new favourite spots - the pool in Lago. We felt after our busy week we could do with a few hours of relaxing. This pool visit was particularly ascetically pleasing due to the volume of gorgeous gay men obviously here for Gay Pride which was occurring this weekend in the centre of Madrid ! After our sunbathing... and staring... we ventured off back to our flat to get ready for the nights festivities. 

Since Nikki's family had arrived in Madrid for their holiday, she ditched the rest of us and dined out luxuriously - while we wined and dined at KFC - not jealous at all. 

So Gillian, Kumba and Danielle got their glad-rags on and decided to see what Gay Pride was all about in Madrid. The second we stepped off the metro we were submerged into a mass of glitter and colour. None of us had experienced anything like this before. It's been estimated that 1.2 million people attended the Gay Pride weekend, it was definitely a sight to see !

So on Sunday we felt it was about time we fully explored the beautiful city of Madrid and hopped onto a tour bus. We choose to do the Historic bus route of Madrid to learn a bit more about the city which was also relaxing to get the chance to see everything from the comfort of a bus seat in lovely sun. We decided to do the full route to start of with to see all the sites,  but after travelling through Gran Via (the main high street shopping district) being the fashion retail students that we are we knew what our first stop off would be.

                               

After our semi-successful shopping trip we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at Cafe & Tapas which we all thoroughly enjoyed. 

Hasta Leugo 

Danielle, Kumba, Nikki and Gillian

xx

Rebajas!!!

Somehow it's week 2 already although we feel like we've been here for 5 minutes! The day began with a fascinating lecture from Luis Lara.. one of our favourites of the course so far. Luis Lara is an International Retail Expert who has 20 years experience in the industry working for companies such as Zara, Disney and Pronovias. For the first time in our lives a 4 hour lecture flew in and we didn't want it to end... we know it sounds impossible!

The afternoon was spent working on our final projects, which included making mood boards and inspiration boards for our chosen retailers. Danielle and Kumba's group have gone for the Spanish brand NAC while Gillian and Nikki's group have chosen the lingerie shop Women's Secret. 

After this Danielle and Kumba went on a store visit for their project.

 While Nikki and Gillian indulged in their favourite pass time... sunbathing. 

Tuesday began with a lecture from Teresa Perez del Castillo on Lifestyle Branding.

We then decided it would be rude not to visit the first day of the Rebajas (that's Sales for all you non Spanish speakers) so we headed to Calle de Goya. 

Not too many purchases were made as we are saving ourselves for the visit to Las Rozas Outlet Village later this week... we've heard there is going to be 70% discount on Michael Kors. 

Hasta Luego

Nikki, Danielle, Gillian and Kumba

xx

La Llegada

Hola!

So we are 4 Fashion Retail students from Glasgow Caledonian University and we have just begun our adventure at an intensive Fashion Retail Summer School at Villanueva University in Madrid!

Part of our course asks that we document our time here, so we thought a blog would do this best - and it also allows to keep friends and family updated whilst having something to look back on after we leave. 
So this will be just be an almost guide of what we have been studying and a bit of what we get up to in our free time - like an online diary of our time in Madrid. 

On our first morning at Villanueva we had a coffee meet and greet, where we were introduced to the course and everyone else studying there - which turned out to be Caley on tour with handful of Spanish students mixed in!


We then had a lecture from Julie McColl on Vintage Fashion and Upcycling. Then we went onto research how different countries and cultures adopt vintage fashion, which was to be presented the following day.

On our lunch break we explored Retiro Park which is right beside the university and our new Spanish home.




In the afternoon, we visited the Flagship Store for El Ganso on Serrano Street.This is one of the main high end shopping ares in Madrid. El Ganso is a traditional college, preppy brand with a Spanish twist. We learnt a lot about the history of the brand along with the aspects that go along with creating the brand image

El Ganso is right across the road from the beautiful flagship strore for Zara... which obviously as fashion students we couldn't resist making a purchase or two.

We'll be back soon with more updates on our exciting adventures.

Hasta Luego

Nikki, Danielle, Kumba & Gillian
xx